Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - The O'Reilly Update, December 27, 2023

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Ukraine targets a Russian warship, Kanye West apologizes, 4 in 10 adults believe we’re living in the end times, and drivers rank the worst traffic in America. Plus, the O’Reilly Update Message of the Day, does the American Dream still exist? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill O'Reilly here. You are listening to the O'Reilly Update. Coming up next, the news with Mike Slater. Thank you, Bill. It is Wednesday, December 27th, 2023. You are listening to the O'Reilly Update. Here's what's happening today in America. Ukraine targets a Russian warship. Kanye West apologizes. Four in ten adults believe we are living in end times, and drivers rank the world.

traffic in America. And then I'll be back with the message of the day. Wall Street Journal asks a poll, do you believe the American dream still holds true? And you'll be amazed, discouraged by how many people think it does not. Got that coming up. First, Ukraine struck a large Russian warship in Crimea. The assault was likely carried out using cruise missiles supplied by France.

This vessel was an integral to Vladimir Putin's latest offensive along the coast of the Black Sea and was used to transport tanks and arbor vehicles to the front line. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy praised the strike, said, quote, there will not be a single peaceful place for the occupiers of this country. Rapper Kanye West, issuing an apology to the Jewish people after years of anti-Semitism, West returned to Instagram and posted his message in Hebrew. He said, I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions, it was not my intention to hurt or demean, and I deeply regret any pain

I may have caused. A survey from Pew Research finds two and five Americans say we're living in the last days of humanity. Thirty-nine percent of adults think the end is near when asked about the cause of the impending apocalypse, a majority side of the Bible, followed by a potential nuclear war with Russia, and then climate change. Nearly half of the population thinks that human beings will be extinct in the next hundred years. Really? You only think we got a hundred years left? A report from Fox News ranks the worst traffic in America. Cities are judged by time in the car compared to distance traveled.

Top of the list, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Houston. But the worst spot for motorists, Washington, D.C. Drivers in the Capitol waste 150 hours every year sitting in traffic. That's one week every year, just traffic. If you're looking to avoid gridlock, got to go to Kansas. People in Wichita experience just 15 minutes of traffic every single year. Coming up next, the message of the day about the American dream. And then finally, something you might not know about our Ivy League schools, the Wuhan wet markets of bad ideas.

That's all coming up on the O'Reilly Update. Let's face it, the U.S. economy is under stress. National debt rising, trade war, shaking the markets. And meanwhile, China is dumping the dollar and stockpiling gold. That's why I protected my savings with physical gold and silver through the only dealer I trust, American Hartford Gold. And you can do this. Get precious metals delivered to your door or place in a tax advantage, gold IRA. They'll even help you roll over your existing IRA or 401K, tax and penalty free.

with billions in precious metals delivered thousands of five-star reviews and an A-plus from the Better Business Bureau. You can trust American Hartford Gold as I do. Please call 866-326-55-7576 or text bill to 998899. Again, that's 866-326-5576 or text bill to 998899. Mike Slater from the podcast Politics by Faith. Philan it for Bill O'Reilly on today's message of the day. The Wall Street Journal asked the poll question, do you believe that the American dream still holds true?

Only 36% said it held true. 18% said it never held true. And 45% say it once held true but doesn't anymore. So it's 63% of Americans say, no, there is no American dream. that's bad but it also requires us to ask the question well what is the American dream the Wall Street Journal defines it as

if you work hard you'll get ahead and I think that's a fine definition I think most people would define it's something like that but I would like to move the American dream past a purely materialistic definition right if you work hard you'll make more money or if you work hard you'll own a house well what if you don't make more money

are you you're not living the American dream what if you never own a house you can't live the American dream what if the Fed raises interest rates and you can't get a house now you're cut off from the American dream I don't like that the American dream has to be more than just material things even the guy who coined the term his name was James Truslow Adams in 1981 this is the quote that always gets quoted he said life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone with the opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstance of birth. Right.

So that's where people get the materialistic definition. The next line, but no one ever quotes this one. He said it is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order virtue in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstance of birth or position. So he defined the American dream, the guy who coined the term, as living a life of virtue. One of my all-time favorite stories, and I hate to share it here so briefly, but please read the book, Road to Dawn. It's the story of Josiah Henson, a slave.

41 years of torture and betrayal. He finally escaped, and he hiked 600 miles at night to the border of Canada to Lake Erie, carrying his two children on his back. 600 miles. And he gets to the lake and there's a ferry captain that he has to ask to get across. And who knows if this guy is pro-slavery? And this could have been the moment where he gets sent back to slavery forever. But he had to take the chance. And sure enough, the man agreed to give him a ride across.

So this man sails him across and Josiah and his wife and two kids, they walk off the boat. And as they're walking away, the captain says, be a good fellow, won't you? and Josiah responded yes I will I will use my freedom well a lot of people will say that the American dream is freedom but freedom's not the end of the story because freedom to do what you could freedom to do very bad things freedom is the beginning of the story josiah knew it it's using your freedom well so if I may humbly request that we we try to move away from an outcome based materialistic American dream and instead have an American dream based off of using your freedom to live a life of virtue or as Thomas Jefferson put it in the Declaration of Independence

the freedom to pursue happiness. Thomas Jefferson knew that true happiness can only be achieved by living a life of virtue and that dream can always be lived no matter how bad the economy might be. So does the American dream still hold true? In the end, that's really up to you. Something you might not know. Next. Hey, it's Sean Spicer from the Sean Spicer Show podcast. Reminding you to turn into my show every day

to get your daily dose inside the world of politics. President Trump and his team are shaking up Washington like never before, and we're here to cover it from all sides, especially on the topics the mainstream media won't. So if you're a political junkie on a late lunch or getting ready for the drive home, new episodes of the Sean Spicer Show podcast, drop at 2 p.m. East Coast every day.

Make sure you tune in. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Mike Slater, filling in for Bill O'Reilly today. Now it's time for something you might not know. With all the insanity going on on our college campuses across the country, it might be worth sharing that all of the Ivy League schools, except for Cornell, which was founded after the Civil War, were founded as seminaries.

Yale was founded in 1701 because the congregationalists thought harbored, Harvard was getting too liberal. Their code of ethics said that students were required to live religious, godly, and blameless lives according to the rules of God's word, diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, the fountain of life and truth, and constantly attend upon all the duties of religion, both in public and secret. This is very much not the case today at nearly any of our schools. The current motto of Harvard is veritas, which means truth, which is pretty funny with their current president being a repeated and flagrant plagiarist and all, almost as bad as Joe Biden

when he was in law school. But people joked that the motto of Harvard is now, my veritas, my truth. But the original motto of Harvard was for the glory of Christ. Jeez, listen, I'm not here to proselytize. I'm just saying this is the country we once were. And these Ivy League schools are older than the country. So these were our founding grandfathers. These are the places our founding fathers went to and the country, the culture that they were growing up in. Now, maybe you think, uh, we're improving from that. Maybe you think we're evolving and that's, you think things are better now. Great.

I'm just telling you what was. The seal of Princeton, don't tell them, but the seal of Princeton is an open Bible with the words New Testament in Latin. And the motto of Princeton is under God's power, she flourishes. Unbelievable. We have been so taken over by the secular left. Look at what we once were. I used to think it was fun to make fun of

what was going on in college campuses because they live in a little bubble and then when those snowflakes graduate the world's really going to smack them in the face and I was very wrong about that those people graduated and then have taken over every single aspect of our culture all the institutions in our country

we all live on a college campus now and it's time that we view these places as somewhere between a national security threat on one side or, as Bill Maher said, the Wuhan wet market of bad ideas. But we can't continue to let these places go on festering when all of the problems that we have in America today started in the petri dishes of destruction that we call higher education.

I'm Mike Slater from the podcast, Politics by Faith. More coming up. Power, politics. and the people behind the headlines. I'm Miranda Devine, New York Post columnist and the host of the brand new podcast, Podforce One. Every week I'll sit down for candid conversations with Washington's most powerful disruptors,

lawmakers, newsmakers, and even the president of the United States. These are the leaders shaping the future of America and the world. Listen to Podforce One with me, Miranda Devine every week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. You don't want to miss an episode. I'm Mike Slater from the podcast, Politics by Faith. Thank you, Bill, for letting me fill in. Thank you for listening. We'll see you again tomorrow.