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BREAKING: Kinder, Gentler Glenn Beaten to Death by Old Glenn

July 25, 2017
Staff

WRITER

Members of Congress are struggling. The Speaker of the House only makes $223,500 annually. Aside from that, there's a cap on how much they can spend on personnel and office expenses --- just $3 million to $5 million.

"Well, Staples and Office Max, the prices have gone up several percentages," Co-host Stu Burguiere clarified.

Tuesday on radio, Glenn read a list of the outrageous benefits and perks available exclusively to our lawmakers.

Along with money toward living expenses and travel expenses, they also receive a tax break of $10,000 toward health care.

“A supermarket of 300 private health plans,” Glenn said, describing health care options available to government employees from 1959 to 2014.

In addition to private gyms, tennis courts, salons and barbershops, members also get airline privileges, retirement benefits, investment breaks and death benefits. Members who die while in office receive a full year’s salary --- ranging anywhere from $174K to $223K while deceased military personnel receive only $100K.

“It is grotesque,” Glenn said.

"I'm glad we're talking about health care today because I'm concerned about the coma that the kinder, gentler Glenn Beck is in right now," Stu noted.

Glenn shared some insight on what may have happened after hearing the senate would vote again on Obamacare.

"He was beaten to death last night," Glenn said. "Yeah, by the old Glenn. He was beaten to death."

GLENN: So Sessions may be out today. Unprecedented. Rex Tillerson is now making waves that he -- if sessions goes, he may go. He thinks it's unprofessional what's going on here.

The senate is voting on a bill they don't really know what's in the bill. This is chaos.

PAT: Well, you have to pass the bill to find out what's in it. I mean, we found that out.

GLENN: Maybe we don't pay our senators enough. Maybe $174,000 a year is just not enough money for them to actually care. You know, the speaker of the house only.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Is struggling on $223,000.

PAT: Oh, no. Don't say that.

GLENN: Yeah. I don't know how they do that.

PAT: Oh, my gosh.

GLENN: I don't know how they do that.

PAT: Oh, my gosh.

GLENN: They also get --

PAT: Can we take up, like, a fund me page of some sort.

GLENN: A GoFundMe page, yeah.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: Well, they're allowed to deduct living expenses, so let's help do on their health care. They get $3,000 in living expenses that they can deduct. Also, they get a tax break of $10,000 on their health care, which is very nice.

PAT: Is that enough, though? Is that enough?

GLENN: Well, I'm not really sure. I mean, the health plan that they're on did start in 1959, and it was, you know, to cover everybody, you know, the civil workers, the post office, the important people, members of Congress. It wasn't a single plan. It was a supermarket of 300 private health plans.

JEFFY: Huh.

GLENN: Which is really nice. It's really nice. But then they got to have their own "shop" exchange, and they can do that with, you know, the $10,000 that the -- that everybody gets, of course.

PAT: And then. And then Jason Chaffetz has the nerve to say that they need, was it $2,500, $3,500 for a second residence in Washington, D.C., for all of them.

GLENN: Well, the Senators also have a personal and office expense account of $3 to $5 million each.

JEFFY: You can't run --

PAT: That's not every month.

GLENN: That's a year.

STU: Well, Staples and Office Max, the prices have gone up several percents.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: Uh-huh. And the physical office space is a nightmare. It's -- yes, it is in the most important building in the country, and you -- but you only have between five and 8,200 square feet.

STU: But five square feet is really small. And people don't realize that. 8,200 is okay but five?

PAT: It's 5,000.

GLENN: If you have five.

STU: Oh.

GLENN: If you have 8,000 square feet, they expect you to furnish that with only $40,000 with taxpayer money.

STU: What?

GLENN: All of it over $5,000, I think you can get -- what is it? A couple thousand dollars more for every --

JEFFY: Oh, good.

GLENN: 200 square feet, I think.

STU: Oh, my gosh.

GLENN: So I don't know how they do it. But they --

PAT: Can you imagine decorating a room with only $40,000?

GLENN: Imagine that?

PAT: I just.

JEFFY: No.

PAT: You can't do that.

GLENN: Right. And they also receive $250,000 budget for travel and office expenses.

STU: Well, yeah.

GLENN: So they can -- you know, they can do that, and their employees are all making $172,000 to $168,000. Plus they get the taxpayer funded members only gym, so they don't have to worry about the riffraff. And then they also have the members only salon where they can get their, you know, hair done and a barbershop too.

STU: Yeah, everyone has to have a haircut.

GLENN: The members only tennis court. Oh, and the airline privileges, which are really nice. They can book any flight -- they can book every flight that they wanted and then just cancel last minute, no penalties. And so they generally book several flights because they're never really sure when they're going to be able to get out of there, and you don't want to have them worry about that. So then they can just drive to Washington National where they get to park their car for free, which is $740,000 in foregone revenue for Reagan National. They just park their car there.

STU: They just eat that, probably.

GLENN: Oh, yeah. The taxpayers can eat that. It's no big deal.

STU: Yeah, we've got that for you guys. No problem.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

PAT: Well, because of the hard work that they're doing for us. You don't mind doing that, right?

GLENN: Amen, brother.

PAT: We don't need all of those expenses.

GLENN: You've worked hard your whole life, so you've put into social security, and you get $15,000 a year. The public workers pension, you get $26,000 a year on top of your 15,000.

STU: Well, yeah.

GLENN: If you're a public servant, you get that. And of course if you're a member of congress, you get $59,000 of pension for the rest of your life. On top of the . . .

JEFFY: Plus.

GLENN: Yeah. And of course you can do all of the insider trading that you did and everything else.

STU: I'm still stuck of the fact that they're honoring the memory of Ronald Reagan by giving away $700,000 of parking spots. That's an -- and free flights.

PAT: Yeah, but they're only making $174,000 a year.

GLENN: Well, if they ever die while they're in office, they get one year full salary of $174,000. However, if one of our soldiers die, they're capped at $100,000. They can't get more than $100,000.

STU: Well, who's doing more important work.

GLENN: Amen, brother. Who's working harder for the American people?

STU: And I think you can definitely say our senators and congressmen.

GLENN: Right. I think so.

STU: When you put them side by side, it's pretty obvious.

GLENN: It's grotesque. It is grotesque what is happening right now. I can't --

STU: I'm glad we're talking about health care today because I'm concerned about the coma that the kinder, gentler Glenn Beck is in right now. It seems to be --

GLENN: He was beaten to death last night.

STU: It's terrible.

GLENN: Yeah, by the old Glenn. He was beaten to death.

PAT: It does get frustrating sometimes. There are going to be days like this; right?

GLENN: Yeah, there are. Everybody --

PAT: It's too agonizing.

GLENN: It's too outrageous.

PAT: It is.

GLENN: I literally could not come up with appropriate words. I cannot come up with appropriate words. I just can't on how obscene and grotesque all of this is. And we're taking it.

PAT: Yeah. I mean --

JEFFY: We sure are.

PAT: We look with disgust on Rome and the way the senate -- the way the Roman senators acted and conducted themselves. And the outrage and the eating vomittoriums and all of that kind of --

STU: That's a move toward respectability at this point.

PAT: It is. It is. If they were just puking after every meal so that they could eat more, I would like that better.

STU: That's not bad.

PAT: So what. Go ahead. So you have bulimia, whatever.

GLENN: What I know it is making --

PAT: Stop raping the American people.

A Sharia enclave is quietly taking root in America. It's time to wake up.

NOVA SAFO / Staff | Getty Images

Sharia-based projects like the Meadow in Texas show how political Islam grows quietly, counting on Americans to stay silent while an incompatible legal system takes root.

Apolitical system completely incompatible with the Constitution is gaining ground in the United States, and we are pretending it is not happening.

Sharia — the legal and political framework of Islam — is being woven into developments, institutions, and neighborhoods, including a massive project in Texas. And the consequences will be enormous if we continue to look the other way.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

Before we can have an honest debate, we’d better understand what Sharia represents. Sharia is not simply a set of religious rules about prayer or diet. It is a comprehensive legal and political structure that governs marriage, finance, criminal penalties, and civic life. It is a parallel system that claims supremacy wherever it takes hold.

This is where the distinction matters. Many Muslims in America want nothing to do with Sharia governance. They came here precisely because they lived under it. But political Islam — the movement that seeks to implement Sharia as law — is not the same as personal religious belief.

It is a political ideology with global ambitions, much like communism. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently warned that Islamist movements do not seek peaceful coexistence with the West. They seek dominance. History backs him up.

How Sharia arrives

Political Islam does not begin with dramatic declarations. It starts quietly, through enclaves that operate by their own rules. That is why the development once called EPIC City — now rebranded as the Meadow — is so concerning. Early plans framed it as a Muslim-only community built around a mega-mosque and governed by Sharia-compliant financing. After state investigations were conducted, the branding changed, but the underlying intent remained the same.

Developers have openly described practices designed to keep non-Muslims out, using fees and ownership structures to create de facto religious exclusivity. This is not assimilation. It is the construction of a parallel society within a constitutional republic.

The warning from those who have lived under it

Years ago, local imams in Texas told me, without hesitation, that certain Sharia punishments “just work.” They spoke about cutting off hands for theft, stoning adulterers, and maintaining separate standards of testimony for men and women. They insisted it was logical and effective while insisting they would never attempt to implement it in Texas.

But when pressed, they could not explain why a system they consider divinely mandated would suddenly stop applying once someone crossed a border.

This is the contradiction at the heart of political Islam: It claims universal authority while insisting its harshest rules will never be enforced here. That promise does not stand up to scrutiny. It never has.

AASHISH KIPHAYET / Contributor | Getty Images

America is vulnerable

Europe is already showing us where this road leads. No-go zones, parallel courts, political intimidation, and clerics preaching supremacy have taken root across major cities.

America’s strength has always come from its melting pot, but assimilation requires boundaries. It requires insisting that the Constitution, not religious law, is the supreme authority on this soil.

Yet we are becoming complacent, even fearful, about saying so. We mistake silence for tolerance. We mistake avoidance for fairness. Meanwhile, political Islam views this hesitation as weakness.

Religious freedom is one of America’s greatest gifts. Muslims may worship freely here, as they should. But political Islam must not be permitted to plant a flag on American soil. The Constitution cannot coexist with a system that denies equal rights, restricts speech, subordinates women, and places clerical authority above civil law.

Wake up before it is too late

Projects like the Meadow are not isolated. They are test runs, footholds, proofs of concept. Political Islam operates with patience. It advances through demographic growth, legal ambiguity, and cultural hesitation — and it counts on Americans being too polite, too distracted, or too afraid to confront it.

We cannot afford that luxury. If we fail to defend the principles that make this country free, we will one day find ourselves asking how a parallel system gained power right in front of us. The answer will be simple: We looked away.

The time to draw boundaries and to speak honestly is now. The time to defend the Constitution as the supreme law of the land is now. Act while there is still time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why do Americans feel so empty?

Mario Tama / Staff | Getty Images

Anxiety, anger, and chronic dissatisfaction signal a country searching for meaning. Without truth and purpose, politics becomes a dangerous substitute for identity.

We have built a world overflowing with noise, convenience, and endless choice, yet something essential has slipped out of reach. You can sense it in the restless mood of the country, the anxiety among young people who cannot explain why they feel empty, in the angry confusion that dominates our politics.

We have more wealth than any nation in history, but the heart of the culture feels strangely malnourished. Before we can debate debt or elections, we must confront the reality that we created a world of things, but not a world of purpose.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

What we are living through is not just economic or political dysfunction. It is the vacuum that appears when a civilization mistakes abundance for meaning.

Modern life is stuffed with everything except what the human soul actually needs. We built systems to make life faster, easier, and more efficient — and then wondered why those systems cannot teach our children who they are, why they matter, or what is worth living for.

We tell the next generation to chase success, influence, and wealth, turning childhood into branding. We ask kids what they want to do, not who they want to be. We build a world wired for dopamine rather than dignity, and then we wonder why so many people feel unmoored.

When everything is curated, optimized, and delivered at the push of a button, the question “what is my life for?” gets lost in the static.

The crisis beneath the headlines

It is not just the young who feel this crisis. Every part of our society is straining under the weight of meaninglessness.

Look at the debt cycle — the mathematical fate no civilization has ever escaped once it crosses a threshold that we seem to have already blown by. While ordinary families feel the pressure, our leaders respond with distraction, with denial, or by rewriting the very history that could have warned us.

You cannot survive a crisis you refuse to name, and you cannot rebuild a world whose foundations you no longer understand.

We have entered a cultural moment where the noise is so loud that it drowns out the simplest truths. We are living in a country that no longer knows how to hear itself think.

So people go searching. Some drift toward the false promise of socialism, some toward the empty thrill of rebellion. Some simply check out. When a culture forgets what gives life meaning, it becomes vulnerable to every ideology that offers a quick answer.

The quiet return of meaning

And yet, quietly, something else is happening. Beneath the frustration and cynicism, many Americans are recognizing that meaning does not come from what we own, but from what we honor. It does not rise from success, but from virtue. It does not emerge from noise, but from the small, sacred things that modern life has pushed to the margins — the home, the table, the duty you fulfill, the person you help when no one is watching.

The danger is assuming that this rediscovery happens on its own. It does not.

Reorientation requires intention. It requires rebuilding the habits and virtues that once held us together. It requires telling the truth about our history instead of rewriting it to fit today’s narratives. And it requires acknowledging what has been erased: that meaning is inseparable from God’s presence in a nation’s life.

Harold M. Lambert / Contributor | Getty Images

Where renewal begins

We have built a world without stillness, and then we wondered why no one can hear the questions that matter. Those questions remain, whether we acknowledge them or not. They do not disappear just because we drown them in entertainment or noise. They wait for us, and the longer we ignore them, the more disoriented we become.

Meaning is still available. It is found in rebuilding the smallest, most human spaces — the places that cannot be digitized, globalized, or automated. The home. The family. The community.

These are the daily virtues that do not trend on social media, but that hold a civilization upright. If we want to repair this country, we begin there, exactly where every durable civilization has always begun: one virtue at a time, one tradition at a time, one generation at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

A break in trust: A NEW Watergate is brewing in plain sight

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

When institutions betray the public’s trust, the country splits, and the spiral is hard to stop.

Something drastic is happening in American life. Headlines that should leave us stunned barely register anymore. Stories that once would have united the country instead dissolve into silence or shrugs.

It is not apathy exactly. It is something deeper — a growing belief that the people in charge either cannot or will not fix what is broken.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf.

I call this response the Bubba effect. It describes what happens when institutions lose so much public trust that “Bubba,” the average American minding his own business, finally throws his hands up and says, “Fine. I will handle it myself.” Not because he wants to, but because the system that was supposed to protect him now feels indifferent, corrupt, or openly hostile.

The Bubba effect is not a political movement. It is a survival instinct.

What triggers the Bubba effect

We are watching the triggers unfold in real time. When members of Congress publicly encourage active duty troops to disregard orders from the commander in chief, that is not a political squabble. When a federal judge quietly rewrites the rules so one branch of government can secretly surveil another, that is not normal. That is how republics fall. Yet these stories glided across the news cycle without urgency, without consequence, without explanation.

When the American people see the leadership class shrug, they conclude — correctly — that no one is steering the ship.

This is how the Bubba effect spreads. It is not just individuals resisting authority. It is sheriffs refusing to enforce new policies, school boards ignoring state mandates, entire communities saying, “We do not believe you anymore.” It becomes institutional, cultural, national.

A country cracking from the inside

This effect can be seen in Dearborn, Michigan. In the rise of fringe voices like Nick Fuentes. In the Epstein scandal, where powerful people could not seem to locate a single accountable adult. These stories are different in content but identical in message: The system protects itself, not you.

When people feel ignored or betrayed, they will align with anyone who appears willing to fight on their behalf. That does not mean they suddenly agree with everything that person says. It means they feel abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to be trustworthy.

The Bubba effect is what fills that vacuum.

The dangers of a faithless system

A republic cannot survive without credibility. Congress cannot oversee intelligence agencies if it refuses to discipline its own members. The military cannot remain apolitical if its chain of command becomes optional. The judiciary cannot defend the Constitution while inventing loopholes that erase the separation of powers.

History shows that once a nation militarizes politics, normalizes constitutional shortcuts, or allows government agencies to operate without scrutiny, it does not return to equilibrium peacefully. Something will give.

The question is what — and when.

The responsibility now belongs to us

In a healthy country, this is where the media steps in. This is where universities, pastors, journalists, and cultural leaders pause the outrage machine and explain what is at stake. But today, too many see themselves not as guardians of the republic, but of ideology. Their first loyalty is to narrative, not truth.

The founders never trusted the press more than the public. They trusted citizens who understood their rights, lived their responsibilities, and demanded accountability. That is the antidote to the Bubba effect — not rage, but citizenship.

How to respond without breaking ourselves

Do not riot. Do not withdraw. Do not cheer on destruction just because you dislike the target. That is how nations lose themselves. Instead, demand transparency. Call your representatives. Insist on consequences. Refuse to normalize constitutional violations simply because “everyone does it.” If you expect nothing, you will get nothing.

Do not hand your voice to the loudest warrior simply because he is swinging a bat at the establishment. You do not beat corruption by joining a different version of it. You beat it by modeling the country you want to preserve: principled, accountable, rooted in truth.

Adam Gray / Stringer | Getty Images

Every republic reaches a moment when historians will later say, “That was the warning.” We are living in ours. But warnings are gifts if they are recognized. Institutions bend. People fail. The Constitution can recover — if enough Americans still know and cherish it.

It does not take a majority. Twenty percent of the country — awake, educated, and courageous — can reset the system. It has happened before. It can happen again.

Wake up. Stand up. Demand integrity — from leaders, from institutions, and from yourself. Because the Bubba effect will not end until Americans reclaim the duty that has always belonged to them: preserving the republic for the next generation.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Warning: Stop letting TikTok activists think for you

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Bad-faith attacks on Israel and AIPAC warp every debate. Real answers emerge only when people set aside scripts and ask what serves America’s long-term interests.

The search for truth has always required something very much in short supply these days: honesty. Not performative questions, not scripted outrage, not whatever happens to be trending on TikTok, but real curiosity.

Some issues, often focused on foreign aid, AIPAC, or Israel, have become hotbeds of debate and disagreement. Before we jump into those debates, however, we must return to a simpler, more important issue: honest questioning. Without it, nothing in these debates matters.

Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

The phrase “just asking questions” has re-entered the zeitgeist, and that’s fine. We should always question power. But too many of those questions feel preloaded with someone else’s answer. If the goal is truth, then the questions should come from a sincere desire to understand, not from a hunt for a villain.

Honest desire for truth is the only foundation that can support a real conversation about these issues.

Truth-seeking is real work

Right now, plenty of people are not seeking the truth at all. They are repeating something they heard from a politician on cable news or from a stranger on TikTok who has never opened a history book. That is not a search for answers. That is simply outsourcing your own thought.

If you want the truth, you need to work for it. You cannot treat the world like a Marvel movie where the good guy appears in a cape and the villain hisses on command. Real life does not give you a neat script with the moral wrapped up in two hours.

But that is how people are approaching politics now. They want the oppressed and the oppressor, the heroic underdog and the cartoon villain. They embrace this fantastical framing because it is easier than wrestling with reality.

This framing took root in the 1960s when the left rebuilt its worldview around colonizers and the colonized. Overnight, Zionism was recast as imperialism. Suddenly, every conflict had to fit the same script. Today’s young activists are just recycling the same narrative with updated graphics. Everything becomes a morality play. No nuance, no context, just the comforting clarity of heroes and villains.

Bad-faith questions

This same mindset is fueling the sudden obsession with Israel, and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in particular. You hear it from members of Congress and activists alike: AIPAC pulls the strings, AIPAC controls the government, AIPAC should register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The questions are dramatic, but are they being asked in good faith?

FARA is clear. The standard is whether an individual or group acts under the direction or control of a foreign government. AIPAC simply does not qualify.

Here is a detail conveniently left out of these arguments: Dozens of domestic organizations — Armenian, Cuban, Irish, Turkish — lobby Congress on behalf of other countries. None of them registers under FARA because — like AIPAC — they are independent, domestic organizations.

If someone has a sincere problem with the structure of foreign lobbying, fair enough. Let us have that conversation. But singling out AIPAC alone is not a search for truth. It is bias dressed up as bravery.

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

If someone wants to question foreign aid to Israel, fine. Let’s have that debate. But let’s ask the right questions. The issue is not the size of the package but whether the aid advances our interests. What does the United States gain? Does the investment strengthen our position in the region? How does it compare to what we give other nations? And do we examine those countries with the same intensity?

The real target

These questions reflect good-faith scrutiny. But narrowing the entire argument to one country or one dollar amount misses the larger problem. If someone objects to the way America handles foreign aid, the target is not Israel. The target is the system itself — an entrenched bureaucracy, poor transparency, and decades-old commitments that have never been re-examined. Those problems run through programs around the world.

If you want answers, you need to broaden the lens. You have to be willing to put aside the movie script and confront reality. You have to hold yourself to a simple rule: Ask questions because you want the truth, not because you want a target.

That is the only way this country ever gets clarity on foreign aid, influence, alliances, and our place in the world. Questioning is not just allowed. It is essential. But only if it is honest.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.