RADIOSeptember 08, 2022

Expert gives SCARY predictions for if ENERGY CRISIS WORSENS

If our energy crisis continues to worsen, what will life be like in 2, or even 4 years? Energy expert Alex Epstein, author of ‘Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less,’ tells Glenn there are two possible scenarios — one that could result in economies crashing throughout the world, and another that could result in increased power for China and Russia. He explains it all in this clip, plus Epstein explains why fossil fuels actually have HUGE benefits, despite what the far-left may claim…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Alex Epstein, who is with us now. He is the author of Fossil Future. Hello, Alex, how are you?

ALEX: Hey, Glenn, great to be back.

GLENN: I have to tell you, I have been waiting for weeks for this interview. Because you are the guy. You not only -- in your new book, you not only give us the way out, what we should be doing. But you're actually describing what's coming. It's insanity to cut our legs off, before we have another chair. You know what I mean? We're -- we are turning off all of our energy supply. And it can't be done this way.

ALEX: You know, one thing I talk about throughout fossil future is this phenomenon of fossil fuel benefit denial. We hear a lot about climate change denial. But the real denial is the huge benefits of fossil fuels. Which provides 80 percent of the world's energy. In a world that needs far more energy. And yet, we're talking about rapidly eliminating fossil fuels, without any evidence of a viable replacement. And that's been the insane strategy, that you've been talking about.

GLENN: Yeah. Go through some of the benefits of -- everybody is like, okay. Fossil fuels. I get it. Petroleum. So you have your cars. ALEX: Yeah. I mean, the -- the real benefit of fossil fuels, as I talk about in chapter four. Is a livable world. People talk about, oh, I'm worried that fossil fuels will make the world unlivable. But you have to recognize first that fossil fuels are the only reason why the world is livable, as you know it. So the world naturally is a very deficient and dangerous place. It's very low on resources. And it's very high on threats. We, in what I call the empowered world. Experience the world as an abundant and safe place. But that's a very unnatural phenomenon. Particularly, it's a phenomenon, to be able to use machines to radically expand and amplify our productive ability. So expand means we can produce things, using machines, powered by low-cast reliable energy, that we simply can't do with our physical body. Like providing an incubator that can save a baby's life. Then we also amplify our abilities. We can do things like run a combine harvester that can read, then thresh a thousand times more wheat, than a really good manual laborer can. So we only exist in this abundant and safe world, by the grace of all of these machines doing work for us. And that only works to the extent energy is cost-effective, which means low cost, reliable, versatile. Meaning being able to power any type of machine, and scalable. So providing energy for billions of people in thousands of places. What we're seeing with this energy crisis, is when you make energy less cost-effective. Everything becomes less cost-effective, and you see Europe afraid of winter, which is an embarrassment. And you see real threats of starvation around the world.

GLENN: Now people here in America say, well, it's not going to happen here. That's just because Europe is screwed up, somehow, and I don't want to think past that. They actually just didn't take the pause on the Paris climate accords. Right? So they're just a little ahead of us.

ALEX: Yeah, no one is following the Paris Climate Accords. In a certain sense, we are following it more than they are. But nobody is really following it, in terms of rapidly eliminating CO2 emissions, but this is what is scary. The net zero agenda has maybe had one to 2 percent success. In terms of slowing the growth of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are still growing around the world. Mostly in underdeveloped places that are less restrictive. But in general, fossil fuels are still growing. But they're shrinking in what I call the empowered world. The freer parts of the world. And even that, is called an energy crisis. Because energy is so important. And it's so desperately needed.

GLENN: So people don't really understand what it means not to have energy -- in I think it was Scotland. Amazon and Microsoft, shut down some server farms. Because they just couldn't get enough electricity. We are a -- a country, and a civilization, that is reliant on our technology. Not just our engines. But also, our technology. And if you don't have the power, you can't keep it at today's standards. But I don't know if anyone has noticed this. What's happening in the technological world is only getting bigger and more invasive in our lives. Not smaller. We need more electricity in the future, not less.

GLENN: For sure. So this is something I talk about in Chapter 5 of Fossil Future, which includes talking about it's an expanding pie, in terms of the need for energy. The biggest reason is most people are very energy poor in the world. We have 6 billion, out of 8 billion people who used the amount of energy that you and I would consider unacceptable. We have 3 billion people using less electricity per person than a typical American refrigerator. We have a third of the world using wood and animal dung, as their primary fuel for heating and cooking. So we have that. But then as you're pointing out, the parts of the world, even that are empowered, we're finding new ways to use energy. And particularly in the realm of information technology. We have rapid growth. And what you're finding, with some of these tech companies. It's really tragic, or in a certain sense, shameful. Is they are huge consumers of electricity who are rightly using more electricity. Yet, they're huge boosters of the idea, that we can get off fossil fuels rapidly. One way they do this. It's particularly insidious. I talk about in Chapter 6, an alternative. They claim to be 100 percent renewable. The literal way they do this, they pay grid to give them credit for anyone else's solar wind. And to give everyone else for their coal, gas, and nuclear. So this is really shameful. And it's promoting all the same ideas. Even though the world needs more energy, in their exhibit A of why.

GLENN: Can't you talk a little bit about -- I mean, the problem with our information system that we have now, where people believe global warming is a catastrophe. And yet, we have more information now. Or accessed more information than ever before.

ALEX: Yeah. I have a term I coined called knowledge systems, to really capture the set of institutions. We often call it the media, but that's too much of a simplification. A set of institutions that are designed to give us expert knowledge and guidance, and I think one key thing. You have these different phases by which knowledge is acquired and transmitted. So there's the research phase. But we don't just get things asked and then disseminated. And then ultimately, we evaluate, what do we do about it? Something on climate, what you see, is the actual research has quite a few biases. But that research even as it exists today, in no way justifies this idea of climate catastrophe. And certainly, no, no, way justifies the idea of rapidly eliminating fossil fuels. And replacing them specifically with unreliable solar wind. And yet, we get the narrative, oh, the scientists say, we need to get off fossil fuels and replace them with 100 percent renewable. That doesn't follow at all. So what's happening, we're getting a distortion from what I call the knowledge system. The institutions who are trusting to get expert knowledge. They're distorting the actual state of the research, to the point where we're being told that fossil fuels have no benefits. And yet reality is proving, they have huge benefits, and losing those benefits is catastrophic.

GLENN: Alex, put this on -- I mean, you've been warning about this for a long time. Put this on what's coming in some sort of scale, that people can understand. What is life like in 2030, if we continue down this path? What's it like in 2024, 2026, if we continue down this path?

ALEX: I think there are two versions of this, that we need to contemplate. One is less realistic, and one is more realistic. So the less realistic one, is the one where we all pursue anything resembling that year. We all seek to reduce our emissions without a viable replacement. Certainly, there's nothing resembling a viable replacement by 2030, particularly because you're basically not allowed to build nuclear now. If everyone did that, it would be like, much, much more extreme than what Europe is experiencing right now. And you're just seeing it. Their power bills are going up by a factor of four. All these shops are shutting down. You see the whole economy crash, because it's interdependent, in energy of the industry that powers every other industry, so the price of energy determines the price of everything. You see prices skyrocketing, and things crashing. So there's that happening, on a global scale everywhere. The reason why I say it's unrealistic, is let me ask you. Do you think China is going to participate in this, Glenn? You think China is going to rapidly -- is Russia going to?

GLENN: No. They're going to love this. They'll be providing oil for any country that is not adopting this insanity.

ALEX: And so this is one of the things I warn about in chapter 11 of the book, which I call Unilateral Disempowerment. Which Europe is exhibiting right now. Which means the freer countries decide, hey. We're going to restrict our emissions. We're going to lower our fossil fuel use. So what happens then, is you empower often the less free places, like China and Russia. And China, in particular, loves using huge amounts of coal, to produce huge amounts of unreliable solar and wind, that then ruin our economy, and our way of life. Like, that's great for their ambition of becoming a global superpower by 2049. So that's what I think is the most realistic, is that we kind of sacrifice unilaterally. And we make ourselves much less secure. Much more dependent on powers that do not wish us well. That are not pro-freedom.

GLENN: Tell me what we lose. Besides freedom. Tell me what the average person's life. How is this going to impact? How is this going to change their life?

ALEX: Well, I would just ask, have you ever been really poor?

STU: Yes, he has, Alex. I've seen it in action.

GLENN: I have.

ALEX: I'm just saying, most of us who have had success. Had areas where we didn't have much money. I certainly had that in my life. And it will be much, much worse than that. I mean, this is the thing. Because, you know, you have the element of just becoming much poorer, which people experience with even modern rises in gasoline prices. You cannot afford as much. It's not just -- it's this combination of you become poorer, but also, you're in a society, that is disintegrating. So look at Sri Lanka and other places where you have these riots. What happens is the decline is not just this smooth thing. Okay. I made 100,000. And now I made 60,000. It is chaos. Look around the world. Every time you have these fuel price crisis, it is chaos. And it's not like America is a particularly stable state right now.

GLENN: I hadn't noticed.

ALEX: So we don't -- this is not what we need. Now, the nice thing is, we have all the physical resources in the world, to produce enough energy, for a lot of people to have a good life. Like, this is a totally political -- it's culture, beneath that. So it's a political phenomenon. We can produce a lot more fossil fuel. We can produce nuclear energy. We can pursue nuclear freedom. A lot of my work, besides making clear this idea of a fossil future. Is promoting energy freedom policies, so that we can get there, and also get to new alternatives.

GLENN: So I only have about a minute left. And I want to ask you about your energy freedom. Because you're saying, let us build nuclear power. Let us -- you know, real promising alternatives. Let's release -- release the hounds here. Let us do the work. Chances of that. I mean, I'm starting to see people love nuclear energy. More than I've ever seen it since I was a kid.

ALEX: I know. That's an exciting development. Reality, this crisis. They're helping us open people's minds. If people want to check this out, go to AlexEpstein.Substack.com. And you'll see near the top of the energy freedom platform. I should say, I used to have no influence at all, on a PC, and now I work with something like 300 staffers on policy in different ways. So I'm optimistic, that there's a real appetite for new energy policy that gives us all the energy we need in the present, and promotes the positive evolution of energy going forward.

GLENN: Alex, thank you so much. Thanks for all your hard work. Founder and president of the center for industrial progress. And the author of a great new book. It's called fossil fuel -- I'm sorry, Fossil Future. The real story on energy, that no one else will tell you about. And it is important that you hear it. So you know what's going on. Alex Epstein.

I have MAJOR QUESTIONS after Tucker Carlson’s Thomas Crooks exposé

Tucker Carlson recently revealed new information about the attempted Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks that appears to debunk the narrative that he had practically no online presence. Glenn reviews the new evidence and asks the questions we NEED answers to.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Let me walk you through some things that Tucker Carlson has just released. And I want you to hear it. Not as partisan, you, but as -- as an American, who I think deserves straight answers. Because there's -- there's something happening in our country, and we all know it.

And it's easy for us to get lost and go town can the road of conspiracies.

And, you know, one of my favorite lines from John Kennedy, you know, Senator John Kennedy is, we need some new conspiracy theories.

Because the old ones, all turned out to be right.

And we don't need new conspiracy theories. What we need are conspiracy facts.

And we are starting to see the outline of something that does not -- should not make everybody feel really good.

And I'll get into that here in just a second.

But first, the more we learn about Thomas Matthew Crooks, this is the would-be assassin, that got within an inch.

A refraction of an inch of killing President Trump, the story bends in Washington.

And when a story bends forever, that -- that tells me somebody is very, very busy trying to keep it from breaking.

From day one, the FBI, and the cheerleaders in the mainstream media.

MSNBC, CNN, the whole alphabets, all pushed one story line. Crooks was pro-Trump. Anti-immigration. A fringe right-winger radicalized by MAGA memes. Remember that?

That's what the Biden administration said about him. Then we never heard anything else.

Because the story is incomplete. And as we're finding out now. It's also, very, very misleading.

We were told over and over again, he had almost no online footprint. How many times did you hear that, Stu?

He had almost no online footprint.

STU: Yeah. I do remember, as you kind of mentioned. Bits and pieces, came out. He said this. It wasn't a prolific poster.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. And how did this guy come up this sophisticated way of coming up to kill without any online footprint?

Okay. So apparently, there's a very large footprint. He had a discord account. He had a Snapchat account.

He was extremely active on YouTube. His comment history.

And that's where things start to get really, really strange.

So let me take you through the phases of the guy who tried to kill Donald Trump.

Here's phase one.

In 2019, violent, yes.

But directed at Democrats.

In 2019, Crooks' YouTube comments were violent. Very violent. No question.

But they were directed almost entirely to anti-Trump people. And democratic officials.

When I say violent, he was talking about decapitations.

And shootings, taking out government officials.

Now, we all know. I mean, you may not know. I know, but you may just feel like, of course. That's happening.

The government is monitoring everything. Okay?

There are key words. Decapitation of fill in the politician. That shows up!

That rings alarm bells.

If you are talking about violent things, and politics, you get on a list. It's just -- and, you know, you should get on a list. You're talking about things like this.

Taking out government officials. You should. The government should be monitoring stuff like that. Now, remember, this isn't a period when the US government -- we later have learned, was monitoring social media more aggressively than any other point in US history. Okay?

They were looking for these kinds of things. People were arrested for memes! At this time.

But Crooks, nothing. Nothing.

Not a warning. Not a knock on the door. Not the one single action.

Why?

Why?

Because he at that time, apparently was a MAGA reporter.

Why was there no knock on his door.

Now he has a pivot. And I'm not really sure why this happened. Something happened.

And it might have been COVID. Here's the part of the story, no one ever told you.

In 2020, Crooks' online comments, they flip, and they flip dramatically. Suddenly, he is violently anti-Trump. He has anti-Trump supporters.
And, again, still extremely violent. But the FBI and the media, why did they only report the first half of the story.

The half that fit the predetermined story line.

I think we all know, that's the way the system was working.

Why leave out the part where he abruptly becomes very anti-Trump?

Why not tell the American people the whole truth?

Why frame him exclusively as a pro-Trump radical, when the -- when the data clearly contradicts this.

He was. And then he wasn't. You tell me!

Okay. Then enters somebody we don't know who this is. Named Willie Tepes. T-E-P-E-S.

He's the ghost in the machine. Around the same time of the flip, a bizarre online persona appears in Crooks' orbit.

Willie Tepes. Now, this account begins encouraging Crooks' violence, openly, agreeing with assassinations, approving of attacks on government officials.

But here's the kicker. The name Willie Tepes, appears on a national socialist website in Sweden. Now, we don't know if that's the Willie Tepes. But that's the one you can find online.

And we know for a fact, that the State Department, and the intelligence community monitor these circles aggressively.

Okay?

So now you're -- you have our State Department.

We have our intelligence community.

That is monitoring people online, especially Nazis.

In the rest of the world.

And Nazis here. And yet, there's nothing!

Not a single red flag is triggered. Not a single investigation. No monitoring. No intervention.

So why was this FBI monitoring, you know, Catholic churches and priests?

But nothing on Thomas Matthews Crooks. Why?

You're going to have to draw your own conclusions.

And I honestly don't know -- I have fears. But I don't know the reason!

Now, here's where his YouTube history goes absolutely insane!

As the assassination attempt nears, Crooks' search history explodes.

Tucker laid this out.

He searched Trump hundreds of times.

He searched Jack Ruby. He searched bomb making. Car attacks. Sniper attacks. Successful assassinations. How to escape police gunfire. All of these things should ring every NSA alarm bell.

Nothing! Again, nothing! Not then. Not during the attempt. Not afterward. They didn't try to stop him. They didn't stop him. They didn't prevent or try to prevent. They didn't warn anyone.

Instead, as soon as he was shot, they rushed out a narrative. A very specific narrative.

And then they shut down anything that conflicted with it!

Okay. If that's not weird enough, here's where it gets even more unusual. The FBI -- Trump's own FBI at the time, kept all of Crooks' shifting political and violent history quiet.

Okay. I understand it. When it's Biden's FBI.

But now Trump's FBI.

Now, why didn't Trump's FBI immediately come out. Because I know that you have tan Bongino.

We have it on tape, where he is saying, the guy had no footprint. No digital footprint.

And he's in -- he's being questioned in front of the Senator or the House.

And he's like, look, that's not possible.

There's no way this 20 something-year-old had no digital footprint.

Well, now, he's second in command at the FBI. He would know this!

Why didn't the FBI do anything?

And I want to be really careful on Trump's FBI, or Biden's FBI.

Because I'm not sure there is a difference anymore.

I want you to think of the FBI, and this Deep State, I want you to think of an iceberg.

Okay?

You see an iceberg. And you see just the top of it.

Two-thirds of that is under the water. So we're seeing the tops change. And we're seeing people put in at the top. And we're like, oh, the iceberg is different now. But I'm not sure that anybody has any idea how deep that iceberg goes. So I'm not even -- I'm not willing to blame the people up at the top.

I'm -- I'm questioning, does anyone know how deep this goes. Because I don't think it matters, who is running it. Even more bizarre, they suddenly release the body for cremation. There's no extended autopsy. There's no forensic review. There's no independent experts. It's just all gone. And the crime scene is washed and scrubbed.

It's all washed. Literally washed and scrubbed, before a full reconstruction can be done. Why would you do that?

You don't do that in a presidential assassination attempt. You don't do that in a local homicide case.

Unless, you want something gone.

Unless you want something buried.

Unless you want a narrative. And only that narrative. To survive.

So that's what Tucker laid out today.

Now, based on this, there are questions that need to be asked.

And so let me give you the questions that I have, that need to be asked, and we must demand answers! You feel the republic slipping through your fingers. If we do not correct these things, we have -- we do not have a government of, by, and for the people.

We don't. You must answer these questions. We must demand these questions be answered.

Okay. So let's start with some questions, that have to be asked, just on this case.

Why did the FBI present only the early pro Trump posts?

And they hid the anti-Trump phase?

There's two answers that need to be had. The first one is under Biden.

And I think we know the answer to that. They were building a narrative. Okay.

But it should be asked and answered.

Why did that happen?

Who was involved in that decision?

Then you have to say, okay. After that election, why did the FBI still toe that line. Who made that decision?

Next, we know they're monitoring people. And I'm for the government, finding, hey, how do I build a bomb? How do I get away from an assassination scene?

Successful assassinations, and where are these political people being, you know -- where are they going to be in the future?

That is -- that should be tied together by an algorithm. And it should be notified, so somebody is watching this.

Okay?

We know it's already being done. So why did they ignore Crooks' really unbelievable threats. When ordinary Americans were arrested for memes, why was he completely ignored?

Why did the intelligence agency monitoring extremism somehow miss a kid, openly fantasizing about assassinations?

And then connecting with some guy, it looks like, is from Sweden, who is part of a big Nazi movement over in Sweden.

Why was that ignored?

Why did they clean the scene prematurely?

Why was every digital trace of his political shift kept out of the public discussion? Why did they say he had almost no footprint, when the footprint looks to be really, really large. It was just scrubbed!

Why did every single mistake that our FBI and government made, why does it seem to point in the same direction.

Towards ignorance? Negligence. Hiding inconvenient at that time.

Shaping a political narrative!

When every accident points the same way. It stops looking like an accident.

So was this incompetence?

I don't know what conclusion Tucker is pulling from all of this.

I just appreciate the information.

And I'm not telling you this is a conspiracy.

I am telling you, there is something wrong here.

There is something very wrong.

The official story is impossible to believe.

And the question every American should be asking themselves is really simple: Why would our government the same government that monitors everything, suddenly becomes blind, deaf, and mute, the moment a presidential assassin emerges on their radar. It's not a partisan question.

Because one -- under one president, you can say, oh, well, that's because they were doing -- but then when the president is changed. And this president was the one that they tried to kill. And he said, I want answers to this.

The narrative didn't change.

Why?

Why?

That's not a pro-Trump question. That is a self-preservation question.

If the -- if the government can see everything that you do, and somehow missed all of this! What does that say about our FBI and our DOJ and our CIA.

Because they all would have been involved in this. I mean, they're either lying, they're incompetent. Or they only monitor the people they want to monitor.

None of these options should help us sleep at night. Okay?

The FBI and the mainstream media, MSNBC for sure, referenced leaks from Crooks' social media, the YouTube comments that showed he was pro-Trump. And anti-immigration.

We were also told that Crooks had almost no online social footprint. But he had discord. Snapchat. Very active YouTube. His YouTube comments, in 2019, very violent, decapitating of government officials. And then something happened. He switches. Something is not right here!

I think this iceberg is way beneath the water line.

I think this thing goes so deep, I'm not sure that these -- I had a friend to me, I think the CIA is completely out of control!

And this is a guy, you would not know his name. And you wouldn't know his name for a reason.

But he was very, very highly placed, years ago.

And this is the kind of stuff he did. And he said, I don't think the CIA answers to anybody anymore.

I'm not sure that it's just the CIA. I'm not sure -- it feels a little like you can shuffle the -- the chairs on the deck of the Titanic.

But it's the -- it's what's below the water line that really makes the difference, on that ship.

SHOCK POLL: The % of Young People Who Support SOCIALISM is Insane

New polling reveals a shocking truth: young Americans aren’t just open to socialism... they overwhelmingly want a socialist president in 2028. Glenn Beck and Justin Haskins break down five alarming surveys showing massive ideological shifts among voters ages 18-39, including young Republicans. Why is socialism exploding in popularity, and what does this mean for the future of America? Are we on the brink of a political transformation or potentially even a national crisis?

Watch This FULL Episode of 'Glenn TV' HERE

Property Taxes are OUT OF CONTROL - And Here's Why! | Guest: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

Texas Governor Greg Abbott joins Glenn Beck to expose why Texans are being crushed by skyrocketing property taxes — and how local governments, not the state, keep driving homeowners deeper into financial distress. Gov. Abbott breaks down his five-point plan to impose strict spending limits, force voter approval for tax hikes, reform out-of-control appraisals, empower citizens to slash taxes themselves, and eliminate school district property taxes for homeowners altogether. Glenn argues that property tax is morally wrong because it prevents Texans from ever truly owning their land, and Abbott lays out his strategy to fight both parties in the legislature to finally deliver lasting relief.

Joe Rogan & Glenn AGREE: We just got CLOSER to civil war

Joe Rogan recently warned that we may have gotten to Step 7 of 9 in the lead-up to civil war. Glenn reviews the 9 Steps and explains why he believes Rogan nailed this one. But Glenn also lays out what Americans MUST do to reverse this trend...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So if you take what Fetterman said yesterday about how people are cheering for him to die on the left, and then you couple it with something that was on the Joe Rogan show on Tuesday. He was saying that the reaction to the death of Charlie Kirk makes him think that the US is closer to Civil War than -- than he thought.

Now, let me quote him. He said, after the Charlie Kirk thing. I'm like, oh, my.

We might be at seven. This might be he step seven on the way to a bona fide Civil War. Charlie Kirk gets shot, and people are celebrating.

Like, whoa. Whoa. Whoa.

You want people to die that you disagree with?

Where are we now on the scale of Civil War?

Well, let me go over the scale of Civil War, because it's sobering.

Now, none of this has to be true. If we wake up and decide, I don't want to do this anymore!

Okay?

Here's step one.

Step one. Loss of civic trust.

Every civil conflict begins when people stop believing that the system is fair. Are we there?

We're so far -- we're so far past the doorway, we are comfortably asleep on the couch on this one. Gallup and Pew both show trust in Congress, the media courts, and the FBI government are now at record lows.

The Edelman Trust Barometer classifies the US now as severely polarized. Majority of Republicans distrust federal elections. Majority of Democrats don't trust the Supreme Court.

Americans are really united on one thing, and that is the other side is corrupt!

When faith in the rules collapses, the republic begins to wobble. But that's step one. Step two, polarization hardens into identity!

Political disagreement is normal!

Identity conflict is fatal!

But that's what Marxists push. Identity politics. This is when politics stopped being about policy, and started being about who you are as a person.

Have we crossed this one into step two?

I mean, we're neck deep into this. A study on this, from PRRI.

It's a survey, found 23 percent of Americans believe political violence may be necessary to save the that I guess.

I think that's an old study. Americans now sort themselves by ZIP code into ideological enclaves. The big sort: Universities, activists, corporations. Everybody is promoting oppressor versus oppressed.

And that -- does what?

It puts us into incompatible tribes. Opponents aren't wrong anymore. The opponent is dangerous!

If I go back and you look at civil wars, Lebanon, before 1975. Yugoslavia, before 1991. That's -- we're doing that. Okay?

Step three. Breakdown of the gatekeepers. The gatekeepers are kind of like the referees of society. It's the media, political parties, churches, civic leaders.

When they fail, extremism fills the vacuum. Okay. Where are we on this? Have our gatekeepers failed us?

Yeah. I think both parties, especially the left, you know, everything I predicted that the left was going to be eaten by the extreme left, and then the communists and the socialists is now happening.

They've lost control of the fringe of each party. Media transformed, you know, from referees into team coaches. Tech platforms. It's outrage for profit. Universities are not there to cool things down. They heat them up.

Churches. Churches are useless. Useless.

When the referees leave the field, the game devolves into a brawl. And the refs are gone off the field. So there are only nine steps. We're at step four. Here's step four.

Are you ready for this one?

Parallel information realities.

Civil wars don't require different opinions. They require different realities.

I remember reading about Germany, at the beginning of, you know, the Nazi era. How the two new newspapers. One was propaganda for the government.

And the other one, it was the last one that was kind of the holdout.

And they said, you could read them, and they would cover the same thing.

But they had almost no information was the same. Except, that happened yesterday.

Here's what they said. And then everything else was different. That's exactly -- I mean, step four is complete!

We can't agree on facts, right?

Crime rates. Border numbers. Inflation. Election security.

Two Americans can watch the same video. And see opposite truths.

Social media algorithms are creating customized political universes.

Digital echo chambers. Deepfakes. We're just at the beginning of that. And both sides accuse the other of running disinformation machines.

Why? Because we don't have a shared reality. So if you don't have a shared reality. How do you settle any dispute?

On the nine steps, we're up to number five. Coming in at number five.

Loss of neutral rule of law.

This out of the nine steps with, five is the pivot point.

It's not corruption, it's the belief that the law is no longer neutral.

Are we there yet?

Let me tell you the CBS you.gov poll. 67 percent say the justice system is used for political purposes.

I think that's low. January 6 defendants given years in prison, 2020 rioters were released. High profile political figures, prosecuted or shielded based on party.

FBI whistle-blowers alleging pressure to inflate domestic extremism numbers. States like Texas, directly defying federal directives, on border enforcement.

And now, leading the way, with the federal government.

History is really cold and unforgiving on this point.

Once the people believe justice is political! Remember, this is the turning point.

The republic stands on borrowed time. Once you no longer believe that justice is achievable. Step six.

Are we there?

I think we are.

Step six. Normalization of political violence!

This is where violence stops shocking the system. Are we there?

Remember, where violence stops shocking the system. Look at evidence just from Virginia. What they just voted for.

He was calling for the death of a -- a political opposition.

Calling for his children to be killed.

Was called on it, never apologized.

Never said anything other than, yeah. I know. He dug it deeper.

Was anyone shocked by it? Apparently not. They elected him. Here's the evidence. 2020 riots.
574 events. $2 billion in damage. Was anybody outraged by that? Or was it downplayed and excused?
Assassination attempts. Assassination attempts against the president. Supreme Court justice.

Fistfights. And mob actions on college campuses. To silence speakers. Rising to do for punching a fascist or stopping genocide. Depending on the ideology. Online chatter discussing Civil War, national divorce, and revolution.

When violence becomes part of the political language, a nation crosses an invisible line. We're now up to step seven out of nine.

This is where Joe Rogan said, are we at step seven?

The rise of militias and parallel forces.

When a state loses he is monopoly on force.

Countdown accelerates. So where are we on this one?

I think we're seeing, maybe early signs of this.

You're starting to see the -- the states kind of organize these mobs, you know, to go after ICE.

Right?

Armed groups, right-wing, left-wing radical secessionists. Anyone.

Once they start forming their own police forces. Or their own option forces, then you have -- then you have everything really falling apart.

Entirely!

I don't think we're there, yet!

But we're starting to see the beginnings of this.

Step eight. The trigger event.

Civil Wars don't begin with a plan. They begin with a spark.

So where are we?

We're not here yet. The conditions are right. Potential triggers, disputed election in '26 or '28.

Political assassination or major attack.

Supreme Court decision that ignites mass unrest.

Financial crisis or dollar crisis.

A state federal standoff turning violent!

Nothing is ignited yet, but the room is soaked in gasoline. So we don't have seven. We're on the verge of eight, at any time. And here's nine.

This is the point of no return.

When police, military, or federal agencies split, even if no one calls it that, well, where are we?

Well, I just read a story about how with the Mamdani election in New York, a good number of the police force is going to leave. And they're going to go join police forces elsewhere. You also have the tension between the state National Guard, and the federal directives, the state guard and the state directives. Law enforcement recruitment is at crisis lows. The distrust of the FBI, DOJ, CIA. Tens of millions of Americans. I always really respected those institutions. I have no respect for them now. If you have states openly defying federal rules on immigration, drug laws, sanctuary policies.
Whistle-blower claims of internal politicization.

All of these things are in play for the first time in 150 years, people can imagine!

So I give this to you, not to be fearful of, but to know where you are. As a map!

Know where you are.

And hopefully, it might wake some people up, if you chart America on, on the nine step model of Civil War. Steps one through four, completed!

Step five, happening!

Step six, happening! Step seven, beginning! Step eight, just waiting for it. And step nine, avoidable, only if step eight, never happens. Again, I'm not telling you for doom purposes, this is diagnosis. This is a doctor going, I want you to look at the chart.

And this is a doctor saying, I want you to look at -- do you see what's happening to your body?

If you don't stop this habit, you are going to die. You don't have to die. You can stop smoking and drinking right now. You can start exercising. But if you don't, you are going to die.

The question is, are we the nation that says, nah, that's not going to happen to me. Or are we the nation that wakes up and sees our chart and says, good heavens, it's way far more gone than I thought it was. But I feel something in the air.

I'm going to change my behavior. The nation that refuses to look and wake up and stop calling their neighbors enemies, is the nation that fails!

We have to strengthen these things that have already fallen. And, you know what, the easiest one to do is?

Church. Where are you ministers and pastors priests and rabbis?

Where the hell are you?

I think there's going to be a special section for you, when you cross over to the -- because you're doing things in the name of God!

So when you get to the other side, I think there's going to be a special section for those who remained silent. While his rights were being taken away.

You don't own that right.

I don't own that right.

The Lord gave us those rights, and said, protect them!

By you, being the representative, the voice box, if you will, of the Lord, to shepherd his people. By you not standing up and saying, hey, by the way, we have -- we have a moral responsibility to protect these rights for the next generation! By you refusing because you're afraid. Because I think, there's no politics in the Bible! There's no politics in the Bible. Really?

The whole thing is about politics. Is about the moral way you have to live your life.

Calling things as you see them. Calling them back to eternal principles.

He didn't tell anybody how to vote. Render to Caesar what is Caesar's.

But there are certain principles that you have to have, or you lose not only this citizenship, but the next citizenship. The one that really matters. And, boy, if you are doing it because you're a coward, you are in the wrong business!

Get out of the pulpit, and go to work at Jack in the Box.