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From Political Prisoner to Congress? John Strand Isn't Backing Down | Dangerous Laughter · Dangerous Laughter

• 0:01
  Speaker A: Dangerous laughter laughter dangerous. Dangerous laughter laughter. Dangerous laughter. Danger. Laughter sa.
• 1:07
  Speaker B: Day 8 the Emergency Destruct system is now activated. The option to override detonation procedure has now expired. The ship will automatically destruct in E minus one minute. And we are back. Another episode of Dangerous Laughter. Welcome to the DL. Make sure you guys go to dangerouslaughter.com. you can see some of the media. We get a lot of write ups about this show today. Not, not that long ago we had a, we had a story in the Blaze town hall dot com. The Times of Israel was covering our Sal Litvac interview. So there's some good media out there. There's good media out there. No, they're not. They're not all schmucks. They're not all Jabronis. No, My, my next guest loves that word, Gibron. He's an Italian guy. You know, sometimes, you know, schmucks like get the Rolling Stone. Call my next guest, Zoolander. Derek Zoo. Now, if he's Zoolander, that makes me Hansel. Today's purposes. All right, look, we, we have talked to different people that have spent time in prison. Political prisoners. You know, I run Publius pr. You know, I've talked to Bannon about it. I've represented Paul Manafort. I represented Peter Navaro, you know, and then our next guest, we are helping him with his campaign. But, you know, he really has gone through it and he has a new book out. We're going to talk about that in a second. But look, he's, he's my next dangerous guest. He's living in one life in Hollywood and woke up in a very different one. At the guilty hands of the deep state. He's an actor, creative director, public speaker. Found himself at the center of one of America's most consequential events. And that would be January 6th. He's currently running in the GOP primary in Florida. 19. This was, this is Byron Donald's seat that he is vacating. He's gonna try to be governor. He probably is gonna be governor. Author of the new book patriot plea the J6 journey of a Political Prisoner in the Divided States of America. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a living symbol of defiance. Fresh from his Most Wanted poster. John Strand, everybody.
• 3:39
  Speaker C: John Strand.
• 3:42
  Speaker B: Here we go. Zoolander and Hansel are together at last. That's right, Magazoolander. And I guess I'm Maga Maha Hansel for sure, brother. Great to be. Great to have you here. Great to, you know, great to see you. So we got the new book and we're going to talk about a lot of different things. This is a hell of a book. Okay? There's a weapon, this book, and it should be. It's a weapon of truth.
• 4:10
  Speaker D: Yes, that's right. And it was a hell of a journey to, to live it even before I wrote it. And then writing it in prison was an experience in itself.
• 4:19
  Speaker B: Well, absolutely. And look, you're one of these guys kind of like me, where you have, You've, you're like a deck of cards, man. I mean, you've. You've had, you know, you've reinvented yourself. Yes, you have. You've pivoted. You know, I mean, you. Look, I. Once upon a time, I was in the entertainment business long ago, before, you know, Ingram and Crowley plucked me from the river like Moses. But I worked on the Hill. I mean, I, I, you know, I, I've done a lot of different things. Some people know me from one thing, some people know me from another. So I. What I want to do, you know, I don't want to do these jam.
• 4:53
  Speaker D: But you can never leave, right?
• 4:55
  Speaker B: That's true. Well, that's right. That's right. I want to know the John Strand origin story.
• 5:02
  Speaker D: Oh, man.
• 5:03
  Speaker B: Okay, I know, I know. You're an Italian guy. You grew up a certain way, and you ended up, I mean, you were in the entertainment business, and then you ended up, you know, during COVID you know, pivoting, because you saw, I guess, you know, freedom being vacuumed up by the deep state. So, you know, tell the audience a little bit. Walk us through the Strand origin story.
• 5:26
  Speaker D: Absolutely. And just so people know, this story is completely shared in the book. So the book isn't just what put me into prison and how I dealt with that. I tell the whole origin story, not only of John Strand, but also of America, really. And then, you know, where we go from here. But my story is. Is quite interesting, and it makes for an interesting setup in the book.
• 5:49
  Speaker E: I have a.
• 5:50
  Speaker D: In some ways, a classic American family background, and in other ways, very unusual kind of extraordinary American dream kind of story. So my dad was in the US Navy, My grandfather served in the Vietnam, Korean wars, in the Marine Corps. So classic service, Judeo Christian values. My parents are both from humble backgrounds, hard working, and they were stationed in California, where I was born, in Florida, where my brother was born, in Pennsylvania, where my sister was born, then got out of active duty and explored other things, ended up homeschooling us for most of our upbringing. And that gave me a lot of freedom to explore Creativity and industry, community, beauty, all kinds of things. And I ended up becoming a lead singer and songwriter in a rock band with my brother and some other guys, touring and then developing, carving out a difficult career path as an actor, writer, director and fashion model from. From Los Angeles to New York City and overseas up until Covid came crashing down around all of us. And that was a major pivot point in my life story and in my whole life outlook.
• 6:54
  Speaker B: Right, Yeah, I mean, that's. And all this is cataloged.
• 6:58
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 6:58
  Speaker B: Now, you have an Italian Catholic background, is that right?
• 7:02
  Speaker D: Yeah, greater. My greater extended family is Italian Catholic in the normal tradition. My parents grew up evangelical.
• 7:08
  Speaker B: Right.
• 7:09
  Speaker D: Found Jesus at Campus Crusade for Christ.
• 7:11
  Speaker B: But this is how you ended up in homeschool.
• 7:13
  Speaker D: Yes, big part of it.
• 7:14
  Speaker B: Because not a lot of. Yeah, look, I'm from Northeast Philadelphia, you know, not a lot of, Not a lot of eye ties doing homeschooling. You know, we gotta, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 7:21
  Speaker D: No, the, the Italian grandparents were freaking out when my parents first pulled, first pulled this one on them. And they weren't not happy in the beginning, but they were won over. They came to see the fruits.
• 7:30
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 7:31
  Speaker D: What my parents were doing, and it's been a tremendous testimony.
• 7:35
  Speaker B: And then you end up in California.
• 7:39
  Speaker D: Well, started there actually, and then kind of lived in various places around the country and then came back to California as a young man, building my career, knowing I've been born there and found Los Angeles to be home for a long time.
• 7:51
  Speaker B: So. But what was the. What? Because I, I mean, I have an answer to this, but what was the moment that leads you to LA the first time? What? Because, look, you know, revolutionary people, they, they, they can obsess on some things.
• 8:09
  Speaker D: Yes.
• 8:10
  Speaker B: They have passions, they chase them. And you know, from what I can tell from the book, what I know from you personally, and I'm like this too, is that, you know, once you have a passion and you're deadlocked, you're kind of locked on target, you chase it. So what was it about? Because, look, evangelical parents, they probably said to you, you know, LA is a bunch of, you know, you know, LA's got some problems.
• 8:41
  Speaker D: You're going dancing. Dancing with the devil over there, right?
• 8:44
  Speaker B: I mean, exactly. Yeah, I did a little bit. Yeah, so what, I mean, I did a little bit of theater, a little bit of stand up stuff, wrote jokes for people and all the rest of it. That's how dangerous laughter started, really.
• 8:56
  Speaker F: Right.
• 8:57
  Speaker B: So. But what was the, what was the thing that led you to want to be in the entertainment business that was
• 9:02
  Speaker D: born in me, A.J. it was just there. I kind of had to discover it, wrestle with it, figure out what it was, what it meant. It became pretty clear to me by the time I was probably 12 years old that I was just built for the stage and for performance and for chasing greatness in the sense of finding ways to build and express things that were beautiful and amazing and inspiring. And music was a driving energy. I'm a rock and roll enthusiast, and it really drives the way I think and feel and see just about everything else. So I started playing the piano at 10 years old, classically trained, discovered pop music. Shortly after that, started a rock band by the time I was 13. We were recording and touring by the time I was 15, and then discovered fashion, got into modeling and acting, writing, everything. So being born in California, I always had a root there and just a sense of that kind of destiny and the. I call California the leading edge of America's destiny. It's just such an extraordinary place in terms of how our country's developed and being, you know, a champion or a headquarters of the arts and entertainment and media tech and Silicon Valley, all these things. So there's a lot going on there and that I had a root there, but also a passion that I was chasing, like you said. And yeah, I obviously solid Christian parents and background that might have questioned, do you really want to be hanging out in Los Angeles? But, you know, one of my favorite things about Jesus and the Bible and the faith that I have is that he told us, go into the world and represent me and build my kingdom in all arenas. And I've realized that there's a lack of Christians doing that in Hollywood, and the same lack is showing up in Washington, D.C. we need Christians to get into the dark places and bring light to them.
• 10:49
  Speaker B: That's it. That's interesting. And I. Look, I. You know our. Our departed friend Andrew Breitbart. He was a mentor of mine.
• 10:57
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 10:58
  Speaker B: My first book was dedicated to him. And I don't think he knew he was channeling Jesus. Go, you know, go be fishers of men. Right? One thing, one thing. You are basically the exact representation of what Andrew used to say all the time, which is what we can stand here and complain about, you know, the late night hosts or Saturday Night Live or, you know, this fashion person or this goofball or George Clooney or whoever. Right, right. But unless we get in the arena, right, and bring artistic conservatives into the arena, because, look, most right wingers, they're business majors, the Ones that are in the. The arts are. You know, some are English literature or history or some of them go into law. Right, right. I think at least in the last 20 years, in the era of first Breitbart and then Charlie Kirk, who, you know, there's a quote about John on the COVID of the book from Charlie, who was. Yeah, Full. Full disclosure. Our client as well. That's what Breitbart was talking about. Go into the arena and. And challenge the creativity of these people.
• 12:07
  Speaker C: They don't. They don't.
• 12:07
  Speaker B: They don't have a monopoly on modeling or theater or film or music or any of this.
• 12:13
  Speaker D: I mean, the. The future belongs to those who build it. So Charlie always told us to be salt and light. That's the command from God in the Bible. And Charlie said, you know, be a change agent in these places. And Charlie also told us, you need to build the future. You need to get married, have kids and, And. And build the future that you want for your family and, and, you know, impact and change the culture that you want for your family. And, of course, Andrew Breitbart is very famous for saying, and Charlie always told this, that politics is downstream from culture. So I referenced that in my book in Patriot Plea. And I actually say an extension of that is that if politics. Downstream from culture. Culture is downstream from the wellspring of the human heart. That's to say, the spiritual condition of who we are as individuals is what connects into what becomes the culture. And then downstream from that, you have the political arena.
• 13:05
  Speaker B: Absolutely. I mean, Andrew used to say that all the time. It is. Is one of the quotes that is. Is used here on this show, both by me and by guests. And the culture he was talking about is Western civilization. And not all cultures are created equal.
• 13:21
  Speaker D: No.
• 13:21
  Speaker B: You know, which is why some of them go away. And, you know that some of them go to war. Right. Some of them go to war with each other. You know, but we're sitting as the inheritors here of Greece and Rome and Judeo Christian philosophy. And we have enemies from without, and we have enemies from within. And there's been different waves of this. I've written three, you know, political satire books about cultural Marxism and about wokeism in general. And, you know, there's no unified theory of wokeness, but we are in a fight that is, that began, you know, it's a long march before World War
• 14:01
  Speaker D: I. I want to. I want to give you my take on a unified theory of wokeness, and I break this down in Patriot Plea. The. The typical definition Of WOKE is critical consciousness and the Marxist grievance kind of a tactic, which is certainly true and a part of it. But I actually think you can understand WOKE as a hybrid acronym. Woke, the worship of fake. And that is to say everything in our world boils down to a simple binary battle, which is God versus no God. So the left, the political left today, wants to deny the existence of God, which means that men and power is the only source of power and control. And this is, of course, communism and everything else that becomes totalitarian in nature. But if. If there is a God, which the founders of course, declared there was, and our rights come from him, therefore government cannot take them away, then God's the final say and he's in control. But that means he defines reality. And the left doesn't like that. They don't want to have to abide by God's reality. They want to say boys can become girls and whatever else they want to say because they said it and they feel a certain way about it. So they are worshiping fake, or in other words, they're rejecting reality because reality comes from God. And they want to reject God and reject reality that he created and pretend that the lunacy of their own feelings and their own created order is. Is what can be because they. They said so.
• 15:27
  Speaker B: No, you're right. You're right. They have. They're replacing God with man. That's all part of the ingredients, for sure. It's an attack on the nuclear family. It's an attack on the middle class. It's an attack on the west. And it's not new, you know, and they may stop using terms like woke up, but they will burrow in. They'll burrow in like an std, and they'll flare up like a fever blister. And they'll come. They'll have some other freaking term, political correctness. And the social justice warriors have been around a long time. We're gonna take a break. John. John, I want you to think about as a rock and roll guy, if you had to go to an island, right, to escape Wokeism, what are the three. What are the three albums you're taking? I want to know the answer to that. On the other side of the break here, the three albums, you and Wilson, the volleyball, you go to the island and what are you bringing? And I'll try to think about what I'm bringing, too. You are watching Dangerous laughter. I am A.J. rice. We will be right back.
• 16:23
  Speaker A: So, A.J.
• 16:24
  Speaker B: cNN wants you to understand extremism better. And you can guess who has the biggest extremism problem. Watch. When it comes to extremism in this country, the issue, very much so is
• 16:38
  Speaker D: on the right, on the far right
• 16:40
  Speaker B: from, you know, from Charlottesville to January 6th. There isn't exactly an equivalent on the left in this moment. All right, AJ The Irishman is telling us about the. About the extremism. And the black only goes one way. That's right. It's the black Irish. You know, it's always. They always, always let the very fine people show up any chance they can. But they forget about, you know, when Rand Paul got his ribs broken by his neighbor or Steve Scalise got shot, or we had some lunatic running around in Brett Kavanaugh's, you know, neighborhood looking for him. It's always us. It's. It's never the Tesla burners, right? It's never the college campuses, you know, hunting down Jewish students. No, it's always the very fine people. And January 6th, no, it's tedious. Lisa, you're never an extremist, except extremely intelligent. Same with A.J. kind of funny, or at least funny for Philly guy.
• 17:29
  Speaker D: We try.
• 17:31
  Speaker B: AJ thank you both very much.
• 17:33
  Speaker A: And now please enjoy another elegant celebrity endorsement of. Of dangerous laughter with A.J. rice.
• 17:40
  Speaker F: Hello, A.J. rice. This is Martin Cove, aka John Kreese, and I just want to chat with you a little bit about some things. You may be the host of Dangerous Laughter, but sometimes in life you have to be dangerous without laughter. Always remember, your enemies think they're right. They are signaling their virtue. They think they're the hero and you're the villain. I think I talked about that in the Cobra Kai. Let them. Do not host this podcast to be merciful. Do not host it to make friends. It's your duty to be unstoppable, to be inevitable. They call you the baby faced assassin, so show them why. Listen to your sensei. You're ready. And remember, mercy is for the weak. Here and on the streets, somebody confronts you, they are the enemy. And the enemy deserves no mercy. So remember, you are the way of the fist. Strike first, strike hard. No mercy. And fear doesn't live in your dojo. Pain doesn't live in your dojo. And defeat certainly doesn't live there. So have a great podcast. And remember one thing. Cobra Kai never dies. And neither does John Kreese.
• 18:47
  Speaker A: This endorsement has been brought to you by collapsing standards everywhere. And now back to Dangerous Laughter.
• 18:55
  Speaker C: Stay locked in with the man who slayed the Woking dead. This is Dangerous Laughter with AJ Rice
• 19:04
  Speaker B: on the Publius Media Network, back on the DL. Welcome to Dangerous Laughter. I'm AJ Rice, we're talking to John Strand. Remember, our job here is to transform horror into humor. I've got a guy, he's done it all. He's done pot, he's doing politics. Hollywood done a little modeling, you know,
• 19:25
  Speaker D: done some horror too, but that was real life.
• 19:28
  Speaker B: Well, we're going to talk a little bit about the horror, right? And now we're trying to transform it back into some humor. You know, the book revolves basically. Oh, wait, before we go, before we get to that, let me. What are the three albums? Okay, three albums gonna go to the. The desert island. What are the three you're taking?
• 19:43
  Speaker D: I. I gotta start with the Beautiful Letdown by Switchfoot.
• 19:47
  Speaker B: Wow.
• 19:48
  Speaker D: Probably my favorite band of all time and just an incredible album. So many songs that I love so much. The others probably Joshua Tree by you, too.
• 19:59
  Speaker F: Wow.
• 19:59
  Speaker D: Another all time.
• 20:00
  Speaker E: Great.
• 20:01
  Speaker B: And just so much shout out to the Irish. That's right.
• 20:03
  Speaker D: And I don't know that I could survive without Parachutes by Cold Blay.
• 20:09
  Speaker B: Oh, okay. Okay. Well, I mean, you know, the question is whether I have to. What do I have to limit the, the, you know, this too, because I, I, as a. I'm a Sinatra guy over Elvis. I'm an Elvis guy over the Beatles, but I'm probably taking at least one Frank album. Maybe the one he did with Joe Bean, the. The Bossa Nova album he did, which is just a masterpiece classic. And just probably bringing enter the 36 chambers by Wu Tang Clan.
• 20:38
  Speaker F: Okay.
• 20:39
  Speaker B: 1993. And. And may probably. Okay, Computer by Radiohead. That's what I'm probably taking. I'm probably taking those Radioheads, big influence on.
• 20:51
  Speaker D: On Bobby and I.
• 20:52
  Speaker B: It's tough to narrow down 3.
• 20:53
  Speaker E: It is.
• 20:54
  Speaker F: It is.
• 20:55
  Speaker B: None of that is true rock and roll that I just named. So that's interesting. Now, I will say the book, Patriot Plea. I mean it. It revolves around this one decision, and that is your decision. And look, I've talked to Manafort about this and others. Yeah, your decision basically to not read from their script. They've put the script in front of you. Now, Dave B. Is always an actor. He'll read from the script. Yep, but you said fu. So talk to me about, about that decision. You know, the decision to hold your ground, man.
• 21:26
  Speaker D: It's the most American thing you can do. Just do not tread on me. You know, the famous flag. But this country was built on men of courage and faith that resolved to carve out a future in the wilderness according to what they knew was true and what God had promised them. And they were not going to let anyone take that away, come hell or swamp water, as I like to say. So in my situation, of course, you know, I'm fighting against Covid and BLM Marxism. I'd already burned my Hollywood career to the ground in pursuit of truth and defending American values and specifically pushing back against outrageous government oppression with COVID lockdowns and so forth. So I'm the creative director for America's Frontline Doctors traveling the country speaking. We have a two week speaking tour in the East coast which includes D.C. for several days. One of those days, things go crazy and the J6 story goes down. By the way, people should go to johnstrand.com j6 that directly takes you to a mind blowing 13 minute video of the security camera footage with me narrating so you can understand exactly what happened. So watch that, then you'll really know. But we all understand, of course, that the weaponized Biden DOJ utilized this to destroy Trump and his supporters. Of course, I was proudly a Trump supporter and a MAGA soldier and did nothing wrong. But nevertheless, I was charged with five. I mean, they assaulted me with a full blown FBI SWAT team. I was half expecting a director to yell cut. And it was going to be like my audition for the next Jason Bournflick. This was unbelievable what they did to me. And I don't mean to make it sound funny, it's not. It's horrific what they did. And they did this to many, many J6ers. SWAT teams can kill people. They're very violent, they're very expensive on taxpayer resources. To, to misuse them is not only wrong, it's, it's freaking fascist. I mean, this is two shades away from Hitler and Nazi Germany. Kind of just evil what they did and shattered my front door, the battering ram, disappeared me in jail for four days without even a phone call. And then I finally got out to find myself facing 20 year felony and four other charges. Five, half a million dollars in fines. My life is going to be obliterated out of existence. And then they dangled a get out of jail free card, a single misdemeanor plea deal to make it all go away. All I had to do was sign the false confession and read that script. And I said, that's a lie and moreover, it's a betrayal of my American brothers and sisters and I will be damned. I'll go to, you can shoot me dead before I will sign that. And I actually meant that they could have. They could have, you know, scared me with capital punishment. I don't care. I will not bear false witness against myself before God and men. And I will be damned if I'm going to betray my fellow Americans.
• 24:11
  Speaker B: Now where are you? When they ram the door, like, paint the picture for us, man.
• 24:15
  Speaker D: We were on a. It's Martin Luther King day, ironically, since January 18th of 2021.
• 24:21
  Speaker B: Got some jokes there. I'm going to hold my tongue.
• 24:24
  Speaker D: And we had. We had still been in DC for a couple days, like till the 8th or 9th. Had another speaking engagement, Florida after that. But we were back in Los angeles on the 18th. So we're at a. We're on a conference call with several other frontline doctors, colleagues on a Monday morning. This is in downtown Beverly Hills. I mean, like in the Golden Triangle. The SWAT team here is beyond the pale. It's just freaking insane. And I found out at trial they'd been surveilling me in the bushes, you know, hiding in the hedges with long range cameras for like, seven days. Snap. Taking snapshots of me as I would walk up the sidewalk to the grocery store. I like, they could. They couldn't just call us on the phone and say, hey, you got to come in, we got to talk, or whatever. No, they had to, you know, they had to pull. Pull Hitler 2.0.
• 25:10
  Speaker B: SWAT team for O.J. no, SWAT team for Charles Manson and the girls there at the ranch, but SWAT team for John Strand. That's right in the middle of Beverly Hills. You know, a stone. A stone's throw from the Waldorf Astoria. A stone throw from Julia Roberts on the piano with Richard Gere. And here they freaking come for you. Public enemy number one. We gonna make a example out of this guy. And that's what it was.
• 25:34
  Speaker C: Big time.
• 25:35
  Speaker D: Big time. And that was just the setup. Get Patriot plea. Read this book, it will blow your freaking mind. And you will see that they did try to make an example of me. And, man, it's. You gotta read the whole book. Because the story gets darker and deeper, and there's a lot in there.
• 25:51
  Speaker B: So you spent a lot of time in isolation, right?
• 25:55
  Speaker E: Horrific.
• 25:56
  Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that you're just so. Like, what's. Where's that taking place? What's that like? I mean, you're basically, you know, I mean, you're being held like you're going to the Nuremberg trials here.
• 26:08
  Speaker D: I mean, that's.
• 26:09
  Speaker B: That's how crazy this is, right? In fact.
• 26:12
  Speaker C: In fact.
• 26:13
  Speaker B: In fact, you know, I just watch a movie about Gearing Gary got what? Got. Got great treatment, right? Ermon Garon got great treatment. He was in charge of the Luftwaffe. He's in charge of Hitler's air force. He got whatever food he wanted. His wife could come visit. How about John Strand? How was John Strand treated?
• 26:29
  Speaker D: There's this thing called the black box. It's a metal box they lock around handcuffs, which locks your shoulders into position so you can't. It is so painful that you are shrieking in pain trying to get any relief after about 15 minutes. They had me locked up like this for 12 hours of transit with a migraine. That story's in the book. It's horrific. But Amnesty International and Geneva Convention standards classify anything over 14 days of isolation as torture. And I mean, honestly, 72 hours of isolation and you're losing your mind. It's horrible. People die from suicide and despair and sickness. It's absolutely wicked. And to be doing this for more than a week or two for somebody is torturous and absolutely reckless and horrific. They held me for four straight months.
• 27:22
  Speaker B: It's worse than you're isolation in four months, and it's.
• 27:26
  Speaker D: Yes. And it's worse than you could even imagine.
• 27:27
  Speaker B: Solitary confinement.
• 27:30
  Speaker D: Well, in America, we're supposed to have rules, obviously. So even in prison, the rules say if you're in isolation conditions, you at least have to have an hour of recreation per day and a phone call at least once every seven days. That phone call is the difference between life or death in that situation. Because you're losing your mind, you'll scratch your eyes out to get the phone call. They cut me off from that call. No contact with my family, no contact with my lawyers. My lawyers scheduled visits and they blocked them at the entrance saying, get out of here, we'll arrest you too. This is so illegal. It's crazy. And it happened. It's all documented, it's all in the book.
• 28:03
  Speaker B: Well, we had a group of gentlemen from the caves of Afghanistan that were slowly caught in the aftermath of September 11 attacks, 2001. The mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, he gets exercise time, he gets halal food made for him down there at Guantanamo Bay. He gets whatever different colored prayer rugs he. He wants. And you're sitting for four months in isolation. Not Armand Garing, not Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, not Charles Manson. It's unbelievable. People see part of the problem is both on the right and the left, we have stripped the human toll out of this. Yeah, you're like, oh, rah rah, J Sixers as a Boston Tea Party or no, you're all Insurrectionist. Here's a man who had done a lot of things, had an intact family, had different types of careers, and you were there that day. You know, I, I mean, I was invited by like 10 people that day. And I live across the river.
• 29:11
  Speaker D: Right.
• 29:11
  Speaker B: I'm right there. And I, you know, said, ah, now I'm gonna stay. I'm gonna stay away from that, you know, and it's just. It. You could have made a decision like that. It's a decision like that. You're there with Dr. Gold, Simone Gold. You're. You're. You guys are doing a, you know, part of the rally and the whole deal.
• 29:30
  Speaker D: Yep.
• 29:31
  Speaker A: And.
• 29:31
  Speaker B: And they snatch and grab you like your, you know, Saddam Hussein.
• 29:37
  Speaker D: Yes.
• 29:37
  Speaker B: They put you in isolation. So how do you get through it as a human? How do you do it? Because, I mean, you're raising. Like, I would have been like. I would have been like, give me a rosary and give me this, give me that. Were they. Were they accommodating in any. For any religious things or food or diet or anything? Are they just.
• 29:55
  Speaker D: Diet was absolute. Just horse crap. That was a lost cause.
• 30:00
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 30:00
  Speaker D: Absolutely abominable. I absolutely made sure to get a Bible. Thank God I had that right. If not, I would have recited whatever had on my heart. But I read the Bible daily. I prayed constantly. There was almost nothing else I could do. And it's not just a trite saying at all. It is the reality of the situation. It is only because of my faith in Jesus Christ and the background I have in the truth of God's word and the reality that God is real, he's good, and he's in control. That's the only reason I even got into that prison in the first place. I never would have made the decision to refuse a single misdemeanor on principle if I didn't understand the reality of God and his truth. So that's true. That put me there in the first place, and I had to rely on that. I had nothing else. But I do describe excruciating detail in Patriot Plea how I got through the isolation, abuse. It was really horrible. It was a battle. I was struggling to stay alive and to survive.
• 30:54
  Speaker B: Everybody go out. You got to get a copy of this Patriot plea. The forward is by our buddy Eric Metaxas.
• 30:59
  Speaker E: Right.
• 31:00
  Speaker D: Tremendous.
• 31:00
  Speaker B: Afterward is by Dr. Gold. Lots of blurbs. Different people that have endorsed the book, you know, and it's a big book because it's a big story, because we're not just going to allow the deep state off the hook for this, this is going to ring down through the ages. We're close to it now. We're, you know, we can still feel the embers of it. John feels them probably while he's. While he's sleeping. Yeah, but we've had tea parties and massacres in Boston. We've had Shay's Rebellion. We've had a Whiskey Rebellion. We've had all. We've had a raid on. On Harper's Ferry. And these moments, good or bad, north or south, Loyalist or Patriot, ring down through the ages. And I'm going to tell you something. When, when the final version of this is written, all you guys are going to be on the right side of history as far as I'm concerned. Let me just ask one, one more question here. And this. Guys, I cannot say this enough. Go get Patriot. Plea. Yeah, if you. If I could. You know, we fire up the Hedron Collider because apparently it's been turned off. That's why none of us are getting headaches now. No, I'm joking. We have to ask doctor. Dr. Gold about that. If you could time travel to the day before January 5th, what would you say to yourself? If you could have that mind blowing Freudian conversation with yourself, what would you. What would you say? Would you say, don't go or go or record more or don't record at all? What. What kind of advice?
• 32:40
  Speaker D: I would go. I would go. I would do everything in my power to communicate the nature of what's coming down, that there are nefarious forces, as we've always known, but they are about to strike in a potential particular way. And we need to understand the war that we are in, and we need to understand the nature of our enemy. Now, I. I would have. I would have probably tried to tackle Dr. Simone Gold before she had a chance to run over to the stairs, because that.
• 33:10
  Speaker B: Right.
• 33:10
  Speaker D: That put us in a unfortunate position. You know, obviously not her fault in any sense, but I. I wouldn't encourage anyone to run into the building if they could avoid it. We really couldn't avoid it. We were pushed in by the crowd at that point, and we were attacked by rogue cops that were violating use of force protocols. This is all very well documented in a number of pieces, particularly the Epic Times. The real story of Jan6, which I appear in along with Joshua, Phillip and some great guys over there. But it's important to understand the details. It's definitely important to understand that there was deeply corrupt and nefarious elements of the government that involved, that created entrapment and, you know, misused use of force, protocol in the crowd and etc. To really manufacture a riot for the purpose of the Democrat Party and so forth. But I would go, A.J. i, I would still be there. I'm very proud of nearly well over a million Americans, for sure, that traveled at their own expense from all over the country to represent their passion for America, the rule of law and the sacred nature of our democratic process and the need for election integrity. There's nothing more important. It still remains incredibly important. It's incredible. We have not passed the Save America act, number one most important thing when I'm running for Congress@johnstrand.com so that's enormous. And yeah, I would still be there, but I would certainly try to alarm people as much as I could about what's really happening here. This is a trap and a weapon that the America are fashioning against us.
• 34:35
  Speaker B: I think, I think back on that. One of the reasons I wasn't over there is that I had so many clients there or adjacent to what was happening. They were going to see Trump. I mean, my team, we were. I remembered watching this and I remember saying to them, you know, go over there, be careful. You know, because I was just warning people that Antifa may show up or BLM may show up.
• 34:59
  Speaker D: That's what I thought.
• 35:00
  Speaker B: Those characters are going to show up. They may have seated the crowd with them. They're going to pretend they're gonna, they're gonna put on a red hat. I was worried about that.
• 35:08
  Speaker D: Right.
• 35:08
  Speaker B: Little did I know that the crowd was seated with some other people.
• 35:13
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 35:14
  Speaker D: Several hundred FBI agents.
• 35:18
  Speaker B: Because our job was to book. Our job was to book our clients that were there. So we're just sending out pitches and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. But look, we're gonna take a break. Everybody go out, get a copy of this. We got a blurb from Prager, a blurb from Roger Stone, our buddy. Roger. One of the, one of the better dressed men out there besides me.
• 35:38
  Speaker D: We got Rogers, me and John, Congressman Bob McEwen. We got Kevin Sorbo. We got some.
• 35:43
  Speaker B: Aw. You know, Sam. Sam's our client. We love Sam. Yeah. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll come back. We're going to talk to John about his congressional campaign. I am A.J. rice. You're watching the DL. Remember, enlightenment begins when authority becomes laughable. Okay? We're going to laugh at authority. We're going to try to hold Congress. When we come back on the other side
• 36:06
  Speaker C: yo, yo, yo the chamber like a daycare Toys all scattered Democrats throwing tantrums Egos all battered Popcorn flying out Green in the mix Booted out the union like a bad magic trick Crying, whining, can't keep it low Nancy holding tricks, trying not to explode Chewing on her tongue Silence, a weapon A circus in the capital A lesson on step it in. Alphabet soup the DNC's a mess juvenile antics, no adult finesse Chucky in the corner Scheming with a grin Politics a playground Let the chaos begin Al Green serenades but they mute the tune Ejected from the floor by the afternoon tug of war Politics, truth lost in the fray Pelosi's tongue Acrobatics steal the play Congress acting up, no teacher in sight Time keeps ticking but ain't making it right Throwing fits, paper planes in the air this democracy looks more like daycare
• 37:12
  Speaker D: Our family here at Dangerous Laughter has a new mission. After 250 years of American history, we seek to showcase moments of great statesmanship, moments of courage, moments of restraint and uncommon wisdom. Moments of. Maxine Waters.
• 37:34
  Speaker C: Consider ourselves victims of this President. You have members of your cabinet that are being booed out of restaurants she's taking up at their house and saying, no dates, no sleep, no pants, no sleep. And if you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, in a gasoline station, you get out and you call a cloud and you go stand on there. The management of this station are clueless. You're listening to Dangerous Laughter with AJ Rice on the Publius Media Network.
• 38:18
  Speaker E: They said I was an insurrectionist.
• 38:21
  Speaker B: The defendant, John Strand, John Strand of
• 38:23
  Speaker D: Naples, Florida, was found guilty by a jury. And after a Washington, D.C. jury, a
• 38:28
  Speaker B: total of four, five offenses, including one felony.
• 38:31
  Speaker E: They called me a criminal. They tried to bury me with 23 years of prison. All for the crime of standing up to defend our constitutional rights. I faced a weaponized Department of Justice under a radical left regime that twisted the law to crush dissent. They framed innocent bystanders and used provocateurs to incite violence, blaming peaceful Americans like me for lawfully exercising our First Amendment right to protest. They charged me with a 20 year felony. And then they offered the easy way out. A single misdemeanor plea if I signed their false confession. But I refused to lie. I fought every step of the way. And the Supreme Court confirmed what I already knew. I was innocent. The DOJ vacated every charge. They lost. And after four years of fighting, the Truth finally won. That fight taught me something. When the government forgets they Work for the people. It's the people's duty to remind them. I've met veterans who can't afford health care, parents silenced at school boards, workers crushed by taxes and insurance while bureaucrats grow richer. We need more leaders who fight for us, not against us. I'll take the same resolve that cleared my name and use it to clear out corruption in Washington. I'll fight to protect your rights, your faith, your family and your culture. I will work to uphold Judeo Christian
• 39:59
  Speaker D: values and the rule of law.
• 40:01
  Speaker E: I'll stand against WOKE nonsense and weaponized government.
• 40:05
  Speaker D: And I will always tell you the truth.
• 40:08
  Speaker E: I fought tyranny once and I'm ready to fight fight it again. My name is John Strand. I'm running for Congress because America is worth fighting for. I'm John Strand and I approve this
• 40:27
  Speaker D: message because the future is only what you fight to make it. But we can't fight the radical left
• 40:32
  Speaker E: or country club rhinos without donations and
• 40:35
  Speaker D: support from patriots like you.
• 40:36
  Speaker A: You.
• 40:37
  Speaker D: So join the fight.
• 40:38
  Speaker E: Share this video and on August 18, 2026, what? Storm the capital for real.
• 40:47
  Speaker B: And we are back on dangerous. Laughter that was campaign launch video from John Strand. Florida. 19. We've got the, the primary coming up. So who. Who are the. Who are the. You know, and John, new book, Patriot Plea. Get the copy of that book now. You know, everyone in Florida needs a copy of this book. Everyone in the United States needs to copy this book. What. Who are the bozos? So we have this, we have this district that Byron Donalds is leaving. He's, you know, he's running for governor. Sounds like it's a fade accompli. He'll be governor, right? I mean, yes, he will. Okay. So, and look, there's some people that have some problems with Byron. You know, there's, I've seen some critiques of him that, you know, he hasn't done much and he's just, you know, the Republicans have to have to always be careful too. And I'm not saying this about Byron, but just in general, you know, we, we need to be more authentic than the left. We, we, you know, we. This shouldn't be where we're just passing batons to the next man up. I think we need authentic people and I think people need to earn it. So you got this fight going on in Florida. 19. John, tell us, who were you up against? And, and what, what makes them special or not?
• 42:04
  Speaker D: Yeah, what makes them special is they're rich. So it, you know, one thing, I just want to say one thing to people because they all know this already. They all feel the same way. We're sick and freaking tired of corruption and cowardice in our country and particularly in our politics. And we're really sick of all these people swinging around mega pack, you know, financial backing and these major bank accounts of these self funded elitists who just think they can buy their way to a seat in power, which is exactly what they're doing. So I'm actually pretty surprised that there wasn't more guidance from Trump and Byron on how to navigate the layout of the field in Florida's 19th congressional district. But I live here. I've lived in southwest Florida for over four years, fighting for freedom and justice with America's Frontline Doctors and GoldCare.com on the ground to protect the health of Americans, the liberties of Americans, the family values. I've been speaking at Fort Myers Courthouse and Naples City Council repeatedly urging them to declare Naples a sanctuary city for decency, to banish the sexual grooming of the Pride Trans cult because God's children are not for sale. And I actually believe that and I'm willing to fight for it. You won't find many politicians, Republican or Democrat, that will even dare to say such things because it's not politically expedient. Well, guess what? I don't give a crap about that. I care about the Bible, the Constitution and protecting your family. So I'm one of the very few people in this country that you'd actually be proud and excited to get into a position in government. But I'm not rich. And those are the guys that get all the, you know, the favors and the lanes to get into positions of power. So we have to change that, A.J. we have to get educated and engaged in the primary election process because that's where the war for America is waged. If voters only show up in November, they have already lost. And so few people vote at all. But even if they do, they don't even know what the primary means, not on their calendar. So we have that and it's coming up in less than a month. August 18, we got to vote for change. Vote for courage. Vote John Strand, patriot for Congress.
• 44:09
  Speaker B: So I mean, how many people are in this thing?
• 44:12
  Speaker D: It's like 15 because there's 10 Republicans in my primary and I think there's five Democrats. This district is so conservative that the Democrat has no chance. So Whoever wins on August 18th will be the next congressman for the 19th district. But there are a bunch of self funded Rhino rejects. Truly they've been rejected in other states and Places. It's kind of a mess and it's known well across the country. I was on Matt Gaetz's show not too long ago. He said, here's John Strand running for Byron Seaton, Florida's 19th, along with the rest of the the free world. So it's kind of a running joke. And I really think that President Trump and Byron and the whole MAGA economy, the whole MAGA community needs to get serious in these next 30 days. And we need to decide like, we do not want the next Thom Tillis getting entrenched in Byron Donald's seat. We don't need these self funded Rhino rejects that stab us in the back over and over. I mean, we're talking 50, 100 years of history that we've all replayed endlessly. We're sick of it. We need real change. We need real courage. We need real patriots in Congress.
• 45:13
  Speaker B: And so Trump hasn't made an endorsement. Byron Donalds obviously hasn't. DeSantis has not as well. Right, yeah.
• 45:21
  Speaker D: DeSantis not expected to. Byron not expected to either because he's also running in a contested primary. So I get that. But there's no reason for President Trump not to get behind the Charlie Kirk and Turning Point endorsed Patriot candidate who, you know, read the book and you'll see the story. But this is the kind of campaign that we need to get behind as a grassroots movement and as a community of patriots that actually care about the country and are sick and tired of being sold out by corrupt elites, Republican or Democrat.
• 45:48
  Speaker B: It is time, it's time to turn the page. We need, you know, I mean, people like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, they need to, you know, some of them are sick, some of them are dying before our eyes. You know, some of them are just outdated with old ideas. You know, it's taken, I mean, Trump's been on the, on the scene for, for 10 years and we still have that lurch back to establishment type rejects.
• 46:16
  Speaker D: Yeah.
• 46:16
  Speaker B: Waiting their turn. Waiting their turn. And you know, in, in, in, you know, Florida is kind of becoming the, the sort of talent breeding ground.
• 46:28
  Speaker E: Yes.
• 46:28
  Speaker B: For conservatism, certainly. And you're part of that. And we need, look, I always think of myself, I run a PR firm. I do some, some GR work. I mean, I am a talent scout. Right. And you know, Trump needs it. I mean, and he knows this. He likes picking winners. You know, he doesn't want to have, you know, egg on his face. But of course you gotta run it. You got to run this team like Steinbrenner and create a team of superstars. You know, he's done that. He did that with his cabinet. Some of them, you know, some of them didn't. Didn't. They got voted off the island already, and some of them. But Congress is a separate branch, and. And we're not going to have a Republican president forever. So we need to have fighters like you. Right, that have been through this. I mean, I mean, if there's. If there's. I mean, this is a real story from an authentic American. He didn't. John, believe me, John Strand didn't wake up every day and look in the mirror five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and say, you know, I see a president staring back at me. I see a congressman. What makes you interesting and a Renaissance man is every day you probably saw something different. So today what we do see is a patriot, somebody that will represent the district and like what. All right, so tell, Tell the audience a little bit about Florida. 19.
• 47:55
  Speaker D: It's a slice of paradise.
• 47:56
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 47:57
  Speaker D: What are their concerns on the Gulf of America? I live here in Naples. The district extends up to Cape Coral in Lee county and various neighborhoods in between. And it's beautiful. It's very dependent on tourism, agriculture, a beautiful ecology that's very dependent on the quality of water and natural resources that need to be protected. And it's a vibrant economy because it's the freest state in the nation by far, largely thanks to a great Governor in Ron DeSantis and strong conservatives like Byron Donalds and many others that have held the line on the, you know, the mass invasion by illegal immigration and the. The mass invasion of wokeism and the poison of the culture. So we have conservatives here that are fighting to protect southwest Florida, and that's important, but it's kitchen table issues that people care about in Florida's 19th district. That certainly includes the cost of living, the cost of insurance, the cost of housing. But of course, the way to fix this primarily is a couple of very basic things. Number one, got to pass the Save America act, period, end of story. If you don't have legitimate elections, the whole thing's a fraud. And that's what we're teetering on right now. That must be number one. Number two, we need to lock down the immigration scam. So I've got the 2020 Sovereignty Act. That's 20 years of zero immigration, 20 million deportations accelerated over the next four years. Because if we, if we deport the illegal aliens, you will suddenly have a lot more affordability. You will suddenly Have a lot less pressure downward on the housing market. You will have more assimilation and a unified culture where people actually can understand each other and not trying to kill each other. So a lot of these issues that people deal in the kitchen table directly are affected by the mass invasion scam of illegal immigration. And then we also need to dismantle our own enemies from within, being the corrupted federal government and particularly the way they steal so much of your money. The federal income tax is unconstitutional, which overwrite the 10th Amendment principle with the 16th Amendment, which I believe February 13, 1913 is the day the Republic died. It's when the 16th Amendment was ratified to allow an illegal direct taxation of Uncle Sam sticking his hand in your pocket. I'm going to get that handed, yank it out. We're going to abolish the IRS, will supercharge the economy and expand GDP by at least 5 to 8% in the first year that we could actually make that structural change. And there's a way to get it done. President Trump has laid out the roadmap with tariffs and the ERs. So we need to abolish the IRS and really set the American people free.
• 50:21
  Speaker B: Oh, my God.
• 50:23
  Speaker F: Yeah.
• 50:23
  Speaker B: I mean, we need this, we need this energy, we need this kind of talent in Congress. You know, a lot of guys, I, look, I worked on the Hill, okay, as a, as a puppy, and I had to get the hell out of there. And I get out of there because nobody was doing anything, right? Oh, check my emails, wander down the Starbucks. You know, hey, Betty, what happened on Jeopardy. Last night? I mean, just ridiculous stuff, right? Democrats and Republicans both. We need John Strand's energy. We need his experiences. He's a very media savvy guy for sure, but he's a man of faith. He went through something traumatic that no one should have to go through.
• 51:04
  Speaker E: Amen.
• 51:04
  Speaker B: So we got to also pick up his book, Patriot Plea. John Give the. Give the campaign websites out there. Where should everybody go for donation?
• 51:12
  Speaker D: Johnstrand.com It's. It's. And you guys, if you really care about this country, if you want to make a difference, and you certainly can, in fact, that's what you're on this earth to do, is to make a difference. And here's a chance. You could really make an exciting difference at a quick, critical moment in our nation's history. Go to johnstrand.com, click donate and chip in whatever you can, because we're waging a battle right now that matters. And literally every dollar helps us bump up in the polls where we are rising right now so that we can get President Trump and his team behind us so we can lock down this seat and win. If we get into Congress, you guys, it's a whole new ball game, okay? That's my promise and pledge to you, and I won't stop till I'm dead. But go to john.com, check out what's going on there, chip in whatever you can, and make sure you get this book. I believe Patriot Plea will become part of our nation's history in explaining what has gone wrong, what the. The radical left regime did to weaponize our own government against its people, and how we responded by overcoming, by turning back to God, by digging deep and be remembering what it means to be an American and saying, you know, come and take it. They're never going to take this republic from us. We're going to keep it. So together, we will keep this republic, republic.
• 52:25
  Speaker B: Send the deep state a message, guys. Send John Strand to Congress. He will work from the inside out to, you know, bring liberty. I mean, Florida is a liberty sanctuary state, and we need to export guys like John and there's some others from Florida. We need to export them to Washington D.C. so they can kick some ass and get the job done. So, John, I. Look, brother, I, I appreciate you, you know, I love you, appreciate you. Coming on, everybody get a copy of this book, right? Patriot Play, amazing book. Go to Amazon, go to Barnes and Noble Books, A million, anywhere books are sold.
• 53:02
  Speaker D: Write us a review. Those matter. Tell the story and tell your friends. Get this. Absolutely amazing.
• 53:08
  Speaker B: Well, John, I just want to thank you, man. Coming on. Dangerous laughter. You know, I mean, our, our. Look, we, you know, comedy's our civic duty here. We had some fun with you. You know, sometimes we do more, more danger than we do laughter, and sometimes it's the other way around. But, you know, you've got a unique story. People need to hear it. People need to go get this book. John, thanks for coming on. And just to the audience out there watching, go to dangerouslaughter.com I am AJ Rice. Stay dangerous, America. We'll see you next time.
• 53:37
  Speaker A: Dangerous laughter. Dangerous. Dangerous laughter. Dangerous laughter. Danger. Left here.