A bill was recently introduced by the leader of the Arizona State Freedom Caucus to
ban any representation honoring Satan from being placed on state public property. The bill
pass and committee despite opposition. Now Senator Juan Mendez defended the Satanic temple,
highlighting their value of compassion and justice, something Christians seem to have in a
short supply these days. Senator Jake Hoffman argued that Satanism cannot be considered a
religion, as satan is antithetical to religion. The bill passed the committee vote
in a center advance for further consideration on the chamber floor. So stay tuned
for more Christo fascist attempts to rewrite our laws into a theocracy. This story
comes from Arizona Capital Times by Hannah Elsmore on February nine, twenty twenty four.
And Jonathan, I'm sure you have plenty to say about this time.
Oh yeah, Respect, which is the name they at the acronym they gave
for this stands for reject escalating Satanism by preserving essential core traditions. You know,
the bill has a title that shows little respect for anything other than their
brand or religion. But I have a mixed review of this as the senator
in Arizona has one argument that almost holds water until you look at it closely.
He mentions that this is not a religious liberty issue, as we can't
put Ten Commandments in schools. This just extends it for Satan only in parentheses.
That's my to all government property. Okay, And if you didn't see
the problem with that first, it would not need to be banned, as
it falls under the same rules already. It is a religion. According to
the IRS, government buildings cannot display religious displays that support or can be interpreted
to mean governmental support of any religion that includes them. So you can't.
You can't do this. So this is a This is a nothing built.
This is a media stunt. This is a stunt that he gets to say,
See how I'm protecting your morals and your your philosophy of life. Well,
excuse me, there's one small issue. Satan doesn't exist except in Abrahamic
religions. Therefore, why do you hate it. Your religion can't exist without
it, you know. So you know, it's just like without that dichotomy,
everything you're trying to do kind of falls flat. So you know,
I'm just like an absolute almost amused if it wasn't so dangerous, you know,
I can I can tell you that, you know, tst will end
up in a lawsuit and it will get overturned if they do pass this,
and I have no doubt they will, because this is all a publicity stunt
for the GOP and how they're going to in an election year. They're going
to rile up their base so that they can get more votes. What they
don't realize is their base is less than forty percent of the population. So
if they keep catering to their base, they're going to lose all the independence
and all the middle of the road Republicans and they're going to be left with
that twenty five and that's it. You can't win an election that way.
And this comes from somebody who has run elections before, but anyway, that's
the first things I have to say. So I'm going to pass this back
to Scott and sure if he has some more before I get into another brand.
The Respect Act, right, you said, that's what you said.
They call it the Respect Act. And when I hear them, I hear
Aretha Franklin. Right. I won't sing it. I won't sing it.
Don't worry about that, because, of course we all know Aretha Franklin was
a total Satanist back in the day. No I made that up. I
made that up totally. But it makes just as much sense as the real
name of the bill, right, Jonathan, you were mentioning reject escalating Satanism,
and this part is the cool part. By preserving essential core traditions,
preserving essential court traditions, like, for example, the First Amendment, okay,
because they're tossing that out, that would be an essential core tradition,
I think, but they're not preserving it. They're throwing it out oddly.
As you mentioned. They're also arguing that Satanism is not a religion because satan
is antithetical to religion. So if it's not a religion, then it should
be okay, right. If it's not a religion, then that's an argument
to allow this kind of thing to happen. But Senator Hoffman, sorry,
State senator said that it does not defy the First Amendment because the bill would
still allow for freedom of speech and assembly, saying, well, you still
have your you don't have your freedom of religion, but we still have freedom
of speech and assembly and you know, I'm thinking, wait, so we
can satisfy a lodge just by satisfying part of it now, because I know
it's been a while since I've coveted my neighbor's ox, So am I covered
for the Ten Commandments there? I don't know, It's just it's a silly
thing. But I will say this that the Arizona State Sun Devils are in
for an expensive rebranding in their near future, and I have a suggestion for
a new mascot for them. Anyway, I'm sorry, I'll pass this on,
Infidel. What do you have to add to that? I think you're
exactly right when you talked about well, if it's not a religion, then
great, what's your objection moving right along? Because that means we need to
keep your Ten Commandments out and let's go ahead and bring Satan nin if that's
the case. But the truth is is, I do disagree because Satan is
very much a religious character, and if you really read your Bible in the
beginning, Satan is an employee of God. He's not some big, bad
guy who's on top doing all these things. He in the Book of Job.
He actually has answers to God. He's He's on God's board meeting so
very much so a religious figures. And I did notice, he said Hoffman,
Jake Kaufman. I kept calling him Jack because I think I was in
my minds thinking Jack hoff Jack off. But he said, it is a
great desecration of public property in Arizona. We have more respect for our public
property and for the people who call Arizona home than to have Satanic altars and
displays on public property. You know, bravo, because I have more respect
for the people of Arizona, because I am completely fine with not having Satanic
altars on public property. I'm perfectly fine with not having Christian symbols represented on
public property. And because you know what, they've got a place to do
that. That's called church, and sure that's perfect. But what they want
is they want their symbols and their religion pushed to the forefront, while anything
that may come against that to be pushed down. But then again, mister
Hoffman does have some issues with the truth. I do find it ironic that
he picked one of the few characters in the Bible who consistently spoke the truth,
who was honest. The character was a truthful guy. Now about Jay
Kaufman, though, this is a guy who, in his moral sanctimoniousness,
tried to file paperwork as a fake elector. This is a guy who ran
a group called runs a group called rally Forge who trolled fake using fake democratic
accounts during the election for Turning Point Action, which is part of the Turning
Point America group. So I mean he was actually even removed from Facebook after
the fact his group because they were hiring teenagers in the area to essentially troll
as liberal Democrats, to turn people off and to try to swing the middle
vote. So, when it comes down to honesty and what is best,
I say this, I have more respect for the people in Arizona who call
it home than to them that to deal with some liar like Jay Kaufman.
Now, as we said, the bill did pass. Now this isn't going
anywhere, at least not this time. It passed committee. It passed committee,
Yes, passed committee. But this is going to I do think this
is going to ultimately pass the state legislature. But when it gets going to
be contested and it's never going to actually achieve anything that they think it's going
to because once again, as Jonathan said, this is just a plan and
a method to whip up the base, to get people all emotional to think,
oh my god, Satan's invading everything. You know, let's chicken little,
the sky's fall. Let's go ahead and vote so we don't get Satan
everywhere, because you know, we might get somebody that Satan on us if
we don't do that. But I did notice that the guy, the senator
who opposed it said, this proposal isn't even a dog whistle. It is
straight up an attack on religion. He is literally trying to rerase an entire
religion. And that's what he's doing because at the end of the day,
it's as we said many times, it's not about religious freedom. It's about
religious freedom. And there's a little asterisk next to them, and that means
for me. And we see this time and again, and this is just
another example of this happening once more. So this will go somebody will end
up paying some money because we've seen this before with the Satanic temple contesting and
bringing things to court, and they the other side loses consistently because it is
a losing issue because all they're trying to do is shut the people up.
They don't agree with and with that, I'm going to shut up Jonathan promises,
promises. But anyway, the yeah, I don't think they're they're really
trying to shut them up. They know what's going to happen. They're just
doing this as a political stunt to get their name in the paper. You
know. Just spell the name right. Doesn't matter what you say, as
long as you get the press, you know, And that's pretty much it.
This state senator needs to to keep his position on the on the board
of Extreme Christians in order to keep his his status in the extreme fascist,
crystal fascist world. And he's gone way extreme to the point where most people,
even in his religion, are going, I don't know if I want
to be associated with this guy, but you know, and if he's if
you need people to push you out of religion, there you go. You
see somebody like this, and you're going you've not read the first couple of
sentences of the First Amendment, have you? Yes? You know about establishment
of religion? You know that, now, I guess not. Okay,
go read it. It's a ubound to read. Uh, just read the
Ten Commandments, you know, No, just read the Ten Amendments, you
know. So you know, it's just like I just I shake my head
in the ignorance of people, the ignorance of history, the ignorance of American
politics. You know. Uh, you know, if you mentioned Detokeville,
everybody kind of the eyes glaze over, you know, and you're sitting there
going, Okay, I guess I'm not going to talk about that today,
mainly because they just won't listen. As soon as you say anything that doesn't
fit with their worldview, their ears their eyes glaze over and their ears closed.
And that's it, you know. So I don't have anything more to
tell these people except for your idiots, wake up, smell the coffee.
You know. It's like they're just not going to go, you know.
And so I think that once we get rid of these this kind of power
seeking and put some rules in place about who can say what in the media,
uh, you know, as far as falsehoods, then maybe we'll get
someplace or you know, I understand free speech and all that, but lying
to people that causes harm is not free speech, so you know, and
so there, you know, I know I said it, I said the
silent power out loud. But you know that's fine, you know, get
over yourselves. People. The Satanic Temple has done a lot of really great
work, and you are going to lose. You will lose in court.
The Supreme Court will not even hear it because if they outlaw one religion,
it kind of sets a precedent. So you know, and with the majority
of them being Catholics, and you know, they're probably not going to pass
any at any laws pass that discriminated against any religion because remember once that starts
your next So wake up, smell the coffee, get right with your constitution,
and stop being a dick and Scott good advice for all of us.
I think. But Jonathan, you were saying before that that this Senator Hoffman,
sorry State Senator Hoffman, represents a kind of a minority, and that
you said something about how his base is shrinking, so to speak. You
know, I don't want to get too personal here, but but but you
know, but the fact is the fact is that he was in fact elected,
and that he campaigned openly on these principles, and so there even if
there is a minority of people that are supporting these particular views, I think
an argument could be made and and and I'll pose this as a question into
both of you. Do you think that this is a reasonable argument that he
is in fact representing his constituency. He was he because he campaigned on issues
just like this, and so he's he's basically following through on what he promised
and they elected him to do that. Does that mean that he is Is
he doing his job here? Is he representing his constituency? Infidel? What
are your thoughts on then? I think that one thing that people forget and
overlook when we're having having a representation in government, Sometimes that representation doesn't mean
doing what the people who elected you want you to do. Sometimes it boils
down to doing things they don't want you to do because it's the wrong thing.
So he might be representing the people that voted for him, but he's
not representing the self interests of his state and he's not representing the Constitution.
And Jonathan mentioned earlier about read to Constitution. Yeah, that's a quick read.
What I'd really like Christians ado though, is read your damn Bible,
because I don't think there's anything out there that pokes holes in Christianity as we
know it better than their own book. So go ahead and do that.
Read your Bible. Read the Constitution. But at the end of the day,
it's his responsibility to represent the country well in his the state and and
they're in the Constitution as well. And when he strays from that, I
think he's lost lost course. He's he's way off course of what he should
be doing. I don't care if everybody in Arizona thinks that's a great idea.
You're you promise you you took an oath to uphold the laws of this
country, and what he is doing is the exact opposite of the laws of
this country. So I think he's being the opposite. But you know,
then again, I'm a godless heathen, so what do I know? Well,
indeed, let me let me let me jump in here, Jonathan,
I have a question for you. You were you were saying about you were
talking before about the Satanic Temple. I mean, we know that they can
often be intentionally provocative right there. The whole goal of the organization is to
draw attention to this kind of hypocrisy that we see in this religious bias,
and and and and especially when it comes to legislation and that kind of thing.
So would you consider this a win for the Satanic Temple and If so,
how how can they build on this? What can they where can they
take this? I think that they they won't be a win until they take
it to court. But I think that their advocate in the State Senate was
fairly eloquent in his defense of of the TST and he brought them into the
meeting, and every Republican on the in the meeting split when they saw the
Satanic temple people in her So they are scared to death of this, and
that's their belief system. And I think that just because he was elected,
he took an oath. You take an oath before they're God. And wouldn't
he be a little pissed if you broke that oath to support and defend the
Constitution of the United States. I don't know, guys. You know,
any sin is a sin that is going to get you damned. Sorry,
he doesn't say what degree of sin. There is no categoration. It is
you insulted God. It doesn't matter if alls you did was spitting the sidewalk
or you murdered somebody. In God's eyes, supposedly they're all equal. So
good luck with that religion of yours. I don't see you getting out of
it alive. Of course, we never get out of it alive. I
don't see you getting it out of it, Scott free. Let's put it
that way. And I don't mean you, Scott though. They could be
Scott free. I don't know they could be Scott Dickey free. I'm not
free, that's for sure. But anyway, my only thing is that,
just like Infidel said, he takes an oath and he has to represent not
just the people of his district. So that should be his primary concern.
It shouldn't be their their morals or their uh constitution breaking ideas. It should
be to make sure their roads are are paved, and their their wetlands are
managed, and their wildlife is managed, and their schools are are you know,
in good shape and you know, uh infrastructure. That's what a state
senate should be doing, you know, not this fringe. Let's get a
SoundBite that everybody can get excited about. Just do your job and quit with
the Let's force everybody to be the way we are. Just do your job.
Fix the roads, fix the schools, fix well, fix the schools
in a way in which you're not pushing your bullshit on them. But otherwise,
Scott I'm dumb. Sure. Yeah, you both bring up great points
about the constitution. Right, America is a democracy, but that does not
mean that we're mob rule. Right. It's not just a you know,
might makes right situation. That's why we have a constitution. If it was
mob rule, then we wouldn't need a constitution because the mob could always you
know, force their way and muscle their way in. And so, you
know, it's really about defending the Constitution, and I think that's a perfect
spot for us to end this discussion. Thank you Jonathan and Infidel for joining
me. I had a great blast talking to both of you tonight.