Now that most of the leaders of the Bundy Klan who were occupying the wildlife refuge in Oregon are in jail, more sober analyses of the crackpot adventure can be made. And while it’s clear that the inspiration for these perverse patriots was firmly rooted in sovereign citizen lunacy, signs of another source of inspiration are now revealing themselves.

Buried deep in an article in the Washington Post was a quote from a Bundy supporter whose devoted loyalty perfectly encapsulates the thinking that drives their movement. She said…

“I live my life by God and creed, and the federal government has taken that away from us. If you want to know what’s going on, talk to [conservative talk show host] Glenn Beck.”

Glenn Beck is literally the last person you want to talk to if you want to know what’s going on. His fantastical delusions are in no way connected to reality. Among his paranoid notions is his announcement yesterday that he’s plotting an escape route to Jerusalem “where they won’t shut this down and we can be able to broadcast into the United States.”

Beck’s worries, though, may not all be in his head. Lloyd Grove at the Daily Beast has discovered that all is not well in Beckland. Several of his senior executives are bailing on him amid dissension in the ranks. Grove leads off by revealing that Kraig Kitchin, the CEO of Beck’s web site TheBlaze, has quit. He had only been on the job about six months and was the third CEO to leave in the past year. Following him out the door are the website’s director of sales, director of marketing, and two senior producers. Grove also cites sources who “predicted a ‘mass exodus’ from the New York studios,” and attributed the departures to “frustration after continual friction with top Beck executive Jonathan Schreiber,” the president of Beck’s production company, Mercury Radio Arts.

An interesting side note here is that Schreiber was previously a techy entrepreneur from Israel. Now that he is being blamed for other executive departures, he is replacing them with his own hand-picked lieutenants. And I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Beck is suddenly drawing up plans to flee to Jerusalem to avoid getting crushed in the fall of America.

Also playing a part in this melodrama is the fact that Beck’s empire is suffering a collapse of its own. His website traffic for TheBlaze has reportedly dropped from 29 million unique visitors per month to about 16.4 million. And his eponymous web page has also shrunk from around 4.4 million unique visitors per month to only 1.4 million.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

No wonder Beck wants to get out of town. He’ll probably stick around through the 2016 election since he’s gone to the trouble of endorsing Evanga-publican Ted Cruz. The prospects for a Cruz victory, however, are remote. So Beck will surely use that as further evidence that God has cursed America. Then he’ll hasten his migration to the Holy Land where they have universal health care and they lost the War on Christmas (it is not a state holiday). Plus he’ll be surrounded by the Muslims he loves so much. I’m sure he’ll be very happy. Those of us left behind will be all too happy to see him go.