Three Things You Need to Know - January 12, 2018

Constitution Not Needed: FISA Expanded

The government has just expanded its ability to unconstitutionally spy on you.

Happy Friday!

Yesterday, the House voted to renew the FISA surveillance program that collects American’s email, text messages, and photos without a warrant for another six years.

The bill was originally approved by Congress in 2008 under the promise of protecting America against big, bad terrorists.

But that’s a flawed platform to base legislation on. There will always be terrorists. We don’t need to violate American citizens rights in order to keep our country safe.

That’s why Justin Amash offered up an alternative bill, “The USA RIGHTS Act” which would have required federal agents to get warrants before searching through data that was secretly collected.

It failed.

Like Amash, Trump also seemed to be against the FISA extension, tweeting “House votes on controversial FISA ACT today. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others.”

But that was at 7:33 AM.

He flipped his position literally two hours later by tweeting, “Today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!"

What leadership. Just like a politician to be on both sides of the issue.

The bill will now go to the Senate where it is expected to pass.

Rand Paul is already talking about filibustering the vote.

Thank goodness Rand is standing up for the rights of the American people.

Look, either we choose the Fourth Amendment or we don’t.

Either we choose the Constitution or we don’t.

It’s one or the other.

Why do our representatives continue to make the wrong choice?

The Increasing Ideological Slant of Social Media

Two-hundred million Americans consume their news via social media. That’s almost 75% of the country. The gatekeepers of information have evolved from the local paper, to radio, TV, and now social media.

I’m going to go against the narrative for a second. We’ve heard a lot lately about the power the internet has given to those trying to spread fake news. Whether it’s the Russians, Nazis, or radical leftists. They all have the ability to push their narrative more easily to whomever they want.

Here’s the flip side to that coin. Never in the history of the planet has so much information been available to the common man. In this day and age there’s simply no excuse for people failing to be their own fact checkers and truth finders. A bot tweeted meme should not be able to pull the wool over the eyes of thousands. If this were a hundred years ago sure, but this is the age of information.

So, with all that being said, why are social media platforms looking to block certain points of view? Project Veritas released an undercover video yesterday that showed Twitter employees talking about plans to filter a certain quote, “way of talking.” A Twitter engineer explained how the algorithm works:

“Yeah you look for Trump, or America, and you have like five thousand keywords to describe a redneck. Then you look and parse all the messages, all the pictures, and then you look for stuff that matches that stuff.”

He continues “I would say the majority of it are for Republicans.”

Now, I get censoring violence, but ideas are absolutely off limits. The real question now is, who is telling Twitter what type of “talk” is acceptable? In a leaked Media Matters memo, called their “Strategic Plan of Action”, David Brock’s progressive hit-squad detailed how they were going to operate in this new era. It mentions very specifically how they’ve already begun working with Facebook, Google and Twitter. Under the heading “Collaborating with Social Media Platforms” it states:

“Social media platforms need help in identifying vulnerabilities and crafting solutions. To this end, Media Matters will serve as their partner, speaking to them in their language of big data and encouraging changes based on what we see happening in the landscape.”

So who are the modern-day gatekeepers for information? Social Media companies like Twitter and now apparently, liberal progressive smear artists like David Brock and Media Matters are telling them what is or isn’t acceptable. Do your own homework. Be your own fact checker. It’s never been more important than right now.

No Best Friend for You!

Having a best friend is not inclusive. And that’s a huge problem.

An emerging trend in some American schools is banning kids from having “best friends.” Because it’s not inclusive enough.

Here’s a question – do we ever reach a point where we’re too inclusive? Just asking for a friend. Because I still believe in those.

Does inclusiveness just keep going until kids in a classroom are chained together all day, that way no one will ever feel left out? Everyone goes everywhere together. Lunchtime chained together. Recess, the same. Playing red rover or going to the restroom will be tricky, but hey, at least it will be inclusive.

Dr. Barbara Greenberg, a child psychologist writes, “There is, in my opinion, merit to the movement to ban having best friends.” She says, “The phrase best friend is inherently exclusionary.” She says it implies a ranking system, which creates conflict.

She goes on to explain that kids throw the “best friend” label around so irresponsibly that many end up with their feelings hurt, when they lose “best friend” status to someone else.

In some sane cultures throughout history, that’s called part of growing up.

This trend is bizarre on so many levels. But one of the main problems with the Left’s attempt to change language in order to change reality is that it never changes anything. Did the Left not learn anything from Jurassic Park? “Life finds a way.” Kids will always find a way to have best friends. And yes, some will get their feelings hurt. And yes, they will still somehow survive.

Patrick Moore was one of the founders of Green Peace. He helped grow the organization for several years until he started to realize that, “Science and logic no longer held sway.” The final straw for Moore came when his fellow directors decided Green Peace had to try to ban the element Chlorine, which they started calling “the devil’s element”. Moore asked if they realize Chlorine is actually one of the elements of the periodic table, and that adding chlorine to drinking water was one of the greatest advances in the history of public health. Yes, and they had to ban it. He left Green Peace and never looked back.

Having best friends is on the periodic table of life. It’s not something you could ban, no matter how hard you try.

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This article provided courtesy of TheBlaze.

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

This is YOUR CHANCE to make a difference!

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, arguably the most consequential election day leading up to the 2024 election. However, every election leading up to November is critical for determining the trajectory of our country. This may be the most important election season in recent memory, so it is imperative that we do our part and head to the polls, even for smaller elections.

Listeners of Glenn's show are already aware of the multitudes of serious problems that face our nation. From the crisis on the southern border that's letting criminals flood our streets to the never-ending flow of American tax dollars funding a proxy war in Ukraine, it's clear that the people currently in charge are not cutout for the job.

We need to put responsible people back in office and we cannot let any more left-wing activists take power. YOU need to go out and vote and make your voice heard. Check out our COMPLETE list of all the upcoming elections in the 2024 election season. Mark your calendars, plan ahead, and STAND UP!

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Missouri

State Primary- August 6th

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Montana

State Primary- June 4th

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Nebraska

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Nevada

State Primary-​ June 11th

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New Hampshire

State Primary- September 10th

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New Jersey

State Primary- June 4th

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New Mexico

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New York

State Primary- June 25th

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North Carolina

State Primary- March 5th

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North Dakota

State Primary-June 11th

Republican Presidential Caucus- March 4th

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Ohio

State Primary- March 19th

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Oregon

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Pennsylvania

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Rhode Island

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South Carolina

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South Dakota

State Primary- June 4th

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Tennessee

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Texas

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Utah

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Vermont

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Virginia

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Washington

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West Virginia

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Wisconsin

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Wyoming

State Primary- August 20th

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