40 - SPECIAL GUEST, KEVIN DALTON

0:01 You are listening to a Fonds Media Network production. Welcome to episode forty World of Blaze with George Fonts. On today's show, I have Kevin Dalton. Kevin Dalton has a large social media presence, especially as account on X. Kevin offers news and opinions based on politics and is especially critical of California and Governor Gavin Newsome. Kevin previously ran for mayor of Los Angeles as well as the County Board of Supervisors. Kevin and I had a great conversation about California, Gavin Newsom, gun control, and the presidential election.

0:50 I think you'll enjoy this insightful conversation filled with both facts and opinion. Okay, World Blaze listener, welcome, and today I have with me Kevin Dalton. And came across Kevin Dalton off of X saw his posts and I saw how he was super critical of California and Gavin Newsom, and I did a little more of a deep dive and found out you have actual experience with both of those issues, or both of those topics in general. So gave you a follow and at some point I started realizing, Hey, I would like to talk to you, you know, so I reached out and asked for you're available, and you were.

1:31 We went back and forth a bit, but we finally made this happen, which is which is great, and I'm glad you're here now. I do want to go over a few things just to get started, because obviously my listeners may not be aware of you, and I have a lot to learn as well. But I do know that you lived in California for I think over forty years, is that correct? Yeah? Yeah, right up, let's just say forty five years. So I'm it's funny. I'm on x in critical of California quite a bit and my my location says egle, Idaho. So everyone is instantly like, all right, mister potato, what do you have to talk about? What do you know about California? I was there for quite a bit of time, and I have, you know, almost fifty years of friends, family and community still there that I care very much about.

2:19 So I still have a lot to say about the place. Yeah, I'm sure, and I'm sure you're concerned for your friends and family who are here dealing with, you know, the shenanigans that is California. I want to ask you, though you ran for La County Board of Supervisor. Is that correct? Correct? Okay with that? How did that come to be? Well, you know, it was not a plan. I was sitting at home like most everyone when COVID hit, and then all of a sudden, these pretty crazy rules were being handed down by this group of people I had never heard of before. This board of supervisors in Los Angeles County were closing down beaches and we're shutting down businesses and or just across the board one night said you your shoot what was the word that they used? Essential?

3:18 Oh man, Yes, your job is essentials. Yours is. Your livelihood is not essential. You'll sit at home. And this was the board of supervisors. This was my first experience with them. And then all of a sudden realizing that yeah, mayor is important, governor is important. But these five people have all the say, over ten million people in Los Angeles County and they were just they're out of their mind, and you could go back and start looking at decisions they've made, and not only through COVID, but before COVID, after COVID, the power that they wheeled was was scary, and the decisions they were making were even scarier. So I had I had been making, you know, some noise online always, you know, bitching about Eric Garcetti and everything that he was doing in Los Angeles. I'd even started on Twitter at the time a handled next La Mayor and I was going to run for mayor and that was that was going to be my thing. But with COVID ended up moving out of the city of Los Angeles, so that that kind of fell apart. So I'm sitting at home back to that when COVID hit. Then all of a sudden, I get a call from someone who says, hey, we need someone to run for District one for Board of Supervisor and I'm like, I know who these people are now, and yes, something needs to be done about that.

4:42 So I threw my hat into the ring against Tilda Solis, who was the incumbent. She's been there for a while. She was also a cabinet member on the Obama administration, so she's she's a heavy hitter, but she's one of the the four absolutely batss crazy women who were on the Board of Supervisors. There's there's one competent, quasi common sense member, but she just gets outvoted every single time. It doesn't matter what the issue. Is. So I went up against Hilda Solies with with zero experience at all, and man, that was a crazy learning experience in itself, even just going down to file. So to go down and file, I needed to give them twenty five hundred dollars just to get a gigantic packet of paper to go fill out and then go out and get a bunch of signatures. And if all of that wasn't filled out perfect, my twenty five hundred dollars just disappeared and went away.

5:52 So I started no guarantees, no guarantees would even be able to run. None whatsoever I could. I could give them the money, I could go out and for whatever reason, you know, I can't remember, I needed fifty signatures or whatever it was, and I ended up getting you know it, did I get anyway? I got way more than that because they can be disqualified, and you know that's what happens quite a bit that people will fill out all the paperwork and they're like, ah, sorry, you know, you got forty eight out of fifty and have a nice day. So fortunately I was able to fundraise the money to do this and got my packet, got all my signatures, got it filled out and got it turned in and qualified.

6:37 So I went out and started campaigning and beaten feet and going door to door and you know, just trying to talk to people. And the thing that I found out, especially for those who don't know, Los Angeles County's gigantic, ten million people, District one is essentially everything down the ten freeways. So starterup Pomona and you go west down the ten Freeway to you hit downtown. That's that's what District one is. It's it's big. But what's also crazy is the wild diversity of the district because you go down the ten Freeway and you know, you've you've got uh, you know, every every walk of life you can imagine going down the freeway if you're going down to Covina and then Monterey Park and then Quente Hills and then to downtown. The the the diversity is is wild. But what I found out what talking to everyone, is they all wanted the same thing. They wanted to be able to afford a house. They wanted to be able to send their kids to a good school. They wanted to not get stabbed by a homeless guy when they walked with their kids down the sidewalk it didn't matter what language you came from, or what language you spoke, or where you came from. If you were born here or you were a Layotan and you've immigrated here, you want to buy a house, You want your kids to be safe, you want them to get a good education. And that's

8:09 what I ran on. I ended up raising five thousand dollars all together. Twenty five hundred of that, of course, went right to the filing fee, and I did not win. Hilda Solblis raised just over nine hundred thousand dollars, and I don't think she spent any of it. She doesn't need to. You know, she had the whole entire machine behind her. She ended up I think, you know, seventy five percent of the vote. It's it's tough, especially when you know you go out to events and it's kind of crazy because she's out, she's not campaigning, but she is also hitting all the community centers with a big giant check with her name on it, and she's like, here, I'm giving the rec center fifty thousand dollars under an easy up with her name on it. And I'm like, I know she's not campaigning at these events, but man, she's literally handing out cash to people right now with her name on it. No, it's tough to compete, but I learned so much along the way, stuff that I would do different. And you know, I may try it again as soon as I get more of the California stink off of me and Idaho maybe.

9:24 Well, I was actually ask you if you're going to try that, try for a position to get in politics. You know, maybe I'll start smaller with the PTO and my son's school. But I always I have an opinion on almost anything. But you know, I just for the most part, I just want stuff to work better. You know, I'm I'm kind of like like an efficiency freak. I walk into a situation and I'm like, Okay, see what you're doing, but we can make this work just a little bit better. Everyone will work a little you know, it'll be a little easier. And but that's that's what I do when I kind of walk into any situation. You know, whether whether it's a simple process, or it's homelessness or it's traffic, you know, there is a there is a more efficient way to pull this off, and we can do it on a small scale, or we can do it on a scale of ten million people.

10:18 But why are we doing the same exact bureaucratic nonsense, you know, when we don't have to be tied to that anymore. You know, we've got this amazing power of communication and you know, being able to be you know, communicating to so many people on x and Instagram and Facebook and everything that's out there. It's I thought it would level the playing field faster, but I think it's getting there. I really think it's getting to a point where you know, like I said, these things that I learned, I would leverage not that I didn't leverage it before, but I would certainly try to leverage it a little smarter than I did, stuff that I learned along the way.

10:59 And I think, whether you raise nine hundred thousand dollars or you raise five thousand dollars, if you can talk to the people and you can connect with them and actually get that message to them, I think that's a much more doable thing now. And it's it's going to be a bigger ranch in this this system, you know, this, these these big giant machines that have been politically built over the decades, the centuries. Right, I would I agree and I would hope that you're right, you know, with with the tools we have now to reach an audience, I would hope that it wouldn't be it wouldn't come down just to how much money you have. You know, it shouldn't be about how much money you could spend to reach, you know, people or get their ear to hear what you have to say.

11:45 And I would hope that just based on your policies and whatever it is that you believe in, what is enough for people to decide that you're the right person for the job, which is what it should be. So I totally agree with that, And I was gonna I was gonna ask you about something though, because I was on your expos You got kind of like a model or slogan there where he says, you tried fixing the system by working with the system, and now you're doing it your way. So to ask you, what what do you mean by that? What is doing your way your way these days? And what is that involved? Well, that's that's a lot of this. So, you know, trying to work within the system was was running for you know, board of supervisors and jumping through all the hoops and doing all the stuff that they asked, and you know, it didn't end up exactly where I would have liked and where I think would have would have been a bigger benefit to everyone. So now I'm doing it my way, which is making sure that everyone sees the repercussions of these policies. You know, uh, you can listen to Gavin Newsom or or Karen Bass or anyone on the Board of Supervisors, and they can tell you that the crime is down, crime is down, And I'm going to show you another side of that. You know, it called me a propaganda say, I'm just showing I'm cherry picking. Well, i may be cherry picking, but these videos seem to land in my lap, not on a not on a weekly basis, but on a daily basis.

13:12 So you know, I if these street takeovers are happening all over the place. JJ Smith up up in San Francisco. Man, he is one of the the scariest and best follows you can have on x If you want to know what's really happening on the streets of San Francisco, this guy walks down the streets and literally just saves people's lives on a daily basis. I'm not I'm not using hyperbole. I'm not saying this guy is a hero. No, this guy is a hero. He sees people o ding, he's he's reviving them, bringing them back to life. As the the harm reduction specialist stands over them, you know, he's like, oh, when you give them back, when you bring them back, here's a bag full of crack pipes so he can overdose again. This is this stuff, is what's really happening out there. If it's not reported, it's not a crime, it's not an overdose, you know. But there is scary stuff happening out there, and I don't want it to go any further. Gavin Newsom, I want him in twenty twenty six. When he's done, he goes back to plump Jack Winery and he can't get a job in politics again.

14:22 Agreed. If he wants to go on a speaking tour, that's great, But you don't go any further. Man. You don't get to bring everything that you've done here to Washington. You don't get to be a senator, you don't get to be a you don't get to go anywhere because anywhere you go, it's going to follow with the stink of me showing everyone what you've done for twenty years. So that's doing it my way. Am I going to be able to be governor and go and fight Gavin Newsom head to head? No? But can I be a gigantic thorn in his side and make stupid videos and that people share and spread all around so when he wants to try to come back in twenty twenty eight, I got a treasure trove of stuff that's gonna make sure your ass is sitting in plump jack and there's nothing you can do about it. That's doing it my way.

15:09 There's nothing wrong with holding our elected officials accountable. I mean, especially Gavin Newsom. I mean there, I'm with you. I think more people should be critical of him, and I'd hate to see him as a presidential candidate, to be quite honest. I mean, living in California, you did. We don't need that across the country. We really don't. And I was gonna ask you about the Gavin Newsom thing here because I know you're critical of him. I'm just wondering is any of that based on any first hand you know, interactions with him that that that you had, or is it just through your experiences you just you could just see all the bullshit basically, and you know exactly where it's coming from. Yeah, it's it's a it's a common denominator situation. I've I've never had any any first hand experience with him, though, ironically enough, I think the I don't know, fourth or fifth month we were here in Idaho, I was with my son on a preschool field trip to the capitol where we met the governor. I shook his hand, my son shook his hand. Nice, really guy, personable, you know, literally out meeting with the people and meeting with the kids.

16:13 So so maybe I'm maybe I'm a bit biased, but but no, No, no firsthand interactions, uh with the governor. When I was really starting to be critical of Eric Garcetti, you know, I started kind of following, following up the ladder, and you know, Garcetti led to you know, to the from the city level to the county level to the state level, and then you know, you see what Newsom is doing now. But then you start following back where he's been, and you know a lot of people say, why you blame Newsom so much, He's only been doing this for six years. No, No, Newsom's been doing this for a very very long time, going all the way back to before he was mayor of San Francisco, and the guy has just left a wake of homelessness and terrible policies behind him wherever he's gone. The crazier thing is, you know, speaking of Board of Supervisors, one of his original gigs in San Francisco was not elected. He was nominated to the position. And there's a few other positions where he was never even elected to. He was handed this, So you know, it's he has been groomed from the beginning to take the White House. At some point I would have sworn up and down that it was going to be this year. I'm still still not one hundred percent sure they're not going to try to slide him in at the end.

17:40 Yeah, the way it's been going, I can I can see that happening. I would hope not, but I do. Not know what's going to happen after the debate. You know it, maybe maybe Harris is fine, but I can really imagine it just not going well. And we're going to do an exact repeat of of the Biden situation, where going into the first debate, everyone was like Biden's sharp as attack he is going to mop the floor with Trump. Trump is gonna cry like a little bit, and there's gonna be a gigantic blue wave in November. And then the debate came around, Biden crapped the bed in ways that no one could possibly imagine. Then they were scrambling to fix it. They brought Kamala in. They are prepping her like crazy, just like they did with Joe.

18:30 She is going to mop the floor with Trump. And I can absolutely see her just completely falling apart when she has to not have a pre recorded two on one interview with CNN. No, this is going to be a debate with Trump. Who's going to be coming at you? And I know all her debate work is all zingers and you know, gotcha moments, But those are gonna run out, and as soon as she does, she's gonna back into one of her unburdening of what shouldn't be burdened or whatever she says. And I don't know what's gonna happen past Tuesday. So who knows anymore. That's been a crazy two months.

19:16 Yeah, I mean, and again, you know, here's a classic example of someone who's nominated into being a presidential nominee right, like Gavin Newsom has been nominated in too certain positions. Seems to be kind of a theme on that side of the that started the political isle here. But you know, as far as Newsom goes, go back. I do want to get back to Kamlin and Trump though, But as far as Newsom goes, I mean, I think what you're doing is great because a lot of people are you know, they think they just think surfing, sunshine and everything. But you know, because of social media, all of the bad policies, as you said, and everything that people are going through is starting to get out. And I know, I know Newsom's feeling the heat about it. Probably why he just that one hundred and fifty thousand dollars you know, loan towards a home.

20:05 For legal immigrants to buy out. Yeah, that could be why. The other reason, I'm sure is because you know, hey, we went from one hundred billion dollars surplus to a seventy billion dollar deficit, and then you know the never ending high speed rail. Who knows where all the money on that went with all the freaking revisions, And you know, I know somebody who's high up, So I do get some info on that. I'm not gonna say who he is, but I'll just say, how many more consultants do you need to hire? You know? Well that's that ever everyone's getting rich. They've they've built one bridge and they were patting themselves on the back and it was just adjacent to another bridge where the line already is this whole time, the whole entire thing, you know, at some point, and someone should just say stop, stop, we're pulling the plug on this, you know. And that's that's part of the problem with government is there's there's no admission of mistake, you know, it's just well, we just have to keep plugging down this road and you know, hopefully by the time it completely falls apart, I've been elected to some other office and it's someone else's problem down the road to the next person.

21:12 Yeah, just kicked a hand down the road. Yeah yeah, I mean, that's. That's the that's the idea. Just get elected. Just get elected. And in the case of Newsom, I mean the biggest red flag is him blocking the audits, Like you can't even audit where the money's coming or going. So yeah, anyway, I know we both where we where we stand with Newsom, But I did want to get your thoughts on that. I do want to ask you. I'm just gonna go down the line here based on some of the stuff I sent you earlier, just so the kind of you know, stay on task here. And it's related to the to the to the election, so there's a little method to the questioning here. And question I had because it's recent, I just actually did another episode on it was the Rover Colorado situation. I wanted to know what you thought about that, with the Venezuelan gangs taking over the apartment complexes and whatnot. And to me, it's it's really a classic example of government officials not taking not whole, not not being responsible, you know, not being accountable for their actions at all. And all they're doing is just pointing fingers at everyone else for the situation. They're even pointing fingers at the you know, the complex owners, like it's their fault that this happened. Yeah, they're pointing fingers at Trump supporters and you know, right wing media for making it a bigger thing than it is. But then in all of the reports and even even their own police don't deny it's happening. But at the same time, you know, they're coming up with tasks forced to go in and take care of the situation that supposedly doesn't exist according to them. So I just wonder what you kind of thought about that whole thing.

22:42 Well, I think you hit the nail on the head where it's the you know, it supposedly exists, supposedly doesn't exist, and that's why you don't get the National Guard sent in when they logically should have been, because the National Guard isn't just the National Guard, it's the National Guard, and an admission of guilt that there there is a problem here, that it's gotten so bad that we need the National Guard. And I don't think that would fly under the radar. Somebody. Somebody would be out there going, why is the National Guard here? So, you know, I think that's that's why it wasn't done. And I mean, who knows. I can I can put on my conspiracy corner tin tinfoil hat and maybe the governor of Colorado did make some phone calls and someone was like, stop, put a lid on it. You know, this this will go away, you know, as far as is you know, is it being overblown? Because that was one of the things.

23:39 I had put out a video from TMZ and it was one of the city council women who had initially put out the first video that had the gunman walking around, and you know, they're saying that she, you know, she doesn't know what she's talking about. This, this was a dispute between one apartment and now you're exploiting it, and you know, I'm, I'm it's so convoluted now because there's so much there's there's so much opportunity for misinformation. So I'm now I'm like, well, let me double check on my end. And then the mayor comes out and he's like, yeah, this is kind of a thing that's happening. So, you know, so it gets more and more corroborated, you know, by these officials within the city. But then you get protesters down there, who are you know, literally just there to protest the idea that these Venezuelan gangs are are taking over this place. You know, it's not even it's it's the weirdest uh, it's the weirdest hill to die on.

24:45 You know that no one saw this coming. I'm like, where are you going to protest today? Green Peace? You saving the whales? They doing the straw and the and the turtle's nose again. You're like, Nope, going to protest and make sure that people don't know Venis whaling gangs didn't take over an apartment building. And Aurora, I'm like, wait, what that's That's gonna be a tough chant. So it's there's so much effort from both sides. It's tough to you know, it's tough to fully grasp what the truth is that being said, there are armed men from Vee Israela that I have seen on video absolutely, you know.

25:26 So you know, so even if it's not one thousand percent that these guys, you know, they're that they've taken over all of these these apartments, maybe it's ninety nine point nine percent of the truth of that. There's a lot of it that's truth. And they are heavily armed and they're in our country. And Bill Majulien basically came out when they arrested four of them, and this came out yesterday and they're like, oh, yeah, these guys were picked up at the border in twenty twenty two. This guy's a major shot caller in the gang, and they just let them go and they went right to Aurora and ended up there two years later. So they they've arrested these guys. They know when they came in the country, they know that they are bad ombres. So you know, there there's stuff that can be you know, not confirmed, but there is a lot that has been right.

26:24 Well from what I can say about the protests, and this is this is pretty much I'm going to say fact because it's the only reason they would be doing that is because the local people that are in fear of the gang retaliating against them. I mean, let's not let's not be naive about that, right, So that'd be the only reason I can see that happen. Also, it went from one apartment building to two, and now you know there's newer reports that came out that confirmed there's a third building. Multiple Yeah. Yeah, so they definitely had a problem that they tried to hide, and you know, citizens, they were ignored by their government. They took action, which is crazy, and at what point is it okay for the government to abandon their own citizens, because I think at that point you pretty much lost a country, especially when there's the idea of them accepting and cheering on another criminal organization to come save them. With the rumors of the Hell's Angel supposed to going down there, I know that's a rumor.

27:18 They're not going down there to do that, but still people were happy about that. And so if they're in that place, in that mindset, then that speaks volumes about what's really going on there and that the government of Colorado, ror Colorado and the governor need to be held accountable for it, you know. And I think that that's the situation that a lot of people in America live in at this point, especially with the open border policy. I know that's a whole nother show, probably in a longer conversation, but still, you know, when people get to that point, then yes, there is a problem. It's not even a matter of pointing fingers. It's like, who cares if you're Republican, independent, or democratic. Just fix the situation for everybody.

28:00 Just just imagine if the Hell's Angels had really gone there. Did you imagine the absolute blood bath that would have taken place? These You've heavily armed Venezuelan gang members in you know, a seventeen story building with potential, you know, hundreds of hostages with with with surrounded by a motorcycle gang, presumably heavily armed because they know the Venezuelans are heavily armed. I mean this, This could have been an absolute massacre while everyone stood by and, like you said, allowed it to happen. I mean this, There there had to have been someone who called nine to one one two months ago, you know, the first time someone showed up in the hallway of my apartment building and I'm like, looking through my people, I'm like, oh, there there are there are dudes with guns. I'm gonna make a phone. Would not have been one.

29:02 There was nine one one calls made in one lady forgot her name, but she did report, and this was confirmed by CBS. They sent some reporters out there to try to see, hey, is this really happening. They wrote a whole article on it, and she was told by the police that well, to respond to that, we would need three to four people together to do that, and we're not going to do that because would pull resources away from you know, the other parts of the city. Yeah, so it wasn't a priority to them. And I'm not trying to beat them up. I'm just saying, you know, instead of trying to look good politically, just admit, hey, there's an issue and help out your citizens. You know, there's innocent people, they're just trying to live, which is crazy. It's the same, you know, on a quasi different level.

29:44 But with all the street takeovers in California, you know, there are citizens who were constantly put in a danger and it's a problem. But it's a resource issue. You can't send one police officer over there. They try that, and the cop goes into the middle of it, and they mob his car and they smash out the window. And now this cop has to desperately carefully get away without running into and over while he stays live. So you know, unless you can get twenty or thirty officers together, you know, at this one intersection at this time, this stuff is it's it's tough to police on a one off it is. And that that what you just said is almost a daily occurrence in Oakland.

30:28 Oh yeah, Oakland, Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego's picking up a little bit. But Los Angeles, I mean it's especially La. That just came out about one one isn't just happened in La. Oh They're I mean, the they are everywhere nightly to say the least, uh, you know, and it's it's not just okay, these guys are doing donuts and then they they leave and everyone everyone goes home. These guys are doing donuts, and then half the spectators going and loot the a MPM that's at the adjacent station, and then one of the cars is left in the intersection and they like the damn thing on fire. So look, I'm a guy who I will fully admit I'm fairly sure I'm out of the statute of limitations from God thirty years ago now. But I used to street race. I would go out to the city of Ontario and we would go to Mission in Milliken and we would race for hours and hours on end. But here's what we didn't do. We didn't block streets, we didn't loot ampms, we didn't like cars on fire. We just went out, raced, had a great time, and then went home. You want to know how many times we shot at each other. None, It's it was just a it was a different time.

31:49 So you know, I I'll post a video of a street takeover, and someone will post a video of like greasers racing their their fifty seven bel airs and the aqueduct of Los Angeles and like, same thing, just different decade. And it's like, no, this is not the same thing. You've got drones firing fireworks at guys as they're doing donuts in these street takeovers. This, this is not the same thing. It's gone crazy. And the only reason I laugh is because of the absurdity of it all. You know how crazy it's gone. Yes, well it's it is. It is like movie parody. Now, if you were making a movie on how bad it was in Los Angeles and you produced a street takeover that happens every single night on the streets, they would they be like, bro, stop this, this is this is nonsense.

32:41 This you pulled this out of a Mad Max movie. We're trying to be realistic. It's is, it's it is. It's gone into parody now. I sometimes think we are living in a movie, to be quite honest. And I'm I I I agree, we're we're somewhere. I'm like, we're in either idiotcracy. I don't know, I don't know, but see, I think we're also like falling down. Also, Michael Douglas from like the nineties, I don't know, I don't know if we've been to falling down or if we're going to falling down, we're in the middle. I think we're about to fall down. We're tripping right now. And then and then I don't know how it ends.

33:22 It's either going to be Planet of the Apes or Terminator. I don't know which one, but either the apes are going to rise up or the machines are going to rise up. I don't think they'll team up against us, but that that's not's the only way it ends. We we are one thousand percent living in a movie. Well, let's let's hope Elon Musk's inventions don't become software entre into sky net. So it's you know, you never can tell everything seems like a good idea until it's not. It does. Right, Let's let's move on to some and the reason I'm going to ask you about this, And I know it's a sensitive thing, but the school shootings A just have and and it's good to tie into, you know, our conversation next on the election, obviously tying to Kamala.

34:10 I think you might see where I'm going with all of this, but I do want to get your opinion on school shootings in general. I mean, nobody agrees that they're good or they should happen. I don't think anyone should agree that that's a good thing. That's crazy. But what do you? What are your thoughts on that? And how? And this is why I'm asking us because I hate that when these tragic, these tragic events happen, it gets so politicized and it's all about my side versure side, instead of just really come together and you know, caring about America for America. Right. Oh, yeah, there's ten people that are dead. What color is the shooter? It just kills me. It just kills me that they politicize this and use this as an opportunity to gain votes, and it's ridiculous.

34:52 What do you what's your thoughts on this? Well, it's it's to your point. I mean, I don't what could be more terrible? Which is the point when when these just absolute cowards go out and do this, they the the thought process is what could be the worst thing I could do? And I don't. I don't know where else you could go after that would have the impacts as a school shooting. It's instantly politicized. You're right, And I think it's politicized because it's it has the sensitive subject of guns, but it's not about guns, but we can make it about guns. The day after it happened over in Boise, the school of the school district had active shooter drills and it wasn't in my son's district, which I was happy about because I never really thought about it until now. My wife was telling me that the mom's group she's in. She was like, yeah, well, you know so, and so she's in kind she did really well. She just you know, she hugged on the teacher the whole entire time. And I'm like, why why are we Why are we traumatizing these kids? Why why are we putting them through this this thing that, as unbelievably terrible as it is, is, the odds of it happen are statistically insignificant. Yes, but we are freaking these

36:25 kids out. And now not only are we freaking these kids out, we're freaking out the parents because the parents are freaked out because the kids are freaked out, and it becomes an issue not about school shooters, but the guns that are causing their kids to be freaked out. You know, It's it all comes back back to a gun issue. And I don't think For me, it's not an issue about guns. It's an issue of schools just being the softest, greatest target to these cowards. Like I'm saying, it's it's an open invitation for them to express their inner garbage, noess, and we give them the opportunity because we can't fortify them, we can't make them safe, because the way we make them safe is with guns. And we go back to, well, these are the same things that people are coming in and shooting with, so they're obviously bad. It's it's it's not about the guns. I have this crazy idea that I think can actually not only really help school shootings, but solve another problem that our country has, which is unemployed veterans. We have more than four hundred thousand unemployed veterans in this country. Crazy.

37:43 It's absolutely wild that people who signed their name, that made a pledge to put their hand on their heart, to lay down their life for this country they come back and we just give them the finger. We're all whatever, bro. Yes, And I know veterans, and I've had veterans in my family, and you know they don't they don't all come out the other side in a good way. No, they don't or supported. And a lot of that is because of lack of support. It it's lack of a duty that you used to have and now you were just left. My buddy was in for twenty four years and they handed him a pamphlet. They're like, do you want to start your own business? Do you want to work for someone else? Have a great day? And he was not prepared for the real world. I'm by no means am I saying that the military is like prison, but it's the same thing. You can't just have someone who's been incarcerated, who's been in this system, this you know, has been in this thing that works the same exact way for twenty years and go freedom. There you go.

38:46 You know, it's a shock, it's a shocked you individual. You need purpose, you need you need this thing. So back to the school shootings, we also have two hundred thousand or so schools that that need protection. So we find these veterans, we obviously go through a vetting process and make sure that you know that they're good, and we give them purpose, We give them a school. And this isn't a person walking around in fatigues with an M sixteen on their shoulder. This is Colonel Sally, who served her country and now she's here just to keep an eye on the place. She's you know, this is this is her school, and anyone who decides to do this now knows that Sally's there. There's a Sally at every school. There is a vet who pledged to lay down their life, and they will do that for this school. Also, I think you solved multiple problems at the same time.

39:45 We need the schools just can't be soft targets. You know that if you come here, you are going to face You're going to face instant, instant pushback. This isn't going to be a thing where we wait for twenty minutes and we hope a resource officer shows up or the police, and the police are more concerned with holding back parents for running inside. We're not doing that. We've got someone on the inside. And normally these people are going to their school so they know they know this person is here. You know, I think it does it not solve the problem of this person who wants to go shoot a place up. Now, it doesn't really solve that problem, but it saves the schools. And if you walk into any bank in the country, there's a reason why stuff is behind bars and it's safe and odds there's a security guard there. It's because we know that we want to protect our money because people want to come and take it, so we fortify that place. We should do the same to schools. I'm not saying make it look like a prison. I'm just saying, let the bad guys know this isn't going to be as easy as you want it to be.

40:54 Well, I mean, you make a point because you have guards at retail stores. Where. Okay, so, and I don't I don't know how it is an Idaho, and I don't know if they were doing this when you left California. But now schools, at least I'm in the Central Valley, so out here I can see it, and I think it's all a California. They're all fenced off. Now, they're all fenced off, locked up. You can't just walk in. You can't see even here. They they had closed campuses everywhere. Where. If you know, once once school is going, you have to in theory, you know, go go through the office. I mean, these are five foot chain link fences. If someone wants to get over them, someone is going to get over them. But but you know, I mean, no one messes around anymore, you know, even even out here where the you know, you'd think the odds of something like that happening, like I said, are are incredibly unbelievably small.

41:46 But you know, you you have to take just basic precautions. Why why wouldn't you. We haven't gotten to the point where you walk out of the Albertsons and you know there's there's a security guard there. But but there is a reason why the Brinks truck is driving around town and it's got dudes with guns on their hips, because they want to make sure that the money truck stay, that the money stays in the truck. That's that's you know, go back to the old West, go back to the early the earliest days of man. We've been protecting the important stuff. We should probably continue. The school school should absolutely be protected. I mean, they should have a police officer at every single school. And you know, I know they have them out here and they're all armed. They're they're sworn in police officers, so they're on site. They parked their vehicles very prominently, so you know there's someone there. But how someone could just sneak a gun in it's crazy. I mean, someone's not paying attention from the get go. Sure, and these things don't just happen, okay, there's usually signs that this is coming.

42:56 And I think another issue we have with what's going on is our youth. Our children are being ignored. They're not being paid attention to enough. You know, most most children will reach out for help in their way, and if you're not looking for that, which I believe is the job of most educators, then you're probably just adding to a bad situation. I mean, you should be able to recognize when someone needs help and help that individual and shouldn't get to the point it does where they think that grabbing a gun and killing people is the right solution for their lives. So well, I believe the FBI paid a visit to this guy's house absolutely in twenty twenty three last year, So you know, not not only is it the kids don't have a you know, they aren't being listened to.

43:39 Even when somebody calls the literal Federal Bureau of Investigation send them to the house, they stop paying attention. You know. Somehow the FBI comes there, the dad still thinks it's a good idea to go buy his son a rifle and you know, the dad's facing you know, for a or not attempted murder or second degree murder whatever. Second degree murder, which I can agree with because why would you why would you arm your kid with a weapon when you know they have issues. In fact, in twenty three, as you said, the FBI caught onto this individual through rumors and whatever was going on, and they looked into this person. I already knew theredy, knew that there was gonna be an issue. It was already reported.

44:22 So I mean maybe we, like you said earlier, we put our tinfoil hat on and go, hmm, you know what's really going on? But yeah, I think I think we need to pay attention to the kids more. Definitely, I'm not sure how you feel about more gun control. You know, in the end, you could take guns away. It's not going to stop criminals from being criminals. It's not going to stop someone from buying something on the black market. There's always a way to get it, you know, if you're determined, you're going to make it happen. Yeah, without question, any any gun control is just taking guns away from from law abiding citizens. And I don't think that that benefits the law abiding citizens at all. Criminals are going to criminal and you know it's uh, you know, and whenever I say things like that, you're like, well, no speed limit, then just let everyone do what they want.

45:07 Why is there? Why is murdered illegal? And it's like quite, you know, why why can we? Why can we? Why do we have to have this disingenuous leaping off point? You know. It's there. There are bad people who are going to do bad things. And I would I would love it if iron a bank, or if I were in a school in some some criminal came in with a gun. I would love it more than anything to have a good guy with a gun right next to me. And I think you can. You can talk to David Hogg and he won't say that on X but if he's in the bank and someone's a, hey, hold on, I got your pack, he's going to be pretty happy about that.

45:54 You know. It's it's more more gun control, is is exactly that. It's just it's it's not going to it's not going to help out the people who need it. So no, you're right, and you know I and I guess I agree. I wonder if you do but you know, maybe these parents that you know willingly provide these weapons should be held accountable. Yes, you know, especially if you see signs that your child should not be having any access to a weapon. Sure, I was shooting. I was shooting with my family when I was five six years old. You know. I my twenty two rifle that I still have. I've been shooting that thing for for over forty years. And I was top gun safety. I mean, I you know, there there are are basic rules to this thing that you impart to kids, and kids are incredibly safe. I see videos online where you know, where very young kids are firing weapons and people are freaked out about it. I'm like, no, no, no, that kid's not going to be the school shooter. You know.

47:03 That's that's you don't You don't necessarily have to worry about. You know, these kids who understand, you know, gun safety and their parents are listening and working with them, and uh, you know, I agree. And there's there's there's high schools that have you know, school shooting teams that go compete. Yes, yes, again, I think those are those are the kids. You you you it's a self selecting group, you know, you you don't have to write it, you know, and this. Is this was a sensitive topic obviously, and it's hard to it's hard to give a straightforward solution because everyone's going to have a different view on it depending on their experience. But you know, it's a conversation to have, you know, and it's definitely worth bouncing ideas back and forth.

47:46 I mean, I'll be straight up, I'm not against guns. I don't believe in abolishing or second moment right whatsoever. But you know, it is tragic when these things happen, and it does make you question, like, well, what can we do to help alleviate the situation? What do we do to stop that? And and it's hard because I don't know what the solution is, and nobody ever wants to really, you know, come up with one that actually makes sense outside of, hey, take guns away from everybody. So you know that's not where we need to be either. Even but even if you don't, hypothetically you could snap your finger and and remove all all of the guns at once, then we instantly have a knife problem, well because because then you're you know, you've got a switchblade, this guy's got a Samurai sword, and you know, I mean it's it's.

48:34 Okay, sorry to cut you off, but I literally, I literally did one an episode on this gun uh gun issue. Okay, And look, we take the UK, we take Australia for example, where there's no guns, and I've already had people come at me. But the stats are stats, regardless of taking guns away, their murder rate, homicide rate in Australia, the UK, and in America. Now the numbers of people are different because we have three hundred and thirty million people versus let's say lesson one hundred million or six years, but one percent all three countries under one percent mass shootings in the USA, and you can get this information from Brady dot org, who is an anti gun violence organization.

49:17 Mass shootings account for less than one percent of gun deaths. Sixty percent of gun deests are actual suicides. So I'm not giving people that data to downplay, you know, school shootings. I mean, that's bad regardless, but if we're going to make decisions, we got to have all the data in front of us and be realistic about it. Oh. I think I think it's really important. I mean, whenever we talk about mass shootings, the only guns, you know, they're like assault rifles, assault rifles and mass shootings. It's like, okay, hold on a second, because school shootings are you want to talk about another tiny percentile. School shootings are one or two percent of mass shootings. The vast, overwhelmed majority of mass shootings happen all in the streets of Chicago and Washington, d C. And Oakland every single night with illegally obtained handguns that have nothing to do with any sort of stupid made up term assault rifle that doesn't even mean anything anyway. It's uh, No one wants to talk about the real mass shootings that are happening nightly.

50:26 They only want to glom onto the school shootings because it serves a much greater purpose for you know, for this narrative going back to it's not about the school shootings, that's about the guns. And I'm agreeing with you. It's just it's just unfortunate kids do have to go through this, that it does come up, and when it does, I mean, of course you're gonna be scared, you know. Yeah, I don't think we had to go through that when we're going through school, you know, I don't I don't recall that happening. It might have been like a distant you know, a distant event that we learned about. But it wasn't you know, I didn't have we didn't have shooting drills, you know. But i'd also i'd also let's, you know, let's let's look at some numbers. Though I'd love to see the number.

51:07 I'd love to That's not the way I meant that it would be interesting to look at. I know, it just sounds bad. It doesn't understand kids. It would be really interesting to look at the number of kids that die in school shootings each year versus the number of kids that drown in a pool, versus the number of kids that overdose, versus the number of kids that that fall off a ladder and and you know, suffer a brain injury. I'm willing to bet these these common accidents that happen on a daily basis, happen in a much much greater magnitude than these school shootings that we're now freaking out the kids about at school, instead of going hey, when you're around a pool, you know, or saying saying, you know, freaking car accident, yes, yeah, yeah, so you know, are are we are? We trying to save lives or are we trying to freak kids out because we're not saving lives, but we are freaking kids out.

52:10 So you know, what, what is it that we're trying to accomplish. I'm I'm kind of running through my math and it doesn't seem like it's the thing you're saying. So you know, of course, it's terrible any anytime a kid, you know, a kid loses their life, it's it's terrible. I just there there are several several other ways that it happens on a much greater level that we spend zero time talking about the amount of the amount of kids just let's talk obesity alone. The amount of kids whose b m I is in the seventies now who this this will impact and follow them for the rest of their lives. We're not going to talk about that, but we're going to talk We're going to talk about the school shootings because it's it's it hits that emotional button.

53:03 It is there's no other place there's you know, like I said earlier, there's there's really no other spot that they can go after that's going to elicit this sort of emotional response. Right, So that's the reason that's exactly what it is, and you know, most people don't want to remove themselves from the emotional side of it and just look at the data to make make decisions. But again it's it's a bad situation, we know it. But you know, again, these these conversations have to be had, but based on actual data and what's going on, and you know, just knee jerk reactions to enforced policies that will you know, affect the entire nation and in a real bad way, because it's never been proven that if you take the guns away from the citizens, that the government doesn't keep trying to encroach on the rights. I mean, no matter where you go, it's happened. It's even happened in the UK within the last few years. Australia had happened during COVID.

53:52 Canada is another situation, you know, another example. And then of course we have every country that turned communists. But you know, that's that's a whole nother conversation. Let's just go into the presidential election because I think, you know, I want to get you out of here. I know you have places to go here. What do you think about this year's election? Man, It's it's been unreal, Uh, you know, talk about living in a movie. I mean, we've had a a sitting president drop out of the race unheard of. We've had a presidential candidate shot at an assassination attempt, unheard of. The VP is now taking the spot and is is completely dodging any sort of interviews and is so protected.

54:38 You thought that Biden was protected before. Harris is is infinitely more protected. And she has just got the machine going full blast Kamala Palooza. It's I don't know what's gonna happen, Like we said, you know, I with the debate coming up, I don't need I'm still not one Harris Harris can be will still be the candidate, you know, And it's like, well that would be insane and unprecedented. What hasn't been insane or unprecedented over over the past two months. So there there is a uh uh uh you know, what do you what do you call it? There?

55:18 They've done this before. There is there is proof of concept that they can dump their candidate pretty easily and within seven minutes fire up the campaign wagon for someone someone else. They definitely ran the stress test. Yes, So Kamala Harris is definitely under the gun. Because they'll they'll just drop her. They they had Biden for you know, forty some years. They they've been they've been supporting him, and they dropped him like nothing true. So Harris, they will have no problem doing it again because it's all about Orange Man bad. I mean, it's it's crazy because down to them, you. Know, as we said earlier, you know, we we have a we have a candidate that never went through a primary, was nominated not by any of the Democratic voters themselves.

56:06 And beyond that, you know, I read something like Trump was Trump already did like let's say, thirty seven thirty eight interviews, all right, and then Kamala Harris just did one so far, and even that when she couldn't do on her own, she had to have Waltz there on her side to bail her out. And it was a softball interview. Free tape, softball interview. But the interviews that Trump's had there there. It really kicked off from me with the elon Musk And when Musk called it a conversation, I was like, ooh, that's good. And it was an important distinction because one, that's exactly what it was, and two I thought it was so humanizing for Trump. It was it was the least trumpy Trump had ever been, and it showed him like a human being. Agreed he was, he was tucking and that's that's what more people need to see. And it's it's hard to I mean, the never Trumps, the people who are out of their brain nothing you can do about them. But the people who are thinking about getting on board the Trump train for the first time, this is important to see him as someone who's not just this caricature because he is. He is a Donald Trump is a caricature of Donald Trump.

57:26 You know. That's he's this big, bombastic guy, which which is huge and helps him with a large percentage of the people, but there's also ten fifteen percent that that turns off. I think he can win them over because Harris is so bad, but it's those humanizing times and so those times where he goes, okay, I can identify with that guy, believe it or not. I think our problem, especially in this election, I mean, how can you It's not enough to have fifteen minutes to get your points across to the American public. You just can't fifteen minute interviews, even thirty minute interviews. Sometimes you're just not enough. And I like what Elon Musk did because it was the first time you had a long form conversation with an actual presidential candidate. And I think that's what's needed, because the longer you talk, the more someone relaxes, and the more you're able to pull out their personality and what they really think about things.

58:26 And I was in on that space. I got a seat on that, which was great because it was hard. There was a ton of people trying to get in, so I was lucky. I heard like, you were there too, right, So, but what was crazy is is listening to the entire conversation and then right after that people posting a bunch of nonsensical bullshit and added context stuff about what was said. And I'm like, I literally just listened to the whole conversation. That's not that's not what happened. And it's just another example of the big machine, right, just just being the machine working, you know, working the way it does to try to, you know, manipulate and steer people in the direction that they want them to go to win those votes. And it's unfortunate, and I think we need Kamala Harris to have a long form conversation. It doesn't have to be on us because she probably wouldn't do it, but someone needs to have her open up and get to know who she really is.

59:13 With anyone do it with Don Lemon. Don Lemon is terrible, But over a two and a half hour period, you're going to run out of softball questions about her socks or you know, or anything else. You know, So maybe that was a Biden thing, but that's she inherited at all. So you know, it would it would be great. It's it's exposing and it's not. I don't I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, exposing in a good way. And I think for Trump it absolutely was. We didn't know who we're dealing with. We really do, yes, But you know, all it's that ten or fifteen percent I talked about that are on the fence with Trump. I I speak about them because I was that guy. I I was on the fence.

1:00:01 I've I've talked about this. I never voted for Trump in twenty sixteen. I voted for Libertarian. In twenty twenty, I didn't vote for President. I thought that he was the better candidate, but I couldn't vote for Trump because he was he was just he was too he was too Trump for me. You know, I do I understand, but you know, but now you know, there's there's no choice. This is you know, I've always hated when people say this because this is the most important election of our lifetime. This is actually the most important election of our lifetime for a lot of different reasons. It really feels that way this time though, right it really does so. But then when I see things like, uh, Trump made a post on truth social about the the AI crowd at Kamala Harris's at the airport hangar, and that kind of stuff just just does damage, you know, where it's like, look, that's that's not the case. And all of a sudden, I'm getting called a DNC shill because I'm I'm going against you know, going against what Trump said. And I'm like, no, you don't understand. This is this is an important election that I want to win. And if you're jumping on the wrong side of conspiracy theories, it's going to turn off that ten or fifteen percent. You know, I made a post a week or so ago where I had I was reregistering to vote in the state and instead of independent or no party preference. I selected Republican, first

1:01:35 time i've i've in years. I posted and was like, oh, you know what, finally I can't remember exactly what the what the saying was, you know, but someone just left a shitty comment, you know, And I'm thinking, this is exactly what's keeping people away, right, you know, if I were on the fence, and I'd be like, hey, man, I understand it's important. You know, I'm voting for Trump this time around. And half of that is like, oh, well, where have you been for eight years, you dick? And I'm like, well, oh, why are we doing this? If anyone's not the right response. Anyone coming to the party should be embraced. I don't hear. If you're Amber Rose, I don't care who you are.

1:02:16 You're You're coming to the party, and you can either bring friends with you or you can tell your friends that I showed up to a MAGA party for the first time and they told me to go to go kick rocks. This is an important time where we could be We need to be embracing everyone coming to the party. And I'm not saying Trump shouldn't be Trump, but let's not let's not embrace all of the poison. You know that that the left does. Kyle Rittenhouse had a different opinion for thirty seconds, and then the whole entire right side of the country turned on him. Uh. You know, it's don't don't be everything that we claim to hate.

1:02:56 It's it will only serve to turn off the people who were thinking about voting for Trump. I think I think Trump he can't get out of his own way. He can't help himself, you know. And that's what people hated about him was, you know, remember mean tweets all that he puts his foot in his mouth a lot, he does. But I think I think principally he does care about the country and wants it to be you know, America, you know, as he says, make it, make America great again. I don't know how that that phrase ever became a negative, you know, but whatever. And just to your point, I mean, I was a Democrat before. I was a Republican for years until one day the Democratic Party was no longer the Democratic Party.

1:03:36 I one day I just loliped around. I was like this, I'm not sure what's happening anymore. And what's interesting about the selection is you have you know, like RFK Junior coming over and siding with Trump, still trying to figure out what's going there because he's not fully pulled out but just in swing states, okay, But at the same time he feels betrayed by his own party, which is the only reason he would do this. Same thing happened with Tulca Gabbard when she was running for president against Kamala Harris. She saw what they really were and decided, hey, I'm out as well. Yeah, so I can agree. I think yes, you know, based on all the signs and the stars out there in the sky and however, thing's aligning that this really could be the election of our time this year. It really does seem that way. And if you look at you know, the subversive comments and messaging from Kamlin Waltz, which are literally very borderline Marxist communists.

1:04:25 To be quite honest, I mean, I'm not sure what an opportunity economy is. She's yet to explain that her stances, her stance on you know, gun policy, and she just put a there's just a vide that came out where she was literally standing if you're not policing your social media platforms and we're coming after you. I'm sorry that sounds like a pathway to maybe communism, maybe not, but definitely not what we are now. Yeah, it's I hope just because of the rate that all the stuff coming at this election, this one has to be the most important one ever, because I can't do this again in two years. It can't be more important than this one. In four years, it can't be more important than this one. I am hoping that people see through the veneer that is it is, that is Kamala Harris and the whole entire campaign. You know, jd Vance says, I'm gonna misquote it, but you know, he says, it's uh he he hates it that school shootings are you know, are happened in America. I can't remember what the quote was, but they totally just butchered his quote, and.

1:05:39 I believe it was. I think you say it was it's unfortunate that this has become way alive. Yes, I hate that this has become a way of life, unfortunate. I hate yeah. Yeah, And they just said the first part of that sentence off and started yeah. Which which isn't isn't bad journalism, It's not being disingenuous. It's just a straight out line. There's nothing, there's nothing more to it than that. To the point that the AP took down their posts. They're like, oh, we're about to get community noted to death here and look like jerks. That post didn't last too long, No, but. It did with everyone else. Gavin Newsom's got it all of Kamala Harris's Harris wins and her campaign and they they've got it up. And the the even scarier beyond that is they post the video. True, they post the whole video when you watch it of jd Vance. They didn't put the context. They don't because they don't need to.

1:06:36 That's what's scary. They just need to say what he said and their followers will beleeve it. They will run with it. It doesn't matter. They're not even if they watched the video, which they probably don't. They it's in their head that this is a way of life and and you run with it. Well, it's it's it's as it's you know, as they say. I mean, you get this from but I thought it was the Nazi Party. I'm not I'm not saying crutch the Nazis, by the way, but this saying does ring true? Now, if you tell a lie enough, it becomes a truth. Sure, ye, if you say then it does become the truth because people just learn to accept it. It just and and like the great George Castanza says, it's not a lie, you believe it. So it's yeah, they're they just they believe the lie. Tell it over and over and then people believe it. So it's uh, it's that that the George stands a Nazi. Uh connections away talking about it. I hope, like you said, we don't have to go through this again. And honestly, I want younger candidates. I'm I'm you know, and we need fresh blood. We need people who who actually have a pulse on what's going on. I think maybe Trump is the better option.

1:07:46 Personally, I would like to have seen another Republican candidate, but I'm not going to fight what he stands for. You know. And listen, if if if he was, if he was not a good pick for the country, then I mean, why was he Why they try to assassinate them. I'm not saying who they are, but you know, oh, there. There is clearly a lot of people wildly concerned, and you know, I mean even the polls and the numbers. I'm I'm really excited for November. You know, if he's going to reveal who killed JFK and reveal the Epstein list, which I don't know if he really will, but he's saying it. Yeah, I dumped the Epstein files. There was also another announce announcement. Oh, it was like the the Office of Government Accountability and Spending, you know, something to that effect, you know, put Elon in charge of government efficiency and I'm I'm all for it. I I will happily spend my taxes on teaching four million bureaucrats how to code or how to knit or some other some other business venture that they can make money off of. But it's not going to be sucking off the teat of taxpayers anymore.

1:08:59 That would be wonderful. It's interesting. I hope people educate themselves before they actually vote. Stop voting with your feelings and actually vote with you know, the truth and the data that's out there to support, you know, the right way forward in America's got two cents on that. I think we got to get you out of here, Kevin. Yeah, yeah, we're at that time. So hey, listen, thank you this was This was a great conversation. I hope you had a good time yourself and absolutely stay in touch. Maybe we do this again. Yeah with that question, thanks so much for having me on. Awesome all right, Kevin, thank you, Let you go. You got to see next time.