Michelle Obama fans the flames of racial tensions during commencement speech

May 11, 2015

WRITER

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times on radio this morning. Moments after playing the inspiring audio from Denzel Washington, Glenn played another commencement speech. But rather than deliver an uplifting and inspiring message, Michelle Obama fanned the flames of racial tension.

GLENN: Now, the worst of times. Here is -- and I just want to emphasize, the woman who is married to the most powerful man in the world, the First Lady of the United States of America.

MICHELLE: Because while we've come so far, the truth is that those age-old problems are stubborn. And they haven't fully gone away. So there will be times, just like for those airmen, when you feel like folks look right past you. Or they see just a fraction of who you really are. The world won't always see you in those caps and gowns. They won't know how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed to make it to this day.

PAT: Now, she's speaking to an all-black audience. And speaking of black airmen from Tuskegee about them. And, of course, this never happens to white people. White people never get looked beyond. Everybody always knows how hard a white person has worked. Everybody always knows that. Right? Just amazing.

GLENN: Listen to this list, and tell me this doesn't apply to white people as well.

MICHELLE: The countless hours you spent studying to get this diploma. The multiple jobs you worked to pay for school. The times you had to drive home and take care of your grandma. The evenings you gave up to volunteer at a food bank or organize a campus fundraiser. They don't know that part of you. Instead, they will make assumptions about who they think you are, based on their limited notion of the world.

PAT: Jeez. Wow.

MICHELLE: And my husband and I know how frustrating that experience can be.

GLENN: Can I ask you, Mrs. Obama, the First Lady of the United States of America, who is of a race that is 11 percent of the population. So you were clearly not voted in with just your race, white people in droves went out to vote for you, and you were somehow or another invisible so much that you became the president and First Lady of the United States of America.

PAT: Twice.

GLENN: Tell me about the troubles that you have seen. I mean, it's just remarkable to me. Remarkable. Now, I'm not going to play anymore -- you want to play more?

PAT: There's a lot here. We haven't even gotten to the part where she talks about Baltimore.

GLENN: Well, play the Baltimore part. I can't take --

PAT: Yeah.

MICHELLE: We both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives.

GLENN: Stop.

PAT: Nobody else has. No white people has felt that sting. Nobody.

GLENN: No Hispanics. No whites. No Indians. Nobody else. And if you want to say that the Native Americans have felt it and the Hispanics have felt it, but the whites have never felt it. I mean, the conservatives have never felt it. The jobs that we -- that we are suddenly bypassed for because we're conservative. Because of our viewpoint. The religious that are mocked on a daily basis and belittled. Yeah, we've never felt that. We don't know what it's like. Okay. All right.

PAT: And, again, First Lady of the United States of America.

GLENN: Yeah. I'm not comparing -- I'm not comparing what anybody has gone through. The same as slavery. Or the same as what Martin Luther King went through. But we're not the country of Martin Luther King's time anymore. We are being dragged back to those days. And the proof is in the pudding when she starts talking about Baltimore.

MICHELLE: -- cross the street in fear of their safety. The clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores. The people at formal events who assumed we were the help. And those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh.

PAT: And why do people do that? We've questioned their honesty and integrity over and over again because of their actions.

GLENN: Because they lie.

PAT: Their honesty is in question because they've lied to us over and over again --

GLENN: And I want to make sure it's very, very clear. When we say "their honesty," we're not talking about black people. We're talking about this particular black person and her husband.

PAT: The Obamas. Yes.

GLENN: And we would question them like we do the Bushes. Like we do with the Clintons. Like we do with the Huckabees. Like we do with -- who else has been on our -- on our list of people to really question? Soros.

PAT: Harry Reid.

GLENN: Harry Reid. Lindsey Graham. John McCain.

PAT: They're liars.

GLENN: Liars.

PAT: And we've proven it over and over again. Now, love of country. That's based on your comments. On your actions. On the history of who you are and what you've done your whole lives.

STU: In the middle of the speech where she's essentially boiling her country down to a place that follows black people around in department stores and executes them as they cross the street, of course, we don't think you like this place. Look at the way you talk about it. You describe it as a horror show.

PAT: Right. She's the one who said, we have to change our history. We have to change our culture. We have to change where we are.

GLENN: Her husband said we have to have a fundamental transformation. I've pointed this out before. You don't go to the Mona Lisa and say I want to fundamentally transform this painting. You say, I want to restore it to its original beauty.

PAT: You don't go to the love of your life -- your wife or husband and say, hey, I really love you, but I want to fundamentally transform everything you are.

GLENN: Everything about you. It just doesn't happen.

MICHELLE: I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day. Those nagging worries that you're going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason.

GLENN: Stop. I want -- I just want you to make a note of what she's saying here. What she's saying here is, you as a black person, you're invisible -- think of this, you're invisible when -- when you want a job or you want to do something, nobody will even see you. But because you're black, you're super, super visible when you're in a store or when you're driving. And they're going to stop you for no reason whatsoever. And you have a justified concern of being stopped for no reason whatsoever. Just make note of what she's saying. Because she's about to get to Baltimore.

MICHELLE: Feared that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds. The agony of --

GLENN: Like Barack Hussein.

STU: When you're trying to lead the world with a name --

GLENN: While we're at war with a guy named Hussein.

STU: And Osama, which is one letter away of his last name.

PAT: How does she get away with this? How does she get away with a speech like this! It's unbelievable.

GLENN: Nobody's willing to say it.

STU: It's laughable. Can we at least put this into context one more time? All of these things, in the middle of all these things, describing the worst country you've ever heard of in your entire life, she complains that people continually think that she doesn't love the country.

PAT: And it's because she's black that they do that.

STU: It's not because you're black. It's because you keep saying this. This is the only way you ever describe the nation you live in. Of course, people think you despise it.

PAT: Every time.

GLENN: But she thinks -- she's saying that it's only because I'm black that they would question.

STU: Right. And it's not that at all. When you're asked to talk about your country, this is what you do.

PAT: Virtually every time.

STU: You point out every horrible thing that's ever happened and you act like it happens all the time.

PAT: Would anybody question if she loves this country if she would get up and say, and leave it at this, look, I know the country has problems. It always has. And it probably always will. But, look, I -- we -- I and my husband are the first couple of the United States of America where we belong to a group that's 12 percent of the population. And we were elected president and first lady of the United States.

GLENN: So don't get discouraged. Don't get down. You can make it.

PAT: Nobody has done that in the history of the world. But we have gotten there.

GLENN: These two people --

PAT: Jeez.

GLENN: I truly believe, in the history of all mankind, they may go down as at least top ten, maybe top five of people who had the biggest opportunity in the world, in all of history to change things for the better.

PAT: Uh-huh.

GLENN: And they decided to go the other way. They could have changed race relations forever. And they took us back to the 1960s. On grudge politics.

STU: If you played this in a documentary from the 1960s, this speech --

PAT: It would be totally appropriate.

STU: You would have no idea that this country elected a black person. You would have no idea that we made any progress at all. This is boilerplate nonsense from the 1960s.

GLENN: Yes, it is.

MICHELLE: Sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal. The realization that no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen, for some folks, it will never be enough.

PAT: Wow.

MICHELLE: Those feelings are real. They're rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible. And those feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country.

PAT: Wow. Wow.

GLENN: So she's saying -- she is saying that the reason why Baltimore is on fire is because people are feeling invisible. They feel like they can't -- they're not being heard. They're not being seen. And she's saying, it's not just that those feelings are real. She's saying, in the beginning of this speech, in the beginning of this paragraph, that that is the truth. So it's one thing to say, you know, I know how you feel. But let me tell you the reality. The reality is, things are getting better. You're not invisible. I'm the First Lady and the president of the United States is my husband. You can make it in this country. Look, the struggle is not gone. The struggle is still there. But you can make it. You can make it. And the worst thing to do is riot in the streets. She's saying the opposite. I know what you feel because I felt it, and even I'm the president's wife and I still feel invisible. I feel like we're not being heard. And so it's -- it's not only your feeling. I validate your feeling. I'm here to tell you, it is happening. And that's why people are rioting in the streets. She is encouraging this kind of behavior.

STU: Yeah. And, first of all, taking something that was real in the 1960s and rehashing it now as if it's still the truth. Honestly, wouldn't you ask, why the hell would you love that country? If that country is real in 2015, I don't love it.

PAT: It sounds terrible.

GLENN: I don't want to live -- I wouldn't be proud of the United States of America if we were doing what we did in Selma, Alabama.

STU: No.

GLENN: I would not be proud of that country.

PAT: The most ironic bit of this is it happened in Tuskegee University.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Booker T. Washington is spinning in his grave like a lathe. If you've ever read Up from Slavery, that is one of the greatest men to ever live in America.

PAT: It's the opposite of everything he stood for, believed, and advocated.

GLENN: Absolutely. But I doubt they even teach that anymore.

PAT: I bet not.

GLENN: I bet that's so lost. Even now, if you buy Up from Slavery, the copy that I have, I have an original copy. You go back and you read the -- the new versions, the version I have, the preface is from like some Harvard know-it-all that says, we're not even sure that any of this is even real.

PAT: What?

STU: What do you mean?

PAT: Are they saying he didn't write that?

GLENN: We think that this is mostly made up. He wasn't really a slave.

PAT: What! Oh, my gosh.

STU: Trying to discredit him.

GLENN: Yeah. To totally discredit him now.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: And he is one of the greatest voices. Every child, black, white, brown, doesn't matter, every child should read Booker T. Washington Up from Slavery. Should know who Booker T. Washington is. Should emulate his actions and his life. That guy had more answers in his pinkie than everybody in Washington has today.

STU: This is sort of separate. We say this many times though that the suspicion is, of many, that she's actually more radical than he is.

GLENN: Yes.

STU: Michelle is more radical than President Obama. This is an interesting piece of this. Because he's been criticized by some in the black community for using the word thug to describe Baltimore and some of these other riots. He's been out there actually using that word. Which MSNBC is calling the new N-word. The President of the United States is using that word to describe some of these people. That's not the vibe here. There's an obvious separation -- either he's completely lying when he's using that because he's using it for some political purpose, or they are at odds on this position.

GLENN: I have a feeling that their upstairs talk is very contentious. I have a feeling -- I don't know whether he believes it or what. But she does believe it. And he's probably saying to her, I'm the president. You don't know what I'm dealing with here. And he may actually believe it. But he's trying to walk a more fine line that she doesn't have to walk.

The Deep State's NEW plan to backstab Trump

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

We cannot make the same mistake we made in 2016 — celebrating victory while the deep state plots its next move.

In 2016, Donald Trump shocked the world by defeating Hillary Clinton. Conservatives cheered, believing we’d taken back the reins of our country. But we missed the bigger battle. We failed to recognize the extent of the damage caused by eight years of Barack Obama and decades of progressive entrenchment. The real war isn’t won at the ballot box. It’s being waged against an insidious force embedded deep within our institutions: the administrative state, or the “deep state.”

This isn’t a new problem. America’s founders foresaw it, though they didn’t have a term for “deep state” back in the 1700s. James Madison, in Federalist 48, warned us that combining legislative, executive, and judicial powers in the same hands is “the very definition of tyranny.” Yet today, that’s exactly where we stand. Unelected bureaucrats in agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Justice hold more power than the officials we vote for. They control the levers of government with impunity, dictating policies and stifling change.

This is the fight for the soul of our nation. The founders’ vision of a constitutional republic is under siege.

We’ve felt the consequences of this growing tyranny firsthand. During COVID-19, so-called experts ran our lives, crushing civil liberties under the guise of public safety. Our intelligence agencies and justice system turned into weapons of political warfare, targeting a sitting president and his supporters. Meanwhile, actual criminals were given a pass, turning American cities into lawless war zones.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1816 that “the functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents.” Today, we see Jefferson’s prophecy fulfilled. The deep state exercises unchecked power over our freedoms, and information itself is controlled by the fourth branch of government: the legacy media.

Even when we win elections, the deep state doesn’t concede defeat. It switches to survival mode. Trump’s first term proved this. Despite a historic mandate to dismantle the bureaucracy, the deep state fought back with everything it had: leaks, investigations, court rulings, and obstruction at every turn. And now, with the possibility of Trump returning to office, the deep state is preparing to do it again.

Progressives are laying out their attack plan — and they’re not even hiding it.

U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.) recently boasted about forming a “shadow cabinet” to govern alongside the deep state, regardless of who’s in the White House. Nickel called it “democracy’s insurance policy.” Let’s be clear: This isn’t insurance. It’s sabotage.

They’ll employ a “top down, bottom up, inside out” strategy to overwhelm and collapse any effort to reform the system. From the top, federal judges and shadow officials will block Trump’s every move. Governors in blue states like California and New York are gearing up to resist federal authority. During Trump’s first term, California filed over 100 lawsuits against his administration. Expect more of the same starting January 20.

From the bottom, progressive groups like the American Civil Liberties Union will flood the streets with protesters, much as they did to oppose Trump’s first-term immigration reforms. They’ve refined their tactics since 2016 and are prepared to unleash a wave of civil unrest. These aren’t spontaneous movements; they’re coordinated assaults designed to destabilize the administration.

Finally, from the inside, the deep state will continue its mission of self-preservation. Agencies will drag their feet, leak sensitive information, and undermine policies from within. Their goal is to make everything a chaotic mess, so the heart of their power — the bureaucratic core — remains untouched and grows stronger.

We cannot make the same mistake we made in 2016 — celebrating victory while the deep state plots its next move. Progressives never see themselves as losing. When they’re out of power, they simply shift tactics, pumping more blood into their bureaucratic heart. We may win elections, but the war against the deep state will only intensify. As George Washington warned in his Farewell Address, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force; and force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

This is the fight for the soul of our nation. The founders’ vision of a constitutional republic is under siege. The deep state has shown us its plan: to govern from the shadows, circumventing the will of the people. But now that the shadows have been exposed, we have a choice. Will we accept this silent tyranny, or will we demand accountability and reclaim our nation’s heart?

The battle is just beginning. We can’t afford to lose.

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

Drone mystery exposes GLARING government incompetence

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone issue is getting way out of hand.

Earlier this month, Glenn first reported on the mysterious drones stalking the night sky over New Jersey, but the situation is increasingly concerning as the sightings have escalated. Not only have drones been seen across the Northeast Coast, including over New York City, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, but recently, they have been spotted over the night skies of San Diego and other parts of Southern California.

It doesn't take an expert to identify the potential dangers and risks that dozens of undetectable, unidentified six-foot or larger drones pose to national security. Yet, our government's response has been one of unimaginable incompetence, leaving us to speculate on the origin and intention of these drones and wonder in astonishment at the government's ineptitude. Here are three examples of the government's lackluster response to the mystery drones:

Iranian Mothership and Missing Nuclear Warheads

- / Stringer | Getty Images

After several weeks of hubbub, New Jersey Representative, Jeff Van Drew gave an interview on Fox News where he claimed that the drones originated from an Iranian "mothership" off the East Coast of the United States. This theory has since been disproven by satellite images, which show that all Iranian drone carriers are far from U.S. shores. Another theory suggests that drones may be equipped with sensors capable of detecting nuclear material and that they are looking for a nuclear warhead that recently went missing! With these apocalyptic theories gaining traction in the absence of any real answer from our government, one can't help but question the motive behind the silence.

Pentagon's Limp Wristed Response

Alex Wong / Staff | Getty Images

In a recent press conference, national security spokesman John Kirby responded to reporters demanding answers about the government's lack of transparency, which has caused increasing public anxiety. He insisted that the drones did not pose a threat and were not assets of a foreign power, such as from Iran or China--even though he is still uncertain about their identity and origin. He also claimed that many of the sightings were simply misidentifications of normal aircraft.

This lackluster answer has only further inflamed national anxieties and raised even more questions. If the government is unsure of the identity of the drones, how do they know if they are a threat or if they aren't foreign assets? If they aren't foreign, does that mean they are U.S. assets? If so, why not just say so?

The Pentagon has also stated that they are leaving it up to local law enforcement to spearhead the investigation after concluding that these drones pose no threat to any military installation. This has left many feeling like the federal government has turned a blind eye to a serious issue that many Americans are very concerned about.

Where's Pete Buttigieg?

Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images

We are in the closing weeks of the Biden administration, and with the finish line in sight, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg probably figured nothing else could go wrong on his watch—but boy was he wrong. As Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg is in charge of the FAA, the agency responsible for managing all air traffic across the nation. One would think that mysterious, 6-foot-long, seemingly intractable drones are invisible on radar and flying above major cities would pose a serious threat to the myriad of legal aircraft that traverse our skies. Yet, Buttigieg has been silent on the issue, adding another failure to his resume which includes: malfunctioning airplanes, the train derailment in Ohio, and the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse, just to name a few.

Glenn: How Alvin Bragg turned hero Daniel Penny into a villain

Michael M. Santiago / Staff | Getty Images

We cannot allow corrupt institutions to punish those who act to protect life and liberty.

America no longer has a single, shared understanding of justice. Two Americas now exist, each applying justice differently depending on who you are and where you live. One America, ruled by common sense and individual courage, praises heroes who stand up to protect others. The other, driven by political agendas and corrupted institutions, punishes those same heroes for daring to act.

This stark division couldn’t be clearer than in the case of Daniel Penny, the Marine whose trial in New York City this week drew strong reactions from both sides across the divided line of justice.

If we let this slide, we accept a world in which heroes are treated as criminals and the law is a weapon for ideological warfare.

Penny was on a subway train last year when Jordan Neely — a man suffering from severe mental illness and reportedly high on drugs — began threatening passengers, saying, “I’m going to kill you all.” The fear on that subway car was palpable, but nobody moved. Nobody, that is, until Penny did what needed to be done. He took action to protect innocent lives.

In the America many of us used to believe in, Penny’s response would be heralded as heroic. His actions mirrored the courage of Todd Beamer on Flight 93, who, on September 11, 2001, rallied others with the words, “Let’s roll,” to prevent further tragedy. But in New York, courage doesn’t seem to count anymore. There, the system turns heroes into villains.

Penny subdued Neely using a chokehold, intending only to restrain him, not kill him. Tragically, Neely died. Penny, filled with remorse, told the police he never meant to hurt anyone. Yet, instead of being recognized for protecting others from a clear and present threat, Penny stood trial for criminally negligent homicide.

In Alvin Bragg’s New York, justice bends to ideology. The Manhattan district attorney has made a career of weaponizing the law, selectively prosecuting those who don’t fit his narrative. He’s the same prosecutor who twisted legal precedent to go after Donald Trump on business charges no one had ever faced before. Then, he turned his sights on Daniel Penny.

A jury may have acquitted Penny, but what happened in New York City this week isn’t justice. When the rule of law changes depending on the defendant’s identity or the prosecutor's political motives, we’re no longer living in a free country. We’re living in a state where justice is a game, and ordinary Americans are the pawns.

The system failed Jordan Neely

It’s worth asking: Where were activists like Alvin Bragg when Neely was suffering on the streets? Jordan Neely was a tragic figure — a man with a long history of mental illness and over 40 arrests, including violent assaults. The system failed him long before he stepped onto that subway train. Yet rather than confront that uncomfortable truth, Bragg’s office decided to target the man who stepped in to prevent a tragedy.

This isn’t about justice. It’s about power. It’s about advancing a narrative where race and identity matter more than truth and common sense.

It’s time to demand change

The Daniel Penny case — and others like it — is a wake-up call. We cannot allow corrupt institutions to punish those who act to protect life and liberty. Americans must demand an end to politically driven prosecutions, hold DAs like Alvin Bragg accountable, and stand up for the principle that true justice is blind, consistent, and fair.

If we let this slide, we accept a world in which heroes are treated as criminals and the law is a weapon for ideological warfare. It’s time to choose which America we want to live in.

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

CEO Brian Thompson's killer reveals COWARDICE of the far-left death cult

Jeff Swensen / Stringer | Getty Images

Early on the chilly morning of Wednesday, December 4th, Brian Thompson, CEO of health insurance giant, UnitedHealthcare, was walking through Midtown Manhattan on his way to a company conference. Suddenly, a masked and hooded figure silently allegedly stepped onto the sidewalk behind Thompson, drew a 3-D printed, silenced pistol, and without warning fired multiple shots into Thompson's back before fleeing the scene on an electric bicycle. After a multiple-day manhunt, a 26-year-old lead suspect was arrested at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania after being recognized by an employee.

This was not "vigilante justice." This was cold-blooded murder.

As horrific as the murder of a husband and father in broad daylight in the center of New York City is, the story only gets worse. Even before the murder suspect was arrested, left-wing extremists were already taking to X to call him a "hero" and a "vigilante" who "took matters into his own hands." Even the mainstream media joined in on the glorification, as Glenn pointed out on air recently, going out of the way to show how physically attractive the murder suspect was. This wave of revolting and nihilistic fanfare came in response to the findings of online investigators who surmised the murder suspect's motives to retaliate against healthcare companies for corruption and denied coverage. The murder suspect supposedly underwent a major back surgery that left him with back pain, and some of his internet fans apparently viewed his murder of Thompson as retribution for the mistreatment that he and many other Americans have suffered from healthcare companies.

me liking tweets celebrating the assassination of the united healthcare ceo pic.twitter.com/N41w51ZuZR
— 🔻 (@pegasustits) December 5, 2024

The murder suspect and his lackeys don't seem to understand that, other than depriving two children of their father right before Christmas, he accomplished nothing.

The murder suspect failed to achieve his goal because he was too cowardly to try.

If the murder suspect's goals were truly to "right the wrongs" of the U.S. healthcare system, he had every tool available to him to do so in a constructive and meaningful manner. He came from a wealthy and prominent family in the Baltimore area, became the valedictorian at a prestigious all-boys prep school, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a master's in engineering. Clearly, the murder suspect was intelligent and capable, and if he had put his talent into creating solutions for the healthcare industry, who knows what he could have accomplished?

This is the kind of behavior the far-left idolizes, like communists on college campuses who wear shirts that celebrate the brutal Cuban warlord, Che Guevara. Merchandise celebrating the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder suspect is already available, including shirts, hoodies, mugs, and even Christmas ornaments. Will they be sporting his face on their T-shirts too?

A liberal TikToker is selling a t-shirt that glorifies the recent assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in NYC.
“deny , defend, depose” was reported to have been on the shell casings. pic.twitter.com/IWpHYkx2lF
— SteveSant66 🇺🇸 (@SSant66) December 8, 2024

This macabre behavior does not breed creation, achievement, success, or life. It only brings death and risks more Americans falling into this dangerous paradigm. But we still have a chance to choose life. We just have to wake up and take it.

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