America Is Awash in Opioids, Urgent Action Is Critical

The outspoken and fantastically fierce Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke filled in for Glenn on The Glenn Beck Program today, Monday, December 19.

Read below or listen to the full segment from Hour 3 for answers to these questions:

• How do we stop people from becoming addicted?

• What synthetic opioid is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine?

• How are doctors and pharmaceutical companies complicit?

• Are politicians getting paid off by pharmaceutical companies?

• Will crime increase in 2017?

• When will Sheriff Clarke's new book Cop Under Fire be available?

Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:

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

DAVID: Welcome back to the program. Milwaukee County David Clarke in for Glenn Beck. This is the Glenn Beck Program. We're talking immigration. Let's go right to the phone. Gabe from Texas. Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program.

Gabe, are you there? Going once. Going twice. I guess we lost Gabe.

So I'm going to close out immigration here. We're talking about sanctuary cities, how the local governments many of them -- probably most of them. I stay away from absolutes. I would say all. But most of them are run by liberal Democrats who don't believe in our nation's immigration laws, who don't believe that we should have borders, don't believe those borders should be protected, borders should be enforced. And it's wreaking havoc.

But here's another issue of why at the local level, sanctuary cities are a public safety menace. Here's how this works at the local level.

You have people in the country illegally, who are in the city -- any city. Name a city that's a sanctuary city: Pittsburgh. Their mayor recently -- Peduto, I think his name is, recently declared that they were going to make Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a sanctuary city.

But here's what happened: You have people in the country illegally. They're committing crimes.

And that's not all illegal aliens committing crimes. But the ones that do. Here's what they know: They know that if they victimize somebody in the country illegally, that victim is not likely to call the police for fear of being discovered to be in the country illegally themselves.

So, in other words, I do a street robbery and I know you're in the country illegally, I know you're not going to call the police. The victim judges goes home and says, "I can't call the police because then it will be discovered that I'm in the country illegally. And I don't want to be discovered and identified. And I don't want to be kicked out. So we have unreporting and underreporting of serious crime in these cities because of the illegal immigration issue.

So the police don't know that the crime is going on and will continue to go on. I don't know if these mayors and these city councils and county boards, I don't know if they think about this or not. Do they care about their law-abiding citizens in that city or county? Is there such a disregard for the rule of law -- that's probably why the Democrats continue to lose seats in state legislatures. Lose governor's races. Members of Congress. Because they don't care about law-abiding citizens anymore, the Democrats.

They work harder to protect and create an environment -- a safe environment for illegal aliens than they do law-abiding citizens. This actually goes on. This criminalization, the victimization -- and I'm talking about some serious crimes, ladies and gentlemen. I'm talking about things like -- I mentioned robberies. I'm talking about sexual assault. I'm talking about domestic violence. I'm talking about child abuse.

Where if you're in the country legally and you know someone is abusing your child, you may not notify local law enforcement because you don't want to be discovered to be in the country illegally.

This stuff has to be enforced.

Let's go back to the phones. Scott from Ohio, welcome to the Glenn Beck Program.

CALLER: Sheriff, how are you? Thank you very much for all that you do. You're a witness to this American Revolution that we're in right now and the battle to reclaim law and order in America.

DAVID: Thank you, sir. It's an honor. It's an honor to serve. Go ahead.

CALLER: Yeah. The question is: I've traveled internationally, and in regard to your comments on enforcing E-Verify, countries like Great Britain actually publicly announce fines that they give for companies that have been caught hiring large number of illegals. It could be 1,000 pounds. It could be 20,000 pounds.

But they publicly announce that for two reasons. One is to openly identify to the public the problem that they had. But, two, also to keep the other companies in line. They have little problem with enforcing E-Verify through that public announcement and the fine itself. What are your comments on that?

DAVID: Well, first of all -- and thanks for the call, Scott, I appreciate it. Merry Christmas to you.

You know, with the E-Verify system, first of all, I think the biggest problem is that it's voluntary. When you get into this squishy area with, you know, do the feds want to force -- or can they force the local communities -- I think private businesses, they can. Can they make them enforce immigration laws, even private businesses, which is what this would be doing? But I'm not going to get all hung up on that stuff.

I'm going to go back to the thing that I mentioned earlier where if you do heavy fines with these individuals, especially the ones who don't use E-Verify before they hire somebody -- now, here's the problem even if you do use E-Verify: Most of these individuals that come in looking for work, you don't even really know who they are. You come in, they give you somebody else's name. They give you the documentation of somebody who is in the country legally.

The employer doesn't know that. So he runs that name in. So let's say you have a person who is legally in the United States. And he or she has a birth certificate. A driver -- probably a birth certificate. They go to the employer and say, "Yeah, here's who I am." And they run that through E-Verify. It's going to say, "Yeah, that person is in the country legally." But it's not even the person who passed the document.

So I understand some of the complexities for employers, but I think the first step is making it not voluntary, making it mandatory to do that sort of thing.

Let's try Gabe from Texas back again. Gabe, you're on the Glenn Beck Program. Go ahead, sir.

We still don't have Gabe.

Okay. That's what Congress is going to be dealing with. And they're going to want to hear from you. By the way, ladies and gentlemen, you know what people in Congress tell me all the time? If we don't hear from constituents, we don't think it's that big a deal. They might know it's a big deal, but if they don't think it's going to move the political needle for them, they're not going to fool with it. They have to hear from you. They have to hear from you.

Let's try Gabe one more time. Gabe from Texas, you're on the Glenn Beck Radio Program. Go ahead, Gabe.

CALLER: Hello. Hello. Yeah, I live 5 miles from the border of the United States right here in Texas. And the city -- the city of Mercedes, Texas, and it's a big frustration over here. I know we got an immigration issue in all four corners of our country. But we're talking about the southern border, it's a big frustration for us down here. And the problem I have -- I am an American citizen. I did serve my country. And the problem I have now is that a lot of the influx of the people that are coming over, they got to find jobs. And most of them are taking -- that I can see, they're taking American jobs. And they're all over the place. And we're talking large numbers at a time.

And also, another issue that I have around here is most people are staying true to their Mexican flags. And you see it all over the place, you know. And they're not pledging to the United States flag.

DAVID: Gabe, thanks for your call. Gabe, I got to let you go in the interest of time here. But a couple of things that you touched on, and, you know, you're right. And you're seeing it firsthand, the border enforcement. But you're also talking about, you know, people come into this country for a reason, because they want to experience American exceptionalism. They obviously believe in the western culture. The opportunities that the United States affords. They want to participate in that.

Well, you can't have one foot in the water and one foot out of the water. You either come here because you want to experience American exceptionalism -- exceptionalism, or you don't. You left your country of origin for a reason. And I don't care what that reason -- I don't care what your motivation is. You left that country for a reason. You couldn't find work. It's a war-torn country. No matter what it is, you left. Leave it behind.

I'm Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in for Glenn Beck. We have to take a break. This is the Glenn Beck Program.

[break]

DAVID: Welcome back to the program. I'm Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in for Glenn Beck.

This is the Glenn Beck Program.

We're going to switch gears here. Third hour. We're going to talk about this opioid epidemic sweeping across the United States, to the point now this is such a crisis, that everybody either knows somebody, is related to somebody, has lost somebody due to this addiction.

Heroin, some of the prescription, the opioid weight-based prescription drugs. Something has to be done about this. We're talking about a generation of people -- and, you know, this thing transcends race. It transcends class, gender.

If we don't get our arms around it now, we might be talking ten years before we get rid of this. Now, we were able to eradicate this epidemic of heroin back in the '60s. And I don't know how they did it back then. I was a young kid back then.

But I'm hearing a lot of lip service today. I'm hearing people use it for political leverage, people running for office, people who are in office. Officeholders, politicians. Oh, yes, we need to do something about the heroin and opioid crisis in America.

And if you elect me, I will make sure we get treatment programs and blah, blah, blah.

I've seen some grants given out for pilot projects, treatment programs, but this can't just be a treatment-based remedy, ladies and gentlemen. It cannot be. Because it's too late at that point.

What are we doing early on to prevent people from slipping into this addiction?

You want to stop people before they become addicted to this and not have the heavy emphasis -- which is what we always do. We do the same thing with crime. We want to treat crime with all of this money put into somebody who is already a career criminal. It's in their DNA. It's too late.

If you're a 25-year-old and you've led nothing but a life of crime, you have no education, you have nothing to offer an employer, you're functionally illiterate, it's too late.

Now, I'm not suggesting we throw those people away. I'm saying, "I don't have the answer for that." I want to spend what little money we have for this type of thing, this intervention. Because that's what we need here with the opioid crisis. We need interventions.

Forget about solutions. Okay? Thomas Sowell reminds of that all the time: There aren't solutions to these things. There are remedies.

Because when you remedy something, what ends up is you create an issue or problem somewhere else. So intervention is what we need.

Getting back to the opioid thing: This is an article that I came across. This is the director of the Center for Disease Control. His name is Thomas Frieden. He's an MD.

How to end America's opioid epidemic. One of the most heart-breaking problems I face as CDC director is our nation's opioid crisis.

Lives, families, and communities continue to be devastated by this complex and evolving epidemic. Year after year since I've been at CDC, the drug overdose -- I'm sorry -- the drug overdose death toll in our nation has been the highest on record. In 2015, more than 52,000 Americans lost their lives from an overdose. More than 33,000 of these deaths involved a prescription or illicit opioid.

Listen to this, ladies and gentlemen, this crisis was caused in large part by decades of prescribing too many opioids for too many conditions where they provide minimal benefit. And is now made worse by wide availability of cheap, potent, and easily available illegal opioids: Heroin, illicitly made fentanyl, and other new illicit synthetic opioids.

These deadly drugs have found a ready market of people primed for addiction by misuse of prescription opioids.

Overdose deaths involving heroin more than quadrupled since 2010. And what was a slow stream of illicit fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine is now a flood, with the amount of the powerful drug seized by law enforcement increasing dramatically. America is awash in opioids. Urgent action is critical.

Now, listen to this. Back to the story here. Thomas Frieden, MD, Center for Disease Control director.

Our nation's current situation reminds me of a story often told to students in public health.

Here's the story: A person on a riverbank saves one drowning person after another before stopping, exhausted to think, how can I stop people from falling into the river?

That's what I was getting at. I've talked about how we deal with criminal behavior. Instead of treating the criminal, why don't we stop people early on? Meaning, juveniles, we're talking about, right? But in this situation here, yeah, the guy is on the riverbank saving drowning folks. But at some point, you realize, I'm not doing anything here. Why don't I stop people from falling into the river, instead of trying to save people as they're drowning?

We don't have that mindset. All this money for treatment -- and I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't have treatment programs. But what about abstinence programs? Education programs to keep people from falling prey to this.

But here's another thing, doctors cause this. Not intentionally, but they're overprescribing of these highly addictive prescription painkillers. And pharmaceutical companies are behind this too. Let's not kid ourselves. And who do pharmaceutical companies give campaign donations to?

Politicians. Members of Congress. Members of state legislatures. That's why there's no will to point at. We're not having an honest discussion here, folks, when it comes to the opioid crisis.

Nobody wants to take a look at these pharmaceutical companies who are making millions and billions. And I'm not saying they should -- they shouldn't, I should say. I'm not suggesting that.

We have to take a look at the doctors who are overprescribing this. And, look, in fairness to doctors, look, you come in, you have a surgical procedure, they say, "Here, you know, take a couple of these -- and why are they giving out 30-day doses of this stuff?

Give it out for ten days and say, "If you're still in pain, call me. We'll look at something else. In the second round, we'll give you something less addictive." But it's easier for the doctor, whose offices are flooded treating patients to just say, "Hey, here's 30 days. Then I don't have to be worried with this person coming back every ten days."

I get that. But it's not helping the situation. It's making it worse. So until we begin to have an honest discussion about the -- now, doctors are saying -- forget the cop in me. We're not going to arrest our way out of this.

But the doctor says -- doctors have caused this, unintentionally, but they've caused it. We need to start having an honest discussion about this opioid crisis, or it's going to continue on.

Do we want to remedy this, or do we just want to talk good about it and use it for political leverage? This is amazing.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in for Glenn Beck. This is the Glenn Beck Program. We have to take a break.

[break]

DAVID: Yep. Welcome back to the program. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in for Glenn Beck. This is the Glenn Beck Program.

Look, I don't want to give that opioid crisis short strokes. So I'm going to have some final comments to say on this.

This is from, again, Thomas Frieden, who is a doctor. An MD. Director for the Center for Disease Control. And he says this, in terms of straightening this thing out, he says: While we implement these emergency response strategies, it is also important that we look upstream to prevent opioid use disorder in the first place. This starts with improving how providers prescribe opioids for pain treatment.

That's an excellent starting point, he says. There are safer drugs and treatment approaches that can control pain as well or better than opioids for the vast majority of patients.

But, see, this is where the pharmaceutical companies come in. Because they're pushing out of these doctors the opioid-based prescription medicines.

Doctor goes on to say: We must reduce the number of Americans exposed to opioids for the first time, especially for conditions where the risk of opioids outweighs the benefit. In addition, state policies should facilitate better use of prescription drug monitoring program.

You see, we spend all our money downstream on treating the person once they're addicted.

He closes this out by saying, "We must not forget what got us here in the first place: doctor's prudent use of the prescription pad and renewed commitment to treat pain more safely and effectively, based on what we know now about opioids, as well as healthy awareness of the risks and benefits among patients prescribed these drugs, can change the path of the opioid epidemic.

Again, Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director for the Center of Disease Control.

Ladies and gentlemen, this guy, first of all, should be testifying on Capitol Hill. And, again, part of the problem is that politicians are just using this stuff for leverage. They know it will sell back home that, "Hey, I just got a 2 million-dollar grant for a drug treatment program for people addicted to opioid."

They know this. I think it's a sin. They listen to this guy. We can set up monitoring -- what doctors are overprescribing this?

And like I said, they're not -- I don't think there are many doctors out there -- I'm not accusing them of saying, "I want to get people hooked on this."

They're well-intentioned. But I don't care about good intentions. I care about results. And the result is like this doctor said: This stuff is being overprescribed. There are safer remedies to deal with pain. But, of course, that's not what the pharmaceutical companies want. They want the latest and the greatest. And this stuff is more expensive.

So you have to ask yourself: Do we want to fix this thing or don't we?

You know, this is something that's right up my alley in terms of giving you straight talk. You know, well, compassion. Compassion nothing.

Let's remedy this. Let's keep people from becoming hooked in the first place. Then we'll deal with those that are already hooked. Once this stuff enters into the political realm, forget about it. Forget about anything meaningful coming out of Congress. You're going to see a heavy dose of federal dollars for treatment. You will not see mechanisms in place for monitoring of doctors and pharmaceutical companies, who are peddling this stuff. These people are unintentional -- they're dope dealers. They're no different than a dope dealer.

I know some of you will freak out. What do you mean a doctor -- look, this doctor says so. Not David Clarke.

Speaking of a crisis, the crime and violence in the does he of Chicago should bring tears to the eyes of a brass monkey. This is unbelievable. To date in the city of Chicago, you talk about a crisis and you talk about remedies, 753 people have been murdered in the city of Chicago. Compare that to 492 last year.

Where's the outrageous? Periodically, you see a story here and there.

Let me tell you what goes on weekly in Chicago: Here's what happened just last weekend. Five dead. Thirteen wounded. One night.

Four dead, 15 others wounded in shootings the next night.

So nine dead, 28 people hit by gunfire. Folks, this goes on weekly, in the great city of Chicago.

Where is the outrage? I'll tell you right now, if 753 people were killed in the Ebola crisis or epidemic or a scare -- let's call it a scare -- oh, hell, you'd have news conferences every day. All the local news would be covering it. All the major news networks would be covering this.

Oh, this is horrible. Now it's up to 750 -- somebody do something.

And, by the way, over 3,000 people have been hit in non-fatal shootings in 2016 alone, ladies and gentlemen.

This stuff is staggering. I've been in law enforcement, as I indicated, for 39 years. I'm staggered by this. Chicago is only 80 miles from Milwaukee, where I live. Just 80 miles down the road.

New York has hit an increase in homicide over last year. City of New York.

Baltimore, for successive years, has hit over 300 homicides.

Milwaukee is closing in on reaching the second highest level ever in the city's history. Last year was the second highest number of homicides. This year, we're closing in on that number.

If you joined us earlier, we talked about with Heather Mac Donald, what this war of cops has done. Men and women of Chicago Police Department are under siege because of ineffective leadership by none other than Democrat liberal mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has no idea what to do here. He has no idea how to get his arms around this.

I've offered some remedies. You notice again I didn't say solutions. Some things that we did during the '90s that led to record decreases in violent crime across the country.

Record numbers of decrease in crime and violence across the country. But we stopped doing those things that worked. We got hooked into this left's myth of mass black incarceration. We stopped locking people up. We engaged in these social engineering experiments. Second chance, for habitual criminals. Habitual!

Community corrections. A reluctance to use jails and prisons as a crime control tool. Jails and prisons are a very effective crime control tool. And here you have President Obama, a friend of the criminal, a cop hater, commuting sentences in record numbers. Hardly a mention in the national media. Every once in a while, a little blurb.

Reducing the sentences of major drug dealers and people who are in possession of weapons that are prohibited, while they're peddling those drugs.

We didn't provide any pushback. You know, this stuff doesn't turn on a dime. Even if we put those effective remedies back in place today, it might be five years before we see a downturn again. You know how many people are going to be victimized by violent crime in the next five years with these numbers?

This is amazing. We got to take a break. This is Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in for Glenn Beck. This is the Glenn Beck Program.

[break]

DAVID: Welcome back. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in for Glenn Beck. This is the Glenn Beck Program.

Looks like we're coming in for a smooth landing. A little turbulence along the way. But don't worry about that. You know, this is not my craft. I'm a cop by career. I'm a cop by trade. A pretty damn good one at that, I might add. But this radio stuff and TV stuff is -- is not my craft. But I enjoy it. I do it from time to time. And I really enjoy it. I hope you enjoy it as well.

If you did, I'll be back with you tomorrow. And if you didn't, come back tomorrow anyway and give me something to complain about, I guess.

I want to thank the crew here, the staff. They've been great.

You know, they realize that I'm a rookie when it comes to this, but they're very helpful. You know, they don't throw you into deeper water -- shark-infested and say, "Good luck." Very helpful. And I want to thank you for that.

Also, I want to say Merry Christmas to everybody. Always feels good to say "Merry Christmas" and not feel bashful about it. You know, this political correctness that we've been under, this country has been under, this siege for the last eight years has been horrendous. You had to go around and, you know, say "Happy Holidays" so you don't offend anybody. This move toward secularism. You know, Christmas, the birth of Christ.

And you had to said, like I said, skittish about saying it. You didn't want to offend anybody. Not that any of you were, and I know I wasn't. But, man, does it feel good. And I've heard more and more people since November just really exuberant about saying, "Merry Christmas!" It feels good. And Happy Hanukkah. As I said, we're a Judeo-Christian nation. The founding it was anyway. Not to the exclusion of any other religion.

I want to close by talking about Mrs. Bill Clinton. And she's hurting after the election, after her loss to Trump. And she's on this pity party -- this tour, this pity tour where she's going around the country talking to donors and supporters and blaming everybody except her lousy campaign for why she lost the presidential election.

Donald Trump outworked her. Donald Trump was tirelessly. They're about the same age. That guy is like the ever-ready Energizer bunny. The guy just doesn't stop. I watched him, folks. I was intricately involved in helping him getting elected. I got behind-the-scenes looks and up close and personal. And I would look at this guy, Donald Trump -- I say that affectionately -- the president-elect. And I said, "This guy doesn't stop." And I could tell early on he was going to outwork her. So she's going around, she's blaming everybody.

Remember, first she blames Jim Comey. She doesn't blame her corruption. She doesn't blame erasing 33,000 emails. She doesn't blame the secret server. She doesn't blame the Clinton Foundation. She blames Jim Comey.

Then after that, she blamed fake news. Fake news is why she lost the election. No, she ran a horrible campaign.

Then she said the other day she lost because the media didn't help her enough.

It took me a long time to stop laughing. Folks, the media was her campaign. The liberal mainstream media. They were her -- what do you mean they didn't help her enough to win? They couldn't do anymore. They couldn't do anymore to help her.

They gave her questions to the debates. They gave her stories and said, "Does this story meet with your recommendation before we go to print?" Now she says the media didn't help her enough.

Then there was the Russian hacking. Ah, the Russians did it. The Russians didn't cause her to lose the election. Even if they did hack -- and it hasn't been proven. I don't know what to believe, like I said. But even if they did hack in the DNC emails, that wasn't why she lost. Nothing in those emails that was put forth by Assange, they didn't dispute any of it. They never said, "That stuff's not true." They were just blaming hacking.

Well, guess who they're blaming now? I saw something up on the screen now, up on the monitor, up on the set here: Clinton is saying the inner city didn't come out -- they didn't help enough.

Now it's the voters. Her voters. She got 90 percent of the black vote.

What the heck is she talking about? You know what my advice to her would be? If she were my friend -- if she has any real friends, you know what they should do? They should go to her and say, "You know why you lost? Here, let me walk you over here." And put her in front of a mirror.

She's why she lost. But, of course, with her it's always somebody else's fault. Accepts no responsibility. Slept -- slept during most of the campaign. Every time you turn around, she was reported to take a nap. Well, she's going to have plenty of time to nap now, isn't she?

This is amazing. So we'll keep an eye on this electoral college. It's supposed to be meeting at noon Eastern time across the country. And closing this thing out, the left has scheduled protests -- there are scheduled protests across the nation prior to this election -- or the electoral college. They're still trying to put pressure on the electors. That is a federal crime. It's just not being investigated. But Donald Trump is going to get the required number of electors to finally seal this thing.

We still are not going to be able to move forward because, with the left, it's never over. It's never final. They're going to do everything they can to slow him down, to delegitimize his presidency. He's going to need our help. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke in for Glenn Beck. This is the Glenn Beck Radio Program. It's been my pleasure. God bless you.

Featured Image: Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, September 23, 2016 in New York City. New York State Attorney General Eric Scheiderman's office announced Friday that authorities in New York state have made a record drug bust, seizing 33 kilograms of heroin and 2 kilograms of fentanyl. According to the attorney general's office, it is the largest seizure in the 46 year history of New York's Organized Crime Task Force. Twenty-five peopole living in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Arizona and New Jersey have been indicted in connection with the case. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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

NurPhoto / Contributor | Getty Images

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.

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

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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.