Believe Again: Glenn launches trilogy of holidays with stirring show

Glenn began a very different radio show today talking about what he calls the trilogy of holidays. It’s no coincidence they are grouped together and in the order they are - Glenn wanted to devote the entire program today to talk about the things and people he’s grateful for, deliver some great storytelling, and share the incredible music the team has created for the holiday.

Catch the beginning of a very special broadcast below:

Most everything we know about the three-day Plymouth gathering of the pilgrims comes from a description in a letter written in 1621 by a guy named Edward Winslow.  He was the leader of the Plymouth colony, and the letter had really been lost for 200 years.  Nobody really knew anything about that first Thanksgiving and what it was.  The letter was rediscovered in the 1800s, and the speculation ended.  Hello, America.  I'm glad you're here.  Today I have sent everybody home because I just wanted to spend some time with you.  If you're anything like the rest of my staff, they are traveling to get home, some fighting the mess at airports, some fighting the mess of weather, some anxious to go home, some not so much.  Today I just wanted to have a conversation between the two of us.  So if you're driving across the country, you and I can spend some time before you have to face the onslaught of the holiday because this is the beginning of what I have always referred to as the trilogy of holidays.  I don't think there is a coincidence that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's all come in that fashion, all come one right after another.  I think when you connect the three of them together, for more than just shopping, your whole world will change.  And today I want to take you through some of the stories of America and Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I want to share with you some of the music that we have created for this holiday, and I want to share some of the things that people have shared with me, things that they are grateful for.

So Edward Winslow in 1621 kind of cataloged what happened.  It was a very brief, brief account of that first feast.  Alexander Young was the man who published in 1841.  He was in Boston, and he's the one that said it was the first Thanksgiving.  But what Edward had written in 1621 was something that didn't resemble anything that we have today.  In fact, it was so upside down that nobody at the end of this one unbuttoned their pants and sat down on the recliner.  In fact, we think of the Thanksgiving feast, and it was actually quite the opposite.  The first Thanksgiving included fasting.  Because they were truly grateful.  But it happened (loss of audio) but the holiday wasn't an annual event.  It was just for that year, to thank, as in George Washington's words, it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will and to be grateful for his benefits and humbly to implore his protection and favor.  That young, struggling nation still had so much darkness to it because while we were thanking God, we were far from perfect.

Just like all around the world, slavery was still a part of America, and while other countries gave it up peacefully, I contend we didn't give it up peacefully because we had to wash ourselves with blood to make ourselves clean.  Jefferson knew that would happen.  But the next time Thanksgiving comes around, the next milestone in Thanksgiving was 1863.  It was right after the Battle of Gettysburg, November 26, 1863.  It was actually, actually spoken about the first time by Abraham binge even in a speech that was written by his Secretary of State.  In fact, his Secretary of State was not only the man that really set things in motion for Thanksgiving as we know it, but his Secretary of State was also the other man that was assassinated the night that Lincoln was killed.  His Secretary of State, they also tried to kill him.  He survived, but just barely.  He survived the brutal, brutal beating.  His daughter and his son actually stopped the beating.  But in 1863 before any of that happened, Abraham Lincoln declared that the fourth Thursday of every November, this Thursday, would be considered an official U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.  He said, "It seems to me fit and proper that we should solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledge with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.  I therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States and also those who were at sea and those who are sojourning into foreign lands to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as the day of thanksgiving and praise to our father who dwells in the heavens."

Well, now wait a minute.  He's the one who set it up to be the last Thursday.  He set it up to be the last Thursday, but everybody is saying this year that this year Thanksgiving is coming so late; how did that change?  I'll tell you how it changed and why it changed, and you'll never guess who changed it.  And the reasons for it.

But things can't move forward because in 1863 we still had slavery.  We hadn't yet won the war.  It was this Thanksgiving that actually turned the war.  After this Thanksgiving, we won almost every single battle where we had lost almost every single battle prior.  But Abraham Lincoln knew if a country would just turn to God, if they would fast, if they would pray, God would forgive and God would come back.  You would still have to pay for the sins of the past, you'd still have to pay for all the blood that was shed by the workmen's lash and the whip and the chain.  But out in the fields, there was a song that was being sung that at the time was only sung by the slaves.  It's a uniquely American song that for a long time again sang in the -- only sung in the fields by the slaves and then only sung in the churches in the South, and the freemen in the North.  It was sung that way even after slavery until after the 1960s and then in the 1960s it became an anthem.  But slowly but surely because of its lyrics, it became a Christmas song.  It wasn't intended to be a Christmas song.  It was a song talking about freedom.  We look at it as spiritual freedom.  But when it was originally done, it was a song about bodily freedom as well.

A few weeks ago we had several people come together in Phoenix, Arizona.  People who didn't know each other, people of different color, different faith, and we gave them four or five days and we said we want you to do a Christmas album.  There were a few things that I really wanted to capture.  I wanted to capture the story of Christmas and the story of America.  A friend of mine, Clyde, took to arranging that song that we know as a Christmas song but was a slave song, and a woman that I had met in Brooklyn years before, she had appeared on our program.  She performed at Restoring Love.  Her name is Kim Harley.  I asked her to come down to Phoenix and help us with this CD idea.  I call her my Mahalia.  I knew she could put this song back into the feel of a real spiritual, a song that was never intended to be a Christmas song but now is.

Today we're going to share music from Believe Again and stories from the new book Miracles and Massacres, on your way home for the holiday.

 

What do clay pots have to do with to preserving American history?

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Editor's note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Why should we preserve our nation’s history? If you listen to my radio program and podcast, or read my columns and books, you know I’ve dedicated a large part of my life and finances to sourcing and preserving priceless artifacts that tell America’s story. I’ve tried to make these artifacts as available as possible through the American Journey Experience Museum, just across from the studios where I do my daily radio broadcast. Thousands of you have come through the museum and have been able to see and experience these artifacts that are a part of your legacy as an American.

The destruction of American texts has already begun.

But why should people like you and me be concerned about preserving these things from our nation's history? Isn’t that what the “big guys” like the National Archives are for?

I first felt a prompting to preserve our nation's history back in 2008, and it all started with clay pots and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1946, a Bedouin shepherd in what is now the West Bank threw a rock into a cave nestled into the side of a cliff near the Dead Sea. Instead of hearing an echo, he heard the curious sound of a clay pot shattering. He discovered more than 15,000 Masoretic texts from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D.

These texts weren’t just a priceless historical discovery. They were virtually perfect copies of the same Jewish texts that continue to be translated today. Consider the significance of that discovery. Since the third century B.C. when these texts were first written, the Jewish people have endured a continued onslaught of diasporas, persecutions, pressures to conform to their occupying power, the destruction of their temple, and so much more. They had to fight for their identity as a people for centuries, and finally, a year after the end of the Holocaust and a year before the founding of the nation of Israel, these texts were discovered, confirming the preservation and endurance of their heritage since ancient times — all due to someone putting these clay pots in a desert cave more than 2,000 years ago.

I first felt a prompting to preserve our nation's history back in 2008, and it all started with clay pots and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

So, what do these clay pots have to do with the calling to preserve American history? I didn’t understand that prompting myself until the horrible thought dawned on me that the people we are fighting against may very well take our sacred American scriptures, our Declaration of Independence, and our Bill of Rights. What if they are successful, and 1,000 years from now, we have no texts preserved to confirm our national identity? What kind of new history would be written over the truth?

The destruction of American texts has already begun. The National Archives has labeled some of our critical documents, like our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, as “triggering” or “containing harmful language.” In a public statement, the National Archives said that the labels help prepare readers to view potentially distressing content:

The Catalog and web pages contain some content that may be harmful or difficult to view. NARA’s records span the history of the United States, and it is our charge to preserve and make available these historical records. As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions. In addition, some of the materials may relate to violent or graphic events and are preserved for their historical significance.

According to this statement, our founding documents are either “outdated, biased, offensive,” “possibly violent,” or a combination of these scathing descriptions. I’m sorry, the Declaration of Independence is not “triggering.” Our Constitution is not “outdated and biased,” and our Bill of Rights certainly is not “offensive and possibly violent.” They are glorious documents. They should be celebrated, not qualified by such derogatory, absurd language. Shame on them.

These are only the beginning stages of rewriting our history. What if they start banning these “triggering” documents from public view because they might offend somebody? Haven’t we torn down “triggering” statues before? What if we are no longer able to see, read, and study the actual words of our nation's founding documents because they are “harmful” or “possibly violent”? A thousand years from now, will there be any remnant to piece together the true spirit behind the nation that our founders envisioned?

The Declaration of Independence is not “triggering.”

That is why in 2008, I was prompted to preserve what I could. Now, the American Journey Experience Museum includes more than 160,000 artifacts, from founding-era documents to the original Roe v. Wade court papers. We need to preserve the totality of our nation’s heritage, the good, the bad, and the ugly. We need to preserve our history in our own clay pots.

I ask you to join with me on this mission. Start buying books that are important to preserve. Buy some acid-free paper and start printing some of the founding documents, the reports that go against the mainstream narrative, the studies that prove what is true as we are continually being fed lies. Start preserving our daily history as well as our history because it is being rewritten and digitized.

Somebody must have a copy of what is happening now and what has happened in the past. I hope things don’t get really bad. But if they do, we need to preserve our heritage. Perhaps, someone 1,000 years from now will discover our clay pots and, Lord willing, be able to have a glimpse of America as it truly was.

Top 10 WORST items in the new $1.2 TRILLION spending bill

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Biden just signed the newest spending bill into law, and Glenn is furious.

Under Speaker Johnson's leadership, the whopping $1.2 TRILLION package will use your taxpayer dollars to fund the government through September. Of course, the bill is loaded with earmarks and pork that diverts money to fund all sorts of absurd side projects.

Here is the list of the ten WORST uses of taxpayer money in the recently passed spending bill:

Funding venues to host drag shows, including ones that target children

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Money for transgender underwear for kids

Funding for proms for 12 to 18 year old kids

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Border security funding... for Jordan and Egypt

Another $300 million for Ukraine

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$3.5 million for Detroit's annual Thanksgiving Day parade

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$2.5 million for a new kayaking facility in Franklin, New Hampshire

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$2.7 million for a bike park in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, a town with a population of less than 2,300 people

$5 million for a new trail at Coastal Carolina University

$4 million the "Alaska King Crab Enhancement Project" (whatever that means)

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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.

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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.