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CJP #39: Earle Ford ( FL-13 ) · Coconut Justice

• Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hey everybody. So since it's getting close to tax season, I wanted to get you guys some tax help. So I went out and found Earl Ford. He's an IRS attorney, but he's also running for office. ⁓ Florida, I'm gonna find out what the CD is. He's Florida CD 13. Earl Ford, welcome to the channel. Hey, what's good? Earle Ford is a US Army veteran, an attorney, and an IRS watchdog. Now he's taking all of his experience into a congressional campaign against Anna Paulina Luna, who's the lady that wants to put Donald Trump's face on Mount Rushmore. Earle Ford is trying to take the incumbent out of Florida's 13th district. This is my conversation with Earle Ford. Earle: is third. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Excited to have a good conversation. Good talk. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 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. Yeah, so first off it says Florida CD 1 3. What does CD? Earle: So Congressional District 13. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay, okay, you're the first person I've seen using that. All right, cool. Earle: Oh yeah, no, so congressional district 13 encompasses most of Pinellas County, the western portion of Pinellas County, know, east of St. Portia of St. Pete East and all the way up to Tarpon Springs. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. So in Florida, St. Pete, is that up? Is that like Northeast-ish? Earle: So it's in the Tampa Bay area like we always, yeah, north, yeah, I guess central Florida west, but it encompasses the entire Tampa Bay area. So you have Tampa and then Pinellas is that little kind of almost peninsula west of Tampa Bay. it's, ⁓ and 13 was just redistricted in 2022. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): North-westish. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Earle: ⁓ Obviously they made a little more red in there. With Florida right now there's redistricting on the map as well so we don't know what it's gonna look like in a few months either. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, I was going to say I've been I've been hearing that DeSantis wants to redistrict and everything. Is it going to be as dramatic as they did in Texas? Earle: I don't know, there's not a whole lot of information about it. The only thing I've heard from Tampa Bay Times or some of these articles is they're looking to zero in on little more of the blue areas. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: Which there is potential in the 13th because what it used to be a St. Pete's a pretty decent sized city and Tampa Bay is, you know, the sister city, the bigger one. And historically they were separated 13 and 14 in their own districts. And then during the redistricting period, they put, you know, very blue St. Pete together with Tampa to make it very, very blue, make that a blue safe seat. But in doing so, it made the 13th. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: much redder, much more Republican. We don't know exactly what that looks like or what is in the plan, but it's a potential to ⁓ focus in on that area again and maybe again make it even more blue in some capacity and guarantee those other seats. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mmm, okay. Mm-hmm. Are you running under the Democratic umbrella? Yeah. Earle: I am. I am a lifelong Democrat. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. I know there's a lot of folks starting to run independent and stuff like that. So it's always ⁓ I don't, not that it's always. It's interesting when people decide to run under the democratic umbrella just because it seems like the establishment democrat have like poisoned the punch, you know what I mean? Earle: No, it's I think it's a too it's a multifactorial issue that I think most Americans I talked to like I talked a lot of people and They always want like they don't want the Party Association like even Democrats, you know I I don't want the Party Association because you know, I'm my own person I have different views here in different thoughts but the thing that you come back to and it's is you do need party support that's and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: In law school I actually took a political election or you know, election law type class and there's some weird psychology. Everyone asks why we have this two party system and it's almost like this natural psychology where we need this like bilateral system that we fall back to. And that is why I'm not saying it happens all the time, but that is why we always fall in this democratic Republican thing. And what you're seeing is a huge influx of independence, but in order to run successfully, you do need party support. We're still playing the Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: We're still stuck in this political game of you need money, you need people to embrace you and unfortunately that's what the parties, despite the huge surge and especially in Florida, especially my district, there's been a massive surge in independence or non-politically affiliated people. But at the end of the day, when you're running, you do need that support, I believe. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Explain to me when you say support, what does that mean? Do they send you like a batch of stickers or do they give you a bunch of phone numbers? Earle: No, so it's gonna be different levels. the biggest thing for us, like local small campaigns. Utilizing like the caucuses canvassers they so a lot of these clubs and caucuses are like really well organized You know like you like in Pinellas you have like the Democratic Hispanic caucus you have Stonewall Democrats you have the Black caucus so you have all these caucuses and their political organizations and what they do is they don't pick a candidate like they don't In the primary they don't pick a candidate. But what they do is they'll you know, they'll help you out You know, you get invited to do events and you go, you know people will volunteer your team. But the other thing too is at a certain point when your campaign grows, then you can start paying, you know, the Florida Democratic Party for certain for data. And a huge portion of running for office is it sounds crazy because everyone puts their data out there willy-nilly, it seems now. And AI being super crazy. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: but is all buying data data data data data in order so and That's all you know proprietary information with the party. So But at the end of the day too, if you make it past the primary then you that full support If you're in a winnable way race, you're gonna get the full support of the party So, you know make it past the primary and like in the district I'm running is a D triple C targeted district Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Earle: So if I make it past the primary or the other candidate makes it past the primary, they're going to have, regardless if you don't like the Democrats, if you have a Democratic label behind you, the parties would come in and make sure you have most of the resources you need. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. Okay. I'm trying to figure. So if you're if you're talking about this say in film. ⁓ Say you have an idea for a film or a TV show or anything like that. It's almost like Earle: But it's like... Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): So the studios, whether it be Netflix, Disney, whatever, they want you to basically do the footwork to prove out your idea. Earle: Mm-hmm. I'm Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And then once you build your audience and everyone loves it, then they're more willing to give you money to fund that project. Earle: That's 100 % accurate. But there is like the big stipulation though to that is if you're an insider, Like they don't effectively say, we're gonna make sure you're the guy, but they make sure there's mechanisms, know, stuff in place. And I experienced this firsthand because... Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay, cool. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Sure. The film industry does too for that matter. Earle: Yeah, like, you know, like, ⁓ this guy, like, it's a great story. He came up from, you know, he built his campaign from nothing. He came out of nowhere. What a great story. And then like, we're gonna support in the primary. But the other thing, there is that other side of saying, like, you know, I talked to the previous, you know, some other candidates, previous candidates. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: And have to go, when I started this process, the Democratic Party, they expect you to go kiss the ring. Like, hey, have you talked to this person to see if they're gonna run? Have you talked to this person to see if they're gonna run? Are they gonna give you the blessing? And then, see, and that's kind of this systemic problem within the party. I don't know what it's like on the Republican side, but it is very caucus-driven, and it's these little bubbles. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Huh. Earle: You have this whole society of people that not a whole society, but you know Politics is their social life, right? Like they go to the galas and they go on a Thursday night We're gonna I'm putting food on the table for my kids and playing with them, you know getting ready They're out Thursday night, then they're out Friday night at you know another society meeting and these circles and it's caucus driven, you know from my experience and I've talked to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Sure. Yeah. Earle: A lot of people when I was at the IRS, people like me and you aren't involved because we're working. We have to communicate. Yeah, we're working. And you have this little, it's not necessarily a knock on those people, but I think sometimes your worldview kind of shrinks because you're not waiting in those daycare lines. I mean, the school lines, right? You're not. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, because we're normal. Earle: driving like a crazy person on limited sleep getting your kid to and from soccer practice. You're saying, well, these are my issues and you hang around all these political people. And so it's either very, you you got a lot of very young people involved, which is great. And absolutely. But again, ⁓ you're a little older, it gives you a good, you know, better world for you. You need input from young people and you also need input from seniors, but also a lot of retirees are in these things like as a social group. So if you're retired and you have stable income, stable retirement, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: your needs are radically different from mine, who I'm still trying to build a 401k and you know, I gotta pay for my college. So I think that that's somewhat of the disconnect within the party. But it's also, again, you have these different divisions within the Democratic Party and you know, the establishment is always gonna be the establishment because they have the money. when they have... Yeah, and it's just... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah Right. They're the cool kids in the class. Yeah. Earle: For me personally, I like I was kind of shocked when I decided to run That you know, I felt I was qualified, you know, I'm an attorney. I I had a little bit of time in the military I did very specialized work at the IRS. I'm not you know, I'm not a spring chicken, but I'm also You know have a little bit of life Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You still got plenty of legs left, yeah? Earle: Yeah, and so I was like, oh, like I'm a perfect like I think I'd make a perfect candidate and people like oh your resume is great But how are you gonna do it? And literally I was given a list of all these Political people politically connected like once I started digging and making connections like you need to talk to all these people Well, I was like that's kind of like both right like I mean Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: Like I shouldn't, if I'm a politician, I should be not in these circles. I should be on the ground floor with the people I represent. should be in the union shops. I should be at, you know, the, you know, talking to people who take care of disabled kids and being involved, not going to the yacht. like, you know, yeah. So, so I think that's the, the frustration of people like, you know, me running and I'm sure a lot of the candidates, you, because you want to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Only the parties. Earle: a difference you're putting yourself out there you're doing everything right but it's also Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. It's called the political industrial complex. The same way, the same way Trump talks about environmentalism and, you know, green, the green movement and everything. He says it's it's a, it's a, it's a money grab and all that stuff. It's kind of the same thing. Earle: Yeah, it's again, and yeah, it's just, and I get people have their like, their issues, their key issues, and that's important too. But it's also important to live, have some nuance and context that this is a very complex world we're living in, and people are complex beings. We come from radically different backgrounds, radically different life experience. And. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Right. and we complicated it with social media so now everyone is talking at the same time. Earle: And you think we're on headlines or you got five seconds of time. And we need to take a step back and just really kind of look at each other. Like think about the humanity, the empathy and compassion, because that's what everyone needs. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just like, hey, like, you know, you might have an issue, too. Like that's the biggest issue of your life is over here and this person, too. But like. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Let's remember that we're all Americans. We're on the same team. you Earle: We gotta move forward. We can't just get stuck on it. So if I could take care of you right now, let's focus on that. And you could help me out later. It's not like me, me, me, me, me. We gotta, and like people are hurting right now. So it's just. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Yeah. Right. And to kind of point at a certain situation that's happening to prove this conversation that we're having is California is the fourth largest economy in the world. You have all of these states that surround or that are Earle: Mm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): all these red states in the middle of the country that are struggling. And California is giving way more money to the federal government to keep those states running. So then California has to sit and listen to people that would go bankrupt if it wasn't for California money. We have to sit here and listen to these guys. Earle: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): talking about how terrible California is and how it's a washed up state, but yet you're living off of California money. And it's not even that California cares that you're floating on California money. We know that you need it, but at least have a little bit of introspection and say, maybe we need to not keep shitting on our sugar daddy. Earle: No, you're right. mean... Because I think one of the things too I can talk about in some like, you know, we were always in this together like the United States was never perfect, right? Like we But at a certain point there were some like morals ideals values that we shared as a nation that allowed us to you know, make those steps towards You know being a more, you know, perfect union we'll never get there But we at least have shared values and you know, you know, grew up in Wyoming. So Wyoming Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Earle: is the least populous state is one as a massive a lot of federal money goes into Wyoming because only 500,000 at the time 500,000 people live there I think maybe closer to 600 now but you have these massive national parks and you have these the Bureau land management so all that money is being Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's beautiful out there. It's beautiful out there. Earle: But that's the thing, you said, these big blue states are funding a lot of those programs, but historically it was probably like, you know, if you talk to a person in California, you're like, ⁓ well, the Yellowstone's really important to our national, you know, national heritage or, you know, it's a thing of national pride. So I have no problem. And hey, like that, those kids, you know, that need, that are going hungry in Mississippi, that's a us thing. That's an American thing. So, okay, that's fine. But when you, now we're in a political, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Right. Earle: Environment where it's being politicized when you know, like Mississippi is like our programs, you know They're struggling and they're not doing anything to improve the lives of Mississippi and they're relying on California But they're doubling down on Like they're you know their belief system so noise and it's not it's only making it worth for Mississippi or you know Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. And then you mix in Brett Favre, who's been stealing millions. Him and his crew has been stealing millions from Mississippi. Earle: And yeah, and then but then it becomes a pit, you know, California's versus Mississippi thing and then it used to just be like and you saw it with the fires or two California's like hey guys we helped Florida out with you know hurricanes Like kick us back some cash with you know with these fires Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, and they're like, no, everyone in LA is gay and God hates them. Earle: Yeah. Yeah, it just became so, it's just, like we're so, but the thing we all, that we fall back on is this is a narrative being driven and it's very effective, especially on people who. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Earle: You know on social media or like, you know some seniors or yeah, I mean even young young people but it's The overall thing I'm seeing though too. They're driving this narrative They need this narrative us versus them to cover up a lot of the failures the failures that they a lot of these states have failed to govern they you know people are struggling so when you wake up in the morning you're on your phone you're seeing something that makes you pissed off and then you're pissed off all day about Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: You know some other California or you're pissed off about you know, New York or whatever and then at night you realize like you realize like ⁓ like crap like my electric bills do tomorrow or I like my the ACA subsidies just doubled my health insurance and so and like you go to bed worried about that, you wake up in Your scrolling all day. So it's this narrative being driven in order to divide us in order to keep us distracted Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. And then you meet someone from California and you're like, ⁓ they're not that bad. They don't have devil horns coming out of their head. Earle: No, and and that's it's and it's I will say too. It's the funny thing about Florida is ⁓ For like I this is the nice thing though about running in Florida though, too Like in my time once I kind of left the service, I mean the IRS ⁓ And getting right really into the nuts and bolts of it The Florida is Florida, but it's still like you meet Like well, I think what we're seeing on TV and like, you know We're different out here. We are very flirty, but it's like everything's it really is the same It's just unfortunate this narrative of them driving us versus them and The powers that be when you have the governor say, California, California like that's that's it's us like we're different states, but we're still in this together like and The big thing for you, you know, I think you and me or you know a lot of veterans Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Earle: How many units you like that guy's from California I guess before that guy's from Wyoming that like no no one cares like it's. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm, then nobody cares. It's just part of the conversation. That's all it is Earle: Yeah, it's just, you're just bros. And that was one of the special things about this country is you take pride in where you're from, but also when you're next to another person, you're just an American. And just getting back to that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Yeah, I will say, especially in basic training, I will say when people learn that I was from Chicago, the drill sergeants would use me as an example of people that would steal shit from your foot locker if you didn't lock it. ⁓ Earle: and I don't don't know what you're talking about. I'm assuming you had a few of those smoke sessions with like the whole, I don't know, when like a locker would be, you know, they'd keep the, somebody wouldn't forget to lock their. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ yeah, dude. And then the whole room got destroyed. Earle: Yes. Yeah, we had a we had a guy that ⁓ They called him the MRE bandit and he would take the MREs from the field and he put up in like those like, know the tiles like And he put it high up in there so at night he would eat them and they've they called him the MRE bandit when they found out man that was like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. We had a guy that tried to take, they were empty shells from the rifle range. And if you ever went to the rifle range in basic training, however many ⁓ rounds they gave you, you bring back that many shells. Earle: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And this dude was trying to, even though they were empty, we got smoked because this dude took two empty shells. And when we found it under his pillow, boy, he caught a beating in the bathroom, boy. Like. ⁓ Earle: Ugh. No. Alright. Those are some days. It's funny thinking back on those days. Like those are just... That is crazy. Wow. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah, they made me do some things that are contrary to who I am trying to be as an adult. Earle: Yeah, that was an eye-opening experience. but, I don't know, it is one of those things, and I think even nowadays, should like, try and reconcile a lot of it. It builds that unity, also, you know, and... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, it breaks you down and it teaches you how to love your country in a different way. Earle: And I think that goes back to like the us thing like right is just you and another random person from Like I like I mentioned I grew up in Wyoming. So when I was going through basic, you know, I had guys No, so actually I was born my dad was Air Force So I was born in insert like airbase in Turkey when he was that we were stationed over there And then so we came back Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Is that where you were born? ⁓ wow. Are you nervous that Trump is trying to kick out people that weren't actually born here? I'm kidding. You're American. Earle: Not really. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. Both parents are American. But I mean, for a brief second, like, this guy, what is he going to do now? But like, but no, that again, that was the whole thing. I remember. Me, Grump, I grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming most of my life and when I went through basic, talking, know, you're hanging out with dudes from Brooklyn, New York or, you know, some guy would like, hey, I grew up in the hood in New Orleans or something. And it was just, it was great. And then you also saw people change. I saw one of my good buddies. I served in the army. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Did you serve in the army? Attaboy. I've been talking to a bunch of Air Force. Mad respect to your dad, mad respect. But that's no army. Earle: Yeah, yeah, I I was really weird my entire path is very weird I actually I Graduated University of Wyoming and I was a little older. I was working for an airline at the time. I had a great job Like a pretty decent job and then for me at 25. I was just like man Like my dad served both my grandfather served my uncle served and I was just I don't know if I was playing too much Call of Duty at the time or whatever and I was like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Ha! Earle: I'm just like, I'm going to enlist in the infantry. So I enlisted in the infantry and I got it, went under an airborne contract and yeah, so did my, it was just, yeah, so it was just one of those things though. I think. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I'm in. ⁓ nice. Earle: And it goes back to this thing like you know like you love your country like you want to serve it and I think Being and I'm not saying it's exclusive the military and I think that's the other thing we should Emphasize like coming up, you know, you need a lot of people serve their country in a lot of ways Acknowledge that like teachers, you know firemen teachers Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Sure, yeah. Earle: ⁓ but it was just like, know my way of wanting to serve this country that I loved and and I'm sure obviously there's some benefits to it, but I feel like a lot of people it really expanded Despite having you know, I like I said, I had a college degree at the time when I enlisted but it really opened up a new world to me and and I think for a lot of people is just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: It does, and I'm gonna mention one of the guys in my unit. He was from very rural Georgia. And I remember when I first met him, I was like, this guy's racist as like, he's super racist. Big tall white dude dropping N bombs, like didn't care. No one liked him. Three months later, that all changed. It all changed. It was incredible. And like, it was just seeing. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. You Yeah, yeah. Earle: That system of us, it's like the whole, like it's all that cheesy stuff you hear. We're better together. We're being united. It matters. Yeah. And the other thing too is I'm sure you feel the same way as in basic training. Like I don't remember the, like I don't remember what the soldiers create, but I could tell you what like the army values still matter to me and everything I, you know, I didn't spend a lifetime in the army. It was like, you know, around three years or whatever, but. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, that's proof. Earle: that, those still matter to me. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, same here. did something hella quick. Earle: Yeah, and it was just, but those still matter to me. I remember my, you know, in basic there's drilling away what's the Army Corps values are and you get smoked if you don't know it. And then I take that with me in my life. And then everything you see that's going on is, you know, our government, you know, are these our leadership when we were in, you know, they drive this, this idea home of what it means to be serving in the military honor, respect, integrity. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. No, no man left behind. Earle: and it's all being left behind by the highest levels of leadership now. And it's simply unacceptable. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. We have sold our soul to the highest bidder. ⁓ And we see it every day. We see it every day because Americans are struggling and we are sending so much money to different countries. Earle: No. End. and or and and the tax breaks too and one of the things too is I Again, we were talking earlier about driving home like patriotism and what it means and the we're in this weird reality of people who are Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: think they're the most patriotic are the people who just take take take right? I remember I spent a short time at Fort Bragg and there was a guy with a sticker. He was special operations, he was special forces and he just had a simple sticker on it and for whatever reason he's like don't call it your country unless you're to give anything back to it or something like that. It was just something simple like that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: But that's kind of like stuck with me, right? Like you see people, you see like people at the food bank, you know, working at the food bank or, you know, like I just toured ⁓ a disability center a few weeks ago and that's not easy work, but these people are committed to it. They love what they do. That is giving back to your country. But when you talk about these people at the very top, you know, Trump was giving the world and he's just taking, taking, taking, taking. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ahem. Right. Right. Yep, yep. Earle: You have this crazy opportunity to improve people's lives across the board. And you're just take, take, take, taking. And that's what they normalize in what's going on right now. And with the billionaire class, you know, they're taking from our children who, you know, bust their, bust their behinds, try not to, bust their behinds through college, you know, and like they go to work for SpaceX and they come up with a new engine design and they come up to make it more efficient. like, they're like, they pat them on the head. Yeah, great job. There's $80,000. And then Elon Musk takes a 45 billion. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hehehehehe Mm-hmm. Earle: $10 contract and you know his network goes up even more so they're stealing they're just take take taking I'm from from us Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Right, under the guise of ⁓ ingenuity and we're, ⁓ look at how we're doing, we're making everything better, but you're forgetting, dum-dum, that we have proof that we can't, we need to like take a breath and take a look. We got people that are struggling. What good is having that cool engine if no one is gonna be able to ride on it? Earle: Hello? Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely and that's it's like it's I don't it's just one of those things you you think of like some scenario you see like everyone like watches some rocket shoot up, you know from Cape Canaveral and then out and you know Daytona Beach in like, know some You know run down neighborhood some kids like some hungry kids watching that launch, you know go up in the sky Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And he's thinking to himself, gee, I wish I could afford a book about the moon. Earle: Yeah, I wish I could eat something and like just see just 90 billion dollars is burning. I mean obviously science is important, but it's just our Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Exactly. Here's the thing that drives me batty about this very situation. We're supposedly the richest nation on the planet. We're supposedly number one and we're supposedly, yeah, yeah, yeah, rah, rah, rah. We have all the smartest people. We have all the best schools, all that stuff. But we're not building scientists. They're getting scientists from literally everywhere else. Yet the American population has everything it needs to pump out scientists, to pump out teachers. Earle: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): to pump out all of these people, business people. We can pump out all of these things, but the powers that be are choosing to spend that money on flipping rockets and other countries. Earle: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and it's also like, yeah, keeping us down. Like you talk about education and like it's not, it's one of these things, it's becoming, I think education's a massive national security issue at this point. Like it needs to be labeled as so. we need, but it goes back to uplifting communities across the board. know, private schools, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. 100%. 100 % Mm-hmm. Earle: are stealing public money. know teachers are gaining. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. I heard I was talking to I can't remember his name right now ⁓ But he's running in Florida He said that in his area private schools are allowed to Take part of the public school for themselves and not even have to pay rent Earle: Yeah, that was the past like a few months ago and there's a firestorm across that. And then the other thing too in Florida is the legislature awarded a bunch of money to private schools. I forgot the amount and they had zero oversight, no oversight. And now there's a massive, like I forgot the amount of money, like all these millions. And even now the Republicans are like, maybe we should have had some oversight. But the reality too. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Hahaha Yeah, go figure. Earle: And I don't know what the statistics are in Florida, but I do know like in other states, was like somewhere in 80, 90 % of the people gaining private vouchers were high-end earners. Like it wasn't going to, it wasn't going to people like me and you, like that look like, know, or like the kids that grew up, you know, on food assistance. It was going to mom and So. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Right. Right. And that's what drives me crazy too is people fall for when rich people tell poor people that poorer people are stealing their money. The poor people in the middle are looking at the rich people saying, yeah, those people are stealing our money. Meanwhile, the rich people are there because they're they're stealing your money. Earle: Yeah. Yeah, and it's crazy, and this whole culture of like we're demonizing people for over $80 a month versus again, the mass of fraud, the mass of waste at the very, very top with government contracts. And you know, like you could talk about the ballroom or you could talk about like even in Florida with like the hope scan, like all these weird scandals going on. Yeah, meant fraud, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): with the Rick Scott scandal, with the whole Rick Scott, if you don't know Rick Scott is a, he's ⁓ a congressman, right? He's a Senator. He's a Senator for Florida that got busted with the largest health insurance scam in Florida history. Earle: Oscar no, he's a senator. Mm-hmm. And yes, I am. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And then he points at the black and brown kids in the inner city saying, see, it's them. Earle: Yeah, and he kept all his money and you I remember the first time I went to you go to Naples like in South Florida and you see his house It's like a 40 million. It's massive. It's a 30 40 million dollar house. But yeah, and that's the thing is they Yeah, and but that's the thing they point this the game right now is you point at people that don't have the ability or the capacity to defend themselves you punch down to people who don't have a voice because Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ huh. Yeah. Yeah, he lives probably next to a bunch of other crooks. Yeah. and pay attention to how they've been, all this AI stuff that's happening now, they're trying to convince you that reality isn't the real reality. And they have their hands in your pockets. Earle: Mm-hmm. Nah, NUC- N- I'll tell you this the craziest thing is when I created the my Facebook account for them with the Congress my congressional page Start you start new right like so over the years you have your normal Facebook page So obviously the algorithm kind of like is adjusted to whatever you're looking normally Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: If you start fresh on Facebook with any account, I would with this, it is nonstop, right? Like the whole Zuckerberg thing with Trump is 100 % true. You are connected. You're like assigned to Republican Congress people who aren't even in your district. I mean like in Missouri, you're getting all these Republican comedians, like the Hodgett twins. People I've, like, people I've... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Damn dude. Those guys are clowns. Those guys are clowns. Earle: Yeah, but like all these with this whole republic conservative ecosystem that you know for years said ⁓ the liberal meat No, like it is force fed to you and that means there is a lot of I mean I'm not saying like the left is completely innocent but there is a huge disparity between left and right and it is I like on my if you go to from my personal page to the congressional it is night and day difference because on my congressional page I'm not following anybody like I don't Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mmm. Earle: I like I'm just keep it empty. I'm not showing like, you know, it's just like a professional page So but that's being force-fed and there's a whole slew of people who can't tell the difference between AI generated I mean and they'll comment You know like some celebrity wearing like a Gulf of America of America like some like Justin Bieber for instance Like today is on my page and like he's wearing a Gulf of America t-shirt, right? There's no way ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Yeah. Earle: He'd be wearing a Gulf of America t-shirt, I think, in general. People are like, ⁓ God bless Justin Bieber, that's great. And people just aren't, and even these videos, and people are just not picking up, and it's being force-fed to, there's no oversight. And it's... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah. That shows you that we need new members in Congress. ⁓ Because I'm sorry, it sounds ageist when I say this, but. Earle: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): If you're still in Congress, but when you were a kid. You had to stand next to the wall and ask the operator for Clondike 7259. It's time to let go. Earle: Yeah, and you're no way I You're ⁓ I actually saw this on I mean read it the reddit used to be my how I burned all my time Now that I'm running. I'm so busy. I don't have it, but I remember some staffer on He's like hey, I'm a staffer ask me anything And I'm staffed before a senator asked me anything. And if someone was like, is like, you know, how up to date are these senators? I mean, beyond any, like, I'm gonna be honest with they don't, they don't know what's going on. Like they cannot, these are smart. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): If you don't know how to fix your email, need to step back. I'm sorry. There's just way too many things. And things are just moving faster and faster. Earle: And yeah, and he's like the senator I work for is a really smart guy He's a great legal mind fan, but he for what like he just can't get his mind around it and it's just again, it's ⁓ a Things are moving so fast But it's like, you know and our generation is wanting to step up and I think people should encourage, you know younger candidates, you know Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 100%. Earle: Because again, like we have a lot of skin in the game, right? It's I have a four year old and one year old. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mitch McConnell's on his way out and he's still making decisions for you and your family. And this mug is like hitting hard pauses in his life. Earle: And he's having all these medical issues of him falling down. And I've actually befriended another congressional candidate out in California. he's a smaller candidate, so we kind of chat. And he's going against the incumbent, who is a Democrat. But the incumbent's like 81 years old. And he's fighting. He's a really smart guy. He worked for FinRide. He was a regulator doing international stuff. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: So he's a really smart guy. He's like very savvy with social media is very savvy across the board But even the establishment responses, you know He's like he goes to certain clubs and they're like well our if there's a Democrat incumbent We have to support the Democrat like we have to like you're you sound like a great guy and you have a great speech and you sound like you're fired up and you look and you're doing all that everything right, but we have to support the incumbent meanwhile, I guess the incumbent misses a lot of votes, like a lot of votes, but he's also been, he's been in power for like 30, 20, 30 years. He's 80 years old and it's just like, okay, that's unacceptable. But the fact that, again, we go back to talking about the establishment, there's nothing encouraging the breakthrough of these new candidates since everything's pushing down on them, you know? And so... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: It's really unfortunate because you again you have a really qualified really passionate really smart dude running a very like he's doing he's doing crazy stuff He's like going trying to make the ballot. I don't know how California Florida have different ways of getting on the ballot or the process and he had like drive like I don't remember 800 miles just getting people in the Democratic Party to sign off on him to like to actually have a chance. He's not getting and he's not making money doing this right you're losing money. ⁓ And people are like ⁓ no we admire your conviction like this incredible but Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Jeez, yeah. Earle: That's the kind of people we need in Congress. And you kind of point to who are the biggest names in Congress right now. It's young people, right? It's young Democrats. It's like people, mean, Max Frost probably be the exception, because I think he's still in his 20s, but you have like a slew of legislators between 30 and 40 that are go-getters, that are making things happen, that are stepping up, that are taking bold positions, and that's what you need. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, yeah. Because otherwise it's not going to change. The folks that are creating the rules to benefit themselves are not going to try to change it because they are doing just fine. Earle: and And they don't want to rock the boat like they like, you know, they have some big and that's the other thing too is like the don't the money game in politics is real like it is a hunter for is My the most disappointed this is the worst thing I heard and it's come true is when you're like run for Congress Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Earle: is the amount of money, amount of time. You're like, you think, ⁓ I'm gonna run for Congress. gonna be out like speaking all the time. I'm gonna be meeting people. I'm gonna shaking hands. I'm gonna be like doing all this stuff. This is phone time. It is call time. It is you getting these lists and spending six hours like a day. you know, I'm spending probably around 12 to 15 hours a week calling people. Hey, a lot of them like, you know, and asking people for money. And that is the game. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Are you, do you do that, do you do that on your phone, on your own cell phone? You're like, hey, it's a roll. Okay. Earle: Well, we have like there's a system you buy yeah, there's a system that like they used to make it so you could blow through numbers like it's like an automated like text and Voicemail system so you can go through it. But that being said when you make it to college Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Okay. Okay. So that's part of your resources is being able to leverage some of this. Okay, cool. That makes sense. Earle: But when you make it to Congress and you're like, okay, I'm gonna change the world. I'm gonna go legislate. I'm gonna read every page in this new law coming out. I'm in, no, your job in Congress is call time. And I didn't believe it. I remember Google, and there's an article that members of Congress on their working days, both parties. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: You're doing four hours of call time as a sitting member of Congress. Instead of doing the people's work, you're four hours call Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. And that's obligated by the party itself. Earle: Yeah, and there is an article with Nancy Pelosi saying like a bunch of incoming freshmen. people in college there's all these freshman ⁓ people i just got elected and sit and she's a in the first thing that she says that you guys need to do more call time and what there is is apparently i mean i've never been to dc other than a tourist years ago but apparently you leave the capital building or whatever and then you go into some room i mean each party has their own thing and you go just make calls hey Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Wow. Earle: Congressman thing would really love your sport can and that's all yours fundraising fundraising fundraising funding and that is again a symptom of the system because the second you're elected your really reelection campaign starts, right? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Wow. You And that's like imagine being a grassroots candidate and you're having to, you're not trying to take PAC money, large corporate money and all that stuff. Whereas if you're tapped into all these rich folks that wanna have rules bend their way, that's the shortcut. Earle: And this is the crazy thing too, right? I think I was telling you earlier, some of the lists off before, but some of the lists have people that donate only to certain packs. But we'll find people, right? You'll find people that donate huge sums of money to both parties. It is not an outlier, it is very normal. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Yeah. Earle: If if if you have a Democrat Republican, right you'd like to say party I mean Canada a and Canada B And you donate $3,500 to each of them in each like the jet in the primary in the general, right? When they're elected whoever gets elected They still to take your call So you get swayed whoever wins? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. No, and imagine if both of your ⁓ Congress people made it in. Now you got two of them that are arguing the same points, but on both sides. Earle: Yeah, that's and that's how it goes and that's before you get in the packs that like, you know You know that also condone it that's that's on the individual basis that's before the packs that you're running or the other packs that you're running in to advocate for ⁓ For certain people and it's just like for me The only blessing I've had is I've ran a vet like I I'm a nobody right like I just left federal service and I was not connected What connected what happened for me is I connected with a 20 like a like a young team And we're like if we're not gonna get our name out there We are just gonna run an insane and we're just gonna run a social media campaign, right? Like that's how you do it, but you'd have to It's not this like posting on Facebook. It's like you have to pay ads you have to pay for their lag Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Earle: And in doing so, like our campaign is doing very well. think as a grassroots campaign, ⁓ like we have like our average. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. And you're running and you're running against a notable incumbent to tell the people who you're running against. Earle: Republican. ⁓ I'm running against Annapolina Luna. ⁓ I think her older name was Annapolina Meyerhofer. She changed her name before running in order to have, I guess, Hispanic heritage. ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, because now it's cool to be brown when it was hard to be brown. Everybody was changing their name to, you know. Mount Rushmore. Earle: ⁓ Yeah, and so she's the one that wants to put ⁓ Trump's face on what is it on the platform for. She wants all the Charlie Kirk memorials. ⁓ She hangs out with the AFD party, the AFD party in Germany, which has Holocaust deniers in there. She's been hanging out with Russia. She hasn't hosted a town hall in two years. ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Girl please. Earle: She was I mean there's there's a lot of stuff that people are unsure of about her and then the other you know Just connecting the money and yeah, so but she's a huge social media influencer I think that's I think she's a big person at turning point USA She's the Instagram model for a little bit or something like that or I think she's a maxim or something She was a model. I think that elevated her social media status and obviously she loved that leverage that and that ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But she's connected to the money, Hmm. Sure. Yeah. Earle: got you into Congress. again, and that's kind of why the reason I'm I just like, I could do this because although I didn't. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You could be a cover model? Earle: Yeah, well, mean, back in those army days when I was 160 pounds, yeah, absolutely, you But it's one of those things, like, America was always a meritocracy, and I was like, well, you know, I served and had a little bit of time in the military, and I went and I got a law degree, and I became a lawyer. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Earle: I had these experiences and I do complex work at the IRS and maybe that makes me qualify for ⁓ Congress. But it's weird because you think, yeah, it's not the case. I will say the best thing I have going on with my campaign is like I said, we're running a very aggressive grassroots ⁓ and it's weird because you kind of do feel Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): In a normal world you'd be killing it Earle: Establishing it not wanting to embrace us, but there's a certain point where talks right money talks in policy politics People have no idea how much money we've raised right like there no one has any until we filed we filed our FTC quarterly and the people like okay who is this guy? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Hmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: And it got to the point where I was actually talked to the New York Times, like because New York Times wanted to talk to congressional candidates that came from the federal service during this whole Doge thing. I talked to the York Times. I still haven't talked to the Tampa Bay Times. ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Hmm. Damn. Earle: And like I like, that's even the local papers because it's just so hard to break through. But now we're at a point where like, because we ran a very aggressive social media campaign, we gave people my background. He's an army veteran, right? Like again, right now with the billionaires, basically what I did at the IRS was I was in two, one of two programs at Target, the ultra, the wealthiest people in on the planet. worked at that. And ⁓ I like, so we kind of pushed that on social media and it got some traction. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Earle: all sudden, as a nobody candidate, we've out-raised to the big D-triple-C candidates, right? We just put out an announcement that we raised $400,000 with over 12,000 donations. That's grassroots. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Nice. Nice. Congratulations. Yeah. Earle: No, no, that is grassroots through and through because people see a normal guy running a person that has like some experience. I'm not a campaign staffer. I'm not writing someone's, you know, coattails. I don't and that's you see is like even in Florida, there's like some candidates are coming up and they're like they're like announced and they're endorsed by 85 people like 85 politicians because they're all connected. They all hang out together and like people like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right, right. They all go to the same school. They all go to the same parties. Earle: Yeah. And yeah, and he's like and then like you'll see and then like he'll say like ⁓ you know He he's raised three hundred thousand, you know, hundred thousand dollars with you know, four hundred donors like yeah, because that's the establishment that's the party saying hey, this is our guy and people like me or You know like you I'm all the candidates you're you're interviewing our scrappers, right? They're they're angry. They're this they feel like you know, the party's left them or they Know they could probably do better because they're not gonna have allegiance Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: to just money because it's more about money at the end of the day and it's just... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah, most of the people that I talk to want to get money out of politics. They just want politics to be good, old, boring politics where they're doing, actually doing good things for the country instead of other countries. Earle: Absolutely, and it's getting rid of Citizens United and it's getting rid of... it's one of those things that's... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Real quick, let's do your wrap up on Citizens United. What's your stance on Citizens United? Earle: It's gone. It's gone. Gone. It's left a Yeah, I mean, I don't know if it's constant constitutional or just legislatively, but it has to leave It's it's broken the system. It's broken the system in record time. I mean Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, it needs to be. As an IRS guy, have you been able to see behind the scenes how it's affected the country or is this more of a just this is just what it is and you're seeing all of it? Earle: No, so not from my perspective because typically political donations don't count as deductions on tax purposes. what I actually did for the IRS, I worked in the estate and give tax program. So I worked for the IRS for four years. actually had a compliance gig when I first started. And then right after that, they hired, with the inflation reduction, the IRA. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: Inflation Reduction Area or Reduction Act gave the IRS money so I was able to go into that program. I get hired on, IRS sends you three months of... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: Very intense training on everything you need to know about trust from a federal perspective gifting transactions They do what we call generation skipping transfer tax. We do GSD, which is the distribution of trust money you do international the IRS was not effing around like they're like if you're gonna go on this program three months and Then you walk out and then my first case was, know, fifty million dollars, right? Like, okay. This is the big big leagues Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: And it's funny because a lot of my friends are you know insurance attorneys or in you know? Yeah, I'd settle this case for you know five hundred thousand dollars And then I walk out and then so I always like kind of flex that but generally speaking The wealthy kind of when you reach a certain threshold of wealth in this country is the federal state tax kicks in historically and before Trumpa it was I think five million dollars And then when he passed the tax cuts in 2017, it went all the way from 5 million to like 11 million and doubled it. So you get more, you get more credit. So you don't get taxed until you have a net worth of over 11 million, right? And then it kept going up. And then so with him being rehired and I'm not rehired, being reelected. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: And new law that just went up. It's still going up. So now it's at fifteen million dollars a year. So generally speaking, if you have a married couple, they could combine it. So thirty million dollar net worth. You don't get taps until your net worth is above thirty million dollars. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: So it's been a massive, massive, massive tax break for the ultra wealthy. To put in perspective numbers wise is that you talk about the one percenters, right? Like a lot of the progressives and Democrats, we want to go after the one percenters. My group in particular, the amount of money we're dealing with, it wasn't the one percenters, it was the 0.1 percenters. So the top 10 percent, the one percent. So you're dealing with very complex trusts. ⁓ I don't want to bore your audience, but like Grantor retained a nudity trust and grantor trust. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mmm. Yeah. Mmm. Hahaha Earle: All these gifting transactions they and they you know, they make family limited partnerships in order to and they get qualified for Discounts and they use promissory notes and self-cancelling installation notes and insurance policies all these complex things that congress has given them congress has given them to lower their estate tax bill And to avoid, know avoid paying tax and even with the gifting the gifting transactions what you also see is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Earle: Again, you have this credit, right? This amount of money the government gives you to in order to lower your state tax bill. But what you also get is people, you know, they'll say, ⁓ like some really rich dude has a new AI company, right? Especially in the last few years. And you can say like the AI company, AI ⁓ company's worth, you know, one million, like it's worth $2 million. You know, we'll give you. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Yeah. Earle: a thousand shares is worth two million dollars and you put it on a gift tax return and you Send it to your kid and you say your exemption takes a two million dollar hit you're not paying tax out of it But what you'll see is they'll get rid of it. And then I don't know maybe a year later or a two years later That couple million blows in up to 20 million dollars, right? So they avoided 18 million dollars in taxation just by gifting it out and there's all and the thing is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: We didn't have is if even with the IRA funding we didn't have ⁓ We were good at what we did but we even with the numbers we had it wasn't enough to keep up Because when you're handling this stuff, it's not only me, right? We have what we call IRS engineering's engineering. have financial analysts financial valuation specialists We have wine experts art panels all this stuff that people specialize at the high-end people use so it's an entire team when we have these cases and from my ex when I experienced doge firsthand is I had cases I had dead rights right I had guys using you know that I had a case a slam dunk case and I would have covered you know 67 million dollars 60 to 70 million dollars in tax no problem right I had no one to back me up on the numbers I had the people that that were just hired or you know Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Hmm. Earle: ⁓ that we have to work with in order to come up with you know to Let you know our attorneys know I mean IRS counsel and everyone know that hey like this is legit all that was gone So it was just me and I had no way of really enforcing it Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): . Earle: So and then I remember talking to my supervisor and I was like, like this one's dead rights. This is a case and he's just like, we have to move on. and so, and then one of the things too is I was recently talking to my friends cause you know, I want to put out this thing of everything we see from an IRS perspective. He's like, dude, we're just operating on the honor system right now. Like they, we don't have the ability to investigate anymore. We don't have the ability to push back. We don't have. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Damn, dude. Yeah. Earle: ⁓ You know like even these dynasty trusts we don't even know if they're telling us they're doing distributions No one's tracking that anymore. So So you have this whole world and when I talked to the New York Times They're like, ⁓ did like the Trump administration ever tell you to you know Don't work on this tax return. I was like, no, they didn't have to they just fired everyone Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: and ⁓ The other thing that to that word the IRS deals with in this world is saying gift taxes You have a three-year statute of limitations, right? You have three years to investigate this and make a decision When they chopped my like the program in half like those cases are sitting so even if there's a case that they're doing blatantly Illegal stuff that we would normally catch it's just gonna sit on you know since it's gonna sit there and then it's gonna expire Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and after three years it goes away and everyone's wondering where all the money is. Earle: So Yeah, and so it's just, it's incredibly like, it's... Disheartening because you know, like I have the first time experience of seeing it But the other thing too that people don't realize is there a few years ago the IRS I don't if IRS or some other Institute did a study though When the IRS for every dollar the IRS invests in low like normal people like me knew like the return is like six or seven dollars It's right like you invest in the IRS IRS gets returned when they invest in the ultra wealthy going after the ultra wealthy Even though it's more expensive overall, I mean more expensive but the return on it It's like $12 one dollar for every dollar spends $12, but in order like I said in order for me to go after somebody it I have to have an entire team around me right because I like I I worked outside IRS counsel we were like my position was formally Designated a state tax attorney, but they've redesignated like a state tax legal as legal specialists or some outside IRS counsel But like it's again, it's you have this whole world of people that you rely on to verify the numbers to crack the numbers to because I'm doing the legal analysis, which is fine, but I can't tell you, know, like what the cap rate like, you know, what was a good capitalization rate on this oil business or you know what the valuation is like that's very complex work and they all that away from us. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: Now I know for a fact there's like I said, there's cases just sitting there and but meanwhile normal people like me and you Because we are tax returns are simple you know the automated collection system a lot of that's automated and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Plus it's a lot easier to count the money that we make compared to the money that they make. That's a lot of zeros that they have to carry around in their bank accounts. Earle: Yeah. And I'm not and like a lot of these cases that we'd work I mean you're it takes it's a year-long endeavor I mean you're to get these tax returns or and I'm not kidding like a few thousand pages long and Because there's a lot of zeros. There's a lot of moving parts and and you Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, like and that's one of the things that when normal folks don't understand rich people tax returns, rich people have entire teams doing their tax returns. It's not like they're sitting there with the, you know, W four, whatever it is, the W two, whatever. It's not the same. They have entire teams that are going through. They have different companies and they move money in different ways. And so it's a lot harder to track down all of this moving of money. You have, normal people have, you know, if they're lucky, they have a checking account, they have a savings account. Earle: Yeah, and... Yeah, and... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and a W2. Like these folks have all kinds of stuff moving and shaking and stuff like that. So you need entire teams to do their taxes. And if they're doing it wrong, this is how they're hiding the money. They're moving money here and there. And then you need people like Earl to be like, hey, hey, hey. Earle: No, absolutely and it's like even the big cases like the billion like we take slices, right? They'll like assign certain portions of it So I mean it's even the attorney like us are split on certain cases Sometimes I have a case most the time I work my own cases, but sometimes the cases are so big they'll say ⁓ you can take this little fragment, you know or But yeah, was and a thing that was I think the most disheartening thing for me my personal experience But I know everyone experienced it at every other federal agencies Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Earle: IRS always gets, I mean, we're IRS, I get it. People don't like us, but my experience at IRS was incredible. literally, it was a dream job. I didn't know going into it was gonna be dream job. It was challenging. was like, I got to experience crazy amounts of things. You know, when you could do these deep dives in the people's lives, they're gonna make their money in all, like they have money coming in from every direction. So you, you know, sometimes you go into fertilizer, sometimes, you know, some person owns race horses or some person is a watch guy or car. collector or it just keeps going on and on so you get this cool experience and it's not I know it sounds boring but it actually is super fascinating like I said the art panel wine stuff but that being said I worked around in like incredibly smart people like some of the brightest people I've ever come across and and I was like and I felt blessed that you know the government gave me this opportunity I didn't have a tax background really I worked on state attorney's office for a little bit. I did private work for a little bit and then you know I landed this job and they gave me this huge all this knowledge and experience and I love my job and like my co-workers colleagues were incredible people these are you know people like me and you those who like they're war veterans they're like what my mentor she was a JAG attorney in the Navy for six years and she spent 15 years at IRS and then like they treated her like garbage when like this whole like all that service out and she was the She was like one of the top dogs, right? She was on every billion dollar case. She was always going head-to-head with some of the highest paid attorneys. And when she got pushed out, because she was a single mom to two, commuting two hours from where she was at, she couldn't just do it anymore. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: It was just seeing these people who gave you all this knowledge and they like helped you and you know, like there's times like when we were doing work and I was like, what the hell am I doing? You know, and they pull you aside and they pull you aside. Hey, here, let me walk you through it. Like it was very, these were very caring, compassionate people who cared about their jobs. There were patriots that like loved service to the country and all of a sudden they treated like garbage and we were the only people like, you know, my program is mostly attorneys, but there's another program called global high wealth and I don't, I know they Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ha ha. Earle: took a massive hit too. Those are mostly revenue agents. But again, we had an important job to do and all the student is gone. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, think about that. Think about everyone, all the normal people are upset because we can't afford anything. There are no jobs. We're being convinced that it's the black and brown communities. We're being convinced that it's illegal aliens. We're being convinced that it's all of this stuff. But when Doge goes through, Doge went through and dismantled all the things that were doing somewhat positive things. And they went through and they fired all of these guys that were holding rich people to account. Earle: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Explain to people, were part of the government when Doge went through and started cutting and slashing. Did you ever hear of or see or any plans to have Doge address the Department of Justice or the Pentagon in any way? Earle: No, so not from that perspective, nothing like that. ⁓ So my office was in Tampa. did have one, one of the guys I worked with was kind of, ⁓ I don't know, he was kind of on high alert because he kept saying like stuff was happening with his cases. I don't know how, ⁓ how accurate that is or whatever. I think there's a lot, we had, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, according to him, he started seeing some fishy stuff. Earle: Yeah, there's some fishing stuff. He saw some fishy stuff. And the big thing too is the IRS is very, very serious about disclosures. So even when like you have coworkers, they can't do a tax cases unless it's like an absolute need to know basis. Like I can't just go there. Okay, what's going on with this guy's tax return? That's an absolute thing. So the IRS was very serious. like, obviously, there's no way for but it was it was you can see the Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But even publicly, even public facing stuff, public information, we never heard of Elon going through the defense budget and looking at the numbers in the defense budget. Why? And that's because him and his friends, that's where him and his friends make all their money. Earle: But I've Yeah, no, yeah, cuz they need to keep those government contracts in place, but everyone else's government contracts got blown up, you know, Alex I mean it was Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Yeah. And again, just to bring it back to it, like you have a person and their friends, whether it's Elon and all the money coming from the Department of Defense, or it's Annapolina Luna in her area, and she's got all her friends that don't let you, not that they don't let you, but I'm sure they're running interference to the point where you're not. being interviewed by the local newspapers. Earle: Yeah, I mean there there It's one of those things I used to be like, oh, no, that's fine. But like there are especially at when I was at IRS It was like we knew stuff was going on things were changing like and Being at Treasury and knowing there's also a system and IRS called ID RS and that's the system that holds all of your taxpayer information like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: And when they we got like when they were talking about like, know getting access to that that was that was terrifying because I hear us is it's an old system. It's like I think it was made in the 70s and they haven't updated because as technology has increased because like no one knows how to break it like no one can break into it or something but it holds everything like it's crazy and again, I rest really enforces they call it UNAC and unauthorized like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Ha ha ha ha Earle: or whatever unix violations they track everything and ⁓ But again, you can see everything on somebody's return like if I pulled your file up I can see like what crypto you sold or you know what your mortgage interest is I can see everywhere you ever you know every tax return you filed or if it's not in the database I can make a request to see it and the thing is people There's so many details in tax returns because it's sometimes you need to prove this to like the bank or whatever and some people tend to be honest when you want a deduction or a credit So there's so much like you can see in merit. You can literally see everything Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: Them getting access having like 21 year old kids with nothing no idea how that works is terrifying and these are deeply very very very private records and Them getting access to it, but also we felt the ⁓ I mean I have people into IT that we you know we talked to and it was just they were just chopping up our ability to do our job across the board and we were losing weird contracts. For instance, the stupidity of some of it is, in the state and gift tax we do obviously deal with a lot of real estate. We have to do farmland, have to deal with commercial properties, and we had, the government had a contract for RealQuest, I think it was called RealQuest, been a minute, since obviously I was there, but RealQuest gives Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: You're deep dive into real estate valuations super accurate Got rid of that contract, right? And then like they were like there was some like legal stuff I don't know if it's Thompson Reuters, but it had something they misinterpreted as like Thompson Reuters being a liberal not they didn't misinterpret it They did on purpose Thompson Reuters or something who had a liberal connection because they had like a liberal Like a news report well Thompson Reuters law is also our legal is the owns Westlaw, which is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: the top tier legal research database, like across law. And like, so they were cutting up these contracts based on nothing. So all of sudden you took my ability away to evaluate real estate accurately. So when somebody's like, my Chateau in France is worth $10 million, the only mechanism I had to check that is Zillow, like Zillow or Redfin. Like that's how, that's how. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hahaha Earle: That's how bad it got. I can't, so instead when I talk to opposing like the other side's attorney, like your house in Naples or whatever, it's not worth 35 million, what did you get that, Zillow? I mean, so. It's, and that being said is we also had in-house, in-house experts, in-house real estate valuation experts, like legitimate valuation people, but they're all gone though too. So it's just, it made the job impossible. And I think it obviously is by design. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Do you have any insight as to, you know, how Trump got busted, the 36 felonies, whatever, ⁓ Do you have any insight into that situation? Earle: Not particularly. Again, will like, yeah, IRS is very good at... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): No? Okay. Earle: keeping control of stuff like that. came in, I came in in 21. So yeah, I at the IRS just around four years. And I remember hearing about it, but from my understanding and I actually, from my understanding is there's like certain, obviously social security numbers are on additional like lockdown. And when there's certain people of certain net worth, there's like a panel that kind of talks about whether and like what aspects they need to do a deep dive in. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Yeah. Earle: But yeah, it was just... And yeah, the other thing... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Cause you know how people are, people say, ⁓ he just got in trouble for ⁓ like massaging numbers on a form. And I'm like, yeah, but that's a legal form. Earle: Yeah, and you're swearing under perjury that it's accurate, right? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. So like, understand that business people do that. but if it's against the rules, like try, you try, you try cheating on your taxes. You try shaving off just a little bit so you get, so you look a little bit more important and get back to me and see how the legal system treats you. Earle: Yeah. So I will say this from my perspective there there is a little more leeway given to high and because the numbers Like again you get these weird I I didn't mess on the income side that much so I'm not like an income tax expert is all it's taking I mean I had some experience in income but generally speaking when you're dealing with these super large estates and ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: Well, we like generally say I don't know if you're like this but if it's is it substantially correct? Right if a majority of it's correct. So like but that's the thing is like my world is valuation is very Subjective it's a lot of evaluation evaluation stuff Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Earle: But they also get a lot of tools to adjust the valuation, but some things are just so blatantly wrong that that's where you we could get them on like we can we can him like additional negligence penalties and stuff for just being Agregiously wrong not backing it up not you know doing it the right way But there are some they get some wiggle room But the thing is and this is kind of more or less value weight. It's more on that valuation side. So so again with Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: I don't know exactly what his returns look like, but that being said, if he's convicted, it was probably not associated with valuation. is probably, again, I think it was with him getting like loans or something like that too. If he's lying to you. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, for me it's a bigger problem. don't even like Trump is a businessman and I've hung out with businessmen. I know how they think. I know that this is the status quo. As a matter of fact, when Trump started getting, I think it was right after the decision had come down, they had Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank on there and he's like, everybody does it. And I'm like, so you're all cheating? Did we not learn from Enron? Earle: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Did we not learn from the real estate scams that happened in 2008? Earle: As long as they're making money and we're gonna pay the price, mean, they're gonna get bailed out again, right? mean... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And that's the thing that pisses the normal people off. Like we can't cheat on our taxes and we're like, we're struggling to make a hundred dollars, getting a hundred dollars back from the government. These dudes are moving record numbers of dollars back and forth. And it seems like it's us that get busted for doing, because we, because we tried to put a golf. outing on our taxes. Earle: Yeah. Well, yeah, it's no, you're 100 % right. It's one of these things. And it's even with like gifting and all these weird stuff the world we work in is like, you know, people are like, oh, like my, I don't know, like the gifting when they gift stuff over $17,000 or like pay their kids like crazy amount of money and say, oh, like they earn that money. And it's like, no, like they were like, they didn't have. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): They didn't do shit. Earle: They didn't have an education for that. Or they, that was in their role. Or this is a very small one. And they do all this stuff just to move money. And it's just, normal people don't have that. Like you have your 401k and you get a few deductions here and there. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yep. Yeah, if you move money, you're moving $150 from savings to checking because you have to go do groceries. That's your moving money. Earle: Exactly and it's no and it's just the people I don't think people realize the difference between us and them like until you see a tax return billionaire and see that Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, exactly. Earle: Granted we like live in that where I worked in that world So it's like you it's normal right you get this you get three boxes And you see that you know the states worth like you know 1.2 billion dollars or whatever now that was normal But you don't the amount of money that people you know their attorneys fees are crazy. They're like paying their CP All these people are at work Making sure this money flows to and from And it was up to us to try and catch them, but again it it's just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. Earle: It's night and day for people like me and you. it's like they get every, if they're willing to pay a little extra money, they get ⁓ every benefit to make sure they're gonna, at the end of it, get benefit though. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right, right. Their circles are going to take care of them. That's what I'm learning. It depends on where you are and what your circle is. Your circle is gonna take care of you. Earle: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy too because I mean I I'm not gonna sit here and say every estate I handled was ⁓ You know like a lot of them were like people inherited wealth and you it's cool. Like you do see something cool like ⁓ there's a I can't talk about the cases like in detail, but like, you know Some a guy immigrated the United States up in like Vermont and started his business Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: like very small, very, and then exploded, right? And he did, ⁓ and so his estate was, we took care of it, whatever, but then you also see people, you know. You their parents own this all like, you know own these businesses and then like they bought real estate in you know, Missouri I don't want to give too much details in certain like around certain cities, you know for five million dollars in three years exposed to four hundred million dollars, you know to developers and On the like, you know, we have to read the obituaries we go digging for you know, all this stuff too And it's just like ⁓ like, you know the kids get it and like well this kid self-made you got like you know, he started from nothing, know, his dad was just a simple CPA and you're just like, come on. And that was honestly, that was part of the game though. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, stop it. Unless his dad was working the night shift at a gas station, I don't want to hear it. Earle: Yeah, no, but it was part of it it was it was it was it was a cat-and-mouse game and sometimes you got people like it was funny like people would be like, you know, you look on the 706 and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: ⁓ And they list jewelry, know, like the tech leaps in you know Rolexes or something Sometimes you Google their name and I this never happened to me But I remember one of my trainers saying about talking about this had a particular person and like so she Google started and When she Google had this person had this like like three million dollar watt like there's an article about the watch they bought right and then Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mmm. Earle: And then that was in on the 706. And so there's like, that was a fun conversation. So like, so where's the watch? And so, so that was, and those were like really, I mean, again, these conversations, they do stuff to, and I mean, And that's the thing, Congress has given them this ability to like do certain, but sometimes they're just so blatantly illegal or they just know what they're doing. it was again, count mouse games. Sometimes you catch them on simple issues like... One of my last cases, you know, they didn't fight like it was a very minimal mistake But it was a catastrophic mistake and this is when the doge thing is one of my last cases and these Signed the return was a few weeks late and they don't get a transfer credit to their spouse It was in it being like a six million dollar mistake and then hey like and like you got to make that phone call you're like Hey, like sorry and there's literally and I just knew court case opinion came down about that exact issue Few weeks prior like here's the case on it like peace out like, know I'll send that I'll send the final paperwork. So there's like it is a cat-and-mouse game in But again, it's our job We were trained we were We were competent and the other thing too is right as doge happened my group St. Gift tax just finished hiring like 50 people just finished training like 50 people and that's like throughout three month program they sent him Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. and they got let go. Earle: And so they gave them, God knows how much money the government put into these people, Like for travel, education. ⁓ And these are like for three months, these people aren't working cases, they're getting trained and they're gone. Yeah, mean, yeah, they're like. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yep. and they're still getting paid. So you want to talk about efficiency, that is inefficient. Earle: Yeah, there I the Washington man. I wish I had the number Washington Post is article so like yeah five hundred million dollars of like we paid people not to work and so the deficit is gonna increase and Everything again, it just stinks because these are people's real lives It's these institutions not even IRS like I can't imagine. I know IRS suffers severe brain drain That's a, don't know if it's gonna, it's gonna take, I think people will come back because I think people love their country and they wanna serve it. But the other thing is federal workers are gonna be so scarred that they're not gonna wanna work again unless there's some sort of contract that protects them. But Congress has to do something. But whether it's NIH, Department of Energy, know, even the military, Department of Defense, like, I mean, all these agencies are somewhat connected. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Sure. Earle: and we had really, really bright people working. And now, and I even have friends that have been recruited by ⁓ outside of my IRS circles, friends that are really smart and they're working for other agencies, they're getting recruited by other countries. Like, it's, they're... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ wow. Earle: Other countries are fully aware of the workforce and not the a the like education of these people but also It becomes a national security issue too because they're working on very sensitive stuff. They would cut them loose and You know like obviously sometimes national Hopefully like national security issues will keep them from going and doing that but again even one of my close friends in he works in for so calm and Special Operations Command and like they told them like you're gonna start getting stuff from China like there's gonna China's gonna start sending stuff to people that they know are federal disgruntled federal employees To get them to come over like they had that intelligence Not saying anyone did it or actually there. I think there was a federal employee that got busted ⁓ For trying to give information time China because he's so pissed off But it's just the brain drain across all agencies not so calm not Department of Defense not IRS, but all our sciences You have people that are struggling, they're not making money, they were on furlough or whatever. And it's gonna be our allies too, know, France might recruit them. And okay, that's not China, but still, France is gonna benefit and that's our loss. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Yeah, think it's funny how when Republicans are in charge, they beef up security in the streets. know, they go and they get more police officers, they go and get more ICE agents, they do all that stuff. But when the Democrats are in charge, they go and they hire a lot more IRS agents. Earle: Mm-hmm. Well, it's always, I don't know, somebody said it is like we always elect Democrats when like, you know, shit hits the fan kind of deal. And that being said, I also don't think it's just you elect Democrats for the sake of electing Democrats. But like, to your point, though, I think it's the other issue that we're suffering as a country is like we talk about nuance and context. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And boy has it hit the fan. Earle: I think a lot of Republicans, it's us getting the messaging right. The one thing Democrats have struggled with is I think messaging. we were talking the other day is instead of saying, we'll say food insecurity or nutritional assistance. And instead of saying like grandma's gonna be grandma starving. so when like for Republicans have really been able to be effective when they say crime, like you talk about crime, crime, crime, crime, crime. And so they're able to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: boost your law enforcement, you're able to boost ⁓ ICE. But the thing we struggled is like we know how to fix crime but it's a systemic problem and you it's not the the ICE and Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: police thing is a band-aid, right? If it's crimes of cancer, you have to start at the very bottom. You have to do the boring stuff, right? Which is invest in education. You have to invest in everyone. You have to give people daycare. You have to give people transportation options. You have to boost the local economy. You have to do all these boring stuff that doesn't make good news, but you have to stop from the bottom. Like, you know, if you want to not have cancer, you should eat salad and, you know, not drink every day and... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Yes. Yes. Right. Stop eating so much processed food. Yeah, yeah. Earle: Yeah, exactly. And so you need to, and so that's the one thing that Democrats have always struggled with messaging is because, and I don't also want to say Democrats, because I think historically there have been Republicans that have been like, you know, have like, you know, if we're helping everyone that should help fight the crime. But right now, it's the messaging is so simple to say, crime is bad, police. Like, that's not how it works. Immigration. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. That's been my argument with this whole overreaction with ICE. So number one, I grew up in the inner city. I grew up watching police beat up black and brown people. everything that you're seeing in the news right now is not new. It's old news. Earle: Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I have been watching it for 53 years. So ⁓ as far as messaging goes, I think it's easy for Republicans because they say business drives innovation and it makes everything better. So we need money to run businesses. The Democrats or the left side of the argument, it's more of a shotgun thing. Earle: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): ⁓ we want equal rights. have women's rights. We have black and brown people rights. We have ⁓ food insecurity. And then when you say like when someone says homelessness and they come back, no, no, no, no, no. It's it's house. Less or whatever, you've already turned off everyone that's there about the business, they're about the money. So it's it's unfortunate that the left's messaging. Earle: insecure. Yeah. ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): seems scattered and unfocused, but that's because they worry about more stuff. Earle: Yeah, yeah, and I know that's actually a great point it's because Especially with social media and the idea is it just make this hustle culture, right? I just money money money money money and This just doesn't work that way. Like I mean, it's great that people want to hustle and I think people respect that but at same time You can't hustle unless you have a car like you can't hustle unless you know, like your broken leg is getting Yeah, so it's Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yep. Mm-hmm. Unless you can get there. Yeah. And, and I'm gonna add this. You can't tell me that hustle culture. I don't, I haven't done shit but hustle. But you don't see doors opening wide open. All you see is me hustling and struggling and hustling some more and struggling some more. Earle: Yeah. Absolutely, and I think that's the other thing too is I remember somebody saying like I believe in a free market I do like capitalism like I think they're but if you're gonna do capitalism needs to be capitalism like this word ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): This crony shit doesn't work Earle: Yeah, and then when you say capitalism you need to level the playing field for mom-and-pop shops versus Amazon like you You need get rid of non competes because that's straight-up anti capitalist So if we're gonna call it a capitalist system call it a capitalist system But it is in the it is the government's obligation to invest in its people and when if you invest in people you will get a return you will get a return and So it is government Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Right. Right. You know who police don't beat up? People that are going to school. And it's obvious they're going to school. Earle: Yeah, exactly. that's government needs to pave the way. Like that's the thing is like I like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yes. Earle: I think we get hung up and there's always these talking points that again. It's the messaging with Republicans very simplified It's very effective. It's fear-based or whatever But the thing is when we talk to people in their everyday lives That's how you connect with people it gets getting away from this like again these words, you know Food again, they those it just drives me crazy food insecurity. No, like that person's hungry. Yeah, like yeah ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): People are hungry. Earle: So it's getting that messaging right. And I think that's the benefit of being kind of a younger, newer politician is I like, like I have, it's funny that like me and you talking like we're like, like we're look alike or whatever, but we have radically different, I grew up in Wyoming, right? But my mom was also, my family is also lower income though too. So I had like, we had radically different experiences, but the same token, we know what it's like to struggle. Like I know it's like to go in the convenience store, eat, you know, ramen noodles. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Right. And we know what would make things better. Earle: Yeah, so I think that's a common experience. But the thing it's also shaped is our empathy and compassion for people in that position now, right? I'm fortunate. I did a lot of stuff because the government invested in me. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Right. Earle: I used the GI bill. I didn't have to pay dime after law school. So, and that has had big returns. Like, I mean, I'm paying my taxes. I'm a taxpaying citizen. Obviously, I landed a job with the government where I guess they were paying me again. anyway, but still, like, I was doing a job, like, you know, and now I'm like, ⁓ you know, I'm... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Same. Earle: and giving back to my community and I'm doing stuff and you know I'm paying taxes and that investment and I think people like me and you we see that we experienced it firsthand the programs that are putting you know in place before the institutions the people that came before us said hey like we need to take care of others we benefited from that We know this country only gets better when we do that when we uplift everyone this is the whole idea that we're punching down right now is complete bullshit and The government needs to uplift everyone like and especially those people that don't have the voice don't have the ability to hire a lawyer don't have the ability to fight back it's about uplifting everyone and Everything our forefathers built for this. I mean we were again not a perfect nation, but It was about being better like making it better for the next generation Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. And I think that's why they wrote it the way that they did. It's in the pursuit of a more perfect nation. If we get there, cool. But like, you know, I use this analogy. When I was a kid in Chicago, I looked up to Michael Jordan. I wanted to be a basketball player just like Michael Jordan, boy. I would go and I would practice and I would go and I, you know, I stick the tongue out and I'd Earle: Absolutely. Thank you. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): you know, do all the things. Did I make it to the level of Michael Jordan? No. But there's a couple of dudes that got dunked on. You know? Yeah, you just have to keep working on it. But sitting here saying, no, this is just the way that it works. No, it doesn't. And Trump is a very good example of if you really want to make things change. Earle: Yeah. Well, I mean, it's inspiration. Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You can. He has. Earle: Yeah, yeah, he just yeah, he just did whatever we want and that's I mean I don't know if that's the mechanism going forward but like I mean to Because that's the thing imagine doing what he did. He's doing right now, but improving people lives Yeah, yeah like literally like hey like I'm just gonna start a massive jobs training program I'm gonna make sure Eric every kid has food like okay, like that should be a non That should be a non political issue Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): but with good ideas. Yeah. Yeah. Earle: and and meanwhile where you're worried about $80 and welfare going getting wasted because in like the thing I was thinking about is even if there is any sort of fraud right even if there's any sort of fraud whatsoever and you have a hundred like 95 % of people are Getting fed and there's 5 % fraud. That's 95 % of these kids are getting hungry, I mean getting fed, they're being taken care of, that is worth it to me. That is worth it for five people to be scummy, humey, and we'll catch them eventually, but if you're feeding hungry kids, okay, that's a trade-off I'm willing to take. I'm willing to take that loss. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and explain to me why people, given those, let's say, let's say those numbers were accurate, and I know you're just going off the cuff, but let's say we were feeding 95 % of the people and there was 5 %... What'd you say? Fraud, yeah. There are some people that would still rather give that money to business owners. Earle: Yeah. fraud or yeah, run away from ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And I'm like, did you not see Enron? Did you not see what happened in 2008 financial crash? Did you not see the Bernie Madoffs? Did you not see all this stuff? You are more likely to get taken for a ride by a business owner than you would the government. Earle: Absolutely. I mean think about your overdraft fees and your um, I don't know all these fees that like I don't know Just your transact like when you pay rent you're like you have like you try and pay rent You have to pay a transaction fee to pay your rent, right? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, when I pay, what is it? It's either the VA, because I have to pay, I get my health insurance through the VA. So it's either the deductible on the VA stuff, or it's when I'm paying for my license and license plates and stuff like that. There's a transaction fee there too. Earle: ⁓ huh. Yeah, and it's like it's complete and but this is the thing and that's like again, it's why one of the weirdest things too is like Bernie Sanders is like ⁓ Everything about Bernie's in credit like crazy the fact he's independent, but he's very far left But like he's respected among Republicans like they don't like them But there's a lot of Republican people that vote Republican don't like and I think because he doesn't Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): He's been saying the same thing for 50 years. Earle: but he does a good job of highlighting this stuff in a very normal manner. He talked about postal banking, A postal banking which is government banks where you're not getting nickel and dime. So you're not getting crazy overdrafts or whatever. And so it's a service. Hey guys, it's okay to have services where you're not being exploited for some guy to have a yacht. And even that, you can connect with people because when you're struggling, if you're a Republican, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. right. Earle: Because guess what? It's not only liberals struggling. It is everyone struggling just as equally and you have five dollars to name and also suddenly hit like an overdraft fee of negative, you know $35 that hurts like that stings when you're struggling and that's shouldn't be political and so He's done a really good job of highlighting like hey, there's certain things Government is not a business. That's the biggest thing is the most important thing I think going through law school it like you go through like you learn about the constitutional law, but Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Everyone is struggling. Yeah. Earle: government has obligations that businesses do not have and people do not know that like business guys Government has to pay for a Navy government has to pay government has to like like all this government has to courthouses they have to pay for all this stuff the Businesses don't have that obligation, right? So Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Right, businesses don't need to pave the roads, don't need to pay, make sure that the traffic lights work. Earle: Yeah, so government has obligations where you can't say like, hey, like it's a business and there's the thing that I was talking about the other day that was interesting is I think people are so struggling so much that they only can see dollar signs and it makes it easy to monetize everything now, right? Because you're you're struggling and that's where we're going like when they're trying to like monetize the national parks or sell portions of public net that stuff is meant to be enjoyed that is a service there is no dollar sign that should ever go on that kind of stuff and that is for that is for the public trust the public benefit and that Yeah Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Yeah, you're from Wyoming, which is perfect. Or originally from Wyoming, you're from Florida now. ⁓ The National Park there, we have Old Faithful. Earle: Yellowstone and Teton, yeah, great. mean, the Teno. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yep. So imagine having something as beautiful as old faithful and the Tetons and all that stuff. ⁓ but it's privatized and there's hotels everywhere. Earle: Yeah, and then you have to pay $100 to get in there to go to Old Faithful and there's, you know, there's a Waffle House right there. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Like Disney level, Disney level, like imagine having to pay Disney level money to go see nature. Earle: Yeah, and it goes against everything again like you think about Teddy Roosevelt like that goes against everything or for they I Mean if you go to these parks like I remember I the first time into Yosemite I was the government sent me out there when I with the IRS They went sent us to Fresno, and I remember going to Yosemite for the first time. I was like, holy shit. This is This is crazy. Like I like it took my breath Yeah, and Yosemite I just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's cool. There's Buffalo right there, walking on the road that your car is on. Earle: I was just like man like I was just like wow like and I just can't fathom a world in which that is okay like that where There are certain things in life that is a benefit like we can't want the fact when we start monetizing everything It's just it breaks everything and if you have if you don't have a nickel to your name And you're having a bad day. You should be able to go to a public park lay on the grass Take a second to catch your breath You shouldn't have to pay $10 to do it and then all your time's up or you know If you buy a cup of coffee you can say it you know. It's a... Yeah. ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): or a membership fee to go to a fucking park. Earle: Yeah, no, you're right. That's like the beaches, right? Like, mean, in all states, mean, I know California is fighting it too with you really wealthy owners. And like, this is public. Like, this is our country. It's not yours, it's ours. And it's, again, when everyone benefits, the whole idea, I just can't fathom a background in which it's me, me, me. Like, I just can't fathom. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Yeah. Earle: And I think it takes, I don't know what kind of trauma or the lack of experience that you have to come from to be me, me, me. It's just beyond my comprehension. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Yeah, well, it's a lot of me, me, me. But then the me, me, me goes into these little circles that we're learning about. know, Trump and his little circle that's running things right now. And then you have Elon and the, you know, the PayPal mafia, you know, and it's a lot of me, me, me. Yeah. But it's a lot of these small little groups that are out here. Really. Earle: Yeah. Yeah, you're almost. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And the more money these little groups have, the more influential they are, the more influential they are, the more we see people struggling. Earle: Yeah, and that's it's just and but it's the this people struggling that are targeted right they can't they don't have a voice They don't and like they can't you can't protest when you're you got to make the rent like that was the other thing Like I mean that was the other thing too people were like we're talking about ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. When you gotta be at work, yeah. Earle: People are talking about like, isn't there rice in the streets? Why are we having a revolution? Because we gotta get food on the table, man. Like, if you leave, you're gonna, like, we don't know what the economy is like right now. So if you leave your job to go, like, say, fight the system during the No Kings protest, you know, it was, you can't afford to do that, right? You just, and especially when you have obligations, you have kids that you got. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And now with ICE, like, people like me can't just roll up to a protest like that anymore. Earle: Yeah, and then especially now and I don't the scary thing about ice is I don't know to like No think circling around states like Florida and Arizona Is at what point do the scariest thing? And I don't even know the answer to this this stand your ground laws kick in right if I have a masked guy That's really like just has please like you know, and you're a fear for your life. I Don't know. That's that is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I saw a video, I saw a video like, it's not even, it wasn't a video that just some kid was making. It was some news video where some people were admitting to going on Amazon and finding ice costume stuff. Earle: Yeah, there's, think. I think there's already been like people like that are got convicted of kidnapping. There is the guy that got convicted. He's at an ice fill facility assaulting a woman. ⁓ So, I mean, that's the thing is there now it's become to the point like they're not legitimate and you can't identify people and and if you say like some like a person like me and you and you watch the news and you see like, you know, some guy get like some person get kidnapped. Is that reasonable fear? Like, yeah, it might be. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Right, right. I don't know if that's ice or some asshole trying to do some goofy stuff. Earle: It's So I don't and I don't know the answer to that like I really don't it's terrifying to me the fact that I don't know what that means like in a state like Again, like Florida has a very Florida has a very strong strength stand your ground. It used to be on the The defendant to make the case that they're in they've switched it around it like used to be the defendant that had to prove that ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: They're in fear of the life. But now the prosecution has to has to flip There's some weird twisting man on it and make it very stand your ground very effective in the state of Florida so you could get away like ⁓ It's very liberal. ⁓ I guess to say the least but But yeah, I don't know what that means going forward and but the only the only benefit of Florida is is a very very very Republican state So I don't know Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Hmm. Earle: Mean they're they're here. They are here. But obviously his intention is to be in Minnesota and you New York and California Yeah, so yeah Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Make a show. what are some more of the local things that your constituents are dealing with? Earle: I think for me, it's one of those things, affordability is kind of a cross thing. Home insurance is huge here. Home insurance prices have skyrocketed not only because property insurance has seen a significant, in the last four five years, home insurance. So everything kind of trickles back to affordability in the bigger sense, but or in particular, especially with, you know, the hurricanes last for years and there's not a lot of insurers are leaving the state. So there's not really a good mechanism to, ⁓ to insurers, but especially with, again, if the hurricanes hit, the state is backing people, but some of the previous Ideas of having a federal reinsurance program to kind of be a backstop for states like Florida where to make sure like the premiums, we keep the premiums down where it focuses on exclusively, you know, the working class type homes rather than a lot of the big houses on like on the water. There's also talks of, know, making sure the bigger people who can self-insure. Pushing that pushing that out there a little more but then also electricity prices have skyrocketed out here as well and then I mean and then the big thing local businesses and You know, it's one of these things. It's a four billion kind of issue all around the country, but with local businesses You know the loss of labor ice right like? destruction here or you know Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: Florida is a huge agricultural state even though Pinellas is not particularly, but that all has an impact on... You the pricing that people see so but else also has ⁓ a pretty decent sized senior population some Medicare Social Security are in very important and A lot of seniors are really struggling right now So the one thing is I when I first started running I kind of like ⁓ like maybe stabilize it and then the more I talk to people like that's not enough We need to drive down costs now So one of the things I always kind of talk about is, know, obviously the tariffs but with health Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: insurance and home insurance, big topics, but you know basically it's about transparency, right? If you have, if you're able to open up the books, you're able to eliminate unnecessary middlemen, you can see how your money is being spent, and then also realistically we gotta encourage competition, what we talked about capitalism, talking about antitrust, encouraging competition, encouraging other people to come in to really kind of drive down the cost, so... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: think affordability across the board but also those safety nets of health insurance and And then again people are hungry like, you know food prices are not going down inflation is not being The administration says they're bringing it down but there's we know Yeah, so but yeah and then like yeah everything to his infrastructure like I mean there's some new housing developments in the process and you know, they're ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): We're tired of waiting. Earle: You those transportation stuff, especially In my Clearwater Beach in those areas have a lot of congestion so it's a lot of things right now, but I think again it always Was it James Carpbell? It's a though. It says like it's the economy stupid. It's people's wallets like that's the thing is like people are so They're filling the effects every single day. So Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: Again, ⁓ I don't want to say affordability, just we got to lower the cost of everything and then like I said I I kind of like those ideas that I mentioned to kind of start the process and when you maximize transparency, that's the thing that Resonates with the Republicans to write they wanted your skeptical so so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. And that's the part that I don't argue with Republicans because here in California, LA spent a lot of money on homelessness and it only got worse. So yeah, this transparency thing, but actually make it transparent. Earle: And I think that's the other thing too. I think transparency is not, yeah, transparency across the board is huge. Whether it's government, whether it's, like, I mean, know businesses need have privacy or whatever with something like, but the other thing is when you have single owner, like, you know, there's one electric company, right? That's a monopoly. So we should know how they're being run. And when they're... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. or even not just necessarily that, we know that like these cable companies, we know that they form their own kind of union. It's not necessarily a proper union, but we know for a fact that when you go to one area, there's one kind of cable provider. You go to the other area, it's a different cable provider or internet provider. And that's because they've made the conscious effort to not challenge each other in those different areas. That's not competition. That's not fair. And then they get mad at the people that do that and they're trying to unionize. People are doing that very same thing. Earle: Yeah. And yeah, they're like, yeah, they're making. Yeah, and so it's just, again... You're welcome to get all a US of a No, I mean no absolutely so I it's like I said, I think there's ⁓ the affordability issue is huge and it's like again like tariffs are always a low-hanging fruit, but it's also like you have to Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): hahahaha Earle: The big thing to running as a Democrat in Florida is you have to offer an off ramp to Republicans. You have to offer an olive branch to them or give them a reason to make that leap. And I think there's certain things. There's again, there's all these things that unify us and it's really driving those messages home. And like I said, it doesn't matter if you're Republican or Democrat, everyone's struggling. But again, you want accountability. Like, I mean, that's another thing that I'm hearing as well within the district. Accountability of ice. mean even ⁓ Independence are not happy with what's going on with ice so and I mean some Republicans have stepped up a little more but account of line in ⁓ We actually just did a poll the other day and crud Shockingly again independence Republicans were concerned about the corruptness in the government so and then I mean in this administration they see what's going on so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Mm-hmm. So let's talk about that because I think. Republican or we'll say conservative people that see the left just wanting to feed the world and making the world a better place and all this stuff and they're like yeah but where's the money coming from and who's taking the money who's got their money who's got their hand in the cookie jar Earle: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): This government has invested so much money, time and effort in AI, but I haven't really heard anyone talk about how we can leverage AI and or a form of AI and the baking system to actually bring transparency to where our money is going. Earle: Yeah, I mean that's but that's by design. I mean I like right now I mean there's I don't know if there's like certain federal contracts and stuff like there is when ⁓ When people like contract with the government It's meant to like there's contracts like Boeing these Know that it's not the banking system, but there's contract and I'm sure there's contracts with the banking system But even when like they say hey, we're gonna build these jets for 350 million dollars. That's the contract, right? That's a legal contract and there's these contracts are specialized so but if they go like cost overruns and it's 40 like, know It's 400 million dollars and they experience all these setbacks that they didn't plan for but these contracts still guarantee Profit so like So there's all these, they need it to be opaque and hard to see because this is just the game. Government contracts, whether or the banking system, everything, when everything's hidden, they can control everything, right? They can manipulate the numbers, they can tell you what to think, like, you you go to CNBC and like you see the Department of Labor right now issuing numbers and people are like, are we sure about those numbers? Or like, ⁓ they're revising the numbers. Well, we're not seeing the numbers, like, you know? So everything is, they need it to be that way in order to drive whatever narrative they want. And like you say, like, whose hands are in the cookie jar? Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Earle: know like we honestly don't know at this point and you're hearing weird stuff about other countries getting kickbacks and you're hearing you know so and even within Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. and people getting kickbacks. And that's what's driving the conservatives crazy. And it's easy for them to take a look at the people like you that are trying to feed kids. And they're like, how are they, like, where's all this money coming from? And where's it going? Earle: Yeah, and and so I I think it's just I think we're at a I mean, I don't know when we're at a breaking point I thought we already at the breaking point But again, it's it's when people were able to have an honest conversation You're seeing it right now like across conservative media, right? Like they're like people like what did we get ourselves into Marjorie Taylor greens like this entire thing's a lie So people are starting to see like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): That's a really good point. Earle: Yeah, and the other thing too is, and the other thing the administration's done a bad job of is by the fact that they're so willing to double down on what people should see, but the reality is people are, again, they're saying this is down or this is down, but reality is saying something else. And that is, they're losing a lot of steam over that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: Yeah, but it's again important for in these times like this as someone who's running for office to We can't go politics as usual because that's how we got here and if doing the same thing you're in the same result so it's obviously we got to skew the message we got to change the message and then you know, but also Yeah, but make sure we're delivering for everyone. Like it's not like a Republican Democrat, but hey like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. make that change. Earle: You know, like I know you, we may have disagreed in the past, but we gotta, you know, make it better for everyone. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, and lover or hater. AOC is bringing a form of transparency. I see her talking directly to the American public using social media, saying, this is what's happening. This is what's supposed to happen. This is what I see. This is what's happening. Da da da da da. So she's built this relationship with her constituents and those of us who just like to learn about how Earle: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): politics actually does work. But then people chastise her for doing that. But didn't you just ask for transparency? But then when they give it to you, you get upset. Earle: Yeah. No, and I well I think that's goes back to the the the playbook right like it's just because they can't win on anything else right they need to drive that fear they need and they create and like this the most frustrating thing I've ever heard like I hear is when they say Paul like, you know, all politicians are bad. That's bullshit. Like I mean there are some there are some really good people in office like there are some good people who really give a damn and the whole idea of you giving a damn you trying to feed Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I agree. Mm-hmm. Earle: feed hungry kids, you try to make sure people get education, make sure people don't have to worry about their heat bill. That's, you know, that's, that's... just doing the right thing. But in order to drive this narrative and to counter any policy that can improve people's lives, you have to instill this fear of AOC or, I mean, I don't necessarily agree with all of her policies either, as far as, someone asked me, as leadership perspective, like, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I don't either. Earle: I mean, she's an impressive human being like she has stood up to bullies over years. She has held her ground She's always taken a moral high ground like she has like her name She has incredible political courage in especially in this time So someone asked me and obviously she's probably she's the most popular person in Congress probably for a reason But then what else is she's I mean, she's a minority. She is a woman. She's in her 30s That's the kind of all it like I'm not saying minorities only, mean, but she represents America. I mean, we're a mix of people, right? So, so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's not supposed to just be, the government's not supposed to just be rich white dudes. Earle: Yeah, it's she represents exactly what her district is like what her district is and that passion has fueled her ability to become like a superstar but in using that she's been able to do good things and I'm like you're seeing it from a lot of again a lot of other young reps and It's and I think that's what we need. We need people with you know skin in the game. Oh, this is what I almost kind of want to say is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Yeah, because you have way more future left, God willing, you know what I mean? You have way more future left. AOC has way more future left than Mitch McConnell does, than Donald Trump does, than some of these older— Nancy Pelosi does, you know what I mean? So you literally have skin in the game. These folks are about to clock out. Earle: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): You guys are just getting started. Earle: Absolutely. And I think that's what even when I talk to seniors like I told I told people like hey I I'm running because I believe it's our generous time to step up and like I don't again don't I don't want to come off as a just but I also feel like you know Congress again Congress should be filled the people are passionate But also have a connection to their people like you know are willing to go to you know a rally are willing to go to a food bank are willing to you know shake people's hands and not just go to galas and Just being on the ground floor. So it's and that's Yeah, and and but that and that's and that goes back to the whole thing when we talked about early being American being a patriot is all those people doing those those tough jobs that like require you to get up early in the morning and you know, like go, you know feed people or Go on the street and like be a social worker to help a homeless person, you know, that's like an incredible spirit those people are incredible people and like Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right, right. It's easy only doing the fun things. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Earle: Those are the type of people that should inspire us. It's just, mean, they're doing it for $40,000 a year, but they're doing it because, and that's what this country, that's what makes this country actually great. That's what made it great. And that's what, like, we will get back to it. And that's the other thing too is, always think America's greatness is not made when everything's, it was not formed when, like, know, everything's all, like, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 100%. Yeah. Earle: sunshine and roses or whatever. It's always, our greatness is coming from in the trenches, right? You know, like everything when people had us unify our common struggles, it was in the dirt, in the mud, our blood. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Exactly. When World War I and people were struggling with World War I, who did they call? Us. World War II, who did they call? Us. Earle: Yeah. But it's even then like the civil rights, right? It was like civil rights was a brutal movement like the ending and like ⁓ You know, like we've always gone through these periods But it's our common struggle that brings together and that's the stuff we cherish, right? That's why MLK is a legend and so ⁓ and I kind of feel like that's this is gonna be another one Like we're gonna we're gonna unify at some point It's just at what point do we do it in the damage and what's the damage and the repair like? getting us back on track. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. We, yeah, we definitely have to get back to the point where we. We have to admit to ourselves that we are a family and families have different family members. We have the crazy ones, we have the quiet ones. We have the white ones, we have the black ones. We have the ones in the middle, we have the ones outside. We have the ones inside, you know what saying? We are a family and I... Earle: Thank you. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Nothing, nothing. I was, I was in Germany when Desert Shield was happening. And when I came home, the difference between me coming home and people from Vietnam coming home was day and night. Earle: ⁓ Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): When I was in the service, was watching commercial or not commercials, they had like special airings of, we love our veterans and we love our servicemen and all that stuff. Earle: Mm-hmm. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But nothing reminded me more about America being, the United States being a family more than after 9-11. Everyone flew the same flag. Everyone in New York was nice. Everyone, everyone was on the same team again. And it's terrible. Earle: you Yeah. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): that we are only reminded that we are a family when tragedy strikes. So we didn't learn from 9-11 and now we have this knucklehead in the White House. Is this going to be tragedy enough? Is this going to be tragedy enough for you guys that there are kids hungry and this man is spending $300 million on a ballroom? Is that Earle: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Is that going to be tragic enough for you to remember that we are in this together? Earle: Absolutely and I think one of the things too I when you say you it's like when I think that's one of the things too that we're kind of utilizing in our campaign. ⁓ What you're hearing, I think the typical way of speaking in politics, you always hear people say, the American people. This goes back to exactly what we were talking about, grammar, right? The American people, ⁓ the people of Florida. But when you say you, like you, you, you, you, like you, like you have some responsibility in this, right? Like, or this is gonna affect you. So I think when I started out, like people were always like, ⁓ you can't offend the voter. But like, maybe like, Maybe like not offend the voter, but we need they need to understand what's going on. ⁓ Not understand but they need to know like hey like I'm gonna vote to feed children Because you know this and this is about you like if you have you know Maybe you have a rough patch and you can't feed your kids So I'm gonna make sure so it's about taking care of you, but every making this more personal because politics It's... I think you've heard probably someone say, it must be such a, like, it's... ⁓ It's... Like people are like, ⁓ I don't care about politics. That's a gift. If you could say, ⁓ I don't care about it. Like what a gift to imagine. Because everything in our life right now is politics. Whether it's the tolls you're on or the roads you take or the type of schools your kids go in or the pesticides used on your food. Everything is about politics. So if we're in a world where we need to focus on the overall goal is just to make everyone just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): 100%. Earle: wants to live a happy life. They don't want to struggle. Most people don't want to be a billionaire. They just want to chill out, have a good time with their family, take vacation, have a rewarding career. People are very simple. it's just, again, making it about you, connecting with people, their hands, looking in the eyes. This is about you. But if it's also about you... The criticisms are going to come too. Like if you are going to support this, you're going to own this. Like you are going to own this. And that's the other thing with the administration is like a lot of these people will own what is going on right now for the rest of their lives. mean, so it's it's something we're going to have to navigate, but ultimately we have to rebuild this country and it's making sure they own up to it. but also to make sure it never happens again. And that's where the accountability comes in. People will need to go to jail, especially these ICE agents that have killed 16 people since, you know, and then that's not even including the people who have died in ICE custody, which is exceeding 30 people. So again, people need to be held accountable. This is about you. Everything about politics is you, you, you. People need to hold accountable, but we also need to make sure people are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. I want to bring something up and this is more because I'm a petty bitch. ⁓ When I am in California, folks from Florida say, you guys are taxed and you guys are blah, blah. And it's the cost of living, blah, blah, blah. But I can drive from the border of Oregon and California all the way down to Mexico. and all I have to pay for is gas. In Florida, I can't go to the grocery store without paying four tolls. Earle: things told. Yeah, no, and that's so this is goes back to what we were talking about earlier though, right? Like the blue states and when you invest in people like so obviously California has like their tax rates the base tax rate but we were talking about this offline earlier, but There's like studies that show Texas and Florida pay higher tax then then because Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): California. Earle: Texas and Florida have a more regressive system where California has a more progressive system. So more people at the top pay where the normal person, normal people don't pay as much. And like, I think the state gives you like, you know, more refunds and stuff and they have like a more robust healthcare system. Whereas Florida, everything is kind of based on, well, it's going to get worse because they're talking about repealing property tax. So overall, like the cost associated with actually living there Lower I mean Gavin Newsom like there's I forgot the data where he got it from But yeah, he did an interview and he like it's clear as day. He's like, you know people talk about Florida and But he's like look at Texas in ⁓ Texas and I'm sorry, he took at Texas and Florida compared to California. The other thing too is the thing about Florida is a lot of really wealthy people live here, but the normal working people can't afford. We're losing a lot of young people. What did you see? Whether the attack on our institutions, like educational institutions. They're assigning a lot of ideologues rather than academics to run the school system here. So there's... California is benefiting in the sense that like it's again it goes back to investing in people and I think once we start focusing on it like Florida like Florida could be Florida again I mean, I think Florida is always kind of a centrist state Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: with the rhetoric and I like even talking to people here, it's not for everyone jokes about Florida and I think part of it is the Florida man is a sense of like the call this the sunshine law which really was like for years that gave a lot of information you get freedom of information type requests from the state. So a lot of people learn about Florida but Florida at its heart is still like people are hardcore about the environment. They're hardcore about each other. You have a care compassionate but the the political like when you have the president from Florida Florida as like kind of a ⁓ I don't know, like ⁓ something like, you know, just kind of using that, the state to kind of drive home his points or whatever. I think it's become obviously very culturally divided, but people, when you talk to them, they still care. Like even Republicans, again, like they're not so far out there. It's just, they just feel like they're only stuck with two options. They're all going to back their own team. But even like some of them, when I do my call time and some of my great best conversations, longest conversations with Republicans, like they'll tell me. out that and like hey like I'm Republican so I probably can't donate you donate to you but oh let me ask you about this though and the next thing I know I'm just talking for 20 minutes and I'm not gonna get a donation but I'm talking about 20 minutes and I talked to him about like service and commitment to the country and all that stuff and they like that so It's just I think a lot of things Florida hasn't seen the benefit of where California has and California is so much bigger and you have the states the cities have so much more revenue to Try different things and things may not work all the time with you know, like the homeless problem trying to navigate that's very complex but obviously I Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): For some conservative folks, we don't always get it right. And I'm the first one to always say we don't always get it right. That silliness where they're like people were able to go into Walgreens and steal $900 worth of stuff before they got any punishment. Like that's ridiculous. Right. Earle: Yeah, no one agrees with that. there's no, it's again, it's the, but it's also a utilization of resources. I'm sure, like, I'm sure the nuance of it is, I'm sure it was in San Francisco is happening. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): It's yeah, it's more of a it's more of a we understand that these folks are coming from underserviced areas or communities. So that's why they're doing it. So it's this is where it starts to get icky for people. It's racist if you ⁓ if you arrest someone for not having something. Earle: I'm, yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But again, if the problem is the underserviced communities, we need to service those communities then. Because again, if you were to invest in those communities and more people have, or more people's basic needs are satisfied, they're not gonna go out and steal $900 from Walgreens. They're just not. Earle: Yeah, you got a funny one. Yeah, mean, yeah, they're gonna be at home with their families watching Netflix like they're you know, like a person with that has Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Getting ready for, you know who doesn't steal $900 worth of shit from Walgreens? Someone who has to get up to go to work in the morning. Earle: Yeah, it's about taking care of each other. But then when you take care of each other, everyone benefits, businesses benefit. And so it's an overall net positive. so it's getting back. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Right. You're letting you're letting people who are playing a game that you're not playing, they're not, you're not, haven't invited you. They're ripping as much money out and under the guise of corporations and we're going to create more jobs. They're creating more jobs for people that don't live here, FYI. So then they're pulling and they're pulling and they're pulling and you're starting to see the fabric of society tearing. Earle: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): And if you still think that letting corporations do whatever they want, running roughshod all over our population and the population is struggling and you think that that's the answer, unfortunately, in my book, you're wrong. Earle: Yeah, I think yeah, and it's just, it sucks because they're able to use the media to really drive it, like that's the thing. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. And that's why we're here. And that's why we're here. Because there's a lot of you guys, Earl, that are fantastic human beings. But because no one is giving you ⁓ a microphone, literally today, no one is giving you a microphone to be able to spread your message. Earle: Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): that we're still stuck in the same routine and we're trying to tell people, we can do it different. Earle: And so I would say that's so I'm thinking I'm one of the cuz I know how hard it is to be a can like a no-name can I know like not no-name can but you know the Canada started from nothing Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: But again, but the exciting part is for me, the amount of like, unfortunately, viability is with money, but we found a way we like we're breaking the system in a way, right? Like, I'm not supposed to have more money than the front runners for, you know, the party, right? Like, I'm not, I'm not like, or I'm not supposed to have raised more money. And like, so obviously, like, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. it No, but it goes to show you how tired of the status quo people are. Earle: We had to use young people, we had to use social media. Like we have to do some differently because I don't have a billionaire donor. I mean, I've literally talked to people like this guy over here, this Democrat over there, he has a billionaire backer and they're gonna start a super PAC for him, they're gonna do all this. I don't have that. Like I didn't go kiss the ring, I didn't ask for permission and that kind of gets back to like everything, right? Like the people who wanna control the system are expected to have that phone call, have you sit, Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Earle: down with them and you say like, okay, well, yes, sir. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Absolutely. 100%. And for I mean, I don't know, obviously we have in my race, we just had a one star general step in that's gonna like I think give me somewhat more back by the party than me. But that being said, we did something huge. Like we show that and somebody like me with just a federal worker with no connections, we could shake up this race and we could be we were real. I mean, There's, I mean, there's a real fight in us and it's just not me. Like I've been fortunate, but a lot of these candidates you're talking to are the same people. Like we're just pissed off, non-connected. politically connected, we live in the real world and we're sick of how the system's running so we're doing this. But we're finding ways to do it. There's like that Senate candidate in Illinois, ⁓ the guy that didn't make the stage. And then he made the stage and he called him out, right? Like, I'm not the top 20 because I'm not gonna pay, I'm not gonna give you guys $10 million in revenue or whatever. So that's why. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Kevin Ryan. That's my dog right there. Yeah. Earle: And people love that. mean, people love that. I don't know where that gets him this cycle, but it starts to people start to question the politics as usual and even people within the party. And hey, this guy's too young. And that's the kind of people we need. So. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): and the more conversations that we have like this with people that are truly trying to make change, that are truly trying to take money out of politics. I think one of the things is because the established members of Congress, both sides, they're able to, because they're there, and they have name recognition and people think that they're smart because they're already in Congress and all this stuff. They're able to then turn around and point at people like you and say, he's never been a politician. And a lot of you guys are saying, that's the fucking point. This is not a job. This is supposed to be a service. It's not supposed to be a job. Earle: Yeah. Yeah, that's and That's, I Graham Platner said that in his later interview, though, like, you're not experienced. Like, he's like, in this case, that's a benefit. I don't know, I don't have to go shake hands with a billionaire. I don't have to go, I don't have to go and say, like, you know, the political establishment that, you know, that green-lighted me and gave me, you know, I don't have to go do that. the only obligation I have to is the people that, that, not even the people that select me, the people I represent. That's my obligation. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah. Earle: and getting back to that. I ⁓ understand Congress has always been, historically, it was always rich people. But after the Corps, ⁓ I think a lot through... Through a huge portion of our past rich people couldn't get away from poor people like you couldn't Like it wasn't like so segregated like it is now like you like Elon Musk never has to go to normal Airport like they had a riot in their carriages past poor people destitute people so they had some connection to ⁓ It doesn't make them perfect, but I think that's where you got a lot of they had a little more sympathy and even like people talk about the Gilded Age like we're worst off in the Gilded Age Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Right. Earle: The actual gilded age and like, know, the early 1900s late 1800s but Andrew Carnegie was one of the richest people in the world. And at a certain point, these people are experiencing poor people every day. And then he's like, it's incumbent upon us, the business people, to make sure we take care of them. And one of the things too is there's a guy, I forgot his name, but he was talking to some billionaires. And he's like, a lot of the people we remember in history, they were entrepreneurs. But we don't remember them from entrepreneurship. We remember them saying, hey, what is going on? It's not okay and me as a person who loves my country and loves my fellow man I will take my money that I you know and I will do whatever it takes to make make it better for everyone and There's a lot of really well-known like people that we don't even you know, like like they're business owners and they did incredible things because it was about community. I'm not saying Carnegie was perfect at all, but I'm just saying like having that insight and having to reconcile with talking to riding past homeless people and talking to them and having them run up to you, that's important because you need to have that insight. mean. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: But I mean... Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, tapping back into your community to see what's actually necessary rather than... Yeah, exactly. We have a flawed, new understanding of what leaders are supposed to be. Leaders aren't... Earle: being told. Yeah. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): the person with the most money in the bank, because we're understanding now that a lot of the rich people have been handed all this money. It's very, very few millionaires and billionaires that did it by themselves. Very few millionaires and billionaires that went from absolutely nothing all the way to the top. They didn't do that by themselves. Earle: Yeah. Yeah. And you're right because I think I remember someone Like even now like like leadership leadership leadership you hear leadership and I think even in the military I mean, I'm sure you've experienced to like there's leadership is rank is via rank, right? But you've experienced fantastic leadership like probably like like yeah, like from a corporal then you probably have from like a major right like just Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): from lower ranking people. Earle: But it's like institutional leadership. You just kind of get it and Again, like you go look at someone like AOC or Maxwell Frost who's very young or You know, was it Jonah Goose out of? Colorado but you taught these people were never like institutional leaders, right? They weren't business leaders of their community. They weren't CEOs They weren't you know, they weren't lieutenant colonels. They were just very normal people Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Mm-hmm. Earle: that cared about their community and in doing so, they've been propelled to the forefront as leaders and they've had, they've done what leaders do is protect, know, set the example, but also take care of the people that they're responsible for. And I think we conflate with like leadership again, like, you know, it's great that you're a lieutenant colonel, but at the end of the day, like, and you did this leadership training, but that doesn't make you a quote unquote leader or the fact that you're a CEO and you went to, know, you never, You know, you never experienced what it was like to you. just went to the right schools and you checked all the boxes and you had a position of leadership, but that doesn't equate to actual leadership. And there's examples of all of that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Just because you have the right networks doesn't mean that you're a good leader. Earle: Yeah, and there's examples of that all throughout history whether it's like, you know ⁓ I mean like thinking about the army like Audie Murphy, right? Like the greatest soldier of all time was just an enlisted guy Infantry dude and he was just an all-around he didn't go to any fancy schools. Like I mean he didn't like go He was just complete badass, right? So it's just ⁓ Again, think it's ⁓ and again the one thing too is throughout history It's always normal people. It's always normal people that change history. And ⁓ especially in democratic nations where like they get recognized, but whether it's, you the scientists who create penicillin or in Florida, like someone who mentioned to me the other day is the guy who created air conditioning. Like that guy's a hero, right? But it's just one of that kind of stuff is normal people. So ⁓ I think it's just getting back to that. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I think this is a good place to land the plane. Earl Ford, Florida 13. Give people your last pitch and then let them know where, excuse me, and then let them know where they can find you online. Earle: So my last pitch is I mean I I'm not gonna do my stump speech because I think this conversation is like incredible but I think What people are getting with me is someone who gives a damn right? I am a public servant in the heart I served my time in the military my time short time at the state attorney's office my time at the IRS I'm doing this because you know, I again I have a four year old and one year old. I can no longer be on the sidelines. Was, you know, that the country we grew up in, the country love becomes unrecognizable. And my entire reason for doing this is because I believe we are better together. And I believe when we uplift each other and are like the communities, everyone benefits. And I'm, you know, the oaths we swore in the military, the oaths I swore with the federal government, those Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yep. To the Constitution. Earle: will never leave me. They will never leave me and I will not stand by Ily while people in my community suffer, while you know, needlessly suffer or you know, and it's just, it's about, everything's about community to me and it's, I want to make a difference and I'm not okay being on those, you know, just letting things melt away. So, not the greatest, not my stump speech because I just feel... ⁓ This was like a unique opportunity to just be like, I'm, it's about community, man. It really is. And it's about, it's not about me, it's not about you, it's about us. and then if, yeah, and then just check us out at electearl.com. That's E-L-E-C-T-E-A-R-L-E.com. have an E at the end of my name, so electearl.com. But yeah, but yeah, that being said, everything's going great. This is, this is fricking awesome. I love this. This was a great interview. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): Yeah, thank you. Thank you for taking time from making all those calls and trying to... ⁓ Earle: I'm about to go back in. But no, it is it is Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): But yeah, thank you for all your insight. ⁓ Yeah, we will, we will. ⁓ Earl Ford, everybody. Florida 13, they're there. Florida, for as much trash as I talk about Florida, it's all in just. Earle: Yeah, we'll have to do it again. This is good. Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): I kid because I really do. I have a lot of family all over Florida. One of my cousins lives in Tampa, so he's probably gonna be paying attention to this video. Yeah, so I do love Florida. ⁓ It's just, sometimes you guys jump out crazy and we gotta let you guys come and meet Earl, cause we... ⁓ Earle: It's on vlog. ⁓ I didn't know. Perfect. It's this one. It's a weird world. No, I agree. It's a weird world. I mean, but no I like again we're we're one people man. So I like it's just Yeah, so Carlos Gomez (Coconut Justice): we can do it man together we can do it and with that everybody we're out