Oh the Irony, California and Oregon Unwittingly Support Constitutional Principles

November 11, 2016

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The folks in California and Oregon are fed up. They've had it up to here with the federal government taking their taxes and telling them what to do. Naturally, the next logical step would be secession. Or, hold that thought, perhaps they might consider following the Constitution?

"I don't think we should secede from the union. I think we should live the Constitution, which would allow California to be as weird and progressive as they want to be. Let them do it. That's fine. If I want to join them, I'll join them in California," Glenn said Friday on his radio program.

That's the beauty of the Tenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Our brilliant Founders created a system by which states could uniquely follow their own beliefs, without imposing them on other states. But what did they know? The Founders were old, racist men whose ideas have become outdated and irrelevant. At least, that's what progressive liberals would like you to believe.

"If you actually used the Tenth Amendment, then that's what it would be. Instead, the people that now want to secede in California have been saying the Tenth Amendment is Satan for the past 100 years," Co-host Stu Burguiere said.

The Founders recognized that diversity would strengthen the United States of America, not diminish it. They built our system of government accordingly, making provisions for the states to be different and unique.

Read below or watch the clip for answers to these relevant questions:

• If California jumped off a bridge should we all do it?

• Why is the Tenth Amendment the perfect tool for diversity?

• Why does each state have its own flag and motto?

• What does E pluribus unum mean, and why do progressives believe the opposite?

• Did Barack Obama help or hurt Democrats?

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Let's talk a little about secession. California and Oregon are talking now about seceding. And I find that amazing because, A, that was so un-American to talk about when Barack Obama was president. But now it's very, very popular. And I would just like to speak to California for a second. One of their big issues is they're tired of their tax dollars going to the federal government. They want control of their tax dollars and have their tax dollars stay at home for California.

JEFFY: Huh.

GLENN: And they want to make their decisions, not be dictated to by the federal government.

PAT: Huh. What a concept.

GLENN: We would just like to say, we want that too.

PAT: Yeah.

GLENN: You may be surprised that you're not a progressive if you believe in that. You're a constitutionalist. Because that's what the Constitution guarantees that we have now just dismissed.

So if you believe those things, then you're actually a constitutionalist, and you don't need to secede. You need to join us. You need to join us. And come with us on the Constitution. Because once we restore that, those feelings go away.

PAT: If that's their issue, Hillary wasn't the right candidate. You voted for the wrong person.

GLENN: I don't think these are Hillary people. These are Bernie Sanders people.

PAT: Well, that's even worse.

GLENN: At best. At best.

PAT: Bernie Sanders would have been even worse for that.

GLENN: No.

PAT: A socialist?

GLENN: No, no. No. Because here's what people -- here's the problem: People are playing politics, and they're not playing principles. So they're perfectly fine being California as part of the United States, as long as the rest of the United States does it the way Californians want.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And so that's called authoritarianism. They're not really for freedom. They are for their rule of law. And if the rest of the country won't go that way, well then, they don't want to be a part of the country.

PAT: Yeah, but Bernie Sanders is a strong central government guy.

GLENN: Right.

PAT: The strongest central government --

GLENN: Again, they would have --

PAT: -- we know of in public office.

GLENN: Right. Because they only care about what they want. They believe they're right and everyone else is wrong. And so, as long as we have a strong central figure in Washington that is forcing everyone else to live the way we want to live, well, then, that's great. Then we'll make everybody's life happy because we're going to teach those people in Texas just how happy they're going to be. Right?

JEFFY: It will be fascinating to see how much --

GLENN: You know what it is -- hang on just a second. It is exactly the argument that Jefferson Davis made. He said states' rights.

Well, no, he didn't really mean states' rights. Because if you joined in the rebellion, you had to be a slave-owning state. You had to be for the furtherance of slavery. So they -- they weren't talked about states' rights. They were fighting for their system of government.

That's the same thing with California. They're not talking about, "Hey, we want to be free in California." They're saying, "No, we want everybody to live this way. If you choose to, we're taking our marbles and going home."

Oregon is also going for this. And there's no sense of irony from the press. There's no sense of, "Hang on just a second, how did we treat Texans when they said this?"

And you have to understand, Texas has been saying this -- Pat's right -- since 1837. Texans have been saying this from the very beginning. I don't know how Texas ever became a state.

(chuckling)

GLENN: Because this is the way Texas has been from the beginning: secede. But California says, "Hey, we're the -- what is it? The sixth largest economy in the world. We'll take this economy."

Okay. I really don't -- I mean, I know this is very unpopular to say, "But I'm really okay with that." I don't think we should secede from the union. I think we should live the Constitution, which would allow California to be as weird and progressive as they want to be. Let them do it. That's fine. If I want to join them, I'll join them in California.

STU: That's kind of what federalism is, in a way. It's a way of 50 countries under a very generalized group of rules, but they can do whatever they want inside those rules. I mean, in a way, it is 50 different countries inside a country.

GLENN: That's the way it used to be.

STU: That's the way it's supposed to be.

GLENN: Correct.

STU: If you actually used the Tenth Amendment, then that's what it would be.

Instead, the people that now want to secede in California have been saying the Tenth Amendment is Satan for the past 100 years.

GLENN: Otherwise, why do we have state flags? Why do we have state flags? Why don't we all just have one star that says, California, Texas? You know, just a flag more like Texas that is red, white, and blue, has the strips, but just one star. We're one of 50.

Because we're all unique. We all have different mottos. We all have different things we focus on. We all have different strengths. We all have different weaknesses. E pluribus unum. From many, one. But we're not -- the progressive idea is to not have many.

It's to have just one. I'll tell you, the Democrats are going to -- the Democrats have a hard, hard road. They thought that Barack Obama was going to help them. I don't think so.

Now, I do believe he's helped the Marxists. He's helped the socialist. He's helped the radicals of the party. But who are you going to elect four years down the road? It will be somebody like Bernie Sanders. It's got to be somebody like Elizabeth Warren. It's got to be somebody who is --

PAT: Radical.

GLENN: Radical.

STU: And this is the same thing -- think about -- go back in election history. John McCain runs and loses. Mitt Romney runs and loses. What is the reaction of the right?

It's to say, "Well, you didn't get anybody. You did this progressive-lite thing." You did this thing where you're basically running a middle-of-the-road guy that wasn't -- didn't have conservative principles. And that's why you failed.

Same thing is going to happen in the Democrat Party now. They're going to say, "Wait a minute. We have Bernie Sanders. He ignited the youth. Everyone was excited about him." His polling, by the way, if you go back and look at it -- and I think there's flaws with these comparisons. But his polling was great in a general. I mean, he beat everybody in a general, Sanders.

PAT: Which he wouldn't have, I don't think.

STU: Which he wouldn't have, I don't think if it was real life, but God only knows at this point.

PAT: I don't think -- yeah.

GLENN: I think it would have been close -- I said from the beginning, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, give a real choice. Because I think Bernie Sanders would speak to the next generation. He could be America 3.0.

Featured Image: Based on flag flown during the Bear Flag Revolt. Contains a single red star, a red stripe along the bottom, and a grizzly bear. The Bear Flag is the official flag of the state of California. The precursor of the flag was first flown during the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt and was also known as the Bear Flag. (Wiki Commons)

Breaking point: Will America stand up to the mob?

Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images

The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.

Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.

Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.

Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

A history of violence

For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.

The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.

History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.

Dismember the dragon

The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.

But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.

AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images

This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.

Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty

Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images

The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.

This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.

The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.

The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.

Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?

One‑sided freedom

Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.

Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.

Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?

If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.

Censored belief

I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.

I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.

I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.

And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.

Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.

Faith on trial

In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.

That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.

The real test

No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.

Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?

If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.

The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins Megyn Kelly LIVE — One night ONLY in Fort Worth!

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What will happen when two of America’s sharpest voices collide under the spotlight? Will Glenn finally reveal the major announcement he’s been teasing on the radio for weeks? You’ll have to be there to find out.

This promises to be more than just an interview — it’s a live showdown packed with wit, honesty, and the kind of energy you can only feel if you are in the room. Tickets are selling fast, so don’t miss your chance to see Glenn like you’ve never seen him before.

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What our response to Israel reveals about us

JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor | Getty Images

I have been honored to receive the Defender of Israel Award from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The Jerusalem Post recently named me one of the strongest Christian voices in support of Israel.

And yet, my support is not blind loyalty. It’s not a rubber stamp for any government or policy. I support Israel because I believe it is my duty — first as a Christian, but even if I weren’t a believer, I would still support her as a man of reason, morality, and common sense.

Because faith isn’t required to understand this: Israel’s existence is not just about one nation’s survival — it is about the survival of Western civilization itself.

It is a lone beacon of shared values in the Middle East. It is a bulwark standing against radical Islam — the same evil that seeks to dismantle our own nation from within.

And my support is not rooted in politics. It is rooted in something simpler and older than politics: a people’s moral and historical right to their homeland, and their right to live in peace.

Israel has that right — and the right to defend herself against those who openly, repeatedly vow her destruction.

Let’s make it personal: if someone told me again and again that they wanted to kill me and my entire family — and then acted on that threat — would I not defend myself? Wouldn’t you? If Hamas were Canada, and we were Israel, and they did to us what Hamas has done to them, there wouldn’t be a single building left standing north of our border. That’s not a question of morality.

That’s just the truth. All people — every people — have a God-given right to protect themselves. And Israel is doing exactly that.

My support for Israel’s right to finish the fight against Hamas comes after eighty years of rejected peace offers and failed two-state solutions. Hamas has never hidden its mission — the eradication of Israel. That’s not a political disagreement.

That’s not a land dispute. That is an annihilationist ideology. And while I do not believe this is America’s war to fight, I do believe — with every fiber of my being — that it is Israel’s right, and moral duty, to defend her people.

Criticism of military tactics is fair. That’s not antisemitism. But denying Israel’s right to exist, or excusing — even celebrating — the barbarity of Hamas? That’s something far darker.

We saw it on October 7th — the face of evil itself. Women and children slaughtered. Babies burned alive. Innocent people raped and dragged through the streets. And now, to see our own fellow citizens march in defense of that evil… that is nothing short of a moral collapse.

If the chants in our streets were, “Hamas, return the hostages — Israel, stop the bombing,” we could have a conversation.

But that’s not what we hear.

What we hear is open sympathy for genocidal hatred. And that is a chasm — not just from decency, but from humanity itself. And here lies the danger: that same hatred is taking root here — in Dearborn, in London, in Paris — not as horror, but as heroism. If we are not vigilant, the enemy Israel faces today will be the enemy the free world faces tomorrow.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about truth. It’s about the courage to call evil by its name and to say “Never again” — and mean it.

And you don’t have to open a Bible to understand this. But if you do — if you are a believer — then this issue cuts even deeper. Because the question becomes: what did God promise, and does He keep His word?

He told Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you.” He promised to make Abraham the father of many nations and to give him “the whole land of Canaan.” And though Abraham had other sons, God reaffirmed that promise through Isaac. And then again through Isaac’s son, Jacob — Israel — saying: “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I give to you and to your descendants after you.”

That’s an everlasting promise.

And from those descendants came a child — born in Bethlehem — who claimed to be the Savior of the world. Jesus never rejected His title as “son of David,” the great King of Israel.

He said plainly that He came “for the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And when He returns, Scripture says He will return as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And where do you think He will go? Back to His homeland — Israel.

Tamir Kalifa / Stringer | Getty Images

And what will He find when He gets there? His brothers — or his brothers’ enemies? Will the roads where He once walked be preserved? Or will they lie in rubble, as Gaza does today? If what He finds looks like the aftermath of October 7th, then tell me — what will be my defense as a Christian?

Some Christians argue that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred exclusively to the Church. I don’t believe that. But even if you do, then ask yourself this: if we’ve inherited the promises, do we not also inherit the land? Can we claim the birthright and then, like Esau, treat it as worthless when the world tries to steal it?

So, when terrorists come to slaughter Israelis simply for living in the land promised to Abraham, will we stand by? Or will we step forward — into the line of fire — and say,

“Take me instead”?

Because this is not just about Israel’s right to exist.

It’s about whether we still know the difference between good and evil.

It’s about whether we still have the courage to stand where God stands.

And if we cannot — if we will not — then maybe the question isn’t whether Israel will survive. Maybe the question is whether we will.

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