NFA Radio Show Episode 13

Speaker 1:

Do you think America is a free country? Think again, today we see radical unchecked state powers. What will become of our nation in the future? What can we do to save our homeland? What can we expect from our life and a not-free America. Join host Mike Donovan, Nexus Services CEO, and a funder of the nation's largest civil rights law firm. As he discusses our new shared life in the United States of hypocrisy. Submit your legal questions and get answers from renowned civil rights lawyer, Mario Williams, strap in you're about to have your eyes open to your new reality in a not free America.

Mike:

The America that we are living in right now is not a free America.

Mike:

Welcome to another episode of Not Free America radio. I'm your host, Mike Donovan and folks I just want to say thank you all so much. Those of you that ordered a copy of my book, I hope you're enjoying it. We did sell almost 20,000 copies last week. So that was incredible. Making the book a bestseller in multiple categories really, really appreciate you guys so much. And I hope that the message on qualified immunity and the importance of returning America to a basic principle of individual liberty gets out. I just really believe that we're at a critical time in our country's history, where we have to get back to understanding that freedom and democracy, these things that we value as ideals only come when we put the hard work in and the hard work is being responsible, being responsible for yourself and your family and your community, so someone else doesn't have to be responsible for you.

mike:

That's how America works and we can't lose sight of that. And I think that, that's what's happening and it's making us react in a very, very negative way. And so we end up now with this constitutional crisis. We've got the presidential election, not decided, but folks, every single year we have a presidential election thats not decided yet because the Electoral College are the folks who make that selection. We haven't even had state results certified and we do have recounts coming. So what I'd like to say to people on the left, people who I tend to agree with as a progressive on many, many things, stop acting so weird about recounts. I can remember many times where Democrats have asked for and demanded recounts, and I have supported them. Stacey Abrams when she was running in Georgia. I mean, I fought for her right to have a recount. She had a right to have it just like the president does.

mike:

I mean, these rules don't simply change depending on whether or not I support a person or not. The same rules have to apply for everybody. If Stacy Abrams had an opportunity to challenge her election results, then so should the president be able to challenge his, those opportunities don't only work for people that you believe in and agree with because that just makes you a fascist. You've got to be willing to apply the rules evenly. I am. Whether I like the person or dislike the person, whether I agree with them on everything or nothing at all, it's all about respect and see that's an important part of the American ideal as well. Because when you affirm individual liberty, then you respect an individual. Respect is lost in our society.

mike:

The government doesn't respect you. And neither of these candidates who are waiting to determine if they're president really respects you either, if you want to be honest about it. But it is a constitutional crisis, at least one in the making, because depending upon what happens over the next several days, I think we're going to have a strong sense of what the president's ultimate plan is. You see, I don't think that he has that plan set up. A lot of people do, a lot of people think that this is a masterful maneuver. I don't actually think that's true. I think as is most often the case with Trump, there's actually a great deal of fluidity here. And I think he's reading the tea leaves and he's very, very good at that, too good, really. And so what I'm really focused on right now and what I want all of you to be focused on is the Georgia recount, the Georgia recount is our first step up to see what we find vis-a-vis voting fraud.

mike:

And if you see a significant number of votes switch over to the president or the president's deficit shrink significantly, or he overtook Biden in that recount, it will be a game changer across the country. And then you start to... Well, how could that happen? Like my liberal friends say to me, how could that happen Mike? Well, very, very easily, something we're not expecting, or maybe one of these things we have heard about, or maybe we have a ruling that says, "Hey, you know what, any ballots that came after this time, you can't count them." You don't know what's going to happen folks, but here's the deal. This is a Republican President and his first step up for recount, is in a State with a Republican governor and a Republican secretary of state. So if you are a liberal relishing in the wonder of the incoming Biden administration and the end of the Trump nastiness, just don't get ahead of yourselves folks.

mike:

This election isn't over, it's not over until the electors vote and it's not even necessarily over then, history can show us a few examples. But none, I think ring truer than the example related to the third president of the United States. And in that election, we saw quite a competition between the President, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr. and in that race, because there was a three-way race, it was difficult to achieve the appropriate number of electors. The race had to be sent to the House of Representatives and the House of Representatives began casting ballots to determine who the president would be. Ultimately, Alexander Hamilton stepped in and used his influence to convince the selection of Thomas Jefferson and the rest as they say this history. Do you wonder, do you wonder with me for a second, what America would have looked like had Thomas Jefferson not become our third president, but rather Aaron Burr had become our third president. Aaron Burr, a man who as vice president, shot someone in the street, Alexander Hamilton in fact. Think about it, think about how dramatically different America might've been or not.

mike:

But in our infancy that personality of Jefferson lives on today in our Republic. What would it be like if it were Burr? And I say that because what happens in 2000 with the election results matter, what happens this year matters. And we need to make sure that there's an appropriate counting of the votes. Why is this controversial? I have stood with Democrats on the front lines of recount efforts. I fought these fights on the left side and I was right to fight them. But how is it different now? How can it be different now? How can it be different and you maintain credibility now. And I see that's where this issue really goes off the rails for me. I understand people who don't like Donald Trump. I do. I didn't vote for Donald Trump, but I didn't vote for Joe Biden either. I couldn't. But here's the thing I want a free, fair election, where every vote is counted. And we know that it was done, right.

mike:

Who loses, who loses, if we do this no one loses. We're about to embark in a recount effort in Georgia we'll know next week what the results are, great. And if we see significant irregularities, I predict that you'll see those efforts heat up in several other states. It's just not over yet folks. It may very well be that Joe Biden is the president elect. In fact, we know he is, in whatever manner which that's determined, but this is the most interesting year and it would be a mistake to assume normalcy will return to 2020. It hasn't been here all year. Folks, I want you to think about the possibility, the strong possibility. And I, in fact, I think likelihood that this presidential election may very well be decided by the House of Representatives. So what does that mean?

mike:

That means that if the electors can't choose a president, if no one can get to 270, you can imagine many, many instances where that might happen. Maybe whole states for elections aren't certified and there aren't electors, maybe states where governors send electors or electors defect and change their votes. You can imagine multiple scenarios. But if we get to a place where a candidate doesn't get the requisite number of votes, then the Electoral College ceases to matter and the House of Representatives makes the determination of who becomes president. So the House of Representatives would then begin casting ballots until such time as we had a winner. The House of Representatives gets to choose, from amongst the three largest vote getters in the previous election. So that sets up a very, very interesting dynamic. And you immediately think, well, good for Joe Biden. He wins in a walk.

mike:

He wins if everything's fine and if it goes to the House he wins because he's got a Democratic House, right? Wrong. Not necessarily because unfortunately in this instance for my democratic friends, every congressional representative doesn't have a vote. No it's done by state. And so each state has its congressional delegation come together. There are states that have significantly larger democratic delegations and that, unfortunately doesn't help us here because when you parse it out, republicans, in fact have the majority of the States in these United States in their congressional delegations, which means Republicans would control the vote. It is actually quite plausible, I won't go as far as to say likely, but very, very plausible that this entire election could end with the House of Representatives for the first time, since the early 1800s, deciding who will be our president. And what happens on vice-president you ask, well, it's an interesting exercise in understanding how the constitution works, but you could in fact end up with a vice president from a different party.

mike:

You see it is the Senate that chooses the vice president, not to be left out, the House has a job, the Senate has a job and all of us sit back and watch. But folks, the constitutional implication of this is important. Why did the constitution create this alternative to the Electoral College if there was a crisis? Because it is imperative that the people still have a voice. If part of the system breaks down, if we truly find significant widespread voter fraud, and I'm not going to look farther than Georgia, let's see what the results show us. The president and his team have been investigating. Everybody's been investigating. Let's see what we see in the results in Georgia. But my democratic friends, if there's a significant change or shift in the vote, that means you have to agree as well. It needs to be a thorough counting of these votes.

mike:

This election is the most important one in our lifetime. The very heart and soul of this country is tethered to it. And folks, we need to be better stewards. We haven't lived up to what it is to be America. And we see the result of it now. We have to do better. This country was founded on the principle, not that everybody gets the same thing and not even that everybody was equal, but that everyone had equal opportunity. And the belief was, if you care about yourself and your family, and then you care about others, then the entire community lifts us up. It is the best part of America. You don't find that in government friends, you don't find it in government. You find it in communities, communities that rally together to take up the cause of freedom and justice. That's what we need folks. We need to rise up and demand that this election be settled once and for all, we need to know.

mike:

And if the facts substantiate any kind of irregularity, that could throw the results of the election. Then it's just not good enough to end up where we were in 2000. It's just not good enough to end up where we were, where the Supreme Court makes a decision. No, if that needs to happen, then that decision needs to be retained by the people. And the only constitutional way for the people to retain that authority is for the election to be decided by the United States House of Representatives. It is the only way for the people of these great United States to keep their say, because those congressional representatives answer to you. They have to come back and answer to you for their vote. So they will think it through, it may not be the vote you want, but at least it's a vote because if there is voting irregularity that shifts the results in Georgia, and I'm told by sources in the Republican Party, people that talk to me, not that I have great Republican sources, but I do have a few, those folks are telling me that we're going to see a shift in George's results.

mike:

That they're confident of it. They're confident of it. And some of those people are friends and I trust that when they say something, it's real. So assuming that's true folks, everything changes, assuming that's true, assuming we see a change in the vote count enough to substantiate a different result, everything changes and the president's supposed hysteria turns into a demand that we must investigate. Let us not ask ourselves how close we came. If we find out that there is irregularity and we will know in the next seven days, but within the next seven, well, actually five, three to five days. But in the next week, we'll know, we will know. And if there is a significant change in the vote total in Georgia, then we know we have to do recounts in each of the states where the Trump numbers on election night were significantly different than the Trump and Biden numbers after.

mike:

I'm not saying I believe there was widespread voter fraud. I'm not saying I believe that this is a situation where the election isn't accurate. I actually don't believe those things. But if you refuse to allow people to count votes, if you refuse to allow people to ask these questions, if you stifle these concerns, you're going to make it more likely that people will believe it. Even me, because while I don't believe it, I look around at my party and I watched Democrats and Progressive's shriek in horror at the idea of wasting time and resources on a recount. And I'm sorry folks. But I remember when I was on the front lines, yelling and screaming for a recount for Stacey Abrams, something I believed in at the time, something I still believe in and my democratic friends did too. You see the difference folks is I do not believe that the ends justify the means.

mike:

That is not just a character flaw for Democrats. It is a human problem, but see the ends don't justify the means. The means are everything. Life isn't about where you end up. We all end up dead. It's about how you get there. How many people get hurt and how many people you help. There is a way to do this, a way forward, because to remind you folks, we're talking about the heart and soul of America, our freedoms, our liberties at stake, we have to get this right. There has to be a proper counting. We have to know. We have to know.

mike:

Folks, the book has done remarkable. We sold almost 20,000 copies. You are amazing. If you haven't gotten your copy yet, notfreeamerica.com check it out. I really want to hear from you. Let me know what you think. Thank you guys so much. We'll be right back.

mike:

Welcome back folks. And again, not freeamerica.com. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, check it out. Read the book, get the book. You can order it online. It's important. I think it's important for today. And quite frankly, every day that goes by and new things happen, it becomes more important. And here we are talking about the craziness of this election and what happens next. What happens next? And there's a million mega march this weekend happening in D.C. Although it'll be interesting to see if the numbers ultimately come out, how many people are estimated to have shown up.

mike:

But it's interesting. There is a group of folks in participating in this, including groups called Stop the CLDC. Of course, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, I think are going to be there. But the organizer of this event, and this is a person that's working with Stop the Steel D.C, and they're coming from Michigan actually. What they're talking about is Trump is some sort of God-like figure. The quote from this executive director is "Trump is amazing. He's not a politician. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, they're politicians. They know how to do all the dirtiness. Trump was sent here to make America great and he was doing a great job." That kind of thing. And you hear a lot of that on the right. Quite frankly, it's great to have good feelings about your candidates. It's great to have great feelings about what they mean to you, but it isn't good to worship people. And this gets a little bit weird, and this is why I think literally the country has gone mad.

mike:

It's actually why I don't mind this thing ending up in the house of representatives. Not that I trust the house of representatives, but quite frankly, this entire election cycle has been a disaster. People were not able to get access to information. We lived through what was one of the scariest things we've ever seen, where we at the beginning of the pandemic in February and March were led to believe that we're heading into a, I don't know, almost like a human extinction event. People were crying. They were gathering together at home. You know what this was like, folks. Does that seem real today? I mean, we know that the coronavirus is real and we know it's harming people and we know it is killing people, but is it what you thought when they sat you down? When they told you they had to close your stores and close your work, to close your kids' schools, radically change everything about your life. Is this what you were expecting? Or were you expecting something different?

mike:

Because it is not about the solution for the government. It's never about what they're accomplishing, it's how they accomplish it. It's about control, folks. It's about control. Anything that the government is doing is about control. And we are being controlled right now by democratic governors that want to rescind the Bill of Rights, to abdicate their responsibility to protect the constitutional rights of individuals and a president and a series of supporters who seem to think of him as some kind of God, instead of a man and who certainly have lost all sense of common decency when it comes to how we elect or select the president.

mike:

We don't have Gods. We don't have kings. We have flawed men and women who run and we choose from amongst ourselves, flawed men and women to help us reach to a better tomorrow without stretched hands, touch the face of God and in so doing learn more about what it is to be human, more about what it is to be God-like, more about what it is to stand up for the meek and serve the poor. Things that any nation should be concerned about, but not from a function of how it controls its population. No, but from a function of how it serves its population. And more importantly, how it responds to its responsibilities, to our collective responsibilities. We are a government of, by and for the people, it's not supposed to be us versus them when them is the government. We are the government. It is in fact the entire reason the system was set up that way. Otherwise, our founders knew that it would be impossible to manage a bohemus government that was fully controlling.

mike:

So the idea was that the government was made of, up and by and for the people of the country, which means a lot of things, not the least of which is that the people, because they own it can destroy it, overturn it, rehab it, change it, whatever. Well folks, that's what I think really needs to happen right now. I think as a country, we need to come together and say, what of our storied past and history do we want to keep? If moving back to a constitutional principle of individual liberty means we have to get rid of certain things so that we can secure individual freedom and liberty and reduce the size of government, particularly as it relates to how it interferes with your personal life and how you raise your kids and what schools you send them to and those types of things.

mike:

I mean, folks, we on the let have to be prepared in the interest of individual liberty to give on some of those things and the right has to be prepared to give on them too, because the thing about liberty is if you really have a liberty interest society, it's not easy. It's not easy to accept everybody. It's not easy to have that kind of tolerance, the kind of tolerance it requires when everyone has the right to be left alone. That's not our country today, but it is the country of our founder's vision. It is the promise of America. Land of the free and home of the brave. Brave, why? Because we're off fighting the world's wars. No, that wasn't the idea. It's because in order to be free, you must be brave. In order to be free, you must take risks. In order to be free, you must respect that and those with whom which you vehemently disagree.

mike:

That is the cost of freedom because the rub is you can't be free if everyone's not free. It's one of those things that's sort of absolute. You can't have a free society if there are different levels of freedom within that society. And oh boy, how has the American system failed in that regard? But folks, it doesn't have to. We're on the cusp of something different, a different time, a time of culmination. Think about what we've been through. The shuttering of our economy, the jailing of people like hairdressers that dare open their stores, their storefronts. The decimation of an entire economy.

mike:

Our economy is going to look completely different now, with huge gains in the tech sector, but in retail and small businesses, decimation abounds. We don't even know what kind of country we're walking into. We don't even know what to expect. So maybe now is a time to take a step back and take stock of what it is to be free. What it is to be an American, the promises that were given to us by our founders, what do they mean now? What do we do? What is our responsibility to keep America from slipping into the abyss? Because folks we're on the event horizon of the black hole. If we get any closer, we're doomed. We are doomed. We can't give away any more liberties. We can't make any government agency more powerful than it already is.

mike:

We can't give these agencies the ability to destroy people's lives, their businesses, why? To control? To control what you say, to control what you do. That's not being free, folks. That's not freedom. Freedom isn't comfortable. Freedom doesn't always feel great, especially when you have to listen to someone say something that you don't like, but when you do that, in fact, every time you do that, you take a step closer to the day when someone who doesn't like what you're saying will stand up for you. It is a community of understanding, of affirming the individual rights of all people. That's what America was all about. That's why the government is of, buy, and for these folks. Come on guys. That's the whole point. Don't you see? And so how astray are we? We've been a astray for a 100 plus years. We've never lived up to what it is to be an American, but see, we can now. We have a real understanding now and our nation, which has been pushed to the brink of destruction in this crisis has a clarity now.

mike:

Now, I don't believe that Donald Trump or Joe Biden are going to lead us, but they're not supposed to. We are a government of, by and for the people. We lead. We lead. We don't need some 70 year old white men telling us how to resolve our problems. We need 70 year old white men and 70 year old black men and 70 year old Hispanic men and women, and all kinds of people who make up America, not fighting for an idea, but fighting for their liberty, their liberty. Everybody together. White, black, Hispanic. You see if you're responsible for you and you're responsible for the idea of respecting individual liberty by making sure that in your life, you respect other individual liberty principles, you tolerate things that you don't necessarily like, because you don't want to infringe on the rights of an individual who is simply not hurting anybody. That's America folks. That's the promise of America. A place where you could go and worship whatever God you want. Do you really feel like that's America today?

mike:

When Governor Cuomo tells you when the church can open and when it can't. Where have we gone, folks? Where have we gone? It is Alexander Hamilton and his criminal defense practice. The idea of locking people away for months and months and months a time, pretrial was unheard of, unheard of. Our founders never imagined a prison industrial complex. Our founders never imagined the idea of people being detained for years before trial. This is a new concept, a new concept that radically digs at protected elements of the liberty principles of the Bill of Rights. The idea that the government can do whatever the hell it wants, and it can because the courts have stripped those rights. They've stripped them down to shells of their former selves and all that assault on the rights of individuals in this country and it's been conducted by people on the left, and it's been conducted by people on the right. And the things that they have in common folks are so much more important, so much more important to them than what you might have in common with them ideologically.

mike:

Because see the Hilary Clintons and the Donald Trumps of the world, they have something that you and I don't have, and that's most of the stuff. They don't want to lose their area in life. I get it. But do you really want to turn the keys to the kingdom over to people who are so concerned about what they have, that they would do whatever is necessary to protect it? Isn't it something about America that people with gut and grit and determination that want to make a difference are the ones who drive this country. You see, I think today is an awakening. I think it's an awakening for people if we let it be.

mike:

That is that we are responsible for making the America that we want a reality in 2021. It isn't the next president of the United States. In fact, whoever that ends up being and I don't know yet, I think this thing still might go to the house. But irregardless, and I know that's not a word, regardless of who it is, it won't matter. Vis-a-vis whether this country survives or not. This country is going to survive or it's going to die on the backs of hardworking Americans who make a simple decision. Do you want it to keep going on like this? If you want it to keep going on like this, then let's drive the car off the cliff, because that's where we're going. We can't keep this up. This country is bursting at the seams and it's turmoil over race relations, which is really just allowing police unions to run ram shot over the people of this country. Because again, it's the people who have most of the things versus the people who don't, but that's really what it is, folks. It's what it is.

mike:

This government, whether it's ran by Republicans or Democrats, it doesn't matter to me. It's offensive, it's abusive. I can show you cases from federal prosecutors during Republican administrations and Democratic administrations where horrible, horrible things were done to harm people and businesses out of political ideological grounds. This is something we do. Government is used to abuse people and if you don't want that to happen, then you just have to take the power away from the government to be able to do that. It's quite simple folks. Now it's hard in that it's hard to get the people in the United States to understand why they should embark on a different way of going because in embarking on a different way is scary, absent a crisis.

mike:

Most of the time, people are not just going to choose a different way, but we have a crisis now. It's time to take stock of our country now. We can't keep living like this now. The prison industrial complex isn't a liberal term any more than protecting the integrity of an election as a conservative one. We can't lock away scores and scores of Americans for temporary amounts of time and expect that when they come back out that we're not going to have to provide services to them. So why not instead require from them people who have been convicted of crimes, we shouldn't be providing services to them for years after their releases, we should be expecting things from them. This is an insanity. Where has our country gone?

mike:

If you're really, really bad, you get everything taken care of for you. Where is the responsibility for people who make mistakes to redeem themselves? Where in any part of the system is that encouraged? Isn't that the idea of America, the spirit of redemption? What? Where is that? In today's America it's all about what the government can do to enforce its power and control over you and me. And they use so many different ways to do it. And it happens in so many different ways, but folks it's a different day now. We've seen what the abuse of some of these democratic governors look like. And it may be that we're going right back there. In fact, in many states, we are going right back there.

mike:

And here we sat and we wonder how much more can this economy take? How much more can our country take? And I say to you, folks think differently for a minute. Join me in thinking differently for a minute. We need this crisis so that we can change how we think, but it is us now. You're listening to this radio show. You need to take this from this radio show and say it to as many people as possible. It needs to be important that people understand the true enemy of the American people is not the right or the left, depending on your ideological bend. It doesn't matter. It's the people that have all the things who don't want you to have them. And so they protect them by any means necessary. They're also the folks that think the ends justify the means. We'll be right back folks. Thank you.

mike:

Welcome back to Not Free America. So, notfreeamerica.com is the website to go to. Go to that website, order my book, it's out, or go to your local bookstore and pick it up. I'm looking forward to hearing from you guys. I can't wait to interact with you guys about the book, really looking forward to seeing what you have to say about my thoughts. I felt for a long time that I wanted to talk about constitutional principles and how they impact individual liberty. But 2020 was a wake up call for me, as it was for many, many people. Liberal, conservative, progressive, what have you. If you are not one of the haves, then you are fodder for the haves. And the reality is that when they're in a time of crisis, the people who have things, that small portion take care of themselves and the rest of us are left to fend for ourselves.

mike:

Now here's the thing about the United States of America, folks, everybody's here with an opportunity. No one is guaranteed anything, I believe in that. But I also don't believe in the deck being stacked against people. And that's what happens. That's what happens when you have police unions who corrupt the industry of policing. Takes it from a noble cause and turns it into something that asserts super powers over individuals without any accountability whatsoever. We see it over and over and over again. We have health care and expanded healthcare options thanks to Obamacare, but I know so many people on Obamacare, they can't stand the coverage, they can't stand the high deductibles. We have to be able to come together and understand that there is more that unites us than divides us. That's what the book is about. The book isn't going to tell any of you everything you want to hear, but that's also not reality.

mike:

It's also not something that you have to agree with. There's a lot of opinion in the book, and that's my opinion. I'd love to share it with you, but I don't expect you to just adopt it. If my arguments won the day, then so be it. And if you have a different perspective, awesome. But I really want you to read the book because in addition to those ideas that might get you thinking about different things, I think that the book is more important than that for this reason. I wrote the book understanding, there's a time coming and the United States of America was dark. Joe Biden at the last debate said, "We're going into a dark winter." And you know what? He's not wrong. But it's not just winter that's looking dark, we've seen a decimation of our economy after an incredible over reaction to a pandemic that is bound to have harmed and killed less people than will ultimately be harmed and killed by the poverty and the civil unrest that follows.

mike:

Our country is literally falling apart, being ripped apart at the scenes. We can't continue to do this, we have to unite together. It isn't about political party, it isn't about candidate, it's simply about being an American. Do you believe in the constitution of the United States? Do you believe in these sovereign states coming together forming a republic that represents the interests of the citizen? Do you believe in the promise of America? Something better than a land of ideals, a land of opportunity, the land of the free and the home of the brave. Are we? Are we really? When the vast majority of the world's prisoners per capita are in the United States, when the United States of America incarcerates more people per capita than any other country in the world. Land of the free? Really? Really? If you can't sue a police officer who shoots your child in the head because of qualified immunity, you're going to tell me we're the land of the free? Where's the freedom for that child, for his parents, for that family?

mike:

I'm afraid we haven't been living up to what we've been billing ourselves as for some time. But the good news about realizing that you're not what you're saying you are is that you can fix it. The great news about realizing that you have a problem is that you can then fix the problem. We have to fix the problem by coming together. And in my book, Not Free America, I'm going to give you practical guidance, a roadmap on how to get through the strife that's coming. It's often said, you don't see war until it's upon you. And these United States have never been this tumultuous, this chaotic. We've never seen these types of factors come together in such a way in a world that is made much smaller by technology. We are living in a time of culmination. Read the book, it will give you practical advice on how to survive the coming years of turmoil and strife.

mike:

Because I believe there is a better day ahead for these United States. I don't believe that America's days are behind her. I do not believe that the greatest democratic experiment in the history of the world, in my opinion, is dead. I refuse to believe that. I believe that we can do something different, do something better, live up to the promises we've made. These are people we've promised that we would be. Understand that it isn't just about us, it's a collective understanding of the promise of the freedom encapsulated in the constitution of the United States. The words means something, and that's also something I write about in the book. Because folks, when a police officer can search your house or your car and you can't sue them because of qualified immunity, then the constitution doesn't mean what it says.

mike:

Folks, I wrote this book because I wanted to share with you what keeps me up at night, what makes me nervous as a dad about what we're giving to our kids. I want to share with you my fear, but also my hope. Harvey Milk said ... Harvey Milk's a very interesting man. He said, "You got to give them hope." Hope is the single greatest human commodity. Without hope, there's nothing. But with hope, we can accomplish anything. notfreeamerica.com, go to the website, order the book. It's in bookstores on Tuesday, go to your bookstore, buy the book. But I want to talk to you. I want to engage with you. I want you to come to the website, come to our social, let me know what you think. And I appreciate you so very much. Very excited about the book and I want to talk to you as we wrap up the program this weekend. And then beyond, who knows what the country looks like after this? I'm worried about violence.

mike:

I'm worried about whether our country can survive it, of course. But I believe, again, the single greatest human commodity is hope, and that's what the book is about. It gives us hope for a pathway forward. The path is going to go through darkness, that's true, but the measure of a man or a woman isn't necessarily how they behave or how they perceive the fight in the darkness. More how they perform when the fight is upon them, and the fight is upon us. But the fight's answer isn't harming, kill one another, it's to talk to one another and learn from one another. And if you read my book, I think if you're a liberal, you'll like some things and hate some things, and the same way for conservatives. But here's the thing folks, labels and boxes don't work. We're people and there's one thing that unites us, and that is the concept of understanding the importance of individual liberty.

mike:

Individual liberty is incredibly important, it is about bedrock foundation principle of these United States. And if we do not honor individual liberty, every promise it's made to us by our government, by its founding documents, are lies. And I refuse to accept that. I refuse to accept it. So here we are, here we are in 2020, and I wrote a book to give people hope because I think that's what people need. So here's the thing folks, we're in a pretty scary time. And we all know that. And scary times, well, it can be difficult understanding what we should do next. Lots of apathy, people lose their jobs, they don't know how to get involved, they don't know how to get back to it, they're worried. There's fear. People are losing their homes, they're losing their vehicles. There's a lack of food in a lot of places that's impacting people, or a lack of resources to be able to get that food.

mike:

And this is just the beginning. But I'm also going to predict that this country will deepen into a state of conflict. And that it will be up to all of us freedom loving Americans, patriots who believe in individual liberty to come together and ensure that the America that continues to exist after COVID-19 and the unrest of this year and beyond the hypocrisy of the American police state crashing upon itself. Let's hope and pray on the other side of it, we can build something new, but yet something old. A promise that had never been fulfilled, a promise of equal opportunity of life, of liberty, of the pursuit of happiness. Where have we gone so incredibly wrong? How do we get back? Read the book. When I sat down to write this book, I didn't know how long it would take. I didn't realize the commitment in time.

mike:

I wanted to write about cases I'd funded and experiences I had because folks, I have been doing this a while. I know what it feels like when the government turns against you because they turn against my clients and people I support all the time, all the time. I write in the book about a privilege quotient, and I talked about how during the coronavirus lockdowns, many people who were conservative, many people who were white and hadn't experienced the same kind of experiences that deprive liberty that black and brown people often experienced, began to see it. I said then, it is an interesting opportunity really, an interesting opportunity for folks who have been impacted by a system that is so elitist and protectionist that it doesn't care about you. We all have. It's one thing that unites us all, we all have had that experience. That should tell you something right there.

mike:

We can't continue to elect people who create systems that are broken and don't work anymore. And we can't continue to elect people who played dog whistle to race us. The country is better than this, the country is better than this, but we have the choices we have. I want to make sure you all have an opportunity to get the book. I think that's important. I really want you to read about qualified immunity, understand what it is. This book will explain it to you in such a way that you can explain it to others. You'll understand how unjust it is and you can help us repeal it once and for all. I want you to read the book. I want you to learn about qualified immunity. I think you'll be offended no matter what your political persuasion. When you really understand what it is, I think you'll be offended.

mike:

And I appreciate your interest in the book, notfreeamerica.com, go there, buy the book, or it's in bookstores. I wanted to take a few minutes to just address a few listener concerns and interests we've heard a lot from you over the last few weeks, which I really, really appreciate. Many of you talking about how much you enjoy this show or the fresh perspectives. The legal advice, Mario's here and can help folks understand and just navigate where we are. It is a very scary time to be alive, but it's also a very exciting time to be alive. And I think our listeners know it's an exciting time to be alive and it's a dangerous time to be alive. And I think everyone's taking this seriously. Everyone's taking the time seriously, where we are, our place in the world and what our responsibilities are.

mike:

[inaudible 00:13:16] from Nebraska wrote, "Mario, Mike, I appreciate you guys listening each week and keep up the good work. Really appreciate the knowledge and the legal understanding." Thanks man, really happy to be here to be able to provide that. And Mario is a gem in that regard. We want to be able to provide information. We want to be able to provide a pathway forward. And I think that's what I try to do in the book, it's about helping people understand what the next steps are. We have brought ourselves to the brink of destruction as a country. The brink of destruction we have, we can pull ourselves back. We can. It is entirely possible. We have to be serious. And part of being serious is understanding that some things have to matter. At some level, something has to matter more, and that something has to be the individual liberty principle. A person isn't free if their liberty isn't always protected.

mike:

And this idea that we somehow need to barter away or give away our constitutional rights in a crisis defies logic, when you consider that these documents were born out of some of the greatest crisis our founders had ever known. I missed the part that says, exception when there's a crisis. We need to be truer to who we are as free people in crisis. That's what we need in this country. Betty, from Virginia wrote, "Your book comes out, looking forward to it. Can we get a signed copy?" Well, that's a yes, of course. If you do send a message, go to notfreeamerica.com. Again, you can get the book there, go into the contact form, send me over a message, I'll get back to you. Or go on Facebook or Twitter and send me a message there. Folks, really happy to engage with you guys.

mike:

Lots of interesting activity on Facebook and Twitter, as more people are reading about the book and more people are committing to get it. We are excited. I am excited about what that means. And let me talk a little bit about that because I think it's important. I mean, I think I want you to understand, there's a reason I wrote Not Free America, is because I believe in America. I've funded cases where I've seen people who have no power hold people with great power accountable. I know it's possible. The system doesn't live up to its promise every day. In fact, it quite rarely does. But it can. And it's the best thing we have until someone comes to fix it or change it. And I'm happy to do that too. Folks, as we hurdle toward the future of uncertainty, let me say this to you, we are in this together. Hope springs eternal.

mike:

We have an opportunity to do something great, to be the better America that we always could have been by just simply keeping our promises. But we have to walk through fire to get there. As Winston Churchill said, "If you're going through hell, keep going, for it is the only way to ensure that you don't stay in hell." Who wants to be in hell? There is a sort of hell over this country and the world right now, but freedom and bravery and courage, things that used to be principle bedrocks of the American ideal, those are the things that get us out of the darkness, those are the things that win the war, and those are the things that ensure America's providence in the future. It isn't guaranteed folks, but nothing ever is. We have an opportunity, we must fight for the country that we love, for the freedoms that were granted to us, not by our government, but by God.

mike:

Will you stand with me? notfreeamerica.com, let me hear from you. Get the book, read it, let's chat. Folks, thank you for joining me yet another week. I appreciate you so much and we'll see you next week. Make sure you get the book, notfreeamerica.com. Thanks so much guys. Take care. Have a great week.