The Progressive End Game: Top Down, Bottom Up, Inside Out

Top down, bottom up, inside out. It's a strategy that's been going for a hundred years that progressives have used to accomplish their agenda. The elites like Mike Bloomberg and George Soros believe they know best and they are doing whatever they can to take advantage of crisises in America and across the globe to push their plans. Just in the past few weeks, this strategy has been applied to global economy, war, and gun control. On tonight's Glenn Beck Program, Glenn went through each and explained what the ultimate outcome of the progressive end game could be.

Below, Glenn addresses the situation in Cyprus and how it impacts the global economy:

Let’s start with Cyprus and money. Cyprus, a small little island that nobody really cares about, and a last-minute deal was reached that will “spare the East Mediterranean Island a financial meltdown.” Oh, well that’s really good news, right? Well, not really, and not really good for you.

The Bank of Cyprus is going to be shut down and then turned over to the Greek banks – but aren’t they in trouble? But here’s what they did. Deposits over €100,000 will be frozen. Now, €100,000, that’s about $130,000. They’re going to be frozen and then used to resolve government debts and restructure. The government plans to take an estimated 30%, maybe up to 40%, of all of the assets from the frozen accounts.

Now imagine, first of all, a week ago it was going to be between 6 and 10%, but what they’ve decided is to freeze people’s account, anybody who has $130,000 in their bank account, freeze them and then pay off all the government debt. Can you imagine that happening here? The media is reporting this massive, multi-billion-dollar theft as a deal that saved the day. But did it save the day, and what does it really mean? What does it accomplish?

Well, if you’re a Marxist radical, it accomplishes an awful lot. First of all, it redistributes the wealth, redistribution of wealth, but that redistribution of wealth will cause civil unrest because of a couple of things. First of all, anybody who saved for an entire lifetime for a retirement, if you played by the rules, you know, you’re screwed, you’re screwed. They’re going to take your money.

But more importantly, and something I don’t hear anybody in the media talk about, small companies, any small companies with payrolls to meet. For instance, we’re a small company. I have all of my money in the bank. Well, if somebody took 30 to 40%, and first of all, froze my bank accounts, I’m not going to be able to pay my employees because everything is in the bank. And then, if they decided to take 30 to 40%, I can’t meet payroll, which means unemployment goes up and so does strife, so does hunger, so does anger. Wait a minute, that’s almost like civil unrest. So what they did causes the top coming down. Taking this causes the bottom to rise up.

More people take to the streets, the goal of the radical left, and the Progressives have successfully confiscated private funding for the greater good – first time, no private property. That’s very unconstitutional, but it’s Cyprus, so why pay attention? Unless, it’s not like anybody here has been saying about this kind of stuff.

VIDEO

President Obama: That’s why I have proposed taxing the record multibillion dollar profits of oil companies.

Hillary Clinton: I want to take those profits, and I want to put them into a strategic energy fund that will begin to fund alternative smart energy…

I want to take those profits. Got it. So there’s no private property because they know better. They’re the ones that made the mistake, the people – I don’t know about Cyprus, but here, we’ve been saying stop the spending, and I’m telling you, they will do what they’ve just done. This is a test. Cyprus is a test, and really it’s all about control. I mean, it empowers. Who do you think it empowers? Do you think George Soros, Bloomberg, Al Gore, Warren Buffet, Bill Clinton, and all those people, do you think they’re going to be impacted by this sort of confiscation at all, or do you think they’ll be emboldened by it?

Do you remember when I said spit yourself out of the system because you know what, if you’re not designing the system, you’re going to be a slave to it? Do you remember that? Do you think the people who sat at the table trying to work this deal out, to approve confiscation of 40% of everybody’s asset that has anything in their life savings in a bank, do you think they approve that if they went, Oh, gee that’s going to hit me 40%? Do you think they were affected by it at all?

This kicks the snot out of everybody who comes up behind because the Soroses and the Bloombergs of the world, they don’t care. They got theirs, and they’re designing the new system. And what happens, this kicks the snot out of everybody who’s semi-rich behind them, anybody who has $130,000 in the bank. This creates greater instability in the region. It causes runs on the bank. You watch, it will happen, but also instability politically speaking for a couple of reasons.

Inside out, there’s no private property. You can’t trust the rules anymore. Inside out, a new power class. They’ve just destroyed everybody who was coming up, so anybody who made the rules, those are the people that now have the money for power. But you’ve also made new enemies, the people in Germany. The Cypriots now are saying, Germans, those evil Germans. It’s not the Germans. It’s not the Germans. Who’s making the decisions? Watch the other hand. But also Russia – up to 40% of the Cypriot bank deposits are estimated 40% to belong to Russian businesses and individuals’ worth about $32 billion. Okay, that’s not a good idea.

Dmitry Medvedev, he called the actions of Cyprus “the stealing of the stolen.” Don’t steal from the mob. Do the people in Cyprus not watch the news? Have they not seen what happens to the enemies of Russia and those people who they don’t like or steal their money? Journalists mysteriously fall out of buildings nine stories up. Dissidents are mysteriously poisoned to death. Political enemies, like this guy just this weekend, ended up mysteriously dead in the bathtub. Hmm, I wonder what happened there.

Everything that happened in Cyprus is a major progressive victory. Okay, top down, no private property, redistribution of wealth, take the savings. Bottom up, it’s going to cause unemployment, civil unrest, and those who saved are screwed, and runs on the banks. Inside out, no more private property, new power class, and new enemies. Top down, bottom up, inside out, it’s happening with money, and this is just the beginning.

Next, he tackled the growing unrest in the Middle East:

Next, we go to war. This one’s strange. Something’s happening here, and I can’t really put my finger on it yet, but it’s not good, not good. Let me show you this. Do you remember this video? This video we ran when I was over at Fox. The IDF will routinely inspect flotillas heading to Gaza to ensure that there are no weapons on board, and the aid is truly humanitarian and everything else. Nearly all the time, these inspections happen without incident, but this flotilla was different, and we knew about this flotilla going in. We knew about it because we covered it almost live as it happened.

The IDF soldiers were ambushed and immediately attacked by activists and beaten with iron bars. Some soldiers were stabbed. I know these things because we have the video. There they are, beating them. We have the video. I’ve talked to members of the IDF. I’ve talked to leaders of Israel. It’s very clear what was going on. One of the soldiers was tossed overboard. An activist wrestled a gun away from an Israeli soldier and opened fire. The Israelis then shimmied down from helicopters and returned fire, and nine activists were eventually killed in the fight. This was clearly a case of self-defense. No one in the media covered it. We did.

I covered it for months, the only one that was covering it. But now, nearly three years later, something happened over the weekend. Israel formerly apologized for this. They’re paying compensation to activists and the families. I saw the video. What’s up with that? Israel doesn’t apologize for things when they know they’re in the right, so why now? What’s different? We are, the United States of America. We have virtually no power left. This apology indicates the disillusion of America’s long-standing with a strong alliance with Israel and I think a signal to the rest of the world. We don’t count anymore. Even Andrea Mitchell called Obama’s and Netanyahu’s relationship one of the worst she’s ever seen.

VIDEO

Andrea Mitchell: It’s gotten off on the wrong foot, and they’re trying to fix it, but it is one the worst relationships I can remember. And I’ve covered ever president going all the way back to Ronald Reagan.

Yeah, no he’s the best friend. Israel understands this. It understands that it can no longer count on America to watch her back, so they’re going to start playing their own game now, and right now they’re just trying to buy as much time as possible. I think they know that they’re appeasing Turkey’s anti-Israeli Prime Minister, a good friend of Barack Obama’s, and they know they’re not going to win him over, but I think they hope that they’re going to slow him down.

I’m not entirely comfortable with this explanation of what’s going on, but so far it’s the best theory that I’ve heard or read, and it seems to make sense. But something else is afoot. There is a clock that has been started on the war front. Something has started. One thing that stuck out with President Obama is that he is oddly beating the war drums on Iran, saying we’re going to do everything possible to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. He’s gone on and on about this.

VIDEO

President Obama: And I will repeat, all options are on the table. We will do what is necessary to prevent Iran from getting the world’s worst weapons.

Okay, he’s starting to sound more like me five or six years ago. I’ve been saying for years that Iran is the head of the snake. It’s not Iraq. It’s not Afghanistan. It’s Iran. And I’ve been warning that this is extraordinarily dangerous because they believe in creating world chaos. Why? Because it will hasten the return of the 12th Imam. Who’s the 12th Imam? The one that radial Islamists believe is the savior of all mankind. Others, who shall remain nameless at this point – me – think that he might be the literal Antichrist, and no, not this guy who, come on, let’s be serious, he looks just like Barack Obama. Come on, how do you deny it? How do you deny it? It’s like father and son here, just like the guy who last night played Herod. See this guy? Do you think it’s a coincidence that this guy looks just like Harvey Weinstein? I don’t think so.

Anyway, just a few months ago, the vice presidential debate, Joe Biden was laughing about Iran, dismissing the possibility of war. Do you remember?

VIDEO

Vice President Biden: This is a bunch of stuff. Look, here’s the deal –

Martha Raddatz,: What does that mean, a bunch of stuff?

Vice President Biden: Well, it means it’s simply inaccurate.

Rep. Ryan: It’s Irish.

Vice President Biden: It is. We Irish call it malarkey.

The only reason why I’m bringing this up is because they were so clear there was no war. There was nothing with Iran, and now I keep reading, and most of the people in the mainstream media I don’t think is noticing it. Most people who are watching the mainstream media are noticing, but there’s a change. What has changed? Why is Mr. Diplomacy now threatening war? Why is this so important all the time?

Even a few sources of ours have come up and said, oh, there’s war right on the horizon. Why? Why? Because this is now the last thing that we should be doing, because that will set the Arab world on fire. Is it that now’s the time, because if you set the Arab world on fire you could set the whole world on fire? So the Iran situation is escalating, and then on top of it, you have the latest from Syria. Why is no one really talking about this?

The opposition has a new prime minister in Syria, going to head up the effort to form a new government post-Assad. Who is he? Well, he’s a friend of ours. He’s a good friend of ours, this guy. He’s great. He was born in Damascus. Then he left Syria in 1980 and became a naturalized American citizen. In fact, he was neighbors with us. I didn’t know this at the time. I wish I would’ve known. He resided right here in Texas. He was the choice of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood. Isn’t that great?

Now, there was one objection, besides mine, to his appointment from the free Syrian army, and wouldn’t you know it, I mean, such bad luck. The day they announced that they were against the Muslim Brotherhood’s guy, there was a bad, nasty car crash. Well, it wasn’t a crash as much as it was POOF! And he gets himself blown up, so, it was just a coincidence and what timing, huh? I mean, cars mysteriously explode all time, especially, I don’t know I haven’t checked yet, but it might have been a Chevy Volt.

This is all about the Brotherhood. Hitto is the man now, and he’s been there for quite some time. If you look at his resume, boy he loves the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Society of North America, the North American Islamic Trust, the Muslim American Society. He was a representative for CAIR who definitely has nothing to do with terror or Muslim Brother – what?

Many of these groups have been identified as part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Now, he went to Turkey just at the end of last year, well last December, and then he goes to Syria just a few days ago. Isn’t that weird? So this guy was living right down the street from us. There’s the studio. Right there, the Texas, there’s TheBlaze studios. That little black dot, that’s the Muslim Brotherhood guy. We were neighbors. Why didn’t we have barbecue or go see a Cowboys game?

The next day, he’s over in Syria as the new prime minister of the opposition forces fighting to get a Muslim Brotherhood Egypt-style government implemented post-Assad. Whoa, that’s weird. It’s almost like this is further confirmation that everything in our documentary called The Project was true.

The Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the White House, this administration. It is alive and well inside of our borders, even the great state of Texas. And you know what else is weird, that America was running guns from Benghazi to the Syrian opposition. At the same time he went over to Turkey, our boats were landing in Turkey, and we knew full well that those guns were landing in the arms of radical Muslim Brotherhood fighters. It’s almost again like what reported and nobody else did about Benghazi attack being connected to gunrunning operations are true. Wouldn’t it be nice if somebody else would connect the dots from time to time?

Here’s something else nobody else bothers to report on or connected the dots on, America’s popularity in the Middle East. Guess what, we are so popular right now. Support for the United States of America in Egypt Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan is great. It’s a little lower than it was in 2008 in the closing year of George W. Bush, but hey, you know, we faced some headwinds. Our approval rating now – do we have it – our approval rating right now is 15%. Okay, like I said, a little lower, you know. It’s down about 20% in the last four years, down from 35% during the last year of Bush. It was so bad at 35%, this guy was going to save us, and now it’s at 15%. Wait a minute, that sounds a little like bottom up.

Now why is our approval rating so low in the Middle East? Because we have the savior, right? Here’s why, because at least during the Bush, Clinton, Reagan years, we did go to bed with dictators that we didn’t like. I mean, we were in bed with dictators and we’re like, Ooh, I just can’t get clean, but now we’re seducing them. Now we’re taking brutal Islamic thugs, and we’re dressing them up in something low cut and lacy. Say, is that a bomb in your pants Mr. Muslim Brotherhood, or are you just excited to see me? That’s what’s happening.

We’re propping up the Muslim Brotherhood, a band of radical Islamists who want to control every aspect of human life. Kind of sounds like the Progressives, doesn’t it? They are worse than the previous dictators, and we’re putting lipstick on these pigs and my apologies to pigs.

Look at the words of Mohammed Morsi this weekend about those people on the streets, bottom up, that are protesting him. He said this weekend, “If I am forced to do what is required to protect this nation, then I will do it. And I fear that I might be on the verge of doing it.” Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good. Sounds an awful lot like what Adolf Hitler said right after the Night of Long Knives. President Obama supported this guy was well. No wonder people hate us.

The top is coming down even more, and the bottom continues to rise. And we are sowing the seeds of discontent literally, arming the Syrian opposition and funding a civil war and wooing the opposition leaders in the wings. And who stands with Hassad – you’re going to love this. You’ll never guess. New Alliance, war with Iran, Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, we were gunrunning. Bottom up, discontent on the Arab streets, nobody likes us anymore. We have a new alliance. This is inside out. We’re powering the Muslim extremists, and we’re also making enemies of Russia. Wait a minute, oh that’s right, that’s right. They stand with the other side, don’t they? Wait a minute, those of the same guys that the Western banks pissed off. What could possibly go wrong here? Nothing, I’m sure. When we come back, the last piece of top down, bottom up, inside out. We go to guns.

Finally, Glenn detailed the escalating efforts of the progressive elites to disarm the American people through increased gun regulations:

Glenn Alright, last piece here I want to tell you about is guns. Look who’s leading the charge now to dismantle the Second Amendment. It’s this guy:

VIDEO

Mayor Bloomberg: I think I have a responsibility, and I think you and all of your viewers have responsibilities to try to make this country safer for our families and for each other, and if I can do that by spending some money and taking the NRA from being the only voice to being one of the voices so the public can really understand the issues, then I think my money would be well spent. And I think I have an obligation to do that.

David Gregory: So you’ll spend money on ads?

Mayor Bloomberg: We’re starting to run ads today or tomorrow.

Okay I can’t take it. Please pray for me as we get into writing this speech for the NRA convention in about a month from now. I’m going down, and I’m going to give the keynote address at probably the most important NRA convention of all time, and boy I’ve got a lot to say. I’m not sure I should say all of it, but here’s a guy who views himself as a one-man warrior versus the special interests of the NRA.

Okay, let’s go over this. The NRA is a group with about 5 million members. Mayor McFascist is one person with $30 billion. So you know, the $30 billion, more than George Soros and a butt load more than the Koch brothers. So which one, the 5 million or the one is about the special interests? Which one’s about the Constitution, one with 5 million supporters, one with giant bank accounts?

Now, to be fair to Mayor McFascist, he also has Hollywood on his side, and I mean, there’s really a group of people that are, I mean, who could be more in step with mainstream American values than a Canadian in Hollywood?

Jim Carrey is the latest boob to actually support gun control, and he released the parody song – oh look, and he’s mocking country-western music and Hee Haw. He released this on the website Funny or Die, and after watching the painful 5 minutes and 56 seconds of this atrocity, attempt at comedy, I think it’s clearly or die for this one.

He called the song “Cold Dead Hand,” and in it, he mocks Charlton Heston. He also goes on the say, “Cold Dead Hand is abt u heartless motherf%ckers unwilling 2 bend 4 the safety of our kids.” Yep, that’s me. I say screw the kids, Jim. “Sorry if you’re offended.” Jim, I’m not offended, but I’m not surprised that you’re blinded by the lights in your eyes. You don’t see the hypocrisy here? I mean, in your upcoming film Kick-Ass 2, there’s – oh that’s a gun in your hand – nor the fact that you allegedly have armed bodyguards to keep you safe.

You at home, no, you’re not important enough to have armed bodyguards. Of course, you could have them. You just have to pay for ‘em. What? What’s the problem? He’s paying for ‘em.

Dana Loesch tweeted about this, and after absolutely demolishing him, he said this over the weekend: “I’d like to respond to all the conservative pundits out there personally but I’m far too busy NOT stumping for the gun companies!” Yeah, what are you implying you dope, that we’re getting kickbacks from Beretta? I feel like I’m at the end of Scooby Doo and I would’ve gotten away for it, too, if it wasn’t for that pesky kid.

They make a product that we use. I mean, was Sally Struthers stumping for the food companies? Or did she see a bigger picture, no pun intended. Jim, look, let’s be honest with each other. I’m sorry that you’re not feeling well. It was a bad weekend for you. Bad weekend for me, I had to put my dog down. You had a pretty big box office bomb, and you know, Burt Wonderstone sounds good. I’m thinking that maybe we should send it to Syria. Then, they’ll have the biggest bomb in the Middle East.

Let me explain this to you nice and slow because I speak Canadian. I proudly give the money to the NRA that I give because the NRA is standing up for the Constitution when nobody else will, and they work for us. You see, this is the way that government is supposed to be, at least here in America. I don’t know what it’s like in Canada, but here in America, the government works for us. But see, Canadians, like you, come down here and try to convince us and people in, you know, universities, you know, and other morons, they try to convince people that you work for the government. But that’s not how it works.

Now, the gun lobby, there’s 5 million of us. They work for us. See, we’re not their puppets. They’re standing up to the people like you because we don’t have the money that Hollywood and Bloomberg and everybody else has. Now, I know that’s how you feel about President Obama, and I and millions of others, you know, don’t. I mean, I don’t believe that government knows better than me, and I do believe, as Mayor Bloomberg you know, doesn’t, that the government is infringing on the right of my freedom.

VIDEO

Mayor Bloomberg: I do not think we should ban most things. I do think there are certain times we should infringe on your freedom.

Oh, he does believe that we should infringe on rights. You see, I believe in the individual. He believes in himself. I believe in the individual, for liberty. I believe in individual freedom, to live my life, and you live your life. You want to make funny faces, that’s cool. It works for you. It did for a while. Then do it. Do everything you want as you see fit, as long as it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. That’s the way it works. If you or I make poor choices, then I believe we have to have maximum personal responsibility and live with the consequences of those choices.

I’m not a puppet. I’m not looking for a puppet. I’m a man, and I really just want to be left alone so I can be busy helping others and creating jobs, but thanks for the Canadian sidebar there, I appreciate it. The American Constitution gives us the right, and I will defend it. And I’ll look for all like-minded Americans that will stand against mister-take-your-soda-away because it’s bad for people.

You see, a peaceful government is not the norm in human history. It’s a fluke. It’s a freak. What keeps a government in check is a responsible citizenry which we don’t really have very much; an educated people. The teachers unions and the universities have pretty much taken care of that one; or a media that is responsible and tethers themselves to the truth. We haven’t had that one for quite some time, either; and people, willing to stand up to the power of the man, as long as the man is trying to violate principles.

Now, I thought that you would’ve been with us on that last one. I don’t know how you anti-fascist, anti-controlling government people suddenly have found yourself either in bed with or actually playing the role of the man, but really you should look at yourself in the mirror, I mean, without making all those funny faces that you do that were so funny about 15 years ago.

The rest of us are busy protecting the right to defend ourselves, especially when the government is going all top down, bottom up, and inside out, especially on the Second Amendment. And what’s really strange is they are infringing, and they are mocking top down. At the same time they’re doing that and flipping the Constitution, turning things inside out, they’re trying to take away our right to defend ourself, at the same time they’re threatening to cut back police and releasing prisoners in the name of sequester. So what would be the result? What would be the result of releasing prisoners and also all of the policies that they have from finances and all of the really pissed off Arabs in the world? What do you think’s going to happen? Chaos, fear, crime.

So people are rightly worried about the safety of their families as government is not enforcing the laws, and if you don’t believe me, watch this.

VIDEO

Wayne LaPierre: Look, we’re 5 million families, we’re 80,000 law enforcement families, we’re 11,000 law enforcement trainers. We want to make people safe. That’s what the NRA does every day.

That’s what it was really all about, and they are rightly upset, because the Constitution is being threatened by Progressives armed with an agenda, not the truth, and agenda. We have gun laws on the books, enforce them. If the Second Amendment is allowed to be infringed, what does it mean for the other amendments, the charter of negative liberties that so many Progressives say is outdated and no longer useful? What is the endgame, and can they win, next.

There is no doubt about it—we are entering dark times.

The November presidential election is only a few months away, and following the chaos of the 2020 election, the American people are bracing for what is likely to be another tumultuous election year. The left's anti-Trump rhetoric is reaching an all-time high with the most recent "Bloodbath" debacle proving how far the media will go to smear the former president. That's not to mention the Democrats' nearly four-year-long authoritarian attempt to jail President Trump or stop his re-election by any means necessary, even if it flies in the face of the Constitution.

Meanwhile, Biden is doing worse than ever. He reportedly threw a tantrum recently after being informed that his polls have reached an all-time low. After Special Counsel Robert Hur's report expressed concerns over Biden's obviously failing mental agility, it's getting harder for the Democrats to defend him. Yet he is still the Democratic nominee for November, promising another 4 years of catastrophic policies, from the border to heavy-handed taxation, should he be reelected.

The rest of the world isn't doing much better. The war in Ukraine has no clear end in sight, drawing NATO and Russia closer and closer to conflict. The war in Gaza is showing no sign of slowing down, and as Glenn revealed recently, its continuation may be a sign that the end times are near.

One thing is clear: we are living in uncertain times. If you and your family haven't prepared for the worst, now is the time. You can start by downloading "Glenn's Ultimate Guide to Getting Prepared." Be sure to print off a copy or two. If the recent cell outage proved anything, it's that technology is unreliable in survival situations. You can check your list of supplies against our "Ultimate Prepper Checklist for Beginners," which you can find below:

Food

  • Canned food/non-perishable foods
  • Food preparation tools
  • Go to the next level: garden/livestock/food production

Water

  • Non-perishable water store
  • Water purification
  • Independent water source

Shelter

  • Fireplace with a wood supply
  • Tent
  • Generator with fuel supply
  • Go to the next level: fallout shelter

Money

  • Emergency cash savings
  • Precious metals

Medicine

  • Extra blankets
  • Basic first aid
  • Extra prescriptions
  • Extra glasses
  • Toiletries store
  • Trauma kit
  • Antibiotics
  • Basic surgery supplies
  • Potassium Iodate tablets

Transportation

  • Bicycle
  • Car
  • Extra fuel

Information

  • Birth certificates
  • Insurance cards
  • Marriage license
  • Immunization records
  • Mortgage paperwork
  • Car title and registration
  • House keys, car keys
  • Passports
  • Family emergency plan
  • Prepping/survival/repair manuals
  • Go to the next level: copy of the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, and other important books/sources

Skills

  • Cooking
  • Gardening
  • Sewing
  • First Aid
  • Basic maintenance skills
  • Go to the next level: farming/ranching
  • Self-defense training

Communication

  • Family contact information and addresses
  • HAM radio

Miscellaneous

  • Flashlights and batteries
  • Lamps and fuel
  • Hardware (tools, nails, lumber, etc)
  • Extra clothes
  • Extreme weather clothes and gear
  • Gas masks and filters
  • Spare parts for any machinery/equipment

Is Trump's prosecution NORMAL?  This COMPLETE list of ALL Western leaders who served jail time proves otherwise.

PhotoQuest / Contributor, The Washington Post / Contributor, Win McNamee / Staff | Getty Images

Mainstream media is on a crusade to normalize Donald Trump's indictments as if it's on par with the electoral course. Glenn asked his team to research every instance of a Western leader who was jailed during their political career over the past 200 years—except extreme political turmoil like the French Revolution, Napoleonic Wars, Irish Revolution, etc.—and what we discovered was quite the opposite.

Imprisoning a leader or major political opponent is not normal, neither in the U.S. nor in the Western world. Within the last 200 years, there are only a handful of examples of leaders in the West serving jail time, and these men were not imprisoned under normal conditions. All of these men were jailed under extreme circumstances during times of great peril such as the Civil War, World War II, and the Cold War.

What does this mean for America? Are Trump's indictments evidence that we are re-entering times of great peril? Below is a list of Western leaders who were imprisoned within the last 200 years. Take a look and decide for yourself:

Late 1800s

The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

Jefferson Davis: The nearest occurrence to a U.S. President to serve jail time was in the case of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America. Jefferson was captured in Georgia by Northern Soldiers in 1865 and locked up in Fort Monroe, Virginia for two years. He was offered a presidential pardon but refused out of his loyalty to the confederacy.

Early 1900s

PhotoQuest / Contributor | Getty Images

Eugene V. Debs: Debbs, a Midwestern socialist leader, became the first person to run for president in prison. He was locked up at a federal penitentiary in Atlanta having been convicted under the federal Sedition Act for giving an antiwar speech a few months before Armistice Day, the end of World War I. Many of his supporters believed his imprisonment to be unjust. Debs received 897,704 votes and was a distant third-part candidate behind Warren G. Harding, the Republican winner, and James M. Cox, the second-place Democrat. Harding ordered Debs’s release from prison toward the end of 1921.

Nazi sympathizers and collaborators: After the end of World War II in 1945, several European leaders who had "led" their countries during the Nazi occupation faced trial and imprisonment for treason. This list included Chief of the French State Philippe Pétain, French Prime Minister Pierre Laval, and Minister-President of Norway Vidkun Quisling. The latter two were also executed after their imprisonment. President of Finland Risto Ryti and Prime Minister of Finland Johan Wilhelm Rangell were also tried and jailed for collaborating with the Nazis against the Allied Powers.

Late 1900s

The Washington Post / Contributor | Getty Images

The end of the Cold War: The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was one of the pivotal moments that brought the Cold War to a close and marked the end of Communist East Germany. With the fall of the wall and the collapse of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), the former leaders were brought to trial to answer for the crimes committed by the GDR. General Secretary Erich Honecker and General Secretary Egon Krenz were both put on trial for abuse of power and the deaths of those who were shot trying to flee into West Germany. Honecker was charged with jail time but was released from custody due to severe illness and lived out the rest of his life as an exile in Chile. Krenz served 4 years in jail before his release in 2001. He is one of the last surviving leaders of the Eastern Bloc.

Lyndon LaRouche: Larouche was a Trotsky evangelist, public antisemite, and founder of a nationwide Marxist political movement, became the second person in U.S. history to run for President in a prison cell. Granted, he ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a long-shot third-party candidate. When he tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination, he received 5 percent of the total nationwide vote. Even though in 2000 he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in a few states, the Democratic National Committee refused to seat his delegates and barred LaRouche from attending the Democratic National Convention.

TOP 5 issues that have gotten WORSE since the last State of the Union

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

If you saw Biden's State of the Union last week, or Glenn's firey reaction to it, you know that Biden hardly spoke a word that wasn't a flat-out lie.

If you spent the last 12 months in a fallout shelter and Biden's speech was the only media interaction you had since the last State of the Union, you might be tempted to believe that the country has improved in some way over the past year. But the rest of us, who have been living above ground, going to the grocery store, and paying some attention to current events, had only to look around to see that Biden's speech was nothing but hot air.

Here are the TOP 5 issues that have gotten worse since the last State of the Union.

Economy

Biden spent a significant amount of time during the State of the Union boasting about the strength of his economy, but anyone who has checked their bank account lately was left wondering if he was holding his speech upside down. It's not just the cobwebs in your wallet; the numbers show the devastation wrought by "Bidenomics" too. In 2022, American grocery bills increased by 11.4 percent and restaurant bills by 7.7 percent. In 2023 prices only continued to rise, with an additional 1.2 percent increase in food-at-home prices and a 5.1 percent increase in away-from-home prices.

Debt crisis and inflation

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The national debt continues to grow, and Biden managed to add almost 3 trillion dollars in just one year. As of December 2022, the national debt was $31.42 trillion. As of January 2024, the national debt has risen to $34.19 trillion.

Inflation didn't fare much better. While the 2023 annual inflation rate did drop from the horror of 2022, from 6.5 to 3.4 percent, that is still significantly higher than anything we saw before 2021. You also have to remember that it CARRIES year to year, as Glenn explained in his response to Biden's State of the Union: "Yes, it's not as bad as it was, but it's still what it was PLUS what it is now."

Border

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

Biden's mismanagement of the southern border has inflamed the border crisis to all-time highs. In 2022 there were a staggering 2.2 million illegal border crossings, but that wasn't enough for Biden apparently, as an additional 2.5 million illegally crossed in 2023. An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Biden took office, and the effects are being felt. There has been a surge in crime across the country that is impacting millions of Americans, including the tragic murder of Laken Riley.

Fentanyl

The fentanyl crisis has only continued to worsen as more and more synthetic opioids flood our streets. Between the fiscal year 2021 and 2022, there was a shocking 54 percent increase in fentanyl trafficking offenses as more and more of the narcotic is smuggled across the southern border. We also saw an increase in fentanyl overdose deaths. In 2022 there were approximately 73,654 deaths, which is a significant increase from 70,601 in 2021.

Education and mental health

While the pandemic is long over, the lingering effects of the lockdowns are still being felt. Unsurprisingly, missing years of school has a major impact on the educational development of children. Kids across America are STILL struggling from pandemic-related setbacks, reading scores are still falling, and parents are reporting that their kids are struggling in their studies. The mental health crisis, another symptom of the COVID lockdowns, has also continued to worsen. Tragically, suicides increased by 2.6 percent between 2021 and 2022, marking the continued decline of mental health in America.

TOP FIVE takeaways from Super Tuesday

Anna Moneymaker / Staff, Win McNamee / Staff | Getty Images

The 2024 Presidential Election is taking shape.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday, the single biggest day in the presidential primary season. More than one-third of all delegates needed for a candidate to become the Presidential nominee of their party was up for grabs along with a plethora of state and local elections. In short, yesterday's results will shape the rest of the election season. It was a big deal.

Here are the top 5 takeaways from yesterday's elections:

Haley drops out

Nikki Haley drops out of the 2024 Presidential election.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

After the mass exodus of Republican candidates in January, most commentators agreed that it was only a matter of time before Haley stepped out as well. Haley put up a valiant effort and held out almost two months longer than the other Republican candidates, but after a disappointing turnout on Super Tuesday, she made the call to step back from the race. There was a small victory for Haley fans, however, in that she won Vermont, her first state primary victory following her win in Washington, D.C.

Trump sweeps the board

Trump wins over 1,000 delegates during Super Tuesday.

Win McNamee / Staff | Getty Images

While Haley had a disappointing day yesterday, Trump and his team celebrated a huge win. Aside from Vermont, Trump won every state that had a primary. At the time this was written, Trump had picked up a whopping 731 delegates, bringing his total to 1,004, out of the required 1,215 to win the presidential nomination.

Democrats are not committed to Biden

Biden wins big on Super Tuesday, but he is struggling to maintain his Democrat base.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

On paper, Biden had an excellent Super Tuesday, winning every state primary except American Samoa. However, a closer look reveals cracks in his supporter base. Yesterday, a shocking 19 percent of Minnesota Democrats voted for "uncommitted" instead of Biden. While that wasn't enough to change the outcome of the primary, it shows that Biden is walking on shaky ground, even among Democrats.

This phenomenon wasn't limited to Minnesota either. Eight percent of Colorado and Tennessee Democrats voted "uncommitted," and 10 percent of Massachusetts Democrats and 10 percent of North Carolina Democrats voted "no preference." Is this more evidence of a third-quarter bait-and-switch that Glenn has hypothesized?

The search to replace Feinstein continues

Adam Schiff and Steve Harvey compete for Diane Feinstein's Senate seat.

Anna Moneymaker / Staff, Barry King / Contributor | Getty Images

California is having two Senate elections to replace the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. There is a special election to fill out the remainder of her term and a regular election to fill her seat for the next six years. The results of the Tuesday primaries put Republican and former Los Angeles Dodgers player Steve Garvey and Democrat Adam Schiff as the front runners, and the two of them will be going head-to-head in November. Surprisingly, even in deep blue California, Garvey won more votes than Schiff in the special primary. Does Garvey have a chance?

Ted Cruz is back up for election in Texas

Ted Cruz is up for re-election in 2024

Anna Moneymaker / Staff | Getty Images

The Texas senate primaries were also on Tuesday, and Ted Cruz is back up for election in November. Cruz comfortably won the Republican Primaries with 88 percent of Texas Republicans backing him. Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas-area congressman won the Democratic primary with a narrower margin of 58 percent. While it's easy for Texans to take their state's red status for granted, it is vital Texans stay vigilant and cast their vote this November.