Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. Today's Wednesday, September the 14th, 2022. Because the topic that I'm discussing today is so pressing on my mind right now, I'm going to dispense with any niceties or small talk and get right to the point at hand. The dictionary defines extremism as the quality or state of being extreme. Extreme is going to great or exaggerated lengths, advocacy of extreme measures or views. Radicalism. Being a radical is very different from the usual or traditional, favoring extreme changes in existing views, habits, conditions, or institutions. I believe it's safe to say that most people agree that what the founders did back in the day was a very good thing, and in fact, they were viewed as radicals by those in Great Britain, not the least of which was King George III. With the benefit of history, I think we could all agree that what the founders proposed and ultimately what the states ratified was echelons better than what they had to subject themselves to under the crown of Great Britain. There's no question about that. In fact, in the Declaration of Independence, they speak to the fact that governments shouldn't be changed for light and transient causes. In other words, whatever is replaced should be better than what existed before. And certainly, as I said, I think we can all agree that the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, were much better than what the founders had experienced and lived under King George III and under that monarch. Now, I'd like to cite a few real life examples of extremism in our government over, let's say, the turn of the century, the last twenty-two years or so. The first example is the USA Patriot Act. Now, most of you probably already know what the USA Patriot Act stands for. In other words, it's an acronym, and it's uniting and strengthening America by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism. That's a mouthful, I know. In any case, whatever good may have come from the Patriot Act in actually putting down terrorism or finding out terrorists who were trying to hurt and kill Americans is one thing. What I think it did is it opened up a Pandora's box to give the government a little bit more intrusion into our lives, all for the cause of saving our democracy or protecting us from terrorist activities. And it has grown to become not just terrorism from outside the country, but I believe it has given government officials to declare what they believe to be homegrown or terrorism from within. And that alone is dangerous ground to be walking on, ladies and gentlemen. The Patriot Act was brought about by the worst attack on our country ever, which was the 9-11-2001 terrorist attacks. It was passed by a bipartisan Congress and signed into law in October of 2001. And as I said, I think it has evolved, or shall we say, devolved from that point to impact American citizens. The next example of extremism is the IRS targeting of conservative groups during the Obama administration. This was reported on by mainstream media groups and outlets, and there was no secret that it was happening. I believe the IRS even paid some restitution to certain entities or people that were affected by that kind of extremism. But of course, please feel free to do your own search, and it may take a while because, well, let's just say that there's a little bit of bias in the media. And if you don't think it's going on, then perhaps you could dig a little deeper and take a little more time into finding out what it is I'm talking about. Because, ladies and gentlemen, that's the way it is. I don't want you to just take what I say as gospel. I said this in the very beginning of the podcast when I first started last year. I'm not going to spoon feed anyone. I want people to take it upon themselves to do their research and to look into things themselves. Because when they do that, that's a very empowering thing to do. So please look into it yourself. And when I'm wrong, I hope it's pointed out to me, or at least I can discover it myself, ultimately correcting whatever it was that I got wrong, because hey, look, we're all progressing, we're all imperfect, and we all make mistakes. So it's not a sin. It's just a mistake, so no big deal. So moving on to the next bit of extremism that I have observed over the last couple of decades, particularly over the last probably five or ten years, and that is the complete and utter abdication of the press to report objectively. They have an agenda, they're run by corporations, so they're naturally going to report on things that matter to them and that get ratings, and oftentimes the truth is left untouched. Let's talk Joe Biden because this is where the balance of the episode will be taking us. His speech on September first was about as extreme as I've heard any president ever before. I'll be dedicating the rest of this episode to that speech, and frankly, it's a troubling speech, and it should be troubling to anyone who listens to it, watches it, or even reads it. It's wow. As a matter of fact, both sides of the political aisle, from my understanding and what I've looked at and read, were pretty upset and alarmed by the speech that he gave on September the first. Now, to be sure, there's some points that I want to make before I go into this speech, and that is that Donald Trump is no longer president. A political party does not matter when it comes to fairness, so it doesn't matter what side of the political aisle you come down on. What is happening now should trouble every single American. I don't care what your political party is, your affiliation with any party, or your affiliation with no party. It should be troubling to every American, period. One of the most troubling aspects of this speech is it wasn't a State of the Union address, not something that he just was giving to the country and so forth and so on and talking about his administration. There was no evidence for the charges that he makes or made in that speech. And in my mind, if you're going to make these outrageous accusations, then you had better provide some evidence to the American people so that they can weigh it in their own minds themselves. I do appreciate that he was giving the speech from Independence Hall in Philadelphia, but it's not 1776 or even 1787 when the Constitution was ratified. It's 2022. So come on, man. In reality, his speech during the first, oh, couple minutes, maybe, wasn't that bad. He was talking about the flame of liberty that was lit at Independence Hall, and he talked about how the flame still burns now in our time as we build an America that's better for everybody else. So not that bad. But then the rant begins when he said, quote, too much of what's happening in our country today is not normal, close quote. I would agree with that, but not for the reasons that he points out in the rest of his speech. He goes on to say that, quote, Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic. End of quote. It's interesting how the phrase make America great again, which I thought was a great slogan and one that inspired a lot of people and gave a lot of people hope for a better tomorrow, they have twisted that into some sort of demonic following or cult and calling people MAGA Republicans. If that's not extreme, then I don't know what is. Then he said, not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he say during the campaign that he was going to unite the country, not divide it? Well, I'm sorry, Mr. President. You're dividing the country right now, not uniting it. Here's another quote. He said, But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country. End of quote. Wow. Is this not fomenting language? Talk about incitement? Amazing job on uniting the people, Joe Biden. Wow. He then said this, quote, and I believe it is my duty to level with you. Okay. Hold on a second. End that quote for a second. To level with us? Seriously? Clearly, someone else is writing these words. Of course we know this. Presidents have speech writers, but couldn't he do a better job editing various points of the speech? It's clear that he just stands at the lectern and reads whatever the prompter has on it. He's never really looked at it before and just reads what he's what it says. Well, if that little segment wasn't enough, he goes on to say, quote, to tell the truth no matter how difficult, no matter how painful. End of quote. He'll do this regarding others, but he seems to be in no hurry to tell the truth about his own doings. And you can look at that one however you want. Folks, I am nowhere near done doing this. He goes on to say, quote, and here, in my view, is what is true. MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. End of quote. Truth be told, the man is talking about a very, very small minority of people, in my opinion. Think about it. The whole notion of make America great again was is a call to recognize the greatness of America, to respect the Constitution, to embrace freedom and liberty. This notion has been bastardized by the media and the administration, no doubt. Moving on, he says this quote They, meaning MAGA Republicans, refuse to accept the results of a free election. And they're working right now, as I speak, in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself. End of quote. I am speechless, people. Well, not entirely. But can you believe this? This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Most often when people say things like this, it's because they themselves and their cronies are guilty of the very same thing. They're pointing the finger of scorn at toward other people. He continues, quote, MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contact I can't I can't. I can't do it. I can't. This is I don't even know what this is supposed to mean. It's the most sickening thing I've ever heard in a long time. And something else that's disgusting about this is that he refers to MAGA as forces, an obvious reference to the militancy that's designed to put fear into people to divide people. He knows what he's doing, or at least the speechwriters knew what they were doing. In all honesty, I don't think he knows what he's doing from day to day, and that's troubling that we have a president in this position, that he has handlers who only allow a certain amount of questions from a certain few reporters, and if they ever get off script, oh look out. Those guys are gonna be sweating when that happens, and it seems to happen quite a bit. Biden goes on to say this, quote, they promote authoritarian leaders. End of quote. Who? Who are the authoritarian leaders that they are promoting? We wanna know. Give us a name. You're trying to tell me that one person is gonna bring down the Constitution of the United States of America? I don't think so. He said, quote, they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country, end of quote. Who? Who are you talking about? You're the only authoritarian leader, Mr. Biden, that I can see right now. In that speech he looked like an angry authoritarian with clenched fist, very upset, very mad. He looked like the only authoritarian that I could see. He goes on, quote, they look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th, brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who replaced a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots, end of quote. The whole January 6th thing was such a farce. I'm not saying that there weren't people there who intended to do wrong, who intended to hurt other people, who intended to cause a disruption in things, but I'm telling you right now that since he didn't really condemn the riots of 2020, does that make him a party to insurrection? What an absurd thing to say. And what about any other politician who didn't condemn the riots of 2020? Are they also insurrectionists, or at least a party to it or a supporter of it? One thing's for certain as far as I'm concerned, these people are running scared. They are truly scared of what might happen in the midterms and what might happen in 2024. But continuing, he said, quote, and they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 election. I just talked about that, end of quote, by the way. His press secretary has the audacity or had the audacity to say that his speech wasn't political. Give me a break. That's so ridiculous. Continuing on, he said, quote, they tried everything last time to nullify the votes of 81 million people. This time, they're determined to succeed in thwarting the will of the people. End of quote. Well, at the very least, this is an act of provocation, the way he's talking right here. At the very least. It's one of the most provocative things that I think a sitting president could ever say. In a sense, what he's saying is, get ready, people, because we got to do it. If they're gonna do it, then we have to do it too. He's promoting this kind of division and violence. It's despicable. He talks about how we are not bystanders in this ongoing attack on democracy. I don't know who we is, but he refers to MAGA or Make America Great Again as an ideology. And there were people listening, I don't know, all sixteen people who are there clapping for this kind of nonsense. Wow. He said, quote, it's within our power. It's in our hands, yours and mine, to stop the assault on American democracy. End of quote. The only attack on American democracy that I see is coming from this administration. There are so many things that I could point to right now. The one that's glaring in my mind is the 87,000 IRS agents that they've hired and this bill that was signed into law that was supposedly designed to make the recession and inflation just go away like they're gonna wave their magic wand and say, Oh, look at us, we're government, we're gonna make inflation and and the recession disappear. No, it doesn't work that way, people. Jeez, come on. What he says in the speech could almost be comical if it weren't so serious, as is the case with this quote. And now America must choose to move forward or to move backwards, to build the future or obsess about the past, to be a nation of hope and unity and optimism, or a nation of fear, division, and of darkness, end of quote. Near as I can tell, he's the only one doing what he's doing, and that is very little, if anything, to bring hope or unity to America. He is dividing people, he is fomenting anger in people, he is doing nothing to bring people together, absolutely nothing. He said, quote, MAGA Republicans have made their choice, they embrace anger, they thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth, but in the shadow of lies. End of quote. He was the only one looking pretty angry when he gave that speech, as I said, clenched fist, locked jaw, nasty looking almost like an authoritarian. I mean, jeez. And then next is the what I call the platitudes section, where he talks about a better way forward. Together we can do it, a future of possibility, a future to build a dream and hope, moving ahead. This is a nation that honors our constitution. This is a nation that believes in the rule of law. Please. This is a n we do. Law-abiding citizens do, but I don't think Mr. Joe Biden does. This is a nation that respects free and fair elections. And this is a nation that rejects violence as a political tool. We do not encourage violence. Yeah, okay. Uh not politically, but they're okay with violence on the streets and riots like they were in the summer of 2020. They didn't come out and speak about those because no, no, that was in some way some sort of remedy or some sort of sickening therapeutic exercise that people needed to do to get it out of their system, right? Yeah, that's what it was. Bull. Again, if this wasn't so serious, it would be funny. It'd be something that you would think Dave Chappelle maybe would be talking about, where he says, quote, we are still an America that believes in honesty and decency and respect for others, patriotism, liberty, justice for all, hope, possibilities, end of quote. What? Who are you and what'd you do with Joe Biden? There is Jim after Jim here, folks. He said this, quote, yet history tells us that blind loyalty to a single leader and a willingness to engage in political violence is fatal to democracy. End of quote. Really? Well, aside from January the sixth, name one other incident that was on par with that particular day. Oh, what's what's that? You you can't? Yeah, neither can I. This is a dangerous form of rhetoric from the president of the United States. It's despicable, as I say. Truly. Then he said this, quote, for a long time. We've told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed, but it's not. End of quote. I don't know about you, but I've never subscribed to such a ridiculous statement such as this. As a matter of fact, it was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Can you believe it now, ladies and gentlemen? Well, here's another one. Quote, I am asking our nation to come together, unite behind the single purpose of defending our democracy regardless of your ideology. End of quote. In other words, get in lockstep with him if you know what's best for you. Oh, and if ideology doesn't matter then, Mr. President, then I guess MAGA Republicans are welcomed too, right? Continuing, quote, we're all called by duty and conscience to confront extremists who will put their own pursuit of power above all else. End of quote. I couldn't agree more, actually. Which is why I'm confronting this extremist of a president right here, right now, irrespective of any consequences that might come from it. Which frankly, I don't care. He says, quote, Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined. And more committed to saving American democracy than mega Republicans are to destroying American democracy. End of quote. Don't Democrats and Independents have mainstream in their ranks? You would think so, right? I mean, not just mainstream Republicans. You know, sometimes on social media I make comments about things and I don't provide evidence for that. Upon request, I do try to acknowledge that request and provide evidence, but I'm not the president of the United States. This guy threw around so much reckless accusation. It's not even funny, and had not a shred of evidence for any of it. He said, quote, we can't allow violence to be normalized in this country. End of quote. Well well, you did in the summer of twenty twenty. It seemed to be pretty normal for you then. He goes on to say, quote, we each have to reject political violence. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Just political violence, not not other types of violence like the skyrocketing murder rates in a lot of big cities in the country, the violence that took place in the summer of 2020. No, no, no. That kind of violence, that's okay, but political violence, oh no, that's a different story. We've got to lock people up for that, for sure. He says, quote, we're a big, complicated country, end of quote. Really? What's complicated about it? Seriously. We have the greatest constitution in the world. If it's upheld and preserved and defended, it's gonna allow the most happiness and joy for the most amount of people that I can think of. What's so complicated about that? Then he goes on to try to qualify by saying, quote, but democracy endures only if we, the people, respect the guardrails of the republic. Only if we, the people, accept the results of free and fair elections. Only if we the people see politics not as total war, but mediation of our differences, end of quote. Right, right, right. Just accept the results of the elections, especially when they win. If people question the integrity of an election, then they are somehow bad people who are simply unwilling to accept without question the results of any election. He says, quote, democracy cannot survive when one side believes there are only two outcomes to an election, either they win or they were cheated. And that's where MAGA Republicans are today, end of quote. That is ludicrous. Like I said, there's bits of funny inside this speech. If it were not that serious, he goes on to say, quote, I will not stand by and watch, end of quote. Are you kidding me? That's all you do is stand by and watch and just tell people what your handlers want you to tell them. That's it. So he won't stand by and quote, watch the will of the American people be overturned by wild conspiracy theories and baseless, evidence-free claims of fraud. End of quote. Oh yeah, that's a big one. He also said he won't stand by and watch the freedom or the right to vote in the country be taken away. Nobody's advocating for having the right to vote taken away from other people. He said this, quote, MAGA Republicans look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair. They spread fear and lies, lies told for profit and power. End of quote. This is an extremely despicable quote. Tell me, prior to January sixth, was anyone talking this way? No, they weren't. January sixth was created so that they could talk about it and characterize and paint the whole administration of Trump in this light like they're doing now. He is definitely the insider in chief, for sure. Sad. Oh man, here is a another doozy. Quote, even in this moment, with all the challenges we face, I give you my word as a Biden. End of quote. Yeah. He actually said that. I give you my word as a Biden. Like that's supposed to mean something. I don't even know what that means. What I do know is I have no trust in anything that this man says. Period. Well, the speechwriters thought they had better uh get some really good stuff in here, so they put this in there where he said, quote, we're going to end cancer as we know it. So he went from talking about, you can trust me as a Biden, and I give you my word as a Biden that the future is really optimistic when I'm in charge. And he says, About ending cancer, mark my words. Like he has anything to do with cancer being ended. Yeah, we want cancer to go away, but this guy isn't gonna do it. And seriously, I'm as optimistic as the next fellow, but does he know how long people have been saying this kind of crap? I mean, can't break. They're gonna create millions of jobs. He went on to say that, which he doesn't even realize after 50 years in Washington, D.C., that government doesn't create, it consumes. He said they're going to make the 21st century another American century because the world needs us to. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that sounds a little bit like cultural appropriation. Trying to say that America is better than other people. We're gonna appropriate the century for our own, make it better because, well, we need to. Yikes. He said that, quote, the MAGA Republicans believe that for them to succeed, everyone else has to fail. End of quote. That's absurd. It's childish and juvenile. He said, I believe America is big enough for all of us to succeed, and that is the nation we're building. A nation where no one is left behind, end of quote. Isn't that sweet? No one's gonna be left behind. Uh well, newsflash, there's always going to be people left behind, always. That's the nature of mankind. We're frickin' cruel. It happens. What are you gonna do about it? You can't drag everybody along and make everybody equal. It doesn't work that way. This guy has no clue. And after saying all of the things that I have just quoted to you, he had the audacity to say, quote, the willingness to see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans, close quote. Well, that is true unless, and of course, you are a MAGA Republican, then you are less than the dust of the freaking earth. He talked about how it doesn't matter where you start in life and that there's nothing you can't achieve. Well, of course, if you're a MAGA Republican, you're you're not gonna be able to achieve what you want. I mean, please. I'll pretty much end it here where he said, quote, we need everyone to do their part. So speak up, speak out, get engaged. Vote, vote, vote. End of quote. Well, yeah, all of that is true unless you're a MAGA Republican. If that's the case, well you can just shut the hell up because you are un American. You don't deserve to be called an American. You don't deserve to carry the flame of liberty. No, you're unworthy. Wow, this guy is a trip. Well, let me just say that I either endeared a lot of people to me, or I've created some enemies. That's the case. Case a rasurah, what can I do about it? Not a whole lot. I'm willing to speak the truth regarding what a politician says, particularly what's going on with this current administration. I won't back down from it. I'm not going to back down from it. If I back down from it, then how can I face my kids? How can I face my grandkids? How can I face anyone if I back down from what is right and true and good? So let me end this episode by giving you the rest of the quote by Ronald Reagan. The full context of the quote says, Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. Or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free. End of quote. We do need to fight for the Constitution, for the way of life that we have in the United States. If we don't do it, then who will? And by fight, I mean let our voices be heard, vote, do those things in a law abiding way that actually brings progress. And with that, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.