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CJP #26: Kevin Ryan - Sentate Candidate for Illinois · Coconut Justice

• speaker-1: Hey, what's good? Kevin Ryan is a Marine veteran, Chicago Public Schools Teaching Veteran, and has recently become a school bus driver. He drives a school bus around the state of Illinois because he's spreading the word of his grassroots efforts to become one of the U.S. Senators for Illinois. This is my conversation with U.S. Illinois Senate candidate Kevin Ryan. 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. I bet you have heard about van lifing. But I bet you haven't heard about school bus campaigning. We're gonna find out about school bus campaigning because my boy here, Kevin Ryan, is running for US Senate for Illinois. So this one's gonna be fun. So everybody, welcome. Kevin Ryan. Welcome, sir. speaker-0: Great to be here. Thanks for having me. speaker-1: How's it going? speaker-0: ⁓ it has been quite the journey. ⁓ so June twenty eight is when we launched, so we're we're just over six months and ⁓ it's like one of those cases of you don't really know quite how far you've gone until you like take a moment to pause and turn around, you're like, Holy crap, it's like that's where I was and and here here we are now. ⁓ it's it's it's pretty cool. It's been a very formative experience in just a very short amount of time, six months. I launched it in ⁓ at at a family like a family friend who owns a bar in Oaklawn, Illinois. And we had like a little bunting up and like as I was giving my speech, I was like reading it off the paper, the bunting fell off. Like there was literally fire trucks were going by and it was like the most like everything went wrong that you possibly could. ⁓ but ⁓ it it was I mean it was it it's just from that moment to now it's been it's been so cool and speaker-1: Yes. speaker-0: It's just so much. I think I think we'll probably get into it like like specific questions and things. But ⁓ I'm just it's been it's been an awesome ride. So speaker-1: Yeah. I think that's something important for younger folks that are campaigning for office. ⁓ you're not a polished career politician, so it's okay to be a little nervous. It's okay to it's okay to not get it a hundred percent up front. You know what I mean? ⁓ that's just that's just part of becoming who it is that you want to become. So be patient with yourself. It's cool, not everybody. Not everybody talks smack for a living. speaker-0: Well, yeah, mean, you should have seen me last night at York Township. I mean, I I think I crushed it if I could, you know, toot my own horn. And it's like it's just more we've come from, you know, in the in that matter of of six months. But you're right. I mean, I think as long as you start with like being genuine and honest and coming at it from like doing something for the right reasons, people will see that regardless of how polished you look. Yeah. Regardless of if if you if you speak well and publicly, like if you if it's coming from an honest place, people see that often. And that's what we base this entire campaign on, was being radically authentic, because I think that's so sorely lacking in our politics. speaker-1: I think that's I think that's what's cool about this this younger generation of grassroots. ⁓ it's that they are coming from the genuine wanting to make things better. It's obviously not working. What was it that like running for the house, running for house of representatives? I think it's one thing, but running for Senate, I think, is kind of like a step above, obviously. But what was it about running for Senate that made you want to do that? speaker-0: Well, I think it's about the the job. And so you always hear that. ⁓ you know, you want to run for the office to do the thing that you want to do. You should never really just want to run for office or hold office. And I agree with that. ⁓ that's why a lot of people like will go for the school board because they care about education, or ⁓ they'll go for the state house because they want to do something at the local state level. Except that that argument or that that that position only works at the lower level, right? If you bring it to the higher level, ⁓ well now it's well you should have started somewhere lower. But I'm like, I'm sorry, I thought we were supposed to go for the job that we wanted. Because the reason that I want to be a United States Senator is to amend the constitution to take money out of politics. Now we could do that in the House, right? You could you could introduce ⁓ joint resolution just as you could in the Senate to ⁓ amend the constitution. But in the house, it's majority rule and you're part of a caucus. It's very difficult for one of four hundred and thirty-five to make a meaningful impact. And that's in fact, that's why we've seen the progressive caucus be so ineffective. Because they they could they could say all these things and they can posture themselves, but at the end of the day, they all got in line behind the establishment because it's majority rule. Senate is very different. Senate, ⁓ individual senators have autonomy, which would allow someone like an outsider speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: To come in and leverage that autonomy to do what has to be done. ⁓ like Democrats love to campaign on the idea of campaign finance reform, but then they get elected and they don't really do anything about it. And that's been a history of campaign finance reform. If you study, there's a great book called Buying the Vote, and ⁓ it's by a guy ⁓ last name is Much. I can't remember the the first name, but ⁓ Much argues that there's always been a reluctant Congress that has passed a bill. reluctantly and signed by a reluctant president and it only happened because of a reformer stepping in. And so that's why I wanted to run for the United States Senate. Because as I was, I was actually trained to run for office by this organization called New Politics Leadership Academy. And I think it's a great organization. They talk about like starting from you know what it is that you want to do, be genuine, be authentic, and let that drive you, understand that politics is a little bit of a drug and ⁓ you can become self-absorbed and you should be aware of all of that. And so think it's a great organization. And they're the ones who said, like, you know, you should ⁓ you know, run for the office that you want to run for. But again, that only works at the lower level. Because if you want to run for the United States Senate, they tell you, Well, you you don't have enough experience. I don't have enough experience. I served on the front lines of public education in Chicago public schools. I served in the organization overseas. I mean speaker-1: I don't know which one is more different, Ural, but I don't know which one is more different. ⁓ speaker-0: I'm still trying to figure that out. So it's like, don't tell me I don't have experience. I worked in the United States Treasury Department. I worked in the Marine Corps infantry. I worked in Chicago Public Schools. I have executed policy on the ground, the policy that United States Senators are writing. What kind of experience do they have on the ground? What kind of experience do they get at Yale Law School? Right? That's and that's that's the the the dissonance. And anyway, that's why I wanted to run for United States Senate. That's the job that I want because I know that in order to get the changes done that we need, in order to Amend the Constitution to take money out of politics by saying Congress has the authority to regulate spending, that money is not speech and corporations are not people. And the only way to amend the constitution is by a renegade coming into the Senate and more or less putting everyone everyone else on notice. Being like, I'm not playing by your game. I'm not playing by this money game. You all say this, so we'll get the Democrats in line because they all say this. And then I will get in my school bus. Like I've been going to the red counties of Illinois and I'll go to the red states and I'll I'll I'll canvas down there for this. amendment because seventy two percent of Americans want it. So it's like the majority of people want this. Yeah. The only ones who don't are Congress, the incumbents, because this system for speaker-1: It benefits them. Yeah. speaker-0: So that's long story short, that's why I wanted to run for the United States Senate. speaker-1: How frustrating is it for you to be a candidate that wants to do away with Citizens United and and that type of politics? But when you are campaigning and you say you want to get money out of politics and normal people are like, ugh, yet another one. speaker-0: Well, that's why we're ⁓ that's why we're campaigning this way. Because because Democrats love to campaign on the issue. They don't do anything about it. A good example is when ⁓ when the Democrats held a majority in the Senate, and our senator who's now retiring, Dick Durbin, ⁓ when he was chair of the Judiciary Committee, there was a joint resolution to amend the Constitution to do the three things that I that I said I want to do, to take money out of politics, right? It came before the Judiciary Committee. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: He didn't even bring it up for a vote. I mean, you cannot like that at least even if you don't think there's any chance of passing, bring it up for a vote. Put Republicans on notice if they're not gonna pass it. Yeah. Like I don't I don't understand why they and this is like the fecklessness of of it an aged ⁓ incumbency of Democrats that are not fit for the times. And that's why we we need to rejuvenate, especially United States Senate, where the average age is sixty-four. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: You were in the army. You know our generals have to retire at 64. Congressionally mandated retirement at 64. So Congress can mandate our generals to retire at 64. Yet that's the average age of the Senate. And they're playing by a and Democrats specifically are playing by a rule book that just does not work in in this environment. It does not work to combat MAGA. And and so that's why we're doing things differently. I'm not I'm not just saying that I want to take money out of politics, that we need to do this. I have a plan to do it. I have a plan to amend the constitution and have a plan to get the popular support to leverage it. And the way that we're campaigning is we're spending our time with voters. We're I'm I'm not spending my time on the phone doing what's known as call time, trying to raise as much money as humanly possible because that's the only metric that the legacy media and and pollsters you know take into account. Who raised the most money? Doesn't matter what your ideas are or what you want to do or what you have done. All they want to know is how much money have you raised. Right. You could You could just be an evil person, but if you've raised a lot of money, ⁓ that's the front runner. speaker-1: Well we have we have that incarnated as we speak. speaker-0: Right. And so like ⁓ I people see it when I when I show them because I'm the only candidate in this race that's visited all 102 counties. And honestly, I don't know the last time a Democrat in Illinois has visited all 102 counties because I'm spending my time with the people, not with donors. And people see that and they see that radical authenticity. So when I come to them with this message, it's different. It's not just, ⁓ here we go again. It's ⁓ this guy's serious. And it excites people want to get on board, they want to push this campaign over, they want to support, and people have come out in droves to support it for that reason. Because we have if if we want to take money out of politics, we have to set the example, we have to do it ourselves. And you know what? Democrats could do that in their primary elections. There's no reason that one of my opponents can spend 30 million dollars in a Democratic primary election, especially when Illinois has three downstate Republicans in the House of Representatives. Why don't you that 30 million dollars to to get Mary Miller out of office? You know? It's it's so it's so mind numbingly out in the open, just corrupt. Like these people don't care about making our government work. They care about their own career. speaker-1: Help me understand if a candidate has thirty million dollars, where does thirty million dollars go? speaker-0: ⁓ what where do they spend it on? it's mostly advertising mostly advertising. Okay. So like the eighty eighty to ninety percent of it will be spent on TV advertising, which is incredibly expensive, and then social media ⁓ digital advertising on like streaming services, things like that. Because it's all about name recognition. Just bombard people the same way that Coca-Cola has a billboard outside of Wrigley Field here because they want people to see Coca-Cola. So when they go to the store, they pick Coca-Cola. speaker-1: Yeah. Right, right. speaker-0: Yeah. So it's same thing. So when you go to the ballot and it's like, ⁓ I've seen the name Krishna Morthy on TV a thousand times. I'm gonna pick that name. That's the that's the whole mentality. ⁓ and it's really it's really it's really ⁓ demeaning to voters too to think that like it's like Yeah. speaker-1: For real. There's been I was talking to Joe Perez Caputo a couple days ago, and he was talking about or we got to talking about leveraging ⁓ technology to you know hopefully educate the vote. Is there any have you talked to anyone? Is there anything like that in your campaign where where We can leverage like we we vote on American Idol, we vote on all these things and it's super fast. Why is it that everything that has to do with the government is incredibly slow and people just it's easy to say that it's incompetent, it's an incompetent system. What what is it that we're not doing, whether it's technologically or or whatever? Why is it such a snail's pace? speaker-0: I think ⁓ safeguards have a lot to do with that of election integrity. We've I mean, there is electronic voting, right? If you vote early in in Illinois, you you use electronic voting. You have to go to a polling place to do it. ⁓ but ⁓ having a paper ballot is like a safeguard to for like recounts and things of that nature and it's confirmed what electronic measure things. So I mean, if we could just vote on our phone, it opens it up to a lot of I mean it could I mean it could Theoretically it could be tampered with, but also we handle trillions of dollars a day on our phones for banking. ⁓ and you know our our nuclear submarines are controlled by an internet system that is you know classified and and and highly secure. So like theoretically, yeah, there should be a way to to to make it easier to vote. ⁓ but I think I think why it doesn't happen is is the the the safeguard mechanism to maintain election integrity first one vote and making sure that's that person voting in the right place. speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, it's a little disheartening because I I would think that the media or reporters, not, you know, proper proper like I don't know, maybe like a maybe like a a schoolhouse rock or something to teach people about the different things that they're voting on so they're not stole on Bullshit. It's it's way too easy to sell people on silliness. ⁓ and then they vote against their own interests. speaker-0: So I think a great way to address that problem is with public elections. Now that might sound odd, but we don't have public elections in the United States. We have private elections in the sense that there is no infrastructure to allow a level playing field. And that's why money plays such a big role. If you have the most money, you can bombard the airwaves with your message. Now, if we had publicly financed campaigns. And political parties, which cared more about ideas and character than it did about just winning and holding office, then the parties themselves could facilitate, you know, the the they could take money out of their primary elections, first of all, right? We could have we could have primary rules where you know you're not allowed to buy TV media. And instead, ⁓ the Democratic Party of Illinois could host ⁓ debates for all the candidates. And these bait debates will be publicly televised on ABC, CBS, WGN. For all the to educate the people to to make this a level playing field so people can Yeah, yeah, and fact checking too, right? And s yeah, you can do real time. And if if we had publicly controlled elections as opposed to this kind of like wild, wild west system where we have where I could put out an ad right now and just flat out lie. I could and there's no I'll be protected under the first political speech should be protected under first amendment. speaker-1: And some fact checking. Mm-hmm. You can lie until you're in court. And we've and again we have that incarnate in office as speaker-0: Totally. Totally. I mean, yeah, he did it what he did it yesterday, right? ⁓ I mean ⁓ it's yeah, it's that's why People don't there, you're right, the people aren't educated to vote because you know there's there's there's there's this idea that you need to do this due diligence on your own as a voter to research the candidates and and and I agree to that to an extent. But also think about the people who are working two or three jobs and have kids and have all these responsibilities and they just they don't have they're trying to make ends meet, they don't have time to go through every single candidate, look at their website and determine like It would be easier if on the evening news they j there could just be equal time to both parties, to all candidates, the way that it used to be, before a guy named Ronald Reagan came in and took a wrecking ball to the integrity of our ⁓ FCC. So like that's another way we could do it, is go back to the rules of the FCC regulations that have been dismantled about networks providing equal time to parties and candidates so that people can make informed decisions, as opposed to just only watching Fox News, only watching CNN and and putting yourself into these holes ⁓ where you don't get the here on the other side. speaker-1: Yeah. It's frustrating as a normal person trying to like I'm legitimately trying to help to make change. I'm legitimately wanting the system to work better. And it seems like politicians are just hell bent on not caring. speaker-0: Well yeah. I mean you're not wrong. ⁓ I I truly so like I I was in DC, I worked in DC for about five years, on and off, did some international assignments. I was I I was in in the military at the time. ⁓ and I got to know you know people. I was I worked in the Pentagon, I worked for the Commodore Marine Corps and we often hosted congressional delegations. ⁓ I did a fellowship on the Hill, ⁓ and I I befriended a a congressman. and you know I It's I got to get like peek behind the curtain a little bit. And after peeking behind the curtain rem reminded me of a book I read ⁓ by Hunter S. Thompson. ⁓ it's it's not Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it's a it's a sequel to it, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72. And Hunter Thomps Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, I should say, ⁓ he refers to ⁓ politics as a drug and that it there's no more powerful, addictive or destructive drug than political power. And I think he's absolutely right because when we look at ⁓ sure there's insider stock trading which is wrong and should should be ended, and you know, people get into Congress and then they become millionaires, but they don't stay there until they die because they're making money. Right? They don't they don't they don't they they stay there until they die because they're addicted to a drug. And the moment they leave, they go through the the it's almost like survival. I mean, I'm I think like I I think that's why Joe Biden ran for reelection as president. Yeah. I think he like there's a part of him that's like, if I don't run for re-election, I lose my purpose. And like, what am I gonna do? No one's gonna care what I think, no one's gonna care what I say, they're not gonna be hanging on my every word. Yeah. Because I've seen that. I saw ⁓ a congressman from Wisconsin who resigned because well there's theories, but ⁓ there's a theory that he was about to be ⁓ exposed for an affair. ⁓ and so he resigned instead of ⁓ going through all that publicly. Yeah. But I saw him after being a congressman and he just looked like dejected as if like he didn't matter anymore. And he went over to Palantir, first of all. So like great guy. He's making probably double what he would have made on the hill. But like he lost the drug. Right. He's no longer important. People aren't hanging on his every word. That he's not going in front of the news media. It's it's like the political drug is it like feeds on this incarnate. speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: Or this innate thing that we all have inside of us, which is just the desire for affirmation. You know, the when you're a kid and you're like, hey, mom, dad, look at this. Did I do good? That never goes away. Like we seek for affirmations from our parents, from our lovers, from our friends. And when you're in politics, and I've seen it myself now over the last six months, you start getting affirmations from the general public. And it is intoxicating. It's like, whoa. People like they they they're they're like I'm the best, like I'm the I'm the hero to them. This is whoa, this is this feels so good. ⁓ and that's why in fact that's why on the bus I have a painting of Carvaggio's ⁓ replica painting of Caravaggio's narcissist ⁓ staring into the pool of water from Ovid's ⁓ third book on metamorphoses to remind me that that's that's what I'm getting into. I'm getting into this drug. And if I let it consume me and become all self-absorbing, I'm going to destroy myself just like narcissist destroyed himself. I don't know really how we got onto narcissists in gr in Greek poems, but ⁓ all that to say is yeah, I don't know, actually I can't remember where we where we got. speaker-1: It has It's fine. ⁓ it it all makes sense though. ⁓ yeah, like it for people who don't like politics but do like football, it's kind of like that old whether it's a running back or linebacker or whatever, you get you it's what you have done your whole life and you love it, especially if you're playing football at a place as passionate, say a soldier field. Like Chicago folks are passionate about their sports. Nobody understands it. Well, the markets, right? New York, Chicago, LA, they're passionate about their sports. If if you get all the that love and attention, you don't want to give it up. And then those guys, you know, they they have CTE on the table. So like eventually you gotta you gotta weigh the the pros and cons. But It makes sense. speaker-0: Yeah, that's actually great example. You know, I I that's I haven't thought about that way. But yes, it's like the same, it's the same drug. They're getting the affirmations from the roar of the crowd. ⁓ there in their case, they're risking ⁓ CTE. In our case, we're risking ⁓ not having enough Democrats on the Judiciary Committee because one of them is dead. ⁓ and so we can't, you know, appoint ⁓ justices ⁓ or judges and then they pack the federal courts with ⁓ conservative judges and and we we have what we have today. speaker-1: And that's it, that's a really good time to let go when when you don't know how to fix your email account and you're still trying to fix the VCR because it's blinking to blinking 12. It's time to let go. Yeah. It's the please. Please. And it's not even I'm not even trying to be disrespectful. I'm trying to I'm trying to we have to open the door for the generations that are coming in. Because they're the ones that know how TikTok works. They're the ones who know how all this stuff works and how they want their country to go. speaker-0: Yeah, and you know, as as a military guy yourself, I mean, you could you understand this. ⁓ I mean, think about like ⁓ a military unit and how, you know, you're at a you know, the Marine Corps you had a battalion for like three years and you'll probably have two different roles in that time. ⁓ and then you move on to a new unit. But like sure, if you st if if you're a company commander and you stayed with that rifle company for 40 years, yeah, you'd be an amazing company commander. Right. You would you'd be all you'd be the best company commander in the entire United States Armed Forces. But the moment you leave, like your lieutenants, they you know, if there's you know, what did what did they learn? And how how do they know how to do this? I mean, even at my first reserve unit, I had a a gunnery sergeant who had been there his entire career and he worked his way up and he, you know, been there for a long time. And when he left, ⁓ the the NCOs like were kind of left. flat footed because he like he had just done so much and they weren't really prepared to take on that role. And so it's like a similar thing. There's a reason the military moves people around, moves them up and and and spreads the love so everyone can learn and grow and and it can continue to rejuvenate itself. But if you just have a one generation just locking it down, you know, we're skipping over generations and and how much talent did we did we not talent, energy, vigor of of these people going into great idea. Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: But but they had to wait their turn. And then next thing you know, they waited their turn and now they're seventy five. You know? It's like ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, that finding that time to let go, boy, that is that's powerful. Being able to hand the keys off to me is is one of the most important attributes someone can have when running for office is knowing when good enough is good enough. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. speaker-1: That being said, you were you were sneaking in here that you're in the military. Are you a Marine? Yeah. What ⁓ what made you turn into a Marine? speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yes. I don't really have a good answer. ⁓ you know, people say like they have heard the calling or what whatever. ⁓ I I joined the Marine Corps because when I ⁓ was in college, we were still in Iraq and Afghanistan and people my age, people at the high school with were being sent to war and I said, why them and not me? ⁓ so joined the Marine Corps infantry and ⁓ did one tour in Afghanistan right there at the very end. And ⁓ then went to a couple other places. ⁓ and I mean it was it was a completely transformative experience. ⁓ it was one of the best things it did did for me. And in fact, my time in the military is what radicalized me ⁓ into ⁓ a progressive because of seeing how the government can work for its people. I use the GI Bill to go to college. And then I you know, I mean I still to this day get VA healthcare. ⁓ and I know and I know that it's like speaker-1: Same. speaker-0: It not everyone has had a great experience with it and very much depends on where you go. But I go to Jesse Brown here in Chicago. It gets a bad rap, but I I have had a phenomenal experience of Jesse Brown. and and so, you know, it's like why can't we do this for everyone? And the the the the simple answer is money, right? So I actually talked about this last night in New York Township. There's ⁓ we spend somewhere around fifteen thousand dollars ⁓ on VA healthcare per veteran ⁓ every year. And so if we did that for everyone, if we wanted to like take the VA model, which is a you know step above Medicare for all, we're just talking about like government healthcare, right? Yeah. ⁓ it it would cost about five point two trillion dollars if we went by that fifteen thousand dollar estimate. And our budget, this last budget was seven point one or two trillion dollars. So we're talking about like nearly doubling the budget. And so then we ask, okay, well, can we afford that? Yes, we can. If we if we restructured our our tax system, if we taxed wealth, if we taxed the ⁓ interest as it was income, if we close off tour loopholes, if we increase the tax bracket similar to the New Deal, then we would be able to fund these things. Why doesn't that happen? Because the people with that wealth use that wealth to contribute to candidates who make sure that we don't touch that wealth. 'cause we can't we can't be taxing that 'cause taxing is evil. So let's pass all these regressive taxes and make the working class bear the burden of it without providing any services for them and continue this corporate welfare. ⁓ so like anyway, that's my ultimate journey from the Marine Corps to ⁓ speaker-1: Let me let me add this because we're because we're on this on this topic. Here's my idea for how to afford all these things that would improve America. ⁓ we don't bomb a country. speaker-0: ⁓ that's a good start. speaker-1: I don't know. I know people call me out there sometimes, but speaker-0: But what's the what what's w what of the CEOs at Lockheed Martin and and Boeing and Palantir, how are they gonna afford their yachts if there's no war? speaker-1: Their fourth one, their fourth yachts. Yeah. Yeah. Those guys. Those guys that everyone keeps voting for, but you never get in you all these folks that are voting for rich people, they never get invited to their parties. speaker-0: No, no, they don't. Ever. No. And it would be, and it would it honestly, if people knew just like also people ask me, like, ⁓ are you gonna like you should like write a book about this experience? And you know, ⁓ maybe, but that made me think about like what would the title be? ⁓ I think the title of the book of this experience would be It's Worse Than You Think. An inside look to Illinois politics and diesel mechanics. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: It is so bad. The campaign finance. What people do. I got a Christmas card the other day from a member of Congress. A family Christmas card that said paid for by their campaign. Like what they use their campaign funds for is is is ridiculous. And they will and they'll they'll they'll budget these or call these like events fundraising events. And they'll go out of state, they'll go on ski trips, they'll go on scuba diving trips. With wealthy donors and call these fundraising events, use the money that they've fundraised to buy their plane tickets and all that to go to these events to and to to raise money from these people. And meanwhile, they're throwing ads in our face and they're saying, like, I am doing everything I can to fight Trump. Can you chip in five dollars? Yeah, chip in five dollars to fund his flight out to ⁓ park city, Utah. Like it's it's so it's so gross. It's so manipulative. I mean in this race, ⁓ Roger Christian Morty is particularly bad. He's he's he's focusing on ICE and saying how like this like you'll have an ad about ICE and say, Can you chip in? I'm doing everything I can to fight Trump. That's so misleading and deceptive because he's raising money for the Democratic primary. None of that money is going to fight Trump or Republicans or defund ICE. He has that money that he could transfer to the Illinois Democratic Party or downstate candidates to actually beat Republicans, but no, he's using it in his own race because he really wants to be a United States senator. And he cares more about that than what ICE is doing. I guarantee that. Because he's she's proving it through his actions and how he's trying to manipulate people, prey on their fears to raise money from their limited incomes because they can't even afford to live. I mean, that's how that's how gross this whole system is. And it's it's it's infuriating to s to to see it. And it's it's it's everywhere, Democratic Party and Republican. speaker-1: Yeah. That's something that's been a little bit hard for me to stomach is now that I'm talking to more candidates and you find out that it the fight isn't just between the Republican Party and the Democrat Party, but when you get into the parties, the parties themselves will stamp down some some grassroots candidates that are speaker-0: First thing will because they're challenging the system. The system that keeps them in in power. That's what they all incumbents care about one thing and staying in office. And that's why they do these things. That's why they don't nothing happens with campaign finance reform. Because it's a really hard club to get into. If you're one of the five hundred and thirty-five members of the House and Senate, that's one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. And that means you found a way to get in there playing this game. And now that you're in, that game protects you. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: So why would you want to change the rules to make elections more competitive? You had to raise all that money to win your seat. You're gonna let some Joe Schmo just come in here with a publicly financed campaign to challenge you with his ideas. That means you'd have to talk to people for God's sake. That what the the the idea that our elected officials would have to come down and speak to voters. It's a wild concept. speaker-1: Help me understand how i'm trying to formulate the question without I don't know if this is true, but when a speaker of the house is in contention for speaker of the house, I've heard or from what I understand, a lot of times is because they're a really good fundraiser. Is that true? speaker-0: ⁓ I think it's the the Speaker of the House election, I think, is ⁓ more nuanced than that. ⁓ and also depends on which party we're looking at, because ⁓ Nancy Pelosi was a really effective organ. That's why she was able to hold on to that for so long. ⁓ but but but a general answer is yes, that the the person with the most money has the most influence because they can spread that money around. They can they can they can help other candidates and and so forth. ⁓ they just have a better funded operation. But that's not the only, that's not the only factor that goes into the speaker of the house, for sure. speaker-1: Okay. Yeah, because I've I've heard a couple times and you know, it depends on where you hear that information, how they how they word it. And I just personally have always wanted clarification on that. Cause if that's the case, then that's not cool. speaker-0: Yeah, like I don't I don't think Mike Johnson is a pro prolific fundraiser or was before he was Speaker of the House. ⁓ I'm not sure look at it, but ⁓ he was just like the compromise candidate. ⁓ but I think what's but in that in the sentiment that you're getting at, there is a truth in that politicians only have one metric for success, and that is fundraising. And so that's how they that's how they compare themselves, like as if they're like football players, right? Those are their stats. It's the only stat. The only stat. How much money do you have? And that's what they go by. ⁓ and and that that's why money controls everything. And if if if if only we could take money out of politics, maybe then we can make the stat like, how much legislation have you sponsored that's become law? Because again, picking on Raja Krishnamorthy again, he's been in Congress for five terms and he's passed four bills, sponsored four bills that have become public law, and each of them renamed a post office. So what are you doing in in those 10 almost 10 years that you've been in office? Well, the easy answer is he brought $19 million into this Senate race. And when you can only raise $3,500 a pop, how do you get the $19 million? You spend a lot of time on the phone day in and day out for eight years raising money for the inevitability that our 80-year-old senator is going to retire. And then you unleash all that money in because you really want to be a senator. Well, like why do you want to be a senator? What have you done as a member of the House of Representatives? Like he's an eloquent speaker. He he you know, he he he says the right things. But what is he doing? Renaming post offices? Is that how speaker-1: And imagine imagine being a normal person with a normal job. Let's let's say let's say you're a bus driver. Back in the day, back when I was a kid in Chicago, it was the green limousine. Let's say you're driving. ⁓ But imagine imagine being a bus driver for 10 years and you only made four trips. Would you keep your job? speaker-0: I'm kind of a bus driver now. And it's great. Well, if you were if your job was based on that, probably not, right? But our like our the job of members of Congress, it's not legislating, it's fundraising. Yeah. That's why no one cares. And and and then and they do this little trick. Well, first of all, let me say it's it's incredibly difficult to make to sponsor a bill that becomes public law. Right. It is it is difficult. We we we cannot, you know, ⁓ discount that. But what what a lot of members, pretty much every member of Congress does, they will introduce a bill, knowing full well that they are not going to pursue it, that they are not going to try and even push it through committee, just so they can release a g give out a press release and say, I am today I introduce a bill to do so and so. ⁓ I mean, even like another opponent in this race, ⁓ Robin Kelly, she said she was going to introduce ⁓ articles of impeachment for Chrissy Nall. And while I agree with that, it is speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: more performative than anything else because there's no chance that that's going to pass the House of Representatives. And so they, you know, they they introduce these bills or Republican controlled House of Representatives, I should say. So they introduce these bills and they and they they don't follow them through to try to actually get them over the finish line, but they get to look like they're doing their job. And then when you actually count the score, it's like, ⁓ you haven't actually sponsored any meaningful legislation. They will try to tell you that they co-sponsored it. And sure, co-sponsoring is important, but co-sponsoring just means that you really support a bill. It just means you support it. You know, you're not you're not you're not really contributing much to to the the offering of the speaker-1: You're clapping while your classmate is handing in their homework. speaker-0: Yeah, pretty much. I mean, there is there's certainly there's certainly collaboration that happens on especially like bigger pieces of legislation at the co-sponsor level. But ⁓ when I was on the hill, what I saw was ⁓ a a member would send out an email, their legislative director would send out an email to the caucus and be like, Hey, my member is gonna introduce this bill. Do you wanna sign on to it as a co-sponsor? And the legislative director would probably go like yes or no, ⁓ or maybe ask the the member but if they if they want to. ⁓ and and that's that and then that's it, right? There's that that's the level of collaboration. I mean, I didn't I never really even saw members of Congress work together. ⁓ it was mostly their staff that were going from office to office. ⁓ and it's just like I I just don't think a lot of people, unless they've been in DC and spent some time on the hill, like know just just just how dysfunctional everything is because they spend so much time fundraising instead of actually doing their job. It's so sad. They literally have these little houses, apartments just outside of the capital on Capitol Hill because they can't do political stuff in in ⁓ in federal property, right? So they'll they'll go out to their car or they'll go out to these little call centers, like little cubicles, and they put like and they're making calls. The people are holding them like big giving them business cards of like who to call and they spend a couple hours a day fundraising. Like instead of like researching issues, instead of issues, writing legislation, debating the legislation, speaker-1: Doing your job. speaker-0: No, they just they they're just raising money and for what end? For what end? You know, they they keep telling themselves this lie that, you know, if I just do this, then I'll be able to do that. If you just keep doing this, then no, you can't. It's like you like what's the what what's the speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. If you keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result, you know. speaker-0: Not you do not have the time. You just literally do not have the time to be an effective legislature. Leg legislator if you are spending a third or more of your time on a call in a little cubicle just off of Capitol Hill. It's it's gross and it's it doesn't work. And and the only reason it ha it keeps going is because it's about personal ambition. And you know, if yeah, if I fundraise the party's gonna think I'm good, the party leadership's gonna put me in a good committee spot. I'm gonna be able to move up. Maybe one day I can run for the United States Senate. Maybe one day I can get a cabinet position or maybe I can run for the United States presidency. And it's like if I'm fundraising, if I'm good at fundraising, that gets me closer to that. It has nothing to do with what you believe in or what you've done. It's just all about money. And that's why nothing works. And so when we hear even Democrats say, like, we need this and we need that, we need Medicare for all, we need universal child care, we need fund education. Yes, of course, we need all these things, but you're not addressing the root issue and you refuse to look it in the eye. It's not just Citizens United, because Citizens United only deals with super PACs. That's the dark money and the independent expenditures, like some billionaire coming in and buying a bunch of ads to help promote a candidate. We're not talking about Buckley versus Vallejo in 1973, which said ⁓ it's unconstitutional for Congress to have spending limits because there used to be campaign spending limits. And if that law was still on the books today, the step the spending limit for my race would be five million dollars. Roger Krishnamorthy has already spent $11 million on TV ads alone. And so it's not just Citizens United, it's Buckley versus Vlaille. We have to stop this endless money chase. I mean, Senator Durbin himself said it on This American Life, I think in like 2013. The American, the average American would be not surprised, shocked if they knew how much time a United States senator spent fundraising. It's speaker-1: Shocked. speaker-0: It's why our government doesn't work. And so anyone who tells you they're going to do this or that or that and this, if they don't talk about taking money out of politics, overturning Buckley versus Daleo and Citizens United with a constitutional amendment, they're full of shit. I'm sorry. Like we you have to address the problem. If you refuse to address a problem, the reason you refuse to address it is because you're feeding into it. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Because you're playing by those rules so that you can get into office, so that you can be a member of Congress or a senator, et cetera, et cetera. But it's not about fixing the system. And that's why I I would I refuse to be a part of that game. And so I'm I'm trying to do something different, which is just raising only what we need to talk to voters in every single county of this state, in every single neighborhood in Chicago. And that's what we've been doing. And I think that's how we're able to amass the social media filing that we have in in just six months. I mean, ⁓ we're going over the metrics yesterday. And I've we got like twenty million views in in six months and went from zero to fifty thousand followers across all platforms again in six months. And I'm not I'm not an influencer, right? I'm not an influencer. I'm just someone who's I'm just soon. speaker-1: Yeah. My bad. I was reading the tea leaves. speaker-0: Just because I'm just being radically authentic and I'm calling out the bullshit because it is. Yeah. And that's what people are fed up with because they all like, why doesn't anything work? The reason it's it's money. So let's call it out and let's do something about it. And even the Democratic Party refuses to do anything about it. They could make a rule, they could put spending limits at at the at the party level, they could host public debates and advertise them. Like it no one cares about fixing the actual problem. And that's why nothing changes. speaker-1: Yeah. So you've been talking about ⁓ going out and campaigning and then you tossed in a little joke about the ⁓ well when we were talking about the green limousine. So you're out there putting boots on the ground in a good way, driving around Illinois in a school bus. speaker-0: Yes, sir. Two thousand two Chevy Bluebird. speaker-1: Let's go. ⁓ Does it have a kitchen in it? speaker-0: So ⁓ I was saying how that fridge right there is the same fridge we have on the bus. ⁓ so the bus has a little kitchenette, ⁓ got a fridge, 30 gallon water tank, sink, microwave, ⁓ two couches that can be used as beds, like a 40 inch TV from Salvation Army. ⁓ and I got my office in the back as well, where I have my ⁓ my grandfather's old wooden desk ⁓ bolted into the the the side of the the bus. speaker-1: That's awesome. Tell me about your grandpa. Why has he got this big ass wooden desk? speaker-0: ⁓ well, actually it's actually not that big. It's a normal size desk. But ⁓ so it just happened. Well, my grandpa, he was a teacher, right? So ⁓ I kind of fouled in his footsteps. He he was a Chicago public school teacher. He was in the Navy too. And he was also on the Chicago Board of Education. ⁓ and when he died, I had just actually I just commissioned ⁓ as a second lieutenant, and I came home to see him and I wore my dress blues and He like got out of his chair and he gave me a salute. And then the like a a day or two later, he told my mom, I think it's time to close up shop. And then he went on ⁓ like hospice on palliative care and then he died a day later. ⁓ they were basically doing a state sale and ⁓ I was like, Well, I can't let this desk go. No So I took that ⁓ I mean it's a good wooden desk, you know they'll make them like speaker-1: ⁓ no. speaker-0: And and so I actually I I it's followed me everywhere I've gone. I I brought it with me to my first classroom in Bronzeville and then it came with me to my second classroom in Logan Square. And I also brought it to DC with me and now it's on the bus. ⁓ and so I've I've done a lot of work from that desk and ⁓ I I hope one day to move it into the United States Senate. I'm gonna I'm gonna move they have those big wooden like mahogany desks. I'm gonna throw that out. Get that out. Get that I want my my grandpa's small little wooden desk. That's speaker-1: I can't wait to see that picture, man. I could not wait to see that picture. speaker-0: You know, actually the desk the desk also made another ⁓ prominent appearance. so the the Illinois American Federation of Labor and ⁓ the AFL CIO, they ⁓ they didn't let me speak at their candidate forum. And so and I'm a and I'm a union member too. I'm I'm the only union member on the ballot. And ⁓ I I was pretty ⁓ you know ⁓ shocked by that that they would ⁓ you know just deny a union member a a a chance to get a seat at the table. Like that's the whole point of organized labor is to get a seat at the table, right? So ⁓ when they didn't let me when they didn't give me a seat at table, I brought my bus to the forum and I took out the desk and I put it in the middle of the driveway that everyone had to go through to get to the forum. And I said, if they're not gonna give me a seat at the table, I'll bring my own. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Noticed you have no fear when it comes to doing things for your campaign to show your ⁓ your passion for making change. So now we know you take your own table to places. I've seen you jump in the freezing Lake Michigan water. I'm from there. Or and I know you're you're from there too, but ⁓ for people that don't understand the water in Lake Michigan is freezing literally like there's a couple sheets of or a couple inches of ice and you decided to jump in. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean I I basically just made an offer to ⁓ to my grassroots supporters who've been supporting me all the way. ⁓ you know, I figured they they keep they keep giving, they keep giving. I'm like, I'm not giving anything back, really. ⁓ so I thought I'd make it fun and be like, if we if we reach our fundraising goal, I will jump into Lake Michigan on New Year's Day. And ⁓ we crushed the fundraising goal, asked with asking people for three dollars. speaker-1: We gotta make sure people aren't trying to kill you. speaker-0: I know and I was like, ⁓ man, I guess I actually have to do it. speaker-1: And what was the other one? ⁓ those is one. So to put into context, everything that happened in Minnesota and Minneapolis yesterday with ice, in my opinion, going above and beyond what they were supposed to do do. They crossed a line up to this point. You know, I I I was able to say, yeah, you some people are being a little soft about this, but after yesterday, I agree with a lot of very left leaning people in condemning what happened. ⁓ and similarly, you were in was it broad view? You were in broad view and you confronted ice. It was a ICE detention center, right? And I saw you defending and standing there and protesting in these knuckleheads' faces. Number one, as someone with my complexion, I want to thank you. Because I and I've said this a number of times, Spanish folks listen to Spanish folks. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: Black folks listen to black folks and white folks listen to white folks. So when we see white folks coming over to help us, personally, thank you. Thank you for joining the fight because these are the stories that we, that my community has been saying for decades. We're getting fucked with, we're getting beat up, they're shooting at us. The people that are supposed to be protecting us are fucking us up. So, number one, thank you. Thank you for going out there and and confronting and showing that you are willing to put your body on the line to help a situation that is completely out of control. I don't know if you wanna I don't know if you wanna jump in and like try to explain yourself, but Or not even explain yourself, but explain the story. Tell us the story about how that grew into you being out there. But I hate that white people get labeled this white savior thing when they're only trying to help. And and you know, ⁓ people like you that are that see what's happening and they're trying to help. And people are like, I don't know. I don't know what he's up to. It takes me to this story that or it's a it's a little story or little fable or whatever where. There's a guy fluting in the ocean. He's about to drown. And he's like, God, save me, save me. And he there's a boat that shows up, says, Hey, let you know, let's pull you out. And no, God is gonna save me. And then the second boat, and then the third boat. After the third boat, the guy drowns, he goes to heaven and he confronts God and he says, Why haven't you, why didn't you send me help? He said, I sent you three boats. Mm-hmm. I personally am thanking you for going out there and confronting these idiots that are just bullying this community. how did you learn about Broadview? What was it that took you there? And what was that experience like? speaker-0: Yeah, I mean it's the it's Trump's weaponization of not just ICE, but ERO and Border Patrol and other federal law enforcement agencies, to be frank. I mean, I saw ⁓ the Bureau of Prisons out there as well. the weaponization of that against our our communities and our people is just outrageous. And you have these guys cosplaying as military. And one, as a veteran, I'm like, ⁓ what was was boot camp too hard for you? Were you one of the guys that was Were you you you would punch a drill instructor? That's how tough you are. That's how Yeah. I I when we were out there, I swear I saw there this was 9 15 in the morning. There were guys in tactical gear with nods attached to their helmets. I'm like, you just you're you're showing just how little you know because no one does that because you're gonna lose or damage that piece of equipment. You're just trying to look cool, you're more. speaker-1: Do you speaker-0: You're more concerned about looking cool than you are about ⁓ you know, law enforcement or safety. And so they were, I mean, they were they were terrorizing communities in Chicago, like pulling people off the street, wearing masks, not identifying themselves. It I mean, it's it it it's outrageous. And they're still doing it. They're doing it in in Milwaukee and elsewhere. And so ⁓ w with ⁓ basically the transformation of the Broadview facility into a detention center, a concentration camp ⁓ with deplorable living conditions, ⁓ I felt compelled to go out there as well to to voice my dissent. And I think veterans have a very strong and powerful voice. And I take inspiration from the Vietnam veterans against the war. And so I wore my suit, the same suit that I wear on the campaign trail. And then I wore my medals too. But I didn't wear my miniature medals. I wore my full medals as a subtle protest, so so that like so people would know that this is it was my my own form. of subtle protest wearing my my full size medals and I stood there with a sign that said veterans demand ⁓ veterans demand to stop militarizing our streets and I stood there silently and didn't move. I just had that sign. And what I saw was Gregory Bovino and his goons come out with an armored vehicle that belongs in Afghanistan ⁓ into a crowd of protesters and they immediately tackled like three one hundred pound four foot nothing women And then left me alone. I mean, I I looked, I s Bavina was the only one who made me break my ⁓ you know, my silence. He I we made eye contact as he was walking past me. And I just like from deep in the gut had to release a fuck you, you know, you're the one when you like you bite the lip. Yeah. See just he his everything about him, he is just a piece of shit. Yeah. And like not concerned with safety at all. He's aggrandizing himself at the expense of our neighbors. And They are criminals and they they need to be held accountable. And that's why I was out there because I think veteran voices are particularly important, especially because this was happening as Trump was trying to federalize the National Guard, putting National Guard on the street, militarizing our cities, and veterans of very unique perspective have haven't served. I think we have to step up and speak out. So it's like even more so than just like, it's not that I'm white, it's that I'm a veteran. Yeah. I feel like I feel compelled, like I can't be silent. This is not what we signed up for. To see our streets get militarized. And and I I know for like people who didn't serve in law enforcement or the military, it can be difficult to understand the difference between the two. And like a lot of like sympathizers of Trump might not see like a difference between the two. They often get lumped together, like thanks to our veterans and first responders, police and fire. But there's a very big difference. Law enforcement is meant to de-escalate. Yeah. The military it That when I was trained in the Marine Corps infantry, our job was to create chaos, locate and close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver. Like the the logo of the infantry officer course is a painting of bellow wood of a Marine standing over a German soldier with a bayonet through his chest. That is the purpose of the military. To then that's to defer and def defeat our threats, right? National security threats. That's not what we put on our streets. We put law enforcement. which is meant to de-escalate, which is trained in de-escalation to maintain the peace. Their job is to maintain peace and stability. That's why yesterday what we saw in Minneapolis was the exact opposite. And this is what happens when you just rapidly increase the size and budget of ICE, which is I think the same size as the Marine Corps now, and you don't vet these guys and you don't give them a lot of training and they go out there and they are lethally incompetent. And that's what happened. That's that's how we saw with the murder that happened yesterday. Lethal incompetence. Because we're not betting these guys and they don't know what they're doing and they have impunity. That's why it has to stop. That's why I think veterans have to stand up and speak out against that. They are not doing their job. You know, when I was in Afghanistan, kids would throw rocks at us all the time. And I'm talking like baseball size stones. Sure. And and one there was one kid, I swear it was like the Afghan, like the the the Ashkun version of ⁓ Kurt Schilling and he comes up with a running start. And he's me now he's 10 feet away from me. And he just belts a baseball size stone and it hits me in the face. And I don't even have my rifle. I only have because we're right outside the wire. I was just checking something right outside the wire. That's when they all come out and throw throw stuff at us. I had my I had my M9 on me, my my pistol, and should I have taken on my pistol and shot and killed that kid because my life felt threatened? It's like, grow up, be like. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: This person that that that woman was not trying to harm anyone. She was changing anyone's life at all. And you shot and kill and murder in broad daylight. What is wrong with you? They are unhinged. They need to be held accountable. We need to defund defund ice and unmask these people and hold them accountable. Like they are they are not they are a threat. speaker-1: At all. speaker-0: Yeah. Like the state. It's like state sponsored violence. Yeah. speaker-1: Social media ⁓ aggression porn, you know. Totally that's why they make those videos about like collecting all these guys and putting the chains on them and making speaker-0: I mean, yeah. I'm like, yeah, you're so tough. You're so tough that the guy in body armor, the armed guy in body armor to go raid a Home Depot, the armed guy in body armor shoots an unarmed woman in a minivan. Yeah. What the fuck? speaker-1: What the Yeah. Like that was trying to get away. ⁓ she was blocking the road. speaker-0: I don't and and and like I so I made a I made a s I made a speaker-1: His job to kill. speaker-0: I made a simple post about that yesterday saying that this is this shows a bit basically what I said, how these people are not vetted and they're not trained and how they're lethally incompetent. And it's that lethal incompetence that is a danger on our streets. And the the comments section was the most appalling thing I've seen. And I've I've I've gotten, you know, I'll get personally ridiculed all the time by having folks or something. Like I don't care about that. But but this one in particular, the comments section was just heinous. And inhumane and like not caring about human life. And the what and the this is a clear wrong. There is no there's no way to justify this at all. Even if she was trying to run him over, which she wasn't, he didn't get hit as she's driving away. And you and you shoot like that's like it's the same thing. If if that kid threw through that baseball size stone at me and I took out my gun and and shot and killed him. Exactly. No, be the bigger man. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Like de escalate the situation and maintain public order. That's their whole job. speaker-1: And this is what's weird. It's weird because a police officer can see a car. Not even you know, not even in the same situation. They see a car, they run the plates. And then they either follow or they f find you and you know what I mean? Like I've had a car reaper's or they know how to find you. And and then pop you from point blank. speaker-0: They don't open your door. They don't and then It just shows how much these people don't know what they're doing. You know, in fact, before I left for Afghanistan, and this was ⁓ I was a reservist who got mobilized. ⁓ my first sergeant was a state trooper, he is still a state trooper in Minnesota. And right before we left, he got ⁓ assaulted on a traffic stop. They that someone pulled him into the car, and his partner was like second day on the job and was not very trained and like not. They didn't know what to do. So he's kind of on his own and he's just getting like beat up inside this car. He could have taken out his gun, shot and killed that person, and would have been justified. Like, yes, my life felt threatened. This guy is beating the crap out of me. Pulled me into the car and he's beating the crap out of me. He didn't do that. He took a few punches and like was able to get himself free and was able to detain the person. He didn't murder him. Right? That's the whole idea about de-escalation. Is that you can take some of it, right? You can take a few blows. You can take people spitting at you, throwing something at you. You don't use lethal force when when when people are unarmed, right? That's the whole idea that these people have they're not trained. They're not trained and they're armed on our streets, and that has to stop. It absolutely has to stop. And I think to bring it to bring a full circle, I think veterans who have the firearms training, who have who have experience in in combat and and military training. And who know a little bit about law enforcement, since a lot of what we did in Afghanistan kind of resembled law enforcement, at least when I was there, ⁓ it's important for us to speak up and talk about these things. Cause most of the people that are defending this, they didn't they didn't serve in the military. At least that's not what I've seen in in my comment section. Because people have no idea what they're talking about. And the veneer of a screen provides some protection for them to say things that they would never say in person. They would never say to me. speaker-1: Okay. Remember a lot of those are gonna be bots too. speaker-0: Right, of course. Totally. speaker-1: So, but yeah, no, I know I know people that would take the time to write those ignorant ass comments. It's it's ⁓ it's a terrible situation. and and I'm looking forward to getting new people in place that are gonna start squelching all of this silliness that's happening. Yeah. Because this is not how you do it. ⁓ over surveilling, over policing, blaming people to blaming people for being dumb and lazy, but you don't you don't invest in the different. ⁓ communities, the way that you do in demolishing other communities around the world. You know, if you want to make a policeman's job easier, give him better people to deal with. speaker-0: Invest in housing, health care, yeah. speaker-1: Education, education, healthcare, yes. People that steal are people generally speaking, if you're in the inner city, if you steal something, it's because you don't have something and you need there's a gap in in finances that needs to be filled. In Washington, they steal from you every day and you don't see cameras and guns and police going through there, do you? speaker-0: Yeah, I would say that every minute that a member of Congress spends on call time is fraud, waste and abuse. And perhaps we should can everyone should call the fraud, waste and abuse hotline to report their members of Congress. They were elected to legislate, not to raise money their next re-election. ⁓ and by the way, when they're calling those wealthy people asking for donations, what do the wealthy people get in return? They get to their seeds in the ears to get access to these people to make sure. speaker-1: Yes. ⁓ Exactly. speaker-0: that their legislation or legislation doesn't negatively impact them. I think just to go on a small tangent, one of the one of the best examples of this is right to repair, which is something that would immediately help not only farmers, but everyone. If if if we if we're talking about like even automobiles and and getting rid of the like specialized computer chips that you have to bring into a dealership and all that. But immediately impact people's lives. But even though if we're just talking about farmers, we're talking about speaker-1: Mm-hmm. speaker-0: Right their parents are farmers up. The Farm Act, which was proposed ⁓ in the previous Congress, ⁓ it was it was torpedoed pretty much by the John Deere lobby alone. So you just said one one corporation, it's even a torpedo something that's gonna help so many people because John Deere profits off of it when they bring their their their farm equipment in to get maintenance because they can't do it themselves. speaker-1: And yeah, and I'm glad you said that because to to clarify what right to repair is, it's corporations now, they know that they can build a product and then you buy it. Back in the 70s, if you bought a car, you got to fix the car. But now there's a lot of computer chips and all these things. And it's and probably more apropos would be imagine your iPhone. or your Samsung, whatever. Imagine your cell phone. You know, there's upgraded things. And instead of having to buy a whole new phone, you could just upgrade a couple things. Or if it's broken, you could just take the screen on and put a new well that part you can do, but you can't do by your speaker-0: I like to say it's like imagine you had to hire and pay for a ⁓ handyman every time you had to change a light bulb. Yeah. Because the light bulb was specialized or something, right? Perfect. And so like like the like my the bus, thank thankfully the bus was made in 2002, the engine two thousand three, and ⁓ it's it's I've learned a lot about diesel mechanics over the last six months. And it's I I like to call it the Millennium Falcon because like it works and it's strong, but speaker-1: I can't promise you anything. speaker-0: Sometimes we gotta like so sometimes I gotta hit the right thing to make the hyperdrive go, you know. You need to put some wires together. But it but it's easy for at least I can maintain it instead of like having like the all these specialized things. And what's crazy about it, they don't even make the parts for it anymore. Yeah, they don't even make the parts for it, but it's still easy to fabricate them because they're just simple mechanical parts. And so if we need to fabricate something, we fabricate it. Yeah, but if there's a computer chip involved that's got ⁓ that's proprietary. Then they they monopolize the maintenance of all these things. And God forbid you open up the hood of something and lose the warranty on something new that you bought and now it and then it breaks, the computer chip goes out because that that's like what they're designed to do. Anyway, all that to say is so rights repair is a good example of a very simple piece of legislation that I mean it was the the rights to repair was introduced by Congressman Neil Dunn, who's a Republican in in this Congress, and he had twenty one Democratic co-sponsors and twenty one Republican co-sponsors. It's a bipartisan bill. Why isn't it passed? If Trump, if Trump and Republican leadership cared about American farmers, American workers, and the American consumer, anyone who drives an automobile, that would be public law right now. But it's not because there is a lobby against it. And that special interest that makes money off of it, when they're on the phone with those members of Congress on call time, they're telling them like, hey, so I got this check for you for thirty five hundred dollars. ⁓ but I saw that you were a co-sponsor on the Repair Act. What's ⁓ what's that about? I don't know, like, you know, and then it's what what what's more important in that moment, right? It's kinda it's not exactly that quid pro quo, it's more of like a faucet is on and if you don't do you know, you know if you support the repair act, they'll turn the faucet off so you don't support it, right? ⁓ that's ⁓ you know that's that's the fraud waste and abuse that we see in Congress, and that's why basic legislation that helps people just doesn't get done. Like repair like repair act, the repair act doesn't cost a dime to anyone. speaker-1: А speaker-0: It's just federal protection that speaker-1: And it makes things easier for everyone, even for the corporation that doesn't have to spend the time to do the work. Right. speaker-0: Well, I mean, yeah, they they don't have to do that anymore, but they that's how they make their money. But yeah, it's it I mean it it it's a predatory practice that costs the government zero dollars to enforce. Yeah. And it still can't get past because special interests profit off of that. And it's just it's just a great example of why our government works for the one percent and not all of us, not all of us who own automobiles. And the little light is going off because the sensor in the tire is broken. Not the tire, not the air pressure. It's the sensor. But the light won't go off. And so now you can't pass your emissions test because there's a there's a warning light going off because the sensor has to get replaced. And there's only one place that you can replace that sensor. It's at the dealership. Yeah. It's it's it's predatory. Sorry, I could go on and on about about a good example of of how this how our system is broken and it's gonna stay broken until we get money out of politics. speaker-1: Exactly. Exactly. And it's a perfect it's a perfect example of why people don't trust politicians. speaker-0: Right. speaker-1: You're not doing what's best for us. You're not doing your job. Yeah. I want to talk about ⁓ Chicago public schools. So yeah. So I went to I graduated from Roosevelt High School in Austin. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. ⁓ ⁓ okay, Roosevelt was at Roosevelt was in our conference that's cool that I taught it. Yeah. speaker-1: Yeah. I went to the I tell this this story and people it blows people's mind. When I went there, you know, the little posters on the wall, it said ⁓ reading is fundamental, ABC's one, two, threes, and you know, education stuff. I worked at Stevenson up in Lincolnshire. Their posters said, remember to diversify your funds. speaker-0: Wow. speaker-1: That being said, can you and I'm not even I'm not even kidding, but can you explain to people how investing in inner city education is beneficial? speaker-0: That's interesting. Yeah. speaker-1: Can even give a give ⁓ some stories about how how what it's like to be a Chicago public school teacher. speaker-0: ⁓ I got stories. I mean, I'll say that it was the most most meaningful work that I've ever done and probably ever will do. Yeah. the successes of my students are to this day my most prized resume ⁓ bullet points or accomplishments, if you will. They they're inspiring. ⁓ and it's just it's it's just so it's so rewarding to know that I was a part of that in some way. ⁓ but to to look at it the macro level. ⁓ so public education ⁓ needs to be invested in robustly. ⁓ but we need to talk about how we're investing in public education because there is this push to ⁓ think that technology is the answer. And ⁓ technology is a tool. And ⁓ as I found out with the bus. ⁓ anything is possible with the right tools. And if you don't have the right tools, a lot of things are impossible. So it it's true that technology is a tool and it makes things possible that otherwise would be impossible. But it's a tool. It's not the answer. So I taught in a school they had one to one Chromebooks for every student. And it's great. Every student has a Chromebook. We can do so many more things than we could with pen and paper. ⁓ but it's still just a tool. And if and what's lacking is the the people, the teachers. That's where we need to invest, in my opinion. Chromebooks are great, but if you don't have quality educators in the classroom, then the Chromebook doesn't mean anything. And what I mean by quality educators, that's why I said plural, is I believe we need more teachers in classrooms or we need smaller class sizes. Because as a and that's but and the only way to do that is by by having more teachers. Paying more teachers, investing in more teachers, investing in the human capital. It's a lot easier to invest in Chromebooks because those are kind of cheap, right? But if you want to invest in human capital, that's expensive. Right. And so if we I taught in a few co-taught classrooms with ⁓ you know, kids with IEPs and we had special educators that taught alongside me, those were the best classes because we had two adults in the room and we'd riff off each other and we'd be able to teach and do this. And when I had a student teacher, that was the best class. We had two adults in the classroom and we'd be able to do all these cool things together. When you're one teacher in a classroom of 30 students, that is it's classroom management alone can be like though just getting everyone to like not fight is a win in in some CPS schools. And so we need to we we need to invest in more teachers, we need to invest in teacher training. We need to make becoming a teacher, ⁓ like being becoming a good teacher more streamlined, easier to get the certification without. getting like getting rid of the unnecessary bureaucratic ⁓ processes of of getting an Illinois licensure ⁓ while still maintaining like make make sure that people are getting quality training to be effective public educators and get more teachers into the classroom because that is that is what's gonna make our students you know perform better. ⁓ but also if we want to talk about public education, this is why I I really agree with Chicago Teachers Union ⁓ about which is a I'm a member of CTU. Is that they look at public education holistically and knowing that when students come into the classroom, the baggage they bring with them is going to either inhibit or promote the learning experience. And that's why we talk about health care and housing and poverty. Those are factors that if if you don't if if if you're living in poverty, if you don't have health care, ⁓ if you don't have a stable housing, you're not going to learn. You just you can't. You can't. And so It's easy to blame teachers once these students don't pass and and and and the public education seems to be failing, but it's not the public education, it's not the teachers. The majority of teachers are out there doing God's work and it's incredibly, incredibly difficult work, and special, especially in Chicago public schools. And I have tremendous respect for CPS teachers for doing the work that they do. It's just they're given an impossible task if we're not addressing those basic human needs when students come into the classroom. And so it wants about investing in public education, it's about investing in teachers, and then it's investing. in the source of where the students are coming from in our society and making a society that is able to function and and have stable homes with loving parents and in and family units and et cetera, et cetera. ⁓ and and it's kind of like going back to like money and politics. We have go to the source of the problem, right? The source of everything is money and politics, the source of most of public education's woes are the socioeconomic environment that or is the socioeconomic environment the students are coming from. And so we need to address that. Before we can even talk about what's happening in the classroom, because then they get in the classroom and there's gaps and the gaps get bigger. And by the time they get to me, and I taught AP US government, and I taught seniors and juniors ⁓ in social studies, ⁓ world history, and you have you have, you know, you have students who don't know basic facts about like history and government. And it's like, how am I supposed to teach you advanced level topics when you don't know the different you don't know that the articles of confederation exist, or you can't even tell me what what they are. How are we supposed to talk about the differences between the Articles Confederation and the Constitution? But again, that all comes back to addressing the root causes of what creates those gaps. And then once we address those, ⁓ investing in more teachers and human capital and quality educators in the classroom. speaker-1: Yeah. and not for anything, but ⁓ we have a lot of quality possible teachers out here because this H1B visa thing is killing some of us. So Being a software designer, developer, do all the things that I do, now that corporate America isn't hiring me because they're importing workers, I would love to turn around and become a teacher and leverage everything that I have learned to elevate where I come from, the kids where I come from. But the salary's just not there. speaker-0: Right. That's what I mean by like investing. Yes. Yes. Make it like in Illinois, it's called a professional education license. Okay. So they're professionals, but if you're teaching in East St. Louis, Illinois, you are you are not making a profession's a professional's wage. Right. So like we we don't pay teachers what they should get paid because teachers do three jobs at the same time. They plan, then they teach what they plan. And then they have to grade it. ⁓ and by the way, they're also classroom management and they're a mentor, a coach, a shoulder. They're all of these different classes they have wear. And that's why I like when I I taught as a young single man and I can't imagine having to come home to your own family after that. Like I was like, I was I was just like working nonstop. I would like I would I didn't have time to lesson plan during the school day. I would lesson plan at home and grade at home and then I go teach and speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: It's like it's easy to get that's why the the shelf life is five years for a ⁓ a public school teacher in Illinois because it's easy to get fried that way. Yeah. ⁓ but but yeah, if it it it salaries were higher, it would encourage more people to become educators. And also specifically in Illinois, the certification requirement needs to be adapted to account for professional experience outside of academic experience. ⁓ I mean, imagine imagine you were a journalist for for 20 years, but you didn't have a degree in English. ⁓ okay so what you you you know i i think you know how to write like you could you that should be able to supplant the the the so you don't have to go back to school and take rhetoric 104 to you know be be able to teach English and in writing composition. ⁓ I think that'd be a great way to help get more teachers because there is a teacher shortage in Illinois and I'm and pretty sure across the United States as well because it's not incentivized to become a teacher and it it's it's hard. You have to jump through hoops. speaker-1: And the little bit of salary that you do make, you have to buy your own Kleenex. You have to buy your own school supplies. Yeah. So how are you gonna give me? I don't know how much they make. I really don't. If you're gonna give me 30, 40, 50,000 a year to be a teacher, and then a lot of that goes towards the instruments that I need to teach, are you crazy? speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: And then and then Being from the inner city, it's so annoying to go to school that you know it's underfunded, but when it comes to surveilling and policing, the it the sky is the limit for all of those funds. We want books, and you keep giving us cameras. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and metal detectors. Yeah. I know. speaker-1: So it and then I like telling this story too. I was in Austria a handful of years ago, and we went on the subway. And in Austria, you go down and there's a machine over there on the side. So you go and you get your ticket. There's no gates, no nothing. And then you go and you wait for the train. The train doors open up. You get in, you get to your place, you get out. And I was talking to ⁓ My Austrian friend and I said, You don't have anyone like checking tickets. He said, Did you buy a ticket? I said, Yeah. He goes, Then why do you need someone to check it? If you treat people like people, like adults, generally speaking, everyone is gonna everyone is gonna do this thing because everyone understands that this train is important and if you pay, that money goes to. Keeping this train moving. Mm-hmm. speaker-0: But that only works in a in a society that allows for people to work and earn enough to live in the present, stay for the future, and raise a family, right? Yeah, to be adults, right? If if you're you're living off of the federal minimum wage of what, $7.15 an hour, $725 an hour, but it's fifteen thousand dollars a year. speaker-1: Yeah. And again, hopping over the turnstile there, like that a lot of times that's just that little financial gap that we're dealing with. Sure. speaker-0: I thought I always I thought it funny when ⁓ when when Mamdani was talking about making ⁓ you know the buses free in New York City and people losing their minds over that for some reason. ⁓ I was like people pay for the bus. speaker-1: Like speaker-0: What bus are you riding? I like like like when I was living in DC, I never saw anyone pay for the bus. I mean I had a ⁓ well in in Chicago I have the the met like the veterans venture card, so it's just great because I get the ride for free and no one else gets to. and same with DC, I had like a a government issued one for like commuting to work. ⁓ speaker-1: Cool. speaker-0: And so I went out to take the bus and you I was people would always just walk on and and never like pay or scan a ticket or anything. And so I I thought it was funny. The people who are like complaining about like New York City buses being free or that there'd be like homeless people on them. I'm like, you are not riding public buses. I'm sorry. You have no idea what public transit is like. So ⁓ you can withhold your comments, sir. Until you ride a public bus, don't don't don't talk to me about it. speaker-1: Yeah. Okay. ⁓ what ⁓ what part of Illinois are you originally from? speaker-0: So I was born on the southwest corner of the city in tiny little Mount Greenwood. And then we moved out to Orland Park, which is a southwest suburb. And ⁓ now I live at in ⁓ Wrigleyville. I can see Wrigley Field from my window here. I'm a I am a White Sox fan, but it is I love baseball, so it's it's just just speaker-1: I am very jealous, my friend. That's it. Interviews over. Interviews over. We're done. Thank you for coming by. ⁓ Thank you for coming by. See you on the South Side, maybe. speaker-0: think about the integrity that i have right i'm not afraid to be who i am no one chooses to be a white sox fan right no one chooses to live in that people will move to chicago and they'll be like ⁓ yeah i'll choose to be a cubs fan because like this is fun and like ⁓ no one chooses to be a white sox fan remember that no but i you know i that's i was that i i i pretty speaker-1: No one Cross cross that Chicago Cubs fans have had to carry for six. speaker-0: Same with White Sox. I mean, the White Sox 88 years before 2005. Yeah. And if you remember in 2016, when ⁓ I remember when the Cubs made to the World Series, ESPN, the national ESPN network, had on their ticker. This is the first time that the World Series has been in Chicago for 108 years. So I'm like, did you forget about 2005? We swept the Astros. We the Cubs. The Cubs have to bring it down to game seven. It's raining. Extra innings, of course. They get the Hollywood ending. The Sox were so good that they swept the Astros. They beat them so bad that they left the National League. But no one talks about that. God forbid. No, let's talk about the Cubs and their was magical. It was magical. speaker-1: I know. That was Yeah, but yeah. Okay. Yeah, mad respect. Mad respect to the socks for that. That was a fun year, man. Yes. That was a fun year. And for the record, I'm not gonna say this if I'm on the north side, but I do have a I do have a white socks jersey in my closet. speaker-0: There we go. There we go. Hey look, we got the Pope. Come on. We got God on our side. speaker-1: Yeah, he's he's from the suburbs though. ⁓ speaker-0: Right. Slack span. speaker-1: Yeah, you can't be perfect. ⁓ ⁓ my goodness. What are what are some of the let's say you have friends visiting from outside Chicago, where are some of the spots you take ⁓ speaker-0: ⁓ I get asked the question a lot. I think when it comes to pizza, there is ⁓ one correct answer and it's Pequads, the original on North and Clyborne. speaker-1: There's a whole bunch of people that are clapping right now. speaker-0: Pequots is for sure, for sure the best. ⁓ they're their jalapeno poppers too are like phenomenal. Like they do they do a lot of stuff well there. ⁓ when it comes to hot dogs, I I also think undoubtedly there's only one place and it's Jimmy's on is that is that Ogden and ⁓ Pulaski? I can't remember exactly what speed works, but it's out there in Hermosa. Yep. Yeah, Jimmy's ⁓ I mean all these all these depression dogs kind of taste the same. It's really the fries and they're double beef fat fries and you can't you can't beat them. I used to go there all the time when I was too. speaker-1: That sounds delicious. There was this little spot. I used to live on Harlem and Dickens on the Chicago side of Harlem. And there was a there was a spot on it was like one block south. I can't remember. Is it near not Narragansett? Anyway, one block south, there was a place called Three Dog Night. It was just it was just a mobile home that they turned into. That they turned into a restaurant. And boy. Chicago hot dog and their fries, they had the little the the shoestring fries. ⁓ my god. You can eat about 87 in one pinch. ⁓ that's speaker-0: Mm. That reminds me of another place that I ⁓ like one of the coolest dive bars. It's almost not even a dive bar, it's more like a living room, but there's a place in ⁓ Ukrainian village just just north of Chicago, like Chicago and Winchester. It's called Nilda's Place. Now I haven't been there s in about eight years, but I used to live right down the street from it. And Nilda's Place is ⁓ It's you walk inside and there's just like a living room couch and then there's a bar and then there's a mini pool table and then there's this ⁓ old Puerto Rican woman named Nilda and her two ⁓ chihuahuas. And ⁓ that's just it she lives upstairs and that's the bar. And like she hasn't changed the price of beer since like the Depression. ⁓ and it's just like there's very unique experience walking in there. And she was the one too, she loves Malort and she was the one who told me that ⁓ boy. If you ever if you ever have like a stomach issue or if you ever hung over, just take a little shot of Malort and you'll you'll you'll feel grand after that. speaker-1: You won't feel grand. You'll forget that everything else exists because you're trying to wonder what the hell is happening in your mouth. Malote is special. Malourt is it if you haven't tried it and you're a little adventurous, go ahead, give it a it's like speaker-0: To try it. I manage people to try it. speaker-1: And medicine and gasoline all mixed together. speaker-0: That's I mean so it's wormwood, yes. Worm Malort is actually the Swedish word for wormwood. So it's just like it's a base distillate that's steeped in wormwood for a few days and then it's just a giant vat. And then they strain it and they serve it. You might be asking, how do I know so much about it? Because I wrote a book about it. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And in fact, that's how I that's how I funded the bus. I ⁓ I I I took the proceeds of the book and and and used that to to buy the bus. ⁓ and and it's so like basically this Mol this campaign is kind of like fueled by Melort ⁓ in a way. And it's I'm pretty sure I could pour Melort in the in the fuel tank and it probably would work. I mean they both taste about the same. speaker-1: If you go to ⁓ probably what, a little bit south of you, ⁓ my sister runs a bar, ⁓ Burwood Tap. speaker-0: Your sister runs that bar? Mm-hmm. I know that. Yes, I know that bar. speaker-1: Yeah, go by and say Carlos says hi. See if they don't give you some alert. Yeah. Either, yeah, check in with either ⁓ Mimi is my sister. Okay. And and is the the owner, my my buddy who's the owner. So yeah, just go say hi to them and they'll get you some alert. Tell them you wrote a book about it. They will they will be tickled that you wrote a whole book about malert. speaker-0: And it's and it was it's it was it's ⁓ I'm biased, but it's pretty good story too. it's it I became I actually became part of the story. What we would call in Hunter Thompson's words Gonzo style journalism. Because as I was doing research on the book, I was I actually went to Sweden where Carl Jepsen for Jepsen's Melort, Karl Jepsen is from, ⁓ this small town called Istad on the south end of Sweden. I found a farm that grows malort near where he lived. And speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: I was writing about it and then I come home and I talked to the owner of Melort and he was like, That's interesting because we're actually looking for a new distributor or a new ⁓ person to buy Melort from. And then they ⁓ well, I told them about this farm. It's like, well, we we need to get connected. And so they flew us out to their farm and they they have this thing called Malort's knot, well, Melort night. And it's when all these farmers come together with their own versions of their malort, because Melort was like, basically a homemade drink. And so we brought our malort, we brought Jeffson's Melort out there. And, you know, we tried all these different malorts. We did this like ritual ceremony where you like cut the malort and the the wormwood and stuff like that. speaker-1: You still see colors? speaker-0: I can hear them. speaker-1: Ha ha ⁓ speaker-0: And and then at the at the end of the night, ⁓ the the farmer asked the owner, it's like, so are we gonna do this? He's and the owner took a shot of Malort and was like, Yes, and he shook his hand. It was like, We broker the deal to save Malort and now and the Malort was made by wormwood that was grown in the hometown of Carl Jefsen. It was a really, really cool, fun story back when I was younger and more carefree and not living in the political hellscape that we now live in. speaker-1: That is awesome. Yeah. But it's awesome. It's awesome that that like it's awesome that I'm I'm talking to more teachers that are making their way into politics. Because you guys understand the world differently. You guys you guys actually care and you care enough to be face to face with the future. And again, you know, going to school when I did and you could tell you walk into a class, you can tell a teacher's fed up with your bullshit already. And and we're not even five seconds, the bell hasn't even rung yet. speaker-0: ⁓ I know the feeling. I remember when I I got mobilized to go to Afghanistan, I was like joking with my students. I would rather go to war than spend another day. Which was not untrue. It's like, get me out of here. speaker-1: Good to use. Yeah. Have we have we touched on anything that we that you want to make sure? speaker-0: I think we touched on everything. That was that was the most thorough, I think, interview I've ever done. ⁓ speaker-1: Yeah. I just like talking to people, especially people that are doing the right kind of work. Because I don't I'm not afraid of progress. I'm not afraid of technology. I'm not afraid of any of that. As long as all of us are good, as long as all of us have a a real chance at making moves in life. Like, you know, some of this stuff some of this stuff that that this current administration is doing, a lot of it, the way that they do it is just for show. but I can't like speaker-0: Well it's because they don't know what they're doing. They they they don't know how to govern. I mean it's like Speed Hagseth like the perfect example of like a company commander who doesn't know how to do his job. So he focuses on doing push ups with the boys because you know PT is easy. You know what's harder? Developing ⁓ like troll routes and combat plans. That's that's his that's that's his his job is to run the military, not to do pull ups. And you can't even do those well. I mean speaker-1: So trash. speaker-0: It's like and that's what they all do. They do this performative stuff. They all do performative stuff because they can't do the substantive stuff. And so they have to I have to pretend like they know what they're doing. Like I what like he cares about like uniform standards and stuff like that. You know, my company, my my fur when I was a lieutenant, my first company commander, his camis were riddled with holes. like he i remember he had a giant hole in his like on his crotch like his the castine was coming across and and the sergeant major was like making an an issue about like the uniform appearance on on a deployment and the our company commander was like guys listen i know i'm not the best ⁓ standard bear for uniform standards but sergeant major is talking to the ⁓ dying commander and wants us to you know, be stitch stitching up our uniforms. So I'm gonna be the one, I'll do be the first one to do that. But you know, he didn't care that his that his uniform had holes in it, and neither did we. And he didn't care if our uniforms had holes in them. What he cared about was if we were being disappointed. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Like he he cared that we were good at doing our job, a good at being operational, not like these silly uniform standards. So like whenever I hear someone talk about uniform standards, I'm like, you just speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: Come on. I want the I want the pilot to know how to fly. I want the infantrymen to know how to do their job, right? That's the stuff that matters. I don't care if your ribbon stack is an eighth of an inch above the the ⁓ lapel or whatever. Like yeah, that stuff that stuff is ridiculous. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And it's only officers who don't know what they're doing. Only officers who don't know what they're speaker-1: Exactly. You can tell by the way they talk. You know, they start using all the they start combining all of these all of these Active words is the wrong way to say it, but all of these words that that sound good, they start compounding these words, and you're like, you're just talking out of your ass. Just say M16, just say, you know. speaker-0: Y ya está. Love when they I love when they would say something like, ⁓ you know, how can we expect you to, you know, follow orders in combat and to and to to put the machine gun on the right PDF if you can't get your ribbon stacked right? Like how about we make sure they know how to do that instead of the ribbon stack? Let's have them drill that proficiency. Who cares about the uniform standards? We'll figure that out later if we need to, if we need to. speaker-1: Exactly. speaker-0: Let's make sure they know how to deploy the machine gun and put it on the right azimuth as opposed to, ⁓ if you can't if you can't keep your hair cut, then you know you're not gonna be able to follow orders in combat. Like that's so that that is not true. It's so incongruous that it's it's always bad leaders who don't know their job, who can't substantively perform. So they have to be performative to make it look like they know what they're doing, to be authoritative, be like standards, these are my standards. My standards know your fucking job. And do that well. Right. speaker-1: 100%. 100%. Don't pay attention to what people say. Pay attention to what people do. Period. Someone's gonna be sitting there. if you're in a foxhole and you're asking your buddy, throw the grenade, throw the grenade, he's not gonna turn to you and say, No, the back of your hair is touching your collar. speaker-0: Yes. Yeah. Place yourself. speaker-1: Yeah, it doesn't happen. I love it. I I am so excited that you're running because one, you're a teacher. That needs to be addressed ASAP. Two, you're a veteran. That alone speaks volumes. And three, the fact that you are in these streets and you're doing what you're doing. I'm so happy that you exist. I'm so happy that you have the courage to go out there and confront idiots like ICE, that you're out there. teaching kids that you're out there and it seems like you're doing all the right things. And I'm I'm so excited that we can have a conversation and I don't feel like you're full of shit. speaker-0: That's what everyone wants, right? We just all want to be authentic and know that someone's being authentic with us. And that's what we do. And you know what? It's not hard. It's actually a lot easier. Yeah. To just be yourself and if you're doing something for the right reason, you don't have to be performative. You don't have to put on airs. And so you just be yourself. And yeah, it's I I'm not I'm not that. speaker-1: Be a liar. It's easier. speaker-0: polished and I'm a little rough around the edges, but that's also because I'm a real person and that's what real people are. And I would rather have an authentic person who's doing something for the right reason and choosing authenticity over some kind of performance to to be running this country, to be, to be the people who are writing our laws and and and legislating. And that's what I'm doing. I'm trying to live my values. I'm trying to walk the walk. I'm trying to do rather than say. Yeah. And That starts with just being radically authentic. And authenticity is just, it's just so contagious. And and people just they brave it. And it's just it's addicting. And people want to be with authentic people. I mean, that's why I kinda so do I, right? I love being with authentic people. The worst part about the the campaign is politics does attract a lot of narcissists and just people who are inauthentic. And I just have like no patience, like because everyone can see through. speaker-1: It'll be And that's still working. speaker-0: People who are being inauthentic. I just I'm like, I can't. I don't but but if someone's being authentic with me, then like I want to be best friends with you. Right. I want to know more about you. Tell me more about yourself. ⁓ we can have a two hour conversation. But the moment you start being inauthentic and putting on errors, you're gonna see right through it, you're like, I don't have time for this. Yeah, good luck. You know. speaker-1: Do you think do you think growing up in the Chicagoland area, do you think that your bullshit meter is tweaked a little bit more is a little bit more refined? speaker-0: I would say it was probably from I think it's I think it's more refined from Chicago public schools that ⁓ you know you you get though especially high school, right? Those kids those kids will push your limits and they will and they will they'll and they'll try to bullshit you every single day and you just have to be on your game, but no, no, not today, not today, Satan. I see through you. speaker-1: It will tell you. I I speak for I speak for Chicago public school students when I say, I'm sorry. Thank you for sticking with it. Thank you for fighting through. speaker-0: I get It's part of the game. They're kids. It's what they do. It's what I did. I was a bullshitter when I was in high school too. I mean, it's just part of it. It's part of the trade, right? So that's how you have to get good at, you know, that's my seasoned teachers are really good at it, right? They can see through it like, mm-mm, no. speaker-1: Yeah, like you said, not today, Satan. Hey, so give everyone one last pitch and then give them all the information where they can find you online. speaker-0: Okay, so my final pitch is If you think the status quo is working, then there are three wonderful establishment candidates in this Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and Illinois that are actively reinforcing the status quo by doing a money chase, by raising as much money as they can to fund ads and be beholden to the donor class instead of the working class. So if the status quo is working for you, vote for one of the people or support one of the people that are actively reinforcing the status quo. But if you're like me and you're fed up and you think the status quo has reached a critical failure, then now is the time to act boldly. Now is the time to take a chance. Now is the time to take that long shot. That I understand that's what this campaign is. We are a long shot, but that's what we need right now. We need to act boldly. We need to dream Big and we need to make it happen and it can happen if we come together. Because while money corrupts, money does not vote. It guarantees corruption, but it does not guarantee success. The only thing that we need to win is you, your vote, your support, spread the word. So we can do it if we all work together. So if you're fed up with the status quo, I'm your candidate. I'm the fed up candidate. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: And if you want get involved, I think that was the second part of the question. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to get involved ⁓ on our campaign, we need volunteers to phone bank. We need volunteers to knock on doors. We also need some ⁓ some money because as much as we're taking money out of politics and this campaign runs on hope, the bus still runs on number two diesel. So we do need to ⁓ we do need gas money, right? We need gas money and we need money to pay my staff because I I pay my staff a living wage to try to live my values and People are very expensive, but I believe in investing in people over technology and ads and consultants and things like that. So we invest in people, we reach out to people. This is a people powered campaign, but people are expensive. So you can if you could donate to our campaign, we'd appreciate that that to help us get over the finish line over the next two months. You can go to kevinrine.com. You can sign up to volunteer there. You can also make a donation there. We also have a pretty sick ⁓ merch store that is now operating. it's if you want to get some New Deal merch. Because I am a New Deal Democrat from a new generation and we're trying to promote that. That the New Deal was when this country worked for everyone. It was the most successful that Democrats ever were. We elected a president four times. We the Democrats were so successful that they had to amend the constitution. They had to say, you can't run anymore. There's no more. Your two terms is the limit. That's how that's how successful FDR was. Like they had to change the rules of the game because people love the New Deal so much. Right. So if you want some if you want some New Deal merch, go to Kevin Ryan dot com, sign up to volunteer, get some merch, ⁓ and you can also make a small donation if you'd like to. speaker-1: Excellent. Thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedule to come talk to me. ⁓ again, I I'm not gonna stop saying this. The fact that you're a teacher, a veteran, and you are putting in the work, I'm a big fan. speaker-0: Thank you, I appreciate that. speaker-1: And with that everybody, we're out.