In this episode of the Joe Rooz Show, Joe broadcasts live from Asylum Studios in Southwest Texas, bringing an unfiltered and politically incorrect conversation to the airwaves. Joe reflects on his unconventional weekly schedule and shares his recent battle with COVID, emphasizing the importance of continuing the show despite challenges. The episode features two guests: Tony Kessel, an author and soldier, who discusses his book "It's All in the Lyrics" and his unique perspective on life and music, and Jerrod Sessler, a congressional candidate from Washington State, who shares his insights on America's political landscape, his personal journey, and his vision for the future.
Joe engages in deep conversations with both guests, exploring topics such as mental health, the healing power of music, and the importance of faith and resilience. Jared Sessler, endorsed by prominent figures like Donald Trump and Michael Flynn, discusses his campaign, the significance of America's founding principles, and the urgent need for border security and economic reform. The episode is a blend of personal stories, political insights, and a call to action for listeners to engage in civic duties and embrace the values that define America.
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(00:04:13) Introduction and Show Overview
(00:05:55) Upcoming Guests and Housekeeping
(00:10:51) First Guest: Tony Kessel's Story
(00:17:09) Life in the National Guard
(00:25:36) Dualist Media and Music Projects
(00:33:31) The Healing Power of Music
(00:41:39) Mental Health and Personal Challenges
(00:55:32) Faith and Overcoming Adversity
(01:05:01) Second Guest: Jared Sessler's Introduction
(01:11:38) Navy Experience and Personal Background
(01:23:08) Political Awakening and Campaign Motivations
(01:35:12) America's Founding Principles
(01:50:19) Law and Order in America
(02:00:54) Border Security and Immigration
(02:12:47) Farming and Economic Challenges
(02:19:49) Campaign Challenges and Future Plans
(02:26:40) Inspirations and Final Thoughts
- Wayne Rankin
- Rosanna Rankin
- Carolina Jimenez
[00:04:14]
Unknown:
Transmitting live from the asylum studios deep in the bowels of Southwest Texas. It's the Joe Rooz show, the show where we talk about anything and everything. Where nothing is sacred,
[00:04:29] Unknown:
nothing is watered down, and nothing is PC. Alright. Hey, folks. This is Joe Rooz. It is nineteen hundred hours on Monday, 08/25/2025. And bringing you the best quality talk radio we could muster without all the bluster. Welcome to the Joe Ryu Show. Alrighty folks. So it is Monday. The beginning of another week. For most. For me? Let's see. We did a show Friday, so that was like Monday, because we didn't do one Thursday. So we did a show Friday, so that was my Monday. Saturday, my Tuesday. Sunday, my Wednesday. Today is my Thursday. So, it's Thursday for me, Monday for the rest of you.
Wow. And it was an eventful week too, if you remember. COVID knocked me out for the week, but we still did shows. We did every show last week. We didn't miss one, and we had a lot of fun with that. Some great conversations. And we're gonna have some great conversations tonight. We have, we have Tony Kessel coming up in the first hour, and then the second hour, we have a congressional candidate, up in Washington State, Congressional District 4, Jared. I don't know if I'm saying his name right. I really don't. I don't know I don't know if I'm saying it right. Is it Jared or Jared?
Somebody correct me. Somebody please correct me because I wanna make sure I got it right. I don't wanna upset anybody. But we have we have Jared Sessler coming up in the second hour, and, we're looking forward to that conversation as well. Now as always, we have a little bit of housekeeping that we have to do before we get into the shows, into the guests' segments of the show. So if you would, just head over to our website, joeroos.com. That's joeroos.com. I'll get the thing up there in a second. Joeroos.com. And when you get over there, look for our contact section, open up that little web form, and send us over any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have, any issues that you might have, any complaints that you might have. Not that I really wanna hear your complaints, but you can send your complaints over. I don't mind.
I take it as constructive criticism. You know, we're not the perfect show here. Yes. I know we've done a 150 episodes. Yes. I understand that. And you think we'd be better at it by now, but we're not. But we're getting there. We're working on it. We're also playing with new software. We're doing all kinds of stuff. We're trying to do give you a better better product. So, let us know what you think, how in the direction that we're going. And then, if you don't wanna use the web form, totally fine with me that you could always email me directly at [email protected]. That's [email protected].
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And as always, at the end of the show, we'll go into details on how you can, check out all of those different things. Also, don't forget to make sure you head over to our affiliate link with Alex Jones, the alexjonesstore.com/joe. And, I'm sorry. I already drank it. My my methylene blue, I really wanted it tonight. I needed it. So, I already so I did that before the show started, but I got my coffee here, so we're good to go. My $17.76 coffee provided by Rumble, so we appreciate that very, very, very much. But, the alexjonesstore.com/joe, get yourself some of these great vitamins and supplements. They are fantastic.
Make sure you use our link though because when you use our link, you get, we get 10% of whatever the sale is, and that's that's always helpful to us to keep the, keep all the lights going and all that great stuff. You know, it ain't cheap, so, every little bit helps. Alright. And then, of course, as always, we wanna mention our sponsor, Ezra Healing. Now Ezra Healing, is a substantial part in the of the new wellness paradigm currently being born in North America and around the globe. The global citizenry are no longer satisfied no longer satisfied with the sick care version of so called health care.
Band aid medicine, endlessly treating symptoms rather than the root causes, must be abandoned as soon as possible. We need to transition towards the do no harm model of private care that places humanity at the forefront of real health and wellness care. We need to get back to patient centric care. We need to make that a priority. In this new model, your entire lifestyle is examined and analyzed to promote and support the totality of your body's integrated systems. Ezra Healing is a solutions based health and promotion health promotion and disease prevention grassroots movement that is always evolving to best serve you and your family. So for more information, just head over to ezrahealing.com.
That's ezra healing dot com. And when you get there, make sure you told them you tell them told them, you know, listen to my English. Listen to my English. My gosh. You think I never went to school? Tell them you heard it here on the Joe Russo, and, you're not gonna get anything special for it other than just letting them know that you heard it here, and they're getting their money's worth. So we appreciate that. Alright. Well, let's see. So bills paid. Now our first guest tonight will dive into the story of life based on music. We connected over pod match, which is like, for lack of a better term, Tinder for podcasts.
You know? So, you know, you swipe left, you swipe right, you know you know you know the whole thing. So, but it's a platform that's used to to to help podcast host find guests, and, you know, hopefully, they're a good match. Now as you know here on our show, what we like to do is we like to cover all kinds of topics. We like to cover a lot of stuff. Sometimes, you know, the serious all the way up to the absurd stuff. So and we have met a lot of really sensational people along the way, and, and Tony is definitely one of those guys. Tony is an author. He's the author of It's All in the Lyrics, How Music Helped Me Heal and Find My Voice. In this music memoir, he built the playlist of his life discussing topics ranging from the nostalgic impact of music, mental health, coming of age, and pop culture. Tony's married, five kids.
Primary occupation is full time soldier with the New Mexico National Guard. Tony, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, sir, for your for your, your service to our country and for protecting the liberties that we hold and value so so very much. Hey. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate your support. Hey. Anytime, man. Anytime. Hey. So, you know, we were kinda chit chatting a little bit before the show started, so we kinda got a feel for how this thing is gonna go. So, so, I I I like to ask a couple of questions usually at the start of every every guest segment just to kinda break the ice and throw people off and throw people off, you know, because they're expecting they're gonna most people are expecting to get right into the interview. Tell us about your book, and tell us about this, and tell us about that. No. I wanna know something about you that most people don't know but should. Oh. You see? Wow. That's the reaction.
[00:12:46] Unknown:
I I wasn't ready for that at all. You know, that you got me way off. Don't know about me but should.
[00:13:02] Unknown:
So No confessions of, like, of, like, serial killing or anything like that. Alright? But I I'm not a priest. I'll have to turn you in. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. No. So I I guess the the strangest thing about me, I don't like normal pets.
[00:13:16] Unknown:
We have dogs. We have we've had cats in the past, but I like absurd pets. And, so I've had red eared sliders, turtles, and, my my big thing right now is my one year old bearded dragon named Andromeda. And, so, like, in the music world, I normally have her in her in the studio and actually play to her. She loves like, when I play music to her. So
[00:13:40] Unknown:
I I kinda like not normal pets. Like, like, obscure pets. Well, at at least it's a bearded dragon and not some other woman that your wife would be upset about.
[00:13:49] Unknown:
Yeah. Of course. After your Tinder reference, but, you know Well, yeah. Well, you know,
[00:13:55] Unknown:
you know, I I interviewed, Alex Sanfilippo, the the, the owner or the creator of, PodMatch. And, I even said that to him too. It's like, yeah. It's like 10 different podcasts. So Did he agree? Or Yes. He did. He did actually. Oh, okay. He took it well. I I was I was more I was expecting him to get a little bit like, hey. Wait a second. That's my baby. But no. No. He took he he took it like a champ. He was he was good. He was really good. So, one more one more of those icebreakers for you. What's your go to beverage to help you unwind at the end of the day?
[00:14:31] Unknown:
Oh, snap. I am addicted to Mountain Dew like you would not believe. Oh my god. The bags under my eyes are telling. You hit the you hit life hard, and, I'd probably drink three bottles of Mountain Dew a day for sure. Trying to cut back a little bit, but, yeah, I used to do energy drinks, Monster, stuff like that. But, yeah. You do the do. I yeah. I like Voltage. I like the weird flavored ones. Okay. Alright. So if you remember pitch black from a couple years ago Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was yeah. That was my favorite. I've had I've had that a couple of times.
[00:15:04] Unknown:
I don't really find it too much around here, though, in Texas. It's phased out. It was like a temporary lemonade time thing. Well, it it was it was it had its run, and we're glad it's gone. No. I'm kidding. It's on my butt. It's on my butt. You know, I I got a I got a buddy of mine who lives up lives up in New York who's addicted to Mountain Dew. You go you you go you go into his house, you open he has a separate refrigerator in in his house, in his garage that's just loaded with the various with with the different varieties of Mountain Dew sodas. And it's like he's like, so what would you like to drink? I guess a Mountain Dew. You know? But, yeah, he's he's a good guy, though, you know, for what for what he's worth. Anyway, he he doesn't watch the show, so I could say what I have to say. It doesn't it doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't spoken in about twenty years. But, he's still a good guy nonetheless nonetheless. My my go to, you know, I I I I I play around with I love I love bourbons, you know, so I I like to sample different bourbons, so I've I've have a a wide range. I have nothing in the house right now, which is a good thing because otherwise I'd be drinking it and, you know, I can't do a show like that. So I've tried. I've tried. As a matter of fact, I think it's episode number four, I think it was. It was an audio only show that I did with, with with a a good buddy of mine, and we were we were just sampling different bourbons during the course of the show, trying to have a serious political conversation.
And, and he was actually here in the studio with me. And, I I I think I think by the end of the first hour of the show, the the two of us were so snookered that we could barely formulate a sentence, but yet somehow we went off for another hour and a half after that. So it was it was pretty interesting. It was a lot of fun, though. We had a lot of fun. And I I tell I tell him to this day, nobody can tell. But but if you listen to it, you'll you could tell. Just don't tell him. I'm gonna I'm gonna go find it. Yeah. Episode I think it's number four. I think it's episode number four. So, so back to down to the real serious stuff. Now now you serve full time as a soldier in the New Mexico National Guard.
What what are some of the challenges of being a husband, a dad, and a full time soldier?
[00:17:21] Unknown:
Specifically in the guard, when you look at what the National Guard is intended to do and what has been asked of the National Guard. I'm I'm a product of September 11, obviously. I was a senior in high school when September 11 happened, which that's why we joined. And so when you look at the transformation of what the National Guard was doing prior to that, which I'm not saying they weren't doing anything, but, the nation has really tapped us a lot as far as, you know, COVID nineteen, the pandemic, the relief efforts we were providing there in, medical warehousing and disaster relief. I've been activated four or five times for various disaster relief, two times in North Dakota, one in Tennessee. I've been to Maria, in Puerto Rico, COVID nineteen. I've done border stuff. I've done deployments.
I've done you name it. And then people around me, even Katrina, other Southwest border, capital type support. Yeah. It's the things that have been asked of us is it's not just, guarding the nation. We are, in fact, a full ledge military reserve, and we've been used that way, over the last twenty years. So just balancing that out and, I have a daughter who's 11, and for the first, like, five years of her life, I was gone for three of her birthdays. Oh, wow. You know? So it's just trying to balance some of that stuff out and and be who you need to be, as a husband, as as a parent, and still serve as honorably as you can.
Honestly, though, it's the best choice I've ever made. When you look at the professional development, who I've become as a leader, who I've become as an individual, the the cycles that I've broken from my own past, it's it's been that catalyst that actually allowed me to transcend and bust through glass ceilings, you know, to break those vicious cycles of, you know, poverty, things like that. So, yeah, absolutely
[00:19:20] Unknown:
owe almost everything that I am to my service in the military. That's amazing. That that's that's and that's great. So, what do you what ex what do you do in the military?
[00:19:29] Unknown:
And you assume you do So I was I was enlisted. I was a twelve Bravo, which is combat engineer. So I dealt with a, like, a lot of explosives. 2004 Iraq and early, Iraq, Afghanistan, we were a high commodity. I had a lot of stuff in the middle of college, so I went on to, officer candidate school and became an officer. I'm commissioned as an engineer officer, and I did, my first platoon was horizontal. So we did a lot of rough construction. And then, transferred over to Tennessee, I served on as an executive officer, the second in command for the headquarters company. Wow. We had surveying design people, roads, vertical, you know, carpentry, masonry, all of that stuff. And then, when I came into New Mexico, I was on a brigade staff. We were doing engineer planning. And then, my time as company commander, I was, horizontal. And I had a small element of vertical, which, again, is your carpentry and machinery people.
But yeah. And then recently to promote, I had to transfer over to the logistics realm, which is engineers are good at that. Like, if we don't have fuel, if we don't have supplies, we're we're nothing. So, yeah, it was a natural transition. But the analytical stuff, I love numbers, which has made me a little bit of that. And then engineer is such a diverse, branch. So you have from construction to explosives to bridging to firefighting to floodplaining to like, there's so many different things that you can do in the engineering realm. Right? It's just there's never a boring day, when we're doing stuff. So
[00:21:08] Unknown:
It sounds it sounds like I'm I'm as you're telling the story, I'm I'm listening to you, and I and I'm thinking to myself, well, you know, when I was in my younger days, what we didn't mention off the show was, you know, I worked I worked in New York City for, for New York City for about twenty almost twenty five almost twenty five years. I'm retired law enforcement from New York City. So when when you were in high school and nine eleven happened, I was there at nine at at the at the site, and I I did work at the site. So when I when I hear people say that, I'm like, wow.
You know? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's just it's just amazing. And I had a lot of friends who served in military and, and, one particular friend who served in in the, the army national guard up up in New York there. And, he he desperately tried to recruit me. Desperately. Des when I say desperately Yeah. I mean, desperately. And then I have another funny story I could tell you about something I did to another friend of mine, with with military service. So, so he tried to get me into into the he tried to get me in to enlist, and he wanted me to go into Cav Scouts, because because that's what he did. And and so he was like, oh, it'll be a lot of fun. We'll do it together. It'll be a lot of yeah. Okay. Sure.
Yeah. And then, then in high school we were graduating high school, and and I'm I'm gonna get in trouble for telling this story, but, but I don't think because I don't think I've ever told this story on the show. So when, graduating high school, my friend and I, both thinking about military service, so we went down to the recruiting stations. You know, we we took the ASRAB. We did all that stuff, and, and he wanted to go navy, and I was gonna go army. And, but we went back and forth about it, you know, we weren't sure what we're gonna do and all that stuff. And and then the day came where we actually had to go down and sign the papers. So we got to that point, you know, the official signatures of everything.
And Yeah. And and he called me and he was like, hey, so you're ready to go? And I was like, yeah. I'm gonna I'm running late, you know, I'm I just got out of just got home. You know, I was working at the time too. I was like, I just got home from the job. I I gotta clean up and so I'll meet you there. So he was like, okay. Yeah. I'll I'll see you there and hung up. Now this is before we had cell phones or anything like that, so, you know, this was at home. So, so he so he goes I fell asleep. I I didn't go. And he he calls he calls me the next day, it was a weekend, he called me the next day, he was like, so did you did you end up going? Because I I see you there. I said I said Scott, his name is Scott. I said Scott, I am not signing up in the military, dude.
He was like, what? I was like, you really thought I was gonna sign? He goes, well, that was the plan. We were supposed to do it together. I'm like, no. I said, you didn't sign, did you? He goes, yeah. So so he he left. He he he, he went to the navy, and, I didn't. And I ended up going to law enforcement instead. But, but, yeah. So he hated me for a while until he came out. He was he I used to t he he used to tell me his title was, like, a boiler technician or something like that. He says, sir, you're a plumber. Basically. Right? He's like, well, yeah. I'm a okay. Good. So you're a plumber. That's great. Listen. When you come home for leave, you know, I got a busted pipe on under my toilet. You wanna help me out with that?
F u, man. F u. Yeah. But anyway
[00:24:42] Unknown:
I mean, you won. You won. You were at you were at, you know, the base of September 11, you know, everything that was going on there. So I I totally appreciate that with all seriousness. But My my command compare war stories. I think yours is better. No. I don't think so. No.
[00:25:00] Unknown:
Actually, my my command was actually, just I think it was, like, four city blocks away from from, from the towers. But I had just gotten off duty, and I had left, and then I had to come back because because I was I was work I was working overnights. Yeah. But, but, yeah, that was, that was a that was a pretty rough rough time. So, Yeah. But, I don't really talk about it too much, you know. It's it's just, I'll I'll throw out that, you know, what I what happened that led me to be there, but I don't really talk too much about
[00:25:30] Unknown:
what went on. Yeah. But, Understood.
[00:25:33] Unknown:
But, so let me ask you this. So so Dualist Media, that's at your that's your website. That's, your bio says that you created that platform with with, with the intention to to write, produce music, that you've been kinda sitting on? Do you have any songs that are already Yes. Recorded?
[00:25:50] Unknown:
Not recorded. I have a lot of stuff written. So dualist media, dualism is is a concept. I I actually stole dualism from CS Lewis' Mere Christianity. Mhmm. When he was he was talking about, you know, the wrestle between the spirit and the body, like, what your body wants to do and what your what your spirit really wants in in terms of connection and a lot of things. And that really resonated with me in what I'm trying to do artistically. So my my first artistic project was this book. And, really, what I wanted to do I wrote the book so I could record an audiobook, which I just released, and that's why I'm on the, promotion circuit right now Oh, great. Is I really wanted time to get in front of a microphone and start to get comfortable with sharing vulnerable pieces of my life.
And I I guess, really, until the last couple years, it was I I I don't know what I was afraid of. Like, I was afraid of judgment, not accepting, not being accepted. But artistically, something just snapped at me, and I was like, man, if I don't share this stuff that sometimes it's shameful, then, it's I'm not really making good art. You know? So that was kinda where I started duosmedia. I was deployed to Kuwait, and that was my first album that I wrote. I recorded it very, very rough, very rough. I had a a line six pod u x two. You're you got a studio over there. It was a cutting edge technology at the time, but it would low low quality recordings. I can't do anything with them.
So, yeah, it was it was basically through the grieving process and what I was observing on on base when we were deployed as I was interacting with soldiers. It's really just the whole concept of letting bad habits go. So that yeah. That was that was that. And then I have a son with heart issues and a daughter with some medical issues as well. So my my second album was it's not all the way together, but a lot of things that have to do with that, like sitting in hospital rooms and, you know, just coming to grips with your own past and stuff like that. So Yeah. That's that's the next step. I'm in my home studio right now, kinda trying to build that out. No acoustic treatment. But, yeah, just in the phases where, hopefully, in the next, like, couple months, I start putting stuff to track. Well, it sounds good, though.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's the echo is perfect in here, but gotta do the treatment so that you can handle the sound better and Oh, sure. Audio stations.
[00:28:17] Unknown:
Yeah. You you can't see it, but I have I have acoustic I have acoustic foam all over the place. It's, Yeah. Basically, the whole room is covered. Like, I get I don't know if you could see that. But
[00:28:30] Unknown:
No. No. Is it these, egg foam type things, or do you actually have, like, the full fledged panels? No. No. It's it's the it's the foam pads. Okay. Yeah. Awesome. So,
[00:28:42] Unknown:
at some point, I'm gonna gut the whole thing out and do it again and do it the right way. Yeah. So I I did it myself, you know, just a little piece at a time, little piece at a time. So it took me about three years. Me too. About three years to do it. Me too. I'm a I was afraid you were like a drywaller and you're like, hey, man. What's up with that? I'm in between
[00:29:00] Unknown:
No. No. No. No. If you've seen on Facebook, people post their stuff and then general contractors just come into their trash and then be like,
[00:29:09] Unknown:
did your eight year old cousin build that? Or Right. No. No. No. I don't I don't I don't I don't do that because I I am not a drywall person. You know? I'm lucky that I I Tough. I'm lucky I know how to carry it. So it's it's one of those things. So, so what what's what's style of music, do you write? Do you do you play do you have in mind for your for your albums?
[00:29:29] Unknown:
Yeah. I write and record it from a hard rock, heavy metal perspective. Heavily right now, I'm heavily influenced by a lot of modern hard rock. You'll see there breaking Benjamin, but, I I draw a lot of influence from the Christian hard rock heavy metal scene bands like twelve stones, demon hunter, red. Nice. There's a couple middle Skillet albums that I really, really like. But, yeah, that's that's where I tend to rest. But I I grew up I'm from North Dakota. I grew up on Garth Brooks. Okay. And so, like, there's this when he retired, it's like, how do you go from country to heavy metal? Like and that was that's what I wrote my book about is I went to a Garth Brooks concert in 2017 in Las Cruces, and I was like, man, how in the world did I how did I go from listening to, like, American Honky Tonk Bar Association that summer standing outside the fire? They're like but if you've seen Garth's Lab show, it's not a it's not a far cry. It's when when you saw and and, again, I left Garth Brooks when he retired in the nineties country, and you're watching a dude stand on the stage, strumming a guitar.
Love George Strait. I I will get assassinated if I say anything wrong, but that guy stands in place. And I'm like, you need to run around. You need to start throwing spraying people with beer and, like, what are you doing, George? But, yeah, absolutely. Different generation. Nineties country. And, like, my I was legally adopted. My my foster dad grew up on, like, the old country, Hank Williams junior. Nice. Willie Nelson, all that stuff. And then my mom was from Detroit. So, like, r and d, a lot of your, like, Motown stuff, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion. So I just had all this diversity musically around me that
[00:31:10] Unknown:
it it finds it finds place in all the music takes that I have now. So Yeah. But I know I know what you're saying, though, as far as going from one extreme to the other. I mean, because I I like well, I don't I don't I I I I tolerate country music nowadays. There's there's there are issues with that. So but, Yeah. But, because my life my my life over the last couple of years has become a country song. So I just kinda, you know, it's like it was like I I I can laugh I can laugh about it now to a point, but, like, in in order of how things happen. My dad passed away, my grandmother passed away, my wife left me, my dog died, then my mom passed away, and, you know, all of that in a year and a half. And, you know, it's I I laugh about it now, but at the time, it was a wreck. Yeah.
But, but so my life has been a country western song. So, you know, so I I kinda stay away from it now. But, but I yeah. But I'm like you though. I like all kinds of music. I like, like, honestly, to my go to is jazz, man. I I I go to that old the old classic jazz, not that new crap they got out there, the call jazz. It's I'm talking the old stuff. I'm talking, like, like, Coltrane and older, you know, that type of stuff. That's that's the stuff that I go to. That's my weekend stuff. When I'm cooking, that's what I'm listening to. I'm I'm listening to to to Coltrane. I'm listening to the classic jazz. I'm listening to, like, the old standards like Sinatra and and, you know Yeah. And that and that group. That's what I'm talking about. But don't and also don't forget, I'm Sicilian from New York, so I gotta, you know Yes. Yes. You know, I I gotta honor that. I gotta represent that at least. But I I mean, I love Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd, like, I mean, I've been a Pink Floyd fan since I'm, like, 12.
You know? So it's, it it's I I love all kinds of music. The only thing I don't listen to, though, to be honest with you, is hip hop, rap, that that stuff. I just cannot get into that stuff. It's just not me. It's just not me at all. Yeah. But, so so your book, it's on the lyrics, how music helped me heal and find my voice. The description says that the book is a testament to the healing power of music. So, give us give us a story if you can, you know, if if you feel up to it. You know, tell us about one of the stories that you share to illustrate that concept.
[00:33:32] Unknown:
Yeah. So I I mean, the book is full of them. Absolutely full of them. The the one that I I typically share is, there's an entry. So, basically, what I did was I I picked one song per day, and I blogged about it for a year. At the end of that, I I trimmed it down and actually returned it into a book. So it was very bloggy. So it required a lot of refinement. But the one that there's two back to back, and I can share them both really quick. So I went to a foster home. Again, grew up. There was a lot of musical diversity there. But the at the end of the first day of third grade, I came home, and my stepmom was packing a box of my belongings.
My dad worked at a parts store. He worked at Napa. As an assistant manager, and and she was crying. My stuff is getting packed. And, I asked her what was going on. She's she's like, I can't like, she couldn't even put a sentence together. She was she was losing it. And she basically pulled enough, strength to basically tell me, like, hey. Your dad's gonna have to explain this. So he came in a couple minutes later, and, he he was divorced, from my my biological mom. And there was a period of time where him and I were, like, all we had. He was I was his little sidekick. Mhmm. And so as he hugged me and he explained why I had to go to to a foster home, I had seven brothers and sisters. So I was just Wow. The poverty part and and just losing control of a house. I was the first one to go. And, like, as as we were hugging Juice Newton's angel of the morning was, like, running through my head. And I I like, eight years old trying to do whatever you can to keep yourself together, not understanding what's going on.
But, yeah, like, so as we pulled away, I pulled away my social worker's vehicle that that was the soundtrack. An eight year old mind, that was what was going through, my head. Well, a couple weeks later, I'm sitting in the back seat of my '19 my dad's my foster dad's 1992 baby blue, Ford Tempo. And the window was rolled down, and we were driving to this local town. It's called Dickinson. And the wind was blowing through my hair. It was a little malnourished at the time. And the wind was blowing through my hair, and that summer came on the radio. And the song is not about what I was feeling. It's a bit like, if you've heard the song, it's kinda wrong now. I don't I don't know if it would pass, PC standards anymore.
So, basically, looking at all that stuff, but that hook, that whole, you know, she had a need to feel the thunder. I'm like, yeah. Like, that's my life. It's chaos. It's a storm. He talked about the wheat fields dancing in the wind, and we were driving by a wheat field at the time. And I was like, man, Garth Brooks is my answer. Like, I didn't know what to do. I was in this Wow. New place. I felt rejected, and Garth Brooks was the thing. I was like, I feel accepted. I feel home here. I feel like Garth Brooks really understands me. When no one else did, I felt like he did. And, really, that was why his retirement was such a big deal to me because he was what I used to replace my family letting me go. You know? And then Garth Brooks is like, yeah. I'm gonna let you go too. And and it was it like, I felt the same level of catastrophe in my life. Wow.
So, yeah, it was it was just, like, one song at a time getting through the Garth Brooks catalog and every release that he put out was was basically, like, helping me find my way in this new life, quite some time. But, yeah, that was that's just, like, the intro parts, the early parts of my life. Wow. That's some story.
[00:37:03] Unknown:
Holy cow. I wasn't expecting that, to be honest with you. I really wasn't. That that's that's gotta be that's gotta be the probably the hardest thing that anybody can probably go through, especially at at at at that age, you know, and try to make that make sense.
[00:37:19] Unknown:
Yeah. And and I I still have a most of my parents have passed away. My my biological mom, my stepmom, both adoptive parents. Really, all that's left is my biological dad, and I was fortunate enough my foster parents protected that relationship. They they kept me connected. I stayed very much in in tune with them. So there's healing along the way of I I don't really talk about that a lot in my book, but there's healing along the way where where we're able to rectify some of those differences and and
[00:37:48] Unknown:
move forward and and heal from that as well. But what made you start with the book though instead of the music?
[00:37:57] Unknown:
It's easier, honestly. Okay. Music is so complex. I don't have a band. So I I tried to join bands, and I'm from Southwest North Dakota. So, like, after Garth Brooks, I went into nineties country, and it's funny because you said you don't like country now. Like, I hate stadium country. Hate it with compassion, but Garth Brooks started that. So it's really weird that I love Garth Brooks but hate stadium country. Like, no. You don't you don't shred where Garth Brooks dared to walk. Okay? You you leave that to him. But, yeah, I went for I went from that to pop music and then to, like, radio rock, your Matchbox twenty, your Fuel, Goo Goo Dolls, all that stuff.
And then I like Creed, and then I took, like, a hard turn into, like, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Korn. Like, I I went hard. I know those. Yeah. Marilyn Manson, all of that stuff. And so, like, trying to join a band that is light corn in Southwest North Dakota is impossible. They're all ACDC, Metallica. Nothing wrong with those bands. No. Nothing at all. That's not what I was trying to do. And, my first band was I thought was gonna be a Metallica cover band. They rarely touched it. Growing up in a small town, I that was the only band there, and they fell apart after high school.
[00:39:12] Unknown:
Wow.
[00:39:14] Unknown:
So yeah. And and then when I went to college, tried to join bands there, ended up in a trying out for a machine head cover band that didn't work. And then, me and a buddy started a Marilyn Manson cover band where we had basically rewrote Marilyn Manson songs, and I was an unicorn. And then things fell apart there and joined the army and all that other stuff. So but yeah. So it to me, it was a lot easier to write a book and then doing all this stuff by yourself, to answer your question for real, is really difficult. So I play guitar. I sing that that part's easy, but, like, learning bass, learning pieces of piano, learning ukulele, playing drums, learning how to record, learning music theory. It's like, I've had a lot of excuses.
It doesn't take that much. You can listen to that, like, albums like Nevermind by Nirvana. Super simple. Doesn't require complexity. You don't need to know a lot of stuff, but you can still produce a really quality as a matter of fact, I'd argue some of the best songs of all time are some of the most simple. Well, I I was just gonna say the same thing. Sometimes
[00:40:15] Unknown:
sometimes simplicity is is just is as complex as you need, if that if that makes any sense. You know? Yes. It it sometimes it's just it I know that some of the some of the more simple songs, like, I think of going back, like, The Beatles. Right?
[00:40:31] Unknown:
Yes.
[00:40:32] Unknown:
Yesterday. It's a simple song. Yes. But it's an amazing song. You know? It has such depth to it that it just it blows you away. You know? So I I agree with yeah. Totally totally agree with you on that. So when when you decided to put personal stories into the book, obviously, there were some challenges that came about. Yeah. Right? And so so what were some of the challenges that you came across?
[00:40:54] Unknown:
So, being in the military, obviously, with the past that I have, you had trauma you carry, and it's deeply ingrained in everything you do, every decision you make. Really, one of the biggest thing is breaking the cycle. Like, yeah, I think you and I were talking preshow about, like, poverty and, certain cycles are are, certain patterns are cyclical. It's it's not that it's passed down genetically, but if you grow up in a poor household, if there's substance abuse, if there's crime, like, you grow up in what you have and that's what you know, so that's what you live. So, obviously, carrying a lot of that stuff and then, you know, getting after I left high school, I went to college, and I'm like, man, who am I again? Like, it's just been constant identity crisis.
Joined the military, and, you know, became a Christian, joined the military. A lot of that stuff, there was some temporary relief. But as I started getting into life, it's like dealing with some of the depression and some of the anxiety. And just trying to come to grips with who you are as an individual drove a lot of deep mental health stuff, and that was some of the hard hardest stuff to write about. Right before I joined the army, I had serious, serious bouts of insomnia, depression, and suicidal ideation that never went any further than ideas. Later on in life, it turned into actual suicide attempts, after my deployment, my divorce, repeating the very cycle that I hated.
And I was like, man, you can't even do this. You've tried your hardest to break this cycle that you are were subjected to, but you can't do it. And there's this feeling of worthlessness and having to retrain yourself to to forgive some of those things in the past and forgive some of the people that have wronged you. And, man, the day that the I'm gonna tell you one of the hardest days of Yeah. Go ahead. Typing the suicide attempts out was difficult, but putting it out as a blog was one of the scariest days of my life. I'm like, man, cops are gonna kick my door down. I'm dethroned in the loony bin or into a psych ward if you really wanna be politically correct. It it was just a lot of fear. But as I started sharing that story, I started finding that a lot of people it resonated.
And people are like, hey, man. They pulled me aside and they'd be like, me too. That happened to me. And and I was like, I thought I was the only one. And they're like, no. You're not. Like, I I won't talk. I'm not as courageous as you. But, yeah, me too. And then they would share the story with me individually, and, it's just that sense of community and healing. I did it one song at a time, but it really when it came down to bringing people together, mainly vets, I hang out with a lot of military people and veterans and, law enforcement people.
It we we have to we have to come together, and we have to be willing to
[00:43:46] Unknown:
to reach out for help and do what we need to do. Licensed medical professionals, get therapy, all of that stuff Yeah. Where we need it. Yeah. And you know what? I'm so glad that you brought that up because, you you know, my audience heard this. I I've I've told this story before, but I I went down the same path that you did. You know? After after, after my divorce, a few years ago, I went down that same that same spiral. You know? I I I went back to drinking. I hadn't had hadn't had a drink in over twenty five years. And Yeah. You know, I went back to that, and then came the attempts, you know. Well, first, threatening, and then the then the attempts. Yeah.
And, you know, the frustration that when it didn't work because, you know, Yeah. And this is not an endorsement to anybody, so please don't misunderstand don't don't take this like this is this is this is not something anybody should do. But I took a I I I I took a whole bottle of pills and a bottle of Jack Daniels. And Yeah. I woke up the next day anyway. You know? Yeah. And, had a bad headache, but, you know Yeah. Not to make light of it, but I did. I had a bad headache. Yeah. But that was it. And, you know, so the frustration, the bitterness, the anger. Now I'm a Christian myself. I I got saved twenty five years ago. 07/20/2000, I got saved.
And, people say, well, you're a Christian. How could you go through how could you let that happen? You know? Well, because I'm a human being also. You know? Yes. And, just because I'm a Christian doesn't mean I can't do the same things that someone who's not a Christian can do. You know? Right. It happens. And, you know, but what really hurt the most was that bitterness that that I felt towards my savior because of all this. Like, how could you do this to me? All this stuff in such a short period of time. And, you know, it it took a it took a while. It took it took some time. It took a lot of prayer, a lot of struggle, you know, a lot of talking, a lot of, you know, finding people that, and you and the the craziest thing is you find people with similar stories in the strangest places.
Yeah. Yeah. You know? And it's like this. Yeah. Absolutely. Like like this right here. I mean, I I've spoken I can't I can't even tell you how many guests I've had on the show that have relayed similar stories to to to yours, to mine, and to others that I know of. And you and you're and you're like, you know, wow. It's like I'm not the only one that's going through this stuff. Yeah. You know, when people say you're not you're not alone, no. You're really not. There are other people out there. You kinda you go you find those people, you talk to them, you work you work together, you pull you you pull yourselves out of it. You know? Yeah. And that's that's the important thing is that networking and that and that, and and and finding that that common that common frame of reference that you could you could just support each other through. That's Excellent. That's what I've gotten through this, and this has been a great this has been amazing. And, I appreciate you telling me the story. I thank you for that. I appreciate it. Yeah.
[00:46:34] Unknown:
Yeah. And to be honest, the being a Christian going through that stuff, you're like, my god supposed to be bigger than this. Yeah. You know, there's so much shame. And really what opened me up is I'm I'm trained in suicide intervention, ACE assist through the military, QPR. I I became a mental health coach. Like, I really wanna use my story to help people. But one of the things that finally awoke me is I was sitting in one of these every year, we receive suicide intervention training in the military, and I was sitting in this one one hour block of instruction. And and a chaplain came on the screen, and he was like, hey. I he was talking about his own thing, and I thought that chaplain was there to talk about, you know, how he helped other people through. And near the end of the video, he admitted that he had attempts. And I was like, man, if this guy Right. A man of the cloth can admit on a video that's distributed widely through the United States army, I think it's time for me to have the courage to say, me too. You know? And you do. Like, it's it like, Jesus covers all that, man. He really does, but it's really hard to convince yourself post suicide attempts that you're you're worth enough. You feel like you let him down. You feel like you let the community down. You feel like it's it's so like, there's a lot of shame, and and I don't I don't mean this on purpose. I don't think that the Christian community does it on purpose.
And and I'm still a Christian. I don't wanna think that I'm distant, but there's so much shame that comes with that that, like, really, we have to be willing to open up arms and, you know, what did he what did Jesus really teach? What did Jesus really push? And and how do we live our lives like that? And and and then accepting and come alongside the book of Job was huge Oh, yeah. Through some of this stuff. Gethsemane, trudging through what Jesus went through in Gethsemane, that was anxiety, classic anxiety, from the savior of the universe. So don't tell me that anxiety and suffering isn't normal.
It was it was stuff like that. So I I wanna ask you, how are you now? Are you are you doing it sounds like you're doing well, but I I feel that that's an important question for us us dudes to ask each other. Of yeah. Of course. Are you doing well now?
[00:48:53] Unknown:
I have my moments. I I I definitely have my moments. I'll I'll fall into, I'll I'll fall into some dark places from time to time. As a matter of fact, yesterday, I had a little bit of a moment. And, there's this great poem that I that I get that I have, from Dylan Thomas. And, you know, when you when you read it, you know, at the outset, it sounds so like like, oh my god. You know? Don't Yeah. Like, don't do it, dude. You know? Yeah. But it's not. It it's it's actually it's it when you read it, it's called, and and death shall have no dominion.
And Okay. It's a great poem. When I read it, and especially when I'm in one of those moods, I don't look at it like it's a defeatist thing. I look at it like I'm saying, you know, death has no dominion over me. I am not gonna fall for this. I'm not gonna let myself fall into that trap. And, so I had I had I've had a moment like that, yeah, recently yesterday, and, you know, I just took the time to sit there and go through that poem and spend some time in prayer, you know, and and, you know, the Lord, you know, the Lord's good. The Lord's good. I mean, I got to the point where I I was I was extremely bitter at some points that where, there's a passage in, Jeremiah chapter 20, I think it is. Is it Jeremiah 20?
Where Jeremiah, you know, who's called the weeping prophet, he was he was extremely upset with the Lord because, you know, the Lord you know, he he's out here. He's preaching. He's he's he's doing what the Lord's telling him to do, but all he's doing is getting beaten down, thrown down, you know, cast into jail, you know, stoned, like, almost like the apostle Paul. Yeah. And at one point in Jeremiah chapter 20, he told the Lord, he goes, I will not speak in your name anymore. You deceived me. You lied to me. And I went through that same thing. But if you read on Yeah. I don't have my I don't have my Bible here with me. But if you if you actually if you read on, as soon as as soon as Jeremiah says that, he said he turns around and he goes, but your word was in my heart, and I couldn't keep my mouth shut. So even though you know? And my own personal experience with that has been, you know, there there were times where I I told the Lord that I'm done. I'm I I cannot how how how can I go out and talk to people about about you and tell them that, you know, how great you are and how how how much you love and care for them when I'm suffering through everything that I'm suffering through, you know, I'm a hypocrite? How how am I gonna do that? I can't do that, and I'm not gonna do that. And, you know, but the Lord the Lord's funny with me because he'll let me he'll let me vent, and then he kinda pats me on the back of the head and says, okay, let's go. And let's keep moving. Yeah. Right. You know? So and and and this one particular, moment that I'm thinking of was I I I was going through that. I was and I was sitting there in prayer, and I I, you know, I I was just really angry. It was like, you know, just like almost like a cartoon. I was like, you know, I'm done doing this, you know.
And what did and what did the Lord do? The Lord said, okay. That's okay, Joe. I understand. But listen, this is what I want you to teach on Sunday. And he gave me a whole passage of scripture. He gave me an outline, and I ended up teaching a Bible study Sunday, the end of the following Sunday. You know? So he that's what he does to me. He he's like he's kinda like, he's like like an old he's like like an old Italian grandfather, you know, who's who's quick with the scafa. The scafa is, you know, when you walk past him and you do something stupid, he's smashing the back of the head. Yeah. That's what he does to me. He's he's like Yeah. Come on. Snap out of it. Let's go. What are you doing? Yeah. Yeah. Just come on. Let's go. Here. And that's what he would do. So I was doing a I was doing a bible study podcast for for almost three years prior to this one.
And, you know, I I I was so angry, and I was so bitter, and every and and I was going through everything that I was going through at the time, and I was like, I am done. I'm not doing this anymore. Okay. Fine, Joe. Here. Now next week, I want you to talk about this, and here's the outline, and here's the passage I want you to read, and and just take a look at this. And I'm like, you know, really? Come on, man. Yeah. Let me be angry. Yes. He's like, no. No. No. Yeah. Talk about this.
[00:53:11] Unknown:
You know? That is unbelievably
[00:53:13] Unknown:
relatable. It is. I I cannot tell you. But it Yeah. That's been my experience with God in my mental health recovery. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just I just trust just trust the Lord, man. Just trust him. You know? Just Yeah. Yeah. I get angry. He no. He understands. You know? Remember, Jesus Christ was was who? He was God, and what does the Bible say? God manifest in the flesh. He was he was a 100% human, a 100% God. He went through the same things that you and I go through each and every day. Just like you said, Gethsemane, that was anxiety. That was trepidation.
That was I I I don't know if I wanna say fear, but but possibly, you know, he knew what was gonna happen, he knew what the end result was gonna be, but he still didn't wanna go through it. Yeah. Of course. That was his human nature coming through saying, hey, you know, I don't know if I could, you know, if Yeah. You know, if if if you could take this cup from me, you know, please take it away, you know, but your will be done. So you there you see that that dichotomy going on there between the human nature and God's nature, You know? I don't wanna do this, but let your will be done. You know? You see the two natures there. And, it it it's you know, he went through everything and experienced every emotion, every fear, every pain, everything that you and I go through, and he shows us how to get through that, and that's just by trusting in God, trusting the Lord.
You know, I don't know how else I could say it. You know? Other Yeah. Other than that, just trust him. Just, you know, it's hard. I know it's hard. It it's it's incredibly hard at times, but trust him. That's the main thing. Just trust him. You know, he knows what's best for you. And, you know, sometimes it's hard to let go. It's it's hard to to to to put your faith in something that you can't see, touch, feel, you know. But at the same time, he's given us a great book. Yes. He's given us an instruction manual for our lives. And the answer to every question that you have is right there in that book. You just gotta find it.
[00:55:23] Unknown:
Yeah. And it's that's I mean, it is insanely powerful. And that there was a, I wanna say, like, a seven year silence where I I didn't hear or feel anything. I still believed. I I didn't turn away, but, yeah, there was a seven year silence where it's like, hey, man. That's that's I'm still going to church. And they're like,
[00:55:41] Unknown:
you know, hey. Pray. Pray. Isn't that, like, the worst feeling? You know? It's Absolutely. It's it's like you you pray and you don't feel like that you you feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.
[00:55:52] Unknown:
Yeah. You know? And Yeah. And that was that's a that it's, like, super difficult because you're like, okay. Well, I'm gonna try to keep faith. And yeah. Even even post like, after the suicide attempts, there was still a period of time, but it it took a couple months for him to start screaming through. And it's never as loud as you you think it's gonna be. You know what I mean? Like, it's not the loud. It's not the thunder. It's not the lightning. It's a whisper. It's that's that's that's that's a small voice that you hear. You know? And it's not an audible voice. It's not like, you know, it's not like,
[00:56:31] Unknown:
I I don't know. I'd like I I I'm gonna tell you, like, I I just gotta answer this really quick because this is, the next hour guest. He's running late, so let me just let him know. So no worries. The, it's like when I got saved. Right? Okay. So the the story there was this. I was I I I got I got transferred to a new command, and the, I get I get there, and I was really relieved because the commanding officer happened to be one of my training when I was in the academy days, he was he was the, he was one of my trainers. He was Yeah. You know, so, and so when I saw him, he he worked his way up to the ranks. Now he's a commanding officer at the at at my command, and and so I went in. He was like, hey, Joe. You know, it's good to see you. I haven't seen you in a long time. How are you? So I was blah blah blah. And he goes, he goes, right. I'm really glad you're here. I need some good people on the overnights. He goes, so, you know, so I'm really glad you're gonna you're willing to do the overnights. Yeah. No problem. You got it.
Here's the catch though. He goes, it's your turn. What's my turn? Well, your it's your turn to ride with Gail. Okay. Well, who's Gail? Because Gail's one of those born again Christian types who's gonna talk your ear off all night long. Now the the other part of the story is that I didn't get into is, because my audience just wanna hear the story again. But the other part of the story was is that I grew up in a predominantly Roman Catholic family. You know, I had an uncle that I idolized. He was the first one in the family to step away from Catholicism, and he went and became the pastor, a pastor in in a denomination that I've later learned is really not very Christian, but they claim to be.
But I idolized him. I was I was young. I was maybe seven, eight, nine, 10 years old in that range. So everything my uncle did, I wanted to do, and I wanted to be him and so on and so forth. So So when he would come home from school, he would bring his books, and, he would leave them behind, and I would read them. So I would read theology. I was reading, you know, all of that stuff at a very, very young age. He would take my Catholic catechism books and rewrite them. When he was home on his breaks, he would, like, cross out big sections. This is not how it happened and staple, you know, the the the correction to it. And then, of course, I would get in trouble for that. You know? And then, and then, you know, I I I, around I had had I don't know if it was for communion or what, but I remember the the priest, you know, they said that how you had to go to confession, and I was like, why? Why am I telling you what I've done wrong? You can't do anything about it.
You know? And the priest got upset, and he grabbed me by the arm, literally walked me outside, handed me to my mother, and said, we don't need his kind here. And, never forget it. Never forget that. And, forgive him. Yeah. But I don't forget it. He, so so my mom said, okay. Fine. So never went back to Catholic church again for a while, I should say. I did go back eventually, but, for a while, I didn't go back. And then, I kinda went my own way, did my own thing, you know, lived my life. You know? I was I was the I used to tell people I was the pope of the Worldwide Church of Joe. I do what I want. You know? I set my own doctrine theology, whatever it is. And but I was, you know, I was just playing you know, I was just fooling myself really, you know, in in reality.
And then, I don't know. Just, you know, I they they they they transferred me to this command, and and they put me with this one. And, she was great. I mean, we got along really well. We, you know, we would argue all night long, but not like argue like like angry argue, like debate. You know what I mean? So we would argue all night because I I felt like I was pretty well versed in what I knew from what I learned from my uncle. And, you know, and she would try to tell me I was wrong, and so on and so forth. And I was like, yeah, well, this is you know, we would go back and forth all night long.
So, one night she said to me, one morning, we were getting off duty. She was like, hey, there's this Christian radio station, you should check it out. She gave me the call sign for it, so I was like, alright. I'll I'll check it out, and I'll see what it is. And so I would I listened to it driving home, and, I was listening to a guy by the name, and you probably know the name, J Vernon McGee. Alright? Now J Vernon, I had no idea, was long since gone with the Lord, but everything that I was listening to was so relevant to what was going on at that time in my life that I thought and I felt like, well, this is right now. This is for me.
And I would purposely drive home slower just so I can hear the whole thing, you know, before I got before I got home. And then, you know, I I at one point, I just I just kept on listening and listening and listening and listening more and more and more. I I went up into the attic and I started ripping apart boxes looking for looking for my bible, and they were like, you have a bible? Yeah. I have a bible. You know? And and I started looking for it, and I found my old one that my my uncle bought me when I was like eight years old. So it was all dog eared and beat up and covers falling off and whatnot. And I started reading that thing, and I started reading the bible studies that my uncle would give me and, you know, from way back then and, you know, I'm like, I wanna get back into this again, and I I I signed up for these bible studies again, it's correspondence stuff, And, I'm I'm going through the whole thing.
And, one day, it was a Sunday. It was it was, July 17. Got in my car. I was on my way to work for the overnight, and I'm like, you know, I always hear the same traffic mess, same thing every Sunday. Let me see what's on that Christian station. So I put the Christian station on, and there was a guy, and it was a very unique type of a show for me. It because I I, you know, I mean, I've heard talk radio, but here's here's this preacher, and he's over here, he's preaching, and then he stops and takes phone calls, answers questions, and he goes back to preaching again, then he stops, takes phone calls, answers questions, goes back to preaching again. Never heard never heard a show like that. And I'm listening to him, and he's preaching a message on hell and who's going there. And and this is where I say that that little soft voice started coming in pretty loud and clear.
Again, not an audible like the the the heavens didn't peel away, and it wasn't like this bright shining light, you know, shining down on the car as I was driving. But it was that little voice that it just seemed like at the end of every sentence, I heard, I'm talking to you, Joe.
[01:02:46] Unknown:
Yeah.
[01:02:48] Unknown:
You're going to hell, Joe. You know? I laugh, but it's serious. It scared the hell out of me. Let me literally scare the hell out of me. You know? Yeah. For real. And, I went to, I I I listened to the whole thing, and I was, like, just, like, consumed by it. It's I I I was just fascinated by the whole thing. So I wrote down the phone number. Again, no cell phones yet. I wrote down I wrote down the phone number, and I was gonna call, when I got to the job, but I got there too late. The show was already over, so I missed the opportunity. But, but I looked up I looked up this church. Well, I I looked up the website for the radio station. I found out the name of the church that was putting on that show and checked out their website, and it was, you know, very basic, nothing crazy on it. And I just read their doctrinal statement, I was like, okay. I I yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense. That makes sense. That makes sense. I agree with that. I agree with that.
I called the church. I must have sound like an idiot when I called. Hi. I heard you on the radio. You know? So I I called and I I did that and and, man, the guy called me back. You know? He called me back in, like, five minutes. And, we were on the phone for, like, an hour, And then he invited me out, and we had dinner, and he led me to the Lord right there that night on the on Pier 34 on Canal Street and West Street. So That's awesome. Yeah. It was great. But, dude, man, I am so sorry. I didn't realize it's after 08:00, and my next guest is waiting in the in the in the room here. So, Yeah. We're good. So I'd like to do this. I want you back on the show.
Let's see if we can get something set up for next week. Okay. Alright? Sounds good to me. Alright. So thank you so much, brother. I appreciate you being here. And, I'm gonna reach out to you after the show, and we'll we'll we'll chat some more. So, look for an email from me afterwards. And and, I think you should have my phone number, like, because I put in the other in the other message I sent you on PodMed. Just shoot me a text when you have a chance, and I'll give you a call after the show. Okay. Perfect. Alright, brother. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate you. Brother, God bless you. Thank you for your service. Hey. God bless you too. Thank you. Tony Kessel, folks.
Alright. So what we're gonna do here is we're gonna take a quick break, and, when we come back from this break, we will be sitting down with Jared Sessler running for Congress up in the great state of Washington in, Congressional District Number 4, and, we can have a really good conversation. I've been to Washington State a few times. I have some really good friends who live up in Washington State, and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, they are actually constituents of District 4. So we're gonna have a good conversation. Alright, folks. So this is the Joe Russo. It's a live show weeknights, 7PM central time. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with your friends, your family, and your followers. And, you know what? We're gonna do something a little different with this break. Not gonna put the screen up. We're gonna do a chair break. Okay? So we'll be right back after this. Just stay with us.
Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to the Joe Roose Show. My name is Joe Roose. First hour is in the books. Never did a chair break like that. That's that was interesting. You got to see behind the scenes there, you know, all the shuffling around and whatnot. Alright. So Tony Kessel, I hope you guys enjoyed that. We're gonna have him back on. We went way over, didn't even get the half of the stuff we wanted to talk about. So we'll get him on again. Not a problem with that. Alright, folks. Pod home. Podhome.fm is the most modern and easy to use podcast hosting platform. Use it to publish your episodes, enhance your audio, and automatically generate transcripts, chapters, title, show notes, and more.
And did you know that you can even podcast live with podhome.fm? I've been using podhome.fm as my audio host platform, oh, for about two years now, and they are fantastic, constantly change constantly updating, constantly bringing on new features. They are fantastic. You can broadcast your podcast live through your own website. If you don't have a website, they'll provide you with a website at no additional charge. They will even help you build it. You can, everything you possibly can need to to have an outstanding podcast is all available to you for $15.99 a month. Just go to podhome.fm to try it out for free for thirty days. That's podhome.fm, podhome.fm.
Alright, folks. Now so, Gerald Jared Sessler. Sorry about that. Jared Sessler. He's a navy veteran, former NASCAR driver, stage four cancer survivor, entrepreneur, and now a Trump endorsed congressional candidate. He's the author of a brand new book, How We Broke America, a Checklist a Checklist to Fix It, which is already a number one hot new release on Amazon and political advocacy. Jared brings a one of a kind perspective, forged through service in the Navy, resilience through cancer, success in business, and a fierce belief in America's founding principles. His book doesn't just talk politics.
It offers a bold step by step checklist for restoring our constitutional foundations, protecting sovereignty, and reigniting the values that made this country strong. He's been endorsed by general Michael Flynn, big fan of Michael Flynn. I love that man. And other conservative leaders, Jared calls America's decline a broken machine, but one that can be fixed with faith, leadership, and conviction. Jared, we'd like to welcome you to the Joe Russo. Why don't you come on in? Eric. Thank you, Joe. Good to be here. Hey. Thanks for joining us. I appreciate it. And, before we get any further, just wanna say thank you very much, sir, for your service in our country. Thank you. I appreciate it. It was, it was a great honor. Yes, sir. So, so you served in the Navy for how long were you in the Navy for?
[01:11:17] Unknown:
Just did one term, served on aircraft carrier USS Constellation, and was, worked my way up to be a catapult top top watch. So I was responsible for the energy that launched the aircraft off of the flight deck. We had four catapults on our ship about 1,200 feet. It was quite an amazing experience at the young age of
[01:11:37] Unknown:
18, 19 years old. Isn't that amazing that that that at that age, you're you're entrusted with this high-tech, multimillion dollar piece of equipment that, you know, but in the in the real world, outside of the military, at 18, 19 years old, you couldn't you couldn't get anywhere near anything like that.
[01:11:57] Unknown:
Yeah. It's pretty amazing. I think it's a demonstration of how, when you set the bar low, that's exactly where people show up. When you set the when you set the bar high, people show up. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I agree with you a 100% on that one. So, I usually like to ask a couple of questions,
[01:12:14] Unknown:
to kinda break the ice for for the audience, to, you know, try to, you know, I guess well, let me just ask the questions. So what's something about you that most people don't know but should?
[01:12:29] Unknown:
Let's see. Well, I I think as it relates to this, one of the things that people should know about me that mostly don't is, I was absolutely completely uninterested in anything related to politics or public speaking or anything of the sort, when I was younger. In fact, I remember in high school, there was a class called debate. And, I remember walking by that classroom. I never once set foot in that classroom. In fact, I would walk on the other side of the of the hallway with my shoulders practically touching the lockers, so that I didn't get any of whatever was in that classroom on me. I don't remember when the first time I read the constitution was, but it definitely was not before I was an adult. Yeah. So, you know, I I'm involved in civics and politics now. Yeah.
Because, here's one from TP USA. They do a really a really good colorful graphic one. But I just last night, I got another copy of the one that you have. I think it's from the heritage or something. Yes. But, I yeah. That's one of the big things about me is, I'm involved now because, you know, in 2012 when Obama was reelected, I was I was absolutely shocked. I was I was, I just couldn't believe that we reelected and we had four more years of this weakness. Mhmm. Anti God, anti American, you know, just terrible stance. And, you know, like most other Americans, I really wasn't paying attention to a lot of what was going on politically. And so, anyway, that was a big change for me. Started taking Hillsdale College classes and listening to, Dennis Prager and, Center for Self Governance and and, Epic Times. And, you know, here I am today. I wouldn't consider myself a constitutional attorney, but I certainly know a lot better than I did back then. Oh, yeah. And, you know, it's it's funny you mentioned all those names because I know Hillsdale College. I've actually I've I've taken a couple of their free classes.
[01:14:33] Unknown:
I get this brochure every every once in a while from them, and, I don't the funny thing is I don't ever remember signing up for anything from them, but yet I I get these these these newsletters on a regular basis. And so I said, let me try one of these classes. So I did, and they are fantastic.
[01:14:47] Unknown:
They are absolutely fantastic. Unbelievable. They're they're great. Yep. And I have a lot of driving around our district. And so a lot of times, I'll stick one of those in and just, you know, listen to it. I'll pull try to pull it up, log in to my account, pull it up before I start driving, and just listen to it because they're they're just amazing. Funny story as it relates to Hillsdale College. They they, educate, I think, over 95% of their their students are free students online. It's amazing. But you can actually, you know, apply and go to college there. Mhmm. They live on American donations. They've never taken a penny from the government. That's right. And I have a good really good friend of mine who has been donating a $100 a month for I can't remember what he said the other day, but I think he said it was, like, sixteen years or nineteen years or something he's been donating a $100 a month.
And, he doesn't even have any family or anything that goes there. And I told him, I said, well, you paid for my tuition. You know? It's totally God's grace that he set that up and and, you know, you've you've paid my way through Hillsdale College. So it was pretty awesome. That's a great story. That's a great story.
[01:15:50] Unknown:
So, to round out our our get to know your questions, what's your go to beverage to, help you unwind at the end of the day?
[01:15:59] Unknown:
So I don't you know, I so many things come to mind. I I I'm old enough, I turn 56 tomorrow, that I get super irritated if I drink anything late because then you have to get up in the middle of the night, which really bugs me. I I'm not much into alcohol. I mean, I'm not anti alcohol, but I just see it as weakness the older I get, the more I just kinda say, yeah. It's just not really necessary. I'm not against it. Like, I'll go and have a glass of wine once in a while, people are doing it or whatever. But, I like the flavored waters, like these seltzer waters. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And, summertime here, it's hot. It's over a 100 degrees today. We we live on we have a ranch. We raise cattle.
Nice. We drink a lot of electrolytes and water and ice and, you know, I like kombucha. That's kinda unique. Tastes a little funny, but only the first time. So, yeah, I'm not into sugary drinks really. I just you know, I was diagnosed with terminal cancer twenty where are we at now? Twenty six years ago, twenty five years ago and given a five percent chance to live. And so from that point forward, I really started taking a look at my diet and started taking care of myself and working out. And so I yeah. I eat pretty healthy, probably healthier than almost anybody you know, but, so yeah.
[01:17:21] Unknown:
Well, happy birthday for for tomorrow, so that's great. And, you're not much older than me, so, I'm I'm right up there with you. I understand exactly how you feel about, about the drinking. I do like to I do like my bourbons, so,
[01:17:36] Unknown:
I'm not Yeah. It's kind of interesting, you know, if you take a like, I used to hate whiskey Mhmm. And, I I it was because I didn't know how to drink it. I didn't realize that, like, one shot of whiskey should last you, like, four hours because you almost breathe it more than drink it. You know? Exactly. It tastes disgusting. But if you just kinda breathe it and aerate it, it's kind of interesting. But Yeah. Yeah. It's alcohol is just no big deal for me. I just think,
[01:18:02] Unknown:
you know, people you know, we just it's gotta be careful with it, and I I don't think it serves any real genuine purpose other than maybe some social entertainment. Yeah. No. I I totally agree with you. I I I enjoy it. There was a point where I was getting a little too carried away with it, I'll be honest. But You you do. Yeah. But now it's you know, I'll do it on the weekend. I'll sit out in the backyard by the by the by the grill and have a have a bourbon, have a cigar, just relax, you know, that type of thing. Yeah. But, just wanna, recommend something to you, though. There's a one of my sponsors is, an organization called Ezra Healing. They're based out of British Columbia.
Great great folks. They do, they they believe in the do no harm model of, health care where it's all patient centric, and they they try to they try to work with the from the root cause of whatever it is that you're dealing with, not just slap a Band Aid on it, you know, pat you on the head and kick you out the door. So, I I can send you links and all that stuff to them if you wanna check them out. They're they're really very good people.
[01:19:04] Unknown:
Yeah. It'd be good. It's I'll just tell you, I I didn't do conventional medical treatment. I changed my diet and lifestyle, and God healed me through that. And, I believe that God's given us the healing mechanisms that we need. These bodies that he created have a self healing mechanism in them, but they have to have the right ingredients. And just real quick, I'll I'll share with you and your viewers that pretty much and I'm again, I'm not a doctor, so I'm not giving medical advice, but I'm just telling you from my experience what I've been through, you know, twenty five plus years of after a terminal diagnosis.
All of our all of our sicknesses and ailments come from two places. It's either a deficiency or it's a toxicity. Mhmm. One or the other. And you have to figure out which one it is and oftentimes it's lifestyle related. If it's a deficiency, it means you're not getting some nutrients that your body needs in order to replenish and to rebuild and to stay healthy. If it's a toxicity, it means that you're continually doing something that is offending your body in a toxic way. And that could be the water in your jet tub. It could be the water you drink. It could be the air you breathe. It could be the people that you're around. It could be the food that you're eating and the ingredients. If you're eating a lot of stuff out of packaged boxes and things like that, then it's probably a toxicity.
It's amazing some of the ingredients that are being allowed into our foods. But always remember that, is this a toxicity or is it a deficiency? And and, there's easy ways to solve each one of them. You can do fasting and juicing and things like that to take care of toxicity. And for deficiency, you can just eat green like crazy, and you can juice greens, and you can do all kinds of trouble, you know, things like that. And so, anyway, it's an oversimplification,
[01:20:46] Unknown:
but it's also true in terms of, you know, what I've experienced over the last, you know, twenty five plus years of trying to live healthy. Yeah. And it's it's it's funny too because I had this similar conversation with the CEO of Ezra Healing. She was a guest on our show. And the episode that we did together, YouTube took it down and gave me a strike saying that I was pushing medical misinformation.
[01:21:09] Unknown:
Wow.
[01:21:10] Unknown:
So yeah. It's alright. Yeah. Pretty crazy. So, Jared, when first, is it Jared or am I saying it right?
[01:21:19] Unknown:
Yeah. Jared? Although I have lots of names that I respond to. I a few years ago, I kinda got to the point where I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna say yes to whatever people call me. It's amazing how many people, you know. I've been on, well, I won't name the station because I don't wanna I don't wanna bash them because they're kind enough to have me on quite often. Some of the some of them, they still mess up my name. I'm just like, oh my goodness. It's not that difficult. It's Jared, you know? Jared.
[01:21:48] Unknown:
Gotcha. Gotcha. I do the same thing. That's why I shortened my my last name for the show. Just put Ruz. It's it's short for Ruziello. So Yeah. I know. I saw that. But you know what? You're it's cool. Ruz is cool. It's true. It works. It works. Well, thanks, brother. I appreciate that. So, Jared, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself as a father, as a husband, as an Navy veteran? Help us get to know you.
[01:22:11] Unknown:
Yeah. So served in the Navy as we talked about aboard the USS Constellation. That was, quite an experience right up. Well, honestly, I was afraid. I did fine in school. I didn't really study much, but I still got decent grades, thanks to some good genes and, you know, IQ. But I was I was frankly kinda bored in school. They just didn't really require much of you in public school. And, so I got out of that, went to the went to the military primarily because I wanted help with college. I knew I wanted to go to college, but I was afraid that I didn't have the, the discipline, the self discipline to actually succeed in college. I I I knew I was a punk and, and I just didn't know if I could do it. And so when the military, I figured, well, some years of that will help me grow up plus then I'll get help paying for college, which is exactly what happened. I got out of military, went to college, got a first degree was in manufacturing engineering, then got a degree in mechanical engineering.
Worked in the industry for about seven years. Really enjoyed it. Worked my way up to, working for a company called Intel, which is, at the time, was, you know, one of the leading chip makers. They still are Mhmm. In in the in the world. And ended up leaving there in '98 and started my own company. Pretty much been running my own business ever since then. We we ended up franchising some service brands and launched those around the country. We had we grew to about 240 locations nationwide. Sold part of that company in 2016 and then pretty much got backed my way out of, most everything else I was doing when I decided I wanted to run for congress.
Personally, married to my wife, Nikki, in 1996. We were, we only dated for ten months, and, it was love at first sight. But we were we were both in our late twenties, so, you know, mid to late twenties and and, totally, had a rough go of it in my teens and early twenties, but, got saved and baptized when I was 22 and then kind of spent some years sort of, reflecting and growing and and God brought us together in, early ninety six. And then we got married in November '96. And so that's been I think this year is '29. You're coming up on twenty nine year anniversary, and we've been blessed to have three kids. They're, boy, girl, boy.
They're 20, 22, and 24. Amazing kids. Just just, incredible. I I'll just tell you a quick story about that. First of all, my daughter's in the middle. She's the only one that's married, graduated college, and, got married about it was about a year and a half ago now, and they have our first grandbaby. So she's absolutely beautiful. And so we're loving that. But, quick story about my boys, they both race. They started racing first time getting in any kind of racing equipment when they're four years old, both of them. They're 20 and 24, so they're a few years apart, but they're both amazing drivers. And, way more trophies than I ever got. And, we were at a track this last weekend and they were both racing. And, actually, my youngest should have won, ended up second out of a field of 49, and and my oldest was sixth, I think, in the final. But, one of the people that was in the pits, came up to me and said, mister Sessler, I just wanna tell you, your boys are amazing. They're so talented on the track. But they said that's only, like, 20% of what I wanna tell you. The real story is watching them, seeing them in the pits interacting with people, and just watching them in their lives.
They are amazing young men, and so congratulations for that. And that was just really heartwarming for me. And that's honestly, it's not magical. It's just raising them in, you know, we homeschooled and, obviously, strong Christian family praying together every day and and, you know, just trying to seek the Lord far from perfect, at all. I will guarantee that. But, you know, you learn how to apologize and reconcile and That's right. And march forward together. That's kind of the the gist of of my life and kinda where we're at today.
[01:26:37] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And that's a great story. And, I'm I'm telling you, it's it's what I find really interesting is is I I am finding more people that I have been, having the privilege of of hosting on the show that have a good solid Christian testimony. And I was actually gonna ask you about your testimony and ask you, when it was that you got saved and and and and such. And so I'm glad you brought that up. I'm I'm a born again Christian myself. I got saved in, July 2000, and, so I've been twenty five years. I've worn many hats over the over the years. I've taught bible studies. I used to do a bible study podcast. I was an associate pastor of a church up in New York, for for a little while, just to help out the senior pastor who was very sick. I've I've traveled around the country. I've been to Washington State a few times, preaching up there. So and I have a I have a friend. I I think they might live in your in in the district that you're you're running for.
So,
[01:27:33] Unknown:
so so Do you remember what the name of the town is?
[01:27:36] Unknown:
I think they're in Olympia, I think.
[01:27:39] Unknown:
Okay.
[01:27:39] Unknown:
So, it's it's, I'm trying to remember the exact the exact little area that they're in, though, but they they have a ranch. They're they're they're great great folks. They really are tremendous people. That's cool. And, so, so so so God's been good. You know, I I've I was talking with a previous guest that, you know, you know, sharing some some horror stories that you've been through over the years and how just just how God's mercy and his grace just kinda lift you out of that. Amen. So it it's it's it's an amazing thing. So I I really appreciate that you brought up your Christian faith, so thank you very much for that, sir. I I appreciate it. And, you know, as a Navy veteran, NASCAR driver, like, I I that I I wanna hear more about that. That has to be a lot of fun.
A cancer survivor, entrepreneur, how did all of that shape the way you see America today?
[01:28:29] Unknown:
I think the biggest thing for me is is, you know, the American dream. And I always tell people, you know, the American dream is real, and it didn't let me down, you know. But here's the thing that people have to realize, and this is so important for people to understand today. The American dream is made up of a combination of two things, and one of those is an opportunity. And that opportunity is available to everyone. But the other one is hard work. And if you have if you're not willing to combine hard work with that opportunity, then don't ever expect to experience the American dream. And that's that's part of the problem with open borders and some of the political positions of the left Agreed. Is they're breaking that equation, and they expect people to live the American dream while not putting any effort into the opportunity. And the truth is, and you know this, Joe, just as well as any other man, if you don't work for something, if you don't toil for it and feel it in your bones, you're never gonna truly appreciate it. I mean, you can move into a really nice house and you can enjoy it. But when you've built a house from the ground up and you've had that blood, sweat, and tears, you know, when you've restored a car and laid underneath it with the oil dripping on your face and, you know, fixed it up to be in this sweet ride, it it just changes the way you feel about yourself. It changes the way you feel about that enjoyment. You know, when you are an honorable man and you honor your family and your wife, you enjoy your life. You enjoy your wife way more. And I think that it's it's just exponential more than what, you know, is possible when you cheat or you short circuit the process. I mean, that's just the way God has made it for us. If you read Philippians one twenty one says, to live is as Christ, but to die is is gain. Mhmm. So the dying is gain is pretty simple to understand. We have something great to look forward to in eternity, but what does it mean to live is as Christ?
And when you look at Jesus' life, he did two things. He suffered and he served. That's right. And so I think that we should always be expecting to suffer and serve or maybe to suffer as we serve. And, somehow there's great joy that comes out of that. And There is. I think that's, you know, that's the big thing that people have to realize and remember, especially young men who are wanting to get married or maybe young men who are married and are struggling. It's probably because they have way more expectations than they have a sense of responsibility for what God has called them to do in their life. Well, that's great. That's amazing.
[01:31:00] Unknown:
I I cannot disagree with anything that you just said. I I this this is this is very similar to a conversation I have with my son, not not very not very long ago. You have to work you have to work for what you have, and you have to work for it and just so you'll appreciate it more. My own personal example is, you know, I I built this studio, you know, by my it took me three years to get it to where it is now, and I'm still not done with it. I still got more I wanna do. But, you know, I it's my favorite room in the house. I love coming in here. I love hanging out in here because this is it's mine. You know, it's my space. And, and I appreciate I appreciate what God did for me in getting it. You know?
He provided everything, all the financing that I needed to do it, all the funding that I need to do, I should say. I didn't finance anything. Everything was paid out of cash, but, he he provided this thing, and and it's a blessing to be able to do it. And, and to have it and to also you know, also like I did as I did the bible study podcast from here, you know, it was a it's a it's a blessing. It it truly is. I mean, God gives us these opportunities to do these things to serve him in ways, and he and he uses whatever is available at the time to do it. And, Yeah. You know, it's it's a it's a real blessing, and you gotta work for it, though. It's not gonna be handed to you. You know? Yeah. Build it like, I'm trying to build this thing up into like, I I joke around and say, oh, I'm trying to build my media empire here. But, you know, I'm half serious. I'm half not. You know? It's I it's but it's a struggle. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of effort. I have a regular forty hour a week job too. You know? I I gotta do that, and plus I do this show six days a week. You know? Yeah. It's, it's it's a lot of work, but you know something? At the end of the day, when the show's done, no matter how it went on the show, I am I'm I'm I'm pleased with
[01:32:49] Unknown:
the effort that was put into it. Yeah. You're putting in the effort, and you're trusting God with the outcome. Exactly. Exactly right. And you have you have no idea. It's really difficult for us to determine, you know, to really know, like, what is what is God gonna use? How is this even gonna be? Did I just waste my day? Or was you know, how how you just can't measure it like that. Yeah. I don't You just have to work. I don't see anywhere I I
[01:33:11] Unknown:
I never look at a day and say it's wasted. If if Yeah. If God woke me up this morning, he woke me up for a purpose. I don't I don't know what some just random act of kindness, if you wanna call it that. Some some words that you said to somebody can affect them in such a way that will turn their day around. That's if that's what God woke me up to do today, then that's what he woke me up to do today. I may not part the I may not part the Rio Grande, you know, but, you know, whatever however he wants to use me in in in in this life, I'm willing to be used. And, you know, that's service, and you have to be willing to do that.
Now in, in your book, How We Broke America, a checklist to fix it, you put, a lot of solutions in biblical values and and and, America's founding principles.
[01:34:07] Unknown:
Mhmm.
[01:34:08] Unknown:
Why are those anchors non negotiable for you?
[01:34:13] Unknown:
Well, because I think that what people don't realize is the constitution is biblically based. Mhmm. It it's it's a it's a document that secures our natural rights, which come from God. That's right. And so, you know, we should feel honored to live in a country that has the protections of our natural rights such that, you know, it's it's honoring what God's perspective and position is over humanity. Those natural rights spread out over the entirety of the planet, all humans. But most of those humans don't live in a country that has their that has them codified in a constitution. And so I think you when you read the constitution, which is very simple, seven articles, 27 amendments so far, You can read the whole thing in probably twenty minutes. It's not a deep read, although some of it in in its old English language can be kinda hard to understand. Mhmm.
But it I think that's that's the reason why. I think God wants us to have liberty. And, if you listen to Chris Ann Hall, her description of liberty is you combine freedom with morality, and you put those two together. When I when I was in the navy, we would pull into a foreign port. And when we got off the ship to go exploring, it was called Liberty. We were going on Liberty. Well, what did what did that mean? It meant that we had some freedom from our work, but we still carried with it some responsibilities. See, we were still citizens of The United States in a foreign country. Not only that, but we are also military members of the United States government, the United States military inside of another nation. And so we carried with us much like, an Olympic athlete carries with them the flag. We carry with us the responsibility of, you know, not offending the people in that nation and to making sure making sure that we're representing America. That's liberty. It's freedom combined with some responsibility or as Chris Ann Hall says, freedom combined with morality.
And
[01:36:18] Unknown:
I think we lost you. Alright. Well, let's give him a second to come back. Let me shoot him a text. Let's see how we're doing here. Are we frozen altogether? I think we're frozen altogether. So let me refresh the stream here. Hold on. Of course. Try to get this thing back.
[01:38:58] Unknown:
Insufferable. And then it says that it's not only your your right, but it is your duty to stand up to defend the, the the tyranny and to throw off that tyranny and to institute for yourselves
[01:39:14] Unknown:
a new government to ensure, and this is the key, your future security. Stand by one second, my friend. We lost, Internet for a second there, and I'm just getting everything back up again.
[01:39:24] Unknown:
Oh, you did. I wasn't sure if you're still on, so I was, I was expanding upon one of my favorite amendments in the constitution.
[01:39:34] Unknown:
Can you hear me? Yeah. I can hear you. Okay. Can you hear me? Yeah. I don't know what happened there. My, everything went down. The Internet, everything shut down.
[01:39:44] Unknown:
That's lame. It was the it was the leftist gremlins. Yeah. Exactly. It never fails.
[01:39:53] Unknown:
Never fails. But, I'm glad to see that we still have our you're still here, though.
[01:39:59] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm here.
[01:40:07] Unknown:
Alright. Worst case scenario, sir, if it goes down again, I will happily reschedule with you for a Thursday when I don't normally do a show. This way we can have uninterrupted time.
[01:40:24] Unknown:
Oh, yeah. It's no sweat. I'm I'm totally fine. I appreciate you and Alright. Okay. Internet are you running?
[01:40:33] Unknown:
I am I am on the most expensive package you can get from Spectrum.
[01:40:37] Unknown:
Oh, interesting. So I got a Spectrum in our area, Spectrum is, like, the most expensive and really not great service. We we have Starlink because we live out in the country, but in our office that was in town, we had Spectrum, and it was quite expensive.
[01:40:54] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm just waiting for I'm waiting for the I have a monitor up here. I'm just waiting to see if it catches up so that I know that we're that we're all connected here. My hat's crooked. There we go. It looks fine. It looks fine. Alright. So we'll we'll just continue on because it's it's at least it's recording still. So, I'll be able to to salvage whatever we have so we can make it work. But, it's interesting, though, you're yeah. If you're talking about, and the reason why I was smiling here we go. We're back up. Alright. So the reason why I was smiling when you were talking about, the constitution, how being based on, on Christian principle, biblical principle, is because on Sundays for the last, eight or nine weeks, I've been actually teaching a Bible study show on America's Christian heritage and talking about the, the biblical basis of, the American Revolution, the founding documents, and, I'm just, just yesterday, actually, on yesterday's show, we were up to Andrew Jackson's days, Sam Houston's days. So, so it's been a great study. I've I've loved doing it. It's a lot of fun, so I'd invite you to come check it out if you, if you have the time Cool. If you have time to do that.
And I I totally agree with you a 100% on that. You know, our country was based on Christian values and Christian principle. You know, those the founding generation and this isn't a knock on on the World War two generation. This isn't a knock on on that, because we know, you know, we we call them the greatest generation. I I I don't agree with that. Great generation, absolutely. But I think our greatest generation was our founding generation, because these men actually thought. They they sat there, and they actually thought and put this country together from the ground up.
That to me is not something you you take lightly. You know, they gave us it's not every it's not you don't you don't always get the opportunity to form your own country, you know, and that's what these men did. So to me, that's always been the greatest generation. The and the and the notion that these men were all were were atheists and deists and agnostics, yeah, I'm sure there was some of that stuff in there mixed in, but George Washington baptized by pastor John Gano in the Hudson River in in in New York, you know, with witnesses, and you have, you know, modern school books, history books don't even mention that. They they say, well, it's it's a myth. It's it's, you know, it it's not didn't necessarily happen. Well, there's documentation that proves it.
John Gano's children actually witnessed George Washington getting baptized. Yeah. There were 40 other men there getting baptized,
[01:43:48] Unknown:
you know. I think I think the thing sort of to your to your point, the thing that I think about when I think about the greatest generation and why I agree with you is I think about the generation that sacrificed the most, you know. And I just look at, you know, our own circumstance, like, pretty much the toughest thing that you can do in America these days is homesteading, which we did. Mhmm. But it was buffeted by the fact that we had the money to be able to to build whatever we wanted. And, yeah, when we bought our property, we came here and there was no power and there's no water. And we're like, oh my goodness. What are we gonna do? We have to make a well and we have to get power here and we have to do this, and that's how it all starts. But just think about I always think about these people back in the revolutionary war era and just even prior to the revolutionary war Mhmm. And all the struggles and challenges that happened, you know, during the early seventeen hundreds and even into the sixteen hundreds and different things.
You know, these people didn't have the clothes that we have. They didn't have the technology. They didn't have comfortable socks. They didn't have the weaponry. They didn't have the the protection from the elements. They didn't have so many things. You know? I I remember, and I keep kinda taking this back to the homesteading thing, but I remember, you know, when we first started building here, we obviously had a house somewhere else. And we put an RV on-site, and we had, like, a a shower building. And I remember we built a well house, and we got power, and we did all that. And I remember when we first operated that shower building, and then we had the RV and stuff, it was like, it felt like, oh my gosh. We have even when we just built the well house, it was like, we're outside working. It's cold. We're all bundled up, but then we can run into the well house and it's warm. So there's heater and it's all insulated and everything. You know? So, you know, they didn't have any of that stuff back then. I mean, yeah, they could they could run into their house that once they got home walking for godly knows how many miles or or on a carriage behind horses or something. I mean, it was just such a different lifestyle back then. And, you know, we're living you know, I would probably be dead if I was if I was living back then at 50 I'll be 56 tomorrow.
I mean, people didn't live that long back then, generally. You know, some people did. But, so, yeah, it was they had they had tough lives back then. We have it so much easier now.
[01:46:09] Unknown:
Oh, I agree with you. I was I was thinking about also, talking about sacrifices that, that were made. You know, most most of the founding generation, they were they were burned out of their homes. They were, they were chased and pursued into the woods, into the wilderness. His families were broken up. Fortunes lost. Yeah. You know, it just they they sacrifice so much to give us the freedoms that we have in this country. Not that they get. I know I know our freedoms come from God. Liberty, you know, our rights come from God. But to to establish a government to protect those rights Exactly. You know, that's like something I always like to I always say is is that, you know, the only thing that I want government to do is that is is what it was intended to do, and that is to protect my right to do for myself.
Yeah. You know, that's where I stand on those things. Just keep us safe. Exactly. We ask. Exactly. Keep us safe. Exactly. You don't need to know how much water I have in my toilet. There there's no reason for that. Yeah. You know? And I I find it comical how they, you know, they're they're interested in a $600 transaction that that you make between two two, two, consenting parties, but yet there there will be a shuffling billions of dollars into who knows where for who knows what. You know? Gender studies in Pakistan are very important. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And and running, Sesame Street and, and and and It's great. And circumcision February
[01:47:37] Unknown:
to Ukraine. Yeah. Or that never should have happened. Never should have happened. And
[01:47:41] Unknown:
it it's just and I I don't I I hope I I really do hope that that the president can bring it to an end. I I just I don't see it happening anytime soon, to be honest. I think that that Putin and Zelensky are just too set in in in in going at this.
[01:48:00] Unknown:
They're they're they're A lot more a lot more people are gonna die, unfortunately. It's really sad. And I think that's what president Trump is trying to prevent. You know, the reality is this war has been going on for a long time, and and, you know, Putin is a is a crafty, you know, player. He knows what he wants and he and he, you know, he's not gonna give up trying to get it and, you know, Zelenskyy is the puppet, you know, Ukrainian puppet. Yep. And, but, you know, good on him for sucking billions of dollars out of, you know, other countries for the last few years and, you know, buying himself a bunch of mansions and fancy cars. And boats and all that great stuff. Yeah. I I'm with you. I'm I'm irritated. I have all full faith in the Lord. But and I'll tell you that President Trump and his team, you know, Steve Witkoff and and, Marco Rubio and the vice president, JD Vance, who's amazing.
You know, if if anybody can make this happen, they can. But but I do think it's a incredible uphill battle. And, there may be some there may there may indeed to be some things happening behind the scenes in order to force these parties together to save lives. You know, I just look at I think that the the big, discussion and the biggest topic in our country over the next year between now and the midterms is gonna be, is just gonna be law and order. It's gonna be safety on the streets in in America. And I think the reason is is when you look at what happened in in DC under just a few weeks under president Trump, really, in just a couple weeks, he's able to just literally clean up an entire city. I think the citizens of many of these other states and cities, like, for example, Chicago, where there's, what, 15 or more people or something that get murdered every weekend or something crazy, you know, people are gonna start to ask questions like, what wait a second. He just cleaned up an entire city in, like, a few days, and we can't we're we're going on years here in this city with all these all this crime and stuff. I just don't think the American people are gonna continue to put up with that. And don't you find it amazing
[01:50:02] Unknown:
I'm sorry. Don't you find it amazing, though, how you you you see all of this taking place under under president Trump, how quickly, like you said, he got everything under control in Washington DC, and the Liberals are still out there complaining about it.
[01:50:20] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, these are the same people. I mean, if you read if you read, second Thessalonians chapter two verses one through 12, it's clear that God has literally given these people delusion. That's what it says. Mhmm. Because they refused the truth. It was their choice to choose or to reject the truth. They rejected the truth and so their eyes are now blinded. They have curtains over their eyes to see the truth. They can't see it now because they rejected it. That's what it says. Second Thessalonians chapter two verses one through 12 is very clear, especially verses eleven and twelve. Yes. And so, you know, that that's why that's how you get people marching on the streets because they're wanting to fight for gender affirming care to try to, you know, do the impossible. The truth is anybody who wants to be the opposite sex, you know, they claim to be transgender.
First of all, it's a mental illness. But if they really wanted to do that, their best hope is to get on their knees and pray to God because he's the only one that could maybe make it happen. Yeah. Nobody else is gonna make it happen. There's no doctor that's gonna mutilate your body in such a way that you're gonna somehow feel like the opposite sex. It just isn't gonna happen. You can get pumped full of These are the same yeah. These are the same people that are on the streets fighting because we're trying to get, you know, you know, we're trying to get people who are in the country illegal out of the country because they're offending they've they've broken the laws. They've become criminals by virtue of the fact that they came here illegally, and they're killing, raping, maiming, stealing, robbing our society.
And, and especially turning our country into this, you know, socialist hotbed because of the fact that they're, you know, they're on the government teat for everything. They're upset about that. They're upset about getting, you know, law and order and cleaning up the streets. I mean, it it just makes no sense. I mean, you just can't even argue with these people. I think it's a complete waste of time. I'm so frustrated as an engineer and somebody that wants to rescue our country and our state. I'm irritated that we spend so much time talking about stuff that is a complete waste of time. Mhmm. It's not it's a it's just a it's like a I don't even know what to call it. It's a waste of time, you know. We we should be talking about things where we can actually be making progress on stuff and stuff. I I really believe that if Donald Trump went on TV today and said, I have the cure for cancer,
[01:52:36] Unknown:
They will fight it and demand that they keep their cancer. Yeah. It's You know? And, you know just pure delusion. It's it's absolutely ridiculous. I I mean, they had zero murders in Washington, DC. I heard it today. Mhmm. Zero. Nothing.
[01:52:53] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm headed there Thursday. I'm very happy that it's much safer. Sure. I'm sure. We're there a lot. I'm sure. I'm sure. There's parts of parts of DC, but what what people have to realize is is, you know, that that crime most likely just moved out, you know, probably moved over to Baltimore and over to Virginia. Right. You know, a lot of that influence. But, you know, that's the way it goes. And okay. Well, you know, maybe Baltimore needs to step up their their law and order and start arresting people and prosecutors actually hold people accountable. That's America. You know, most people have never heard of the social compact, but, unfortunately, that's their responsibility as citizens.
You know. And and there's little perspective on this and I'll get off this, but I really do believe this is the big topic for the next year. The social compact essentially says that you you cannot, as a citizen, offend someone else's rights. And it's your responsibility to ensure that you don't step on someone else's rights. It's sort of like the golden rule of citizenship. Mhmm. But what's interesting about it is is if if we were in person and I reached over and punched you or knocked you out, I have I have by virtue of the fact of my action, my offensive action, I have offended you and your rights. I have violated the social compact. Right. And so your wife could call the police and they could come in.
Now what are they gonna do? They're gonna put my arms behind my back and they're gonna put handcuffs on me and they're gonna haul me away because I have voluntarily given up my right as a citizen because I offended your rights. Mhmm. That's how it works. And what what the American people need to understand is it is your responsibility to make sure that you don't offend other people's rights. That's how America is designed. The police are there not to stop crime from happening. They're there to make sure that the justice begins by taking that person who has given up their rights and detaining them and making sure that justice can happen once they've done that. That's very well said. Very, very well said.
[01:54:59] Unknown:
So I'm watching the clock here. We're getting late. So I wanna get into some of the issues that, that you're gonna be running on for your campaign.
[01:55:06] Unknown:
Mhmm.
[01:55:06] Unknown:
Because that's so, what do you what do you see as the as the top three items on the checklist that America has to tackle right away?
[01:55:17] Unknown:
Well, like I said, I think the big thing for the midterms is gonna be safety and security throughout America. We need safe streets. We gotta be able to feel like we can live freely and safely here in America and raise families and all that kind of stuff. But the true the truth is is that nothing trumps the economy. You know, if we can't afford life, if we're struggling financially, with this massive imbalance, if our kids you know, my kids are 20, 22, and 24, and they're facing, you know, $56,000 a month, you know, mortgages, you know, if they want to buy a home. It's really crazy. We have to it used to be when you and I were kids, you could buy a home on, you know, half a year salary. Mhmm. Now we're up to, you know, probably six, seven, eight years of salary. So there there's a big imbalance there that we have to fix.
And, you know, so those are two. Here in my district, we we supply 60% of the energy from our state comes from hydropower. There's a big move to remove the lower four Snake River dams here in Washington State. Even though they're beautiful and they have locks and they have they have fish ladders and they have everything you need and they're absolutely amazing works of art. God gave us beavers to show us how to dam up the water so we can make the land more habitable and, you know, grow more things and stuff. And I went down and did a documentary in California on the Klamath River dam disaster where they removed four dams has devastated millions of people's lives and and, you know, completely killed the river for probably a decade or two.
Aside from the fact that, you know, this just this methodical leftist process of wanting to drive to putting dynamite on the front front of those dams just because we wanna, you know, respect nature and return things back to the way they were, you know, it's it's complete lunacy. So those are some of the issues. I mean, obviously, we have to continue. I did a Doge project redesigning FEMA. I spent ten weeks on that. I went to The Middle East, for three weeks ahead of president Trump's visit there. There's a lot happening in the crypto space between, you know, traditional finance and and sort of the coming digital finance world. I went to Panama, did a documentary in Panama showing kind of the history of Panama, helping people understand that, you know, America paid for it, not just the original canal that opened in the early nineteen hundreds, but also the new canal, the Panamax or post Panamax Canal that opened in 2016, which we also paid for Right. Which a lot of people don't know about. And so, I've been very busy. I'm going to DC next week. I'm working on a project called the Congressional Accountability Act, which I've developed, which will give American citizens a seat at the table next to lobbyists. Because right now, the only influence that most members of congress have is their own their own party or, you know, lobbyists. So, and a bunch of other projects, some different bills and, some commendations that I'm working on for veterans in my district. And, you know, it's a lot of projects, and and including, you know, obviously running for congress and trying to disinfect the seat from a guy who's just absolutely terrible.
So, you know, those are some of the things that I'm I'm working on and running on, but, you know, happy to answer questions about more specifics.
[01:58:24] Unknown:
Now, border security. We touched on border security a little bit a little bit ago. Why do you think that that's such a critical first step in in fixing America?
[01:58:35] Unknown:
Well, I mean, the truth is we can't afford to have a bunch of illegals running around our country aside from the obvious, criminal aspect and and the threat. You know, I'm thinking, Brianna Morello who's on Twitter. She just was basically stalked right into her apartment. You know? Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Some, yeah, some, like, Middle Eastern guy basically chased her into our apartment building and was, you know, ready to go up the stairs. And thankfully, she's a, you know, a second amendment fan and was able to protect herself. But, you know, we can't live in a country like that. You know, we need to be safe. I mean, we ought to be able to live with leaving our stuff unlocked and not being stressed about it. But, you know, there's also a economic load. And going back to what I was talking about with regards to the the American dream, You know, I went to the border and I speak a little Spanish, and I was talking to these people. They're they aren't coming here for the for the American dream as we know it because they aren't interested in the work part. They're just interested in the opportunity, and that's called socialism. When you don't wanna combine work with the opportunity, then that's that you're basically just coming here because you want freebies, and that's called socialism, which leads to communism, which is there's nothing good in that. And so, you know, we have to secure the border, which president Trump has done a great job with that. Fantastic job. Think anybody's even talking about that anymore. But the the part about that and this is this is difficult part. We have to deport these people. And and that's where, you know, unfortunately, it begins to shed light on the difference between leftist and conservatives.
Because the conservatives have way too much compassion for these people that are here illegally. And they're like, well, you know, maybe some of them, like, our our representative just cosponsored this Dignity Act. So they can give them, you know, 40,000,000 people amnesty, basically citizenship. You know, what is president Trump doing? President Trump is doing, you know, alligator Alcatraz. Why do you think they named it that? He's showing videos of the El Salvador prison and sending people there. He's talking about remodeling Alcatraz. He flipped the CBP one app so that people can self deport. He's offering a thousand dollars. What is all of that pointing at? All of that is pointing at motivating people to do the right thing and to go to their home country rather than to stay here because we can't deport all these people. There's too many of them. Yeah. And so if we can get them to self deport, then that's great. And our stupid representative goes out on the block in front of the capital and cosponsors the Dignity Act to give these people the hope that this administration is trying desperately to take away to lead these people to the path of least resistance, which is go home.
[02:01:15] Unknown:
Because that's what's best for the American people. I I agree with you. I heard a number the other day. I think it was Friday or Thursday or Friday last week that they actually estimate there are 52,000,000
[02:01:26] Unknown:
illegal aliens in this country right now. 50 saying what? 12,000,000 for what? A decade or more? Yeah. Yeah. Come on. You know? I mean, there's probably 12,000,000 just during Joe Yeah. Crazy. Exactly. Probably another 15,000,000 during, you know, the actual Obama.
[02:01:42] Unknown:
So it's yeah. It's it's crazy. Definitely. I always say 40,000,000, but I think it's probably you're right. It could be 50. It could be 60. Who knows? But it's a lot. Yeah. And I I applaud the administration. I think that they're doing a fantastic job. Look. I I don't know if you know where I am. I'm in Eagle Pass, Texas. So I'm right here I've been there. Yeah. I'm right here at the border. I'm I'm a few I'm just maybe five or ten minutes away from Shelby Park where that standoff took place. Yeah. That's not far from Laredo. Right? About four hours. Okay. About four hours from Laredo, two and a half hours from San Antonio, four hours to Austin or so. But, Yeah. It's crazy. We witnessed,
[02:02:18] Unknown:
you know, the the, the state police chasing the the trucks, and we witnessed one run off the road. They all jump out. They all flee Mhmm. Exactly like what they described to us when we visited the the state troopers. And,
[02:02:32] Unknown:
yeah, it's crazy. Very dangerous. Yeah. I I I I was actually I was driving on, on, US 57 here, and, there's a border patrol checkpoint. And I'll I'll this was the I'll never forget this. There was this little white car in front of me, and, when they pulled up to where the checkpoint markers started, they're letting you know there's a checkpoint coming up. This car pulled off to the side. Both door all four doors opened up, and about six people jumped out and ran into the bushes off to the side. And they they got caught, border patrol, because they're they're monitoring these cameras everywhere. They saw everything. But,
[02:03:12] Unknown:
you know, I'll never forget seeing that. That's that's Yeah. Because they're probably gonna, like, run around through the bushes, try to get to the other side of the checkpoint, and then get re picked up again. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's just crazy. I mean, you know, we have to have a secure border. You know, when you go to bed at night, you know, my wife sometimes will either get up or she'll ask me to get up. Can we we gotta go check the doors, make sure they're locked. I mean, we live in a pretty safe place, but we still don't go to bed without locking the doors. Right. You know? I mean, it's just it's just what you do. And the idea that we wouldn't lock the doors to our country, you know, America needs strong leaders that have the fortitude. If you don't have the fortitude to hold people accountable like the 16 year old young man who killed another teenager and you wanna feel bad for him that he's gonna be tried as an adult, maybe you shouldn't get involved in in the the judicial system. Just kinda, you know, maybe go, I don't know, work in a hospital or do something that requires all that compassion because I have zero compassion with these people. I served in the military. I risked my life for this country and for liberty. And this thing that happened to Brianna Marello, which really bothers me because we could be talking about her death or in in that staircase or her or her rape, you know. And and it's like and the American people also, yeah, whenever, you know. Oh, these guys came here illegally, and they you know, I was reading about one today. Some some guy raped a 15 year old right in public, you know. It's like, what on earth? His defense is, well, I'm Muslim and and in our country, that's okay. And it's like, well, you know what? This is America.
You know, you don't do that stuff here. And I don't care if you think it's not okay. You know it wasn't okay. You know? And so we just don't I'm not saying we need to have, like, this unbiblical law. People say, oh, well, you're not a Christian because you want it's like, they broke the law. Like, you know, if you don't have law and order, you know, God also gave us the whole the whole judicial system, you know, how to, you know, make decisions and be wise leaders and That's right. And, there's just way too much way too much softness in our country with a lot of people. And I think you can tell they didn't serve in the military.
[02:05:14] Unknown:
Well, you can also tell that they that they they secular society in in its in and of itself, that secular humanism that's that's so prevalent, especially within the left, you know, they they don't have any respect for authority. There's no there's no respect for for the order of things. So you you so you can't you really can't expect someone on the left who doesn't believe in God necessarily. I mean, they they they they feign belief. They may say they have belief in that, but Yeah. You know, they don't they they they pick and choose which of the laws they like, which ones they don't. They're very quick to, you know, you know, judge not lest you be judged and without really understanding what that verse is about. And Yeah. You know, without the whole, you know, actually studying the whole thing.
They don't they they don't understand that God puts government in place for a specific reason, and that is to protect rights and to enforce law. And they like to pick and choose the laws they like. They like to pick and choose the laws they don't, and they like to enforce the laws they like. They enforce the laws they don't. Secular humanism is it's it's it's death to to the country. Yeah. I I I I wish I could say that, you know, the the answer to this would be this great revival of Christianity throughout the country. I would love to see something like that. You know, this country was blessed to experience four revivals over its history.
Are there gonna be any more coming down the road? I don't know, but I would like to see it at some point. But, yeah. Yeah. But but the left just I don't I don't see how the left can possibly win any any other elections, aside from stealing it, of course, with the policies that they promote and the policies that they push and they embrace. You know, you look at social media. You look at all these, and I'm I'm gonna say it because this is a non PC show. You look at these lunatics on the left, did you I don't know if you saw the one with the with this this young lady. She took a an old Playboy magazine that Donald Trump was on the cover of and she tore it and she she ate it. I mean
[02:07:26] Unknown:
That's just weird. Okay. It's just it's just it's just like the Kathy Gifford or whatever is, like, holding the, you know, Trump head or whatever. And so Liberalism liberalism is a is a mental illness. I think our the call for us is can we I mean, we can certainly and easily be exacerbated day after day on what the left is doing, but can we motivate each other on our side to really truly take the offensive position that we should be taking instead of just, you know what, we're gonna hold our ground here. I mean, like what's going on in Texas. I love it. You know, the redistricting Mhmm. There this is not gerrymandering.
This is undoing gerrymandering that's been going on for decades. You know, that's the the the left has rung the water out of that, and it's time for us to start reeling that back. That's an offensive position. I was talking to, gosh, Beau. Is it Beau French? Republican party county leader up in, Fort Worth, and they just redistricted, their commissioners and are bouncing one of the losers out and putting somebody in that's gonna be good. So that's the kind of offensive stuff that we have to be doing. I'm not saying offensive, like, being offensive. I'm saying, like, on a team sport, you're on offense or defense. I'm saying, we need to go on offense. We have to fight clawing this stuff back. I'm tired.
This is the one thing if there's anything if I had to define why I love president Trump so much, it's because he's on offense. Mhmm. Every other Republican that I've ever seen short of Reagan a little bit, Even even you can't even really credit Lincoln with this. Although, Lincoln did make a lot of positive progress. Lincoln was still on defense, you know, but but Reagan kinda went on offense, especially with international relations. But Trump is full on, like, nine ten nine hours out of 10, he's on offense. And I love it. And that's exactly what we have to do because I'm tired of getting control and then basically just holding ground. It's like, okay. We're gonna hold ground. They can't do anything else for the next four years or however many years it is. And then as soon as they get it again, they turn their bulldozer left and they just start going. Mhmm. You know? And we don't do that. We don't get on the cat d nine and start turning right and go, why not?
You know, why not? People are complaining about this executive order that president Trump signed about flag burning. I don't care. For burning the flag is not a first amendment right. I don't care what you say, and we might disagree on that. I just don't see it as a right. The the thing is, if you're gonna go burn a flag, that means that you are actively going to put your mind to doing something, pouring some kind of flammable liquid. You have to get a flag. You have to put some kind of flammable liquid on it, and then you have to light it on fire in public and make sure that it's seen. Like, that that is we pledge allegiance to the flag. The flag means something in this country. Mhmm. You know? And so, you know, some people are complaining about that. So, oh, it's a first amendment violation. Like, no. It's not. Like and even if it was, which I don't think it is, you have to actively and offensively go out and take part in that activity. Go to jail. Yeah. You don't you don't I see. What's the other option? Oh, you're not gonna pledge allegiance to this country? Really? Then do you really wanna stay here? You know? Do you do you get to keep your citizenship if you don't wanna pledge allegiance? Yeah. You do. Because that's the country we live in, but you don't get to burn our flag and just incite violence. And that's what it's all and I'll tell you what's gonna happen with this, Joe. There's gonna be a lot more flag burning, but it's probably gonna be like shirts or it's gonna be shorts or it's gonna be a towel or it's gonna be something with the representation of the American flag. It's no different than these morons who put their knee down on the field instead of honoring those 1,200,000 people that gave their lives in our US military to make sure that we have the freedom and liberty that we have. It's It's it's an atrocity. It is not just an abdication of our responsibility of what we have to do today. It's a dishonoring of everything that every strong American has ever done over the last two hundred and forty nine years, and it just can't be. We cannot have a wrong order if we're gonna allow that kind of thing to happen in our country. I absolutely agree with you on that. Absolutely.
[02:11:43] Unknown:
I don't I don't think I could have said it any better myself. Question for you though. Yeah. On farming. Alright. So you're you you you you're a rancher. Across The United States, we're seeing agriculture in decline in many areas, and mostly because the cost and and the risk to keep farms up is incredibly high. When children inherit land, few take pride in generational legacy and look more to cashing in on the development potential of land. What do you think would improve the future of farming in The US? And this was a question that was posed by my producer.
[02:12:22] Unknown:
Yeah. There's a bunch of things there. First of all, I'm a be hard on the farmers. I love them. They're my family. They're my friends. They're my neighbors. But they have to raise their knowledge level in terms of managing finance. And, I created a game called the Easy Profit Game for our franchisees in our system, and and, you can get that at easyprofitgame.com. It's a plug, but it's it's it's, I I want people to understand more about finance. How does it work? Now I'll also say that the farmers are in a bit of an impossible situation, you know. And and this is not just, you know, certain, you know, aspects of farming, but I'll use apples as an existent as an as an example because we grow a lot of apples in this area.
The apple price for a bin of apples, which is like a four by four, couple feet tall, you know, bin. They're plastic bins now. They used to always be wood. Those are, you know, roughly a $140, $150. That's what the farmer gets for those, and they might produce a few 100,000 of them or, you know, there's a 140,000,000 of them or something created in the state every single or grown in the state every single year. And the the problem is is that those go through an exchange and then they're they're sold essentially into the retail market and then the retailers can market whatever they want. Well, how is it that our farmers are still getting the same amount for a bin of apples today that they were twenty years ago? Even though just in the last five years, the the price of fuel, fertilizer, labor, you know, overhead, maintenance, everything else has practically doubled, and yet they're still getting the same price. Like, it just doesn't work. The financial model is broken.
And so there's a problem with the the system, and it it's that whole commodity market, you know, the commoditization of the of these things. And so, you know, right now, the part of the saving grace is things like crop insurance and the farm bill and, you know, some different things like that. But the reality is is the business model needs to change for farming. The other thing that's happening is, there's a lot of private equity coming in, and they don't really care about the farm operations. They care about the land, real estate. And when what people don't realize about this is the a lot of these big money firms, whether it's banks or private equity or or whatever, they're just looking for a place to park their cash.
They want a place that they can they can see an escalation over time, but they don't really care too much about what happens, you know, to that farm operation in between. And so, you know, they'll do their best to try to make it as make it efficient, but the truth is that's not really what they're in it for. And so I don't know. I'm not gonna give you a straight answer, unfortunately. I have some really good ideas on what I think we need to do with the farming industry, but I'm I'm gonna openly tell you that I'm not sure how we get them implemented because we have to get so many people to come to the table to agree and say, you know what? This way we're we're processing this fruit or these vegetables or whatever, it's broken. It needs to it needs to change. And so I'll I'll work hard on it. It's just like the labor issues. I think that's what you gotta do. You gotta kinda break it up into different categories. Like, for example, the labor issues.
We have a unbelievably onerous, you know, Washington State legislature. They're completely crazy. They have practically a super majority and that's a lot of the things that they've done. They create it so that our migrant farm workers are working for in the neighborhood of $26.27 dollars an hour now. That's about what the cost is to the farmer. And, you know, they have to provide housing, they have to provide transportation, they have to provide, you know, all this stuff on top of, you know, the wages that are that are kinda crazy. And so and then we have a federal model. And so I'm like, why don't we create a competing model where the farmers can choose from a federal model or a state model? And that would force the states to compete with someone else rather than have monopoly, which is what they have today. So there's a lot I mean, I have a lot of ideas for what we could do, but I gotta win this seat before I get the chance to be able to, you know, put any of that stuff in place. But I certainly hope I get the opportunity to
[02:16:30] Unknown:
do it. Well, that makes sense. And and the and the fact that you're you're you're not spinning some some BS answer, you're being honest about it, then that that's important. That's that's incredibly important. Now you've been endorsed by president Trump. You've been endorsed by, Michael Flynn, who I'm a huge fan of Michael Flynn. I think he was treated so horribly, and I am I am so happy to see that there's some vindication coming around. Yeah. Did you see his movie? I've seen it. Yes. It's incredible. It's very, very and I would recommend it to anybody to watch that thing. So with those endorsements, how do they reflect your vision for America?
[02:17:09] Unknown:
Well, I think the endorsements are really I mean, there's a bunch more of them too. I mean, we were endorsed by our state party, all the county parties in our district. Mhmm. People like Roger Stone who was totally maligned by the, you know, by the judicial system. Oh, yes. You know, obviously, president Trump and and general Flynn and and the House Freedom Caucus who is really fighting for us. I mean, for me, it just goes back to the basics. You know? Some of my favorite people are are like, David and and Tim Barton at, Wallbuilders.
You know? And and one of my favorite books, which really kinda opened my eyes to politics and civics in America, was called The Original Intent that was written by David Barton. And so these people, they love God. They see, you know, Charlie Kirk is a great example. Mhmm. You know, the Pragers, are amazing. Dennis and Susan, they're they're just unbelievable people. Just just awesome fighting for this great country. We're doing it for different reasons than why the leftists are doing it. And I think that's the thing that we have to realize. And the voters have to realize, they have to stop being entertained by their politicians, and they have to start voting for people who really really want to do the job. Thank you.
That, you know, that that they wanna help restore our country and to to rescue our rights because that's what makes America what it is. And, so, you know, that's that's, you know, a call I think to Americans to get involved and to read and to, you know, learn a little bit. I get accused of being a, you know, a middle aged or almost elderly now teacher because I'm always teaching. I always, like, try to teach people, like, you need to read the constitution. Read the Bible in the morning and the constitution at night. You know? I mean, it's just that's the way it is. So, but, yeah, that's it's important to me. And it's important to have those partnerships and the the ways that I've been able to help the administration even though I didn't win the last election. I did win the primary. Mhmm. But I had to face the incumbent in the general, because even though we're both Republicans, in Washington state, they have a jungle system and so the top two I actually won the primary by more than 10%.
And so when we went to the general, all the Democrats voted for him because I was endorsed by Trump. And so that was the only reason I, you know, I didn't I didn't end up winning, but I hope we'll we'll be able to knock him out of the primary this time. But Yeah. I was looking at the ballot pedia or earlier today,
[02:19:32] Unknown:
tonight, and I was looking at the results of the, of the last campaign. And, I I don't I'd never understood the the system in in Washington state. I think it's crazy. It it really is. But, so what are your chances look like at at this particular point, going into this, election cycle?
[02:19:50] Unknown:
Well, I mean, I'm I'm very confident. I was very confident last time. I mean, it was very close. Our race was the last one of the last five races out of 535 to you know, not not all the senate went went. But out of all the races in Congress, ours was one of the last ones we called because it was very close. Mhmm. So, you know, but it really just depends on the circumstances, you know. And if it if it ends up if it ends up being a difficult race for him, then he's just gonna, you know, call in the wolves and, you know, spread a bunch more lies about me. And they spent $3,000,000 in our district, which is a rural district. So that's a lot of money. Every seven minutes, if you were flipping on the radio or TV or over the top or or even online, every seven minutes you were hearing a negative Jared Sessler ad. I mean, just lying about everything, telling people I want to raise taxes, telling people that I'm a vegan.
You know, I did eat very healthy. I still eat very healthy, but I also raise cows. Like, I love beef. I just had a burger, a great burger for dinner. Nice. And, you know, just telling people lots of lies about me. And so when you have that kind of money and you have, you know, a somewhat ignorant voter base, and I and I don't say the word ignorant to be offensive. Ignorant means you don't know. Mhmm. So if the voter base doesn't know the details, then they're gonna they're gonna see all these negative ads and they're gonna get scared. And they're like, oh my gosh. This guy's you you know, and that's that's part of the reason why I wrote the book was because the incumbent, Dan Newhouse, targeted older voters in our district to try to scare them from voting, you know, for me so they would vote for him. And, and I knew that, you know, I wanted to write this book anyways. I had a a kind of a mind to do it. But also older generation people tend to have more respect for people that have written books and are best selling authors. Mhmm. And so, you know, part of my play with that is to try to win, you know, some support back from those older voters to make sure that they don't get scared off again. So so we'll see, you know, we'll see what happens, but a lot of it depends on what the mix is. You know, he has the incumbent has manipulated the mix by getting other people into the past to help himself.
I see. And, you know, that's just kind of the way he plays the game. And so we'll just have to see what the mix is come, you know, registration week, and then we'll we'll see what we have to do to win the primary again. I have great name recognition here. President Trump is is continuing to support me and endorse me. And, you know, I think the people of Central Washington, everywhere I go, I mean, people are just, oh, man. We're so thankful of what you're doing, and are you gonna run again, and, you know, everything. So I feel really good about that and having the support of the voters, but, you know, we'll just have to see what what the cards deal us. And, honestly, it's in the Lord's hands. And, I mean, the best thing people can do is number one, donate. You know, just set up a $50 or a $100 a month and just send it.
It's very easy. I'm sure you compare share the links with your your folks there and, and then get involved. There's lots of stuff that people can do for my campaign even remotely. They don't necessarily have to be in the district. And so, get a hold of me and, you know, we can we can get you set up to help with some stuff. Alright. Well, you you kinda jumped ahead to where I was in my questions for you. But alright.
[02:23:05] Unknown:
So, that we're gonna wrap this up for tonight because, coming up on two and a half. Let's see. So who's someone that you respect right now, and what are they doing that was she that that's, that it really inspires you?
[02:23:18] Unknown:
You know, I think, one of the most inspirational people right now is, well, there's a bunch of them. I'm I'm gonna say JD Vance. And part of the reason is is is I came from a rough childhood, you know Yeah. Had a lot of things to break through. And, that doesn't have to define your future. And I think JD Vance is probably our future president. I feel like he does an unbelievably great job, better job than any vice president I've seen in my life supporting the president. He does such a good job. He's just so articulate. He's so down to earth. He feels it feels like you can hop in a boat and go fishing with him or something and just be totally cool with it. Like, he's just fine. You know? He's, like, just down to earth, you know, just like you and I talking here. I love it.
I have a ton of respect for, for the work that, Harmie Dillon is doing, you know, with the civil rights division of the Mhmm. The Department of Justice. I think, she's an absolute bulldog, and you do not wanna get on her bad side. She is a relentless attorney, and, she's fighting for the America that we love. Yeah. I think, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. Kash Patel also endorsed me, and, he wrote a book called Government Gangsters, which I I just I mean, I liked him before that, and I met him at CPAC a few years ago. But after I read that book and I saw him name names, I was like, this guy is the real deal. And when I saw what he did with regards to the Russia collusion hoax and and, you know, everything that that happened with that, I mean, this guy is the real thing, and I think we're set for a serious show over the next couple years with regards to what the FBI becomes and and how they hold people accountable.
I agree. Yeah. Those are some I mean, president Trump's got a great cabinet, You know? I get to I'll be in DC in a couple days. I'm actually speaking at a MAHA event, under you know, that's the project under secretary Kennedy Mhmm. Which is amazing. You know? Yeah. A lot of these people that I get to train, I'm speaking on civics, and, a lot of them that I get to train are probably people that are, you know, somewhat politically agnostic, but they would probably end up voting Democrat because they're they're Kennedy supporters. But, yeah, I get to go as a MAGA, you know, America First Trump endorsed, you know, candidate for Congress to teach him a little bit about how this country is supposed to work, and that's a tremendous honor for me.
So, so, yeah, Trump Trump's got a lot of great people underneath him. There's a lot of unsung heroes too. So but we we can probably talk about them forever, but I won't go into it. But, I am I am hopeful that there is more justice for the people for the j sixers. I was in DC on January 6. I saw what happened. I've also intimately seen some of the just crustacean from the the disastrous mess that has, you know, ensued in people's lives as a result of the the Mhmm. Political persecution that happened there. And, you know, you you sort of compare that to sort of the juicy smollett, you know, white glove treatment that he gets for being a complete dirtbag. Right. Yeah. And, you know, you need you know, I call it the juicy smollett factor. Anything that's politically expedient, even if it's illegal, is okay to do according to the Democrat party. You know, I think it's just disgusting. So Well said. Still got a lot of work to do in this country.
But I think the people that peep what we have to what we have to realize is, you know, a lot of people like to complain about the history of America without looking at America in a macro view and realizing that we're always getting better. It's always two or three steps ahead and one or two steps back with America. Two or three steps ahead and one or two steps back. But when you zoom out and you look at a 100 steps or 200 steps or a thousand steps, it's incredible progress and that's the that's the focus that people have to have. Yes. And, that's what I'm fighting for, and that's what I'll continue to fight for. And I hope we get an opportunity to do it from Congress.
[02:27:17] Unknown:
Alright. Well, Jared, where could, folks go to, find out more about you, your campaign, contribute?
[02:27:26] Unknown:
Yeah. So I'm on the platform. I actually quite load social media, really, but I do enjoy Twitter, even though I'm shadowbanned on there. So if anybody has Elon's, cell number, please text him and ask him to unshadow ban at Sessler, at Sessler, s e s s l e r, on Twitter. You can follow me there. We also have a Facebook page. My personal one's closed because I just had to break it down to just people I actually know because I just had too many people on there that were making it to where I felt like I couldn't post things because it was gonna gonna get blown up or something. I gotcha. But we do have a campaign page that has thousands of followers. And then our website is jeredforcongress.
That's jerr0df0rcongress.com. Jaredforcongress.com. And there's donation links on there. People can call if you email our campaign email. I look at that inbox every single day. So if you have questions for me, feel free to email us. It's [email protected]. It's on our website, jared for congress dot com. And, you know, the biggest thing I would encourage people with is don't discount your faith. You know, one of the most disappointing things for me in this country is the perspective that God has given me on my faith is that it's actually real.
And, there's way too many people who I call pew sitters that do the right thing and they're good people. But the reality is is probably and if you look at the BARMA data, it could be as many as 85% of the people sitting in pews every single Sunday. Mhmm. They don't really know the gospel. They can't articulate the gospel. And if you don't know that, then you don't really have the joy that the Lord wants you to have. And I question whether or not you really understand the power that you have in his name. Good point. And, favorite my favorite book of the Bible is James. It's an action book. It's like the action adventure, and it it really says, like, look, you're either gonna you're either gonna have I'm either gonna see action in your life or I'm not gonna see faith. Now that doesn't mean that you have to have action in order to have redemption, but it does mean that those who truly love the Lord and want to see, you know, want to want to, show the the honor and the thankfulness that we should rightfully have as a result of, you know, what he did for us, we we would be acting. We would be moving. We would be taking steps to honor him in that. And so Agreed. The biggest thing is this.
I believe God's given us more power in prayer than we even understand. So please start praying every day and pray about whatever comes to mind. Just pray and ask God for help. And, somehow God's given us power through that. And so I would just really encourage people, to do that for yourself and for others. Pray for me. Pray for my campaign. Pray for our country. Pray for your state. Pray for your marriage and your kids and your family. And, just trust God to see,
[02:30:24] Unknown:
healing come in those areas of your life. Oh, praise the Lord, brother. I appreciate that. That's that's that's wonderful. Well, very well said, and I agree with you. James, it's a great book. It's, the Proverbs of the, of the New Testament. Yeah. It's fantastic. Just you know, I I I never was able to actually put my finger in it and say, alright. This is my favorite book because they're all amazing. They they all have their individual unique qualities. The Bible is, and I and I've said this many times, the Bible is the greatest political science textbook you will ever get.
The Bible is basically about who is going to rule who, and you read it cover to cover all the way through. Salvation's in there, which is great. Yes. Absolutely. But the Bible is is it's a political science textbook. It's a science book. It's a mathematics book. It's Yeah. Everything that you need for your life is in that Bible. Now can I do I profess to know where it all is? No. I I I don't. I'm working on it. And I think God I think God made it that way purposely this way you study it and you look at it and you're constantly reading it. So so open your Bible, study it, read it, get to know the Lord. And, you know, Jared, thank you so much for being here with us tonight. And what I'm gonna do is, after the show, I'm gonna text you if if that's okay, because I got I have your number here. So I'm gonna text you after the show, and I wanna set up another day with you where we can actually sit down and hopefully we won't have any technical issues like we did tonight, and, continue on this conversation. I really thoroughly enjoyed your perspective on things, and I really would love to talk to you some more about this stuff, and especially about bible stuff, about your faith.
That's really that's really interesting to me, and and and and I'd love to have conversations with folks about that. So if you're up for that, let's let's set something up, and I'll communicate with you, off the show about that.
[02:32:13] Unknown:
100%. If we want if we wanna see people be successful in life, we have to teach them how to fish, not just feed them. And, our their greatest success is gonna be knowing the Lord more than anything else. That's right. You know, when they when they get filled with the Holy Spirit and and the Holy Spirit starts leading them, their lives will be transformed.
[02:32:33] Unknown:
Absolutely. Alright. Well, Jared Sessler, thank you so much again for being with us tonight. God bless you. Good luck with the campaign. We'll be praying for you, and, I'll be in touch with you, right after the show. Sounds good. God bless you. You too. Thank you, sir. Take care. Alright, folks. That is, gonna be it for us for tonight. But, I do have some announcements to make, so let's go do that. And, we'll take care of that here in just a second. Gotta just do one quick thing. And let's see. There we go. Alright. Now, folks, don't forget, sign up for the programming announcements email list. Alright? Very, very important to do that because it's the best way for us to keep in contact with you and talk to you about what's going on with the show. Send that we send out email updates, you know, pretty much for every show. I'm not gonna say I'm the best at it. I apologize for that. I'm working on that. Alright. So please don't forget to check that out. Also, don't forget to check us out on Twitter at Joe Ruse. Truth social, at Joe Ruse minds, at Joe Ruse Facebook, Joe Ruse podcast. Instagram is not Joe Ruse.
TikTok, joe dot roo's getter at joe roos. Shout outs, of course, as always to our executive producer, Wayne Rankin, executive producer, Rosanna Rankin, executive producer, Carolina Jimenez, and our executive producer, Marissa Lee. Also, thank you to our producer, anonymous Angela. Thank you so much for all that you guys do. You guys are amazing. I have probably the best producer team there is, but there's always room for more. And you can always jump in on that by making a donation to the show. As an associate producer, you can sign up for our producer tiers. Associate producer is $17.76 a month. Producer is $18.36 a month. Our executive producer is $25 up a month and up. And you I don't know if you can hear Charlie. He's barking in the background letting me know he's hungry. It's time to feed. So, we're gonna start to wrap this up, but the, all the producers get the same thing. They get the shout out on every show. They get inclusions in all the show in all the, emails that we send out, show notes, everything.
And then, if you wanna help us out with cryptocurrencies, all of our wallet information is available to you right there on the website as well, so you can check that out. Or Ethereum, Tether, Bitcoin, TEXACoin, our our or Algo Wallet's up there now, so you could check that out. Also, thank you to the folks that are streaming Sats to us across the modern podcast apps, like modernpodcastapps.com and podcastindex.org. So check them out. Alright. Well, folks, I think that is gonna do it for us for tonight. Sorry about the little technical hiccup with the, with the Internet there, but, hopefully, everything still is intact.
Alright, folks. Thanks for being with us tonight. Don't forget to head over to the website, joeroos.com, and let us know what you think. And folks, make Texas independent again. Go podcasting. Keep a steady stride, and keep talking. Good night. Night.
Transmitting live from the asylum studios deep in the bowels of Southwest Texas. It's the Joe Rooz show, the show where we talk about anything and everything. Where nothing is sacred,
[00:04:29] Unknown:
nothing is watered down, and nothing is PC. Alright. Hey, folks. This is Joe Rooz. It is nineteen hundred hours on Monday, 08/25/2025. And bringing you the best quality talk radio we could muster without all the bluster. Welcome to the Joe Ryu Show. Alrighty folks. So it is Monday. The beginning of another week. For most. For me? Let's see. We did a show Friday, so that was like Monday, because we didn't do one Thursday. So we did a show Friday, so that was my Monday. Saturday, my Tuesday. Sunday, my Wednesday. Today is my Thursday. So, it's Thursday for me, Monday for the rest of you.
Wow. And it was an eventful week too, if you remember. COVID knocked me out for the week, but we still did shows. We did every show last week. We didn't miss one, and we had a lot of fun with that. Some great conversations. And we're gonna have some great conversations tonight. We have, we have Tony Kessel coming up in the first hour, and then the second hour, we have a congressional candidate, up in Washington State, Congressional District 4, Jared. I don't know if I'm saying his name right. I really don't. I don't know I don't know if I'm saying it right. Is it Jared or Jared?
Somebody correct me. Somebody please correct me because I wanna make sure I got it right. I don't wanna upset anybody. But we have we have Jared Sessler coming up in the second hour, and, we're looking forward to that conversation as well. Now as always, we have a little bit of housekeeping that we have to do before we get into the shows, into the guests' segments of the show. So if you would, just head over to our website, joeroos.com. That's joeroos.com. I'll get the thing up there in a second. Joeroos.com. And when you get over there, look for our contact section, open up that little web form, and send us over any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have, any issues that you might have, any complaints that you might have. Not that I really wanna hear your complaints, but you can send your complaints over. I don't mind.
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That's ezra healing dot com. And when you get there, make sure you told them you tell them told them, you know, listen to my English. Listen to my English. My gosh. You think I never went to school? Tell them you heard it here on the Joe Russo, and, you're not gonna get anything special for it other than just letting them know that you heard it here, and they're getting their money's worth. So we appreciate that. Alright. Well, let's see. So bills paid. Now our first guest tonight will dive into the story of life based on music. We connected over pod match, which is like, for lack of a better term, Tinder for podcasts.
You know? So, you know, you swipe left, you swipe right, you know you know you know the whole thing. So, but it's a platform that's used to to to help podcast host find guests, and, you know, hopefully, they're a good match. Now as you know here on our show, what we like to do is we like to cover all kinds of topics. We like to cover a lot of stuff. Sometimes, you know, the serious all the way up to the absurd stuff. So and we have met a lot of really sensational people along the way, and, and Tony is definitely one of those guys. Tony is an author. He's the author of It's All in the Lyrics, How Music Helped Me Heal and Find My Voice. In this music memoir, he built the playlist of his life discussing topics ranging from the nostalgic impact of music, mental health, coming of age, and pop culture. Tony's married, five kids.
Primary occupation is full time soldier with the New Mexico National Guard. Tony, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, sir, for your for your, your service to our country and for protecting the liberties that we hold and value so so very much. Hey. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate your support. Hey. Anytime, man. Anytime. Hey. So, you know, we were kinda chit chatting a little bit before the show started, so we kinda got a feel for how this thing is gonna go. So, so, I I I like to ask a couple of questions usually at the start of every every guest segment just to kinda break the ice and throw people off and throw people off, you know, because they're expecting they're gonna most people are expecting to get right into the interview. Tell us about your book, and tell us about this, and tell us about that. No. I wanna know something about you that most people don't know but should. Oh. You see? Wow. That's the reaction.
[00:12:46] Unknown:
I I wasn't ready for that at all. You know, that you got me way off. Don't know about me but should.
[00:13:02] Unknown:
So No confessions of, like, of, like, serial killing or anything like that. Alright? But I I'm not a priest. I'll have to turn you in. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. No. So I I guess the the strangest thing about me, I don't like normal pets.
[00:13:16] Unknown:
We have dogs. We have we've had cats in the past, but I like absurd pets. And, so I've had red eared sliders, turtles, and, my my big thing right now is my one year old bearded dragon named Andromeda. And, so, like, in the music world, I normally have her in her in the studio and actually play to her. She loves like, when I play music to her. So
[00:13:40] Unknown:
I I kinda like not normal pets. Like, like, obscure pets. Well, at at least it's a bearded dragon and not some other woman that your wife would be upset about.
[00:13:49] Unknown:
Yeah. Of course. After your Tinder reference, but, you know Well, yeah. Well, you know,
[00:13:55] Unknown:
you know, I I interviewed, Alex Sanfilippo, the the, the owner or the creator of, PodMatch. And, I even said that to him too. It's like, yeah. It's like 10 different podcasts. So Did he agree? Or Yes. He did. He did actually. Oh, okay. He took it well. I I was I was more I was expecting him to get a little bit like, hey. Wait a second. That's my baby. But no. No. He took he he took it like a champ. He was he was good. He was really good. So, one more one more of those icebreakers for you. What's your go to beverage to help you unwind at the end of the day?
[00:14:31] Unknown:
Oh, snap. I am addicted to Mountain Dew like you would not believe. Oh my god. The bags under my eyes are telling. You hit the you hit life hard, and, I'd probably drink three bottles of Mountain Dew a day for sure. Trying to cut back a little bit, but, yeah, I used to do energy drinks, Monster, stuff like that. But, yeah. You do the do. I yeah. I like Voltage. I like the weird flavored ones. Okay. Alright. So if you remember pitch black from a couple years ago Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was yeah. That was my favorite. I've had I've had that a couple of times.
[00:15:04] Unknown:
I don't really find it too much around here, though, in Texas. It's phased out. It was like a temporary lemonade time thing. Well, it it was it was it had its run, and we're glad it's gone. No. I'm kidding. It's on my butt. It's on my butt. You know, I I got a I got a buddy of mine who lives up lives up in New York who's addicted to Mountain Dew. You go you you go you go into his house, you open he has a separate refrigerator in in his house, in his garage that's just loaded with the various with with the different varieties of Mountain Dew sodas. And it's like he's like, so what would you like to drink? I guess a Mountain Dew. You know? But, yeah, he's he's a good guy, though, you know, for what for what he's worth. Anyway, he he doesn't watch the show, so I could say what I have to say. It doesn't it doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't spoken in about twenty years. But, he's still a good guy nonetheless nonetheless. My my go to, you know, I I I I I play around with I love I love bourbons, you know, so I I like to sample different bourbons, so I've I've have a a wide range. I have nothing in the house right now, which is a good thing because otherwise I'd be drinking it and, you know, I can't do a show like that. So I've tried. I've tried. As a matter of fact, I think it's episode number four, I think it was. It was an audio only show that I did with, with with a a good buddy of mine, and we were we were just sampling different bourbons during the course of the show, trying to have a serious political conversation.
And, and he was actually here in the studio with me. And, I I I think I think by the end of the first hour of the show, the the two of us were so snookered that we could barely formulate a sentence, but yet somehow we went off for another hour and a half after that. So it was it was pretty interesting. It was a lot of fun, though. We had a lot of fun. And I I tell I tell him to this day, nobody can tell. But but if you listen to it, you'll you could tell. Just don't tell him. I'm gonna I'm gonna go find it. Yeah. Episode I think it's number four. I think it's episode number four. So, so back to down to the real serious stuff. Now now you serve full time as a soldier in the New Mexico National Guard.
What what are some of the challenges of being a husband, a dad, and a full time soldier?
[00:17:21] Unknown:
Specifically in the guard, when you look at what the National Guard is intended to do and what has been asked of the National Guard. I'm I'm a product of September 11, obviously. I was a senior in high school when September 11 happened, which that's why we joined. And so when you look at the transformation of what the National Guard was doing prior to that, which I'm not saying they weren't doing anything, but, the nation has really tapped us a lot as far as, you know, COVID nineteen, the pandemic, the relief efforts we were providing there in, medical warehousing and disaster relief. I've been activated four or five times for various disaster relief, two times in North Dakota, one in Tennessee. I've been to Maria, in Puerto Rico, COVID nineteen. I've done border stuff. I've done deployments.
I've done you name it. And then people around me, even Katrina, other Southwest border, capital type support. Yeah. It's the things that have been asked of us is it's not just, guarding the nation. We are, in fact, a full ledge military reserve, and we've been used that way, over the last twenty years. So just balancing that out and, I have a daughter who's 11, and for the first, like, five years of her life, I was gone for three of her birthdays. Oh, wow. You know? So it's just trying to balance some of that stuff out and and be who you need to be, as a husband, as as a parent, and still serve as honorably as you can.
Honestly, though, it's the best choice I've ever made. When you look at the professional development, who I've become as a leader, who I've become as an individual, the the cycles that I've broken from my own past, it's it's been that catalyst that actually allowed me to transcend and bust through glass ceilings, you know, to break those vicious cycles of, you know, poverty, things like that. So, yeah, absolutely
[00:19:20] Unknown:
owe almost everything that I am to my service in the military. That's amazing. That that's that's and that's great. So, what do you what ex what do you do in the military?
[00:19:29] Unknown:
And you assume you do So I was I was enlisted. I was a twelve Bravo, which is combat engineer. So I dealt with a, like, a lot of explosives. 2004 Iraq and early, Iraq, Afghanistan, we were a high commodity. I had a lot of stuff in the middle of college, so I went on to, officer candidate school and became an officer. I'm commissioned as an engineer officer, and I did, my first platoon was horizontal. So we did a lot of rough construction. And then, transferred over to Tennessee, I served on as an executive officer, the second in command for the headquarters company. Wow. We had surveying design people, roads, vertical, you know, carpentry, masonry, all of that stuff. And then, when I came into New Mexico, I was on a brigade staff. We were doing engineer planning. And then, my time as company commander, I was, horizontal. And I had a small element of vertical, which, again, is your carpentry and machinery people.
But yeah. And then recently to promote, I had to transfer over to the logistics realm, which is engineers are good at that. Like, if we don't have fuel, if we don't have supplies, we're we're nothing. So, yeah, it was a natural transition. But the analytical stuff, I love numbers, which has made me a little bit of that. And then engineer is such a diverse, branch. So you have from construction to explosives to bridging to firefighting to floodplaining to like, there's so many different things that you can do in the engineering realm. Right? It's just there's never a boring day, when we're doing stuff. So
[00:21:08] Unknown:
It sounds it sounds like I'm I'm as you're telling the story, I'm I'm listening to you, and I and I'm thinking to myself, well, you know, when I was in my younger days, what we didn't mention off the show was, you know, I worked I worked in New York City for, for New York City for about twenty almost twenty five almost twenty five years. I'm retired law enforcement from New York City. So when when you were in high school and nine eleven happened, I was there at nine at at the at the site, and I I did work at the site. So when I when I hear people say that, I'm like, wow.
You know? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's just it's just amazing. And I had a lot of friends who served in military and, and, one particular friend who served in in the, the army national guard up up in New York there. And, he he desperately tried to recruit me. Desperately. Des when I say desperately Yeah. I mean, desperately. And then I have another funny story I could tell you about something I did to another friend of mine, with with military service. So, so he tried to get me into into the he tried to get me in to enlist, and he wanted me to go into Cav Scouts, because because that's what he did. And and so he was like, oh, it'll be a lot of fun. We'll do it together. It'll be a lot of yeah. Okay. Sure.
Yeah. And then, then in high school we were graduating high school, and and I'm I'm gonna get in trouble for telling this story, but, but I don't think because I don't think I've ever told this story on the show. So when, graduating high school, my friend and I, both thinking about military service, so we went down to the recruiting stations. You know, we we took the ASRAB. We did all that stuff, and, and he wanted to go navy, and I was gonna go army. And, but we went back and forth about it, you know, we weren't sure what we're gonna do and all that stuff. And and then the day came where we actually had to go down and sign the papers. So we got to that point, you know, the official signatures of everything.
And Yeah. And and he called me and he was like, hey, so you're ready to go? And I was like, yeah. I'm gonna I'm running late, you know, I'm I just got out of just got home. You know, I was working at the time too. I was like, I just got home from the job. I I gotta clean up and so I'll meet you there. So he was like, okay. Yeah. I'll I'll see you there and hung up. Now this is before we had cell phones or anything like that, so, you know, this was at home. So, so he so he goes I fell asleep. I I didn't go. And he he calls he calls me the next day, it was a weekend, he called me the next day, he was like, so did you did you end up going? Because I I see you there. I said I said Scott, his name is Scott. I said Scott, I am not signing up in the military, dude.
He was like, what? I was like, you really thought I was gonna sign? He goes, well, that was the plan. We were supposed to do it together. I'm like, no. I said, you didn't sign, did you? He goes, yeah. So so he he left. He he he, he went to the navy, and, I didn't. And I ended up going to law enforcement instead. But, but, yeah. So he hated me for a while until he came out. He was he I used to t he he used to tell me his title was, like, a boiler technician or something like that. He says, sir, you're a plumber. Basically. Right? He's like, well, yeah. I'm a okay. Good. So you're a plumber. That's great. Listen. When you come home for leave, you know, I got a busted pipe on under my toilet. You wanna help me out with that?
F u, man. F u. Yeah. But anyway
[00:24:42] Unknown:
I mean, you won. You won. You were at you were at, you know, the base of September 11, you know, everything that was going on there. So I I totally appreciate that with all seriousness. But My my command compare war stories. I think yours is better. No. I don't think so. No.
[00:25:00] Unknown:
Actually, my my command was actually, just I think it was, like, four city blocks away from from, from the towers. But I had just gotten off duty, and I had left, and then I had to come back because because I was I was work I was working overnights. Yeah. But, but, yeah, that was, that was a that was a pretty rough rough time. So, Yeah. But, I don't really talk about it too much, you know. It's it's just, I'll I'll throw out that, you know, what I what happened that led me to be there, but I don't really talk too much about
[00:25:30] Unknown:
what went on. Yeah. But, Understood.
[00:25:33] Unknown:
But, so let me ask you this. So so Dualist Media, that's at your that's your website. That's, your bio says that you created that platform with with, with the intention to to write, produce music, that you've been kinda sitting on? Do you have any songs that are already Yes. Recorded?
[00:25:50] Unknown:
Not recorded. I have a lot of stuff written. So dualist media, dualism is is a concept. I I actually stole dualism from CS Lewis' Mere Christianity. Mhmm. When he was he was talking about, you know, the wrestle between the spirit and the body, like, what your body wants to do and what your what your spirit really wants in in terms of connection and a lot of things. And that really resonated with me in what I'm trying to do artistically. So my my first artistic project was this book. And, really, what I wanted to do I wrote the book so I could record an audiobook, which I just released, and that's why I'm on the, promotion circuit right now Oh, great. Is I really wanted time to get in front of a microphone and start to get comfortable with sharing vulnerable pieces of my life.
And I I guess, really, until the last couple years, it was I I I don't know what I was afraid of. Like, I was afraid of judgment, not accepting, not being accepted. But artistically, something just snapped at me, and I was like, man, if I don't share this stuff that sometimes it's shameful, then, it's I'm not really making good art. You know? So that was kinda where I started duosmedia. I was deployed to Kuwait, and that was my first album that I wrote. I recorded it very, very rough, very rough. I had a a line six pod u x two. You're you got a studio over there. It was a cutting edge technology at the time, but it would low low quality recordings. I can't do anything with them.
So, yeah, it was it was basically through the grieving process and what I was observing on on base when we were deployed as I was interacting with soldiers. It's really just the whole concept of letting bad habits go. So that yeah. That was that was that. And then I have a son with heart issues and a daughter with some medical issues as well. So my my second album was it's not all the way together, but a lot of things that have to do with that, like sitting in hospital rooms and, you know, just coming to grips with your own past and stuff like that. So Yeah. That's that's the next step. I'm in my home studio right now, kinda trying to build that out. No acoustic treatment. But, yeah, just in the phases where, hopefully, in the next, like, couple months, I start putting stuff to track. Well, it sounds good, though.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a it's the echo is perfect in here, but gotta do the treatment so that you can handle the sound better and Oh, sure. Audio stations.
[00:28:17] Unknown:
Yeah. You you can't see it, but I have I have acoustic I have acoustic foam all over the place. It's, Yeah. Basically, the whole room is covered. Like, I get I don't know if you could see that. But
[00:28:30] Unknown:
No. No. Is it these, egg foam type things, or do you actually have, like, the full fledged panels? No. No. It's it's the it's the foam pads. Okay. Yeah. Awesome. So,
[00:28:42] Unknown:
at some point, I'm gonna gut the whole thing out and do it again and do it the right way. Yeah. So I I did it myself, you know, just a little piece at a time, little piece at a time. So it took me about three years. Me too. About three years to do it. Me too. I'm a I was afraid you were like a drywaller and you're like, hey, man. What's up with that? I'm in between
[00:29:00] Unknown:
No. No. No. No. If you've seen on Facebook, people post their stuff and then general contractors just come into their trash and then be like,
[00:29:09] Unknown:
did your eight year old cousin build that? Or Right. No. No. No. I don't I don't I don't I don't do that because I I am not a drywall person. You know? I'm lucky that I I Tough. I'm lucky I know how to carry it. So it's it's one of those things. So, so what what's what's style of music, do you write? Do you do you play do you have in mind for your for your albums?
[00:29:29] Unknown:
Yeah. I write and record it from a hard rock, heavy metal perspective. Heavily right now, I'm heavily influenced by a lot of modern hard rock. You'll see there breaking Benjamin, but, I I draw a lot of influence from the Christian hard rock heavy metal scene bands like twelve stones, demon hunter, red. Nice. There's a couple middle Skillet albums that I really, really like. But, yeah, that's that's where I tend to rest. But I I grew up I'm from North Dakota. I grew up on Garth Brooks. Okay. And so, like, there's this when he retired, it's like, how do you go from country to heavy metal? Like and that was that's what I wrote my book about is I went to a Garth Brooks concert in 2017 in Las Cruces, and I was like, man, how in the world did I how did I go from listening to, like, American Honky Tonk Bar Association that summer standing outside the fire? They're like but if you've seen Garth's Lab show, it's not a it's not a far cry. It's when when you saw and and, again, I left Garth Brooks when he retired in the nineties country, and you're watching a dude stand on the stage, strumming a guitar.
Love George Strait. I I will get assassinated if I say anything wrong, but that guy stands in place. And I'm like, you need to run around. You need to start throwing spraying people with beer and, like, what are you doing, George? But, yeah, absolutely. Different generation. Nineties country. And, like, my I was legally adopted. My my foster dad grew up on, like, the old country, Hank Williams junior. Nice. Willie Nelson, all that stuff. And then my mom was from Detroit. So, like, r and d, a lot of your, like, Motown stuff, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion. So I just had all this diversity musically around me that
[00:31:10] Unknown:
it it finds it finds place in all the music takes that I have now. So Yeah. But I know I know what you're saying, though, as far as going from one extreme to the other. I mean, because I I like well, I don't I don't I I I I tolerate country music nowadays. There's there's there are issues with that. So but, Yeah. But, because my life my my life over the last couple of years has become a country song. So I just kinda, you know, it's like it was like I I I can laugh I can laugh about it now to a point, but, like, in in order of how things happen. My dad passed away, my grandmother passed away, my wife left me, my dog died, then my mom passed away, and, you know, all of that in a year and a half. And, you know, it's I I laugh about it now, but at the time, it was a wreck. Yeah.
But, but so my life has been a country western song. So, you know, so I I kinda stay away from it now. But, but I yeah. But I'm like you though. I like all kinds of music. I like, like, honestly, to my go to is jazz, man. I I I go to that old the old classic jazz, not that new crap they got out there, the call jazz. It's I'm talking the old stuff. I'm talking, like, like, Coltrane and older, you know, that type of stuff. That's that's the stuff that I go to. That's my weekend stuff. When I'm cooking, that's what I'm listening to. I'm I'm listening to to to Coltrane. I'm listening to the classic jazz. I'm listening to, like, the old standards like Sinatra and and, you know Yeah. And that and that group. That's what I'm talking about. But don't and also don't forget, I'm Sicilian from New York, so I gotta, you know Yes. Yes. You know, I I gotta honor that. I gotta represent that at least. But I I mean, I love Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd, like, I mean, I've been a Pink Floyd fan since I'm, like, 12.
You know? So it's, it it's I I love all kinds of music. The only thing I don't listen to, though, to be honest with you, is hip hop, rap, that that stuff. I just cannot get into that stuff. It's just not me. It's just not me at all. Yeah. But, so so your book, it's on the lyrics, how music helped me heal and find my voice. The description says that the book is a testament to the healing power of music. So, give us give us a story if you can, you know, if if you feel up to it. You know, tell us about one of the stories that you share to illustrate that concept.
[00:33:32] Unknown:
Yeah. So I I mean, the book is full of them. Absolutely full of them. The the one that I I typically share is, there's an entry. So, basically, what I did was I I picked one song per day, and I blogged about it for a year. At the end of that, I I trimmed it down and actually returned it into a book. So it was very bloggy. So it required a lot of refinement. But the one that there's two back to back, and I can share them both really quick. So I went to a foster home. Again, grew up. There was a lot of musical diversity there. But the at the end of the first day of third grade, I came home, and my stepmom was packing a box of my belongings.
My dad worked at a parts store. He worked at Napa. As an assistant manager, and and she was crying. My stuff is getting packed. And, I asked her what was going on. She's she's like, I can't like, she couldn't even put a sentence together. She was she was losing it. And she basically pulled enough, strength to basically tell me, like, hey. Your dad's gonna have to explain this. So he came in a couple minutes later, and, he he was divorced, from my my biological mom. And there was a period of time where him and I were, like, all we had. He was I was his little sidekick. Mhmm. And so as he hugged me and he explained why I had to go to to a foster home, I had seven brothers and sisters. So I was just Wow. The poverty part and and just losing control of a house. I was the first one to go. And, like, as as we were hugging Juice Newton's angel of the morning was, like, running through my head. And I I like, eight years old trying to do whatever you can to keep yourself together, not understanding what's going on.
But, yeah, like, so as we pulled away, I pulled away my social worker's vehicle that that was the soundtrack. An eight year old mind, that was what was going through, my head. Well, a couple weeks later, I'm sitting in the back seat of my '19 my dad's my foster dad's 1992 baby blue, Ford Tempo. And the window was rolled down, and we were driving to this local town. It's called Dickinson. And the wind was blowing through my hair. It was a little malnourished at the time. And the wind was blowing through my hair, and that summer came on the radio. And the song is not about what I was feeling. It's a bit like, if you've heard the song, it's kinda wrong now. I don't I don't know if it would pass, PC standards anymore.
So, basically, looking at all that stuff, but that hook, that whole, you know, she had a need to feel the thunder. I'm like, yeah. Like, that's my life. It's chaos. It's a storm. He talked about the wheat fields dancing in the wind, and we were driving by a wheat field at the time. And I was like, man, Garth Brooks is my answer. Like, I didn't know what to do. I was in this Wow. New place. I felt rejected, and Garth Brooks was the thing. I was like, I feel accepted. I feel home here. I feel like Garth Brooks really understands me. When no one else did, I felt like he did. And, really, that was why his retirement was such a big deal to me because he was what I used to replace my family letting me go. You know? And then Garth Brooks is like, yeah. I'm gonna let you go too. And and it was it like, I felt the same level of catastrophe in my life. Wow.
So, yeah, it was it was just, like, one song at a time getting through the Garth Brooks catalog and every release that he put out was was basically, like, helping me find my way in this new life, quite some time. But, yeah, that was that's just, like, the intro parts, the early parts of my life. Wow. That's some story.
[00:37:03] Unknown:
Holy cow. I wasn't expecting that, to be honest with you. I really wasn't. That that's that's gotta be that's gotta be the probably the hardest thing that anybody can probably go through, especially at at at at that age, you know, and try to make that make sense.
[00:37:19] Unknown:
Yeah. And and I I still have a most of my parents have passed away. My my biological mom, my stepmom, both adoptive parents. Really, all that's left is my biological dad, and I was fortunate enough my foster parents protected that relationship. They they kept me connected. I stayed very much in in tune with them. So there's healing along the way of I I don't really talk about that a lot in my book, but there's healing along the way where where we're able to rectify some of those differences and and
[00:37:48] Unknown:
move forward and and heal from that as well. But what made you start with the book though instead of the music?
[00:37:57] Unknown:
It's easier, honestly. Okay. Music is so complex. I don't have a band. So I I tried to join bands, and I'm from Southwest North Dakota. So, like, after Garth Brooks, I went into nineties country, and it's funny because you said you don't like country now. Like, I hate stadium country. Hate it with compassion, but Garth Brooks started that. So it's really weird that I love Garth Brooks but hate stadium country. Like, no. You don't you don't shred where Garth Brooks dared to walk. Okay? You you leave that to him. But, yeah, I went for I went from that to pop music and then to, like, radio rock, your Matchbox twenty, your Fuel, Goo Goo Dolls, all that stuff.
And then I like Creed, and then I took, like, a hard turn into, like, Mudvayne, Slipknot, Korn. Like, I I went hard. I know those. Yeah. Marilyn Manson, all of that stuff. And so, like, trying to join a band that is light corn in Southwest North Dakota is impossible. They're all ACDC, Metallica. Nothing wrong with those bands. No. Nothing at all. That's not what I was trying to do. And, my first band was I thought was gonna be a Metallica cover band. They rarely touched it. Growing up in a small town, I that was the only band there, and they fell apart after high school.
[00:39:12] Unknown:
Wow.
[00:39:14] Unknown:
So yeah. And and then when I went to college, tried to join bands there, ended up in a trying out for a machine head cover band that didn't work. And then, me and a buddy started a Marilyn Manson cover band where we had basically rewrote Marilyn Manson songs, and I was an unicorn. And then things fell apart there and joined the army and all that other stuff. So but yeah. So it to me, it was a lot easier to write a book and then doing all this stuff by yourself, to answer your question for real, is really difficult. So I play guitar. I sing that that part's easy, but, like, learning bass, learning pieces of piano, learning ukulele, playing drums, learning how to record, learning music theory. It's like, I've had a lot of excuses.
It doesn't take that much. You can listen to that, like, albums like Nevermind by Nirvana. Super simple. Doesn't require complexity. You don't need to know a lot of stuff, but you can still produce a really quality as a matter of fact, I'd argue some of the best songs of all time are some of the most simple. Well, I I was just gonna say the same thing. Sometimes
[00:40:15] Unknown:
sometimes simplicity is is just is as complex as you need, if that if that makes any sense. You know? Yes. It it sometimes it's just it I know that some of the some of the more simple songs, like, I think of going back, like, The Beatles. Right?
[00:40:31] Unknown:
Yes.
[00:40:32] Unknown:
Yesterday. It's a simple song. Yes. But it's an amazing song. You know? It has such depth to it that it just it blows you away. You know? So I I agree with yeah. Totally totally agree with you on that. So when when you decided to put personal stories into the book, obviously, there were some challenges that came about. Yeah. Right? And so so what were some of the challenges that you came across?
[00:40:54] Unknown:
So, being in the military, obviously, with the past that I have, you had trauma you carry, and it's deeply ingrained in everything you do, every decision you make. Really, one of the biggest thing is breaking the cycle. Like, yeah, I think you and I were talking preshow about, like, poverty and, certain cycles are are, certain patterns are cyclical. It's it's not that it's passed down genetically, but if you grow up in a poor household, if there's substance abuse, if there's crime, like, you grow up in what you have and that's what you know, so that's what you live. So, obviously, carrying a lot of that stuff and then, you know, getting after I left high school, I went to college, and I'm like, man, who am I again? Like, it's just been constant identity crisis.
Joined the military, and, you know, became a Christian, joined the military. A lot of that stuff, there was some temporary relief. But as I started getting into life, it's like dealing with some of the depression and some of the anxiety. And just trying to come to grips with who you are as an individual drove a lot of deep mental health stuff, and that was some of the hard hardest stuff to write about. Right before I joined the army, I had serious, serious bouts of insomnia, depression, and suicidal ideation that never went any further than ideas. Later on in life, it turned into actual suicide attempts, after my deployment, my divorce, repeating the very cycle that I hated.
And I was like, man, you can't even do this. You've tried your hardest to break this cycle that you are were subjected to, but you can't do it. And there's this feeling of worthlessness and having to retrain yourself to to forgive some of those things in the past and forgive some of the people that have wronged you. And, man, the day that the I'm gonna tell you one of the hardest days of Yeah. Go ahead. Typing the suicide attempts out was difficult, but putting it out as a blog was one of the scariest days of my life. I'm like, man, cops are gonna kick my door down. I'm dethroned in the loony bin or into a psych ward if you really wanna be politically correct. It it was just a lot of fear. But as I started sharing that story, I started finding that a lot of people it resonated.
And people are like, hey, man. They pulled me aside and they'd be like, me too. That happened to me. And and I was like, I thought I was the only one. And they're like, no. You're not. Like, I I won't talk. I'm not as courageous as you. But, yeah, me too. And then they would share the story with me individually, and, it's just that sense of community and healing. I did it one song at a time, but it really when it came down to bringing people together, mainly vets, I hang out with a lot of military people and veterans and, law enforcement people.
It we we have to we have to come together, and we have to be willing to
[00:43:46] Unknown:
to reach out for help and do what we need to do. Licensed medical professionals, get therapy, all of that stuff Yeah. Where we need it. Yeah. And you know what? I'm so glad that you brought that up because, you you know, my audience heard this. I I've I've told this story before, but I I went down the same path that you did. You know? After after, after my divorce, a few years ago, I went down that same that same spiral. You know? I I I went back to drinking. I hadn't had hadn't had a drink in over twenty five years. And Yeah. You know, I went back to that, and then came the attempts, you know. Well, first, threatening, and then the then the attempts. Yeah.
And, you know, the frustration that when it didn't work because, you know, Yeah. And this is not an endorsement to anybody, so please don't misunderstand don't don't take this like this is this is this is not something anybody should do. But I took a I I I I took a whole bottle of pills and a bottle of Jack Daniels. And Yeah. I woke up the next day anyway. You know? Yeah. And, had a bad headache, but, you know Yeah. Not to make light of it, but I did. I had a bad headache. Yeah. But that was it. And, you know, so the frustration, the bitterness, the anger. Now I'm a Christian myself. I I got saved twenty five years ago. 07/20/2000, I got saved.
And, people say, well, you're a Christian. How could you go through how could you let that happen? You know? Well, because I'm a human being also. You know? Yes. And, just because I'm a Christian doesn't mean I can't do the same things that someone who's not a Christian can do. You know? Right. It happens. And, you know, but what really hurt the most was that bitterness that that I felt towards my savior because of all this. Like, how could you do this to me? All this stuff in such a short period of time. And, you know, it it took a it took a while. It took it took some time. It took a lot of prayer, a lot of struggle, you know, a lot of talking, a lot of, you know, finding people that, and you and the the craziest thing is you find people with similar stories in the strangest places.
Yeah. Yeah. You know? And it's like this. Yeah. Absolutely. Like like this right here. I mean, I I've spoken I can't I can't even tell you how many guests I've had on the show that have relayed similar stories to to to yours, to mine, and to others that I know of. And you and you're and you're like, you know, wow. It's like I'm not the only one that's going through this stuff. Yeah. You know, when people say you're not you're not alone, no. You're really not. There are other people out there. You kinda you go you find those people, you talk to them, you work you work together, you pull you you pull yourselves out of it. You know? Yeah. And that's that's the important thing is that networking and that and that, and and and finding that that common that common frame of reference that you could you could just support each other through. That's Excellent. That's what I've gotten through this, and this has been a great this has been amazing. And, I appreciate you telling me the story. I thank you for that. I appreciate it. Yeah.
[00:46:34] Unknown:
Yeah. And to be honest, the being a Christian going through that stuff, you're like, my god supposed to be bigger than this. Yeah. You know, there's so much shame. And really what opened me up is I'm I'm trained in suicide intervention, ACE assist through the military, QPR. I I became a mental health coach. Like, I really wanna use my story to help people. But one of the things that finally awoke me is I was sitting in one of these every year, we receive suicide intervention training in the military, and I was sitting in this one one hour block of instruction. And and a chaplain came on the screen, and he was like, hey. I he was talking about his own thing, and I thought that chaplain was there to talk about, you know, how he helped other people through. And near the end of the video, he admitted that he had attempts. And I was like, man, if this guy Right. A man of the cloth can admit on a video that's distributed widely through the United States army, I think it's time for me to have the courage to say, me too. You know? And you do. Like, it's it like, Jesus covers all that, man. He really does, but it's really hard to convince yourself post suicide attempts that you're you're worth enough. You feel like you let him down. You feel like you let the community down. You feel like it's it's so like, there's a lot of shame, and and I don't I don't mean this on purpose. I don't think that the Christian community does it on purpose.
And and I'm still a Christian. I don't wanna think that I'm distant, but there's so much shame that comes with that that, like, really, we have to be willing to open up arms and, you know, what did he what did Jesus really teach? What did Jesus really push? And and how do we live our lives like that? And and and then accepting and come alongside the book of Job was huge Oh, yeah. Through some of this stuff. Gethsemane, trudging through what Jesus went through in Gethsemane, that was anxiety, classic anxiety, from the savior of the universe. So don't tell me that anxiety and suffering isn't normal.
It was it was stuff like that. So I I wanna ask you, how are you now? Are you are you doing it sounds like you're doing well, but I I feel that that's an important question for us us dudes to ask each other. Of yeah. Of course. Are you doing well now?
[00:48:53] Unknown:
I have my moments. I I I definitely have my moments. I'll I'll fall into, I'll I'll fall into some dark places from time to time. As a matter of fact, yesterday, I had a little bit of a moment. And, there's this great poem that I that I get that I have, from Dylan Thomas. And, you know, when you when you read it, you know, at the outset, it sounds so like like, oh my god. You know? Don't Yeah. Like, don't do it, dude. You know? Yeah. But it's not. It it's it's actually it's it when you read it, it's called, and and death shall have no dominion.
And Okay. It's a great poem. When I read it, and especially when I'm in one of those moods, I don't look at it like it's a defeatist thing. I look at it like I'm saying, you know, death has no dominion over me. I am not gonna fall for this. I'm not gonna let myself fall into that trap. And, so I had I had I've had a moment like that, yeah, recently yesterday, and, you know, I just took the time to sit there and go through that poem and spend some time in prayer, you know, and and, you know, the Lord, you know, the Lord's good. The Lord's good. I mean, I got to the point where I I was I was extremely bitter at some points that where, there's a passage in, Jeremiah chapter 20, I think it is. Is it Jeremiah 20?
Where Jeremiah, you know, who's called the weeping prophet, he was he was extremely upset with the Lord because, you know, the Lord you know, he he's out here. He's preaching. He's he's he's doing what the Lord's telling him to do, but all he's doing is getting beaten down, thrown down, you know, cast into jail, you know, stoned, like, almost like the apostle Paul. Yeah. And at one point in Jeremiah chapter 20, he told the Lord, he goes, I will not speak in your name anymore. You deceived me. You lied to me. And I went through that same thing. But if you read on Yeah. I don't have my I don't have my Bible here with me. But if you if you actually if you read on, as soon as as soon as Jeremiah says that, he said he turns around and he goes, but your word was in my heart, and I couldn't keep my mouth shut. So even though you know? And my own personal experience with that has been, you know, there there were times where I I told the Lord that I'm done. I'm I I cannot how how how can I go out and talk to people about about you and tell them that, you know, how great you are and how how how much you love and care for them when I'm suffering through everything that I'm suffering through, you know, I'm a hypocrite? How how am I gonna do that? I can't do that, and I'm not gonna do that. And, you know, but the Lord the Lord's funny with me because he'll let me he'll let me vent, and then he kinda pats me on the back of the head and says, okay, let's go. And let's keep moving. Yeah. Right. You know? So and and and this one particular, moment that I'm thinking of was I I I was going through that. I was and I was sitting there in prayer, and I I, you know, I I was just really angry. It was like, you know, just like almost like a cartoon. I was like, you know, I'm done doing this, you know.
And what did and what did the Lord do? The Lord said, okay. That's okay, Joe. I understand. But listen, this is what I want you to teach on Sunday. And he gave me a whole passage of scripture. He gave me an outline, and I ended up teaching a Bible study Sunday, the end of the following Sunday. You know? So he that's what he does to me. He he's like he's kinda like, he's like like an old he's like like an old Italian grandfather, you know, who's who's quick with the scafa. The scafa is, you know, when you walk past him and you do something stupid, he's smashing the back of the head. Yeah. That's what he does to me. He's he's like Yeah. Come on. Snap out of it. Let's go. What are you doing? Yeah. Yeah. Just come on. Let's go. Here. And that's what he would do. So I was doing a I was doing a bible study podcast for for almost three years prior to this one.
And, you know, I I I was so angry, and I was so bitter, and every and and I was going through everything that I was going through at the time, and I was like, I am done. I'm not doing this anymore. Okay. Fine, Joe. Here. Now next week, I want you to talk about this, and here's the outline, and here's the passage I want you to read, and and just take a look at this. And I'm like, you know, really? Come on, man. Yeah. Let me be angry. Yes. He's like, no. No. No. Yeah. Talk about this.
[00:53:11] Unknown:
You know? That is unbelievably
[00:53:13] Unknown:
relatable. It is. I I cannot tell you. But it Yeah. That's been my experience with God in my mental health recovery. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just I just trust just trust the Lord, man. Just trust him. You know? Just Yeah. Yeah. I get angry. He no. He understands. You know? Remember, Jesus Christ was was who? He was God, and what does the Bible say? God manifest in the flesh. He was he was a 100% human, a 100% God. He went through the same things that you and I go through each and every day. Just like you said, Gethsemane, that was anxiety. That was trepidation.
That was I I I don't know if I wanna say fear, but but possibly, you know, he knew what was gonna happen, he knew what the end result was gonna be, but he still didn't wanna go through it. Yeah. Of course. That was his human nature coming through saying, hey, you know, I don't know if I could, you know, if Yeah. You know, if if if you could take this cup from me, you know, please take it away, you know, but your will be done. So you there you see that that dichotomy going on there between the human nature and God's nature, You know? I don't wanna do this, but let your will be done. You know? You see the two natures there. And, it it it's you know, he went through everything and experienced every emotion, every fear, every pain, everything that you and I go through, and he shows us how to get through that, and that's just by trusting in God, trusting the Lord.
You know, I don't know how else I could say it. You know? Other Yeah. Other than that, just trust him. Just, you know, it's hard. I know it's hard. It it's it's incredibly hard at times, but trust him. That's the main thing. Just trust him. You know, he knows what's best for you. And, you know, sometimes it's hard to let go. It's it's hard to to to to put your faith in something that you can't see, touch, feel, you know. But at the same time, he's given us a great book. Yes. He's given us an instruction manual for our lives. And the answer to every question that you have is right there in that book. You just gotta find it.
[00:55:23] Unknown:
Yeah. And it's that's I mean, it is insanely powerful. And that there was a, I wanna say, like, a seven year silence where I I didn't hear or feel anything. I still believed. I I didn't turn away, but, yeah, there was a seven year silence where it's like, hey, man. That's that's I'm still going to church. And they're like,
[00:55:41] Unknown:
you know, hey. Pray. Pray. Isn't that, like, the worst feeling? You know? It's Absolutely. It's it's like you you pray and you don't feel like that you you feel like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.
[00:55:52] Unknown:
Yeah. You know? And Yeah. And that was that's a that it's, like, super difficult because you're like, okay. Well, I'm gonna try to keep faith. And yeah. Even even post like, after the suicide attempts, there was still a period of time, but it it took a couple months for him to start screaming through. And it's never as loud as you you think it's gonna be. You know what I mean? Like, it's not the loud. It's not the thunder. It's not the lightning. It's a whisper. It's that's that's that's that's a small voice that you hear. You know? And it's not an audible voice. It's not like, you know, it's not like,
[00:56:31] Unknown:
I I don't know. I'd like I I I'm gonna tell you, like, I I just gotta answer this really quick because this is, the next hour guest. He's running late, so let me just let him know. So no worries. The, it's like when I got saved. Right? Okay. So the the story there was this. I was I I I got I got transferred to a new command, and the, I get I get there, and I was really relieved because the commanding officer happened to be one of my training when I was in the academy days, he was he was the, he was one of my trainers. He was Yeah. You know, so, and so when I saw him, he he worked his way up to the ranks. Now he's a commanding officer at the at at my command, and and so I went in. He was like, hey, Joe. You know, it's good to see you. I haven't seen you in a long time. How are you? So I was blah blah blah. And he goes, he goes, right. I'm really glad you're here. I need some good people on the overnights. He goes, so, you know, so I'm really glad you're gonna you're willing to do the overnights. Yeah. No problem. You got it.
Here's the catch though. He goes, it's your turn. What's my turn? Well, your it's your turn to ride with Gail. Okay. Well, who's Gail? Because Gail's one of those born again Christian types who's gonna talk your ear off all night long. Now the the other part of the story is that I didn't get into is, because my audience just wanna hear the story again. But the other part of the story was is that I grew up in a predominantly Roman Catholic family. You know, I had an uncle that I idolized. He was the first one in the family to step away from Catholicism, and he went and became the pastor, a pastor in in a denomination that I've later learned is really not very Christian, but they claim to be.
But I idolized him. I was I was young. I was maybe seven, eight, nine, 10 years old in that range. So everything my uncle did, I wanted to do, and I wanted to be him and so on and so forth. So So when he would come home from school, he would bring his books, and, he would leave them behind, and I would read them. So I would read theology. I was reading, you know, all of that stuff at a very, very young age. He would take my Catholic catechism books and rewrite them. When he was home on his breaks, he would, like, cross out big sections. This is not how it happened and staple, you know, the the the correction to it. And then, of course, I would get in trouble for that. You know? And then, and then, you know, I I I, around I had had I don't know if it was for communion or what, but I remember the the priest, you know, they said that how you had to go to confession, and I was like, why? Why am I telling you what I've done wrong? You can't do anything about it.
You know? And the priest got upset, and he grabbed me by the arm, literally walked me outside, handed me to my mother, and said, we don't need his kind here. And, never forget it. Never forget that. And, forgive him. Yeah. But I don't forget it. He, so so my mom said, okay. Fine. So never went back to Catholic church again for a while, I should say. I did go back eventually, but, for a while, I didn't go back. And then, I kinda went my own way, did my own thing, you know, lived my life. You know? I was I was the I used to tell people I was the pope of the Worldwide Church of Joe. I do what I want. You know? I set my own doctrine theology, whatever it is. And but I was, you know, I was just playing you know, I was just fooling myself really, you know, in in reality.
And then, I don't know. Just, you know, I they they they they transferred me to this command, and and they put me with this one. And, she was great. I mean, we got along really well. We, you know, we would argue all night long, but not like argue like like angry argue, like debate. You know what I mean? So we would argue all night because I I felt like I was pretty well versed in what I knew from what I learned from my uncle. And, you know, and she would try to tell me I was wrong, and so on and so forth. And I was like, yeah, well, this is you know, we would go back and forth all night long.
So, one night she said to me, one morning, we were getting off duty. She was like, hey, there's this Christian radio station, you should check it out. She gave me the call sign for it, so I was like, alright. I'll I'll check it out, and I'll see what it is. And so I would I listened to it driving home, and, I was listening to a guy by the name, and you probably know the name, J Vernon McGee. Alright? Now J Vernon, I had no idea, was long since gone with the Lord, but everything that I was listening to was so relevant to what was going on at that time in my life that I thought and I felt like, well, this is right now. This is for me.
And I would purposely drive home slower just so I can hear the whole thing, you know, before I got before I got home. And then, you know, I I at one point, I just I just kept on listening and listening and listening and listening more and more and more. I I went up into the attic and I started ripping apart boxes looking for looking for my bible, and they were like, you have a bible? Yeah. I have a bible. You know? And and I started looking for it, and I found my old one that my my uncle bought me when I was like eight years old. So it was all dog eared and beat up and covers falling off and whatnot. And I started reading that thing, and I started reading the bible studies that my uncle would give me and, you know, from way back then and, you know, I'm like, I wanna get back into this again, and I I I signed up for these bible studies again, it's correspondence stuff, And, I'm I'm going through the whole thing.
And, one day, it was a Sunday. It was it was, July 17. Got in my car. I was on my way to work for the overnight, and I'm like, you know, I always hear the same traffic mess, same thing every Sunday. Let me see what's on that Christian station. So I put the Christian station on, and there was a guy, and it was a very unique type of a show for me. It because I I, you know, I mean, I've heard talk radio, but here's here's this preacher, and he's over here, he's preaching, and then he stops and takes phone calls, answers questions, and he goes back to preaching again, then he stops, takes phone calls, answers questions, goes back to preaching again. Never heard never heard a show like that. And I'm listening to him, and he's preaching a message on hell and who's going there. And and this is where I say that that little soft voice started coming in pretty loud and clear.
Again, not an audible like the the the heavens didn't peel away, and it wasn't like this bright shining light, you know, shining down on the car as I was driving. But it was that little voice that it just seemed like at the end of every sentence, I heard, I'm talking to you, Joe.
[01:02:46] Unknown:
Yeah.
[01:02:48] Unknown:
You're going to hell, Joe. You know? I laugh, but it's serious. It scared the hell out of me. Let me literally scare the hell out of me. You know? Yeah. For real. And, I went to, I I I listened to the whole thing, and I was, like, just, like, consumed by it. It's I I I was just fascinated by the whole thing. So I wrote down the phone number. Again, no cell phones yet. I wrote down I wrote down the phone number, and I was gonna call, when I got to the job, but I got there too late. The show was already over, so I missed the opportunity. But, but I looked up I looked up this church. Well, I I looked up the website for the radio station. I found out the name of the church that was putting on that show and checked out their website, and it was, you know, very basic, nothing crazy on it. And I just read their doctrinal statement, I was like, okay. I I yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense. That makes sense. That makes sense. I agree with that. I agree with that.
I called the church. I must have sound like an idiot when I called. Hi. I heard you on the radio. You know? So I I called and I I did that and and, man, the guy called me back. You know? He called me back in, like, five minutes. And, we were on the phone for, like, an hour, And then he invited me out, and we had dinner, and he led me to the Lord right there that night on the on Pier 34 on Canal Street and West Street. So That's awesome. Yeah. It was great. But, dude, man, I am so sorry. I didn't realize it's after 08:00, and my next guest is waiting in the in the in the room here. So, Yeah. We're good. So I'd like to do this. I want you back on the show.
Let's see if we can get something set up for next week. Okay. Alright? Sounds good to me. Alright. So thank you so much, brother. I appreciate you being here. And, I'm gonna reach out to you after the show, and we'll we'll we'll chat some more. So, look for an email from me afterwards. And and, I think you should have my phone number, like, because I put in the other in the other message I sent you on PodMed. Just shoot me a text when you have a chance, and I'll give you a call after the show. Okay. Perfect. Alright, brother. Thank you so much, man. I appreciate you. Brother, God bless you. Thank you for your service. Hey. God bless you too. Thank you. Tony Kessel, folks.
Alright. So what we're gonna do here is we're gonna take a quick break, and, when we come back from this break, we will be sitting down with Jared Sessler running for Congress up in the great state of Washington in, Congressional District Number 4, and, we can have a really good conversation. I've been to Washington State a few times. I have some really good friends who live up in Washington State, and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, they are actually constituents of District 4. So we're gonna have a good conversation. Alright, folks. So this is the Joe Russo. It's a live show weeknights, 7PM central time. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share it with your friends, your family, and your followers. And, you know what? We're gonna do something a little different with this break. Not gonna put the screen up. We're gonna do a chair break. Okay? So we'll be right back after this. Just stay with us.
Alrighty, folks. Welcome back to the Joe Roose Show. My name is Joe Roose. First hour is in the books. Never did a chair break like that. That's that was interesting. You got to see behind the scenes there, you know, all the shuffling around and whatnot. Alright. So Tony Kessel, I hope you guys enjoyed that. We're gonna have him back on. We went way over, didn't even get the half of the stuff we wanted to talk about. So we'll get him on again. Not a problem with that. Alright, folks. Pod home. Podhome.fm is the most modern and easy to use podcast hosting platform. Use it to publish your episodes, enhance your audio, and automatically generate transcripts, chapters, title, show notes, and more.
And did you know that you can even podcast live with podhome.fm? I've been using podhome.fm as my audio host platform, oh, for about two years now, and they are fantastic, constantly change constantly updating, constantly bringing on new features. They are fantastic. You can broadcast your podcast live through your own website. If you don't have a website, they'll provide you with a website at no additional charge. They will even help you build it. You can, everything you possibly can need to to have an outstanding podcast is all available to you for $15.99 a month. Just go to podhome.fm to try it out for free for thirty days. That's podhome.fm, podhome.fm.
Alright, folks. Now so, Gerald Jared Sessler. Sorry about that. Jared Sessler. He's a navy veteran, former NASCAR driver, stage four cancer survivor, entrepreneur, and now a Trump endorsed congressional candidate. He's the author of a brand new book, How We Broke America, a Checklist a Checklist to Fix It, which is already a number one hot new release on Amazon and political advocacy. Jared brings a one of a kind perspective, forged through service in the Navy, resilience through cancer, success in business, and a fierce belief in America's founding principles. His book doesn't just talk politics.
It offers a bold step by step checklist for restoring our constitutional foundations, protecting sovereignty, and reigniting the values that made this country strong. He's been endorsed by general Michael Flynn, big fan of Michael Flynn. I love that man. And other conservative leaders, Jared calls America's decline a broken machine, but one that can be fixed with faith, leadership, and conviction. Jared, we'd like to welcome you to the Joe Russo. Why don't you come on in? Eric. Thank you, Joe. Good to be here. Hey. Thanks for joining us. I appreciate it. And, before we get any further, just wanna say thank you very much, sir, for your service in our country. Thank you. I appreciate it. It was, it was a great honor. Yes, sir. So, so you served in the Navy for how long were you in the Navy for?
[01:11:17] Unknown:
Just did one term, served on aircraft carrier USS Constellation, and was, worked my way up to be a catapult top top watch. So I was responsible for the energy that launched the aircraft off of the flight deck. We had four catapults on our ship about 1,200 feet. It was quite an amazing experience at the young age of
[01:11:37] Unknown:
18, 19 years old. Isn't that amazing that that that at that age, you're you're entrusted with this high-tech, multimillion dollar piece of equipment that, you know, but in the in the real world, outside of the military, at 18, 19 years old, you couldn't you couldn't get anywhere near anything like that.
[01:11:57] Unknown:
Yeah. It's pretty amazing. I think it's a demonstration of how, when you set the bar low, that's exactly where people show up. When you set the when you set the bar high, people show up. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I agree with you a 100% on that one. So, I usually like to ask a couple of questions,
[01:12:14] Unknown:
to kinda break the ice for for the audience, to, you know, try to, you know, I guess well, let me just ask the questions. So what's something about you that most people don't know but should?
[01:12:29] Unknown:
Let's see. Well, I I think as it relates to this, one of the things that people should know about me that mostly don't is, I was absolutely completely uninterested in anything related to politics or public speaking or anything of the sort, when I was younger. In fact, I remember in high school, there was a class called debate. And, I remember walking by that classroom. I never once set foot in that classroom. In fact, I would walk on the other side of the of the hallway with my shoulders practically touching the lockers, so that I didn't get any of whatever was in that classroom on me. I don't remember when the first time I read the constitution was, but it definitely was not before I was an adult. Yeah. So, you know, I I'm involved in civics and politics now. Yeah.
Because, here's one from TP USA. They do a really a really good colorful graphic one. But I just last night, I got another copy of the one that you have. I think it's from the heritage or something. Yes. But, I yeah. That's one of the big things about me is, I'm involved now because, you know, in 2012 when Obama was reelected, I was I was absolutely shocked. I was I was, I just couldn't believe that we reelected and we had four more years of this weakness. Mhmm. Anti God, anti American, you know, just terrible stance. And, you know, like most other Americans, I really wasn't paying attention to a lot of what was going on politically. And so, anyway, that was a big change for me. Started taking Hillsdale College classes and listening to, Dennis Prager and, Center for Self Governance and and, Epic Times. And, you know, here I am today. I wouldn't consider myself a constitutional attorney, but I certainly know a lot better than I did back then. Oh, yeah. And, you know, it's it's funny you mentioned all those names because I know Hillsdale College. I've actually I've I've taken a couple of their free classes.
[01:14:33] Unknown:
I get this brochure every every once in a while from them, and, I don't the funny thing is I don't ever remember signing up for anything from them, but yet I I get these these these newsletters on a regular basis. And so I said, let me try one of these classes. So I did, and they are fantastic.
[01:14:47] Unknown:
They are absolutely fantastic. Unbelievable. They're they're great. Yep. And I have a lot of driving around our district. And so a lot of times, I'll stick one of those in and just, you know, listen to it. I'll pull try to pull it up, log in to my account, pull it up before I start driving, and just listen to it because they're they're just amazing. Funny story as it relates to Hillsdale College. They they, educate, I think, over 95% of their their students are free students online. It's amazing. But you can actually, you know, apply and go to college there. Mhmm. They live on American donations. They've never taken a penny from the government. That's right. And I have a good really good friend of mine who has been donating a $100 a month for I can't remember what he said the other day, but I think he said it was, like, sixteen years or nineteen years or something he's been donating a $100 a month.
And, he doesn't even have any family or anything that goes there. And I told him, I said, well, you paid for my tuition. You know? It's totally God's grace that he set that up and and, you know, you've you've paid my way through Hillsdale College. So it was pretty awesome. That's a great story. That's a great story.
[01:15:50] Unknown:
So, to round out our our get to know your questions, what's your go to beverage to, help you unwind at the end of the day?
[01:15:59] Unknown:
So I don't you know, I so many things come to mind. I I I'm old enough, I turn 56 tomorrow, that I get super irritated if I drink anything late because then you have to get up in the middle of the night, which really bugs me. I I'm not much into alcohol. I mean, I'm not anti alcohol, but I just see it as weakness the older I get, the more I just kinda say, yeah. It's just not really necessary. I'm not against it. Like, I'll go and have a glass of wine once in a while, people are doing it or whatever. But, I like the flavored waters, like these seltzer waters. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And, summertime here, it's hot. It's over a 100 degrees today. We we live on we have a ranch. We raise cattle.
Nice. We drink a lot of electrolytes and water and ice and, you know, I like kombucha. That's kinda unique. Tastes a little funny, but only the first time. So, yeah, I'm not into sugary drinks really. I just you know, I was diagnosed with terminal cancer twenty where are we at now? Twenty six years ago, twenty five years ago and given a five percent chance to live. And so from that point forward, I really started taking a look at my diet and started taking care of myself and working out. And so I yeah. I eat pretty healthy, probably healthier than almost anybody you know, but, so yeah.
[01:17:21] Unknown:
Well, happy birthday for for tomorrow, so that's great. And, you're not much older than me, so, I'm I'm right up there with you. I understand exactly how you feel about, about the drinking. I do like to I do like my bourbons, so,
[01:17:36] Unknown:
I'm not Yeah. It's kind of interesting, you know, if you take a like, I used to hate whiskey Mhmm. And, I I it was because I didn't know how to drink it. I didn't realize that, like, one shot of whiskey should last you, like, four hours because you almost breathe it more than drink it. You know? Exactly. It tastes disgusting. But if you just kinda breathe it and aerate it, it's kind of interesting. But Yeah. Yeah. It's alcohol is just no big deal for me. I just think,
[01:18:02] Unknown:
you know, people you know, we just it's gotta be careful with it, and I I don't think it serves any real genuine purpose other than maybe some social entertainment. Yeah. No. I I totally agree with you. I I I enjoy it. There was a point where I was getting a little too carried away with it, I'll be honest. But You you do. Yeah. But now it's you know, I'll do it on the weekend. I'll sit out in the backyard by the by the by the grill and have a have a bourbon, have a cigar, just relax, you know, that type of thing. Yeah. But, just wanna, recommend something to you, though. There's a one of my sponsors is, an organization called Ezra Healing. They're based out of British Columbia.
Great great folks. They do, they they believe in the do no harm model of, health care where it's all patient centric, and they they try to they try to work with the from the root cause of whatever it is that you're dealing with, not just slap a Band Aid on it, you know, pat you on the head and kick you out the door. So, I I can send you links and all that stuff to them if you wanna check them out. They're they're really very good people.
[01:19:04] Unknown:
Yeah. It'd be good. It's I'll just tell you, I I didn't do conventional medical treatment. I changed my diet and lifestyle, and God healed me through that. And, I believe that God's given us the healing mechanisms that we need. These bodies that he created have a self healing mechanism in them, but they have to have the right ingredients. And just real quick, I'll I'll share with you and your viewers that pretty much and I'm again, I'm not a doctor, so I'm not giving medical advice, but I'm just telling you from my experience what I've been through, you know, twenty five plus years of after a terminal diagnosis.
All of our all of our sicknesses and ailments come from two places. It's either a deficiency or it's a toxicity. Mhmm. One or the other. And you have to figure out which one it is and oftentimes it's lifestyle related. If it's a deficiency, it means you're not getting some nutrients that your body needs in order to replenish and to rebuild and to stay healthy. If it's a toxicity, it means that you're continually doing something that is offending your body in a toxic way. And that could be the water in your jet tub. It could be the water you drink. It could be the air you breathe. It could be the people that you're around. It could be the food that you're eating and the ingredients. If you're eating a lot of stuff out of packaged boxes and things like that, then it's probably a toxicity.
It's amazing some of the ingredients that are being allowed into our foods. But always remember that, is this a toxicity or is it a deficiency? And and, there's easy ways to solve each one of them. You can do fasting and juicing and things like that to take care of toxicity. And for deficiency, you can just eat green like crazy, and you can juice greens, and you can do all kinds of trouble, you know, things like that. And so, anyway, it's an oversimplification,
[01:20:46] Unknown:
but it's also true in terms of, you know, what I've experienced over the last, you know, twenty five plus years of trying to live healthy. Yeah. And it's it's it's funny too because I had this similar conversation with the CEO of Ezra Healing. She was a guest on our show. And the episode that we did together, YouTube took it down and gave me a strike saying that I was pushing medical misinformation.
[01:21:09] Unknown:
Wow.
[01:21:10] Unknown:
So yeah. It's alright. Yeah. Pretty crazy. So, Jared, when first, is it Jared or am I saying it right?
[01:21:19] Unknown:
Yeah. Jared? Although I have lots of names that I respond to. I a few years ago, I kinda got to the point where I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna say yes to whatever people call me. It's amazing how many people, you know. I've been on, well, I won't name the station because I don't wanna I don't wanna bash them because they're kind enough to have me on quite often. Some of the some of them, they still mess up my name. I'm just like, oh my goodness. It's not that difficult. It's Jared, you know? Jared.
[01:21:48] Unknown:
Gotcha. Gotcha. I do the same thing. That's why I shortened my my last name for the show. Just put Ruz. It's it's short for Ruziello. So Yeah. I know. I saw that. But you know what? You're it's cool. Ruz is cool. It's true. It works. It works. Well, thanks, brother. I appreciate that. So, Jared, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself as a father, as a husband, as an Navy veteran? Help us get to know you.
[01:22:11] Unknown:
Yeah. So served in the Navy as we talked about aboard the USS Constellation. That was, quite an experience right up. Well, honestly, I was afraid. I did fine in school. I didn't really study much, but I still got decent grades, thanks to some good genes and, you know, IQ. But I was I was frankly kinda bored in school. They just didn't really require much of you in public school. And, so I got out of that, went to the went to the military primarily because I wanted help with college. I knew I wanted to go to college, but I was afraid that I didn't have the, the discipline, the self discipline to actually succeed in college. I I I knew I was a punk and, and I just didn't know if I could do it. And so when the military, I figured, well, some years of that will help me grow up plus then I'll get help paying for college, which is exactly what happened. I got out of military, went to college, got a first degree was in manufacturing engineering, then got a degree in mechanical engineering.
Worked in the industry for about seven years. Really enjoyed it. Worked my way up to, working for a company called Intel, which is, at the time, was, you know, one of the leading chip makers. They still are Mhmm. In in the in the world. And ended up leaving there in '98 and started my own company. Pretty much been running my own business ever since then. We we ended up franchising some service brands and launched those around the country. We had we grew to about 240 locations nationwide. Sold part of that company in 2016 and then pretty much got backed my way out of, most everything else I was doing when I decided I wanted to run for congress.
Personally, married to my wife, Nikki, in 1996. We were, we only dated for ten months, and, it was love at first sight. But we were we were both in our late twenties, so, you know, mid to late twenties and and, totally, had a rough go of it in my teens and early twenties, but, got saved and baptized when I was 22 and then kind of spent some years sort of, reflecting and growing and and God brought us together in, early ninety six. And then we got married in November '96. And so that's been I think this year is '29. You're coming up on twenty nine year anniversary, and we've been blessed to have three kids. They're, boy, girl, boy.
They're 20, 22, and 24. Amazing kids. Just just, incredible. I I'll just tell you a quick story about that. First of all, my daughter's in the middle. She's the only one that's married, graduated college, and, got married about it was about a year and a half ago now, and they have our first grandbaby. So she's absolutely beautiful. And so we're loving that. But, quick story about my boys, they both race. They started racing first time getting in any kind of racing equipment when they're four years old, both of them. They're 20 and 24, so they're a few years apart, but they're both amazing drivers. And, way more trophies than I ever got. And, we were at a track this last weekend and they were both racing. And, actually, my youngest should have won, ended up second out of a field of 49, and and my oldest was sixth, I think, in the final. But, one of the people that was in the pits, came up to me and said, mister Sessler, I just wanna tell you, your boys are amazing. They're so talented on the track. But they said that's only, like, 20% of what I wanna tell you. The real story is watching them, seeing them in the pits interacting with people, and just watching them in their lives.
They are amazing young men, and so congratulations for that. And that was just really heartwarming for me. And that's honestly, it's not magical. It's just raising them in, you know, we homeschooled and, obviously, strong Christian family praying together every day and and, you know, just trying to seek the Lord far from perfect, at all. I will guarantee that. But, you know, you learn how to apologize and reconcile and That's right. And march forward together. That's kind of the the gist of of my life and kinda where we're at today.
[01:26:37] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. And that's a great story. And, I'm I'm telling you, it's it's what I find really interesting is is I I am finding more people that I have been, having the privilege of of hosting on the show that have a good solid Christian testimony. And I was actually gonna ask you about your testimony and ask you, when it was that you got saved and and and and such. And so I'm glad you brought that up. I'm I'm a born again Christian myself. I got saved in, July 2000, and, so I've been twenty five years. I've worn many hats over the over the years. I've taught bible studies. I used to do a bible study podcast. I was an associate pastor of a church up in New York, for for a little while, just to help out the senior pastor who was very sick. I've I've traveled around the country. I've been to Washington State a few times, preaching up there. So and I have a I have a friend. I I think they might live in your in in the district that you're you're running for.
So,
[01:27:33] Unknown:
so so Do you remember what the name of the town is?
[01:27:36] Unknown:
I think they're in Olympia, I think.
[01:27:39] Unknown:
Okay.
[01:27:39] Unknown:
So, it's it's, I'm trying to remember the exact the exact little area that they're in, though, but they they have a ranch. They're they're they're great great folks. They really are tremendous people. That's cool. And, so, so so so God's been good. You know, I I've I was talking with a previous guest that, you know, you know, sharing some some horror stories that you've been through over the years and how just just how God's mercy and his grace just kinda lift you out of that. Amen. So it it's it's it's an amazing thing. So I I really appreciate that you brought up your Christian faith, so thank you very much for that, sir. I I appreciate it. And, you know, as a Navy veteran, NASCAR driver, like, I I that I I wanna hear more about that. That has to be a lot of fun.
A cancer survivor, entrepreneur, how did all of that shape the way you see America today?
[01:28:29] Unknown:
I think the biggest thing for me is is, you know, the American dream. And I always tell people, you know, the American dream is real, and it didn't let me down, you know. But here's the thing that people have to realize, and this is so important for people to understand today. The American dream is made up of a combination of two things, and one of those is an opportunity. And that opportunity is available to everyone. But the other one is hard work. And if you have if you're not willing to combine hard work with that opportunity, then don't ever expect to experience the American dream. And that's that's part of the problem with open borders and some of the political positions of the left Agreed. Is they're breaking that equation, and they expect people to live the American dream while not putting any effort into the opportunity. And the truth is, and you know this, Joe, just as well as any other man, if you don't work for something, if you don't toil for it and feel it in your bones, you're never gonna truly appreciate it. I mean, you can move into a really nice house and you can enjoy it. But when you've built a house from the ground up and you've had that blood, sweat, and tears, you know, when you've restored a car and laid underneath it with the oil dripping on your face and, you know, fixed it up to be in this sweet ride, it it just changes the way you feel about yourself. It changes the way you feel about that enjoyment. You know, when you are an honorable man and you honor your family and your wife, you enjoy your life. You enjoy your wife way more. And I think that it's it's just exponential more than what, you know, is possible when you cheat or you short circuit the process. I mean, that's just the way God has made it for us. If you read Philippians one twenty one says, to live is as Christ, but to die is is gain. Mhmm. So the dying is gain is pretty simple to understand. We have something great to look forward to in eternity, but what does it mean to live is as Christ?
And when you look at Jesus' life, he did two things. He suffered and he served. That's right. And so I think that we should always be expecting to suffer and serve or maybe to suffer as we serve. And, somehow there's great joy that comes out of that. And There is. I think that's, you know, that's the big thing that people have to realize and remember, especially young men who are wanting to get married or maybe young men who are married and are struggling. It's probably because they have way more expectations than they have a sense of responsibility for what God has called them to do in their life. Well, that's great. That's amazing.
[01:31:00] Unknown:
I I cannot disagree with anything that you just said. I I this this is this is very similar to a conversation I have with my son, not not very not very long ago. You have to work you have to work for what you have, and you have to work for it and just so you'll appreciate it more. My own personal example is, you know, I I built this studio, you know, by my it took me three years to get it to where it is now, and I'm still not done with it. I still got more I wanna do. But, you know, I it's my favorite room in the house. I love coming in here. I love hanging out in here because this is it's mine. You know, it's my space. And, and I appreciate I appreciate what God did for me in getting it. You know?
He provided everything, all the financing that I needed to do it, all the funding that I need to do, I should say. I didn't finance anything. Everything was paid out of cash, but, he he provided this thing, and and it's a blessing to be able to do it. And, and to have it and to also you know, also like I did as I did the bible study podcast from here, you know, it was a it's a it's a blessing. It it truly is. I mean, God gives us these opportunities to do these things to serve him in ways, and he and he uses whatever is available at the time to do it. And, Yeah. You know, it's it's a it's a real blessing, and you gotta work for it, though. It's not gonna be handed to you. You know? Yeah. Build it like, I'm trying to build this thing up into like, I I joke around and say, oh, I'm trying to build my media empire here. But, you know, I'm half serious. I'm half not. You know? It's I it's but it's a struggle. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of effort. I have a regular forty hour a week job too. You know? I I gotta do that, and plus I do this show six days a week. You know? Yeah. It's, it's it's a lot of work, but you know something? At the end of the day, when the show's done, no matter how it went on the show, I am I'm I'm I'm pleased with
[01:32:49] Unknown:
the effort that was put into it. Yeah. You're putting in the effort, and you're trusting God with the outcome. Exactly. Exactly right. And you have you have no idea. It's really difficult for us to determine, you know, to really know, like, what is what is God gonna use? How is this even gonna be? Did I just waste my day? Or was you know, how how you just can't measure it like that. Yeah. I don't You just have to work. I don't see anywhere I I
[01:33:11] Unknown:
I never look at a day and say it's wasted. If if Yeah. If God woke me up this morning, he woke me up for a purpose. I don't I don't know what some just random act of kindness, if you wanna call it that. Some some words that you said to somebody can affect them in such a way that will turn their day around. That's if that's what God woke me up to do today, then that's what he woke me up to do today. I may not part the I may not part the Rio Grande, you know, but, you know, whatever however he wants to use me in in in in this life, I'm willing to be used. And, you know, that's service, and you have to be willing to do that.
Now in, in your book, How We Broke America, a checklist to fix it, you put, a lot of solutions in biblical values and and and, America's founding principles.
[01:34:07] Unknown:
Mhmm.
[01:34:08] Unknown:
Why are those anchors non negotiable for you?
[01:34:13] Unknown:
Well, because I think that what people don't realize is the constitution is biblically based. Mhmm. It it's it's a it's a document that secures our natural rights, which come from God. That's right. And so, you know, we should feel honored to live in a country that has the protections of our natural rights such that, you know, it's it's honoring what God's perspective and position is over humanity. Those natural rights spread out over the entirety of the planet, all humans. But most of those humans don't live in a country that has their that has them codified in a constitution. And so I think you when you read the constitution, which is very simple, seven articles, 27 amendments so far, You can read the whole thing in probably twenty minutes. It's not a deep read, although some of it in in its old English language can be kinda hard to understand. Mhmm.
But it I think that's that's the reason why. I think God wants us to have liberty. And, if you listen to Chris Ann Hall, her description of liberty is you combine freedom with morality, and you put those two together. When I when I was in the navy, we would pull into a foreign port. And when we got off the ship to go exploring, it was called Liberty. We were going on Liberty. Well, what did what did that mean? It meant that we had some freedom from our work, but we still carried with it some responsibilities. See, we were still citizens of The United States in a foreign country. Not only that, but we are also military members of the United States government, the United States military inside of another nation. And so we carried with us much like, an Olympic athlete carries with them the flag. We carry with us the responsibility of, you know, not offending the people in that nation and to making sure making sure that we're representing America. That's liberty. It's freedom combined with some responsibility or as Chris Ann Hall says, freedom combined with morality.
And
[01:36:18] Unknown:
I think we lost you. Alright. Well, let's give him a second to come back. Let me shoot him a text. Let's see how we're doing here. Are we frozen altogether? I think we're frozen altogether. So let me refresh the stream here. Hold on. Of course. Try to get this thing back.
[01:38:58] Unknown:
Insufferable. And then it says that it's not only your your right, but it is your duty to stand up to defend the, the the tyranny and to throw off that tyranny and to institute for yourselves
[01:39:14] Unknown:
a new government to ensure, and this is the key, your future security. Stand by one second, my friend. We lost, Internet for a second there, and I'm just getting everything back up again.
[01:39:24] Unknown:
Oh, you did. I wasn't sure if you're still on, so I was, I was expanding upon one of my favorite amendments in the constitution.
[01:39:34] Unknown:
Can you hear me? Yeah. I can hear you. Okay. Can you hear me? Yeah. I don't know what happened there. My, everything went down. The Internet, everything shut down.
[01:39:44] Unknown:
That's lame. It was the it was the leftist gremlins. Yeah. Exactly. It never fails.
[01:39:53] Unknown:
Never fails. But, I'm glad to see that we still have our you're still here, though.
[01:39:59] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm here.
[01:40:07] Unknown:
Alright. Worst case scenario, sir, if it goes down again, I will happily reschedule with you for a Thursday when I don't normally do a show. This way we can have uninterrupted time.
[01:40:24] Unknown:
Oh, yeah. It's no sweat. I'm I'm totally fine. I appreciate you and Alright. Okay. Internet are you running?
[01:40:33] Unknown:
I am I am on the most expensive package you can get from Spectrum.
[01:40:37] Unknown:
Oh, interesting. So I got a Spectrum in our area, Spectrum is, like, the most expensive and really not great service. We we have Starlink because we live out in the country, but in our office that was in town, we had Spectrum, and it was quite expensive.
[01:40:54] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm just waiting for I'm waiting for the I have a monitor up here. I'm just waiting to see if it catches up so that I know that we're that we're all connected here. My hat's crooked. There we go. It looks fine. It looks fine. Alright. So we'll we'll just continue on because it's it's at least it's recording still. So, I'll be able to to salvage whatever we have so we can make it work. But, it's interesting, though, you're yeah. If you're talking about, and the reason why I was smiling here we go. We're back up. Alright. So the reason why I was smiling when you were talking about, the constitution, how being based on, on Christian principle, biblical principle, is because on Sundays for the last, eight or nine weeks, I've been actually teaching a Bible study show on America's Christian heritage and talking about the, the biblical basis of, the American Revolution, the founding documents, and, I'm just, just yesterday, actually, on yesterday's show, we were up to Andrew Jackson's days, Sam Houston's days. So, so it's been a great study. I've I've loved doing it. It's a lot of fun, so I'd invite you to come check it out if you, if you have the time Cool. If you have time to do that.
And I I totally agree with you a 100% on that. You know, our country was based on Christian values and Christian principle. You know, those the founding generation and this isn't a knock on on the World War two generation. This isn't a knock on on that, because we know, you know, we we call them the greatest generation. I I I don't agree with that. Great generation, absolutely. But I think our greatest generation was our founding generation, because these men actually thought. They they sat there, and they actually thought and put this country together from the ground up.
That to me is not something you you take lightly. You know, they gave us it's not every it's not you don't you don't always get the opportunity to form your own country, you know, and that's what these men did. So to me, that's always been the greatest generation. The and the and the notion that these men were all were were atheists and deists and agnostics, yeah, I'm sure there was some of that stuff in there mixed in, but George Washington baptized by pastor John Gano in the Hudson River in in in New York, you know, with witnesses, and you have, you know, modern school books, history books don't even mention that. They they say, well, it's it's a myth. It's it's, you know, it it's not didn't necessarily happen. Well, there's documentation that proves it.
John Gano's children actually witnessed George Washington getting baptized. Yeah. There were 40 other men there getting baptized,
[01:43:48] Unknown:
you know. I think I think the thing sort of to your to your point, the thing that I think about when I think about the greatest generation and why I agree with you is I think about the generation that sacrificed the most, you know. And I just look at, you know, our own circumstance, like, pretty much the toughest thing that you can do in America these days is homesteading, which we did. Mhmm. But it was buffeted by the fact that we had the money to be able to to build whatever we wanted. And, yeah, when we bought our property, we came here and there was no power and there's no water. And we're like, oh my goodness. What are we gonna do? We have to make a well and we have to get power here and we have to do this, and that's how it all starts. But just think about I always think about these people back in the revolutionary war era and just even prior to the revolutionary war Mhmm. And all the struggles and challenges that happened, you know, during the early seventeen hundreds and even into the sixteen hundreds and different things.
You know, these people didn't have the clothes that we have. They didn't have the technology. They didn't have comfortable socks. They didn't have the weaponry. They didn't have the the protection from the elements. They didn't have so many things. You know? I I remember, and I keep kinda taking this back to the homesteading thing, but I remember, you know, when we first started building here, we obviously had a house somewhere else. And we put an RV on-site, and we had, like, a a shower building. And I remember we built a well house, and we got power, and we did all that. And I remember when we first operated that shower building, and then we had the RV and stuff, it was like, it felt like, oh my gosh. We have even when we just built the well house, it was like, we're outside working. It's cold. We're all bundled up, but then we can run into the well house and it's warm. So there's heater and it's all insulated and everything. You know? So, you know, they didn't have any of that stuff back then. I mean, yeah, they could they could run into their house that once they got home walking for godly knows how many miles or or on a carriage behind horses or something. I mean, it was just such a different lifestyle back then. And, you know, we're living you know, I would probably be dead if I was if I was living back then at 50 I'll be 56 tomorrow.
I mean, people didn't live that long back then, generally. You know, some people did. But, so, yeah, it was they had they had tough lives back then. We have it so much easier now.
[01:46:09] Unknown:
Oh, I agree with you. I was I was thinking about also, talking about sacrifices that, that were made. You know, most most of the founding generation, they were they were burned out of their homes. They were, they were chased and pursued into the woods, into the wilderness. His families were broken up. Fortunes lost. Yeah. You know, it just they they sacrifice so much to give us the freedoms that we have in this country. Not that they get. I know I know our freedoms come from God. Liberty, you know, our rights come from God. But to to establish a government to protect those rights Exactly. You know, that's like something I always like to I always say is is that, you know, the only thing that I want government to do is that is is what it was intended to do, and that is to protect my right to do for myself.
Yeah. You know, that's where I stand on those things. Just keep us safe. Exactly. We ask. Exactly. Keep us safe. Exactly. You don't need to know how much water I have in my toilet. There there's no reason for that. Yeah. You know? And I I find it comical how they, you know, they're they're interested in a $600 transaction that that you make between two two, two, consenting parties, but yet there there will be a shuffling billions of dollars into who knows where for who knows what. You know? Gender studies in Pakistan are very important. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And and running, Sesame Street and, and and and It's great. And circumcision February
[01:47:37] Unknown:
to Ukraine. Yeah. Or that never should have happened. Never should have happened. And
[01:47:41] Unknown:
it it's just and I I don't I I hope I I really do hope that that the president can bring it to an end. I I just I don't see it happening anytime soon, to be honest. I think that that Putin and Zelensky are just too set in in in in going at this.
[01:48:00] Unknown:
They're they're they're A lot more a lot more people are gonna die, unfortunately. It's really sad. And I think that's what president Trump is trying to prevent. You know, the reality is this war has been going on for a long time, and and, you know, Putin is a is a crafty, you know, player. He knows what he wants and he and he, you know, he's not gonna give up trying to get it and, you know, Zelenskyy is the puppet, you know, Ukrainian puppet. Yep. And, but, you know, good on him for sucking billions of dollars out of, you know, other countries for the last few years and, you know, buying himself a bunch of mansions and fancy cars. And boats and all that great stuff. Yeah. I I'm with you. I'm I'm irritated. I have all full faith in the Lord. But and I'll tell you that President Trump and his team, you know, Steve Witkoff and and, Marco Rubio and the vice president, JD Vance, who's amazing.
You know, if if anybody can make this happen, they can. But but I do think it's a incredible uphill battle. And, there may be some there may there may indeed to be some things happening behind the scenes in order to force these parties together to save lives. You know, I just look at I think that the the big, discussion and the biggest topic in our country over the next year between now and the midterms is gonna be, is just gonna be law and order. It's gonna be safety on the streets in in America. And I think the reason is is when you look at what happened in in DC under just a few weeks under president Trump, really, in just a couple weeks, he's able to just literally clean up an entire city. I think the citizens of many of these other states and cities, like, for example, Chicago, where there's, what, 15 or more people or something that get murdered every weekend or something crazy, you know, people are gonna start to ask questions like, what wait a second. He just cleaned up an entire city in, like, a few days, and we can't we're we're going on years here in this city with all these all this crime and stuff. I just don't think the American people are gonna continue to put up with that. And don't you find it amazing
[01:50:02] Unknown:
I'm sorry. Don't you find it amazing, though, how you you you see all of this taking place under under president Trump, how quickly, like you said, he got everything under control in Washington DC, and the Liberals are still out there complaining about it.
[01:50:20] Unknown:
Yeah. I mean, these are the same people. I mean, if you read if you read, second Thessalonians chapter two verses one through 12, it's clear that God has literally given these people delusion. That's what it says. Mhmm. Because they refused the truth. It was their choice to choose or to reject the truth. They rejected the truth and so their eyes are now blinded. They have curtains over their eyes to see the truth. They can't see it now because they rejected it. That's what it says. Second Thessalonians chapter two verses one through 12 is very clear, especially verses eleven and twelve. Yes. And so, you know, that that's why that's how you get people marching on the streets because they're wanting to fight for gender affirming care to try to, you know, do the impossible. The truth is anybody who wants to be the opposite sex, you know, they claim to be transgender.
First of all, it's a mental illness. But if they really wanted to do that, their best hope is to get on their knees and pray to God because he's the only one that could maybe make it happen. Yeah. Nobody else is gonna make it happen. There's no doctor that's gonna mutilate your body in such a way that you're gonna somehow feel like the opposite sex. It just isn't gonna happen. You can get pumped full of These are the same yeah. These are the same people that are on the streets fighting because we're trying to get, you know, you know, we're trying to get people who are in the country illegal out of the country because they're offending they've they've broken the laws. They've become criminals by virtue of the fact that they came here illegally, and they're killing, raping, maiming, stealing, robbing our society.
And, and especially turning our country into this, you know, socialist hotbed because of the fact that they're, you know, they're on the government teat for everything. They're upset about that. They're upset about getting, you know, law and order and cleaning up the streets. I mean, it it just makes no sense. I mean, you just can't even argue with these people. I think it's a complete waste of time. I'm so frustrated as an engineer and somebody that wants to rescue our country and our state. I'm irritated that we spend so much time talking about stuff that is a complete waste of time. Mhmm. It's not it's a it's just a it's like a I don't even know what to call it. It's a waste of time, you know. We we should be talking about things where we can actually be making progress on stuff and stuff. I I really believe that if Donald Trump went on TV today and said, I have the cure for cancer,
[01:52:36] Unknown:
They will fight it and demand that they keep their cancer. Yeah. It's You know? And, you know just pure delusion. It's it's absolutely ridiculous. I I mean, they had zero murders in Washington, DC. I heard it today. Mhmm. Zero. Nothing.
[01:52:53] Unknown:
Yeah. I'm headed there Thursday. I'm very happy that it's much safer. Sure. I'm sure. We're there a lot. I'm sure. I'm sure. There's parts of parts of DC, but what what people have to realize is is, you know, that that crime most likely just moved out, you know, probably moved over to Baltimore and over to Virginia. Right. You know, a lot of that influence. But, you know, that's the way it goes. And okay. Well, you know, maybe Baltimore needs to step up their their law and order and start arresting people and prosecutors actually hold people accountable. That's America. You know, most people have never heard of the social compact, but, unfortunately, that's their responsibility as citizens.
You know. And and there's little perspective on this and I'll get off this, but I really do believe this is the big topic for the next year. The social compact essentially says that you you cannot, as a citizen, offend someone else's rights. And it's your responsibility to ensure that you don't step on someone else's rights. It's sort of like the golden rule of citizenship. Mhmm. But what's interesting about it is is if if we were in person and I reached over and punched you or knocked you out, I have I have by virtue of the fact of my action, my offensive action, I have offended you and your rights. I have violated the social compact. Right. And so your wife could call the police and they could come in.
Now what are they gonna do? They're gonna put my arms behind my back and they're gonna put handcuffs on me and they're gonna haul me away because I have voluntarily given up my right as a citizen because I offended your rights. Mhmm. That's how it works. And what what the American people need to understand is it is your responsibility to make sure that you don't offend other people's rights. That's how America is designed. The police are there not to stop crime from happening. They're there to make sure that the justice begins by taking that person who has given up their rights and detaining them and making sure that justice can happen once they've done that. That's very well said. Very, very well said.
[01:54:59] Unknown:
So I'm watching the clock here. We're getting late. So I wanna get into some of the issues that, that you're gonna be running on for your campaign.
[01:55:06] Unknown:
Mhmm.
[01:55:06] Unknown:
Because that's so, what do you what do you see as the as the top three items on the checklist that America has to tackle right away?
[01:55:17] Unknown:
Well, like I said, I think the big thing for the midterms is gonna be safety and security throughout America. We need safe streets. We gotta be able to feel like we can live freely and safely here in America and raise families and all that kind of stuff. But the true the truth is is that nothing trumps the economy. You know, if we can't afford life, if we're struggling financially, with this massive imbalance, if our kids you know, my kids are 20, 22, and 24, and they're facing, you know, $56,000 a month, you know, mortgages, you know, if they want to buy a home. It's really crazy. We have to it used to be when you and I were kids, you could buy a home on, you know, half a year salary. Mhmm. Now we're up to, you know, probably six, seven, eight years of salary. So there there's a big imbalance there that we have to fix.
And, you know, so those are two. Here in my district, we we supply 60% of the energy from our state comes from hydropower. There's a big move to remove the lower four Snake River dams here in Washington State. Even though they're beautiful and they have locks and they have they have fish ladders and they have everything you need and they're absolutely amazing works of art. God gave us beavers to show us how to dam up the water so we can make the land more habitable and, you know, grow more things and stuff. And I went down and did a documentary in California on the Klamath River dam disaster where they removed four dams has devastated millions of people's lives and and, you know, completely killed the river for probably a decade or two.
Aside from the fact that, you know, this just this methodical leftist process of wanting to drive to putting dynamite on the front front of those dams just because we wanna, you know, respect nature and return things back to the way they were, you know, it's it's complete lunacy. So those are some of the issues. I mean, obviously, we have to continue. I did a Doge project redesigning FEMA. I spent ten weeks on that. I went to The Middle East, for three weeks ahead of president Trump's visit there. There's a lot happening in the crypto space between, you know, traditional finance and and sort of the coming digital finance world. I went to Panama, did a documentary in Panama showing kind of the history of Panama, helping people understand that, you know, America paid for it, not just the original canal that opened in the early nineteen hundreds, but also the new canal, the Panamax or post Panamax Canal that opened in 2016, which we also paid for Right. Which a lot of people don't know about. And so, I've been very busy. I'm going to DC next week. I'm working on a project called the Congressional Accountability Act, which I've developed, which will give American citizens a seat at the table next to lobbyists. Because right now, the only influence that most members of congress have is their own their own party or, you know, lobbyists. So, and a bunch of other projects, some different bills and, some commendations that I'm working on for veterans in my district. And, you know, it's a lot of projects, and and including, you know, obviously running for congress and trying to disinfect the seat from a guy who's just absolutely terrible.
So, you know, those are some of the things that I'm I'm working on and running on, but, you know, happy to answer questions about more specifics.
[01:58:24] Unknown:
Now, border security. We touched on border security a little bit a little bit ago. Why do you think that that's such a critical first step in in fixing America?
[01:58:35] Unknown:
Well, I mean, the truth is we can't afford to have a bunch of illegals running around our country aside from the obvious, criminal aspect and and the threat. You know, I'm thinking, Brianna Morello who's on Twitter. She just was basically stalked right into her apartment. You know? Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. Some, yeah, some, like, Middle Eastern guy basically chased her into our apartment building and was, you know, ready to go up the stairs. And thankfully, she's a, you know, a second amendment fan and was able to protect herself. But, you know, we can't live in a country like that. You know, we need to be safe. I mean, we ought to be able to live with leaving our stuff unlocked and not being stressed about it. But, you know, there's also a economic load. And going back to what I was talking about with regards to the the American dream, You know, I went to the border and I speak a little Spanish, and I was talking to these people. They're they aren't coming here for the for the American dream as we know it because they aren't interested in the work part. They're just interested in the opportunity, and that's called socialism. When you don't wanna combine work with the opportunity, then that's that you're basically just coming here because you want freebies, and that's called socialism, which leads to communism, which is there's nothing good in that. And so, you know, we have to secure the border, which president Trump has done a great job with that. Fantastic job. Think anybody's even talking about that anymore. But the the part about that and this is this is difficult part. We have to deport these people. And and that's where, you know, unfortunately, it begins to shed light on the difference between leftist and conservatives.
Because the conservatives have way too much compassion for these people that are here illegally. And they're like, well, you know, maybe some of them, like, our our representative just cosponsored this Dignity Act. So they can give them, you know, 40,000,000 people amnesty, basically citizenship. You know, what is president Trump doing? President Trump is doing, you know, alligator Alcatraz. Why do you think they named it that? He's showing videos of the El Salvador prison and sending people there. He's talking about remodeling Alcatraz. He flipped the CBP one app so that people can self deport. He's offering a thousand dollars. What is all of that pointing at? All of that is pointing at motivating people to do the right thing and to go to their home country rather than to stay here because we can't deport all these people. There's too many of them. Yeah. And so if we can get them to self deport, then that's great. And our stupid representative goes out on the block in front of the capital and cosponsors the Dignity Act to give these people the hope that this administration is trying desperately to take away to lead these people to the path of least resistance, which is go home.
[02:01:15] Unknown:
Because that's what's best for the American people. I I agree with you. I heard a number the other day. I think it was Friday or Thursday or Friday last week that they actually estimate there are 52,000,000
[02:01:26] Unknown:
illegal aliens in this country right now. 50 saying what? 12,000,000 for what? A decade or more? Yeah. Yeah. Come on. You know? I mean, there's probably 12,000,000 just during Joe Yeah. Crazy. Exactly. Probably another 15,000,000 during, you know, the actual Obama.
[02:01:42] Unknown:
So it's yeah. It's it's crazy. Definitely. I always say 40,000,000, but I think it's probably you're right. It could be 50. It could be 60. Who knows? But it's a lot. Yeah. And I I applaud the administration. I think that they're doing a fantastic job. Look. I I don't know if you know where I am. I'm in Eagle Pass, Texas. So I'm right here I've been there. Yeah. I'm right here at the border. I'm I'm a few I'm just maybe five or ten minutes away from Shelby Park where that standoff took place. Yeah. That's not far from Laredo. Right? About four hours. Okay. About four hours from Laredo, two and a half hours from San Antonio, four hours to Austin or so. But, Yeah. It's crazy. We witnessed,
[02:02:18] Unknown:
you know, the the, the state police chasing the the trucks, and we witnessed one run off the road. They all jump out. They all flee Mhmm. Exactly like what they described to us when we visited the the state troopers. And,
[02:02:32] Unknown:
yeah, it's crazy. Very dangerous. Yeah. I I I I was actually I was driving on, on, US 57 here, and, there's a border patrol checkpoint. And I'll I'll this was the I'll never forget this. There was this little white car in front of me, and, when they pulled up to where the checkpoint markers started, they're letting you know there's a checkpoint coming up. This car pulled off to the side. Both door all four doors opened up, and about six people jumped out and ran into the bushes off to the side. And they they got caught, border patrol, because they're they're monitoring these cameras everywhere. They saw everything. But,
[02:03:12] Unknown:
you know, I'll never forget seeing that. That's that's Yeah. Because they're probably gonna, like, run around through the bushes, try to get to the other side of the checkpoint, and then get re picked up again. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. It's just crazy. I mean, you know, we have to have a secure border. You know, when you go to bed at night, you know, my wife sometimes will either get up or she'll ask me to get up. Can we we gotta go check the doors, make sure they're locked. I mean, we live in a pretty safe place, but we still don't go to bed without locking the doors. Right. You know? I mean, it's just it's just what you do. And the idea that we wouldn't lock the doors to our country, you know, America needs strong leaders that have the fortitude. If you don't have the fortitude to hold people accountable like the 16 year old young man who killed another teenager and you wanna feel bad for him that he's gonna be tried as an adult, maybe you shouldn't get involved in in the the judicial system. Just kinda, you know, maybe go, I don't know, work in a hospital or do something that requires all that compassion because I have zero compassion with these people. I served in the military. I risked my life for this country and for liberty. And this thing that happened to Brianna Marello, which really bothers me because we could be talking about her death or in in that staircase or her or her rape, you know. And and it's like and the American people also, yeah, whenever, you know. Oh, these guys came here illegally, and they you know, I was reading about one today. Some some guy raped a 15 year old right in public, you know. It's like, what on earth? His defense is, well, I'm Muslim and and in our country, that's okay. And it's like, well, you know what? This is America.
You know, you don't do that stuff here. And I don't care if you think it's not okay. You know it wasn't okay. You know? And so we just don't I'm not saying we need to have, like, this unbiblical law. People say, oh, well, you're not a Christian because you want it's like, they broke the law. Like, you know, if you don't have law and order, you know, God also gave us the whole the whole judicial system, you know, how to, you know, make decisions and be wise leaders and That's right. And, there's just way too much way too much softness in our country with a lot of people. And I think you can tell they didn't serve in the military.
[02:05:14] Unknown:
Well, you can also tell that they that they they secular society in in its in and of itself, that secular humanism that's that's so prevalent, especially within the left, you know, they they don't have any respect for authority. There's no there's no respect for for the order of things. So you you so you can't you really can't expect someone on the left who doesn't believe in God necessarily. I mean, they they they they feign belief. They may say they have belief in that, but Yeah. You know, they don't they they they pick and choose which of the laws they like, which ones they don't. They're very quick to, you know, you know, judge not lest you be judged and without really understanding what that verse is about. And Yeah. You know, without the whole, you know, actually studying the whole thing.
They don't they they don't understand that God puts government in place for a specific reason, and that is to protect rights and to enforce law. And they like to pick and choose the laws they like. They like to pick and choose the laws they don't, and they like to enforce the laws they like. They enforce the laws they don't. Secular humanism is it's it's it's death to to the country. Yeah. I I I I wish I could say that, you know, the the answer to this would be this great revival of Christianity throughout the country. I would love to see something like that. You know, this country was blessed to experience four revivals over its history.
Are there gonna be any more coming down the road? I don't know, but I would like to see it at some point. But, yeah. Yeah. But but the left just I don't I don't see how the left can possibly win any any other elections, aside from stealing it, of course, with the policies that they promote and the policies that they push and they embrace. You know, you look at social media. You look at all these, and I'm I'm gonna say it because this is a non PC show. You look at these lunatics on the left, did you I don't know if you saw the one with the with this this young lady. She took a an old Playboy magazine that Donald Trump was on the cover of and she tore it and she she ate it. I mean
[02:07:26] Unknown:
That's just weird. Okay. It's just it's just it's just like the Kathy Gifford or whatever is, like, holding the, you know, Trump head or whatever. And so Liberalism liberalism is a is a mental illness. I think our the call for us is can we I mean, we can certainly and easily be exacerbated day after day on what the left is doing, but can we motivate each other on our side to really truly take the offensive position that we should be taking instead of just, you know what, we're gonna hold our ground here. I mean, like what's going on in Texas. I love it. You know, the redistricting Mhmm. There this is not gerrymandering.
This is undoing gerrymandering that's been going on for decades. You know, that's the the the left has rung the water out of that, and it's time for us to start reeling that back. That's an offensive position. I was talking to, gosh, Beau. Is it Beau French? Republican party county leader up in, Fort Worth, and they just redistricted, their commissioners and are bouncing one of the losers out and putting somebody in that's gonna be good. So that's the kind of offensive stuff that we have to be doing. I'm not saying offensive, like, being offensive. I'm saying, like, on a team sport, you're on offense or defense. I'm saying, we need to go on offense. We have to fight clawing this stuff back. I'm tired.
This is the one thing if there's anything if I had to define why I love president Trump so much, it's because he's on offense. Mhmm. Every other Republican that I've ever seen short of Reagan a little bit, Even even you can't even really credit Lincoln with this. Although, Lincoln did make a lot of positive progress. Lincoln was still on defense, you know, but but Reagan kinda went on offense, especially with international relations. But Trump is full on, like, nine ten nine hours out of 10, he's on offense. And I love it. And that's exactly what we have to do because I'm tired of getting control and then basically just holding ground. It's like, okay. We're gonna hold ground. They can't do anything else for the next four years or however many years it is. And then as soon as they get it again, they turn their bulldozer left and they just start going. Mhmm. You know? And we don't do that. We don't get on the cat d nine and start turning right and go, why not?
You know, why not? People are complaining about this executive order that president Trump signed about flag burning. I don't care. For burning the flag is not a first amendment right. I don't care what you say, and we might disagree on that. I just don't see it as a right. The the thing is, if you're gonna go burn a flag, that means that you are actively going to put your mind to doing something, pouring some kind of flammable liquid. You have to get a flag. You have to put some kind of flammable liquid on it, and then you have to light it on fire in public and make sure that it's seen. Like, that that is we pledge allegiance to the flag. The flag means something in this country. Mhmm. You know? And so, you know, some people are complaining about that. So, oh, it's a first amendment violation. Like, no. It's not. Like and even if it was, which I don't think it is, you have to actively and offensively go out and take part in that activity. Go to jail. Yeah. You don't you don't I see. What's the other option? Oh, you're not gonna pledge allegiance to this country? Really? Then do you really wanna stay here? You know? Do you do you get to keep your citizenship if you don't wanna pledge allegiance? Yeah. You do. Because that's the country we live in, but you don't get to burn our flag and just incite violence. And that's what it's all and I'll tell you what's gonna happen with this, Joe. There's gonna be a lot more flag burning, but it's probably gonna be like shirts or it's gonna be shorts or it's gonna be a towel or it's gonna be something with the representation of the American flag. It's no different than these morons who put their knee down on the field instead of honoring those 1,200,000 people that gave their lives in our US military to make sure that we have the freedom and liberty that we have. It's It's it's an atrocity. It is not just an abdication of our responsibility of what we have to do today. It's a dishonoring of everything that every strong American has ever done over the last two hundred and forty nine years, and it just can't be. We cannot have a wrong order if we're gonna allow that kind of thing to happen in our country. I absolutely agree with you on that. Absolutely.
[02:11:43] Unknown:
I don't I don't think I could have said it any better myself. Question for you though. Yeah. On farming. Alright. So you're you you you you're a rancher. Across The United States, we're seeing agriculture in decline in many areas, and mostly because the cost and and the risk to keep farms up is incredibly high. When children inherit land, few take pride in generational legacy and look more to cashing in on the development potential of land. What do you think would improve the future of farming in The US? And this was a question that was posed by my producer.
[02:12:22] Unknown:
Yeah. There's a bunch of things there. First of all, I'm a be hard on the farmers. I love them. They're my family. They're my friends. They're my neighbors. But they have to raise their knowledge level in terms of managing finance. And, I created a game called the Easy Profit Game for our franchisees in our system, and and, you can get that at easyprofitgame.com. It's a plug, but it's it's it's, I I want people to understand more about finance. How does it work? Now I'll also say that the farmers are in a bit of an impossible situation, you know. And and this is not just, you know, certain, you know, aspects of farming, but I'll use apples as an existent as an as an example because we grow a lot of apples in this area.
The apple price for a bin of apples, which is like a four by four, couple feet tall, you know, bin. They're plastic bins now. They used to always be wood. Those are, you know, roughly a $140, $150. That's what the farmer gets for those, and they might produce a few 100,000 of them or, you know, there's a 140,000,000 of them or something created in the state every single or grown in the state every single year. And the the problem is is that those go through an exchange and then they're they're sold essentially into the retail market and then the retailers can market whatever they want. Well, how is it that our farmers are still getting the same amount for a bin of apples today that they were twenty years ago? Even though just in the last five years, the the price of fuel, fertilizer, labor, you know, overhead, maintenance, everything else has practically doubled, and yet they're still getting the same price. Like, it just doesn't work. The financial model is broken.
And so there's a problem with the the system, and it it's that whole commodity market, you know, the commoditization of the of these things. And so, you know, right now, the part of the saving grace is things like crop insurance and the farm bill and, you know, some different things like that. But the reality is is the business model needs to change for farming. The other thing that's happening is, there's a lot of private equity coming in, and they don't really care about the farm operations. They care about the land, real estate. And when what people don't realize about this is the a lot of these big money firms, whether it's banks or private equity or or whatever, they're just looking for a place to park their cash.
They want a place that they can they can see an escalation over time, but they don't really care too much about what happens, you know, to that farm operation in between. And so, you know, they'll do their best to try to make it as make it efficient, but the truth is that's not really what they're in it for. And so I don't know. I'm not gonna give you a straight answer, unfortunately. I have some really good ideas on what I think we need to do with the farming industry, but I'm I'm gonna openly tell you that I'm not sure how we get them implemented because we have to get so many people to come to the table to agree and say, you know what? This way we're we're processing this fruit or these vegetables or whatever, it's broken. It needs to it needs to change. And so I'll I'll work hard on it. It's just like the labor issues. I think that's what you gotta do. You gotta kinda break it up into different categories. Like, for example, the labor issues.
We have a unbelievably onerous, you know, Washington State legislature. They're completely crazy. They have practically a super majority and that's a lot of the things that they've done. They create it so that our migrant farm workers are working for in the neighborhood of $26.27 dollars an hour now. That's about what the cost is to the farmer. And, you know, they have to provide housing, they have to provide transportation, they have to provide, you know, all this stuff on top of, you know, the wages that are that are kinda crazy. And so and then we have a federal model. And so I'm like, why don't we create a competing model where the farmers can choose from a federal model or a state model? And that would force the states to compete with someone else rather than have monopoly, which is what they have today. So there's a lot I mean, I have a lot of ideas for what we could do, but I gotta win this seat before I get the chance to be able to, you know, put any of that stuff in place. But I certainly hope I get the opportunity to
[02:16:30] Unknown:
do it. Well, that makes sense. And and the and the fact that you're you're you're not spinning some some BS answer, you're being honest about it, then that that's important. That's that's incredibly important. Now you've been endorsed by president Trump. You've been endorsed by, Michael Flynn, who I'm a huge fan of Michael Flynn. I think he was treated so horribly, and I am I am so happy to see that there's some vindication coming around. Yeah. Did you see his movie? I've seen it. Yes. It's incredible. It's very, very and I would recommend it to anybody to watch that thing. So with those endorsements, how do they reflect your vision for America?
[02:17:09] Unknown:
Well, I think the endorsements are really I mean, there's a bunch more of them too. I mean, we were endorsed by our state party, all the county parties in our district. Mhmm. People like Roger Stone who was totally maligned by the, you know, by the judicial system. Oh, yes. You know, obviously, president Trump and and general Flynn and and the House Freedom Caucus who is really fighting for us. I mean, for me, it just goes back to the basics. You know? Some of my favorite people are are like, David and and Tim Barton at, Wallbuilders.
You know? And and one of my favorite books, which really kinda opened my eyes to politics and civics in America, was called The Original Intent that was written by David Barton. And so these people, they love God. They see, you know, Charlie Kirk is a great example. Mhmm. You know, the Pragers, are amazing. Dennis and Susan, they're they're just unbelievable people. Just just awesome fighting for this great country. We're doing it for different reasons than why the leftists are doing it. And I think that's the thing that we have to realize. And the voters have to realize, they have to stop being entertained by their politicians, and they have to start voting for people who really really want to do the job. Thank you.
That, you know, that that they wanna help restore our country and to to rescue our rights because that's what makes America what it is. And, so, you know, that's that's, you know, a call I think to Americans to get involved and to read and to, you know, learn a little bit. I get accused of being a, you know, a middle aged or almost elderly now teacher because I'm always teaching. I always, like, try to teach people, like, you need to read the constitution. Read the Bible in the morning and the constitution at night. You know? I mean, it's just that's the way it is. So, but, yeah, that's it's important to me. And it's important to have those partnerships and the the ways that I've been able to help the administration even though I didn't win the last election. I did win the primary. Mhmm. But I had to face the incumbent in the general, because even though we're both Republicans, in Washington state, they have a jungle system and so the top two I actually won the primary by more than 10%.
And so when we went to the general, all the Democrats voted for him because I was endorsed by Trump. And so that was the only reason I, you know, I didn't I didn't end up winning, but I hope we'll we'll be able to knock him out of the primary this time. But Yeah. I was looking at the ballot pedia or earlier today,
[02:19:32] Unknown:
tonight, and I was looking at the results of the, of the last campaign. And, I I don't I'd never understood the the system in in Washington state. I think it's crazy. It it really is. But, so what are your chances look like at at this particular point, going into this, election cycle?
[02:19:50] Unknown:
Well, I mean, I'm I'm very confident. I was very confident last time. I mean, it was very close. Our race was the last one of the last five races out of 535 to you know, not not all the senate went went. But out of all the races in Congress, ours was one of the last ones we called because it was very close. Mhmm. So, you know, but it really just depends on the circumstances, you know. And if it if it ends up if it ends up being a difficult race for him, then he's just gonna, you know, call in the wolves and, you know, spread a bunch more lies about me. And they spent $3,000,000 in our district, which is a rural district. So that's a lot of money. Every seven minutes, if you were flipping on the radio or TV or over the top or or even online, every seven minutes you were hearing a negative Jared Sessler ad. I mean, just lying about everything, telling people I want to raise taxes, telling people that I'm a vegan.
You know, I did eat very healthy. I still eat very healthy, but I also raise cows. Like, I love beef. I just had a burger, a great burger for dinner. Nice. And, you know, just telling people lots of lies about me. And so when you have that kind of money and you have, you know, a somewhat ignorant voter base, and I and I don't say the word ignorant to be offensive. Ignorant means you don't know. Mhmm. So if the voter base doesn't know the details, then they're gonna they're gonna see all these negative ads and they're gonna get scared. And they're like, oh my gosh. This guy's you you know, and that's that's part of the reason why I wrote the book was because the incumbent, Dan Newhouse, targeted older voters in our district to try to scare them from voting, you know, for me so they would vote for him. And, and I knew that, you know, I wanted to write this book anyways. I had a a kind of a mind to do it. But also older generation people tend to have more respect for people that have written books and are best selling authors. Mhmm. And so, you know, part of my play with that is to try to win, you know, some support back from those older voters to make sure that they don't get scared off again. So so we'll see, you know, we'll see what happens, but a lot of it depends on what the mix is. You know, he has the incumbent has manipulated the mix by getting other people into the past to help himself.
I see. And, you know, that's just kind of the way he plays the game. And so we'll just have to see what the mix is come, you know, registration week, and then we'll we'll see what we have to do to win the primary again. I have great name recognition here. President Trump is is continuing to support me and endorse me. And, you know, I think the people of Central Washington, everywhere I go, I mean, people are just, oh, man. We're so thankful of what you're doing, and are you gonna run again, and, you know, everything. So I feel really good about that and having the support of the voters, but, you know, we'll just have to see what what the cards deal us. And, honestly, it's in the Lord's hands. And, I mean, the best thing people can do is number one, donate. You know, just set up a $50 or a $100 a month and just send it.
It's very easy. I'm sure you compare share the links with your your folks there and, and then get involved. There's lots of stuff that people can do for my campaign even remotely. They don't necessarily have to be in the district. And so, get a hold of me and, you know, we can we can get you set up to help with some stuff. Alright. Well, you you kinda jumped ahead to where I was in my questions for you. But alright.
[02:23:05] Unknown:
So, that we're gonna wrap this up for tonight because, coming up on two and a half. Let's see. So who's someone that you respect right now, and what are they doing that was she that that's, that it really inspires you?
[02:23:18] Unknown:
You know, I think, one of the most inspirational people right now is, well, there's a bunch of them. I'm I'm gonna say JD Vance. And part of the reason is is is I came from a rough childhood, you know Yeah. Had a lot of things to break through. And, that doesn't have to define your future. And I think JD Vance is probably our future president. I feel like he does an unbelievably great job, better job than any vice president I've seen in my life supporting the president. He does such a good job. He's just so articulate. He's so down to earth. He feels it feels like you can hop in a boat and go fishing with him or something and just be totally cool with it. Like, he's just fine. You know? He's, like, just down to earth, you know, just like you and I talking here. I love it.
I have a ton of respect for, for the work that, Harmie Dillon is doing, you know, with the civil rights division of the Mhmm. The Department of Justice. I think, she's an absolute bulldog, and you do not wanna get on her bad side. She is a relentless attorney, and, she's fighting for the America that we love. Yeah. I think, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. Kash Patel also endorsed me, and, he wrote a book called Government Gangsters, which I I just I mean, I liked him before that, and I met him at CPAC a few years ago. But after I read that book and I saw him name names, I was like, this guy is the real deal. And when I saw what he did with regards to the Russia collusion hoax and and, you know, everything that that happened with that, I mean, this guy is the real thing, and I think we're set for a serious show over the next couple years with regards to what the FBI becomes and and how they hold people accountable.
I agree. Yeah. Those are some I mean, president Trump's got a great cabinet, You know? I get to I'll be in DC in a couple days. I'm actually speaking at a MAHA event, under you know, that's the project under secretary Kennedy Mhmm. Which is amazing. You know? Yeah. A lot of these people that I get to train, I'm speaking on civics, and, a lot of them that I get to train are probably people that are, you know, somewhat politically agnostic, but they would probably end up voting Democrat because they're they're Kennedy supporters. But, yeah, I get to go as a MAGA, you know, America First Trump endorsed, you know, candidate for Congress to teach him a little bit about how this country is supposed to work, and that's a tremendous honor for me.
So, so, yeah, Trump Trump's got a lot of great people underneath him. There's a lot of unsung heroes too. So but we we can probably talk about them forever, but I won't go into it. But, I am I am hopeful that there is more justice for the people for the j sixers. I was in DC on January 6. I saw what happened. I've also intimately seen some of the just crustacean from the the disastrous mess that has, you know, ensued in people's lives as a result of the the Mhmm. Political persecution that happened there. And, you know, you you sort of compare that to sort of the juicy smollett, you know, white glove treatment that he gets for being a complete dirtbag. Right. Yeah. And, you know, you need you know, I call it the juicy smollett factor. Anything that's politically expedient, even if it's illegal, is okay to do according to the Democrat party. You know, I think it's just disgusting. So Well said. Still got a lot of work to do in this country.
But I think the people that peep what we have to what we have to realize is, you know, a lot of people like to complain about the history of America without looking at America in a macro view and realizing that we're always getting better. It's always two or three steps ahead and one or two steps back with America. Two or three steps ahead and one or two steps back. But when you zoom out and you look at a 100 steps or 200 steps or a thousand steps, it's incredible progress and that's the that's the focus that people have to have. Yes. And, that's what I'm fighting for, and that's what I'll continue to fight for. And I hope we get an opportunity to do it from Congress.
[02:27:17] Unknown:
Alright. Well, Jared, where could, folks go to, find out more about you, your campaign, contribute?
[02:27:26] Unknown:
Yeah. So I'm on the platform. I actually quite load social media, really, but I do enjoy Twitter, even though I'm shadowbanned on there. So if anybody has Elon's, cell number, please text him and ask him to unshadow ban at Sessler, at Sessler, s e s s l e r, on Twitter. You can follow me there. We also have a Facebook page. My personal one's closed because I just had to break it down to just people I actually know because I just had too many people on there that were making it to where I felt like I couldn't post things because it was gonna gonna get blown up or something. I gotcha. But we do have a campaign page that has thousands of followers. And then our website is jeredforcongress.
That's jerr0df0rcongress.com. Jaredforcongress.com. And there's donation links on there. People can call if you email our campaign email. I look at that inbox every single day. So if you have questions for me, feel free to email us. It's [email protected]. It's on our website, jared for congress dot com. And, you know, the biggest thing I would encourage people with is don't discount your faith. You know, one of the most disappointing things for me in this country is the perspective that God has given me on my faith is that it's actually real.
And, there's way too many people who I call pew sitters that do the right thing and they're good people. But the reality is is probably and if you look at the BARMA data, it could be as many as 85% of the people sitting in pews every single Sunday. Mhmm. They don't really know the gospel. They can't articulate the gospel. And if you don't know that, then you don't really have the joy that the Lord wants you to have. And I question whether or not you really understand the power that you have in his name. Good point. And, favorite my favorite book of the Bible is James. It's an action book. It's like the action adventure, and it it really says, like, look, you're either gonna you're either gonna have I'm either gonna see action in your life or I'm not gonna see faith. Now that doesn't mean that you have to have action in order to have redemption, but it does mean that those who truly love the Lord and want to see, you know, want to want to, show the the honor and the thankfulness that we should rightfully have as a result of, you know, what he did for us, we we would be acting. We would be moving. We would be taking steps to honor him in that. And so Agreed. The biggest thing is this.
I believe God's given us more power in prayer than we even understand. So please start praying every day and pray about whatever comes to mind. Just pray and ask God for help. And, somehow God's given us power through that. And so I would just really encourage people, to do that for yourself and for others. Pray for me. Pray for my campaign. Pray for our country. Pray for your state. Pray for your marriage and your kids and your family. And, just trust God to see,
[02:30:24] Unknown:
healing come in those areas of your life. Oh, praise the Lord, brother. I appreciate that. That's that's that's wonderful. Well, very well said, and I agree with you. James, it's a great book. It's, the Proverbs of the, of the New Testament. Yeah. It's fantastic. Just you know, I I I never was able to actually put my finger in it and say, alright. This is my favorite book because they're all amazing. They they all have their individual unique qualities. The Bible is, and I and I've said this many times, the Bible is the greatest political science textbook you will ever get.
The Bible is basically about who is going to rule who, and you read it cover to cover all the way through. Salvation's in there, which is great. Yes. Absolutely. But the Bible is is it's a political science textbook. It's a science book. It's a mathematics book. It's Yeah. Everything that you need for your life is in that Bible. Now can I do I profess to know where it all is? No. I I I don't. I'm working on it. And I think God I think God made it that way purposely this way you study it and you look at it and you're constantly reading it. So so open your Bible, study it, read it, get to know the Lord. And, you know, Jared, thank you so much for being here with us tonight. And what I'm gonna do is, after the show, I'm gonna text you if if that's okay, because I got I have your number here. So I'm gonna text you after the show, and I wanna set up another day with you where we can actually sit down and hopefully we won't have any technical issues like we did tonight, and, continue on this conversation. I really thoroughly enjoyed your perspective on things, and I really would love to talk to you some more about this stuff, and especially about bible stuff, about your faith.
That's really that's really interesting to me, and and and and I'd love to have conversations with folks about that. So if you're up for that, let's let's set something up, and I'll communicate with you, off the show about that.
[02:32:13] Unknown:
100%. If we want if we wanna see people be successful in life, we have to teach them how to fish, not just feed them. And, our their greatest success is gonna be knowing the Lord more than anything else. That's right. You know, when they when they get filled with the Holy Spirit and and the Holy Spirit starts leading them, their lives will be transformed.
[02:32:33] Unknown:
Absolutely. Alright. Well, Jared Sessler, thank you so much again for being with us tonight. God bless you. Good luck with the campaign. We'll be praying for you, and, I'll be in touch with you, right after the show. Sounds good. God bless you. You too. Thank you, sir. Take care. Alright, folks. That is, gonna be it for us for tonight. But, I do have some announcements to make, so let's go do that. And, we'll take care of that here in just a second. Gotta just do one quick thing. And let's see. There we go. Alright. Now, folks, don't forget, sign up for the programming announcements email list. Alright? Very, very important to do that because it's the best way for us to keep in contact with you and talk to you about what's going on with the show. Send that we send out email updates, you know, pretty much for every show. I'm not gonna say I'm the best at it. I apologize for that. I'm working on that. Alright. So please don't forget to check that out. Also, don't forget to check us out on Twitter at Joe Ruse. Truth social, at Joe Ruse minds, at Joe Ruse Facebook, Joe Ruse podcast. Instagram is not Joe Ruse.
TikTok, joe dot roo's getter at joe roos. Shout outs, of course, as always to our executive producer, Wayne Rankin, executive producer, Rosanna Rankin, executive producer, Carolina Jimenez, and our executive producer, Marissa Lee. Also, thank you to our producer, anonymous Angela. Thank you so much for all that you guys do. You guys are amazing. I have probably the best producer team there is, but there's always room for more. And you can always jump in on that by making a donation to the show. As an associate producer, you can sign up for our producer tiers. Associate producer is $17.76 a month. Producer is $18.36 a month. Our executive producer is $25 up a month and up. And you I don't know if you can hear Charlie. He's barking in the background letting me know he's hungry. It's time to feed. So, we're gonna start to wrap this up, but the, all the producers get the same thing. They get the shout out on every show. They get inclusions in all the show in all the, emails that we send out, show notes, everything.
And then, if you wanna help us out with cryptocurrencies, all of our wallet information is available to you right there on the website as well, so you can check that out. Or Ethereum, Tether, Bitcoin, TEXACoin, our our or Algo Wallet's up there now, so you could check that out. Also, thank you to the folks that are streaming Sats to us across the modern podcast apps, like modernpodcastapps.com and podcastindex.org. So check them out. Alright. Well, folks, I think that is gonna do it for us for tonight. Sorry about the little technical hiccup with the, with the Internet there, but, hopefully, everything still is intact.
Alright, folks. Thanks for being with us tonight. Don't forget to head over to the website, joeroos.com, and let us know what you think. And folks, make Texas independent again. Go podcasting. Keep a steady stride, and keep talking. Good night. Night.
Introduction and Show Overview
Upcoming Guests and Housekeeping
First Guest: Tony Kessel's Story
Life in the National Guard
Dualist Media and Music Projects
The Healing Power of Music
Mental Health and Personal Challenges
Faith and Overcoming Adversity
Second Guest: Jared Sessler's Introduction
Navy Experience and Personal Background
Political Awakening and Campaign Motivations
America's Founding Principles
Law and Order in America
Border Security and Immigration
Farming and Economic Challenges
Campaign Challenges and Future Plans
Inspirations and Final Thoughts
