Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. Many of you who have been listening to me since I first started this endeavor know that I'm in the third year of the podcast, and I did something recently that I've not done before. I am what you would consider a small time podcaster, so I am doing things on my own to market the podcast and to get it out to as many people as I can. I designed a five by seven cardstock marketing piece. On the top of it, it says that freedom is a fundamental belief in American culture and must never be taken for granted. Therefore, the creed of freedom is more important than any other principle or belief, indeed, perhaps the most important. This statement I believe with all my heart. I truly do. And it's something that I created at the beginning of the podcast. And it's something that I don't want to forget. I want to remember the reason why I'm doing this in the first place. It's so that I can espouse those freedoms, those liberties that we all enjoy in this country. The balance of the marketing piece has my artwork logo on the left side of it. And on the right side, it has the podcast web address and then places that one can go and download the podcast. And then it has an email address on it near the bottom that one can also send an email to yours truly if there's something that you're interested in that you'd like me to talk about, or if you have a serious critique about something that I have said, I welcome either one. So that's that's part and parcel of doing the podcast in the first place, right? Gotta have thick skin. If somebody comes to me and says, Wow, I was lousy. What you said was ridiculous. Hey, that's fine. This is America. You can have whatever opinion you'd like to have. That is totally fine with me. Well, so what I did, I took about 50 of these cards and I decided I'm gonna go out and walk the streets. I'm going to go and meet the people. So I did. I went to a neighborhood a couple miles away from where I live and set out for two hours talking to people and knocking doors. I almost felt like a salesman of some kind. I don't know if where you live, solar on homes is a big thing, but in my community it seems to be a pretty big thing. And I have nothing against solar, but what I would do is I would knock on a door, and someone would come to the door and I would say, Hey, don't worry. I'm not here to sell you solar. And it seemed to be a great icebreaker, and I was able to lead into who I am and what I'm doing. And really, every person I talked to was more than kind, even if there were people that I talked to, which in my case, there were only about one or two people who expressed their political views to me, which I wasn't out trying to gauge the politics of individuals. I was simply out trying to gin up some support for the podcast, and it was an enjoyable time. I'll do it again, I'm sure. And I'm looking forward to also doing some other marketing things that will help to create interest in the podcast and have people tune in and even subscribe to the podcast. So that's what I'm looking forward to. I simply want to say, and if you were listening and I met you, I wish I could remember everybody's name. There were too many people that I met and too many names. And I'm one of these people that I've learned a long time ago that if you start naming people and thinking people, you had best name every person because someone's gonna feel left out. So I'm gonna simply say thank you so much for giving me the time of day and showing support and interest in something that I'm doing. It means a lot to me. So thank you very much. Well, let's get to the heart of this episode. Whenever the press shares the government report about how many jobs were added in a particular month, it always makes me think of something that I have always said, which is the person sitting in the White House has nothing to do with jobs that are created in our economy. If anything, that credit ought to be given to the job creators, not those who sit in politics, whether that be in the executive branch or the legislative branch. People who are creating jobs are the people, the entrepreneurs, those who are taking chances and risks, who are in many cases putting it all on the line to provide jobs for the bulk of the American people. They are the ones who deserve the credit, not the president, not any member of Congress or anyone else for that matter. What I will be doing for the balance of this episode is talking about the codified responsibilities of the president. Now I know that that may sound very boring. I'm actually going to go straight to the Constitution and read from Article II. And you can consider this a public service announcement or PSA from your humble host. The responsibilities of the president have seemed to evolve, or if you're like me, devolved into things that have nothing to do with the reason why this person was elected in the first place. Whenever these economic reports are presented to the American people, they talk about the strength of employment and jobs in the economy, the overall economic market, the overall health of the economy. The jobs they add per month seems to be a big reason for celebration in many cases with whoever the president is. And as I said, I'm no fan of giving the president, no matter what party the president is from, any credit when it comes to jobs. It doesn't matter who the president is. Whoever's in office tends to take credit for it, which is I don't like. Well, if they want to take credit for something that is good in the economy, then they should be equally willing to take the blame for something that is not good in the economy. And how often do we see that? Yeah, you guessed it. Never again, I've always said that if the president takes credit for when the economy is doing well, then that person should also be willing to take credit or blame for when the economy is not doing so well. End of story. Let's now go to the heart of the matter and what I want to talk about for the balance of the episode. And that is Article II, Sections one, two, and three. In Article II, Section I, a very first clause, it says, quote, the executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, end of quote. No big deal, that's pretty straightforward. A little further along in Section one, Article II, it says, quote, No person except a natural born citizen or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of president. Neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years. Okay, again, very straightforward, no big deal. Continuing with section one, it says The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected. Again, broken record, no big deal, right? Well, then the end of section one has the oath of office for the president, and just for your benefit, as I said, this is a PSA. It says, quote, I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. End of quote. Now, in all fairness, I should have given you a clue as to something to listen for. I want you to listen for where the Constitution talks about the executive branch issuing executive orders. Okay, let me go to section two where the first sentence says, quote, the president shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of the United States, close quote. Now, we know that the president is actually the commander in chief of the entire military, but at the time this was written, there was mainly an army and a navy that we had in this country. Also from section two, it says, quote, he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. He shall have power by and with the advice and consent of the Senate to make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present concur. And he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, end of quote. And section two then ends with it saying, quote, the President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate. End of quote. Let's go to section three. It begins by saying, quote, he shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, end of quote. Now we know that from time to time has evolved into a yearly accounting or assessment of the State of the Union, which presidents have given every year for, I don't know, as long as I've been alive, probably, and that's okay. I have no problem with the State of the Union. That's not a big deal to me. It also says in section three quote, he may on extraordinary occasions convene both houses or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper. He shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers. He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. Now, I did not read every word of Article II and all four sections. If you want to read all four sections of Article II, it would probably take you 10 minutes at most, and you can therefore read everything that I just read, and you can read the things that I didn't read. As I mentioned a long time ago in my podcast, I'm not here to spoon feed people. That's not my job. What I want to do is I want to provide information to you that I find interesting myself and that I think you might find interesting as well. And the thing that I want to highlight now is this idea of the executive order and where this all emanated from, because it's not from the Constitution. I can tell you that right now. For a little help, I pulled up the history.com website and they talk about executive orders. In fact, they say, quote, the U.S. Constitution does not directly define or give the president authority to issue presidential actions which include executive orders. End of quote. That is true. The Constitution does not directly say anything about executive orders. History.com refers to the executive order as implied and that its quote accepted power derives from Article II of the Constitution, which I just read to you for the most part. They say that because the executive branch is the commander in chief of the armed forces, that the president shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Again, that's from Section 3 of Article 2 of the Constitution. So history.com is saying that because of this clause in the Constitution that says the President shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, that somehow that is implied and it's an accepted power that we have just come to accept in this country. I say no. And here's the basis for my no.com says that because of this perceived derived power, whatever you want to call it, that it quote allows the president to push through policy changes without going through Congress. End of quote. So if you ask me, the right or power of executive order is unconstitutional, and it has been for a very, very long time. In fact, I'll read you some numbers, share with you some numbers, I should say, about the evolution of the executive order in a minute. This is troubling to me, and it's believe me, been troubling to me for a very long time, not just all of a sudden now. The history.com also says that an executive order has the force of law. It says, quote, after the president issues an executive order, that order is recorded in the federal register and is considered binding, which means it can be enforced in the same way as if Congress had enacted it as law. End of quote. As far as I'm concerned, ladies and gentlemen, the executive order is a major usurpation of the Constitution. The Constitution does not either directly or imply, as history.com says, that it's an accepted power that because it says that the president shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, that is not somehow some license to sign executive orders that have the binding force of law. That is a stretch, if you ask me, ladies and gentlemen, a big time stretch. And I don't know why more isn't done to curb or to just cease this, for lack of a better term, bastardized way the Constitution is being violated. And by extension, you and I. Here's the last quote from the history.com website on executive order. They say, quote, just like laws, executive orders are subject to legal review. And the Supreme Court or lower federal courts can nullify or cancel an executive order if they determine it is unconstitutional. End of quote. What do you mean if they determine? And we don't need a high court to determine if executive orders are unconstitutional. They are unconstitutional. Period. Unfortunately, this idea of the executive order is just something that the people in this country have come to accept because of ignorance. Okay, fine, whatever. Or because most people have lives to live and ways to support themselves. They don't have time to think about this kind of thing. Well, I'm taking the time to think about it, and I think you should as well. But in truth, I do not know what we can do at this juncture because it's so embedded in our culture and our way of life. But it is a violation of the Constitution as far as I'm concerned. I don't agree with history.com. I don't believe that just because it says that the president shall take care to faithfully execute the laws of this land, that somehow that implies that the president can sign executive orders, can issue executive orders that have the full force and impact of law. Wow. I have a good idea as to why the Congress doesn't take this up. Well, if the Congress is controlled by the party of the executive branch, then of course they're not going to bring up the idea that you can't do executive orders anymore, because they want their party's president to issue executive orders to overturn what the previous president did because they know that these executive orders have the force of law behind them. And that really the only way that an executive order is going to go away is when the next president comes into office who is not the party of the previous president. They'll just take care of issuing executive orders to undo the executive orders of the past administration. It is a sick and twisted way to conduct the business of government. Unbelievable. You know, there are certain things that I will tolerate in my life because I realize that there's not a lot that I can do about it. Unfortunately, this may be one of those things. I hope not. I hope that we as a people can come together and perhaps even lobby our member of Congress, both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, to do something about getting rid of executive orders. It's unconstitutional, and I don't know why more people don't complain about it. I'm just one voice, but I'm going to do my part the best I can. Now, I want to go over the numbers with you a little bit. From the time of George Washington all the way through Joe Biden. President Washington served in office for nearly eight years, essentially eight years, and he had one executive order per year, the entire time he was in office. So about eight total executive orders. I can live with that. Between Washington and Grant, there were very few executive orders issued, single-digit executive orders into the dozens of executive orders, and you fast forward to Ulysses Grant, who had 217 and his eight years in office. Okay, not so bad. And what were they doing back then in terms of the heart or the meat of the executive order? I'm sure it was a lot different than it is today. Well, good old Teddy Roosevelt, who was in office for nearly eight years himself, issued 1,081 executive orders. Woodru Wilson, 1,803 in his eight years in office. And then FDR had a whopping 3,721 during his 12 years in office. He's the last president, only president to have that many terms in office. And I can understand it. There were tough times during that time. And not having looked at all the history of his executive orders, I'm sure a lot of those had to do with the Depression and leading into the 1940s and World War II and all of that. So I'll give him a pass. Now, I have been alive during the last 12 presidents of the United States, starting with John F. Kennedy through Joe Biden. And these presidents issued a lot of executive orders, nothing to the level of 3,000 or 1,000 or 2,000, but in the hundreds of executive orders, to be sure. For instance, Johnson had 325, Carter had 320. Reagan 381. George H.W. Bush 166 in his four years in office. Clinton 364 in his eight years in office. George W. Bush had 291 in his two terms. Barack Obama had 276 in his two terms. Trump had a whopping 220 in his one term in office. And so far, Biden has 112 and about two and a half years or so in office, or not quite two and a half years. I suppose that the next thing to do would be to take a look at some of these executive orders. I may do a podcast on that. I don't know. That's getting down into the weeds of something that I probably don't want to get down into because it'll just end up creating anger probably in myself and uh maybe you as well. So I may just shy away from that. But what I would do is I'd say if you're interested and you're watching something stupid on TV, just get up out of the chair, go to your computer, and research executive orders and see the content and the context of executive orders over the years, and just see how it's nothing but a chess game that's being played between the two major political parties. And especially, I would say, over the last four or five decades that this has been going on, that that's the nature of it. The nature of it is, haha, I'm going to undo your stupid executive orders. Mm-hmm. And there's nothing you can do about it. And then once another party comes into power, they'll do the same thing. It's so juvenile, unbelievable. In any case, I hope that this stirred some excitement in you that you can take a look at executive orders and say to yourself, wow, this is so juvenile. Why is this allowed to continue to happen? And who knows, maybe something will be done about it. I don't know. I really do hope that something can be done about it. I mean, the way that I cope sometimes with things that I have a hard time accepting is to laugh about it. So I have laughed a little bit, at least within. If you didn't hear me laugh too much, that's fine. But it's something that I do have to laugh at because if I take it too seriously, then like I said, I'll just get angry and upset about it, and that's no way to live. So I'll laugh about it, I'll make jokes about it, but in the end, many a truth is said in jest. So I do sincerely hope that it's something that can be addressed by the Congress and that they can ultimately take steps to get rid of this executive privilege that is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. I think it fitting to end this episode with a quote from comedian George Carlin, who died in 2008. So he died before Obama was elected for the first time. So just to provide some context and perspective, he missed all of the shenanigans and the things that have happened since Obama became president with 2016, 2020, those elections. And so take this quote with a grain of salt and understand that George Carlin was actually saying something that I think is pretty pertinent. He said this quote, I got this real moron thing I do. It's called thinking. And I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions. I have certain rules I live by. My first rule, I don't believe anything the government tells me. And I don't take very seriously the media or the press in this country. Ladies and gentlemen, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.