After President Biden’s divisive speech at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, I told a friend that the sidewalk in front of that historic building needed a good scrubbing. I added (half jokingly) that a bottle of holy water from my Russian Orthodox parish might be used to purify the space of unclean spirits.
In 1861, Abraham Lincoln raised the flag there when the state of Kansas entered the union. On July 4, 1962, John F. Kennedy addressed the nation from inside the building.
In November 2016, from a front row seat in the Independence Hall press section, I watched as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton played to the roar of Democrat crowds in a cultish (anti-Trump) ceremonial complete with the canned music of Dem sycophants, Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi.
But even being so close to pantsuit Hillary that evening did not leave me with the feeling I got after Biden’s address to the nation.
That feeling is best expressed in the Mahatma Gandhi quote: “I will not allow anyone to walk in my mind with dirty feet.”
The fact is, Biden walked into the collective mind of the nation that day in Philadelphia with dirty feet.
“Now, I want to be very clear up front. Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology,” Biden told the Philadelphia crowd (where, thankfully, there were more than a few hecklers.)
“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,” Biden added.
The illogic here is noteworthy considering that the only threat to the nation is coming from Democrats: open borders and the failure to enforce immigration laws; sanctuary cities; gender ideology; the FBI’s targeting of parents who object to the teaching of critical race theory; the politicization of the Justice Department and the codification of January 6th as another kind of 9/11 when in fact the real ‘other’ 9/11 were the riots and the burning of cities that occurred in the name of (Saint) George Floyd in 2020 when Democrat governors and mayors said and did little to quell the destruction.
Biden’s Philadelphia speech was proof, as if one needed it, that the man who cannot ride a bicycle and who shakes hands with invisible people has been recast into an angry attack dog.
Is the ‘new’ Biden an example of the ‘meaner’ effects of dementia? Maybe, but the brunt of the change we see has the stamp of his pit bull-driven political handlers.
Biden’s tweets, speeches and off the cuff remarks have become increasingly annoying and ugly, obsessed as they are with MAGA Republicans and Supreme Court justices.
Some days before the Philadelphia speech, Biden tweeted, “We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court and Republican elected officials push an extreme agenda that takes away freedoms and personal autonomy.”
Here we have an example of Biden’s locution-challenged speaking style. Missing in his tweet is the preposition ‘to’ between the words ‘officials’ and ‘push.’
Not a big deal perhaps, but when you’re president you should pay attention to the little things, especially when your mission is to make Republicans look like the enemies of America.
As Biden babbled on about the midterms being “a battle for the soul of the country,” and how (because of Republicans) “equality and democracy are under assault,” he never mentioned the real problems of the nation, such as the crumbling of the nation’s cities, almost all Democrat-run, because the DAs there have given up on prosecuting crimes ranging from felonies to shoplifting.
The daily concerns of urban residents, in this case Philadelphians fearful of leaving their houses at night because of what might happen to them in heretofore safe areas like Old City or Rittenhouse Square, weren’t even worthy of a mention.
That’s because any comment in this direction would have cast a bad light on the city’s Democrat majority.
The prime “threat to democracy,” in Biden’s mind, is taking away a woman’s right to an abortion at nine months, not the safety of the average U.S. city dweller because of the policies of a liberal DA who will not prosecute certain crimes.
Though there were no shootings in the immediate area of Independence Hall at the time of Biden’s September 1 speech, one day later 3 people were killed and many others injured as gun violence erupted in different parts of the city.
On Labor Day weekend, police reported the sound of several gunshots near 10th and Market Streets, the Center City shopping district, and announced the arrest of a teenage suspect. A total of five minors were arrested who had possession of guns (with extended magazines) who were randomly shooting at buildings in the street.
A September 1 report by the Philadelphia Office of the City Controller showed at least 337 fatal and 1,275 non deadly victims of gun violence in 2022. That’s a 2% increase from September 1, 2021, the year that saw the most killings in the city’s recorded history.
The situation is so bad that Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, once viewed as an ideological ally of (the Soros-supported) DA Krasner, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Philadelphia’s criminal justice system has become a “revolving door for repeat gun offenders, and that conviction rates for being caught with illegal guns dropped after Krasner was sworn into office January 2018.”
This is a small but amazing comment from the Police Commissioner who used to see eye-to-eye with Krasner but who is now apparently beginning to see the ill effects of his leftist policies.
Firing back at Biden, former President Trump said in a Wilkes Barre address: “I think Philadelphia was a great choice to make this speech of hatred and anger. His speech was hatred and anger.”
Trump added that Philadelphia “is being devastated under Democratic rule,” and that, “Last year, the city set an all-time murder record with 560 homicides and it’s on track to shatter that record again in 2022.
“Numbers that nobody’s ever seen other than in some other Democrat-run cities,” he added.
Even Democrats who hate Trump tend to go speechless before facts like these.
What’s unfortunate is that very shortly after Biden’s Philadelphia address a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that a majority of Americans believe that the MAGA movement is undermining democracy.
The Reuters poll, besides reflecting liberal bias, shows the power of the new Biden PR machine.
It also indicates how gullible many Americans are when it comes to the Orwellian method of repeating an untruth over and over again until it poses as “truth’ in the minds of those who allow themselves to be lulled to sleep under liberal hypnosis.
The truth of the matter, as any astute and fully aware citizen will attest, is that democracy won’t last at all if radical Democrats continue to have their way when it comes to shaping the nation.
Certifiable proof of this is how Democrats have shaped the nation’s cities.
That’s a glowing example of how they’ve begun to undermine civilization itself.
Thom Nickels is a Philadelphia-based journalist/columnist and the 2005 recipient of the AIA Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism. He writes for City Journal, New York, Frontpage Magazine, Broad and Liberty, and the Philadelphia Irish Edition. He is the author of fifteen books, including ”Literary Philadelphia” and ”From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia.” “Death in Philadelphia: The Murder of Kimberly Ernest” will be published in early 2023.
Still a bitch, hunh?
This new format is a mistake. I miss the larger pictures, many of which convinced me to read the articles, and the typeface, while sophisticated, probably does not work on cell phone screens. Also, it was nice to be able to scroll down to the previous day’s posts. Will not be visiting nearly as much.
Oops. I see now that one can still scroll down to the previous day’s posts. But I still prefer the former layout.
Biden said what every one of us leftist elites think, we are obsessed with TDS, and until we get the message over to you conservatives nothing is going to change.
Fact: He’s not a politician, he’s a businessman, yuk.
Fact: Nobody who works for government wants a businessman running the show.
Fact: The government is bigger and growing and there are now ample opportunities for you conservatives to get jobs with the IRS, go fo it before it’s too late.
Called out by what, a senile dog barking in the street?
“A September 1 report by the Philadelphia Office of the City Controller showed at least 337 fatal and 1,275 non deadly victims of gun violence in 2022. ”
Given the typical realities in major blue cities, we can assume that 80-90% of the perps were black or Hispanic. So, in one city in less than one year we have about 300 murders committed by blacks and Hispanics. How many YEARS do you need to go back – NATIONWIDE – to find that many murders by white supremacists? But the DOJ, FBI, Joe Biden, and the media keep insisting that white supremacy is our greatest domestic threat.
Biden didn’t “call us out.” As usual, he inverted reality and blamed Trump supporters for what he and his party are doing.
Who hates and criticizes the Constitution, calling it “outdated.” Who is trying to subvert free speech and the 2nd Amendment? Who hates the electoral college, the two-senators-per-state rule, and states’ rights in general. The left. The left hates the Constitution because it recognizes the reality of pluralism and local and regional interests in a vast country of 330 million people. The left wants to eliminate that with a federal hegemony that imposes uniformity of thought and practice on an unwilling nation.
Who hates “systemically racist” America, demonizes the Founders, renames public buildings, and destroys historical monuments? The left. Who wants to destroy national identity and national sovereignty by flooding the borders, teaching the young to hate our country, and making us subservient to non-elected globalist NGOs like the WEF? The left.
Who is soft on crime, eliminating bail, releasing dangerous criminals back onto the streets, decriminalizing most shoplifting, decriminalizing drugs, thereby encouraging random street violence, smash-and-grab looting sprees, and the degradation of public space? The left. Who preaches racial demonization and racial division in the schools and military? The left. Who did 97% of the rioting and property destruction in the last three years? The left.
What administration partners with Big Tech and Big Media to silence dissent and suppress unwanted stories? The Biden administration and the Deep State FBI. Who tells parents they should have no voice in their children’s education? The left. Who wants to destroy people’s lives for refusing an unnecessary and risky vaccine? The left. Who wants to use banana republic tactics to harass and criminalize the political opposition? The left. Who promotes the lunatic idea that exposing young children to sexually explicit drag queen shows is somehow consistent with traditional American values? The left.
Finally, who claimed for years that Trump was an “illegitimate president” without offering a shred of evidence to back it up? The left.
Joe Biden is a liar and a doddering, angry, senile joke, and “Teabaggers” is like a little toddler who has just learned about truth and lying and is testing the adults in the room to see what he can get away with. Pathetic little boy.
We weren’t “called out,” Biden just inverted reality, accusing the MAGA movement of what his own party is doing.
Who criticizes the Constitution, calls it “racist” and “outdated,” and wants to eliminate it or significantly alter it? The left.
Who perpetrated 97% of the political rioting in the last five years? The left.
Who is soft on crime, wants to eliminate bail, releases violent criminals back onto the streets, refuses to prosecute many crimes against property (which has led to an explosion of shoplifting and organized smash-and-grab looting), legalizes and subsidizes dangerous drug habits, and refuses to enforce immigration law? The left.
Who inserts racially divisive and inflammatory curricula into the schools? The left. Who tells parents they should have no voice in their children’s education? The left.
Who demonizes this country (“systemically racist”), denigrates its history, demonizes the Founders, renames public buildings and places, and destroys historical monuments? The left.
Who is trying to subvert national sovereignty through submission to policies dictated by unaccountable and unelected globalist NGOs like the WEF? The left.
Who has insisted for six years – without offering a shred of evidence – that Trump was an “illegitimate” president? The left. (By way of contrast, conservative claims that the 2020 election was stolen have been supported by a lot of evidence, such as Molly Hemingway’s recent book “Rigged” and the documentary “2,000 Mules.”)
Who supports censorship of political dissent or dissent from any view held by the left? Who consistently deploys mobs to shut down speakers it disagrees with? The left.
Who is supporting banana republic efforts to harass and criminalize political opposition?
Who is supporting a fascist fusion of government and corporate power? The left.
I could go on, but this is enough to show the utter mendacity of Biden’s claims.