Comrade Update: Nationalized Banks

February 28, 2008

Radio Clips

The Glenn Beck Program

Comrade Glenn checks in with the latest from the western front...

GLENN: Comrade!

STU: Yes, comrade.

GLENN: Great news from the Western front.

STU: It is great news today, comrade Glenn.

GLENN: We've eradicated first names, comrade.

STU: I know.

GLENN: We're all alike.

STU: We are.

GLENN: Great, great news.

STU: And we all live in concrete buildings with no architectural design.

GLENN: It's fantastic, but everybody has one.

STU: Everybody has one.

GLENN: Because we nationalized all the mortgages.

STU: Oh, comrade.

GLENN: It doesn't get any -- it just -- aye-yi-yi-yi. I want to -- I'll give you two examples. I want to show you this because this is why it's important for you to know what's happening with the economy for a couple of reasons. One, so you can prepare. Just know. Just don't do stupid stuff. Get out of debt, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and prepare. We can survive anything. I firmly believe it. We can survive anything. My concern is we cannot survive -- remember my whole theory is we have Seventies stagflation unless there's downward pressure, massive downward pressure on the table that is holding this little spiderweb of all this greed and debt and everything else, it's all interconnected, it will hold unless there's downward pressure. So what is that downward pressure? Well, I'm beginning to believe that downward pressure is going to come from the Government itself. The downward pressure.

For instance, may I give you -- read this to Stu yesterday and I have been saying this downward pressure thing and Stu's been a skeptic and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This goes into -- do you remember when I said to you, Stu, 18 months ago or a year ago about Carroll Quigley?

STU: Oh, yeah, you've been talking about him for a long time.

GLENN: And do you remember what the point was on Carroll Quigley on tragedy and hope?

STU: It was more of a war point in that the economies are so tied together, no one would want to attack each other anymore. That was the theory behind it anyway.

GLENN: Correct. Except it doesn't work if?

STU: If there are terrorist groups, there's no flag on the plane.

GLENN: If there he's no flag on the plane, then the whole thing that's set up from the beginning to not get us to go to war with each other falls apart. That's been a theory forever. Well, that is the table theory. Something, downward pressure to push all this stuff down. All these safety things, we'll survive anything unless there's this big downward pressure. At the time that I told you that it was possibly terrorists, look out; if they strike, this would be bad, shoot oil up, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'm beginning to think it's not necessarily terrorists, and yesterday this op-ed was in. And it's a story against people like me that's a bear. "The bears stampede again. Notes on the latest crisis ever. And it talks about all these people including George Soros who say this is 1929 all over again in the past. And they have said, you know, this is the worst crisis ever, this is the worst crisis ever, this is the worst crisis ever, yada, Y da, yada and we always got through it.

Now, the end of the article says this may be the worst crisis ever because we haven't ever seen these conditions, but there's always periods of hope that are the psychological link that takes us away from fear and panic. Experience in theory show us quite clearly that profit-motivated individuals tend to keep capitalistic economies expanding.

I agree with that. Would you agree with that, Stu?

STU: Oh, absolutely.

GLENN: Fantastic. That's --

STU: It's the basis of anything smart in economics.

GLENN: That's why we will always survive. Everybody always says, CitiBank can't fail, it can't fail, it can't fail, how could it possibly, we can't afford it to fail.

Next line: Profit-motivated individuals tend to keep capitalist economies expanding, while nobody apart from unreformed Marxists or Al-Qaeda terrorists has comparable incentives to push the economy into a prolonged slump or collapse. Except for those two, except for Al-Qaeda terrorists and unreformed Marxists.

Comrade!

STU: Oh, comrade.

GLENN: Comrade, good news from the Western front a couple of weeks ago. Can you tell me what happened to that big bank in Great Britain?

STU: Oh, comrade, they nationalized it!

GLENN: They nationalized it. Comrade, can you tell me about the story that I gave you yesterday about how England was going to be the economic center, it was overtaking Wall Street and London was going to be the financial hub of the world?

STU: Yes, comrade.

GLENN: What happened?

STU: Well, they started putting in the policies that we designed, the motherland.

GLENN: Wait a minute. You also had the mayor of London who has jacked taxes through the roof.

STU: Those policies.

GLENN: By the way, what party is he? He's a socialist!

STU: What a shocker, comrade, one of our own.

GLENN: Great news. So now the people in London, all the big finance people are looking for a new home. They are running away from London. What a surprise, that wouldn't work.

Now, I told you when GM was negotiating, I said, I'll bet you that they're going to try to get the unions to take all of this pension money. The pensions, it will help GM but the unions won't be able to bear this on their back just like GM can't. Nobody can't. And they will try to shove it off to the state. Why is everybody in business so eager for universal healthcare? "Oh, let's get all this healthcare, let's save these pensions." They want it off their back. They're trying to create what they have in the Soviet Union and China, which is this weird nationalized capitalist, communist, weird system that the world has never seen before.

Today in The Wall Street Journal you have, seeing red, the largest unfunded liabilities in public pensions." These are pension funds, exactly what I was talking about. "California pension, $29.1 billion. Illinois teachers, $22 billion. California teachers, $19 billion. Ohio teachers, $14.5 billion. Texas teachers, $12.5. These are the largest unfunded liabilities in public pension plans. This should tell you two things. One: The teachers unions are out of control! But who needed me to say that.

The second thing is how do you fund these? The story goes on to say while all of these states are in trouble, look at New Jersey. "New York Times," by the way, would like you to learn a lesson from New Jersey and maybe raise taxes. All of these cities, all of these states, all of these unfunded promises that we have made, we just had the City of Vallejo, California go bankrupt. They can't afford the, what was it? Was it 10 firemen that they now pay $2 million a year to? 10 firemen? So they have to have a part-time firehouse because the unions went out of control and so now they can't afford any of their services. Well, when these things start to collapse and they start and they say, "We can't pay for it," somebody's going to have to pay for it. Who's going to pay for it? How is that going to happen? Who's going to be there at the end saying, we can't let people suffer."

Comrade!

STU: We're always in the right place at the right time, comrade.

GLENN: Right place at the right time. Boy, this is fantastic. Should we talk politics? Let's look at the people who are running. They've got their arms wide open.

STU: Comrade, they're there to save the people in the Western front.

GLENN: They cannot allow these banks to fail. They cannot allow these pensions to fail. They will not allow the hungry to go unfed or the nonhomeless to go homeless. They'll take care of it. They're there because they love you. And money? Heck, we can always print more.

The Omicron variant: Should we ACTUALLY panic?

Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images

As the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus approaches, it seems like those in power want everyone to be terrified, Glenn Beck argued on the radio program Monday.

The chair of the World Medical Association's Council, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, is already comparing the variant to Ebola and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has declared a state of emergency, despite the doctor who announced its discovery describing the new variant's symptoms as "unusual, but mild." So, should we really be worried or not?

In this clip, Glenn and producer Stu Burguiere reviewed what we know about the Omicron variant so far and gave a few reasons why we should wait for more information before succumbing to panic.

Note: The content of this clip does not provide medical advice. Please seek the advice of local health officials for any COVID-related questions & concerns.

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To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Want to Defeat Tyranny? The Epic True Story of America's FIRST Freedom Fighters

Faced with an oppressive government that literally burned people at the stake for printing Bibles, America's original freedom fighters risked it all for the same rights our government is starting to trample now. That's not the Pilgrim story our woke schools and corporate media will tell you. It's the truth, and it sounds a lot more like today's heroes in Afghanistan than the 1619 Project's twisted portrait of America.

This Thanksgiving season, Glenn Beck and WallBuilders president Tim Barton tell the full story of who the Pilgrims really were and what we must learn from them, complete with a sneak peek at the largest privately owned collection of Pilgrim artifacts.

Watch the video below

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Glenn Beck: How to prepare YOUR family for coming electrical BLACKOUTS

Saule Omarova, President Joe Biden's nominee for comptroller of the currency, admitted she wants to fight climate change by bankrupting coal, oil, and gas companies. Alarmingly, Biden's U.S. special climate envoy, John Kerry, seemed to agree with Omarova when he said "by 2030 in the United States, we won't have coal" at the COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this month. But that could end in massive electrical blackouts and brownouts across the nation, BlazeTV host Glenn Beck warned.

Carol Roth, author of "The War On Small Business," joined "The Glenn Beck Program" to explain what experts say you can do now to prepare your family for potential coming power outages.

"It's interesting. Usually when I go out and talk to experts in areas that are not 100% core to my area of expertise and I say, 'I would like to give you credit.' Usually I get, 'OK, here's how you credit me.' But everyone is like, 'No, no. Let me tell you what happened, just don't use my name.' And this is across the country," Roth said. "This isn't just a California issue, which obviously [California] is leading the nation. But even experts out of Texas, people who are monitoring the electric grid are incredibly concerned about brownouts or blackouts now, already. So forget about 2030."

"You want to have a backup source of power," she continued. "Either a propane, diesel, or combo generator is something that you're going to want to have. Because in a state, for example like Texas, I'm told that once the state loses power, it will take a minimum of two weeks to restore plants back to operations and customers able to use grid power again. So, this isn't something that we've got nine years or whatever to be thinking about. We should be planning and preparing now."

Watch the video clip below to catch more of this important conversation:

Want more from Glenn Beck?

Let’s thank the Pilgrims for defeating Socialism this Thanksgiving

This year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the first Thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag allies in 1621. Tragically, nearly half of the Pilgrims had died by famine and disease during their first year. However, they had been met by native Americans such as Samoset and Squanto who miraculously spoke English and taught the Pilgrims how to survive in the New World. That fall the Pilgrims, despite all the hardships, found much to praise God for and they were joined by Chief Massasoit and his ninety braves came who feasted and celebrated for three days with the fifty or so surviving Pilgrims.

It is often forgotten, however, that after the first Thanksgiving everything was not smooth sailing for the Pilgrims. Indeed, shortly thereafter they endured a time of crop failure and extreme difficulties including starvation and general lack. But why did this happen? Well, at that time the Pilgrims operated under what is called the "common storehouse" system. In its essence it was basically socialism. People were assigned jobs and the fruits of their labor would be redistributed throughout the people not based on how much work you did but how much you supposedly needed.

The problem with this mode of economics is that it only fails every time. Even the Pilgrims, who were a small group with relatively homogeneous beliefs were unable to successfully operate under a socialistic system without starvation and death being only moments away. Governor William Bradford explained that under the common storehouse the people began to "allege weakness and inability" because no matter how much or how little work someone did they still were given the same amount of food. Unsurprisingly this, "was found to breed much confusion and discontent."[1]

The Pilgrims, however, were not the type of people to keep doing what does not work. And so, "they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery."[2] And, "after much debate of things" the Pilgrims under the direction of William Bradford, decided that each family ought to "trust to themselves" and keep what they produced instead of putting it into a common storehouse.[3] In essence, the Pilgrims decided to abandon the socialism which had led them to starvation and instead adopt the tenants of the free market.

And what was the result of this change? Well, according to Bradford, this change of course, "had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."[4] Eventually, the Pilgrims became a fiscally successful colony, paid off their enormous debt, and founded some of the earliest trading posts with the surrounding Indian tribes including the Aptucxet, Metteneque, and Cushnoc locations. In short, it represented one of the most significant economic revolutions which determined the early characteristics of the American nation.

The Pilgrims, of course, did not simply invent these ideas out of thin air but they instead grew out of the intimate familiarity the Pilgrims had with the Bible. The Scriptures provide clear principles for establishing a successful economic system which the Pilgrims looked to. For example, Proverbs 12:11 says, "He that tills his land shall be satisfied with bread." So the Pilgrims purchased land from the Indians and designated lots for every family to individually grow food for themselves. After all, 1 Timothy 5:8 declares, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

We often think that the battle against Socialism is a new fight sprouting out of the writings of Karl Marx which are so blindly and foolishly followed today by those deceived by leftist irrationality. However, America's fight against the evil of socialism goes back even to our very founding during the colonial period. Thankfully, our forefathers decided to reject the tenants of socialism and instead build their new colony upon the ideology of freedom, liberty, hard work, and individual responsibility.

So, this Thanksgiving, let's thank the Pilgrims for defeating socialism and let us look to their example today in our ongoing struggle for freedom.

[1] William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856), 135.

[2] William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856), 134.

[3] William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856), 134.

[4] William Bradford, History of Plymouth Plantation (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856), 135.

Glenn's Show Prep

Comrade Update: Nationalized Banks

The Omicron variant: Should we ACTUALLY panic?

Want more from Glenn Beck?

Want to Defeat Tyranny? The Epic True Story of America's FIRST Freedom Fighters

Want more from Glenn Beck?

Glenn Beck: How to prepare YOUR family for coming electrical BLACKOUTS

Want more from Glenn Beck?

Let’s thank the Pilgrims for defeating Socialism this Thanksgiving