Best of the Program | Guests: Charlie LeDuff & Delano Squires | 8/5/26

Summary

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The Glenn Beck Program: "Best of the Program"

Guests: Charlie LeDuff & Delano Squires
Date: August 5, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Glenn Beck explores three pressing issues in American politics and society: campaign finance corruption involving ActBlue in Michigan, alarming vulnerabilities in America's water system infrastructure, and the decline of the Black family structure in the US. Through candid, investigative conversation with journalist Charlie LeDuff and author Delano Squires, Beck provides storytelling and pointed commentary on the hidden mechanics influencing national elections, the real threat of cyberwarfare on local utilities, and the long-lasting impact of governmental welfare and cultural shifts on family life.

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Section 1: Michigan Politics & ActBlue Scandal

Guest: Charlie LeDuff (00:01–13:55)

Key Discussion Points

• Investigating Abdul El-Sayed’s Campaign Donations

  • Charlie LeDuff reports on questionable campaign contributions to Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed, mostly funneled through the ActBlue platform.
  • LeDuff reveals that "80% of his money is from ActBlue and 70, 75% of the actual money is coming from out of state." (02:59)
  • Focuses on elderly Michigan donors whose identities appear to have been exploited for massive, repetitive micro-donations they deny making.

• ActBlue’s Role and Alleged Corruption

  • Described as a “clearinghouse” for blue (Democratic and progressive) donations, but LeDuff alleges manipulation: “Everybody knows ActBlue's corrupt. We need to look at it…You're stealing old people's identity and you're running money from unknown sources through their names.” (04:54, 05:40)
  • Elderly individuals cited as having made “three to eight times a day, every single day, every day of the year for five straight years...It’s impossible.” (06:55)
  • LeDuff plans to “knock on 120 doors,” uncovering $16M in questionable donations just in Michigan.

• Political and Demographic Dynamics

  • The media's portrayal of a far-left groundswell is dismissed as exaggerated: “Did that look like a groundswell to you? A 1% difference?” (09:01)
  • Glen asks about Arab and Black community tensions, with LeDuff detailing prevailing political distinctions: “There's no black brown coalition out here. Blacks don't like Arabs, Arabs don't like blacks.” (10:31)
  • El-Sayed, despite academic credentials, has not earned trust in the community: “He's a paper doctor. He never took his board exams. He's never had a practice.” (12:05–12:12)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You're stealing old people's identity and you're running money from unknown sources through their names. And it's got to stop." – Charlie LeDuff, (05:40)
• "She made $83,000 in donations...$2.50, maybe. $83,000, I don't know about that shit." – LeDuff on elderly donors, (08:11)
• "[El-Sayed] is a paper doc. He never took his board exams." – LeDuff, (12:07)
• "[On ActBlue] It's elder abuse." – LeDuff, (05:40)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:59 – Introduction to ActBlue investigation
• 06:55 – Elderly donor’s case study and claims of identity theft
• 09:01 – Interpreting Michigan's election results
• 10:31 – Demographic divisions in Michigan politics

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Section 2: Hacked Water Systems & Infrastructure Vulnerability

Host Monologue & Analysis (13:55–24:51)

Key Discussion Points

• Coordinated Attacks on Water Systems

  • Recent hacks have compromised the machinery controlling water systems in Minnesota, Michigan, and other states—affecting "more than 30 community water systems."
  • Describes a scenario where hackers (possibly Iranian) accessed vulnerable systems by exploiting factory-default passwords ("1111"), and how this points to chronic security negligence.

• Historical Parallels & Cyberwarfare Risks

  • Glenn illustrates with the story of Babylon's fall: “The wall was never the way in. The utility was the way in. The boring thing nobody guards, nobody thinks to change the passcodes because it's not glamorous.” (21:55)
  • Compares infrastructure failings to overlooked vulnerabilities exploited in warfare, relating it to contemporary America's digital landscape.

• Responsibility and Local Governance

  • Emphasizes that solutions must be local: “There is no such thing as the water system. There are 50,000 of them, and they belong to your town. So let me wrap this up. What does all this mean? It means their power is not in Washington. You need to find out who runs the water.” (24:51)
  • Urges listeners to engage with their city councils and demand accountability and cybersecurity action.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “We traded a locked door for a login, and then we never changed the password.” – Glenn Beck, (19:55)
• “The wall was never the way in. The utility was the way in.” – Glenn Beck, (21:55)
• “Who's going to target this? 2,500 years later, we're still building walls and we're leaving the river unattended.” – Glenn Beck, (22:55)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 13:55 – National water system hacking incidents
• 19:55 – How simple negligence leads to national vulnerabilities
• 21:55 – Babylon analogy; urgency for local involvement
• 24:51 – What listeners can do: local action steps

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Section 3: The Vanishing Black Family & Social Policy

Guest: Delano Squires (31:49–47:50)

Key Discussion Points

• Analysis of Democratic Party Shifts

  • Squires compares the rise of the progressive left within the Democratic Party to the Republican Tea Party movement, noting: “The left is going through something similar to what the right went through in the Tea Party era…that faction that wants to pull the party in its, you know, in a more extreme direction.” (32:03)

• Race, Community, and Economic Issues

  • Discussion of whether ethnic divides—specifically between Black and Arab communities—impact elections in places like Detroit.
  • Squires highlights shared “material issues” across racial and ethnic lines, especially regarding affordability, housing, and jobs: “Both the left and the right have to figure out, okay, what is our affordability agenda.” (35:53)

• Welfare, Family Breakdown, and Feminism

  • Delano Squires details how welfare policies and feminism have negatively impacted the Black family by creating incentives for fatherless households: “Welfare displaced men from their rightful positions as providers in their home.” (44:16)
  • Beck asserts that “the Great Society destroyed the black family,” with Squires attributing policy hubris rather than outright malice, but underscores the systemic incentives that encourage family breakdown.
  • “Even today, guaranteed income programs for moms oftentimes write dads completely out of the family story. And I trace that type of programmatic design directly to the welfare system that really came into place in the 1960s.” (44:39)

• Broader Societal Impact

  • Both agree that the pattern is spreading beyond the Black community: “Look what it did to the black society. Horrible, horrible results. And now we're pushing that here on the white community and everybody else. It's going to have the same results.” (47:50)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Welfare displaced men from their rightful positions as providers in their home.” – Delano Squires, (44:16)
• “Feminism deceived women into believing that femininity is weak, masculinity is toxic in men, but empowering in women, that marriage is oppressive, the home is a prison, and children are a burden.” – Delano Squires, (46:53)
• "We're a fast food society, and we have fine dining problems." – Glenn Beck, (40:45)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 32:03 – The rise of the progressive left and party tensions
• 34:40 – Race, community coalitions, and economics in Detroit
• 44:16 – The impact of welfare and policy on family structure
• 46:53 – Feminism and program design’s effect on family and children

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Final Thoughts

This episode weaves together grassroots investigative journalism, urgent warnings about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure, and a frank, researched discussion on the legacy of social policies. Glenn Beck and his guests, Charlie LeDuff and Delano Squires, each expose systemic failings and challenge listeners to engage directly—whether through scrutinizing political funding, attending local meetings, or reevaluating the policies and cultural shifts shaping American families.

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Highlighted Quotes

• Glenn Beck (21:55): “The wall was never the way in. The utility was the way in.”
• Charlie LeDuff (05:40): “You're stealing old people's identity and you're running money from unknown sources through their names.”
• Delano Squires (44:16): “Welfare displaced men from their rightful positions as providers in their home.”
• Glenn Beck (40:45): "We're a fast food society, and we have fine dining problems."

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For a deeper dive, check out Delano Squires's book: The Vanishing Black Family: How Welfare and Feminism Made Marriage Optional and Children Vulnerable.

Transcript

[A]

Hey, we have a great podcast today. You know, the full length podcast. We talked about the election that happened, but we also talk about it here a bit in the best of of today's podcast. We start with Charlie Laduff who is up in Michigan and he is going after ActBlue. He is looking at where have all these donations come from. And I mean he's a hard smoking kind of guy and a real journalist. I love it. We had a great conversation with him. Then we talked about the water hacks that are happening here on our water systems in America. This one is vital because this one, you don't need a politician to help you, at least a national politician. You don't have to vote for anybody. You are the key to solving this. And this is really disturbing what is happening with our water system. Somebody is trying to hack into them. There's been seven or 10 of them hacked into in the last 10 or 15 days. It can be fixed, but you are the key to getting it done because most of these local communities just think, oh well, there's no problem with us. And that's where it's happening. You won't believe the details on this. And a fascinating conversation with Delano Squires. He has written a new book, the Vanishing Black Family. This is a must listen to interview and I think a must read book. The Vanishing Black Family, Delano Squires, all of that on today's podcast. And don't forget there's an extra for Torch subscribers. I did an hour right after the show. 1984 is now. What happens when we cross the this threshold and things begin to vanish? You'll understand and it's critical just become a TORCH member. You can listen to it on demand now@glenn beck.com torch. You're listening to the best of the Glenbeck program. Charlie, how are you?

[B]

I'm great, brother. How you doing?

[A]

You're smoking. I love it. I saw an old clip from Edward R. Murrow the other day, I don't know what I was watching and he had that smoke just kind of making rings up off of the table. And I went, where are those journalists anymore? Where are those people? And here you are, so welcome.

[B]

Do you remember that bit from Saturday Night Live, Martin Short when he's on 60 Minutes getting grilled? He's got the Coke bottle glasses.

[A]

Yeah, I miss those days. Anyway, Charlie, thanks for everything that you do. I really appreciate it. I think you're, you're fabulous and you're exactly what America needs in, in journalism. Tell me about what you are Finding with El Said's campaign donors.

[B]

Okay, let me preface it by why I'm looking. Okay? Because he fashions himself as the small donor king, the grassroots swell. He's the number one guy on Act Blue, you know, in Michigan. Small donations from around the country. 80% of his money is from ActBlue and 70, 75% of the actual money is coming from out of state. So I. I can't go out of state, so I'll look in state. Is this true? Because he's the guy that wants to get money out of politics. Okay, you want to get money out of politics. Where's your money coming from? So we just, you know, we go into the FEC database, we download it, we put it on a spreadsheet, we run it, we have AI check it, then we double check AI and then we double check each other. So we've got 120 donors, average age about 75 in Michigan. And altogether, in the last Decade or so, 120 people have made three quarters of a million donations. Okay, so we pick one and we go out to the countryside. And there's an old lady and her house is burned down. She's living in a trailer. No Internet, no computer, no running water. And I was going to bring her the print out, but her donations were 15,000 over five years, totaling 150 grand. And I told her I would have brought you the print out, but I ran out of paper. Did you, madam, in fact donate 15,000 times the tune of $150,000 with no house? And she donates and she says ActBlue is the bank. I go through agBlue, but nothing, nothing of that size. She was shocked. So to wrap it in a bow for you, you want to keep dark money out of politics. Everybody knows. Everybody knows ActBlue's corrupt. We need to look at it. And I challenged Abdul. Listen, man, if you want to get money out of politics, return all the ActBlue money because it's elder abuse. You're stealing ActBlue. It's almost obvious. I'm just gonna say it. You're stealing old people's identity and you're running money from unknown sources through their names. And it's got to stop. Again, one more time. Abdul out raised Haley. I'm rounding off $15 million for their, you know, their general fund, their campaign fund. She raised 11. So forget special interest in the super PACs. He outraised her. What's the source of the money? Let's go. Come clean,

[A]

explain, because I've done chalkboards on ActBlue years ago and said, we've got to look into that. This is dirty. This whole system is just so corrupt. Explain for anybody who doesn't know what ActBlue is, what it is, and why you can say with such authority it's corrupt.

[B]

It's a clearinghouse. You want to donate to blue causes, you can go on to Act Blue. It allows you to make a. Nobody can make a donation in your name. And you can't just give Money and allow ActBlue to donate to a specific individual in your name. You have to do it. You. You tell ActBlue to exercise the trade, to speak Eggblue allows you to re up every month. You can schedule a contribution to somebody every month. When it gets closer to elections, you can do it every week. So when. When this lady, let's say she gives $5 to Abdul El Said, why is it the next day she's given five more times, and then two days later, three more times, and then four days later, she's from another address, the apartment she lived in for a while when her house burned down. So I asked her, show me how you make a donation on your phone. She can, you know, it's lovely.

[C]

It's.

[B]

She's 88 years old and she's doing this with the phone like it's a transistor radio. Like the batteries are bad. Oh, this thing. This thing. And she couldn't exercise a trade. So there. It's impossible for her to have sat there. What is. I forgot the number, Glenn. But three to eight times a day, every single day, every day of the year for five straight years. It's impossible. So who's triggering these trades? You have her name. And I said to her, I said, Ms. Waffle, do you ever remember making a 50 cent donation? And she goes, what? That's silly. And I said, well, here's the printout. You made a 50 cent donation. It's impossible to do. So again, Act Blue money comes in, supposed to be you. They exercise the donation for you. But it's starting to look like they've got your name and mega dollars are coming in. And you have no idea that this donation is being made in your name, which is tantamount to identity theft. And it's usually very elderly people.

[A]

How common is this story in Michigan?

[B]

I did one six months ago. It was a, you know, liberal woman, older Black woman, retired, 77. She made $83,000 in donations. And I said, did you make $83,000 of donations, ma'? Am? And Ms. Ms. Appling, she says what $2 and 50 cents, maybe $83,000. I don't know about that shit. It was like just, just mind boggling. And now that we're in the General, I am going to knock on 120 doors.

[A]

Good.

[B]

$16 million. $16 million these people donated.

[A]

So when you look at the results yesterday, I mean it is really close. What does that tell you?

[B]

The national media is silly. You know, you're reading more into it. That's there. Oh my God, the socialists are taking over. Did that look like a groundswell to you? A 1% difference? That's, that's no groundswell. So if you're really looking in the, the General, where are the independents? And as you know. Come on Glenn, you talk about it all the time. There aren't really independence. You, you lean one way or so. Where are like somebody that wants to shift over from, from maga. They're not shifting over. El Said got the far left. The votes are likely to come from Stevenson's Stevens group. So if there's 10,000, 15,000 people to be peeled off, I think it's coming from the democratic side. So it's just not, it's not as wild as people want to make it out to be.

[A]

Can you give me any indication at all? Because the Arab and black communities have been at odds for a while. I don't even know what the beef is. But they're not necessarily cut from the same cloth. They don't march to the same tune. And it appears as though it is some of the black community that has actually swayed some of these elections away from the socialists and away from the Islamists. Do you see that in Michigan?

[B]

Yeah. Like first of all the social democratic socialism you're talking about, that's a top down thing. It's, it's white educated people who have archaeology degrees. It didn't pan out for them. They're looking at it like their birthright. They won't say it but they've been jumped over. Must. It's not them. It must be something in the system. That's where Cyan steps coming. If you go like working class up, he doesn't do so well, does he? And you're absolutely right. This is Detroit, baby. This is Michigan. So in these CNN panels they talk about a black brown coalition. That's just the people that went to the Ivy League. There's no black brown coalition out here. Blacks don't like Arabs, Arabs don't like blacks. Say what you about white people. You know, it's Every. There's no black and brown prison gang, you know what I'm saying? So every group's got its lived history and. No, I mean, they're not going for a fancy pants. Let me put this one to you. Syed's only had two jobs, except, you know, taking away. I go to university, get big checks, to talk. He's had two jobs. One was the Detroit health director and once was the Wayne County Health director, of which Detroit is the biggest city. He failed miserably. You know, black people here know him. They don't trust him. And, yeah, he got wiped out by him. He absolutely got wiped out. So I don't know if he. Go ahead.

[A]

You say he's a paper doctor.

[B]

He is a paper dog.

[A]

He doesn't treat patients. He's not.

[B]

Never has. He never took. He never took his board exams. He's never had a practice, didn't have a residency. So, you know, it's an. He's an egghead doctor. And he said, I went into it. He figured it was better for him to get into the bureaucracy and fix it from there than to actually serve people. So when he was in Detroit, infant mortality went through the roof.

[C]

The

[B]

life expectancy in. In Detroit, Wayne county has collapsed. It's fallen since COVID by two whole years. So tell me where this success is.

[A]

He was in charge of 60%. 60% of the vote went for Haley in Wayne County.

[B]

Yeah, that's Wayne County. Now, again, Wayne county is about 1.7 million people. Detroit's about 650,000. So, yeah, you know, he got hammered in Detroit for sure. Are they going to show up for the general? I don't know.

[A]

It's great to talk to you, Charlie. Just keep up the good work, man. Keep it up. Keep it up.

[B]

I don't want to go yet.

[A]

I've got other things to do I got to do. And I don't get a smoke. Go smoke.

[B]

Where are you right now?

[A]

Thanks, man. Pardon me.

[B]

Where are you right now?

[A]

Where am I? Yeah, I'm in the Mountain West. I'm in. I'm at my ranch up in. In Idaho.

[B]

Idaho.

[A]

Where we just shoot people at hamburger places. What?

[B]

You said I'm a hoe.

[A]

All right, I'm leaving. Go smoke. Check what tobacco is in your cigarette. We'll talk to you again. Thanks, Charlie. I appreciate it. You're listening to the Best of the Glenn Beck Podcast.

[C]

Hear more of this interview and others

[A]

with the full show Podcast available wherever you get podcasts. Feels like our country has momentum again with our Leaders fighting to restore common sense and America first. But we've seen this before. Conservatives get comfortable and then the left starts taking ground back inch by inch. We cannot let this happen in the midterms. America needs every one of us in the fight. Big part of that means supporting companies that actually stand for your values. And that's why I'm proud to partner with Patriot Mobile. Patriot Mobile gives you premium priority nationwide service on any of the three major US Networks so you get the coverage you need. Need. Plus unlimited data plans, mobile hotspots, international roaming and 100% US based customer support. Switching is easy. Keep your phone, keep your number and activate in minutes. Patriot Mobile is so much more than a great wireless service. They've built a growing movement of Americans defending faith and family and freedom and the future of this country by donating millions every year to organizations fighting for our freedoms. Go to patriotmobile.com beck or call 972 Patriot. Use the promo code Beck free month of service. It's patriotmobile.com back or call 972 Patriot. Make the switch today. 972 Patreon. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. So late Sunday into Monday, somebody, we don't know who yet, has reached into the machinery running more than 30 community water systems in Minnesota and then started moving things. Not the water, the machinery, the pumps, the valves, the pressure. By Thursday, the FBI and EPA warned that utilities in at least seven states had reported the incident and that some of the activity degraded water operations. Saturday, Michigan came forward with nine systems in more than one town. Operators walked away from the computers and ran to the plant by hand. Sometimes it takes, you know, 40 minutes to get to these plants. They ran just exactly the way their grandfathers did. Nobody died. Nobody was poisoned. And every official who has spoken says water is safe, you feel free to drink it. And I'm sure it is. I'm sure it is. Let me remind you we just found a bomb at a water at a reservoir. It was just under the water line. I don't remember how they found it. I think they were cleaning or something and they found this. And it was active but we've never heard anything else. No follow up on it. Somebody is targeting our water system now. Who did it? FBI hasn't named anybody yet. Investigators are looking hard at Iran, also at whether somebody wanted this to look like Iran. We don't know. President says he doesn't buy it. He blames Minnesota's leadership. Minnesota's governor calls it modern warfare, a live war and unattributed attack. Two politicians arguing, you know, the forensics. Before the forensics are even finished. Here's what is not in dispute, and this is why I'm doing the special today. There are things you must be aware of right now, because being aware of them after the fact is not going to help help anybody. So the special today is to prepare you for what is coming. And I don't know when, but I think sooner rather than later. And this is another one of those things. In November of 2023, a crew affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard. This is in 2023, took control of a booster station belonging to the water authority of. What is it? Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. 30 miles outside of Pittsburgh. They left a message on the screen. It said, you've been hacked down with Israel. And they hit 11American targets that way. Six water utilities, a pharmacy and an aquatic center. Also a brewery. That's where people start, especially around Pittsburgh. You hit a brewery, I don't care if you're Islamic or not, you've just pissed the people of Pittsburgh off. Don't mess with them. You hit a permanentes, you're dead anyway. So how did the Islamic Republic of Iran breach our drinking water? You're not gonna believe this. By figuring out the passcode was 1111. That is the factory default. Okay, nobody changed 1111. They never put a new code in. The device sat on the open Internet on its published default port. Findable by anybody on earth if you know what you're doing in about four seconds. And then they put in the code 1111 and they got in. My question was, why is this online at all? Okay, the box is a programmable logic controller. It's called a plc. It's the thing that turns the pump on, then watches the tank. And then when the number drops, it opens a valve, light switch, you know, with an opinion for almost a century. That switch had a wire and the wire ran to a panel, you know, that was locked up in this building. If something went wrong at 2 o' clock in the morning, phone rang. Guy had to get into a truck, drive across town. I'm just looking, I'm just looking at my engineer here because he knows exactly what this is like. Because we have a lot of our systems, we're not online like this. You have to go to the panel to make sure that it's. That we're safe. Something goes wrong, you got to get there. So when we connected it, we connected it not out of laziness, just from arithmetic, you know. There are roughly 50,000 community water systems in the country. 97% of them are small. Yours might be run by two licensed operators covering 40 square miles. And if the operator can check the tank on his phone instead of driving out in the dark, the town saves a salary that it doesn't have to have. Okay, multiply that by 50,000 towns. That's a lot of money. Okay, so we traded a locked door for a login, and then we never changed the password. Now, the part that gets waved away is that there's an assumption that Iran is the backward country with a big mouth. It's not a backward country. You know, they've got sandals and down with America slogans. No, no, no. Iran designed the Shahid 136. In 2022, they handed the design. It's a great missile. They handed the design over to Russia under a technology deal, and they reported about $105 billion coming in. Russians took it. And they didn't just assemble it. They rebuilt their entire supply chain. And that's why 90% of the production now happens on Russian soil. Moscow paid $200,000 for a drone in 2022 last year. A fraction of that. Thousands of them are out every month. Then it came back. Came back around. Western intelligence now reporting Russia is shipping upgraded versions back to Iran. Better navigation, better resistance to jamming. Everything Moscow has learned across tens of thousands of combat sorties. So Iran didn't just build a weapon. Iran ceded an industry. And the industry sent home the improvements. Now, there is a. There's a small first person view quadcopter, and there's a video going around that you should see. And it's built from commercial parts that you can just order online. A lot of them are Chinese, not Iranian hardware. But that is the point. The thing that we're now sending out into the sky, especially Iran and Russia and China, cost them what a decent set of golf clubs cost. It's cheap, it's patient, and it's expendable, which beats expensive, sophisticated, and irreplaceable. Tehran understood this before we ever admitted it. These are little quadcopters that will hunt a man. And they are relentless. You've seen them being used over in. In Ukraine. I want to be really precise on this because precision matters a great deal here. We are not talking about the Iranians. 90 million people live there, and a great many of them despise the people who rule over them. And they go out in the streets and it has cost them their lives. It's the regime ISIS wanted to Caliphate immediately It burned bright and it burned out. The Islamic Republic has had 47 years. They have a Treasury, a foreign minister, they have a drone industry. They have universities. They have networks of proxies and sympathizers all across the weight of the West. And they are patient and they are quiet. The patience is the danger, not the shouting you're going to hear. Their leadership believes chaos hastens the return of the 12th Imam. Okay, some reject that outright, but the hardliners, no, they don't reject that. You know, when the government treats the collapse of the existing regime as a feature, it doesn't weigh the risks the way we do. Okay, so how does a confident city fall? How do they fall? This story is amazing. 539 Before Christ, Babylon. Right in that area, Babylon was the greatest walled city on earth. In fact, the walls were so thick that the ancient writers said that chariots could turn around on the top of the walls. Okay? Cyrus the Persian looked at them and understood he could sit, you know, outside until his beard turned white. He's not going to get into that city. So he stopped looking at the walls and he decided to go upstream where the Euphrates ran into the city because, you know, that was the source of life. That's what they drank. Okay? So he dug channels and he turned the river into a marsh. And the water inside Babylon dropped to about the height of a man's thigh. The soldiers walked in, up the riverbed, under the wall, through the waterworks. Herodotus says that the city was so large that the people in the center were at a festival, dancing. And they didn't even for some time, that the city had already fallen, that the walls didn't help them. If you read Daniel in the Bible, the fingers, the writing on the plaster, you know, weighed in the balance and you were found wanting. That's where we get the phrase, the writing is on the wall. Okay? It came the same night the river went dry. The wall was never the way in. The utility was the way in. The boring thing nobody guards, nobody thinks to change the passcodes because it's not glamorous. It always works. Who's going to target this? 2,500 years later, we're still building walls and we're leaving the river unattended.

[B]

Now.

[A]

Now, the war games. Let me tell you about the war games we have done. This is terrifying. In July of 2002, the Pentagon runs the largest war game in American history. Two years of planning. 13,000 troops, a quarter of a billion dollars. The scenario was confrontation in the Persian Gulf. They hand the enemy team to a retired Marine three star named Paul VanRiper. VanRiper looks at the surveillance advantage of the United States and decides, I'm not going to fight it. He puts his orders on motorcycle couriers. He signals aircraft with lights like it's 1943. He passes coded messages through loudspeakers on the minarets inside for the call of prayer. And our listening apparatus doesn't hear anything because there's nothing to hear. Then he doesn't wait. He fires everything at once. A salvo of cruise missiles that swamps the radars of the fleet. Behind the missiles come swarms of small boats. 16. And this is in 2002. Our warships. 16 of our warships in this game sank, including a carrier. Had it been real, 20,000American sailors would have died before lunch. Do you know what we did with that as we were losing? We stopped the exercise. We refloated the ships. We restricted what the enemy team was allowed to do and we ran it again until we won. VanRiper protested. He walked out. We ran the war game. We lost. Then we changed the rules instead of what we knew they could do. You know the other version? Before 2001, our own government rehearsed airliners as weapons, tabletop exercises, a drill at the Pentagon. We set aside the idea it was too far fetched to take planes and fly them into buildings. That wasn't a failure of imagination somebody imagined was a failure of belief that people would do things. I'm telling you, Iran is a desperate nation who believes. Which brings us why Washington has not fixed the water. March 2023, EPA tried it. Told states to check their water system cybersecurity during the sanitary surveys they already conduct. You know, like the one that we found the bomb. Three attorneys sued Missouri, Iowa and Arkansas. They sued. They joined by the. We were joined by the American Waterworks association and the National Rural Water Association. In July, the 8th Circuit stayed the rule. That October, EPA withdrew it. Now, their argument wasn't stupid. It was that Congress never gave the EPA authority under the safe, Safe Drinking Water Act. So state drinking water offices have no cybersecurity expertise. Survey findings carry public notification requirements, which means publishing a list of which small towns are vulnerable. And the cost lands on the rural utilities. They're already broke, so they couldn't do it. And the federal government said, you got to do it. Well, we have to figure this one out. They were right about the rule. A checklist administered by people who don't understand, you know, what is happening in the local community. We have somebody. They found the hole. Something has to fill the hole. But nothing did. 2024. In November, EPA's own inspector general scanned about 1,000 drinking water systems serving over 190 million Americans. 97 of them serving 26 million people, had critical or high risk vulnerabilities. Another 211 serving 82 million people, had opened portals visible from the outside. 11111. And when they went to report it, they found the EPA has no cybersecurity incident reporting system of its own. So partly no authority, partly no expertise, and partly because there's no such thing, you know, as the water system. There are 50,000 of them, and they belong to your town. So let me wrap this up. What does all this mean? It means their power is not in Washington. You need to find out who runs the water. Your city council, water district, board, rural association, private utility with a public regulator. That body meets in public on a schedule and meets most likely in a room that's usually empty. You have to go. You have to go and you have to ask a few questions. I'm going to give you those questions right after the break. Stand by. I'll give you more. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. High prices are here to stay. Gas, groceries, insurance. And if you're a homeowner, you've probably thought, should I call American Financing to refinance and pay off this credit card debt? And then you second guess yourself because of your current low mortgage rate. Listen, that low rate, it's not saving you if you're drowning in credit card interest at 25% or more. That's the math nobody wants to face. But it's costing you thousands. And here's the truth. If you're only making minimum payments, that debt will follow you for years. That's why people are calling him American Financing, because they're saving customers an average of $800 a month by using their equity to finally break free from credit card debt. You owe it to your family to see what's possible. No upfront fees, no pressure, and it costs you nothing to find out if you could save something big every month. And if you start today, you may be able to delay up to two mortgage payments. So call American Financing, 800-906-2440, that's 800-906-24440 or visit american financing.net nmls182334nmlsconsumeraccess.org APR for reaching the five starts at six point. For well qualified borrowers, call 800 906-2440. For details about credit costs and terms, visit american financing.net average savings based on borrowers who save over $200. This is the best of the Glenn Beck program. And don't forget, rate us on itunes. Hello, America. You know, we've been fighting every single day. We push back against the lies, the censorship, the nonsense of the mainstream media that they're trying to feed you. We work tirelessly to bring you the unfiltered truth because you deserve it. But to keep this fight going, we need you right now. Would you take a moment and rate and review the Glenn Beck podcast? Give us five stars and leave a comment. Because every single review helps us break through Big Tech's algorithm to reach more Americans who need to hear the truth. This isn't a podcast. This is a movement. And you're part of it, a big part of it. So if you believe in what we're doing, you want more people to wake up, help us push this podcast to the top. Rate, review, share. Together, we'll make a difference. And thanks for standing with us. Now, let's get to work. Delano, welcome, my man. How are you?

[C]

Good to see you, Glenn. Good to hear from you.

[A]

It's good to have you. I'm glad you're in our studios in Dallas. I'm sorry I wasn't there to greet you myself, but it's good to have you on the program. Tell me what your thoughts are on what happened with El Said.

[C]

Yeah, this is an interesting race. I mean, obviously a lot of progressive Democrats have been making headway in the party, and obviously the party is scrambling to figure out what to do with them. You know, as somebody who grew up in New York, I saw this first with Mamdani. I think he's a different type of politician. So it is interesting to see others trying to sort of follow in his footsteps. I'm thinking of Denise Lewis George in Washington, D.C. and it seems like El Said is a similar character, even though from what I've read, he doesn't identify as a democratic socialist and actually calls himself a capitalist, but he takes positions that are obviously to the far left. So this seems to be the left is going through something similar to what the right went through in the Tea Party era, where you have that faction that wants to pull the party in its, you know, in a more extreme direction, if you want. If you want to look at it like that. And it'll be interesting to see where the party ultimately settles out. But clearly a lot of people were surprised by Last night.

[A]

I don't want to, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but it amazes me. You remember when the Tea Party, who were, they were just asking for lower taxes and follow the Constitution and they were made into crazies and that they hate America, they want to destroy the nation and all of these things and they just went on and on and on about how the main party just has to get a control of all these crazies. Here you have a party that actually states, I hate America. I want to dismantle our form of government. And the press is just like, yeah, well, they just have a different opinion and well, let's see who wins. I mean, it's incredible.

[C]

Yeah. But I think that the left is having, is going to have to deal with this regardless because even the people who they would say are more mainstream are still far to the left of the average median Democrat in, let's call it 1990. These are not Bill Clinton's Democrats, that's for sure.

[B]

No, no.

[A]

So is this good news for, I mean, especially I look at Detroit, anybody who is working, you know, on cars, anybody who is a blue collar worker, I just don't see them identifying with El Said. I mean, I don't see him identifying with anybody, but I could see them and if, do you have any. And I don't know where I'm pulling this from. So I could be horribly wrong on this, Delano. But I seem to remember that there is, there's no love lost between the Arabs and the blacks. And I'm, I'm speaking, you know, big picture here. Is that a misunderstanding that I have?

[C]

Well, that's an interesting question. I think the issue of obviously in the Middle east and Gaza, those are big issues. My sense is for more progressive, especially younger black voters. I don't know if it's as big an issue for older black voters. The interesting thing is that Stevens won Wayne county, which has the largest black population by about five points. So it'll be interesting to see the exit polls to see where black voters ended up with El said. But my sense is that a lot of voters across race, across ethnicity are concerned about the material issues. And even conservatives, I'm looking online, conservatives are saying, look, the Republican Party has to do something about affordability. And obviously Democrats are taking that message. And I think their solutions and their proposals are ultimately going to be worse, like city run grocery stores. But it seems like those kitchen table issues are the types of things that people are responding to. So both the left and the right have to figure out, okay, what is our affordability agenda, both for young people who are feeling the squeeze, obviously at a different stage of life, and for middle aged and older Americans.

[A]

You know, it's amazing to me because I've said to the president that, you know, he should be going for. We're going to cut all of the federal regulations, you know, except for the things that, you know, get people killed. Cut as many of those federal regulations for housing. Build, build, build, cut everything. You have to cut within reason to get all of this regulation out. I mean, the regulations for building homes and everything has, I think it has quadrupled in the last 10 years. It's insane. Cut them, cut them, let people build again. That should be our answer is build, build, build, build, build. And I don't know why the Republicans are not. They just seem really lost on, as you said, the kitchen table stuff. What about my food? What about my gasoline? What about my house? What about my job? They've got to get that message right. Cause the socialists, they have the right diagnosis, they have the wrong prescription.

[C]

Yes. And I actually think the point that you raise is a very interesting one because it touches on something of human nature. I worked 15 years in local government in Washington, D.C. and just from my experience and observation, if you come to someone and you say, okay, I know you've identified a problem in your life, there's an issue of affordability. And if one of the responses is, I'm going to cut government in such a way that it will eventually redound to your benefit, and then the other person says, well, I'm going to give you something so that you can afford the things that you want. My sense is that a good number of people are going to take the second option because getting something in hand, just a handout. Correct. And that's how conservatives would frame it as a handout. But for instance, let's go to get back to housing, if you live in the city and the city says, okay, we're going to set aside $10 million for first time homebuyer programs or affordable home buyer programs where if you go through this training, you will get cash in hand. I don't know, let's, let's call it $10,000 or $15,000 to go towards your closing payment. That to me is going to strike people as a much more attractive option than a different politician saying, I'm going to cut regulations that will, you know, down the road, bring down the cost of housing for you.

[A]

So here's the problem. Delano that I think that Trump is having right now. He is. And you may disagree with this, but as I see it, he is redesigning the entire world. He is. He's basically fixing the plumbing and rewiring the entire house. None of it's sexy. And if you own the house, it's the last thing you want to do is have a contractor come in when you just want to fix your house up, make it nicer. And he says, we really should start with the electrical system. It's a fire hazard, and the plumbing is all shot. You don't want to do that. Okay, but you have to do that if you're going to have a house. And so he's spending all of his time on that stuff because he saw, I can change this quickly and give stuff away, or tweak this here and tweak this here. But then after four years, it can all be done. I've got to put the deep work in on the infrastructure to give us ready for the next century. There's gotta be some combination of that. And that's my frustration. A nobody understands that. And even if you do understand that, it doesn't help you while you're paying your bills. So there's gotta be some way to do a combination. And, hey, look, we're doing this long term, but in the short term, we're gonna cut all the regula. Or long term, we're gonna cut all the regulation. So you can build, but you need something to help you now. So here's a $10,000 benefit or something like that. I think if you can explain it that way, you could get the best of both worlds, right?

[C]

And I think that's a perfect analogy. And to your point, as a homeowner, there's certain things that if they go wrong in your house, the infrastructure issues, yes, they're not sexy, but they certainly are expensive. But if you're a child in one of the bedrooms, and, I don't know, your bed is lumpy or there's mold in your room, then your thing is, I'm not actually as interested in whether the water heater is on its last legs. I want to address those things that affect me on an everyday basis first. And I think finding that balance is the right thing. So I can give you one tangible example. Even something like the Trump accounts, right, where particularly parents with young children can say, I'm going to open this account now, even that you will get an immediate thousand dollars into the account. But in order for it to feel the full benefit, you have to rely on the benefit. Correct. Of the free market and compound interest. So. So it's a challenge because I think voters across the board are often looking for the things that impact them in here and now.

[A]

Yeah, it is. Honestly, it is the biggest problem that we face. We are a fast food society and we have fine dining problems. I'm sorry, it's going to take a 10 course meal to fix this thing. You cannot get it at the window as you're driving through. But we don't want the 10 course meal. We'd love it if we, you know, we sat down and we ate the 10 course meal. But we don't have. We have no understanding of it, we have no desire for it. We just need it right now. And I don't know how you fix a nation like this if you can't get people to say, yeah, we have problems and I'll bite the bullet if you'll give me a little help. Give me a little help, I'll bite the bullet, but this has got to work, you know what I mean? And show me the progress. All right, I'm going to take a quick break because I want to. And if you don't mind, if you have time, I'd like to hold you over the bottom of the hour and give you a little more time on this book because I think what you're doing is really, really important. The name of the book is the Vanishing Black Family. And this been a theory of mine for a long time that how do you go from people who said no to the Civil Rights act to four years later being the ones who designed the Great Society that's so good for blacks? That doesn't make any sense to me at all. I have nothing to back this up. Someday I keep threatening, I'm going to do, you know, the work on this. But I think the guys who wrote that, I think they knew exactly what they were doing because look at the result that Great Society destroyed the black family. And Delano will back this up. The name of the book is A Vanishing Black Family, but I think the subtitle says it all. How Welfare and Feminism Made Marriage Optional and Children Vulnerable. Delano, you just heard me say something that I've believed intuitively for a long time, and I don't have any evidence that it's true. But did you find anything that shows that the great welfare system or the Great Society actually did the opposite? And did you find anything that says there were some in the progressive movement that were racist, were cheering for that?

[C]

So I will say it's clear after 60 years that the expansion of welfare, particularly for low income families, oftentimes targeted at black families starting in the 1960s, did a tremendous amount of damage to the structure of the black family. And what I say in the book, and this is in chapter two, I say that welfare displaced men from their rightful positions as providers in their home. Now, I'll say this, Glenn, and I say this as somebody who worked 15 years in local government, I found that the besetting sin of elected officials and unelected bureaucrats, for that matter, is more often hubris than it is malice. And I would say the same thing about Lyndon Johnson, Great Society, War on Poverty. It's the idea that I, as the president, as the commander in chief, as the leader of the free world, I can fix the problems of millions of people who I've never seen and never met and I do not know by the stroke of a pen, by increasing funding. And it's the idea that, okay, if we just give people more material resources, their families will be stronger. Not understanding the worldview that when you do something like that, and particularly when you say that married couples are not eligible for welfare benefits, you create incentives for women, particularly low income women, to have children without the benefit of a husband.

[A]

So that's, I mean, if it's, if, if I'm not mistaken, there were, and I'm not assigning, you know, any malice to it, but there were those that would go to doors and say, look, I know you're struggling, we can't help you, but if you would just divorce, then you can afford it, you can keep your relationship, but you got a divorce. So they were actually pushing those things.

[C]

Yeah. And you can see that from the 1960s and even to today. I recently did an event around Father's Day called Invisible Men at, at the Heritage Foundation. And what I found is that even today, guaranteed income programs for moms oftentimes write dads completely out of the family story. And I trace that type of programmatic design directly to the welfare system that really came into place in the 1960s. It's the idea that the mom is the beating heart. She's the brain, she's the, you know, the nervous system. She's everything. When it comes to the family. The dad is the appendix. Nice if you had one, have one, but not particularly necessary and unbelievable. And I think they ran that play first in the black community and certainly has expanded to everyone else since that time.

[A]

So you can. I mean, this is feminism. That really sounds like it was pushing that. But you Know when you're going in and you're dismantling families like that, I'm sorry, you. Why has there been nobody inside that has gone, hey, guys, this is not working? You know, when you, when you look at how our tax system is structured, you structure taxes to shape behavior. You know, you say, hey, you're going to have to pay a cigarette tax. You're trying to get people to stop smoking. You shape behavior with that. This whole thing seems to have been designed to destroy the family unit. So at some point you have to say, wait, is there an agenda? Why would they not dismantle? Or is it just, I don't want to lose my job, why would I try to convince people to cut my job?

[C]

Well, I certainly think that there are incentives. And I write this in the book, I talk about the iron triangle between low income moms, elected officials, and unelected bureaucrats. So the low income moms get access to resources from the government. So direct cash, support, housing, health care, you know, wic, food. The elected official gets votes and job security. Right. They love and power. And then the unelected bureaucrat also gets job security because they are the people who actually manage the poverty economy.

[A]

Correct? Correct.

[C]

Correct. Now, who was left on the outside? I named three parties. I named women politicians and bureaucrats. The party left on the outside is the man who in previous generations would have been the husband. And now, as I said, is written completely out of the story. Now you brought up feminism. And what I say is that there was an interaction between these two cultural shocks in the mid-1960s. So again, welfare displaced men from their rightful home, from their rightful role as providers in the home. And second wave feminism deceived women into believing that femininity is weak, masculinity is toxic in men, but empowering in women, that marriage is oppressive, the home is a prison, and children are a burden. And from that lesson, you get all types of things that again, disrupt the dynamics between men and women, which makes ultimately marriage obsolete. And at the end of the day, children vulnerable.

[A]

And it is amazing that that is exactly the message they're now shoving on everyone with that track record of what it did to the black family unit now pushing that. And look what it did to the black society. Horrible, horrible results. And now we're pushing that here on the white community and everybody else. It's going to have the same results. Delano Squires and his book, the Vanishing Black Family.