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Special Election, House 24 Florida, Tampa's City Election, and More - See Show Notes For Links
Candidate 1 Bio - Candidate 2 Bio - Candidate 3 Bio - Candidate 4 Bio - Candidate 5 - Bio - Special Election Harding Resigns - Good Old Boy Contributions and $75,000 Mystery Money - Complaining Over Doing - and more...
The Paul Truesdell Podcast
Welcome to the Paul Truesdell Podcast. Two Pauls in a pod. Featuring Paul the Elder and Paul the Younger. So, what's the gig? Individually or collectively, Paul and Paul sit down and chat predominately at the Truesdell Professional Building and record frequently. They explain a few things about how life works before time gets away. They connect the dots and plot the knots, spots, and ops with a heavy dose of knocks, mocks, pots, rocks, socks, and mops. Confused? Then welcome aboard! You see, Paul the Elder and Paul the Younger enjoy telling complex stories that are always based on business, economics, and forecasting while having fun, laughing, and being among like-minded men, women, and children from Earth, Pluto, Jupiter, and Neptune. Individually and jointly, Paul the Elder and Paul the Younger, coupled with Team Truesdell, have been there and done it. If you enjoy front porch philosophers who take deep dives and connect the dots, while drinking coffee during the day and a whiskey after five, welcome.
It is a true pleasure to have you onboard.
This is, The Paul Truesdell Podcast.
Unknown Speaker
We have a fellow here in Ocala, Florida, fella by name of Joe Harding, who was a member of the nice of the Florida House representatives, 35 years of age resigned, because he was indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts in connection with allegations, remember, you're innocent till proven guilty that he defrauded the federal government in funds as a result of the pandemic related Small Business payroll Protection Plan program. When you think about that, I think that's a difficult one to get away with, if that's what he's, he's actually done. I find it comical that anybody would try and
Unknown Speaker
try and manipulate that system given that the government has both ends of the data on that one. It's a little little hard to trick the government that against the data that they already have. But hey, you know, that's just me. There have been a lot of people out there who have been snagged by this. And there are reports that there will be a whole bunch more Oh, yeah, a tremendous number of people, I think I saw somewhere to 5 billion somewhere in there so far that they've been able to find has gone to people that shouldn't have gotten that it's, you know, you expect that with programs that have dollar values of the size, especially with government programs. But again, this is a program that is not exactly something that you could have very easily gotten away with, given that you have to base this off of prior years.
Unknown Speaker
filings for how many employees you have, all these things have to be given to the government because you know, when you employ people on a non contract basis, you have to file reports with your state and federal government for security and for unemployment taxes, and all these things. It's a little hard to get away with.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's there's just so much out there, the United States Attorney General's Office,
Unknown Speaker
attorney's office now GENERAL ATTORNEY'S OFFICE for the Northern District of Georgia last year, in February of 2022. So we got a year ago. Okay. That's when they started really kicking in. I noticed. Yeah, they charged 22 people stealing just under $4 million. But we've got basketball players in the NBA that stole massive amounts. Yeah, it's pretty much everywhere. I mean, I remember people were criticizing certain people.
Unknown Speaker
Especially like, I think the one that comes to mind is Tom Brady, for doing the same thing, but he did legitimately like the money was available. It didn't have any requisite. You know, it didn't have any prerequisites for, you know, you have to lose money or anything, it just was that if you had employees and you wanted to, and you planned on retaining them or wanted to retain them through this period, then you can get money. It's pretty simple. Yeah, I don't blame anybody for taking money that you needed it. I mean, they shut down the country. But my point is just that, you know, if even people who didn't need it, right, if it's available, and you qualify for it, you know, I mean, some would have subscribed, it's a bad, bad business decision not to take free money will absolutely going back to March 20 of 2021. So a year before that, gosh, it's already been already been prosecuting. Right. Yeah. The Department of Justice charged, just under 500 People were stealing $570 million.
Unknown Speaker
You start to lose faith in government.
Unknown Speaker
I mean, at least they're actually following through. You know, I guess that's the thing that's kind of kind of difficult in prior situations, they probably would have just brushed under the rug and moved on. Do you remember the guy who they got pretty quickly within three or four months because he was out buying Lamborghinis and stuff? And not exactly rocket science? Scientists? There is a no, not at all. Then of course, we have Evan Edwards in his son Joshua, as a good Christian named Joshua. And the Elsa international ministry. They got nailed for stealing $8.4 million.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, that's a little much. Yeah. You know, they bought a built a multimillion dollar home near Walt Disney World with the money and yeah, it just sometimes you just want to scream at this stuff. But it is what it is so old Joe? Mr. Remember, he kind of touted himself as Mr. Christian, you know, a good family man. It seems to be in this county that's, there's two things are going on one, how much you can wrap yourself with the biggest crosser on your neck. And the second thing is to how close you how many times and how loud you going?
Unknown Speaker
To say, I'm going to support Ron DeSantis in the legislature. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, that's that's the MO at least these days. We have people down in Tampa, who are on the city council. And it is interesting down there that you have some very interesting similarities. I spent a lot of time in Tampa. And one of the things that I'm impressed with is that the mayor, which is Jane Castor, and I used to work with Jane. She came on back in 1984. And I have enjoyed watching her rise to the ranks, always the chief of police. And then she ran for mayor and I think she's done a fantastic job. There's been a couple of things that went sideways with picks of Chief Police, for example, but you know, things happen. Personnel and politics number one place she'll get in trouble as a politician. Yeah. But there's very few people that will say she's doing anything other than a stellar job. She has token competition. She's going to win reelection in a landslide. But some of her people that are on the city council, who are her biggest detractors have garnered some very interesting opponents. For example, the family caspers that owned the McDonald's franchise chain. Yes. Big operation here in Florida. Well, they sold it. And the gentleman is running for city council against a another fella who owns a hair salon is a little bit behind in taxes or something like that. He's got his he's got a garnishment against him on his city council pay. Not good, not good. And but the CASPER family is well known for running businesses. I mean, they they know their business. Well to run to run, what the state's largest McDonald's franchise? Yeah, I'd say so I would say so. You know, sometimes even if you don't like somebody's politics, you have to sit back and go, this dude knows how to run a business, for sure. And when you have a state legislature, to me, you, I want people in there who are actually going to contribute to the good of the not just a community, but also the state. Yeah, I agree. You know, the state of Florida has kind of like a lot of states. And in the south, where we're business state, there's people moved to Florida, because it's business friendly, because the legislature and the state government understand how to properly shape regulation, or remove it if it's not necessary to create a more advantageous business environment for Floridians. And obviously, that's worked when you look at DeSantis. And you look at all of the policies of the past few governors combined with the Santas and what how he handled COVID policies, whether the, whether the previous president likes it or not. He handled it pretty well. And, you know, we're getting a lot of, let's call it business transplants into the state people that do serious stuff. And that's good. Unfortunately, that seems like it's a little heavy on logistics and not as much real stuff being done, as you're alluding to, but it's uh, yeah, it's, it's, it's created a good business environment, I think, more people that can influence things on the basis of actual real world business experience, especially on a smaller level where most normal people are going to be where the majority of businesses are. I think that's, that's more important than anything. What's interesting about Tampa and Hillsborough County is they have turned down there to be very democratic, and that's all there is to it. But the Republicans that ran this last time, the coattails of de Santos were really, really, really strong. They weren't statewide. I mean, what down in
Unknown Speaker
even the Miami Dade area, they even picked up a couple of seats, which is unheard of. Well, you also have the mayor of Miami is Republican and he's talking about running for president. I don't know anything about him. So if I don't know about him, then he needs to raise his profile a little bit, but that's interesting. Well, he, yeah, his father was was Mayor down there and, and he is the first I think Cuban American born here to be mayor. Okay, all the other partners were, you know, refugees or, you know, born in Cuba. But I mentioned this because one of the things I've noticed is that, regardless of whether you're Republican or Democrat, Independent Martian or from Pluto,
Unknown Speaker
it is nice to see that some people are willing to step up and take the ridiculous heat that lame stream journalists heap
Unknown Speaker
on you
Unknown Speaker
for just being in business, you can't be in business without, you know, causing a few waves here and there. Usually, yeah, very few people escape the escape the eye of the media, when it comes to business dealings, you know, you and especially when it comes to construction, you know, it's very difficult to get anything done. That doesn't involve somebody screaming about and calling the lawyers. And so one of the things I
Unknown Speaker
am not naming names, but there were a couple of people down in Tampa, where they would become, let's say, a city council person, and then they would wind up becoming a mayor, and then they went might wind up becoming a head of the elections bureau. They just, it's just one revolving door after another. I don't like that a whole lot. No, I don't think anybody should. It's just kind of gross. Yeah, I mean, there's there's literally 330 plus million people. I don't know what the population is. Now. You'd think, somebody if you're a true citizen legislator, that you would step aside, you would hope so. But unfortunately, successful politicians very rarely put their ego aside. Instead, what they do is they double down on it, and that's their career. So we're bringing this up without using any names today. I'm using some names down in Tampa, because again, I go back and forth here, but we're going to focus primarily in the Ocala area. And for those of you who live in district 24. We're gonna put a map up on Paul truesdale.com, you can take a look at the map. We'll put some links to the map on this. This is the Paul Truesdale podcast to Paul's mypod. I'm Paul Truesdale. Joining me is none other than Paul Scherzo. Yeah, father and son. And we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago that we needed to do this, because our fear is that a lot of retirees who will probably make up the overwhelming majority of the voters in this special election. Oh, definitely. Based on the map, definitely. Yeah. And we hope that if you're listening to this, you'll tell family, friends, neighbors, relatives and co workers in the area to listen to this, because we're going to talk about some things that are not going to be politically correct. Of course, I've never been politically correct in my entire life. And I don't care about that, because I think somebody has to, somebody has to talk about it. So we've got people out there who are running for this legislative seat, which are, I don't know, man, I don't know how to describe some of these people. They're just town crybabies. That works. Town criers. Sure. They get up on a soapbox with their their crayons and coloring books. And they just recite the same thing that everybody else CITES. I'm sorry, I just I don't like it. One of the things we do is we have a candidate who has basically his his business, and is multilevel marketing. Yeah, that's not exactly my cup of tea. So I guess, let's talk about that. What just off the cuff because in one of the things you should know, if you're listening to this, we never rehearse us. We talk about what we're going to talk about, and then we each just kind of spit ball at when we get in because it's just a conversation. When I say multilevel marketing, you're barely in your 20s.
Unknown Speaker
Pretty soon you're going to be up there.
Unknown Speaker
What does that? What does that conjure up for you? I mean, you've been around me for your entire life. But what was it conjure up? Let's see, first off the top my head. In the modern context, obviously, we have a historical context of this in America, that is nothing short of gross. But in the modern context, you think of, let's see,
Unknown Speaker
the kind of people that hang out with the internet crypto bros.
Unknown Speaker
Who, I don't know, let's say they they're fake gurus, basically. And they're gonna, oh, man, I'm gonna make you rich type. Just, I don't know. I don't I don't have any, let's say
Unknown Speaker
polite words to say. But it's, it's, you know, it's a recruiting business. It's nothing short of a recruiting business. And typically what most of these organizations are selling stuff that is really nothing special. It's no different than anything else that you can conjure up from Amazon or Walmart. It's a it's just a sales game. Well, that's the thing. It's not just you're not selling the product or the service. The whole idea is to sell the company to get more people downline, your recruiter. Yeah, the only people that make money in these things are the recruiters. And it's, you know, it's unfortunate that that's, that's the thing that still has any kind of popularity, because it's one of the, I guess, lowest tier forms of I don't
Unknown Speaker
Just recruiting in general, no matter what business you're in, whether you're I mean, everybody out there that especially in the business world will have interacted with one of these schmucks who is trying to recruit you to sell insurance.
Unknown Speaker
Multilevel marketing is effectively the same thing. The only differences is insurance, you have one place to go. It's a term burn kind of business. You know, you've talked about that forever. Oh, yeah. You know, an Al Williams, Al Williams, Arthur L. Williams was a football coach and shoot in Georgia. And one thing led to another, he became an insurance agent, with Milko at the Massachusetts indemnity and life insurance company. And the guy was very charismatic, a very interesting topic, because he has a strong connection to Tampa, which I'll talk about just a second. But Art Williams basically ran out and told everybody, by term and invest a difference. He was one of the proponents of being a termite. And I think he committed a tremendous fraud and should have been prosecuted. Because all life insurance, no matter whether its whole life, universal, life, adjustable life don't matter. It's all the same thing. It's term insurance, the older you are
Unknown Speaker
the x potential curve of costs. Anyhow, art did a really good job of recruiting people and getting people to read. And he put up a really neat multilevel marketing together.
Unknown Speaker
His problem was, he started telling people that, you know, this is the lowest cost insurance out there. His people did some weird things. And again, it was all about recruiting. And then, of course, they used some high cost mutual funds, and I'm just,
Unknown Speaker
you know, how I feel about that stuff? Yeah. Well, and the reality is, is that's the same kind of strategy that
Unknown Speaker
insurance picked up. Unfortunately, at least certain kinds of insurance companies did. Because it works. It captures, you know, the, this, it's just, it's, it has a little bit of a glamour and a little bit of sheen, because people see the money. Yeah, so yesterday, and that's how they saw him, you know, it's all it's, it's the, it's the big house, the fast car, it's so look at all my success, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, that's, that's the reality is they, you know, they think they're gonna make a million bucks doing this, and, you know, very few of them actually do.
Unknown Speaker
Then obviously, the car sales is very similar to that, of course, it's, you know, huge churn and, you know, sell your friends and family on the Nissan and then you're on to the next year. And, you know, it's just it is what it is very few people are actual real career car salespeople. And I think there's probably very few more irritating things in the world than going onto a car lot to look at one or two vehicles and the sales guy that has now decided to attach himself to you knows absolutely nothing about it. And he's reading the sticker on the car. Yeah, how many times you know more than he does about it? How many times has that happened to us? Every time every time except for maybe one time? Maybe one time we had somebody that's halfway decent, but the point is, is that is that that's the quality of person they're getting as you know, it's unfortunate. You know, that guy won't be there for the next six months. So anyway, the point is, is just that, you know, in general, it's, it doesn't attract the highest quality of people. It tends to attract
Unknown Speaker
people that can't see beyond tomorrow, let's just say well, we'll see what kind of vehicle I drive No, but yes, you know, we got rid of all of our Mercedes because I got fed up with the quality of Mercedes and other issues. They just just I've had bad dealership in Gainesville sucks. Yeah, the gear ship in Gainesville sucks in the sky. What does it courtesy in Tampa is very good. Yeah, if you're going to have your vehicle appear via Mercedes, it really doesn't make a lot of sense to have to drive at 90 minutes to go get it serviced. Yeah, I wound up driving down to Tampa from Ocala to get my vehicle service because the service experience and the quality there was second to none. Mercedes the S class Mercedes has a windshield issue if you crack it, it's going to run and they can't get windshields. It's just what least yours. Yeah, I was able to get it but it happens so damn often. It got to be ridiculous. And yeah, but the the most recent vehicle I drive the when we picked it up. I literally bought it in the morning and the next day and we went back down. I bought it in the morning. I see you got two hours to get it ready. I'm done. And they did it. And then you and I wouldn't back down. They did the walkthrough. I thought it was very very impressive. Yeah, that's good. We didn't get down with Mercedes.
Unknown Speaker
I've really I really, I knew more about the Mercedes and a guy sold it. What two and one two in one day. How Not a lot of people buy two S class Mercedes in one day, but it was like no
Unknown Speaker
Have It All dude. All they wanted was the check to clear and they were ready to move on to the next person. Unfortunately the business that they're in they don't care. And that's the thing with this multilevel marketing art did find never as far as I know never do anything illegal but he wound up owning the Tampa Bay Lightning a lot of people don't know that and yeah, very famous hockey player Phil Esposito, his statue was out front there Phil was involved in all that just it's an interesting story how this guy who's been a nemesis to me because I have worked occasionally with what I would call normal everyday working people and you get these these yesterday I couldn't spell insurance a day I am an agent.
Unknown Speaker
I'm cleaning homes. I'm my husband is working on cars as a mechanic and we're going to be your financial planner. On weekend. I just I found that so appalling. I think one of the most comical Market America why just just let it out there. Multilevel marketing schemes is Market America so I'll just I'll just suppose put my foot in my mouth there is that is one of the best ones out there. You and I dug into it for various reasons we did the guy who founded it died. And he did. Yes. Well, he was. The last thing I remember is dropped, I think on his massive billion dollar or a yacht. Yep. Well, the thing I remember is that his giant yacht like crashed into something.
Unknown Speaker
oil tanker or something. Yes, very funny. But the thing is like the guy is one of these just grotesque, you know,
Unknown Speaker
grotesque super rich guys who his entire shtick is, oh, yeah, come come sell enough and recruit enough people, I'll invite you to you know, come take a vacation on my yacht. And they do these big get togethers. And you know, it's just it's literally his the entire thing looks like something out of you know, like the multilevel marketing scams from from the 1990s like the mid 1990s It's just terrible. In my head, the first thing comes to mind. I mean, we've all seen the ads especially if you're if you're older, but for anybody younger that's listening to this. I can't help but think of the movie pain again. Where you have
Unknown Speaker
you got it you got you got to describe that who's involved in it. Yeah, the movie has pain and gain. Yeah, the movies painting. do or don't don't? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker
It's a movie based on a real story. But of course it is. But the point is, is they have a very let's call an extravagant multilevel marketing recruiter who shows up with his booth babes. And he's screaming at the crowd. I remember the guy he was in the what's his name? The thing isn't a is the guy is an Asian guy is actually a doctor in real life. And he's, he was on that TV show community. I don't know his name is his he's the multilevel marketing guru. And he's, he's shouting at people in our area door or you don't or
Unknown Speaker
and that's just that's what comes to mind. So to wrap all the way back to your question, what comes to mind when you think of multilevel marketing? I think of that guy shouting are he the doer or he had don't
Unknown Speaker
according to industry,
Unknown Speaker
the reason what we're talking about this is one of the candidates for this house district
Unknown Speaker
in Marion County ism, basically, that's what he does. He's he's an MLM marketer. Politics takes all kinds doesn't God, he's got hoots. But to do this, I gotta tell you, if you mentioned this to you that are they? It just doesn't seem to me if you are the brightest bulb in the box. If you have a
Unknown Speaker
It's not shady, because it's not it's not technically a shady business. It's just if you have a let's call it a less appealing business background. Right. Right. to It doesn't really make a lot of sense to run in a special election. Yeah, the thresholds are going to be lower for votes and all this stuff. The problem is you're going to be you know, trying to get votes from people that are actual serious voters that have
Unknown Speaker
you actually pay attention to the thing. And then the other issue is the media has nothing else to report on. I mean, what else is going on in Marion County other than Billy Woods
Unknown Speaker
was shooting turkeys to close or something like that, like Billy you know, just like local you know, dumb politics stuff. There's really nothing special going on. What's what is everybody talking about the special election because the media doesn't have anything else to talk about. So if you have any skeletons in your closet, like they're gonna find them because they're bored Yeah, unfortunately we used to have a newspaper here called the calla what's it called a star banner Yes Yeah. Stan enter star blunder rest in peace yeah recipe sir dead. And we have a group of people have created something called the Ocala Gazette. So if you go
Unknown Speaker
Okay at Keller gazette.com, we are not associated affiliated. I don't know these people, maybe I've met some of them. But I do. I will say they've done some pretty interesting investigative reports that that is there, they are definitely developing a reputation of being the ire of basically every elected politician locally. So thank God, congratulations on that. So my concern is, you know, we can go on for hours about multi level marketing. I mean, a lot of people like one out of 13 Americans have been involved in some way, shape, or form. And, yeah, I'm gonna go back. I've got some stats pulled up. But
Unknown Speaker
MLM companies say 25% of their, of the people involved turn a profit. That makes sense. But I mean, we've talked to you've talked to more than me, but yeah, I mean, we've all talked to people in that business. And if they tell you anything about what they make, or whatever, yeah, that that lines up, roughly, Iam, but the Federal Trade Commission did a big study, and they found
Unknown Speaker
how much worse Do you think it is? Come on? 10. I'm probably being optimistic with 10. But you're really optimistic. You're the you're optimistic with five? Yeah, 99% of multilevel marketers. According to the Federal Trade Commission.
Unknown Speaker
They lose money. AARP did their survey, we know how accurate AARP is.
Unknown Speaker
They say 25%. But I gotta tell you, I know the FTC actually does dig in because they have the ability to actually shut you down and put you out of business. And yeah, that that, that's pretty bad. So let's see here of the ones that are making money, the 1% making money, about 3% make between five and $10,000. A year.
Unknown Speaker
Number three, number 3% of that make between 10 and $25,000 a year and half a percent makeover. It just there's no money in this stuff. It's just God bless you. But that's another thing. You know, God bless you. Why is it in Marion County and in some of the states? Why is it you have to wrap yourself in, you know, the cross, Jesus, my Lord and Savior, you know, drink the Kool Aid, when we've got some real serious issues here. We've got a fentanyl problem. We've got drug overdoses, we've, there's no shortage of problems to focus on for sure. But, you know, if you run a boilerplate campaign, and you don't manage to get anything done, or you vote against the politics of or you vote against the things that you ran for, then you're got a clean slate. So you know, clean slate, clean slate politicians are interesting.
Unknown Speaker
So I guess the problem I have is, I want you to ask yourself a question. Do you really want to put someone into the state legislature who you know claims to be all pro family pro faith? I don't know what pro faith means.
Unknown Speaker
pro free speech pro free enterprise say that mean? We all know Florida's anti all those so really run against the grain there. Yeah. Florida's anti family anti faith. It's well we live well the state of Florida is also known as the Soviet Union
Unknown Speaker
we're government required government requires everybody be an atheist. Yeah, yeah, he's be he's also pro Second Amendment even though we got a governor and the legislature that's going to pass constitutional carry we hope Yeah. But still Florida owns probably I I would venture to guess I'm just pulling numbers straight out of the out of the dirt right now but if I were to guess Floridians probably own a fifth of all the guns in the country. No doubt. Okay. So on that on that note, I have to I have to Florida so anti gun that you have state I think as a sheriff I don't know I briefly read the article headline.
Unknown Speaker
Some state or county officials are warning Floridians to not shoot at the blimp or the balloon
Unknown Speaker
because the Canadian thing I mean, the Chinese thing Yes. Yep. To not shoot it the balloon but the best part is the former president son who we all know is a genius. He's right up there with
Unknown Speaker
making a lot of friends today. He's he said of my
Unknown Speaker
residence a month Montana to shoot at it. No, yes. So this guy's this. See, here's the thing. This is the reason I brought this up, is because he's a classic example we're talking about. He's he's a he's a he's want to be politician. But he's faking his second amendment support because if he was real, he would know that there is no privately owned firearm that can shoot 70 Or it's a 70,000 feet. I
Unknown Speaker
Um, there's just doesn't exist. I'm sorry, Billy Bob Thornton might be able to do it with his rocket. That was a movie that was made it would have to be a good one. Yeah, it would have to be a good one because I'm sorry. I don't know of any Americans that have that own surface to air missile air defense systems. Elon Musk, it would be cool. Not gonna say wouldn't be cool. In Florida. He actually says a shooter thing. This is just sad. And you know, Florida man would probably be up there on the list of the first people to buy legal surface to air missile system. I'm not going to die on everything. I'm just dying here. But so anyway, yes, yes. But Florida. Yes. We're running against the grain anyway. So we're gonna we're gonna run for second amendment, pro life, parental rights, tax reform and and more aggressive US border control. I have a border, you're not running for Congress. You're running for State House or state house? And what about traffic issues? What about? What about Medicare? What about what health insurance people care when you? This also is funny, you see this in a lot of places where they run on, like national issues when you're running for dog catcher. And it's like, bro, do you remember I gave a speech on highway 200 equina piece. And I gave a speech and the person asked me what my views were on. abortion? Yeah. Well, I have to do had nothing to do with anything. Yeah, but one day, you might be present. We need no. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna get to. Yeah, well, so the thing is, like, you know, you have to talk to the issues that are important. And running a nation wide style election. Talking Points. Just don't make a lot of sense, at least in my view.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, state house, what are we focused on? We're focused on
Unknown Speaker
Florida as a retirement.
Unknown Speaker
Destination. Let's call lots and lots and lots of retirees, especially in his district, or in the district, so Medicare issues are going to reign supreme. Right. Absolutely. And then all your other issues. You mentioned that before fentanyl, and then drug issues. That's a huge, and Florida is a massive pipeline for the stuff always has been since has been for years. The reality is, is Florida has a lot of very easy choke points. And for some reason, everybody just seems to be perfectly supplies supplied with their illegal drug of choice.
Unknown Speaker
You know, I don't know if you know this, but there are there's more cocaine consumption today than there was when you're a cop. Really? Yeah. Just nobody talks more cocaine today than the 70s in the 80s. Yes, absolutely. I got news for you back. Back in the day, I can say that now back in the day back in the day. You know, I was made I was given a talk there a day son I was gonna talk to some guys and I mentioned that I used to carry a model 10 They know what a model 10 was. They were cops I said no. Well then they're done. They're not very pro to a and then who doesn't know a classic model? And I told him two years I worked and he went oh my god those are the years where it was really bad down here and there were a couple of civilians people had never been in the business and it was interesting he said yeah, my they were younger obviously younger. And they said yeah, my parents would never go down to Tampa you get Robbie murder you killed it was like it was worse that really wasn't the reality no it was just had certain communities that had a lot of certain a lot of problems yeah drugs Yeah, he's gotta be careful getting off the interstate is certain
Unknown Speaker
and that case and that's definitely a case of some things never really change. No hasn't doesn't really change but it was funny that I hate to say this but I was I'm not a young man anymore. I was taller and bigger chest barrel chested and all the other guys they're they're a little guys. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's that's an unfortunate situation you have gone on most of these cops are a little guys and that's why they get into trouble they get into it when they get into fights where there's you know, eight of them on top of somebody and they still can't control. One they're not trained very well. And two, they're tiny. You don't have you know, Mr. Kuklinski walking up and picking you up by your neck and throwing you to the back.
Unknown Speaker
You know, Mr. Second generation pole pole lock from Yeah, very far north Wisconsin. Oh, no. Listen up north when I was a cop Milwaukee, and we had, you know, the big Germans a big polish. You know, I'm six to weigh 230 pounds, and I was my nickname was runt. Small, skipping the precinct. But the guys are saying it's kind of fine. I said, Well, I said I hate you guys because you know, you got all this equipment that we never had. And guess what? You get the same stuff. I said, No. I see you got all these vests and everything and you got all the you know the tasers I said, Well, you have vest Nope, we didn't have a vest never wore them damn thing. So I mean, in the phone book on your chest for all practical purposes. Well, the ones they did issue are terrible compared to the one they have now. I mean, now you get a
Unknown Speaker
Uh, I might have the nomenclature wrong but I think it's a to a vest, stops,
Unknown Speaker
basically handgun rounds and its role is very light. It's not heavy and bulky like they used to be it's, you know, you have no problem wearing it all day. And going back to our candidates here we have one candidate. We have a lot of nepotism here in Marion County just like everywhere else. Shaka Shaka. Welcome to politics. Welcome to politicking. We have one guy who describes himself as a strong conservative Second Amendment opposes abortion, a passionate about mental health,
Unknown Speaker
because he's a recovering addict. And he wants more mental health awareness in your jails, because there's so much pressure on jails on the on drug issues. Okay. Yeah, I guess that's something. You know, when John F. Kennedy ran for President, my parents was talking about how, how it was so strange to have a president united states who was Catholic. And the argument was back then he's going to be beholding to the Pope. Oh, yeah. The Pope was controlling the levers of power. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker
In all their friends were talking about that. And I remember my dad going, Oh, for God's sakes, what the hell's the matter with these damn people? My mother said, Oh, Grant. They're just neighbors ignore them.
Unknown Speaker
So I guess the thing is, you know, we've got a guy, that's an issue. That's something that's somewhat relevant to the situation, right. I don't know that it's really gets to the heart of the problem, but it's something. Okay. So we've we've got a fella who is one of our constitutional officers.
Unknown Speaker
And George is a nice guy, and he's got family member wanting to run for. I don't know, I just find a problem when you know, you got brothers, husbands wives, you know, it's just it's just one generation. What was the those people in? In Louisiana that?
Unknown Speaker
The family? Oh, gosh, let me think you're Huey Long. Oh, yes. Yes. Yeah. I mean, or when Truman was appointed Vice President. Under Roosevelt, did you know that Roosevelt had a different vice president every time he ran? Yes. So if Uncle Joe, Joe, as you're listening to this, you can name somebody or than Camilla. You can put your wife in. And as vice president I can handle I can handle her better than Camilla. I think. I think most people would. Yeah. So it just seems to me that, you know, some people are just somebody sit back and say, Do we really want another family member? You know, you've been a state. You've been in the county commission, the near the state house and you are the Senate, your term limited out, you're coming back, you got your wife in government. And, you know, it's just like, really, it's like, we used to have a head of the
Unknown Speaker
we used to be called Central Florida Community College, we say and I think his name is chick to science and his right hand person was the wife to Congressman, what was that? Ding Dongs name? Oh, Stearns. Yeah. Howard Stern wasn't his name. Howard. Stern.
Unknown Speaker
Good one. Yeah. So we had Cliff stern, and course, you know, if you go to the campus, he's got a big building with his name on it. And like, of course, there's just Yeah. Oh, he lobbied for good, good funds increases. Yeah, bring the money home. I don't I just think I think we've got another guy running. I guess the thing is, like, for your, for your local politicians that just continue to do the local politician thing. There is some value to it. But the problem is, you know, when's enough? You know, some of these people I've heard about my entire life, and it's just like, Okay, I, what value are you bringing to the community? Or is this just yet another self serving? political position? You know, that's usually it. I mean, I understand that higher political levels, especially some of these things, you know, house and Senate's federal, of course, where, you know, you're in there for, you know, like, you're a state senator, you're in there for, you know, what, 12,
Unknown Speaker
you know, 1218 years. So, it takes some time to get used to the politics of the situation and how it all works and all these things. But come on. I mean, what a State House position.
Unknown Speaker
Like, really, is this for some of these people? Is this the best you can do? State House position, like I've heard,
Unknown Speaker
you've just been moving from one little one thing to the other to the other to the other my entire life. It's like, really? Okay, maybe you should do something else that's a little more productive. Has anybody told them what the pay is for a sales? Rep. It's not very much, not much. There's not a huge incentive there. So of course, I don't know. And then the state of Florida has a
Unknown Speaker
very heavy, let's call it anti lobbying rules for former House members and all this stuff. So, you know, it's not, it's not as lucrative as some people, some people want to make it out to be. So it's really a especially, especially a State House position is definitely something that is, at least I think architected to bring a lot of people in a lot of different ideas and churn and burn up because, you know, especially if you're from further south, going all the way to Tallahassee
Unknown Speaker
for first session, yeah, that's not fun. Yeah, I mean, even going back in 2018, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate, were making a whopping $25,000, state senator and a House Rep making $18,000. This was back in 2018 has gone up, but it doesn't, it was gone up like 20 bucks.
Unknown Speaker
Chicken is chicken feed, make that make that every week.
Unknown Speaker
Especially for people that are supposedly very serious business, people who are doing stuff. It's going to be their labor of love, because they actually care about their communities, or there's something else in it for him. It was was its place to start for some people for sure. Really, really teach you what the what the political game was really like.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah. So the base salary now is 29,006 97. And they get a per diem. Yeah, a big increase. But I think, you know, it's like anything else, you know, if you want something done, you find the guy who or gal who is the busiest in the room and let them do it, they'll find a way to do it. And as far as I can see, there's one person running for office. We have a fellow who is a medical practitioner, and doctors are a rare breed in government. Yeah, very rare. And I gotta tell you, somebody who has been practicing 3040 50 years
Unknown Speaker
there's a fellow that is the head of the Florida. I think it's the Florida Medical Association.
Unknown Speaker
Doug Murphy. He's in Ocala. Oh, he said, He's head of it now. Yeah. Nice guy. I think the absolute world of him.
Unknown Speaker
We owe him a lot for a lot of different reasons, which we're not going to talk about great man. But, you know, there's, I think, right now, there's one or one or two doctors in the state legislature. That's a well, so in preparation for this, I was looking at a guy who's a practicing GP, in either Idaho or Montana, I don't have it up here. He's the only guy in the legislature only man or woman who is a doctor. Okay. He is nonstop busy answering questions. Yeah, that makes sense from everybody else there. Yeah, that makes sense. It's a huge part of what the state does, or the state legislature does is, you know, a lot of a lot of what they do is help administer Medicare, you know, how they craft what the state provides, and, and where the the funding and all that sort of stuff, obviously, like, like you mentioned, I mean,
Unknown Speaker
the district is largely retiree. Right.
Unknown Speaker
And that's one of the primary concerns of retirees is Medicare and the medical situation, the state. So yeah, that makes a lot of sense. You know, one of the things I would like to see as a doctor who could go to the legislature, and begin asking questions and talking to people about, for example, Medicare, Supplement insurance, you know, we've been doing this business a long, long time, and I've had people come in who they were screaming and hollering they can't get this procedure, that procedure done. Well, you gave up your good plan for one of these Medicare PPO plans. And you will this save me X number of dollars? Well, now you're screwed. Yeah. Yep. There's, it's a complex system. And you know, it's one of these things, you know, if you don't talk to people or not in, you don't realize how much the average person just doesn't know how complex it is. We experienced that in our businesses. Yep. Whether it's whether it's finance or technology or really any, any business vertical that we get involved in, you know, after a few after a little bit, you realize you forget to realize how little other people know about things. And how complicated some of these things can be in healthcare. I think it's what a fifth of the entire GDP is a huge sector and to not have any doctors or have very few doctors represented in the legislature is kind of a shame honestly. And don't get me wrong, I'm not people that do I occupant sure acupuncture, whatever you call it, chiropractors, don't get me wrong. I'm not being the meaning of it, but you're not a medical doctor. And in this case, the fellow that's running. Again, we're not using names because I want people to figure out
Unknown Speaker
for themselves, that guy's running, runs a pain clinic, a pain treatment center. So, and I know for a fact that he has treated other physicians, you know, it's like dentists that have neck problems and everything else.
Unknown Speaker
Ladies that cut hair, you know, they you were out. And but the point is, do you think he would be an asset in Tallahassee? El? Yes. So if he's run it for a long time, he's been that business and that specific, let's call it medical vertical for a long time. And, you know, I guess I would say that, the reality is, is that is a vertical in medical in the medical industry. That is, I guess it's fraught with a lot of risk and issues, right? Yep. Especially considering all of the abuse that's gone on over the years. And
Unknown Speaker
someone who has been able to navigate that properly, I think, could very much add a lot of value to how we deal with the legal to illegal drug problem that we have in this country. Right, because a lot of people I've got a back problem, they get a couple couple things, Doctor stops prescribing stuff, and then they go to the illegal stuff. That is that is the number one way like normal people who aren't
Unknown Speaker
some other type of addicts that falls into get addicted, you know, some serious stuff. So properly managing pain, and being able to give people the tools for that. I think having that kind of expertise, I think makes a lot of sense. I guess the people on highway 200 that are going to be voting this thing. Ask yourself a question. Do you want to somebody who is known for being a barbecue sauce maker, a career politician, a multi level marketer who supposedly wrote some books that nobody bought? But he says he did? Or do you want a doctor who is at your age level? Who, you know how many of you go to the doctor every week for this ad or something else? You got your cardiologist, your podiatrist, you got your right. Well, especially when you have something going on, that was definitely the case. You're you're in and out maybe multiple times a week, Florida Society of interventional pain, physician, board member, American Society of interventional pain physicians member the North American, I can't pronounce this neuro modulation. So whatever this is, it's, it's a term I'm not going to be able to pronounce I'm always terrible at this stuff. Board Certified anesthesiologist and diplomat, American Society of pain management, a member of the Florida AMA, here's the thing. I mean, I went to school, I got degrees. But I'm not a medical doctor. I've been hurt, I've been injured. I've hurt people. I'm a medical doctor. We've had to deal with health insurance. We had to deal with cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's, dementia for years and years and years. But I'm not a medical doctor. I just think when when it hits the fan, you know, you want to deal with somebody knows what they're doing. And that's an issue that we it's a multifaceted issue. I would like to have a guy that represents my area that knows what they're doing. And I'm going to be voting. So you know, I'm gonna be voting. I'm exercise, we are exercising our First Amendment constitutional right.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. But I think the biggest takeaway to me is, you know, you mentioned drug issues and that sort of stuff. And it's a multifaceted problem. And it seems to me, just from my my little Periscope view that that seems like that would be at least a little bit of an asset to the people actually making decisions on policy on how to handle this. You know, because people who have done that business in other in other states where the state didn't legislate it properly, there has been a lot of a lot of abuse, right? A lot. And obviously, the state of Florida had that problem about 20 years ago. A lot of people abusing certain things. And obviously, Rush Limbaugh had that issue himself.
Unknown Speaker
Of course, he has, he is been released from this mortal coil. But yeah, so there's, it's it's still a problem. It's still significant problem. It's getting worse, actually. And yeah, yeah, that's that's the value, I say, beyond just how the whole medical system works, which
Unknown Speaker
most people don't understand how horrible this the American Medical System is, in one word, atrocious, terribly complicated, fraught with all kinds of risk and issues. And somebody that actually knows how to how to navigate that and has been in business on the other end of it, I think, is also something that could be very valuable to from business perspective, because, you know, we've all talked to different doctors, but how many, how many support staff they have to have to be able to process things. I think, you know, a lot of this is federal regulation. But Florida being one of the largest, the third most populous state has a lot of influence on these sorts of things in that there could be
Unknown Speaker
potentially things are too. So, you know, one of the things I like about this doctor who's running is he graduated from Marshall University School of Medicine in Huntington, West Virginia. And the reason why I like that it's kind of been there. Yeah, we've been there. Yeah, it was there. years ago, six months ago. Yeah. Last summer. And so Marshall is the school that on November 14 1970, southern Airways flight 932, crashed and basically killed the entire football team. Yes. And there's a movie with what's that name? Matthew McConaughey. I think it is we are we are martial. Great story. If you don't get a little choked up on that you're not human. Now, the thing about that is why bring that up. You go to medical school there, you go to school there, you are going to be aware of that event that had a profound impact that should have happened a few years before this candidate went there.
Unknown Speaker
But that's going to have a profound effect, where today you're here tomorrow, you're not. And that was a lot of people in that city and at school that got wiped out. Yeah, it had a huge impact on the school. I mean, it's still visible. And my point being is that I want somebody that has had those kinds of emotional impacts, could they have compassion for the pain and suffering of people? And I really mean that. I think those are the little things in life. If you're voting for somebody, you're making a determination. Do you understand my pain? And this guy? He should? Yeah, I would hope so since he's, since that's his business. I would hope so. So let's see here. Let's kind of recap we've got a couple of interesting people who are running for oh, wait a minute, we didn't talk about the one thing. Foxy Foxy. Oh, boy. I was gonna say we're missing one. So do you want to explain what happens in the state when a political party, let's say in this case, we have all Republicans running Democrats aren't running anybody? And in how it works, if nobody runs, how everybody runs versus how they close it? I'll cover that. Yeah, my understanding is that when you have only one party candidates only from one party running in a primary with no opposing party opposition, then the election opens up and it basically is like a general election, or anybody from either party can run. And for some strange reason, if you have a right in Canada, just one it's all takes, then that closes up to having a primary for the general election. Yes, yes. But but you get a you get a it locks out basically. The other side. So if if if all Democrats run for house 24 There's no Republicans, there's no write ins, there's no third party candidates. Everybody gets to vote in the general and primary election. Everybody gets to vote and make sense because, well, one right in well, now it closes it. And so the general will have a blank line and one name. Yeah. Which is silly because it's right on.
Unknown Speaker
There's nobody actually listed the ballot. But whatever. It's, it's the rules. So a gentleman by the name of Robert foxy fox, fox II. He says he was duped by one of the candidates and their political action group. Got him to go to Tallahassee, and it's all in the paper. I mean, it's all here. They did their research. They did their research. I don't think I'm upset about this article. I'm upset by one thing. What was missed an opportunity to use the word bamboozled doll bamboozled. It's a fantastic word you never sit and print. He was bamboozled into running because he thought he was being
Unknown Speaker
cultivated by the Republican Party. I'm sure he was. And who is this this fine gentleman. And why was he picked out? That's what I'd like to know. Well, he's a he's a private investor bail bondsman. And
Unknown Speaker
I guess that's what he owns. He gets he's a foxy Bail Bonds. Oh, yeah. That guy Yeah. I just I just want to know why they targeted him because that's interesting. You know, I'll tell you what we need to get we need to hire a new staff person here. Okay. We need a course we need to incorporate another business was
Unknown Speaker
TV shows we just need to start writing for TV shows this you can't make this stuff this. I'm telling you. I swear to God, my mother my father's sister's grave. We could we could write a TV show script for this thing. And you can hear the banjo is playing but around our Learn down, down, down down. Well, you said so
Unknown Speaker
I'm just telling you bail bonds. And the first thing that came to mind was, can't make this stuff up the totality of the circumstances with all the people and all the characters involved in everything. It just being a classic, Southern story. It reminds me of that TV show, man, it's, it was on it was on for just a couple of maybe one or two seasons, about the private security people sometimes in Georgia, or small towns security. We went there. Do you remember? Yes, because we didn't think it was real. Yeah. But we went there and it's called small towns, small towns security. You gotta look it up. folks might be on you. It might be on YouTube. No, it'll be somewhere it'll be somewhere that it's one of the greatest reality TV shows ever. It's anyways. Yeah, that's that's that's what came to mind there. It just kind of fits.
Unknown Speaker
Yep, so this this, this special election has really brought out all the characters as well. I remember when this guy stone was able to get elected to the county commission. He ran against a guy named Rocky and another guy named what was it was Rocky. Stone. Rocky was the other one. Gosh, no. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Stone. And then you had rocky Stasi, I believe. Yeah. But there was another one and Yes.
Unknown Speaker
Yep.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah. I think you had three different people with with geological names. Let's come to think of I think the guy's name was Stoney burden. Yes. See, had you had a rocky a stony a stone? And we all used to laugh about it. You'll have a pebbles of bam, bam.
Unknown Speaker
fretted a birdie running is pretty soon. God, Estonia worm stony still around out there. I don't know. I haven't heard of any of these guys in quite a while. At some point, folks, some of the same old names and the same old pennies just keep coming around and coming around. Yep. Politics.
Unknown Speaker
All politics is local and politics starts in your backyard. Unfortunately, your local politics as much as a lot of us hate to engage in it because it is it can be childish and, and silly at times. It is usually the most important politics around since it is it is literally in your backyard and complimentary to that pain and suffering that you go through and dealing with local politics is also the one that you can affect the most outcome in. So I would not I would not sleep on this. I would I would definitely
Unknown Speaker
pay attention. This is not a big one to get involved in or anything. It's one whole race. It's not an entire ticket. You have to research just look at your choices and make a decision. Yeah, vote on. Do you want to vote for nepotism? You gotta have a clear cut candidate. You want to vote for a candidate who touts their biggest accomplishment is barbecue sauce and that they're a a Cuban immigrant or whatever. You know, I don't like people to always cite their immigrant status. I just don't I can't stand that.
Unknown Speaker
Well, what does it add to this situation? I mean, this is the thing this goes back to what you said a while ago now. Talk about issues that matter to your constituents. It's not about you. Nobody cares about you. Nope. Okay. Okay. You haven't been convicted of murder. Okay, that's a plus. But you don't need to tell everybody that you know, what kind of issues are important to the to your constituents. And this one is a really easy one. All you have to talk about is Issues That Matter mostly to seniors. Now, there's a lot it's a but it's a pretty, pretty easy to understand thing thing there. And as far as I can tell, there's only one candidate that makes sense there. But that's going to be up to the constituents to decide. So you can have somebody who's in rehab who his brother is a constitutional officer who hates him pretty much that's that's great. Can you believe that? They wrote the wrote a letter and put it on Facebook don't vote for my brother. Yeah, that's real special. Yeah, it's real special. We did have it we did we did have a candidate for sheriff who was convicted of something Oh, yeah, I forgot about him. What was his name? I don't know. Doesn't matter what his name was. What was he convicted of? He was armed robbery armed robbery. Yeah. And Jeb Bush pardoned him and then he like so many Republicans do they get God and then what do they do they create a nonprofit and collect charitable money I'm sorry, I just
Unknown Speaker
same thing it's a really an over and over it's an unfortunate pattern. Once you see it, it's it's pretty disturbing, actually, because it plays on the
Unknown Speaker
positive and good nature of most people. And it's just gross. Yeah, I like I said, I want a guy who's busy who doesn't have the time for this BS. But But what I said I think it's important. I mean, it's not that the people who follow or, or give money or are associated, these people are bad and it's not even really that they're
Unknown Speaker
had in general themselves, it's just that they've figured out that the key to success is to take advantage of people's lack of skepticism of certain people. And unfortunately, that's where a lot of the multilevel marketing stuff comes in. Play on the same things that religion doesn't often you find the two paired right together. Yeah. You know, just it is what it did ever tell you that years ago when I was in Brandon, that church I attended years and years ago, the minister was head of a, he and his wife basically used one of the largest churches in the state of Florida at the time. For one nonstop multilevel marketing. It was either jewelry, gosh, she was everything. You know, one day it was Melaleuca. Everybody had run out by Melaleuca. And then there was some kind of a jewelry thing and it's just always the same stuff. Thank you look them up. I don't know if he's alive or dead. But if I recall, he retired with a an eight figure net worth.
Unknown Speaker
I believe his net worth as a Baptist minister Praise Lord is like 30 $40 million. Yeah, the healed I'm sorry, folks, we can do better. Like I said, it's not that the people who follow these people have are wrong or know misguided. It's just unfortunately, you're playing on people's good nature. And that to me is the one of the more disgusting. One of the more disgusting things a human being can do. Well, I think we'd be divorced enough. I think everybody knows what to do. Go online to the Ocala Gazette, you can get there cool Khaled gazette.com You can read some of the bios of these people. I think you just do a little bit of googling search and kind of get a handle for it. Don't be suckered by the the sucker smile. And you know, just because somebody is, you know, nepotism dead gotta stop it. Just stop it. We need any more bushes and Clintons. And Biden's and Trump's in office. I don't think so. How about some people actually did some things in life. So and as far as Trump goes, you know, he was he was a political cling on forever. He was involved in what the independent party the Democratic Party became a Republican. I mean,
Unknown Speaker
he was around the block and Biden. Biden was elected to the US Senate. He was too long to eat too young to take office. They had to wait before they swear the guy guy has been around since dirt. Yes. He has been around since dirt was now that's for sure. Oh, we can do better folks. But he anything else?
Unknown Speaker
I think that's it. I think we've kind of like you said, beaten this horse. It's, it is researched and having effects in your local backyard. That's the biggest impact you can have on politics is not screeching at the TV or getting mad and yelling at the balloon floating over you. It's paying attention to who your local candidates are and making sure the better ones filter on the way up. Make a good decision. It's time folks. The last guy was a clown. We don't need another one in there.