Latest / Coconut Justice / CJP #25: Joseph Perez-Caputo (CT-4)

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CJP #25: Joseph Perez-Caputo (CT-4) · Coconut Justice

• speaker-0: Hey, what's good? Joseph Perez Caputo is a multi-talented actor, singer, martial artist that climbed over the fence at the White House to bring attention to what he sees as much needed change for this country. Nowadays, he's a law school student and is running for Congress in Connecticut. Rooted in working class values and driven by the belief that people come before profits. He's fighting for affordability, accountability, and a future that actually works for everyone. This is my conversation with Joseph Perez Caputo. Before we get into it, remember to go to CoconutJustice.com to get you some clothes that I think would look good on you. Let's go. On this channel, we have had rabble rousers. We've had table flippers. Never. Never up until now have we had fan fence jumpers. Well, actually, not that I know of. Not that I know, but today, you guys, today we're talking to fence jumper number one, Joseph Porez Capoo. speaker-1: Yes. Thanks. You the entrance music. Where's the cape? Where's the cape? Yeah, right? ⁓ man. Yeah, that was a that was a heck of a day. That was a heck of a day. And speaker-0: We'll get we'll get right into it, but let's remind folks who that ⁓ that little skinny fella is back there. What's ⁓ what's your name? What's your name? Or explosive son? Kaboo speaker-1: Well see for Well it's cracking. speaker-0: All right, in the car who it what and what's funny is he's a fence jumper right when Trump and everyone started locking up fences and gates and stuff. So let's get into that real fast. Like what what ⁓ what fence were you bounding over? speaker-1: You Sure. ⁓ first off, thank you both for having me on. You know, ⁓ I love getting to talk about this. It's been about a decade and I can count on two hands how many people really asked the meaningful questions. So I appreciate it. ⁓ you know, the the fence part of it is definitely what people locked on to. And for me, it wasn't even about the fence at all. It was about the lawn. It's the idea of reclaiming the the, you know, eroding the sanctuar that kept kind of power away from people. You know, so the fence was an afterthought. I was like, my job is just to get over, hang out there, surrender, do a publicity stunt, try not to die. ⁓ obviously the news told an incredibly opposite story, but that's okay. That happens. And ⁓ yeah, the the the the figurative fence in question, the the mythological fence or whatever to to be hopped over was this idea of reclaiming the American conversation. You know, there's so much And it's only gotten worse in 10 years between digital media getting kind of rounded up, certain digital spaces. I mean, let's let's talk about this outright. We're three guys, right? The internet attacks us with psychometrics and targeted ads a very specific way. And you know, you're a dad, so you might get targeted with different things than I will, right? So, like different things we're under attack. And then you have legacy media getting bought up. We had the old Jimmy Kimmy thing happening. So Lots happened in the last 10 years, but the seeds have been planted the whole time. Right. Imperialism didn't get invented the second he took office. Right. ⁓ and in that way, it was I knew because I'd read books from the 60s and 30s, and I'd listen to my grandparents and my mother and my father, and I'd listen to all the generations that came before. And you know what's coming, right? And you don't have to be intelligent or you don't have to you don't have to see into the future to kind of feel what was on the horizon. And I knew that, you know, between the Iraq war and everything that had happened under Bush, between everything that happened under Clinton, this whole wave was going to lead to some of the civil unrests that were happening under President Obama. I knew that the controlling powers were going to bullet an absolute wild one in office, you know, and I knew the American people were gonna be fed up and fall for kind of populist rhetoric, whether it was bullshit or not. So I thought to myself, you know what, 2016 is gonna be a heck of a year. It all comes down to the 2018 midterms. If I can, through my modest means, take some aspect of publicity and kind of get people on the same page for half a second. If I could reach into the the turning of the world and tilt it just a touch through my humble hope ⁓ then maybe other people will come in, put their two cents in, and it will be this evolving rhetoric that, you know, I I I had hoped that we would have a conversation on the same page in 2016 and and avoid a lot of what's happened in the last decade. But you know, we couldn't dodge that punch. Now we have to take it and we have to say, okay, we've been knocked around a little, like how are we going to handle the ring? How are we going to handle the fact that we're in this? How do we get out of it? How do we heal from it? ⁓ so you know, that's something, you know, on the campaign trail, I've been asked about it once or twice in a town hall. ⁓ but I did one interview with with Sensei John Marion ⁓ about two years ago about it. But outside of that, people either ⁓ people see that, they they mark their opinion, check done, and that's that. But you know, you see what's coming and you try and stop it ⁓ with whatever tools you had. I spent about $900 and I used my calves. You're right. That's what I did. But I spent three years doing legal writing and research, even though I wasn't legally trained. Yeah. And three years just listening to people, talking to people. ⁓ you know, I'm an electrician. I do X, and this is what I see at my job. ⁓ I'm a judge, I do X, and this is what I see at my job. And just listening to people. Yeah. Listening to them, frankly, bitch at work. Right. Here's what my boss is doing. This sucks. It was like kind of like an undercover boss. speaker-0: Bigger and it's bigger than just Gladys eating people's sandwiches. Like the last conversation we had with Kaya, you know, I told them I used to work with this company that would do dumb things like chip away at your at your, you know, I would show up late in the morning because of weather or whatever, but then I would always stay at night longer. speaker-1: Mm. speaker-0: But when it was explained to me that they were taking away my ⁓ my vacation time, they explained it to me that I was showing up half hour late, December, January, February. Yeah. And I said, but I was staying late. They said, we don't know what happens here after five. speaker-1: Yep. Slacker. speaker-0: And I said, ⁓ that's what we're gonna play? Okay, cool. speaker-1: Yeah, the gray areas of the law, right? The little areas where people are like, well, like liability wise, responsibility wise, blah, blah, blah. Here's where I can be hands off. And meanwhile, you're going the extra mile. That's the reality. That's speaker-0: Yeah. That's what they told me. They told me, work hard, pull yourself up by the bootstraps. But then you're taking my vacation time? speaker-1: Tell you right now, if you could bootstrap your way to billionaire, I'd already be there and we'd have a free boardicon right now. I'd fund the whole thing. If that was possible, you know what I mean, we'd all be in slightly different positions and not laughing together. And I frankly, I kinda like that we're laughing again. speaker-0: together because I'd be a billionaire right next to you. Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah, I could I can pay for a tutor. My father didn't really work hard to help me learn the language and I struggle with languages. So I'd I'd reconnect. Yeah. A good one. Be a be a good person, good force. ⁓ but yeah, it's they they find reasons to say how we're the problem. Mm-hmm. And the reality is ⁓ everyone you've met is so effing smart. Even the ones you think aren't. They have something to teach you, they have experiences, and if you listen, you'll learn a lot. speaker-0: Be They're wrong in the wrong, you know, at least is if you're wrong in the right way, I'm good with that. Like be wrong in a smart way. speaker-1: provides a completely new perspective. speaker-0: I hate arguing with dummies. That I can tell you got that information from Fox News. I can tell. speaker-1: Always tell well and that's another thing about me that's made me sort of troublesome in a good way, like a good rebel. You know, I spent four or five years of my life, all my high school era, grew up on Superman, right? Grew up on good mythology, grew up with good values. Mm-hmm. But you root for a sports team no matter what its loss rate is, and no matter what values I grew up with, I was raised, you're gonna be a you're gonna be a Republican. You're not gonna be one of those, you know what I mean? You're not gonna be one of them. speaker-0: So speaker-1: And so for four or five years, every morning, Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, the whole shebang, I grew up with it. I know what it sounds like, I know what it smells like. And I know that like fraternity you get when you speak it socially. But in those same years, at night, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, humor, right? And so one niche says, listen. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Here's why you should be angry and we should join each other in this fraternity of anger and we'll aim it at this guy. And yeah, boom, you have community, you're fired up, you have energy, you're ready to go. You go to work, you're caffeinated, you got your nicotine, pissed off. You talk to Larry, Jerry, and Bob, they're pissed off at the same shit. You know what I'm saying? And it it provides a type of very real, very tangible inoculant to your worries, right? The left doesn't have the same equality with that. We doom scroll and we stay there and are like, ⁓ my God, what are we gonna do? Can I swim here? yeah, yeah. Very, very. I mean, you had it, you had my boy on earlier. So I mean I I imagine I heard I heard a couple things, but I was just wanted to be sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓ so growing up with those two perspectives all the time, ⁓ you know, I just posted a post today basically saying that here's the perspectives I was raised on. speaker-0: Grown ups. speaker-1: Here's the way neither side really lives up to it. You know, and you know that means that when I go into a conversation, I spot that rhetoric quickly, I ask you meaningful questions. And if you are doing this like script chess where you're kind of dehumanizing each other, you're not really having a conversation, right? You're saying, well, you said X, which means boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and I'm gonna say Y, and boom, boom. And it becomes this weird chess, like, you know, right now with Venezuela. If I say listen, I just think we shouldn't be getting involved. Well, you must support the same I didn't say I'm right here. I'm I'm in this room with you. speaker-0: And even even like things that you say like Trump did things to women, grabbed them by the parts and they did he did things to these young girls. Well, Joe Biden. ⁓ at what point did you ever see me trying to defend Joe Biden? speaker-1: Yep. By default, it's automatically still Joe Biden's fault. I mean, we're going out a year. We're a year, we're a year people. Yeah, and that's something I hear a lot. Is like, well, everybody wants to go after this president for every little thing he does. And and I'm like, listen, man, I grew up conservative in the Obama era. He ain't the first one under this scrutiny. Y'all I remember being like, All right, everybody, chill with the tan suit. This is some bullshit. Let's talk about the drone start strikes or the fanny made Freddie Mac bull out bailouts. It's still not over either. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: He's done some good, he's done some bad, but like the tan suit isn't the effing problem here. Right. So, you know, when you have that, you know, that trained kind of knee-jerk reaction, how do you sit there and break through that barrier and have a real conversation? And so that's what I've done for 10 years without cameras and without being on a campaign trail is just like I met you, you're a human being. What makes you tick? How can we have the best, you know, affirming conversation? That's what it's all about, you know, finding the common ground and finding a way to infiltrate what their their defences, you know, and it it and it takes a lot to to to incorporate both the left and the right at the same time in in your approach because you have to say I can I I can identify with some reasoning here on this side and I also have my my you know what I agree with on this side, but I'm gonna come at you in a way that you're probably gonna have to just pull your hands down and say, you know what, okay, I you're right. Yeah. And let's let's let's break bread. Yeah. Yeah, that that level of de escalation is is so key. speaker-0: And setting the and and and setting the the understanding that yeah, I'm tired of that side doing that too. Whichever side you're standing on, I'm tired of them doing that too. speaker-1: Yeah, if the truth can kill it, it deserves to die. They come all is there something wrong with me? I'll walk into a court right now and enter into discovery and go before a fact finding jury. I really believe in that. Real accountability. Yeah. Right? I've had people ask me on the campaign trail, listen, I know you're an average guy, but now you're running. So now you're one of them. Like why should I trust you? Right. And I go, Great question. You shouldn't. Don't don't trust me. Make me earn it. Make me ever make me earn it every step of the way. And if I fail, you don't let me know. I had ⁓ an old associate. I've been getting back on Facebook. An old associate tells me. Yeah, I know I it's it's changed a lot and for the worse. I I I miss missing it. Yeah, it's it's not great. Zuckerberg said thank you. speaker-0: Not sponsored by Facebook. No, go ahead, go ahead. Sorry. speaker-1: Yeah, right. ⁓ fair. No, it's ⁓ but yeah, no, I ⁓ you know, I was I'm feeling a little better in this moment, but earlier today I was like, you know, the brain fog was really bad. I did a write-up for one of my things and that old associate was like, yo, Joe, you you wrote legislative branch. I know you meant judicial. I was like, thank you. Mm-hmm. That's an average person reaching out to me after the first time we've talked since before the pandemic. Knew what I was about. Hope you've been well, right? This is the change you meant. I went on all three of my like TikTok Instagram and I changed it. I'm not beyond reproach. I'm gonna mess up. I'm gonna be imperfect. speaker-0: And to put things in perspective, to put things in perspective, how much of a how big is your campaign team? speaker-1: Right now I have about 18 volunteers. ⁓ they're in and out because like you, many of them are parents. They're all my my closest like friends and family. They don't have political experience. So it's ⁓ they're a good team and I'm proud of them. We don't have a campaign manager, we don't have a legal expert. I'm the tip of the spear. I do it all. Right. We don't have a social media expert. I'm doing everything while working full time while going to law school because that's what my district is about. speaker-0: Okay. Yeah. You go on a law school too. What do you do for a living just like on the regular nine to five? speaker-1: Right. When you look at Yeah, I'm in Right now nine to five, I'm a dental assistant and I teach karate on Sundays. Yeah. Every now and then and then you fix them. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. speaker-0: Yeah. He busts you in the mouth and then he fakes it. speaker-1: Yeah, like I'm here for the American reconstruction, but we can throw hands. Like we can you know ⁓ speaker-0: That's why, because I was wondering, you you don't seem crazy to me. You seem like someone that would be a really good friend of mine. We'd go and hang out and do sports and like do all that shit. And you're like climbing over a fence to get to not to get to the White House, but you're climbing over the fence at the White House, and then you just stood there with ⁓ with the with the ⁓ an American flag as a cape. speaker-1: Yeah. I tried. Yeah, I knew there were three snipers and two spotters. I knew there were fully automatic weapons. I'm not reaching the door. I was there with a seven-page document that was a constitutional restatement that basically said, Here are all the things they would not have thought about 200 years ago. Let's make some changes and empower Congress to make those changes. Yeah, I still have it all. So it's all available. speaker-0: That list? I'm assuming as part of your campaign. speaker-1: Yeah, well, absolutely. And you know, I wrote like twenty different letters to different people basically saying, Hey, X Y Z, here's what may happen here, here's what may happen there. Like just try to take care of people when I wasn't in the room. The news talked about one note to my buddy, one note to his commanding officer, and one ⁓ will just in case things went south. I like, Here just speaker-0: Sure. speaker-1: Here's what could happen. So they took like 25 different letters I wrote, 30 different letters I wrote, focused on three, developed an error. The real story was way better. But yeah, I wrote a whole letter to my buddy's commanding officer because what a lot of people don't know about this was I had a friend who was in the army, never told him to practice all the routines of operational security, fucking betrayed him. Apologized for years. He's been trying to speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: He's been so cool. He's my brother, but ⁓ but I'm the one with the guilt. And he's like, Joe, stop. Like it's fine. But you know, he was an army soldier, brilliant soldier, good soldier. And I operated out of Fort Belvoir for my for my protest. I stayed with him over Thanksgiving, and around like one o'clock, I disappeared. Just completely let him down. He had no idea. ⁓ but I wrote a letter basically saying to his CO, like, listen. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: He really had no idea I knew him intimately. Here are all the things I did to make sure he wouldn't sense it. And he still was asking me emotionally if I was okay. Like he still knew I was grieving, but he thought it was over a relationship or a family member. He didn't know I was just scared on the eve of admission. Right. So there's a lot to that event. And I kept most of the paperwork. Some of it's gotten lost through the years, moves. Life's messy. Right. I moved to New York, moved back from New York, you know, it's But I've tried to hold on to that stuff just because one day I figured I'm gonna run for Congress eventually. speaker-0: No. You're running you're running for Congress in Connecticut. You originally from Connecticut? speaker-1: I am. I am. I was born in Stanford. I lived in Naugatuck, Connecticut for about fourteen years. I I graduated from Nogatuck High School, stayed up there for about two years, got my degree at NVC, Nong Valley Community College. Now I think it's been renamed as part of the like Connecticut community college. No, no, not yet. Not yet. They're calling. You know, they're calling for it. If it can be renamed, right? I think if it can, it will be done. I I I've garnered a little bit of attention for the fact that I do everything in my power to not say his name. So I feel like if he ever arrests me, he's just gonna put his name on my head like I'm calendar man. You know what I mean? I'm gonna be a billboard, you know, like that's gonna be my bonus. I'm gonna be there like trying to cut the my skin off to get his name off my head. ⁓ but yeah, no, I'm ⁓ my family's from that district. ⁓ my my father came here from Utuado, Puerto Rico on a plane when he was three years old. I don't My mother's Sicilian side's been in the district. speaker-0: So you basically feisty one hundred percent of the time. speaker-1: It's you know, people don't give me credit for how poised I've been. I am I can be you know speaker-0: Let me tell you, my little brothers my little brothers are half Cuban, half Italian. speaker-1: a nice mix. Yeah. Nice mix. Yeah, they feisty. They feisty. And they can eat. They can eat. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I love them. I love, I love my mixes like me. Like we're weirdos and it's just it's hard to explain the fire, you know? Yeah. ⁓ but you know I've I've spent a whole life trying to just do right by people because you know when you're when you're diagnosed autistic and you got that fire, you're not just passionate, it's behavioral issue. speaker-0: But they feisty. ⁓ yeah, thank you. Are you tossing in is is that more information you're tossing in there? You're you're autistic? No, no, no. speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, sorry, I thought you knew that. I am. No. Which ⁓ you know, I get that a lot of people have different viewpoints of what that looks like. And every single one of us is different in how we perceive the world from every single other one of us. So we're not a monolith. But yeah, I am I am autistic. That was utilized a lot in the in the protest stories. So I figured I figured that was something you had known about. ⁓ my son is also is he really? Yeah, and he's he's got w so he's got a super wrestler. He's he's a he's a wrestler. He's got a he's got a he's speaker-0: That's why Don't apply limits that don't matter. speaker-1: ⁓ man. Well so what's your superpower then? See, that's the trick, right? Is like that was the question that I asked myself most of my childhood. I waited for that savant syndrome. You know, here are all the ways where I'm told I'm less, and here are all the ways where I'm told I'm gonna have a harder life, and here are all the ways where I just need to be a fucking man, right? And just like not do this stuff. But I told myself, well, one day I'm gonna be good for society. I'm gonna be useful. I'm gonna have a superpower. And reality is sometimes it's not like that. Sometimes it takes us longer. You know, a part of me sometimes feels like my superpower is that I talk with people and I see through the lines. The very thing they tell you we won't have. Sometimes, you know, I feel like my superpower is just that I don't give up. Right? Sometimes I feel like my superpower is just that I love people and want to keep learning. Right. But I don't know. I really I'd love to tell you that I can just pick up the toothpicks, right? Like from the from the Rain Man scene. I'd love to tell you that I had that Eureka moment of like, here's what I can do. I I just walked through a law school and got all the A's. I would love to tell you that I can, you know, do the math for orbital slingshots for NASA in my head, but I don't have that. ⁓ I'm a little funny, you know. speaker-0: You're hilarious, dude. Have you found because we we've talked to we've talked to like MMA fighters that are on the spectrum and they find that having autism, ⁓ speaker-1: That's all bad. speaker-0: lets their brain figure out what the other person is doing. So they've learned to leverage it in a fighting situation. Does that apply for say like a karate event? speaker-1: Yeah, I found that it's a very therapeutic to be working on mindfulness, to be working on yourself. All the martial arts I think are very helpful towards anyone ⁓ with the spectrum. And I remember being in fights as a kid, you know, I was that kid who didn't have his boys with him. I was the one on the receiving end of the jump. Right. And just numbers, you're gonna lose those most of the time. I've been knocked out, I've had things broken, I know what that feels like. ⁓ which is Part of why I'm anti-fascist, right? Like I was already empathetic and then I learned. I've also won a couple of those. And when you win against a jump, that's a weird feeling. ⁓ When you realize you're taking care of this guy and you know this guy's hand is moving and you just kind of know how fast it's going because you saw it a half second ago, and because that window is reflective, and and it's just it's a weird thing when it's there. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: But I've also had moments where I walk through Times Square and I go, I'm gonna faint because I can't stop tracking motion. Overload. Yeah, overload. And sometimes you're not even aware it's happening, right? There's this bleed between the conscious and unconscious minds. Right. Where I right now I'm locked in, I'm happy, right? But then before you know it, you're like, wow, my back is stinging. I was ignoring the pain the whole time. How did I why didn't I process that? speaker-0: Sure. speaker-1: You know, like so it's it's very weird. Like ⁓ the older I get at different stages in life I've learned that the rules even for me change. Who I was at twelve and twenty and twenty-five, and now at thirty-three, I'm still alive. ⁓ it's different. You know, you keep relearning yourself, which is why I value the martial arts for that. But yeah, from a from a from a engaging with other people mindset. Whether it's dance or martial arts. Yeah, I have I have found that my specificness has been very intriguing to work with because I've been able to track motion very well even when I'm not looking at it. Do you are you are you good? Like there's there's his his mood his mood bounces from left to right and He could get from an instance like there'll be an anger moment and then the next thing you know it'll be it'll be it'll be gone and like nothing ever happened. And he carries on the very black and white, no gray area. You know what I'm saying? I feel that I think a part of me can be like that, but I think that's because I was raised with Sicilian anger and then just as I got older just didn't want to be angry. But I think that relates back more to like my genetic disposition to just ⁓ you know. But yeah, there are times where if I'm focused on a task, I'm enjoying it and you break my concentration, it's not anger, but there's definitely a moment of like, okay, what do you want? There's a lot of energy. And I can mimic it because you know, lifetime studying my own face and masking and then turning that into becoming a good actor. But the reality is that's where it comes from. And the second that stimuli is gone, hey, you good? Sorry about that. Like you come back to reality and you're like, All right, I just I wanted to do my thing. I was on a timeline. I'm trying to do it's like being a perfectionist at your job and really locking in, but it's like maybe I was just playing Pokemon and it's not that big of a deal. You know, but like, yeah, if I get interrupted, I get that. Yeah. speaker-0: Some momentum thing because as a creative person, I could be focused on whether it's a drawing, a painting, or something like that. And someone walks in and it's just that that abruptness. You know, it doesn't feel good if you're sleeping. It doesn't feel good if someone just jumps in and says, speaker-1: That's a good analogy. Yeah. Yeah. You're in the shower, you're focused, someone goes, bah, you fall down. You know, it's yeah. And it's it's related in some ways to Ma Mahaile, Chick-Set Mahiley's concept of flow. If you study positive psychology, Mahayli, Chick Set Mahailey was in a concentration camp. And he saw these two old dudes playing chess and they were not happy, right? But because they're in a concentration camp, but he found that they were experiencing real joy. Yeah. He was like, man, what is the source of happiness? What is the source of joy? And he found that people felt deep personal fulfillment and a sense of satisfaction when they were in flow states. Rather than like the root, like I feel happy. It's the flow state. And you can apply that to love, right? You can apply that to other things that are beyond an emotion but are also a state of being. So he said there's passive flow states, which is like you're playing video games, you're hanging out, you're watching the game, eating wings, whatever. There's active flow states, like I love my job. I take pride in my work. I'm focused on wiring this line really well, hammering, you know, building this ballast very well. I'm a creative. I'm really editing this video the right way. So there's active and passive flow states. And I think that for me, I really only got that tremor when it was the ⁓ the active flow state. But when I was younger, yeah, sometimes the passive one would be like, What do want? You know, doing my homework. I'm playing a game, you know, you get locked in. If you're locked in, you don't want to unlock until it's time. Right. You know? speaker-0: I agree. rules are if my door is closed, that means something important is happening. ⁓ I don't want to tell you what you look like in those jeans. No. speaker-1: And that's one way it is easier for adults with with any kind of spectrum or neurodiversity than for kids. Because as a kid, you don't always have the same boundaries either because you haven't learned them or just because you don't have control. Like your parents are your boss and they don't Yeah. Well, even if you do your dad or your mom or your parent pays for that bedroom, can you lock it? You you know, like like when you're a kid. speaker-0: Understand it. Doesn't the parents are. speaker-1: If dad says get in the car, we're leaving. I guess we're leaving. Right. I no one has to check my schedule. I'm the kid. Check up get in. speaker-0: Fuck your flow state. Get in the car. speaker-1: Exactly. Which is why Game Boys were a great thing for me. Game Boys and Books. Cause then it's like, ⁓ okay, I'll get into it, I'll I'll time jump to a different flow state. Yep. Right. But it also makes studying the law fun because it's like, cool, there's so much here. Right. If I'm bored with one thing or whatever, you jump to the next thing and it's a whole world. ⁓ so yeah, I think flow states are a big part of it, respecting each other's flow states, learning about each other's flow states. I bet your kids a hell of a wrestler. I bet. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. speaker-1: Well wrestling he he is locked in like this is his he's he made varsity this year and ⁓ he's only been wrestling for two years, three years. And it's he's unlocked it's like he's unlocked something that he was missing and he didn't know what he didn't know what it was. Like yeah, he didn't there was like ⁓ he found a way to decompress, release aggression, find his purpose, find, you know, center, find his ground. Like there were so many things that that and it trickled down like His schoolwork got better, it his ⁓ social life got better. Like there's these things, you know, and then we we as parents had to figure out how to navigate the that as well. Like don't yank him off cold stop on something that he's locked into. Like give him a little warning, you know, trying to figure out how to make things work ⁓ for him that didn't look like we were like trying to take over his entire world, you know what I'm saying? So it got it's still a dance, it really is, and it's it's it will always be. Yeah. You know, it's not easy, but you know, it for us like we're we're real we're we're faithful, man, and we we believe that, you know, we go through we endure things because we're supposed to help others endure make it a little lighten the load a little bit, identify some things to make it better. ⁓ so I mean that's kinda where we're at right now and we're I mean we're we're blessed, man, by by all means that we're we're we're truly grateful and and he is a hell of a wrestler, man. speaker-0: And and between between wrestling, karate, and things like that, that's a situation where you better hurry up and pay attention. You better hurry up and focus. Not that not that your life is in danger, but if if you're trying to be good and you're trying to win, you better focus. Otherwise at the blink of an eye. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. speaker-0: You know, someone gives you an axe kick to the head and you're like looking at the lights now trying to understand how long your nap was. ⁓ speaker-1: Yep. That's like when we have Dean Thomas on, right? And he got he got hit by BJ Penn and he woke up in the in the ambulance, say, Are we ready for who won? Yep, yep. speaker-0: Yeah. Did I win? No, you rested. You are resting. speaker-1: ⁓ man. Yeah, no, Sunza said all warfare is based on deception, but I don't know. Combat can be real honest. That feedback when you're sparring, that feedback when you're in that position, like I I did some boxing, nothing amateur or pro or anything, just as a student. Sure. You get that feedback. You can't lie to yourself and be like, I did great today. You know. And they say that in swordsmanship. Like if you can't really look in the mirror, you can't call yourself. You have to accept the reality of that feedback. And and you know, in a way, I think some of that does pepper my my political philosophies because it's like if I'm wrong and I learn I'm wrong, I need to change. speaker-0: Yeah, it shouldn't derail your whole effort. speaker-1: Yeah, if I'm identifying with something and I learn it's wrong, I need to re identify. Right. Like and that's what I've done multiple times. I've been wrong on things. You know? And and I think that's natural. I think that's healthy. And honestly, I think that's patriotic and democratic. speaker-0: And intelligent. speaker-1: Intelligent. And I think speaker-0: kind of what kind of an intelligent person do you know that has made a statement that was probably incorrect at the time and that important person that intelligent person just continues to without having any external investment in the statement intelligent person will take a look at that statement and do exactly what you said take it back readjust and then represent it. Smart people do that all the time. That's why science is science. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean Yeah. And I think the point of science is to say, like, I'm right until I'm not. Yeah. And to be try and be excited when you realize you're not right. Wait, there's more to learn. Right. Like as a wrestler, your son might get to the top of the game in wrestling. And I'm gonna be honest, a lot of martial arts don't know how to deal with wrestlers. But then he might just face a boxer one day that just doesn't get stopped. Or he might go to a BJJ gym. He might go to another gym and be like, wait a minute. People like learning what I have to cross-pollinate with, what I have to teach, but it's not a one size fits all. It's not going to work every time. This is a whole ecosystem and I represent one part of it. And that's where the fun begins. That's the fun part, right? speaker-0: investigating who you are in different circumstances. speaker-1: Yes. ⁓ go ahead, sorry. No, go ahead, please. I was gonna say my son he took the summer off and went to ⁓ BJJ ⁓ training for a little bit and he was he was bouncing around, he was hopping around, doing doing takedowns, and then he get choked out. Yep. Right? 'Cause it was real easy. And he was And then he jumped right back up again. He's like, Let's go. But his his engine was always on go and it was it was it was something different. So I understand when speaker-0: Focus. speaker-1: When you when you say the martial artists are like they don't like wrestlers too much, the foundation, the fundamentals are like but if you you have to have your head on a swivel and learn different ap attributes and and that's one of the things that a politician needs to understand is that when they don't when they don't have all the answers, they're gonna find the answers or their course correct, you know. ⁓ or you can become president, you know. It all I guess it all depends. Yeah. Well and and you know, if you're sitting down with someone who's a neo liberal And someone who's a socialist and someone who's a conservative. These three different martial arts. Can I get you to play? Can I get you to have a valuable outcome out of this? When people ask me. speaker-0: Yes, I think that's way to buy it too. I love the way you you you made the comparison. Thank you. When you went from when you went from the different specialties in the combat sports to something that's not supposed to be combat sports. Yeah. The mentality and the approach that just it's it was it was cool to hear you explain it that way. It makes a lot of sense. speaker-1: What happened? Thank you. And ⁓ yeah, I appreciate that. And you know, when we put those things together, right, when people have asked me, right, because right now my district's on fire, positive and negative, with the news of the new mayor of New York. We're right next door. We're like 60 miles from him. I canvassed for him three times. I've never canvassed for s anyone in politics before. Right. Like I love this guy. Yeah. But people have valid concerns, right? I know someone whose parents were from Romania. And she is very scared of of communism. Yeah. It's like, listen, I saw this again. speaker-0: Father escape communism. I I'm touchy, yes. speaker-1: And and those experiences are relevant. But then you say, okay, well, what's a communist versus a socialist versus what's a democratic socialist? And now we're just talking theory, not praxis. Where and in what country and why and how we're thinking? Then you start incorporating the martial arts of it, right? If I say, okay, here's former USSR, or I go down south and I say, here's US intervention, or I just say, Do we have enough data for this? Right. I think a lot of modern democratic socialists are ⁓ necessary and expected reaction to the failed promises of the neoliberal cause. Right? The false promises of of I don't want to give him this this critique. He's just the famous figurehead, the Obama era neoliberal, right? Because Clinton did it, right? I don't want to put everything on President Obama, but I think progressivism is the natural part. But now what happens when I'm 80, when I'm 70, when I'm 60, Am I going to look at the next generation saying, no, I spent decades building this future dream and everything's functioning? You're wrong. And now I'm the future neoliberal. How deep do my roots get that I stop? Yeah. Right. So it's it's a moving target. And so when people ask me about Zoran Mamdani, I always tell them, listen, here is a state legislator, legislative branch, going for an executive branch role. In the state. Maybe I could run for state legislative branch. It's a team effort. I don't think I'm qualified to be mayor in New York. You need a certain knowledge, you need a certain leadership. So when people say, Well, wait a minute, you said you won't be qualified for this, what makes you think you're qualified to run for Congress? speaker-0: It's a different game. speaker-1: It's a different game. And also, is Congress run qualified? Right. Half of them aren't even working. speaker-0: Let's talk about that because because I've always wanted to clarify the different branches of government for people, because someone running for the House is not the same as someone running for Senate, and they're both called Congress. Right? Right. There's a difference. So to me, ⁓ the representatives, we have more of them. speaker-1: Yes. speaker-0: Because we have a lot of area to cover and we need someone from a certain area to come tell us to tell the government what's happening there and what you need. Right. So for that, the just a simple fact, Joe, that you live in the area and that you give two shits about what happens in Connecticut. Yeah. Let's me further know that you are probably. Someone who should be running for office. speaker-1: Thank you. Yeah. A ⁓ you know, with the representatives, right? Like with senators, you get two percent representatives by population. And the and the whole point is that representatives from the federal idea, from the federalist papers, like all your famous heads, Monroe, Hamilton, all those guys, the framers, the idea of it was they're just going to be more loyal to their communities. They're going to be more loyal to their states. Whereas maybe a senator might be a little more of a federalist, right? Might be more into this national thing. So they're supposed to balance each other. And that's why we have bicameralism and presentment. You need to vote on the same exact wording of the same exact bill. And then you need to present it to the president. It's supposed to be very hard to pass a law. You know, but then we have parties, and that's a whole other dialogue that I don't want to go into at the moment because I'd love to see them all destroyed. I don't like political parties. You know, I'm I'm trying to play the game the best way I know how, but like, you know, it this is the way speaker-0: We're talking to a lot of people that are like, Yeah, this two party system thing is trash, but we have to play the game. speaker-1: It's horrible. Yeah, because there's no way I'd win if I didn't try and use their system to beat it, right? I wouldn't be the rebel I am today. So with with District 4, Connecticut, right? If you watch movies like The Stepford Wives, which is based on Darien, or you watch movies like Wolf of Wall Street, that's kind of what people think that area is, right? District Four Connecticut also includes Fairfield County and what is considered the Gold Coast. Right. So it's it's a lot of people who've come from the wealth of New York City and say, we want a little more elbow room and hang out with us. Right. So you have a history in Connecticut of a ton of different people, Broadway stars, hedge fund owners, what have you, building a different kind of life, raising a family. Enjoying their wealth with an acre, with a garden instead of a penthouse. But what that also means is we've had over a hundred years of gentrification. And I was a gardener for many years in Connecticut, which means I know that segregation exists. It's just you don't cut down a certain cut couple of trees. This neighborhood's the broke neighborhood. And in 40 years, they're going to build some low-down, weird-looking college dorms, call them luxury. And the new working professionals are going to come in and pay double what it should be worth. We had this cycle of violence going well before I was born. speaker-0: Yeah. Sure. speaker-1: Stanford was a smallish town when I was born. Now we joke around and call Harbor Point Stanford Miami Stanford. I it's not designed for people like me to be able to afford it. So when it comes to our area in Connecticut, when you have speaker-0: You're lazy if you listen to Elon Musk, it's because you're lazy and dumb. speaker-1: He's not gonna be giving you good advice. He's not gonna be giving you good advice. He's like, Well, you know, if your father has a mine, then you can buy rockets, right? It's just it's not gonna be the same thing. You know. But you know, my incumbent, you know, is ⁓ I don't think he's a bad human being. I'm not gonna sit here and talk trash. I don't think he's a bad human being. I see no evidence of being a bad bad person. But he's of that style. speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: And that style is still imperialistic. It's still violent. And it's violent in a subtle way. Yeah. He's the fifty second richest member of Congress, which puts him, I think, somewhere in the top like nineteen percent for wealth, congressional representatives. speaker-0: That did you start out with, do you know? speaker-1: I don't know because he was a big president of like Goldman Sachs or something. He was already doing okay before. I'll give him credit that maybe he just wanted to do public service. Right. His father ran a bank in Pan in Peru. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What did his parents do? Okay. You might as well give ⁓ a gem mine. speaker-1: Yeah, like like if he says he's Hispanic and I say I'm Hispanic, there's a conversation to unpack there. If his Spanish is better than mine, there's a a class reason as to why his Spanish got better than mine. Like my parents didn't stay together, right? Like there's a reason for that. You know, and ⁓ you know, I don't think he's a b an evil person. Sure. Right. But at the end of the day, when Your district is routinely the second highest in wealth and equality of all the congressional districts nationally. When you won Stanford, Norwalk Bridgeport, the big ⁓ you know, working class neighborhoods, working class cities, and you lost every other city, the wealthy ones, in 2009, lost the working families party endorsement in 2012 and never got it back. And you're the 52nd richest person in Congress. Something's telling me your philosophy simply speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Doesn't work. I don't think it's a skill issue. If you could have executed it, you would have. And I acknowledge it's Congress. It's a team effort. I can't blame you for everything. But do you want more of the same? It's not the same planet for us as it was before COVID. It just isn't. It's not the same planet. I came out of high school in the 2008 financial crisis. It's it's not the same. We're living in completely different Americas. Thirty-three years old, thirty thirty-three years old. speaker-0: Yeah. Is speaker-1: It's probably my like fifth, sixth America I've lived in. It's totally different. Especially when you're working class and you see your life change. Go get a payphone. You carry a dollar fifty in your pocket for the payphone anymore? No, you don't. speaker-0: Yeah. No. It's a different world. Yeah. Like that we can talk to people and not have to lean up against the wall all the all day long. speaker-1: No, I just I think we need someone Someone knocking on your payphone. Can you get off? speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: I remember my parents being like Joey, print the map quest instructions. We need to get there on time. You're speaker-0: You remember A, do you remember printing the map quest instructions and that shit took you to somewhere completely different? speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. What does it mean to the young voters who grow up with technology, right? They grow up with a completely different right? Like I all the time people will ask me why is there not direct digital democracy? They ask me all the time, why can't I open up my phone, have a secure connection, just like I do with social media, and vote on my town charter? Yes, vote on my state law. speaker-0: Well. For today. Yeah. speaker-1: vote on why do we even need a legislative branch? Why aren't we all the legislative branch in the jurisdictions we live in? And that's one of my speaker-0: Let's go. I am so excited that you are that you exist, and I'm so excited that you opened up that door. How is it? How is it that we can have something as revolutionary as chat GPT? But we can't take something as revolutionary as Chat GPT, introduce it into the system that everyone says it's fake. Yep. speaker-1: Thank you for what speaker-0: What if we take Chat GPT and the same kind of stuff that do they do with banking, you know? Because every time I open up the app, they're asking me to double check my social security number, my phone number, my address, all that stuff. speaker-1: It's like the scene from Swordfish. You have to hack into the Pentagon in under a minute you have to get access to your own banking information. I feel like you jackman in Swordfish and I can do it. speaker-0: But then we have everyone is bitching and complaining about how government doesn't work, but yet we have proof positive products that we can use to streamline things, right? Yeah. I don't understand why. And and let's play with this idea for a minute. I don't understand why we can flip rockets and do all this shit in space. And have something as cool as Chat GBT and all this stuff and not leverage that towards making a more efficient government. speaker-1: I already have an answer. And it's one you know in your heart. You I don't even need to tell you. It's because venture capitalists will never let a new world exist until they've already cornered the market. That's why and you know it. You already know. Like the reason Chat GBT takes off is because they were like, we can make this work. Bitcoin even maybe burst its britches a little too soon. And that's why they made a big stink up about it. speaker-0: Tell Yes, I do. Yeah. Right. speaker-1: So they'd never really want to let something through the filter system until they'd already kind of talked to their buddies, made the laws copacetic, made it happen. It's they have a corner of the game before we get a chance to play. speaker-0: This is something that happens that I don't think that people understand. People like Elon Musk, people like the the pharmaceutical industry, people all these rich people that you think have made it all themselves, really what they do is they take advantage of corporate welfare. speaker-1: But it Mm-hmm. speaker-0: They get billions and billions of dollars to learn how to flip rockets and do dumb shit. But yet people are upset with the mother of three that needs that needs grocery money. speaker-1: Yep. Which is the old Reagan propaganda, right? The old racist Reagan Reagan propaganda. Yeah, absolutely. speaker-0: Feeding, I'm gonna say this again to the red hats in the back. Feeding homeless people has never brought down the world's economy. Letting corporate people take advantage of these rules that they show you time and time again that they have pushed and pushed and pushed against the rules, against the fair rules, and you get mad at. I'm gonna say it. Kaya Creekmore's mom. He said this. Look at the video that we released today today. Do you understand that she had him at 15 years old? speaker-1: Obama. Yeah, he and I talked about that 'cause my mom was eighteen and he and I were both born in a time where that wasn't like speaker-0: Yeah, my mom was 17. My mom was 17 with two kids, and it wasn't her fault that she was a single mom. We'll get we can talk about that stuff later. I got some movies coming out on that. But exactly the point is that the point is helping Americans putting Americans first has never crushed the world economy. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. Justice for Mama. No speaker-0: Dealing with idiots like Elon Musk and all these bums. speaker-1: Has. Yeah, well, because it's it's kind of this weird extension of manifest destiny, right? I go to this place, I chop down all the trees, I build this cabin, and I say, wow, by the sweat of my brow and the brilliance of my wit, I did this all myself. Forest did it. I didn't make the hatchet, I didn't kill the natives who were there. The army did it for me. The government allowed me to have that plot of land because I look white. speaker-0: The four. Hey Joe, have you seen have you seen the ⁓ the Instagram post what the little Mexicans are doing like this? You know, they show this backyard and they do like this. Yeah. Nothing happens. Yeah. And they're making fun of all the white folks, all the rich folks. Let me say like that. I have to be careful because I know a lot I know a lot of I know no, I know a lot of poor white folks that get upset when I say rich white people, right? Or just white folks in general. speaker-1: Rich, you could I think we're talking speaker-0: Have the people that have money to do like this and shit changes, right? Yeah. These Mexican dudes are making fun of them. They do like this and don't nothing happen. speaker-1: Yeah, no, I love it because I've seen that. I've been a gardener in Fairfield County and I've worked security at these big hedge funds. Now I don't know what NDAs I signed 10 years ago, so I'm not gonna say their name. But I worked in private hedge funds as a security guard. And I remember very specifically two gentlemen talking about how much they skirted on the taxes that year. ⁓ 40 grand, 60 grand. One dude leans in from the back, 120. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. speaker-1: They were game flying tax evasion. speaker-0: I work with dudes that bragged about taking taking clients to Vegas and doing all kinds of weird things in Vegas. Yeah. And I'm like, you couldn't you couldn't just call them and be like, hey, do we have a deal? No, you gotta get rubbed and tugged. speaker-1: It's all a machine. And we have these systems everywhere. And the second you start talking about dismantling it, all of a sudden now a way of life needs to be protected. Mm-hmm. Right? A lot of these people, because there's some very kind, generous people. I've worked for very kind, generous people. I'm not talking about the millionaires. Some of them, some of the upper ones. Not talking about the self-made low millionaires, you know, the doctors, the lawyers who are like 10 and under. Talking 900 million that I got from my mother's estate. I'm talking a billionaire. There are some people in this echelon who truly don't understand their own power. They only understand their lifestyle. So when you give them a duty, they look at you like speaker-0: Right. Mm-hmm. speaker-1: What do you mean? They don't get it. I I work for this. I have it. And it's kind of like that plaguist quote, right? Or ⁓ Sidious quote, you know, all who gain power afraid to lose it, even the Jedi. Right? No one wants to actually be Batman because that hurts. You know, heroes die on comfortable deaths. And if I'm going to really make a positive change in the world, I need to accept the risk of that investment. It's hard to do when you're broke. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: It's hard to do when you're working class that running for office is not kind to my body. It's not kind to my immune system. If I had more resources, sure, maybe I could do a better job or I could do more, right? speaker-0: Yeah. But your parents didn't give you a six million dollar leg up? speaker-1: My father was a body mechanic, right? So he did body work and then ⁓ he sadly passed away. And ⁓ thank you. And ⁓ my mother was a banker for many years, but then the repeated like hand motions actually gave her carpal tunnel. She got and so for a while, you know, she she fought, she tried to trust the government, right? speaker-0: Sorry to hear it. And yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, she's like, I've been working every day since I was 14, 15. I guess I should try and get some support. I watched her suffer and strive and work her tail off just to even get what was allegedly promised her as a social benefit. You know, and ⁓ you know, then she finally got clearance for surgery. I think it was like one of the best hand surgeons in Connecticut. Permanently crippled her, nicked to nerve. Could we go to court? No. We don't have money for that. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Even though he has malpractice insurance and even though it would probably all shake out in the wash, at that time we didn't have the means. Justice is paywalled. Right? Justice is paywalled for most of us. I lost my health care coming to run for Congress. I make about 11 grand less per year living and working in Connecticut than I did in New York. I can afford to live in Queens. And I had enough money that I was able to afford my rent. And not enough money. So I was able to kind of qualify for the free health care. Not in Connecticut. But guess what's in Connecticut? A lot of insurance companies. And guess who takes over a hundred thousand dollars in campaign ⁓ finance from these insurance companies? speaker-0: You know. ⁓ speaker-1: And that's the other aspect between a federal and a state legislature. The New York State legislature was able to use the different taxes they bring in and the different cultures to create a different benefit for its citizens. And in a way, yeah, some of the state rights people have a point. Some state autonomy can be very helpful. It wasn't New York, right? They didn't just mirror Connecticut's policy, they have a better one. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: But then you see what's happening, you know, with the with abortion all across the country. No matter what anyone's belief structure on it is, there is a part of it and you can't deny it. You are controlling women. And that's not okay. I don't care what your religious annotation is. I believe in jurisdictional voting. I believe you shouldn't even vote on something based on subject matter. So as a man, I fully believe that abortion should be settled by a national vote and men can't vote. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: I believe that's a federal thing because it invokes all citizens. And I believe it doesn't invoke male citizens. But not everybody subscribes to that belief. So I need to go there and argue it, either in a state or federal legislature. And that's the process. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah, going back to the process of government and and kind of clarifying that, the way I see it, and help me if help me if I'm wrong, but the way I see it is the house of representatives is tapped into what's happening in their neck of the woods. speaker-1: Yeah. Yes, there's supposed to be the grassroots up. There's supposed to be the trickle up knowledge. speaker-0: So they go and they they they hold their congressional sessions and they say this is what's happening, this is what's happening. And you know, like Lauren Boert will say, We need some water on the east side of Colorado. Right. And then everyone's like, All right, cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is what we do. So then you guys start the process of the bill that's hopefully going to be a law. Once you guys do all the arguments and everything, then that goes up to the Senate, which then actually builds the law and then they present it to the president, which then signs it into law or doesn't sign it into law. Right. speaker-1: Yes. ⁓ the only thing I would add to that is the Senate might not build it. They might either accept or reject the words and offer revisions. And then sometimes there's committees because there's so much going on that sometimes what Congress will do is they'll hey, we've passed it, kind of. Right? We've we've said we will vote on it. We've passed the resolution that we will see it. Send that to the appropriate committee for notes before we even want to vote on it. speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: Sure. Sometimes a lot of bills just die in committee. I think some of the best bills ever written that one day we will probably pass are just in old committee notes. Old bills that really smart people made that just power systems at the time didn't want to let come through. So a lot of the I think of the job of a new Congress would be to resurrect ideas that were good. ⁓ or at least re engage with them, refloor them and say, Hey, this got voted out five, ten, twenty, a hundred years ago. Doesn't have merit to where we are today. speaker-0: Didn't let it go through. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, so. speaker-1: I think a a hundred year old ⁓ bill that they once passed was if you voted yes to go to war on a national vote, you enlist. They said, you know what, yeah, we can share a congressional vote with a national vote. If you want to go to war, yeah, but then you need to enlist. I think that's fantastic. speaker-0: Mm. That's cool. Yeah. speaker-1: You can imagine why that didn't pass 'cause there were already companies that didn't work. speaker-0: Yeah, 'cause there's ⁓ especially the current administration, there's a lot of people who like to declare war and who like to talk big game that have never never ever worn any kind of uniform. speaker-1: And listen, I tried. I did. I tried to sign my name on the dotted line. I really tried to enlist. I tried with different branches. I, you know, then I did my protests and that made it even harder, of course. Yeah. But I tried and and when I couldn't get in, I still drove vans for the D A V and you know, picked people up from Home of the Braves and took them to the other congressional district where the VA hospital was, picked people up from there. speaker-0: Sure, of course. speaker-1: We did this thing called take a vet fishing. I'm proud of that time. I love my veterans. And they'll all tell you their story. They're some of the greatest people. But a lot of these dudes in government, especially right now, fail to admit the difference between I've been in a little scrap and I've been in effing war. I know what it feels like to use violence to defend my life. I know what it feels like, the shame, the guilt, the resentment, the fear. I don't know what war is. They're not the same. And so when you subject people to war and then you don't take care of them, we've never taken care of our vets, but then there's always money for these companies to do new forever wars. Come on. You know, and and you know, I'm not, you know, of the curd candidates, I'm not one of the veterans, right? Like I'm not in that bracket. speaker-0: No. Exactly. But you're also not one of the guys who continues to say we need to drop bombs on people. Yeah. Yeah. There's a difference. speaker-1: There's a difference. There's a difference. speaker-0: Someone who knows karate and not that you're I I don't I think I have a pretty good feeling for who you are as a person. I don't think that I would ever take you to the club and you're gonna go karate chop someone in the throat that doesn't ask for it. speaker-1: angry and doing something, someone really did speaker-0: Someone really messed up. And that's my point. Like and I don't even want I don't even want veterans to be talking a big game like that. If who speaker-1: You speaker-0: If you can fight and you're you know and you got that kind of animal in you, you know that you don't need to do that. You know you know that you don't have to talk. Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: And I don't know if you're still in the world and I don't know your boy is strapped and outside of my line of sight. I don't when I open up this box of opportunity, this box of probabilities, yeah, I lose complete control. It's like a raging fire. I lose complete control of who's gonna die, what's gonna happen. I think I got you. I literally slip on a banana or an ice cube. You don't you don't go warmongering if you've seen a thing or two. And you don't go fight mongering, right? To to keep those ideas separate, because I think it's incredibly important to keep them separate. One thing to be in a duel or a bar fight. It's another thing to really understand explosion. speaker-0: Yeah. Of a country. Listen to me when and this is this is not to you, Joe. This is to people that are listening to this video. When I was in the military, I ⁓ the missiles that we played with had nuclear capabilities. If we were to ever have dropped one of those bombs, a city would not it wouldn't be a blow up thing and then there's the it would melt. City would melt. Go on. speaker-1: It's a parking lot. That's Because we we also have to remember what speaker-0: To talk to be able to talk ⁓ so haphazardly as some folks do these days. Yeah. You it you don't fully understand. speaker-1: Yeah. Cause even what we've seen from the movie Oppenheimer and what we know from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, these are not the same bombs. No. These are not we have we have things big enough. Some of these hydrogen bombs could they're not they're not to be used. Yeah. You know, this is not a situation that should be dealt with willy-nilly. And unfortunately, I think a lot of personality types are attracted to government who shouldn't be in it. They're attracted to having that power. Mm-hmm. speaker-0: You watch if you watch a western and you want to be president, you don't have the it's not you. That's not your job. I don't need you to walk in like a cowboy. No. speaker-1: We don't need that. I want you to be that old man grieving in the cemetery that's in the western that's like yeah. Right? It's not worth speaker-0: I need you to be one of those old mages that have seen it and heard it and done it. And yeah, absolutely. speaker-1: I'd rather go reading on You know, if you're out here to be why you know speaker-0: You can stay home. Yeah. Go to or or even better, Hollywood needs help. Go to Hollywood. speaker-1: You know, listen, if you're willing to learn safety and you're willing to play with your fellow actors, maybe that energy can serve the character. Right? Maybe. But ⁓ you know, lives are on the line sometimes. You can't have that. You know, I ⁓ for a long time I studied to be in emergency services. So I thought it was gonna be copper firefighter. And, you know, I got a lot of things to say about modern policing. Like, are you coming from a service model? Are you just beating your chest a little? One of my favorite things to watch are these ICE agents getting arrested by cops. One of my favorite things to watch because these are these are cops who are like, listen, I deal with every motocoma bullshit all the time. Shut up. speaker-0: You know what I mean? Yeah. speaker-1: 'Cause they get it. You know what I'm saying? Like you you can't there's a personality type that doesn't deserve a badge, doesn't deserve a gun, doesn't deserve a presidential seat. speaker-0: Yep, I agree. speaker-1: You know, maybe they can be very happy, healthy members of society. I'm not ever trying to be like I'm never trying to be in a position where I say certain people don't deserve to. I think that's very anti democratic. But when you know someone's dangerous, you don't give ⁓ you don't give ⁓ a rifle. You don't give them a pen. Because you know what they're gonna do. You know? speaker-0: Right. Yeah. What are some of your ideas ⁓ around education? speaker-1: So I think education really took a bit of a step back with some of the no child but left behind structure and testing training students for the test. You know, I I've taught with inside Broadway out of New York and I brought arts to to kids and I've taught with I teach karate and I found that when you meet children where they are, they learn. When you try and get them to reach a level, yeah, there's a time for that. But if it's an arbitrary level, even the teacher doesn't fully have their heart in, it becomes problematic. So when it comes to education, I really would love to see some not just curriculum overhauls, but power overhauls. I would love to see teachers being put into a position of creative control. ⁓ not that there wouldn't be some level of of baseline standard, but we're trailing in education and for good reason. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: ⁓ and I think that the people who know that best are teachers. Yeah. And I would love to see more teachers run and win Congress and political systems and be like, hey, your local board of ed is run by random uncles and aunts and fathers, and not everybody's got a PhD in education. Maybe we you know, and maybe your principals just wanted that nice paycheck and the summer off. Like maybe they're checked out, maybe they're political. You know, they got that public administration degree and they're not in it, but some principals are fantastic. speaker-0: Maybe. speaker-1: So I think when it comes to education, we really need to highlight grassroots, decentralized creativity, power, and flow state. And then when we find what works with that, we can start talking about it on a national scale. I think education's gonna make or break this country. I think it always was going to, and we just lost sight of that. ⁓ there are other I I believe in playtesting ideas. There are a lot of pedagogical ideas in different countries and even in different states. speaker-0: Mm. speaker-1: And play testing them in different populations to see how kids react, whether they have an increased level of engagement. I think that's the way to go. And and just like ⁓ I never caught his son's name. ⁓ but just like his son, yeah, just like Michael. ⁓ the second he had a martial art, he was focused. Not every kid needs a drug, not every kid needs discipline. Some kids just need the right level of enrichment. So I believe in funding. The arts. I believe in funding STEM. I believe in funding multiple languages, because ideally I would love to see an America 50 years ago from now where everyone speaks three languages from a national security as well as a cultural. speaker-0: And not even yeah, like if we're to be a business superpower, you need to speak different languages. It's mandatory. speaker-1: Every time, yeah. And even in the military, you can't do anything without good intelligence. You can't win a war only speaking English. That's the reality. We couldn't do anything we did in Venezuela if we didn't have a couple people who spoke Spanish. And not just any Spanish, because you know, people who are of the diaspora know like they're different Spanishes. You take me to Etua, Puerto Rico, I pick up a lot. You know, I I know more than I think I know. You take me to Chile, my friends are from Chile, I don't know a thing. speaker-0: Yeah. Yep. One hundred percent. speaker-1: Email as well as French. speaker-0: I live in California. The Mexicans don't even talk to me because my Spanish is just different enough. And I'm like, and then they try to speak English to me. I said, no, my Spanish is way better than your English. Let's stick to speaker-1: It happens, you know, it happens. Yeah. But yeah, from for for education, I really think that if we highlight those full enriching ecosystems of human thought and experience, have kids play test that, especially in elementary school. Throw things at them, throw play at them. Right. Give them every opportunity, not just sports, but give them theater and music and art and not just for the privileged. Right? For everyone. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: I think you're gonna find that when the structure of how we approach education and our understanding of it changes. Yeah. We we give kids the ability to play and grow in this world, they're gonna play and grow a lot faster than this artificial ladder we've given them. And a lot of that's gonna come from empowering teachers who really understand what it means to be on the front line. Like if I'm in if I'm you know, I I often use a lot of military examples because a lot of speaker-0: Yeah. Right. speaker-1: My life has been spent serving veterans at home. So the way my natural inclination would be to say this is I'm not going to listen to top brass if my sergeant is saying something and we're under fire. I'm going to listen to the dude who's in it with me, better than me, who leads me, who's got my back. That dude might even be wrong. We might be operating completely out of the reign of what's real. Outside of our sphere of knowledge, there might be an overarching thing beyond our comprehension. But I'm gonna listen to that dude because then we'll get to the next choice. And I think that the more we highlight that, the better it'll be. About what it means to write a curriculum, these are people who work their tails off for not a lot of pay and they don't even really get the power to meet their students where they are. I think we need to change how we view teaching in this country. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. One hundred percent. And I and I'm I've been saying this more and more often. you know, we have an administration that turned our education system into a sitcom. Yep. ⁓ and then the first thing they do, and then they first thing they do is they call us dumb and lazy and they go and they hire a bunch of people that don't live here. speaker-1: Which is impressive because speaker-0: And then people are like, well, that's just because, yeah, that's because those countries invested in education. It's not any harder than that. Their their economy might not be as strong as ours. So they're they get more bang for the buck or or their, you know, whatever. Their cost of living isn't as high as ours. But just like what's happening with people coming from South America here to take all these jobs that are. speaker-1: It's not all. speaker-0: Should we shouldn't as an American, we no American should ever wake up and be like, I'm excited to go do this job that someone who is not from here can easily take. speaker-1: And that's the other thing is I I have a lot of family who are in the trades and they'll be the first to tell you that it does seem like a lot of Americans don't want to do trades for some reason. ⁓ but I my trade, because I didn't like plumbing, I didn't like electrical, I I I didn't see myself in that. I ended up really loving gardening and landscaping. More the gardening than the landscaping. I liked working out nature rather than just I don't like Monsanto, I don't like Roundup, right? Like I didn't like doing certain things I was told to do. speaker-0: War was speaker-1: But when I worked as a gardener, I ran into a lot of the most hardworking people met in my life. And they were trying to do things the legal way. Even if they weren't already here leg if they weren't here legally, they were still trying to get enough money to start that pro they wanted to do it right. And I think what we have is this really weird clash of mythologies that just are dizzant to reality. You know, ⁓ people really want. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. speaker-1: their kids to be okay, they want to work, they want to become citizens. And sure, some some fields might have a harder time getting intake. But if you've got education and you start garnishing people's wages when they went to school to try and pay for that education, but you've allowed those banks to make all the money, then you're you're destroying K through twelve education. It doesn't take a lot. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: To see that we're gonna be ping ponged around the pinball board until we're dead slaves working any job. And then speaker-0: And it's and I think that's their move that they're trying to make. I think I honestly, I honestly think. So this is what I've been researching lately. It's the deindustrialization of America that happened in the started happening around the 70s. When that started happening, normal people, the working class, lower class people, those folks were never told. That we're gonna deindustrialize America. So and and and by the way, we're not we're also gonna tell you we're not gonna upgrade your education either. They haven't they haven't done anything as far as education. So you're still a machine part. Yeah, but it costs so much more to live here. So what they're doing is they're squeezing us. Yep. We have speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Yeah. speaker-0: We have a bunch of people that should be working these jobs that we don't want. And I'm not even talking trades, like mad props to the plumbers, electricians. That's where I come from. The construction people, you know what I mean? Mad props to them. I'm talking the picking strawberries and all that stuff kind of jobs. Everyone is upset that all these jobs are disappearing. Meanwhile, if we had an education system that set you up as a computer programmer, a proper software designer, a ⁓ speaker-1: Mm-hmm. speaker-0: proper graphic designer or prop all this stuff. Then it makes more sense after we it d so think of it like a neighborhood, right? Right. When we were industrialized and we were building things and all kinds of stuff here in America, we had plenty of jobs. But then once you de-industrialized, so what happened was they took all these factory jobs and they moved them to China and they moved them to where Taiwan and all these other places, and they started hiring and making things from over there. Yeah, not investing in over here. And they didn't even tell the American population that hey, this is what's happening, get ready, start inventing things. They didn't do any of that. speaker-1: And as they were doing that, the CIA was pulling its BS. speaker-0: And I think now they're trying to because I saw this video where Trump back in whenever it was 2017, 2018, where he said Americans are going to have to get used to taking a pay cut if they want to stay competitive in the global workforce. speaker-1: Isn't that something? speaker-0: So you have to take the hit, but I'm just gonna sit here and keep coming up with scams to take you the little bit of money that you have left. speaker-1: Yeah, and and after, you know, we've aggressively overthrown other governments, after we've created refugee crises, after we've stopped Haitians from fleeing here, after we've denied political asylum, now we're gonna teach people to hate the very people who are actually believing in the American dream and saying if I work hard, I'll be okay. And we're gonna hate them because we've worked hard and we're not okay. So why should they be? So d it doesn't add up. Right. It doesn't add up. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And we should then take a pay cut to be competitive in a global market when our country has disproportionately dominated the global market in a in a a massive amount of facets. We've created the problem. We've stepped in shit and now we're telling our own people that they don't get to benefit. But the ruling class who got us there gets to pull out. They can leverage insurance, they can leverage tax breaks, they can cover it up under a loss, they can invest, they can do all this financial wizardry. And at the end of the day, they traveled on other countries. They see how other populations live. They're intimately aware of what we deserve. They know we can have walkable cities and fast rail and they know we could have universal health care and decent. speaker-0: Know that they don't have to ban books. They know that they they know that they can educate you for cheaper than it's cheaper to educate than it is to surveil. speaker-1: Absolutely. And my metrics are a little dated. So they're gonna be rooted in my my college degree era. So twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen. But as of twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, it costs about a hundred thousand dollars to keep an inmate per year on death row. Cost about sixty thousand dollars to build a single cell in any block. It costs about forty thousand dollars a year taxpayer money to keep someone in prison. And we have the largest prison system in the world. It's for profit. It's the only way legally to remain a slave in America. And the second you start talking about let's reform this, people go, You just want criminals everywhere. Like my dog, you're gonna be a criminal and you can't speaker-0: I want better I want better Americans everywhere. I want to be able to argue with an American that doesn't sound like a placeholder for a Fox News person. And for the mat and for that matter, MSNBC too. speaker-1: It's amazing how many times Yeah, that too. It it because I it got to a point where I would be at work hearing people talk and I'd be like, Hannity, Matt out. Like you could just tell like not no shade to any specific being, but like I know I knew who you were copy pasting from. Yep. I maybe even I retold a John Stewart joke or two. I love Colbert. Sure. But I try to have my own thoughts with it. And I think it's a lot easier to graft something onto our minds when we're stressed. speaker-0: Ha ha. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: And to really sit with it and do labor when we're already burned out. And having a burnt out American people is really the greatest fuel to an abusive government. And the more educated we are, the more revived we are, the more organized we are. We are sitting on top of possibly one of the most beautiful renaissances to be in global history, us and other countries. And we just need to put people first. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: If we do, we can avoid a civil war. We can avoid all this imperialism, which is all we've ever known. Right. These forever wars. Like we these have been going on our foreign policies before either of us were born. Mm-hmm. Or any of our viewers were born. But you know, anyone listening in, you know, like these we're we're talking pre World War Two, this has been happening. Keep kicking the can back down the road. I think I read somewhere that ⁓ speaker-0: You are you ours? Yeah. speaker-1: Two stock traders were arguing with each other and like each of them were descendants of generals that fought in Waterloo on opposite sides. Or like, you know, at a certain point, you know, if my congressman's a descendant of Jefferson, this PM over here is a descendant of friggin' Romulus. I don't know how far down there Racco. At a certain point, it's like, yeah, like, you know, is the space frontier gonna go the same way as the age of exploration three, four hundred years ago? The age of extraction and of of resource management and of of depopulating indigenous peoples of their of their way of life. What's gonna happen when we meet ⁓ a sentient life form elsewhere? We're probably gonna shoot. Mm-hmm. Right? And and that's kind of when they say revolution happens in the mind, I think that's where it starts is who are we? What do we represent? How do we get there? I said ten years ago. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: When I wrote about a lot of the things we talked about tonight, I said, I want a renaissance. That's what revolution means to me. It doesn't mean violent overthrow, you know. Sometimes they force your hand with that, but it means renaissance. It means everyone growing up in a level of abundance and curiosity and and grace. And there's this beauty to it. And I feel like if we don't get that, you know, this administration's begging for a civil war. They want it. They're outright saying it. They're doing everything they can to get us to throw hands. And we're not doing it, which speaker-0: And that's because there's a lot of people that that are in some videos that we've keep hearing about. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: That's a good part of it. These ⁓ these ⁓ five yeah, whoever it takes down good. speaker-0: yeah. Cause let me tell you, let me tell you how how how bullshit it is that that we're fighting against each other, that countrymen are fighting against countrymen. Over Thanksgiving, I went and hung out with my cousin who is a Trumper. He's MAGA. Well, actually, he's starting to get tired of Trump, but he's MAGA and all this stuff. And we talked for hours. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Everyone was afraid because they see my channel and they're like, ⁓ this fucking guy. And then they know him because he talks all his mess on Facebook and stuff like that. But we agreed on almost everything. What do you want? You want you want America first? Me too. You want a better education system? Me too. Everything. You want you know what I mean? You want better infrastructure? Yep. You want you want roads that work? Yep. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Every time. speaker-0: You want internet for people? Yep. speaker-1: Every time we want the same things. The difference is which propaganda did we believe and how we get there? And you know, that's one thing. I can sit here all night. I can go for five hours about how Fox News is a troll Georgian horse and it's basically a plague rat set to destroy our country from within. And I can go down that rabbit hole and probably not wrong, and then I need more donations to cover security. Right? You know. speaker-0: Exactly. speaker-1: I'm I'm doing this against an open window facing a street because I'm at that level of my campaign where I can do that. You know what I'm saying? Uh-huh. But at the end of the day, Fox News is also achieving what it's doing, emotional manipulation, only because people care. And behind all the fear, behind all the anger, and anger never exists on its own. Anger's always latched to another emotion. And it's gonna sound so cheesy. There's no way to speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Come out of this without sounding cheesy. The angriest MAGA you've ever met loves so hard. They might limit where it's aimed. It really might limit. They might hate LGBTQ. I still take it very seriously, but they might actually just be afraid for their children. And they've got stuck there. And if you unstick them, and there's some really dangerous people. So I'm not I'm not pardoning any of them. Let me just be very clear about that. Right. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the majority of the people you meet is not gonna be some crazed dude who's trying to look at girls in the bathroom. Absolute majority of the people. speaker-1: Absolutely. Absolutely. And and a lot of these people, the their anger comes from fear. And their fear comes from love of something or someone or some future. And I found when you talk with people rather than to them, and you talk with them like human beings, you get human beings. When you talk with them like enemies, you get enemies. When you talk to them at all, you just come off like this academic, heady, like condescending jerk. speaker-0: ⁓ speaker-1: And you and I started this by saying sometimes people aren't even talking. They're just debating their chess moves that are pre prepared arguments and you know, it it is what it is. That's why speaker-0: love that's why I love the format that we do here is because I don't want to I don't want to talk. I don't d did I tell you these are the topics that we're gonna talk about because I want to connect with Joe. Yeah. I don't want to connect with your bullet points. I don't want to connect with your campaign. I want to get to know Joe. speaker-1: Rap. And I appreciate that because I I think stumping is is BS. I can memorize a comedic monologue and make you laugh. I can sing musical theater. I can be as the song and dance man. At what point is that the character and not the person? And then to ride the pun, you get the character, but you don't get the character. And you should be voting because right, wrong, or indifferent, you think that person's character is gonna work. Right rather than this space. speaker-0: Yeah. Right. pay attention to what folks say about Trump. He's different. He's different when he's on the stump versus when he's in in private. People always talk about how cool he is. Yeah. ⁓ he's a nice guy. Blah blah blah blah blah. But then when he gets out there, he goes and he says whatever it is that he says, right? So the thing is like which one of the which character is the real one, you know? Like yeah. You you take a look at these files we keep talking about. We know what character he speaker-1: Yeah. We know who you are. You know who you are. You know that we know who you are. And God willing, you will either die in a federal prison, you will spend the rest of your life fearing one. Because I'll tell you what. speaker-0: Don't even I don't even my my cares for Trump how how how how much meant mental space or mental energy I take on Trump is very little. I just don't care. I care about I care about that that group of people that's acting as an umbrella keeping us from our greatness. speaker-1: And I've that's speaker-0: Those are the people. Those are the people that are that are pulling the strings who sent this monkey to us. Yeah. speaker-1: Well, and that's my big condemnation of some of the neoliberal model is like, listen, you might have not even wanted fascism to come around, but you paved you might not have paved the way, but you granted it the permit. Sure. Right? Like you allowed this to happen. speaker-0: You definitely had an arrow up saying this way. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's i it gets me aggravated, you know, and it's like ⁓ you know, when you have this group of people, we talk about impeachment, conviction, removal, we mean it. Mm-hmm. But we're not just I I don't wanna stop at one man. Right. Right? Rico charges, conspiracy, treason. I think if it applies speaker-0: More there's more than one person and Rico charges. speaker-1: Yeah. And you know what? If I lose my campaign, I'm still gonna go to law school and become a lawyer. I'm coming for you. Not you. Not the listeners, but you know, at the end of the day, we need a restoration of American law to something that's respectable and serves everybody. And then we need to actually apply it. I really would love to spend I I mean, I would love to spend my life doing something else. I'm prepared to spend the rest of my life focused on being the new Nuremberg guy. Mm-hmm. speaker-0: Sure. speaker-1: If that's what I got to do is spend 20, 30 years just holding you all to task, that's the duty, right? Like that's what we got to do. Right. So it it comes down from the highest echelon down to the lowest ice agent. You know, if you violated American law, you've violated due process, you've participated in concentration camps, you're done. And you know what? If you didn't, if you had a different level of culpability, you're released. And then you don't have the monkey on your back. Sorry about that. Have a good day. Right? ⁓ speaker-0: And then when that happens, wouldn't it be cool to have a system that is going to help you not all the way fail? speaker-1: If we're strong, why is anyone failing? We're not that great if people are suffering. We're not that strong if we're not taking care of our people. speaker-0: And what good what good is being the king or the ruler of an area that's full of bums? You're just the leader of a bunch of bums? Yeah. speaker-1: Want you want to have a fertile garden. Yeah. You don't want to have an area that you've salted the earth the wrong way, you've scorched it, nothing's habitable. And any critter that wanders in is miserable and tries to get out as quick as possible. Right? And even if you convince those critters, ⁓ if I bootstrap, I'll grow a tall. But no, it's it's an infertile ground. Right? I want a fertile American ground for everybody. speaker-0: Yeah. Well. speaker-1: Right. I want everyone to be able to do something and no, we're probably not all gonna have mansions and be billionaires, but that's not the point. speaker-0: But I want I want if if that is your goal, not not necessarily the billionaire part, but let's just say let's just say speaker-1: Right. It's a happy, healthy life. Right. Right. Enough money to take your kids either. speaker-0: probability of being a billionaire is there but again I don't want I want the how do I say this coming from where I came come from or I came from becoming a billionaire would be amazing but I know what I would do with that with that leverage I know that I'm going to turn back around I'm gonna go to schools I'm gonna do things like that speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: Why? Because if I'm smart enough to become a billionaire, I know that I'm smart enough to work towards fixing homelessness, work towards you know, fixing the situation for drug addicts. speaker-1: Right. And that's why they say there's no ethical billionaires, because in theory, if you become one, you completely send it back down. And then you become one again, you send it back down, you become one again, you send it back down. Yeah. Like I would love to see a level of healthy and happy living where everyone is financially sound enough that anything you'd really want out of being a billionaire, you basically have the working class. I want there to be such an a a a happy, healthy financial system for everybody that you don't even need to worry. speaker-0: Yeah. Let me tell you, there comes a time. I've never met this time, but there comes a time where you have enough money where you are very comfortable. And anything over that is just, you know, you're you're just being gross. Yeah. But if we can get our baseline up to the American baseline, the United States, because sorry Canada, sorry Mexico, sorry Venezuela, America. If we can get the baseline of what is a United States ⁓ citizen up speaker-1: We're talking about us right now. speaker-0: It would it would make a world of difference and not just in in the United States, but people would look at us and be like, Yeah, okay, that makes sense. speaker-1: And in in relation to what you had said earlier about the president saying, you know, we all have to take a pay cut for the global market. Let's imagine how much different the global market is now with over 400 million people not destitute with a little bit of cash money. You know what? My my daughter wants to do ballet lessons. I want to go to the movies. They're actually participating in the economy, but also debts. It's going to be general. speaker-0: ⁓ E even bigger than that, Joe. If you had if you had an extra, say two thousand dollars a month. What would you do? Yeah. speaker-1: would I do? That is a little less than I make a month right now. So speaker-0: Yeah. So if we doubled your salary speaker-1: I would go to a doctor. I would get all my pre-screenings. ⁓ probably take my girl out to sushi or something. Yeah. And I'd go to my my baby cousins and I'd buy them things they like or experiences. I'd pay off all my debts. Right. I'd stimulate the local economy, pay off like some of my school debts, make a payment plan on that. I would definitely buy some lightsabers and a sword. You're right. Like I would I would go and I would support my local. speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ Okay. Would you would you maybe would you maybe like after you it after the initial shock of having doubled your salary, would you maybe go into maybe start like a little gardening business? Maybe you can hire a couple people. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. I I've been thinking of stuff like that a lot. I would probably even start community things that are just vocational, right? Things that have no material wealth benefit to me because now I can focus on that because my material needs are met. One of my big policies that I've been play testing for 10 years and that I wrote in the original document is an idea for bringing permaculture into the mainstream. The idea of we're farming from a base of ecosystem rather than monoculture, which is like your stereotypical cornfields. Right? We're gonna work on putting gardeners in command of acres and having those acres serve communities and streets. And the beautiful thing is I'm not sure the size of the room you're in. I know the size of the room I'm in. I imagine we could probably fill feed an entire street out of just certain room sizes. These are things that can be inside as well as outside. You know With Zoran Mamdani state run grocery stores, if if they started doing well and they put garden centers on top. You have permaculture coming into play, gardeners. You could eliminate food deserts like that. Because we grow enough food to feed people. And then there's the distribution to consider. But if all the power went out right now, across the country, I want an America where no one's gonna starve. Mm-hmm. Because that system would just maybe become word of mouth and cash. speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: Because we lost the digital component and maybe we gotta keep paper records and that sucks. We're gonna find some errors when things come back. speaker-0: Like we haven't done that before. speaker-1: We haven't done that before. Right. We had well you know, so I when it comes to to that, yeah, if I had an extra double my salary, I would probably play test that even harder. Yeah. Cool, let me help contribute to the community garden or to the community theater, to kids education, right? You know, I don't need tremendously much. ⁓ speaker-0: Imagine, imagine going through a school system that teaches you how to start a business, how to do your taxes, how to cook, how to grow things, how to you know you know what I'm saying? And and this is my pitch to everyone. We don't even like there'd be there would be history class, but it'd be more of a conversational thing where you go out and you do your history research and all that stuff. And as a collective. speaker-1: Absolutely. speaker-0: We do history together because history pisses people off. Yeah. Because no matter what it is that happens, someone is on the losing end of it. And you know, that's why we have these knuckleheads down in I saw flo in Florida. I was in Florida in in ⁓ December. ⁓ no, not December, November. And there's this huge, just gross flag of ⁓ of the Confederate flag. Huge. Like enough to cover a big part of my house. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: I don't understand why that stuff happens, but that's the history component that can be not that it would be an elective or anything, but we need to discuss that. speaker-1: We need to discuss that because I guarantee if I flew around with a Willem Tecumseh Sherman flag, it'd be my ass. It wouldn't even take him a second. If I'm flying underneath that Confederate flag, a Tecumseh Sherman battle flag. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So we need to we need to tap back into because I remember in the 70s, I don't it wasn't like this. Like you could you could have a Democrat and a Republican living right next door to each other. speaker-1: Selective history. There was a modicum of respect and they weren't so extremely stuck to the to the edges. speaker-0: Right. And we were very proud of being Americans. Very. Yeah. And we yeah, we would we would, you know, bitch and complain to each other. But it never left the house. speaker-1: When I feel like in the in the growth of this country, the sixties were like when we were thirteen. Right? We're finding out, wow, there's some things that have been happening, I'm not okay with, I'm coming into consciousness, I'm learning. Now we're like 20 and we gotta cope with all this unprocessed trauma and unresolved things from this messy puberty period. Right? So like there were things that were positive and negative in all these different eras. And speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Now we're in our 20s going, what works, what doesn't? I'm still experiencing new things. How do I handle this? And ⁓ you know, we're lucky, we survived to adulthood. I'd love for us to survive longer, right? Like we might not make it to 30, right? We might not make it to 350, right? Like that's the reality. So I agree with you. I think that taking the strengths of certain things and analyzing why they worked, why did that work in the 70s? Why was and was it in a specific spot? speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Was it a specific subculture? Right. When when friends of mine talk about taking foreign policies, like a good idea that comes from Japan, a good idea that comes from Ireland, a good idea that comes from France. Can it translate here? Will it translate well? It's like a transplant. Your body can reject the new heart. Right. Do we have the culture that will take this policy transplant in pride? In stride, rather. ⁓ for example, a a a big conversation with that is drinking age. Do we lower the drinking age to 18? maybe we won't handle that well. However, caveat, if you're brave enough to to fight in the armed forces and serve your country, if you're able to make that decision, why can't you go to a pub? Maybe, maybe we do allow for certain things that are not general. Maybe there's specific privileges at certain intervals. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And then maybe we discover, you know what, maybe not every dude coming out of the boot with a paycheck should go to the pub. Maybe it's 20 rather than 21 or 19. Like, I don't know. We'll figure that out and we'll admit when we're wrong. We'll say we tried this, we've done some social research on it, we've tried to exhibit X to reach Y. Nope, hard pass. We're gonna try something else now. I think we have politicians that are afraid to make a mistake. Mm-hmm. Right. They're afraid to say, I'm gonna put my heart on the line, my mind on the line, put this policy out there. They're not afraid to enrich their buddies, they're not afraid to take care of advantage of Citizens United. They they they know which risks to take and not take. But when it comes to, you know, like right now, my incumbents on a huge mediator. He's doing great. Let's talk about Venezuela. He's not gonna do anything. Impeachment co ⁓ impeachment ⁓ citizens impeachment's a coalition, they cross endorse. He couldn't get endorsed by them. And I hope he watches this whole thing full. He and I could both be endorsed. But he won't. speaker-0: Are you running as a Democrat or a Republican? speaker-1: He's been the Democrat since ⁓ eight ⁓ eight or ⁓ nine. Remember at the moment. The brain fog is kicking back in. speaker-0: Yeah. What do you what are your what are your thoughts on congressional term limits? speaker-1: I would love to see congressional term limits, probably no one more than three to four terms. I believe there should also be a national cap on politics as a whole. I don't believe in career politicians. I think Congress is a little different because Congress is supposed to be just random people, right? Like bored housewife from Idaho has a good conversation with military guy from Connecticut, has a good conversation with doctor from Illinois. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: It's supposed to be random people and there probably will always be a disproportionate level of lawyers and business folk in there. But it's supposed to be all of us. But when it comes to term limits for Congress, I I don't think you should have to serve more than six to eight years. ⁓ Senate, I know they serve for six years, so maybe they only get two terms, which is about twelve. I believe that it would be good to have a national bar on serving more than 15 years in politics. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: including ⁓ Supreme Court. speaker-1: Including Supreme Court. And you know, maybe that's viewed differently, right? Like you've been a judge for 15 years. We've deemed you deserve to be on the Supreme Court. You're gonna serve for six months. So maybe certain role, like, all right, you've served as a state senator and now a legislator and a senator. You've been serving for X amount of years, you gotta stop or you gotta run for president. But you can't be a mayor, right? You can't go back to your small town and run it till you retire for another 40 years. speaker-0: Makes sense. speaker-1: Yeah. I don't believe in career politicians. I don't believe you should get a twenty year career out of politics. And I believe that even for your people I love. If if Mayor Mamdani becomes the greatest mayor ever seen in the history of the human race, I would still support a term limit even if it made me uncomfortable. Because speaker-0: Yeah. By that time your track record speaks for itself. So you should you should have people who are disciples is the only word that comes to pr to my mind, but you have part of your cabinet will we'll say, or someone who recognizes what works and they pick up the baton. speaker-1: Yeah, your school of philosophy should be battle tested at that point. And then the next generation will take it up and say, here's what worked, here's what didn't work, here's why. We're ready to try this again with a new house, right? With a new makeup, or maybe we're not. We saved the fight for another day. I think if we don't let schools of philosophy evolve, we die. And I think those perspectives, those collections of perspectives are gonna important. I'm a huge fan of term limits. I think they're excellent. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: ⁓ if I get in, I I'm here for the reconstruction. I see it as a job to do, and then I'm gonna make an exit packet for the next person. I would love to do that in two years. I would love to retake the midterms, do a ton of work with that Congress, get a new president in, do a ton of work, lay the groundwork, create an exit packet, find a better person than me from my district, which I'm sure there is. They just need to be brave enough and send them forward. I don't need to be here for 20 years. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: I don't want to be here for 20 years. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trapped in the room with them. They are trapped in the room with me. But that doesn't need to be my life. Right? Like I want to serve for the reason and the season, get us through this constitutional crisis, help participate in the reconstruction that brings us to the renaissance. And then I want to be a normal dude because that's what I know how to be. I don't, I don't want to be a I never want to be a politician. This day I become a politician, I want to retire. speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: I do want to be a public servant and I want to figure out how to do that. And I I think a big part of that is serving either for a mission or for a season. And right now my season looks like one term, maybe two. My mission is this American reconstruction, this this beautiful renaissance that we're we all feel is there when we're not doom scrolling and feeling like, well, the bombs are gonna drop it anyway. speaker-0: And I think and I think that that's a really important point. ⁓ is that there is something changing. It's obvious. We can feel it. We we as as citizens of the United States, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna hopefully ease everyone's tension. Everything that you see happening has been happening this whole time. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. There's nothing different except now everyone has a camera. Yeah. Whether it's the shenanigans that's happening in the streets or the shenanigans that's happening in the White House. We have never seen it live. speaker-1: Really Yeah. Jeffrey, you know who. I figure you get censored too sometimes. speaker-0: Dude, my this channel is a uphill climb. A brown guy talking politics to to a bunch of you know left leaning folks might it's uphill claim both speaker-1: Well, the the named subject of certain files right now. He was arrested two thousand eight. I remember reading that. I remember reading that he was allowed to leave his jail cell. speaker-0: Yeah. To go speaker-1: And do up his his business, whatever it was, and come back. We've always known. Now we're entering this weird almost WWE era, yeah, where it's about the showmanship and the story and the mythology, but not the subject, right? Not the wrestling. Not insulting WWE, it's centered in Stanford. I just love to use their right their their speaker-0: Yeah. It's a thing. speaker-1: Their their theatricality is is intriguing. Right. So what we have is this opportunity to look at things and say, hey, these people are now out in the open and just performing what they already were as caricatures of themselves. And now we have to say, do we just fall for this and watch? speaker-0: megaphone now that with the megaphone that is social media like you can go wwe as hard as you want yeah we had trump share a video of a jet pooping on us while we were in in in the streets protesting yeah there's nothing more wwe than that speaker-1: Mm. There's nothing more than that. And and you know the reality is it's it's fun to talk shit. You know, it's fun to be the heel sometimes. Yeah. I don't mind being the bad guy. People told me I was the bad guy sometimes when they were older. You know what it's like to be bullied. But you also have I don't need to be president. Make that, you know, something that serves a cause at a level where it makes sense. When you're a president, your job is to be wise and calm. speaker-0: You don't need to be president. Do that shit on TV. Yeah. speaker-1: And when you're a leader of an executive, I would extend that too. If you're a mayor, right? If you're if you're in the a governor, your job is to sit here and have the poised response. I love George Carlin. Make him speaker of the house if he were alive, but don't make him a mayor. You know what I'm saying? So what we have here is the opportunity to recognize that everything is a trap. Everything can be gamified and we have to be really honest with ourselves what role we're willing to play at which intervals and whether it will serve the good of the people we're trying to help. Right. And I think that when you have a sitting president sharing an AI video, ⁓ attacking protesters who are protesting on his birthday. Right? Like you're attacking No Kings protesters. You know, it's at a certain point we have to admit this is just theater. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And it doesn't need to be considered real. Our real systems and rules are supposed to outsurvive these fantasies, outsurvive these delusions. We're not supposed to have mad kings because we have the legal means to to to take people out of office for dereliction of duty or for for other reasons. But when you stack enough people in your favor and you flood the system at every level. speaker-0: Right. Yeah. speaker-1: You start clogging its organs. What we're seeing now is a constitutional crisis because we've we're having a heart attack. Essentially. I love using medical language as well to talk about how to heal the country. And right now we're having a heart attack. We're clogged at every level. Right. And, you know, there's also a healing modality. Right. One of them is impeachment. The other is just the social anthropology of speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: For the next two generations, just having to deal with the fact that this is a hit we had to take. This is a part of our history. Mm-hmm. And he speaker-0: one of the good things one of the good things about this presidency is that it's it's a load test. We see where it's leaking. Now we know that and this goes back to when Mitch McConnell first started spilling the beans on his game plan. Yeah. We're we're seeing that we can't rely on norms. Now we know we have to get things written down. speaker-1: And an autistic individual would have told you that. Right? Norms change. Fads change. Bring back those low-cut genes. Like see how that works. Right. Like, and sometimes things boomerang around. Being a Nazi is somehow fashionable again. Shouldn't never be. Right? speaker-0: Big that that that behavior here in the United States it's not it's not even offensive anymore it straight up hurts my feelings yeah yeah it hurts my feelings and not even in ⁓ and not even in that like I'm not that much of an emotional person like I'm quick to get angry and all that stuff too yeah but when you say something like that and you and you speaker-1: It makes me grieve. speaker-0: And it's illegal for me to put my hands on somebody. Knowing knowing that I put my life on the line, and there's millions of other people that put their life on the line, for you to be able to do and say whatever you want to do and say, and that's what you choose to do with your time. That's the speaker-1: Yep. And the hypocrisy of it, right? 'Cause even the ones who will say no, it's illegal, you can't hit him 'cause it's not that women aren't Nazis, 'cause speaker-0: Yeah. We got some friends we got some friends out here that they wear t shirts that say punch a Nazi in the face. speaker-1: All about it. And I get look, I listen to punk music and I'm bald with a strong jaw. Sometimes people drive next to me and they question, right? Because of the neo Nazis that have infected punks since the beginning. But you know, when you have ⁓ sorry, brain fog, I'm I'm losing my point a little bit, but I'll come back to it. when you I got it back, got it back. I I had I had a lot of friends because of my time serving vets who served to be enough. speaker-0: Okay. All the bad just not too. speaker-1: They're listen, we thought we were gonna come back like our fathers and we came back and got spat on. Mm-hmm. When you have the same people who will do that, who will say, Well, imperialism spitting, and it's like I'm just a broke boy who who wanted to take care of my brother or like be strong. Like I I got involved in a thing bigger than me and I I didn't know what to do. Same people who spit on the the Vietnam vets are the same people will say, ⁓ man, rest in peace, Henry Kissinger. What a great statesman. speaker-0: Yeah. Those will be the same those are the same people that say, No abortion, 'cause that's murder. speaker-1: And that's what will happen is you'll have these businesses of like you're blaming the wrong person, the thing you think is the crime, and then the person doing the crime, you're letting off Scott free. Right. And that's the reality is if he did not win this presidency this second time, he was very aware that our load test was gonna win. Legally, the legal system's slow and cumbersome, and it doesn't always work, and it's not always fair adjustment. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: There are every lawyer alive will tell you there's some broken stuff they'd love to fix. And it's our duty to fix it. But the load test was working. We were gonna kill. And he knew it. I mean, special counsel Jack, I believe Jack Smith. I'm very brain foggy right now from the post. Thank you. he even said he was like, We we had we had him. He absolutely pushed forward for Gan Six. He he's culpable. ⁓ right now. speaker-0: Jack Rethodes. speaker-1: There's no reason it couldn't be a prima fascia case of obstruction of justice and treason for the for January sixth alone, and that's not even bringing up the fonts. It's not even bringing up all the other crimes, the bribery, the extortion, essentially murder if he gave ⁓ Pete the the extrajudicial order. If that order came from speaker-0: Yeah. You don't even have to go that far. Just look at him. Track track the string that goes from him to Jeffrey Epstein. Track that string. He's he didn't do it, he probably knows who did. speaker-1: Exactly. Exactly. You know, there's a difference between, yeah, I've been at a party this dude was at. We've all met one or two people that we've gone, Man, that's a questionable guy. I hope I don't have pictures with him. But we'd shaken their hands or we were in the same musical theater cast or they were in the same branch of those speaker-0: Take pictures. Even if you did take pictures. speaker-1: Yeah, there's a difference between like, ⁓ I'm in the files because I had one picture with him because he had a lot of friends in this society and I knew what he was doing and I helped. speaker-0: And then and then that person says he was my best friend for 10 years. Yep. There's a difference. speaker-1: And and that's when when I say I want to come after these people, I want to be very clear. There's kind of three basic levels. There's I met this person because he is a power player, and everyone said you should get a picture with him. There is I knew what was happening and said nothing because I was in the system and fitting. Then there's I actively did something with children. speaker-0: Benefit. speaker-1: I definitely want to nail the first two groups to the wall. If you just happen to be at a Knicks game in ninety seven, it happens. You happen to be in the same box, but you were there because your cousin or what whatever. I don't care. I'm speaker-0: If you're watching that basketball game on an island. speaker-1: Yeah, like if you look into my family history, I'm sure there's a bookie or two, right? Like, but that doesn't mean I'm doing it or I know anything about it, right? But if you flew on the jet, went to the island, like that come on. Just do what everybody else does and give us the info to get a plea. It's probably not gonna be a nice plea. Don't expect us to be nice, but you'll you'll get some kind of level of of of reality with that. I I think people keep running away thinking they'll die. without having to serve Tom. And ⁓ I'm just young enough and angry enough that I would love to burst that bubble. Either way, in Congress, sure. Through law. We need to we need to hold people accountable. Our entire security apparatus and our relationships with allies and our relationships with our own heart as Americans is damaged through this scandal. I would throw respect on anybody who's name who even if they were monsters who I'd love to speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: hurt him for what they did. I'd throw respect on anybody whose name who says, you know what? Here's what I did. Here's when I did it. I surrender. I'll at least throw you respect for doing that. If Elon's as smart as he said he has a backup of all the unredacted copies, is that's all Doge was, was a chance. speaker-0: Let me tell you, Livia, I lost respect for Elon. I was being patient with him through the whole Doge thing and all that stuff. But then ⁓ just a couple months ago, he was on Joe Rogan. And he said, Joe Rogan says how much how much you know ⁓ shady shit was happening. And he said, ⁓ so much, ⁓ so much, ⁓ a hundred million, two hundred million, ⁓ so much. I was like, bitch, you were the leader of that group. You don't have not one spreadsheet. speaker-1: Nothing. Bring it to the interview. We don't care if you read off the cards to be accurate. I'm all for specific. Show us. speaker-0: Read along. One hundred percent. Show us where the leaky parts are so we can so we can patch that shit up. speaker-1: Yeah. I'll look you in the eyes and say boom, boom, boom, and then I'll say, and now I'm gonna read from the sheet. Here's what I saw. No. If you need that, fine. It was I think it was all a chance to get into data servers, to get into email. speaker-0: something that's not that's not a done story yet. I think that we're gonna learn something crazy in the next little bit. Yes. And nobody's gonna lag it. speaker-1: Exactly. No. And you know what? It's an election year. So a lot of people are gonna lose their entire fortune trying to stop that from happening. And I think it's gonna happen anyway. I think it's gonna happen anyway. speaker-0: Well. Yeah. Let's get a little bit more local. What are some of the things in your area in Connecticut that you would like to address? Ince take office? speaker-1: Well, I would love to help address the wealth inequality. Right now, Connecticut, it's very well known to people who live there, working class or wealthy, that you don't really retire there. A lot of people will retire to another another state to get the most out of their benefits. I would love to work with local leadership to create a a system locally that works better so people can actually afford to retire. People make the painful choice. Every year, do I stay where my grandkids are and have to maybe start working or sell the house or downsize, or do I just leave? Yeah, yeah, which and listen, I'm I'm Sicilian Borico. That's not a bad rap for some of us, but not everybody not everybody even has that cultural structure. Right. And you know, some people have made the painful decision to say I could live for a fourth of what I live now and fly up to see my grandbabies, and I'm gonna do that. speaker-0: Or live in the basement with my kids. I live in California. I I feel that one. I feel that one. I feel speaker-1: Good luck. You're just So we guess South Carolina and Florida, you probably get a lot of people going to Texas, maybe Oregon, Washington, Colorado for both of us, I think gets a lot of expats. speaker-0: We send people to col Colorado, Texas, Florida, ⁓ Arizona. We send a lot of them to Arizona. It's pissing Arizona people off. speaker-1: Makes sense. ⁓ yeah, that makes sense. I know if you Yeah. speaker-0: But he told you to have 365 days of golfing. Are you crazy? Are we not supposed to go? speaker-1: Yeah, winter? What none? Okay. I can love the desert very quick. ⁓ But yeah, I ⁓ I ⁓ I would love to work with with local legislators to change the the the cultural market there so people can feel comfortable choosing to retire there. And the inverse, right? You're looking at the end of the career, the end of your family planning. I also want to look at the beginning. A lot of my friends are now just starting to have kids. They're working their tails off to own property or at least find a way to rent something feasible. I would love to make it easier on the American family. Because one thing that also happens in Connecticut is they put all these tax breaks and they put all this infrastructure into getting new people to come in with these businesses. And I'm not opposed to that. Boost the economy. But then when those people are ready to start family of their own, sometimes they leave the district or they leave the state. Right. And it, you know, they understand they don't get the best deal staying here and living here. Right, like you know, you're not gonna live in Manhattan and then see that Queens is a third of the price or half the price and not think about it to raise your family. And and a lot of the things you see in New York or in California, you know, this this this affordability crisis is everywhere. You're seeing it now in Orlando. I have friends who moved to Orlando and they're living forty-five minutes outside of the city because that's where they can afford to live. I would love to do things where speaker-0: ⁓ yeah, exactly. speaker-1: You know, when you're starting your family planning, you can afford to say, you know what, I grew up here. I'm gonna live in the same town as mom and dad. Maybe I don't live in North Stanford, but I'm gonna be able to live on Hope Street. Right? I'm not gonna have to move to Naugata, Connecticut. Not that there's anything wrong with that, right? I'm not gonna have to move to Stratford, not that there's anything wrong with that. But I just said that both those two towns are in different districts in Connecticut. So you're talking about from a congressional level moving out of district, but To the average person living in Connecticut, these are illusory lines. Their congressional district doesn't matter. What matters that they can live. Right? So I would want to work not just with my district, but with the neighboring district on this end statewide. Want people to have a better ability to start an affordable family and be secure. And when they're older, to be able to choose where they want to retire. Even if you choose you don't want to retire in Connecticut, I want it to be a marketable package. speaker-0: Right. Yeah. speaker-1: I want it to be an option to you. And the second thing I would love to do, and this gets a little more technical, and I'll admit to you, I don't with the brain fog and the lack of spreadsheets, I can't back up some of my assertions. But a lot of my speaker-0: Not like it doesn't stop everybody from just sharing. speaker-1: ⁓ All your all your audience members are like, well, I liked him for two hours and ten minutes. Now I'm done. speaker-0: Here we go. There he is. speaker-1: Another bullshitter. ⁓ but I was an artist for many years. I still am. You know, I write, I write screenplays, I ⁓ I know what it means to work with people who are artists, blue-collar artists, people who are electricians for film, film sets, people who, you know, aren't big names and never want to be, right? People who can pull a really beautiful blue-collar life through the arts if the art system was a little better structured for that. So one thing I would like to do both locally and federally is create like a tax incentive program that makes it easier to be a blue-collar artist. Because not everybody's gonna be the big blockbuster build rich person. Some people will have Exactly. Some people might have a hundred thousand dollar a year and then the next year get a grant and be working three bartending jobs. It's not right. So one thing I would love to do locally with Connecticut. speaker-0: Everyone's gonna be banksy. speaker-1: It's twofold, one for stage, one for film. I would love to make Connecticut regional theaters marketable tax incentives and ⁓ infrastructure for Broadway shows to workshop some of their tech there. Sometimes they'll drive right through Connecticut and go to Rhode Island, go to Massachusetts. Not that I don't want my neighbors to do well, but I want Connecticut to be a place where it's a viable option. And then you can choose. Same thing with film. We have a lot of smaller towns in Connecticut where kids would love to have the work. We'd love to have the opportunity. A movie studio is opening in Lichfield on that old three acre. Real movie studios opening up in this abandoned tower that they could never fill because it was this dumb residential property none of us could afford. And now they're being turned into studio rooms. It's being retrofitted. I would love to create facilities so that films can come here. Share that market with New York, with Boston, with Providence, right? ⁓ for film and for stage. And part of that is speaker-0: Look at Atlanta. It works Atlanta. speaker-1: Atlanta, Atlanta is doing great right now. And I think that not everything translates, but a lot does. And there's no reason we can't learn from that. New people all the time, whenever I started talking about my acting career, would immediately be like, ⁓ when are you going to LA? My response was very, very working class. When they pay for me to go. Right? When the job says, We like you, you're hired, here's your flight, you start shooting at nights. That's when I'm going because New York is a market. It's a market for Broadway. It's a market for stage screen. It's got a different stunt culture, but it's got stunt groups here that are very talented, martial arts groups that are very talented, writers that are very talented. TV is huge in New York. So for my district, I would love to bring more of that. Now, Maury Povich, right, was here. Steve Wilkos, like we've started. And that's right in Stanford. That's not that's a hop, skip, and a jump from WWE. We haven't stopped. We have started. And even Michael J. White was looking at the neighboring districts, C T O three in New Haven, because that's I believe where he's from. Michael J. White's a great martial artist and he wanted to start gigantic studios there. Yeah. The young kids from New Haven. speaker-0: I bumped into him in L I bumped into him in LA once. Yeah. And I was I was so giddy that I didn't even say anything because I knew I was going to say something stupid. speaker-1: Yeah. No, he's one of those dudes. ⁓ my god, you're awesome. He's so good. Watching him break down a simple technique is like watching Picasso paint. Like he's just a brilliant mind with that stuff. speaker-0: And if you don't know who we're talking about, Michael J. White is ⁓ he's an actor, but also very prominent martial artist. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. He ⁓ speaker-0: You played ⁓ ⁓ spawn. speaker-1: He was in Spawn. He was in Blood and Bone. ⁓ some people might know him from Black Dynamite. He's been in a lot of different movies. He's he's been at top of the game for a while. Yeah. And he's been that dude that dies. Because if you don't know anything about the stunt world, the more talented warrior typically is the henchman who dies. Keanu Reeves is a very talented martial artist, exceedingly talented. He will always be killing people in John Wick who are better than him. speaker-0: He's a bamboo. speaker-1: That's that's the safety net is that like the dudes who the ninjas who are going down, yeah, circus performers are or judoka are are people who know what they're doing ⁓ and can make you look good if you mess up because it's a lot on on that actor ⁓ to do that. But yeah, ⁓ for a local level, just to wrap some of the joyful ⁓ non sequiturs that I've taken you on up. I want to make it easier for people to create families and live well. I want it to be easier for you to ⁓ as a part of that live next to mom and dad if you're from there. So not just if you move there, but like my mom lives in Stanford. I moved in with her to run for Congress. I can't afford to live in the town my mother's in speaker-0: Again, shout out mom. speaker-1: Yeah, love my mom. She does a lot of hard work. ⁓ She just made some cookies, but she just made some Christmas cookies. I gotta go back to the gym. Right. But but yeah, I I want it to be easier for people to start their family. I want it to be easier for people to live next to their family. And then I want people to be able to retire competitively. And then the third thing, which is hyper specific to my experience locally, you know, I've worked for Curtain Call, which is a local theater. There's a lot of talent. locally. I want to bring blue-collar working jobs and facilities through through law, through tax incentives, through infrastructure to every level of Connecticut. I think that they're sitting on billions and billions of dollars of of revenue. ⁓ Connecticut's a powder cla keg of of artistic genius and people who really want to put the sweat equity in want to shut their mouths and open their ears and learn from the best. If you open a facility, you make the tax break and you bring in the educators, people, if you build it, they will come. So those would be my my three things. Beginning of of family and staying close, end of family, you know, you're retiring with dignity and you're aging with grace and you're retiring where you want to live. And then bringing the arts as the one of the dominant economic forces of the Connecticut region. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. Amen. Thank you. speaker-1: You know, normally I'm saying this in pubs, but now I have to say it at pulpits, and it's just very different. You know? speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. No, this is I like to I like to think that we're a little bit of both here. We ⁓ my mom has this little sign that I took a picture of because it it wraps me up perfectly. I believe in Jesus, but I cuss a little. speaker-1: ⁓ that's good. That is a good one. Like that one. Well, Jesus definitely hung out with people who were cussing in Aramaic. That's speaker-0: Yeah. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Everyone keeps everyone keeps trying to trying to paint this man as this thing that he just wasn't. Like he was a normal everyday, probably liberal, probably a pothead, probably, probably, probably. Yeah, anti-establishment. speaker-1: Yeah, and he threw hands once. Famous story. Very famous story. If you if you did something transgressional in a way that was sacrilege, he was willing to defend. He grabbed that whip. speaker-0: You know, I didn't I didn't I didn't realize I did what's the story where he s went up to s what went up in someone's head? speaker-1: ⁓ so ⁓ so a little backstory too for those who are not of this faith, right? King Herod killed all the babies allegedly in this region. So in theory, Jesus would be the only person his age in this whole country. People, I think two or three years older than him, and maybe two or three years younger than him. But there's like a four or five-year, three-year block where there's just no children his age. From the gate, his birth is marked by violence and exclusivity. And he chose to be this peaceful being. All of his friends are older or younger than him. And one day he's walking into one of the temples and it had been set up as a marketplace. And I forget if it was because of the marketplace folk or if it was the Pharisees. I forget the cultural, like structural integrity of why this happened. But he flipped his lid. He's like, get out. He spent all day watching them, patient, ready to put belt to ass. And he we made that whip out of like reeds. He picked up a plant and just went. I'm gonna give them until X time. They're not out. And you know what? Anyone who was raised by an immigrant family member knows you get it. And so he gave it. He flipped tables. He said, You're you're you're you're bringing currency and a form of violence and a form of exclusivity into the house of the Lord. This is not the space for that. You know, and then a thousand years later, the church is doing indulgences. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: You know, so it's like these these are perennial things that you can't make a more open, hard to interpret version of this. And then people of the faith do fail, right? They they fail to learn that lesson. But yeah, even even Jesus is like, if you understand this as your language, then I will flip your table and I will make you understand. ⁓ so yeah, that's a famous story. I think it's the only one where he's shown doing anything physically. speaker-0: Aggressively. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, that's the only time we ever really see him physically aggressive because most of his power comes through surrender and through gentleness and walking town to town, just touching people on the cheek and healing them and stuff. speaker-0: And and reaching for understanding more than the belt. speaker-1: Always, always, always, always. Except for with a particular group of people who seem a little hard headed, ⁓ that day and he still gave ⁓ a shot. He gave ⁓ out. And they just didn't take it. ⁓ yeah, and I speaker-0: You're gonna be disrespectful. Sometimes you need a little sh shake that cage. Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. I need to let you know I can play this chess game at that level. Right. And we can choose to be civil instead. Right? I don't want to do that level. I will. Right. And you know, Jesus was real for that. He's like, I'm not gonna preach them, they're deaf. Beat ⁓ what reads. speaker-0: Shout out Jesus. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's that's the thing with faith is you know, whatever your faith is or wherever you're from, you really need to be honest about that mythology. Need to be honest about okay, is a system of power teaching this faith to me? And then the final thing is what is my personal relationship to it? I'm sure I can tell just by your bearing and by your spirit that you have your own personal relationship. You're not just like obeying. You they're like going to church, right? And like reading what they tell you to read. Like you've you've really thought about it, meditated on it, squared your heart away to it, right? Spent some time and at least contemplation, if not, not prayer. And I I think that when you don't really, you know, when you get the razzle dazzle of of certain aspects, or you get the power and oppression of certain aspects of religion, it's hard to then turn it around and go, what is my personal relationship with the divine? speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: And how does that translate to my purpose or my mission here or my happiness here? Right. And at in everything I just said, we have a lot of things going on politically. People don't get separate. And they should. ⁓ but it's hard to because if you're if you're called to some form of service or some form of selfishness, your belief system is is probably something that's gonna be on scrutiny. speaker-0: No. And and staying on the on the religious part of this conversation, isn't it wonderful to have a place where you can read the Bible or take these lessons and interpret it in your own way? Yeah. And not be persecuted for believing. Because again, we we can talk about Jesus. But we have so many different religions that are based on the same thing. So yeah, we we need to have the patience and and understand that people understand things differently. speaker-1: Yes. speaker-0: To the point where we can agree that there was a Jesus, but everyone fights about the stories that we're reading. And we're we're reading the same exact words. speaker-1: Well yeah, and and it's come out a lot this year where people are like, You do realize that Jesus was a brown skinned Palestinian socialist. And then other people are like, No, he was he was a white Republican. And it's like, okay, ⁓ you wanna see yourself in your Yeah. Right. But like this you're not praying to, you know, Luce or Hecate or someone that does not seem rooted in physical time. Right. The entire point Of Jesus, which is what makes him so complicated for people, is in theory, whether he's a normal man or whatever, this is a being that comes from eternity into time, bringing divinity with him. The problem with Christianity, and I will say the problem, and I know that sounds hostile, but I I grew up this way. So like I see it that way. Hist Christianity is so rooted in history, it sometimes forget it's divinity. But then the Power of that is we're also recognizing we've had people do science based on the stars to figure out he was actually born in August. Like we're relatively certain this guy named Yeshua existed at this point in time and likely was crucified. We know there are literal kind of words to that. There's there's historical proofs to that. The nature of him, right? Theologically or whatnot. Is pretty rooted still in that history of that reality of you're talking not about some myth or or timeless deity. You're talking about a being, right? Bruce Lee was real. You know, the Holocaust happened. These events in time were real. And we're talking about a real being. Now some people say maybe he's just a mythology of our ideal self. To them, I say that's an awesome thing. And if that gets you there, if that gets you feeling connected to the divine, then it's not wrong. If if that gets you walking away that is sacred to you, then I think that's powerful. I know a lot of people who found their belief systems because they studied botany and they studied the natural world and they went, There's something to this, or because they've watched Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. And they've been like, I believe in this gentle spiritual thing. Right. I I would say I identify a lot as a mystic. I believe in this gentle thing that is beyond just the text. You know, and Jesus speaker-0: Yeah. Jesus never Jesus never got stuck in the minutiae was one of the things that I've through all my readings and and all my research that I've done, he doesn't get stuck in it, right? Yeah. ⁓ hey Jesus, what about if you're in in Rome and they ask you to pay taxes? You're going to Rome, do as the Romans do. speaker-1: That's what I'm saying. He said, You know what? Come to me and be healed. He didn't say get your mind right then get back. speaker-0: Seriously. Yeah. speaker-1: You know, and I think if speaker-0: You're turning people away from God. All of your rules, all of your all this human man made stuff, we're turning people away from God. speaker-1: Yeah, and I think, you know, the reason this is also important as we discuss this with like this interview is that we say separation of church and state, which is under threat, right? It it is factually under threat and we know this. But it's also personal, right? Like if I allow my private belief system to negatively impact how I treat other people, right? So what you have now is a lot of Christians. Who are being exclusionary. And they're trying to write policy that is almost directly tethered not to the Christianity, but to the exclusionary. Mm-hmm. Right? You're trying to dictate what what was said when and why. Instead of recognizing you have a duty to serve, right? Like, you know, and and and it has to get done. ⁓ so right now what we're having is this psychological effect. Where people are bringing into policy making decisions things that really have no right to be there. Yeah. Right. If you have a a portion of your faith that says, you know, you're not allowed to do X, and you take up that promise, that's a promise for you. That's your relationship to your divine. If you also take up an oath of office, it's your job to do your freaking job. Not tell everybody else that the law now has to reflect your private promise to your deity. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. He speaker-1: No, I don't have to do that. We don't need to be an anything nation. We need to be a nation. Yeah. speaker-0: It and pay attention, pay attention to what they say in the Bible. It says, Do what you need to do here in earth, here on earth, but don't worry about what's happening on earth, because after this. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. speaker-0: It don't matter. You you go to heaven. speaker-1: And that's that's part of the situation. I I remembered attending a brilliant lecture that talked about Calvinism, like this very like not just like the ⁓ like the Puritans, but like a little more hardcore, right? These philosophic and religious ideologies that first came to America because they're extreme in their own right. And then as time went on, even if you the faith died out secularly, this school of thought remained. And so he went on about how Calvinism, philosophic Calvinism, kind of went on to create modern American jurisprudence and business law and banking. And it was there, it was a kind of a colder, joyless, right? There's no divine mother. There's no like come to me and be healed. It was a very, you know. strict stern way of doing things. So even now in secular life, you take religion entirely out of the conversation, it's found a way to be in the conversation. Right? One of my favorite things that I remember someone commenting on TikTok about Zaron Mamdani is that he was the second coming of Christ. They were like he is which is extreme. But they were saying that as a joke because they were saying listen, here is a dude who's not even practicing your faith, even though we're all kind of like Muslims, Jews and and and and Christians technically In a broadest sense of the word, are part of the same faith. We're part of the same like Judeo, like, you know, Abrahamic thought structure. Right. But we have different schools of thought, different ways to walk, just like martial arts, just like politics, and that's cool. And the more we interact with each other, the more beautiful that can be. So here is this man who does not identify to your faith, who's living it better than you. How do you deal with that? You do have to deal with it. You can't run. You can't hide it comes back to what you and I were talking earlier about like you know looking in the mirror and and changing your idea, your you know, being a a person who changes their mind when presented with new inform information. You know, if if someone says, This is what I believe in, and then they just never do it, then we at least gotta say, you know, you you don't believe in that, brother. Yeah, you're not walking that way. You know, you're not walking that way. speaker-0: What do you think Even worse, like you're not even willing to do it. Why are you gonna put the pressure on me? speaker-1: Yeah, and I've seen I've seen a couple people in my district get angry that he was sworn in on a Quran. And I was like, but why? If I'm a Taoist, I should be sworn in on a Tao Dijing, or technically, Lao Tzu called that the dregs of wisdom. So maybe we should just face the wind or something. I don't know. Right? But if that's his private sanctity, and you're basically saying your oath of office is saying that you will keep these separate, but you will treat this seriously, just as you've treated other oaths. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: That's why we make you swear on a religious text. Let that religious text be what it is. If you swore on the Bible, it would mean nothing. Basically, based on his personality, I bet you he would hunt for a passage that was meaningful and still try, because he cares. You know what I mean? Like I I'm sure he would try and work with it, which wouldn't be fair to him. Right. So, you know, pe people need to understand that these different we can't have a monoculture life. ⁓ speaker-0: Alright. Yeah. speaker-1: Can't have a mono martial art life. We can't just keep cut speaker-0: Here. You can, but you can go somewhere else with that mess. We don't we don't hear. We don't hear speaker-1: Yeah, no, not in America. Not here. No, I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be able to tell you how similar and different Boricwas and Sicilians are if I wasn't both. I can tell you where they diverge, I can tell you where they overlap. I can tell you I was very privileged growing up because no matter where our money was, our Christmases, because they're both very Catholic, sometimes speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: They also didn't follow the beliefs and they I called people out because I was young and autistic and didn't know better. you know, I was just trying to square away an ambiguity. I wasn't trying to put you on blast. ⁓ yeah. You know what? They hug each other, they talk too loud in very confined spaces. Mm-hmm. And you know, maybe one pronounces it panathon and one pronounces banaton. Right. But like the only thing that changed for me was the language. Right? But it was beautiful. And if you didn't know that, then you would say. speaker-0: Nope. speaker-1: Yeah, it makes sense that these two poor immigrant communities would be at odds with each other over the same economic opportunities in the same town. The Irish stay in their neighborhood, keep the, you know, Italians over here, keep the Haitians over here. Yeah, segment them. No, because we have a lot of similarities. I have a new baby cousin, he's Irish and Sicilian. I'm a half link. You know what I'm saying? Like speaker-0: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, me too. Even though even though my people come from three different islands, I'm still a product of three different islands. And similar to what you're saying, like you know, sometimes it's Hugo the Narangha and someone sometimes it's Hugo the China. speaker-1: Yeah. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. I said Juga de Naranha once because I was practicing my Spanish with my grandmother. She was like, hmm? Like she knew what I was saying, but she was like, Why? Like I think she had a no sabo moment. Like and she doesn't speak perfect English and I don't never really spoke good Spanish. So we have like a beautiful Spanglish together. But that was a moment where she was like, Yeah, no, no, don't don't do that. speaker-0: No, not that one. It was good looking now, grandma. speaker-1: I don't think she minded which one, but I needed to be right. And like I said the wrong one for her, you know. But she was always really cool. This I just remembered that story in real time. That was a long time. But yeah, no, I think especially with political philosophy, especially with Congress, where you're supposed to have this. speaker-0: It's supposed to be a conversation, yeah. speaker-1: Supposed to be conversation of different things. speaker-0: I would I would assume that someone representing Connecticut would probably, you know, you'd you'd check in with someone from Montana, from Utah, from all these places, be hey, how do you hey, there's this thing that keeps happening over here. What do you guys do you guys have anything like that? And then they'd be ⁓ yeah, what we do is we do like this. And then you'd be like, hey. speaker-1: Yeah. And you learn from each other. You know? Whether it's gun control, whether it's food, whether it's food production. Like I've said a lot of policies tonight. speaker-0: environmental stuff yeah speaker-1: I've said a lot of policies tonight that probably look pretty in a sentence. But the law is the law and people start interpreting it just like we did with religion, right? Before you know it, you get these junctures, you get these different roots, and that's a beautiful thing. But when do we tie them up into a single thought? And when do we let certain things be different? Because sometimes Montana's got to do Montana stuff. Connecticut's got to do Connecticut stuff. Right? Even within Connecticut, you've got half of Connecticut, way closer to Boston. They live in the sticks, right? They've lost a lot of factory jobs. speaker-0: Yeah, I love it Yep. speaker-1: You know, it's it's rural and they deserve love and affection. And then you have my county, which is so tethered to the New York economy, the New York culture, right? Letting them be what they are, even within the same state, which is a small state. So when it comes to Congress, yeah, you gotta check in. Because maybe the sentence means something up here. It does not translate to that by you, and maybe your district's under threat because I didn't think to maybe write a footnote or speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: An explanatory sentence and that's where the conversation comes into play. That's where the committees are supposed to work. But when you have power as a vice grip and money as a motivator, you can't have a conversation. So we gotta get money out of politics, we gotta get term limits, and we gotta get people who are like, Man, my years, my life. speaker-0: Yeah. United is out in your vision, Citizens United would be taken out. speaker-1: Gone. I would I would yeah, I would drop a bunch of legislation out of the gate and that would probably be one of the first ones. Right? Because I was what was that 2010, 2012? That was around when I graduated I graduated high school in 2011. So I was already mad at the whole corrupt system. And then I saw they got a a green light to do more. And look what's only gone worse. You know? So yeah, that would be one of the first things I would try and take out. And speaker-0: Easy one. Yeah. speaker-1: You know, the reality is those who have more will always find the leverage. And yeah, well I have to fight this generation's fight. speaker-0: The ones if the ones that have less don't wake up, they will always have that leverage. speaker-1: Exactly. And we're getting there. I really think last year was a beautiful year in the prospect and solely and only I mean in the prospect of people coming to psychological and spiritual revelation. I can talk right now about things that if I said it in December twenty four, January twenty five, they'd be like, What are you crazy? You know, people are still we're we're coming to a mass collection. We're coming to a mass awakening. And it's slower. And some people have been saying the same thing since the 1900s or the 1800s, right? But now some people are saying, you know what? I see it. I get it. I'm in for the ride. Go team, mutual aid, grassroots, like hold people to task. If we don't like them, get them out immediately. You know, even me, like I'm running for Congress. If I get in and I suck, why should I finish a term? If I do something so egregious. Right. So either dishonorable or ineffective. I I really believe in in in in bringing people out based out if they're not good and changing things where it's not good. Restore the constitution of what it was meant to be, enhance it beyond the limitations of its day. And don't revere these people that weren't perfect, these framers. They were they were dudes. They understood power, they understood language, they understood law, and they manipulated it to their advantage. And they're speaker-0: And they gave us a ⁓ a a good starting point. I can't say that it was the perfect starting point. So everyone's like, they're slave owners. Yeah, I understand. Yeah. But that document has lasted 250 years. And now that we have, you know, now that we have, it's not even one person, but a group of people that have speaker-1: It yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: bastardized it and they've translated it exactly like it's kind of like televangelism. speaker-1: Yeah. Very different. Yeah. Absolutely. speaker-0: It's that you have this document that started and we're supposed to build off of it. but now we have these televangelists that are saying, Hey, look, look, blah blah blah fireworks and all this stuff, and yeah, and you're like, What are you doing? speaker-1: Yeah, if you said God wants me to make ten million dollars a year and have a jet, I say, okay, well law dictates you are no longer a pastor. You know, that's not your duty anymore. You are Yeah, that's that's not your job anymore. Yeah, absolutely. speaker-0: An entrepreneur. Why do you think Jesus flipped those tables? speaker-1: Yeah, there's but ⁓ he'd be flipping a lot today. ⁓ speaker-0: Well just tables. speaker-1: Well, I'm a I'm a big fan of Star Wars. And one thing I love to bring up to people about Star Wars that often gets overlooked is that George lost his like forget if he fully lost his license or if he lost the right to participate for a little bit or or what the exact detail was because the brain fog's still hitting. You have me at like sixty percent power. I'm struggling tonight. But ⁓ you know, George couldn't go through the American director's guild. Star Wars is speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: by every right and account, an independent film. You managed to get it distributed through 20th Century Fox, but sure in almost every stretch of the legal definition, it was an independent film. Huh. And it will probably forever be the most monetarily lucrative independent film ever made. speaker-0: Yeah. The greatest YouTube video ever. speaker-1: Right. It's no insult to call Star Wars an independent film. Just like it's no insult to call the Constitution a beautiful first draft. And that's how I view it. I revere it. I love it. I almost died for it. But I also almost died for the opportunity to pen something better for everyone. The Constitution also has multiple clauses that protect slavery, multiple clauses that don't grant everybody rights. I mean speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: Hell, when they signed it, I don't even think they had fully paid their veterans of the Revolutionary War yet. So there's a lot wrong with it too. And and just like, you know, I love every member of my family. But if they have a cancer, I don't say no, you don't. Because I'm saying like if I love you, I'm also gonna be like, hey, like, let's go get that checked out. Right. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. What can we do to make the situation better? speaker-1: Yeah, maybe we need chemo. Maybe we need surgery. Maybe we can use holistic means. I don't know. But we should go treat it. I think the constitution needs some treatment. And I think that's essentially the whole point of a legislative society is hey, here's the start. We're gonna have these philosophic divides. We're gonna create a fountain of American law out of this foundational document. One little guy is gonna be the the the spring, the mountain spring that sends all the water through the entire ecosystem. All of this life is going to come from this legal spring. There's poison in that one spring. Then yeah, you and I can spend all day irrigating these little rivers. We do got to fix a couple things in the spring, and it's no, it's no desanctification to say we got to do that. Fix it all. That also means fix it all, which is the little as much as the big, the constitution as much as every other aspect of American law. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Sure. speaker-1: And I think that's the job of const ⁓ of Congress right now in a constitutional crisis. I just got out of constitutional law one in law school. And in a week or two, I'm going into constitutional law two. I'm sure one day a professor's gonna be like, hmm, let me watch this. And you're gonna hear me wax poetic about the constitution, but not bring up specific clauses and notation. They'll be like, hmm, taught you better. Right. But but there's a lot right with it, we're wrong with it, right and wrong with it. And You know, I don't want it peach. I want people to know that. People know that. You feel it in your life. Yeah, and that's where we're going, whether we like it or not. We fix it or we don't. We live or we die. And we do it together as live and die as a team. Honestly, could have been a campaign slogan. But I felt like I'd be stealing military jargon. But we really have no choice to be a team or not. Yeah. And then that's how it's going. speaker-0: Yep. Whether you like it or not, we're in it together. speaker-1: We're in it together. I would love to see families back at the dinner table together. Would love to see that healing. But that's gonna be scary, vulnerable work. Therapists are probably gonna love that, right? As they should. They're probably gonna hate it because they're already burnt out and no one has access to mental health care in this country. You look so we got a lot of things. Everywhere you look, there's there's something else we gotta fix. And I think you need a younger generation who will say that. I think you need a younger generation. speaker-0: Yep. We'll admit it, yeah. speaker-1: And I'm gonna be the first one to be like, man, I don't know. I don't know. That's not my expertise. I don't know. I should go and acquire the knowledge. I should listen to people who know more. I can't tell you a single thing about what it feels like. It's like that scene from ⁓ Goodwill Hunting, where he's You read a lot in books, but have you smelled the Sistine chapter? Like if I sat here right now and memorized every little thing about an ⁓ sixteen, mm-hmm. speaker-0: Exactly. speaker-1: I never fired one. Never fired one under fire. It's a very different thing. So with Congress, I think speaker-0: Really cool when you get the tracers, just for the record. Tracers are really cool. I bet. ⁓ speaker-1: I bet. ⁓ I bet. ⁓ well, maybe maybe I am missing. ⁓ you know. But ⁓ you know, I think with Congress what happens too much is with any politician I think this is a risk. What happens in Congress is they get kinda in the ivory tower, they get into the theory, you know, they get into the book. ⁓ but then they're not living. Right. They're not they're not really bringing that lived experience. So if I don't have it, I'm gonna tell you I don't have it. I'm gonna hunt for the mentor. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. speaker-1: And I'll go to my constituents. I don't know anything about guns and gun control. I should talk to veterans when in the legislature. I should talk to the NRA. Maybe not, foreign funded. You get more speaker-0: I would first I would first tap back into your constituents who have those that have an and like and that's the thing the the the these open houses and stuff it it being able to I'm gonna I'm going to steal from from C4 right now because you gotta break bread. ⁓ yeah, just being able to sit and talk calmly. Like we used to when we all were adults before the WWE took over the government. We used to sit and talk and learn and research and to you know what I mean? Now it just seems like we we take pride in in in being to bite off of you, to be foggy brained and just like walking through life and people are like, No, no, no, here's what you need, here's what you need, here's what you need. speaker-1: And that's the other thing is the the entitlement swings heavily in both directions. I mean, I swear I haven't started fundraising yet. I announced in July I have not fundraised outside of a couple of donations from the courage candidates. I have not deliberately fundraised because I know that road is coming, and I swear if I get one more chip in email from Democrats, you know, because what happens is speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: The entitlement swings both ways where the people are constantly gonna rip down the politician, sometimes not in the way that the politician deserves to be ripped down. And then the politician's always entitled to like, well, I need more money from you. I need more of this. So both are extracting in this sort of conflicting relationship. But it's not supposed to be a relationship of top down. Well, I'm gonna tell you what I'm doing and then I'm gonna go there and do it. It's supposed to be a relationship of listen, I might have ideas, sure. But if all I do for ⁓ like 80% of my time is slingshot the good ideas from voters in my district forward onto the floor, I've done my job. Leadership is not supposed to be top down, shut up and listen. It's supposed to be this communal engagement, right? Like the old villages with the wise mother under a tree. Right? It's supposed to be, and I think town halls are where future bills are written. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: And I think that they should start there. And I think too often town halls are here's why you should get off my back. Here's what I've already done for you. Vote for me again. Give me money. Okay. Thanks for your service. Now we speaker-0: Start there. They should start there. Mm-hmm. We're still wrestling with the same alligator. speaker-1: Yeah, there's a reason we do want to rip you down a little. Yeah. And here's the structured reason for that. So, you know, I I do think that town halls are the place to to workshop that policy. And I I do think that leadership also good leadership comes from creating new leaders. I should not be afraid of creating the new people that will replace me. I should welcome that, right? I'm gonna quote Star Wars again. Master Yoda says, we are what they grow beyond. Right. If I'm a really good leader, I'm gonna become obsolete at some point. My hope is is relatively soon. I want to be good at my job. I want to be efficient. You know, like I want to be able to help us get through this. So I'm hopeful that that is the kind of leadership I'll exemplify. I know my district is ready to respond to that. I haven't had it. ⁓ and I think they know it when they see it. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. speaker-1: I I do. I I think you can't really bullshit my district very easily. But my district's filled with a lot of love and therefore a little bit of fear. No one wants to have less, everyone wants to have a little more. And even people who are pretty high up in the tax bracket, pretty wealthy in my district, they're paycheck to paycheck because of some of the cost of living. So, you know, it's it's a challenging place. It's a challenging place to live and and you know Because it's a challenging place to live, they're also a lot of fun. Because they know how to have fun. I mean they create their own fun. Hanging out late at night, wandering out. Yeah. Yeah. Connecticut has speaker-0: Sure. Yeah. That's how hip hop started. Folks that didn't have anything, they weren't gonna let a power outage or whatever shut it down. Yeah, went out into the streets and they created their own parties, they created their own fun, they created their own movement, yes, their own music. speaker-1: And my district is filled with people who've immigrated to this country just like with New York. They just settled here instead. My district is filled with power hungry and the gentrifiers. We have all of the ingredients that you see elsewhere in the world. And what you also see with my district is how we're never the story. It's always New York in history. It's always Boston history, but Connecticut's right there, feeding the war effort. Rubber. Merritt Parkway was built for World War II. Rubber. From ⁓ Naugatuk Brass from Waterbury, going all the way down. You've got the sub bases in Groton, Sikorsky, and Strap of Bridgeport area. We've always been a part of the story. We've always had a place to take on the world stage. And frankly, we've always been the backyard of a lot of the players of this who pull strings behind the curtain. And I think that if a working class progressive person takes my district, it's gonna show. speaker-0: Sure. speaker-1: That even the safest Democrats on earth, the safest anything on earth, right? Safest leader, no matter their party, anybody can be held accountable. And it will be a very interesting crescendo in the class struggle. Cause we're gonna go, hey, Connecticut's been a presidential piggy bank since the start. Its working class has been disenfranchised and burnt out since the start. And look what they just did. Why not us? They they finally got to be the heroes of their story. They finally got to take their power back. And you know what? No matter what, even if I fail, I don't fail. Because the next one's gonna learn from my mistakes. Don't Peter does. That's how it goes. speaker-0: Exactly. Sure. Yeah. That's how it goes. That's how it's supposed to go. Yep. speaker-1: Yeah, it's an exciting time. I'm burnt out. Anyone listening wants to volunteer, please come in. I probably need volunteers as much as money. I I work, I go to school, like, but I care about my people. I'm never gonna stop fighting. Even if I failed this campaign, I'm I'm here for the for the cause. You know, I don't know how to turn that part off. You can ask anybody in my life and they will tell you with a sigh and a groan. speaker-0: Yeah. Ha ha ha speaker-1: You know, they will, they really will. That's a fucking guy. Of course he's doing this. You know? Couldn't leave. speaker-0: Yeah. That's awesome. We need we need more people with your type of perspective and your approach to life, you know. ⁓ the the selfless person, you know, we we can all be better. We can all be better. And I and I say this a lot too. If we're the coolest house on the block, if America if The United States is the coolest house on the block. Everyone's gonna wanna be like us. Mm-hmm. We don't have to bomb. Everyone's gonna wanna be like us. We don't have to fight. We don't have to raise our voice. We don't need pyrotechnics. Everyone's gonna wanna be like us. speaker-1: Yeah. Elevate the game. Innovate until you're in a whole other league. And watch other people be inspired by that and want to do the same thing. We don't need to compete and have conflict. We can just grow. speaker-0: Exactly. Exactly. just grow. But if we pull if we pull in the same direction as a team, we can get there. ⁓ yeah. Look at how cool we are. speaker-1: We're we're cool. Humans cool. They they can piss us off. They can break our hearts. But humans are really cool and they do beautiful, funny, amazing things. You know? Leave a human unattended with their curiosity and a little time, a little resource, and they'll come up with anything. speaker-0: Look at where we are now. We're sending magic through the air. speaker-1: Yeah, you and I are telepathically communicating from three thousand miles west in different time zones. I'm in your future, right? Like the sun is exactly the lower exactly. You know, like I mean speaker-0: Yes. I'll be I'll be I'll be right next to you in ⁓ about two hours. Three hours now you're East Coast, three hours. speaker-1: I I whisper these ⁓ what is it from like Dune, the the the mirages, the melange, the dust, the the sand, the ⁓ the the spice, spice, spice, spice. Man, I'm brain fog. Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: You will be the coconut justice. You will accept yourself and you will do the task. That's what humans can do. And we can uplift. Right. We can use that power to uplift each other. speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. And with that, Joseph Perez Caputo. That is I. Sir, let everyone know where they can find you, follow up with you, find you on the internet. speaker-1: Thank you. ⁓ so I have a Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, ⁓ and ⁓ a website, ⁓ CCE, which is communic creating community everywhere. ⁓ the Instagram TikTok is the ballot of JPC for Congress. ⁓ any one thing you find me at will have a hyperlink that takes you to everything else as well as resources, because it's not just about me. It'll take you to Zoran's mayoral page. It'll take you to Harvard Law School in Cornell, I believe Cornell's ⁓ legal pages. So you can do your own research. Take you to fifty fifty one citizens impeachment and ⁓ you'll probably find me laughing or singing or screaming or crying out there in the streets with you as well. Cause I'm trying to go to all the different protests and and do my town halls and be be with you when I'm not hitting the books in school. speaker-0: Yep. I wanna I wanna be more active in the ⁓ protests and and being out there a little bit more too. speaker-1: It's it's been rewarding 'cause you feel less alone. You really feel like you're part of something and it takes some of that gloom and doom away. But ⁓ you still gotta manage your own life and as a lawsuit and sometimes I'm not going to as many protests as I'd like to go to because I have to hit the books. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: No, we'd rather you we'd rather you hit the books. We need more folks like you in in Congress. All right, buddy. Everyone, ⁓ all of the links that he just mentioned are going to be in the description of this video. Joe, again, thank you for taking time. Thank you for giving us sixty percent. I'll take the sixty percent any day. speaker-1: Okay. I'll always do my best, but I'm striving for a hundred. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me. speaker-0: You are very welcome, everybody. And with that, we're out. We're out.