Observations of an Irishman: Good Americans Turned My Travel Nightmare Into a Miracle

January 08, 2018

Contributor

If you ever want to see America at its greatest, all you have to do is look for a disaster (anywhere in the world) and chances are you will see some American involvement. The world witnessed this when the Southern United States suffered major hurricanes and, once again, ordinary American people stepped up with both time and money.

If you have ever listened to my show on TheBlaze, you will notice I always finish my show the exact same way --- by sharing the sentiments of Alexis de Tocqueville:

America is GREAT because Americans are GOOD.

I share this for many reasons, but the main one is to remind everyone who listens that the success or failure of America will always be in the hands of her people. Being blunt, the day America stops being good is the day the nation is lost forever.

A Hero

On my recent trip across the United States, I met with so many amazing people who shared stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. I will never forget meeting an individual (who asked to remain nameless) and their story of helping during the cleanup in Houston. This individual was not some millionaire or billionaire, in fact, they recently had their electricity cut off. It would have been very easy and totally justifiable for this person to believe that charity starts at home and that they had to focus on getting themselves back on their feet.

That is not what happened. This individual got large drums, filled them with gas and drove down to Houston to deliver them to people in need. What amazed me most about this person was their humility, selflessness, hope for the future and belief that tomorrow is a new day.

Observations of an Irishman: American Culture Is Different

I also believe that if someone had found out about this person's situation and given them some money towards their electric bill, they would have either not taken it, or taken it and bought more gas for the people in Houston.

My Disaster

Over the years, I have met many people who would literally give you the coat off their shoulders so you could be warm. I have seen people donate huge sums of money, but the stories that always hit me the most are those of people donating their time and effort --- rich or poor we all only have 24 hours in a day. I have been very blessed in my life to never really be in a situation where I needed someone’s time and energy. That changed on this trip.

I was coming towards the end of my trip and about to spend a week in Texas. I was due to fly into Austin, drive to Fredericksburg for an event, then down to Houston for another event and then drive back to Dallas for a couple of events and spend some time with Glenn Beck and the team. It was all planned, booked and paid for well in advance.

I hate letting people down and it was looking like I was going to let a lot of folks down.

I arrived in Austin as planned, but the car company messed up my reservation and could not hire me a car. They had no other cars available. I tried every other car rental company in the airport without success. To say I was upset would be an understatement. All I wanted was a solution to get to the event, but every option I considered was blocked. I hate letting people down and it was looking like I was going to let a lot of folks down.

I was stuck in Austin airport with no car, no access to the internet and no answers. I gave up and decided to get a cab to the hotel I was staying at and hopefully, with internet access find some answers. I checked into the hotel and was determined to find a solution. I was looking for a car for over 10 days so maybe that was the problem? Nope. Maybe it was only Austin airport that had no cars? Nope. I searched for car hire for one day in all of Austin and this is what came up:

I have traveled a lot and that is something I had never seen. I then forgot about cars and sought out other forms of public transport but none would get me to the events in time. I had one chance left and that was to go to my Facebook family and see if anyone could help me or provide me some advice. I was really desperate and honestly was not sure what to expect.

My Miracle

I received nothing short of a miracle. Within a couple of hours, not only were my problems solved, but I had multiple offers. One of my friends, Caroline, stepped up and offered to collect me from my hotel and drive me from Austin to my hotel in Fredericksburg. I had reached out to the events and let them know of my problems and the folks in Fredericksburg picked me up from my hotel, brought me to the event, and then took me out for dinner and back to the hotel that night. It was truly Southern hospitality at its best.

However, by far, the biggest hero in this story is a new friend called Joel. He drove from his house near Waco, picked me up in Fredericksburg the next morning and drove me all the way to the airport in Dallas where I had a choice of any car I wanted. He then had to drive (in Dallas rush hour traffic) back to Waco.

America is great because Americans are good!

The only sad part about this disaster was the fact I did not get down to Houston, where I was due to give a presentation to Young Americans for Liberty. But not everything was lost. Their amazing director came up with a plan. The event went ahead as planned and I gave the presentation via Facebook Live (technology is wonderful), and was able to answer all of their questions from the comments in the video.

This is the America I know I love and a prime example of when people are at their best. I don’t ever want to be in that situation again, but I am so honored to know I received a miracle during my visit. I can only hope every American never forgets what makes them exceptional.

America is great because Americans are good!

Jonathon Dunne is an Irishman with a lifelong dream of becoming an American citizen. After waiting for over 13 years, Dunne received a job offer from Glenn Beck so he could achieve his dream, but unfortunately, he did not meet the requirements to apply for a visa. Unless laws change or Dunne decides to break the law (he won't), his American dream is dead. Despite this setback, he still loves America and seeks to be a positive influence on society by promoting the idea of America and God-given freedoms. While on a recent vacation, Dunne delivered sixteen presentations (for free) in eight different states across the U.S. During this time, he kept notes and we asked him to share some of his experiences. As you read the column below, imagine the words are being spoken in a thick, Irish accent. If you're having trouble imagining how that sounds, you can hear it for yourself by tuning into Dunne's free weekly podcast, "Freedom's Disciple," on TheBlaze Radio, available on SoundCloud, iTunes, iHeart Radio, Google Play and Stitcher.

Who is Pam Bondi, Trump's new AG pick?

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With Matt Gaetz out of the picture, President Trump has already named former Florida AG Pam Bondi as his latest pick as his US Attorney General.

As US Attorney General, Bondi will be placed at the head of the Department of Justice, the most crucial role in Trump's plans to root out the deep state. As Glenn discussed on his radio show, the Biden White House has weaponized the Department of Justice, against President Trump in an attempt to thwart his 2024 re-election. The Department of Justice is crooked to the core, and it will take a herculean effort to bring enduring reform to this pivotal government agency.

Does Pam Bondi have what it takes to lead the Department of Justice? What does her resume look like? Does she have any skeletons in the closet that the Democrats could use against her? Here's everything you need to know about Pam Bondi below:

Bondi's Resume

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Bondi started her career as a prosecutor working for the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office where she handled countless cases that ranged from domestic violence to murder. In 2010 Bondi made history by becoming Florida's first female attorney general. She spent her time in office fighting back against Florida's opioid crisis and openly challenged Obamacare.

Bondi worked with the first Trump administration, using her experience fighting the opioid crisis in Trump's Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission. After Trump was impeached for the first time, Bondi joined the team of defense lawyers fighting back against the prosecution's allegations.

Bondi has spent the last four years working for a Florida-based lobbying firm, but she still showed support for President Trump by making appearances alongside him during the New York City hush money trial.

Bondi's Dedication to fix the DoJ

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Judging by her track record and the testimony of her colleagues, Bondi is more than capable of tackling the Department of Justice. Bondi has a record of following and enforcing the rule of law and has spent much of her career making communities safer. Bondi has firsthand experience with political elitists and corruption, having worked at nearly every level of the government from the bottom to the top.

Bondi stood by Trump as he faced impeachment and stayed by his side as he faced waves of lawfare after 2020. It's clear that Bondi has great respect for President Trump and is deeply familiar with the weaponization of the Department of Justice. It seems like she has what it takes to fix the system.

Bondi's Potential Controversies

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The Mainstream Media wasted no time digging up dirt on Bondi, looking for anything that might stand between her and a Senate confirmation.

The biggest story circulating the media involves a 2013 case about "Trump University," a now-defunct company that offered courses in real estate, entrepreneurship, and other similar courses. In 2013, the New York Attorney General's office went after Trump University due to reports that the program was a "scam." Bondi began a similar investigation, which allegedly came to a halt after she received a $25,000 check from the Trump Foundation for her re-election campaign. Bondi has never been formally accused of illegal activity, but now that she is under the national spotlight, she could face serious scrutiny.

Bondi's tenure as a lobbyist has also been called into question. She was registered as a lobbyist for several foreign and corporate entities, which could be seen as a potential weakness or conflict of interest—or at the very least bring her dedication to fighting corruption into question.

AI Jesus and other INSANE new uses of Artificial Intelligence

Glenn has repeatedly warned about the dangers artificial intelligence poses to humanity. Yet, it seems like every week, some new AI project seems to inch us closer to that worst-case scenario.

It's not all bad. Even Glenn could resist the urge to buy an AI-powered, flamethrower-wielding, robotic dog to accompany him on his ranch. The future is here, and these are threeinsane new ways the power of AI is being harnessed — for better or worse.

AI Jesus

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Many have wished to have a face-to-face conversation with Jesus, but this probably isn't what anyone had in mind. A church in Lucerne, Switzerland recently teamed up with scientists and computer experts from the nearby Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts to create a digital duplicate of Christ designed to listen to confessions and give scripture-supported advice to those who ask. The computer even creates a hologram image of Jesus that talks to people in real time. The AI was trained with the New Testament and "religious information found online," and is fluent in over 100 languages.

While some are impressed with his answers to moderately complex theological questions, many are skeptical, claiming that giving a machine the face and name of God is a form of idolatry. Others worry that it will turn Jesus into a "woke warrior."

AI Coca-Cola Ad

The holiday season is upon us, and Coca-Cola has released its newest Christmas ad campaign. These latest commercials feature shiny, Coca-Cola red semi-trucks driving through an idyllic winter wonderland on a mission to deliver soda to a festively decorated town — standard holiday ad fare. But this year, Coca-Cola decided to put a "futuristic spin" on their ad campaign — the commercials are all AI-generated. It doesn't take a detective to spot the tell-tale AI hallmarks, from truck wheels that don't spin as the truck is driving to the eerie expressions of the people in the ad that twist and contort in creepy ways. The holiday magic is lost.

AI Grandma

A British telecom company, Virgin Media O2, unveiled Daisy, an AI chatbot designed to scam the scammers. Daisy is designed to sound and talk like an elderly woman and is tasked to deliberately connect with telephone scammers (who typically target older people) and waste their time with heaps of meandering chatter so that scammers have less time to target real people. Daisy has already proved capable of fooling scammers into long phone conversations, which ultimately end up fruitless. Can you think of a better use of AI?

The THREE ways RFK Jr. will Make America Healthy Again

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One of President Trump's most popular campaign promises was to "Make America Great Again," and he has employed the help of his former opponent, RFK Jr., to make that promise come true.

In an interview with NPR, RFK Jr. revealed the three directives Trump has tasked him as the new head of the Department of Health and Human Services. These directives aim to cut out the "cancer" that Glenn exposed in his latest TV special that has spread throughout theentire federal government.

Here are the three directives Trump gave RFK Jr.:

1. Rid health agencies of corruption and conflicts.

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It is no secret that the departments that fall under the HHS, such as the FDA, NIH, and CDC, are rife with corruption. After the COVID lockdowns raised suspicion that these federal agencies did not have the American people's best interests at heart, Americans have been increasingly distrustful of these institutions. Glenn exposed several instances of corruption across the HHS, from Dr. Fauchi's Covid powertrip to the insidious relationship between private entities like Big Food, Big Pharma, and the federal agencies that regulate them.

RFK Jr. has been one of the most vocal critics of the corruption that has turned these federal agencies against the very people they were created to protect and is the best person to reform these institutions.

2. Return agencies to the gold standard of empirically based, evidence-based science and medicine.

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Under Biden, the HHS has degraded even further than it had before. Scientific methodology and empirical data are no longer the backbones of these institutions. They have been replaced with DEI and other woke agendas. The Department of Health and Human Services is the second largest federal agency, only behind the Pentagon, with a budget of 1.7 trillion dollarsand over 83 thousand employees. The opportunity for waste and negligence is monumental.

Biden appointed former California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, to the head of HHS, along with Rachel Levine, a transgender woman, as the Assistant Secretary for Health. Before long the second-largest federal agency started looking like a university DEI office, with hundreds of DEI hires adding to government bloat. Instead of battling the diseases and sicknesses that plague our country, the HHS spent the past four years going after pro-life investigators who were exposing how Planned Parenthood sells body parts of aborted babies, opposing the merger of religious-based hospitals to protect transgender and abortion "rights," and wrestling over Obama-era contraceptive mandates with a group of Catholic nuns. This is quackery and waste on an unprecedented scale.

RFK Jr. is tasked with rooting out the corruption that sprang forth with the Biden administration's DEI agenda and put science back in our health policy.

3. End the chronic disease epidemic with measurable impacts within two years.

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Today, despite our modern technology, Americans are sicker than ever before. 129 million Americans have at least one chronic disease, 42 percent have two or more, and 12 percent have more than five. Life expectancy is at a twenty-year low despite the fact that we are spending more than ever on health care. Even our children are sick, with a staggering 40 percent of school-aged kids having at least one chronic disease. One in nine kids has ADHD, and one in 54 has autism, both representing a steep increase over past decades.

America is sick, and Big Pharma is just rolling in the profits. This is where RFK Jr. comes in. He aims to find the cures and preventions to these diseases and make Americans healthy instead of lifelong patients.

POLL: Is Matt Gaetz in trouble?!

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Trump is assembling a dream team to take on the deep state that has burdened the American people for far too long.

It's no surprise Democrats have been pushing back against Trump's nominations, but one person in particular has been experiencing the most resistance: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump's pick to serve as his Attorney General. The controversy centers around a years-long House ethics probe regarding sexual misconduct allegations made against Gaetz several years ago. Despite the FBI conducting its own investigation and refusing to prosecute Gaetz, his nomination re-ignited interest in these allegations.

Democrats and some Republicans demand the House Ethics Committee release their probe into Gaetz before his Senate confirmation hearing. Conveniently, earlier this week, an anonymous hacker obtained this coveted report and gave it to the New York Times, which has yet to make the information public.

Glenn is very skeptical about the entire affair, from the allegations against Gaetz to the hacker's "anonymity." Is it another case of lawfare by the Democrats?

Glenn wants to know what do you think. Did Gaetz commit the crimes he's accused of? Will he still be appointed attorney general? Let us know in the poll below:

Glenn's Show Prep