Introducing Co-host Clay Novak: From Battlefield to Book Writing and Beyond

Get ready for a riveting ride as we sit down with our new co-host, Clay Novak, a five-tour combat veteran with a treasure trove of experiences. Clay takes us on a journey through his military service, candidly discussing the unique bond shared between veterans, and the discomfort they often feel when thanked for their service. Join us as he peels back the layers on his adventures beyond the battlefield, including his love for paratrooping and a significant upcoming jump with the Phantom Airborne Brigade.

Brace yourself for an insight into Clay's transition from the military to the civilian world, a journey that culminated in the writing of his much-anticipated novel, 'Keep Moving, Keep Shooting'. As he recounts his experience navigating the publishing process, we'll hear how his book is resonating with readers. But we're not just exploring Clay's rich military experience and writing endeavor. We're delving into the 2020 US Presidential Election, its current political climate, and the potential implications it holds.

Join us as we examine potential challengers, the power of the Kennedy name, and the sway held by Vice President Kamala Harris. We're dissecting the increasing voice of the middle class and considering the potential ripple effect a third-party candidate could have on the election outcome. This is a thought-provoking discussion with our new co-host Clay Novak, one that's sure to stir your curiosity and leave you wanting more. Tune in, engage, and be prepared to see the world from a different perspective.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:18

I have something that's really fun and cool going on right now, right this very minute. As promised, I've been giving you some teasers that I am about to have a co-host on this show. I know that's what you don't have to keep just looking at my face, I know it gets boring. I understand. That's why we're bringing on somebody. Bringing on somebody smart who knows more of the things than I do, and his name is Clay Novak. He is a returning guest, now co-host. So, clay, thank you so much for doing this with me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 0:51

Well, I mean, obviously, thanks for the invitation. I had such a good time, you know, the first time we did this, however many months ago that was, and the opportunity to do this and co-host with you. I mean, who could turn that down, really, come on.

Speaker 1: 1:04

I love it. I kind of blindsided you, right. You were really great and all you were looking for is just maybe to come on again and say hey and just do a spot, and I hit you with hey, you want to be my co-host.

Speaker 2: 1:20

And again, how am I going to turn that down? You know, it's a great show, Content is great. You're a blast. I mean you and I have stayed in contact, even since the last time I was on. And, yeah, I reached out and was thinking maybe I could make a return appearance and you made the offer. And you know, I mean I'm going to jump on that. Of course I am.

Speaker 1: 1:42

I love it. I love it, I'm so excited. And now I want to talk. You know I want to talk about you and man, oh man. You know I know I probably said this exact same thing last time, so it's kind of repetitive and I'll show you all some clips in a few minutes. But, clay, you have done some wild, crazy, cool, cool stuff. First of all, I want to thank you for your service. I reread a little bit of your bio five tour combat veteran. That's crazy. That's crazy to me. So thank you for your service, first and foremost.

Speaker 2: 2:19

Well, so that you know, I tell people this all the time. That is one of those uncomfortable things for a lot of veterans to hear. We are who we are. I tend to tell people my service was my pleasure because it was. I didn't stay active duty and uniform for 24, 25 years because I disliked it. So yes, my service was my pleasure. So thanks for saying that.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Absolutely. I know, and you know my husband's the same way. You know it's never, it's not a love hate relationship, right? It's just a discomfort, right, because you're just doing what you think you know anybody would do, and of course we know that's not true. Not anybody, just anybody would do it. It takes a really special kind of person to make that choice to you know, put yourself at risk, in the line of danger, for you know, for others, for something greater than yourself, and accepting the praise and the thanks. I understand that it's. It's uncomfortable, like I'm terrible at taking compliments. You know, if somebody says your hair looks nice, I'm like, oh no, it looks terrible. So on a really small scale, I get it. It's kind of silly to compare those two things, but I did, I did it.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Well, I again, I appreciate it. And, yes, you know, spread over a number of years, five trips. I did Afghanistan three times, iraq twice, and you know I was in Afghanistan the first time way back in 2002. So it was very, very early. And then my last tour was you know I lose track of time, but I think it was 12, 13,. You know, late 12 and into early 13 was was my last tour. So you know, cram, cram, three more in between those two, that 10 year window.

Speaker 2: 4:05

And then on top of it I did, you know, I did a year in Korea. And so, yeah, it was a busy time. It was a busy time for everybody in the military, I don't care what branch you were in, I don't care what job you had, I don't care what rank you were, it was busy for everybody. It was, you know, the height of the war and the density of it all. So I was there at the very, very beginning, and then I won't say I was there at the end because I wasn't, but I was there pretty late in the game too.

Speaker 1: 4:29

So yeah, so you have. You know you're such an asset to the show in so many ways and you know one of them is you're going to be bringing so many valuable insights and understanding. You know, I love to have veterans on the show. I love to have any military personnel, you know people sharing those stories and I'm so grateful to have you on because I'll be I'll be passing all of those interviews over to you, you know, and just because you have such a better understanding, you're going to be able to ask better questions than I would, and I have no problem admitting that. You know I'm good at throwing myself under the bus for things like that, and so I'm really, really excited for that, and I think they're going to appreciate talking to you more than they will me.

Speaker 2: 5:17

You know it's amazing that the veteran connection stuff is real. I mean, that is, it can't be understated. You know two veterans and I don't care, it doesn't just have to be you know folks of my era, it can be any two veterans from any era, any two separate eras. There's an instant connection. You speak the same language and that breaks through a lot of barriers immediately. So you know, it's just, sometimes it's the shared misery of just the military, whatever it is that we have in common. It's an instant connection and it makes things easier. So I'm happy to take that on or, you know, contribute to that.

Speaker 1: 5:52

You know, as the show goes forward, that's awesome and you're doing kind of you're doing to correct me for wrong, but I think you're kind of doing a lot of that stuff, right? You're doing some media consulting and things like that, right.

Speaker 2: 6:03

I am, and some you know, veteran benefits, altruistic stuff too. I've got three different organizations that I'm working with associated with right now that serve specifically veterans, not their nonprofit veteran support organizations. They all do business very, very differently but, yeah, I try to stay connected as much as I can. I do offer, you know, at times when given the ability to offer my experience you know, as a point of relevance and provide input when asked. So yeah, I've tried to stay on the bubble as much as I can and stay connected. You know I've been retired for four years now and we all somewhat have a shelf life. The further you get away from it, you know, the further you are from your relevance in time, I guess, for lack of a better term but you know your service never goes away and your ability to connect with veterans and serve veterans and those kinds of things that never goes away. So happy to do that as well.

Speaker 1: 7:01

That's really, really cool and you've got something cool coming up. So at the time and I preface this for everybody when you watch this so we're recording a little bit earlier and we're still deciding if I'm gonna give you a little teasers or if we're gonna just give you the whole episode. But at the time of recording, which is right now, you, clay, are getting ready to do something that is in that lane. Tell me what you're about to do and what about a week or so?

Speaker 2: 7:30

This coming weekend, yes, so in four or five days I guess I will be doing one of the things that I love to do, and probably the number one thing I miss about the military, and that is exiting an aircraft under a canopy. I was a paratrooper for 10 years while I was on active duty and it's something that I always loved to do, as painful as because the military don't get me wrong can take the fun out of just about anything and parachuting in the military can be not fun at times, but I always loved it. And in retirement I found and again it's one of those veteran support organizations. It's called the Phantom Airborne Brigade. It's a bunch of guys based out of Florida. They do military round canopy static line style parachuting with military parachutes and your only requirement is to be a military trained parachutist paratrooper to be part of the organization. So I've jumped with them four times.

Speaker 2: 8:23

Now I'm going down this weekend for my fifth jump with the organization. It'll be number 82 overall for me, but it goes back to what we were talking about before. I jumped with them for the first time about a year ago. A little over a year ago, didn't know anybody when I showed up there and within 10 minutes felt like I was back home again. Literally walk in, it's a bunch of paratroopers from every era and within just a few minutes I had 20 brand new friends.

Speaker 1: 8:53

Is that camaraderie, right? That shared experience, that bonding is like nothing else, I'm sure, yeah. So now we're going to be showing a clip here, and so the clip that we're going to be showing of course, you know which one I'm talking about is from exactly what you're talking about with this group, right?

Speaker 2: 9:12

That is correct. Yep, this is from a few months past. But yes, this is the Phantom Airborne Brigade conducting an airborne operation out of a vintage World War II D-Day used C-47 aircraft. So it actually dropped paratroopers the Tico Bell is the name of the airplane and we work with it all the time and again dropping exited paratroopers and actually, if I remember correctly, towed a glider on one pass for D-Day. So you can see the repaired holes in the fuselage. They're still there. It still flies. But yes, this is a daytime parachute operation with a Phantom Airborne Brigade.

Speaker 1: 9:56

All right, how about that? I literally Clay. I literally. I've watched this a few times now and every time, just before you go out that door, I hold my breath.

Speaker 1: 10:09

And I actually feel a little queasy. So clearly I won't be doing a jump any time soon. Somebody had a lot of people actually. When I was turning 50, which was a little while ago I put it out there. I said what do you guys think I should do for my 50s? Should I do something crazy? And everybody always says the same damn thing Jump out of a plane. And I'm like, should I really do that? Should I do it? Because I mean a lot of people are saying you should do. I did not do that.

Speaker 2: 10:45

I'm creeping up on my 50th. It's coming very, very soon and my plan when I retired from the military was to do that because I didn't know about this organization and I said all the years that I jumped on active duty and I loved it so much that when I turn 50, I'm going to go back and I'm going to jump again. Well, I'm already jumping again, so now I've got to figure out something else crazy to do for my 50s.

Speaker 1: 11:05

I know how are you going to top that. I don't know, Do it out of a cannon with fire or something I mean.

Speaker 2: 11:12

I like it. It's a good idea. I'm going to come back to you. You're going to give me all kinds of crazy ideas and I'll figure out what.

Speaker 1: 11:17

I'm going to do. Your wife is going to kill me for that and she's like that's it. You're not hanging out with her anymore. She's trouble, oh man. So yeah, you're doing some fun. Boy, you're making me feel really lame. I sit around my basement like a basement troll and maybe go out to my garden feed my birds. Not jumping out of planes I am going to leave that to you. But if you ever decide, I'll put it this way. Here's the compromise, because I feel like it'll never happen. If you start your own company for civilians to do jumps, then I will jump out of a plane Because I'll feel safe with you. Like, I know you, I'll be like OK, I'm going with Clay. Ok, we're good.

Speaker 2: 12:04

Elsa, I can assure you that that is never going to happen, so you're perfectly safe.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Yes, Phew, that's such a relief. I think I broke out a little bit of a sweat as I was saying. It Not a chance. My interest was going.

Speaker 2: 12:18

you dummy, shut up, Don't say things you have to say, not a chance. You're good.

Speaker 1: 12:23

Oh good, good, good, good. So now, on top of all this, you were like well listen, jumped out of planes. I'm a veteran, I've done all kinds of things. What should I do next? Take a writer book, wrote a book, tell everybody a little bit about your, your book.

Speaker 2: 12:38

So I wrote a novel. It's an action fiction, military fiction, suspense thriller. It felt it fits into a whole bunch of categories, but it's called keep moving, keep shooting. If you're a fan of the genre the Jack Reacher, jack Ryan, jason Bourne style Stories this is definitely in that window and it's. I wrote it as part of my transition as I left the military, with no intent to publish, which obviously it ended up publishing, but but it's a.

Speaker 2: 13:07

The main character is is named Terry Davis. He's a retired army officer, go figure and he he's, he's retired and he's looking for the quiet life and that's his intent. But he finds himself in the middle of something that at first seems off and then very rapidly becomes a somewhat dire situation and it just continues to build throughout the entire, the entirety of the novel and Ends up being a potential threat to national security. So if that's your jam, that's that, that's what you're gonna get out of it. And and it's the things that I hear from everybody when they finish our one very quick read, I hear that from everybody. One or two sittings it's. It's a less than 300 pages, so it but it. But it moves quickly. So I hear very quick read. I hear I never saw that ending coming, so there's a little teaser for you. And then the last thing that I hear is when? When is it gonna be on the screen? When is it gonna be made into a movie or into a series or something like that? Because that everyone says that it's very visual when they read it and they can very clearly picture the things and it plays a very good story when they when they read it. So that's, that's where we're at.

Speaker 2: 14:21

I've sold about 600 ish copies of the book. Today I got my 75th review on Amazon. It's doing pretty well 71, 71 of the 75 or five stars. Yes, so the fans are loving it. The other four, four stars I'm not complaining.

Speaker 1: 14:39

No, no, those are great.

Speaker 2: 14:41

But yeah, so it's a 4.9 rating on Amazon. You can get it on Amazon. You can get it through Barnes Noble, every format e-book, kindle format, you know, hardcover, softcover, it's all out there. So, yeah, that's that's where we're at and the goal is it's not a well-kept secret anymore it was when I was on your show initially but the, the sequels are done. Sequel to you know. Number two in the series is done. Number three is done. I I jumped back into number four the other night. There's a good portion of number four written, so so that's that's. The intent is to turn it into a full-fledged series that people can really get into, and it's a long-term story.

Speaker 1: 15:24

That's so stinking cool. Now, did you when you started Before you even started writing, when you were in the thinking about it process of writing a book not necessarily specifically this book that you ended up writing? When you started that whole thought Process, did you know that you were gonna write a fiction book, or were you thinking?

Speaker 2: 15:46

No, I. And so as I was getting ready to transition out of the military, I had a couple of tours. Some retired general officers that told me and they both use the same word they said creative. They said find something creative to do To keep your brain engaged. And no offense to anybody working in the civilian sector, but you know, the concern for a lot of veterans and it is a concern is that you know we're we are 24 7365, you very rarely get to shut off and we work at a very high tempo all the time. So when you transition from the military to the civilian sector, you know your brain activity just naturally goes down. It's just you're not as engaged as much and and it is what it is. So they said find something to do. And they both said find something creative to do.

Speaker 2: 16:33

I never consider myself a creative person. I don't paint, I don't sculpt, I don't. You know, I can do some basic carpentry stuff, not not a furniture maker. But a good friend of mine in the army said you know, hey, you were a really good staff writer, you always wrote really well. So you know you should think about you know, maybe you know you did. You know, like a lot of us at the time. He's like you did a bunch of tours, you did a bunch of time over there, why don't you start writing some, some stories? And he was thinking a nonfiction, you know, play Novak's war stories book. And you know, truthfully, I nobody wants to hear that, not out of me anyway. So I, I, I kind of shelved that.

Speaker 2: 17:12

But my best friend is a TV writer and what. He's TV TV writer, producer, director kind of guy, and he's been in the business for a number of years and he said Write fiction, man, try it. He goes there's no rules, you write whatever you want. You want to write space, you want to write microbiology? You want to write. You know, whatever you want to write, there's no rules. Fantasies like people, he goes look at Harry Potter, you know, it's a complete a world. You know and and you know. So he advised me to try fiction.

Speaker 2: 17:42

So I Started writing with, again, no intent to publish and really no intent to write a novel. I was just writing to write and I pieced it together. I was writing, you know, catches, catch can, five minutes here, ten minutes there. You know, waiting for a meeting. I did when I retired. I transitioned in the civilian business sector, which I just hated. So you know, I take my lunch and I always, you know, kind of typical army style, I ate my lunch at my desk. I really went out for lunch, I was, you know, but I would write. I'd write for 15 minutes here, ten minutes there, and slowly this you know novel started to form. I Took a break for a while, got away from it, things got busy and then got back to it a number of months later and and reread what I wrote and then finish, got about two-thirds of the way through and I'm like let's, let's see if I can Finish this novel. You know, so I did, I finished it and you know you're the one I actually learned this term from you I'm a pancer.

Speaker 1: 18:44

You're a pancer.

Speaker 2: 18:46

I had never heard that before you thought. So I had no arc, I had no plan, I had no outline. I was just writing and the story was forming in my head and the follow-on books were the same way. But so I finished it. I you know I gave it to my dad and my best friend. They both read it and then it sat for a year and my best friend, the TV writer, said, hey man, nobody writes the 300-page novel and doesn't do anything with it, like so then I went through the process of getting it published and you know I went through. It's a hybrid published book. So you know a smaller publishing company. You know they did all the hard work, the editing and the cover design and ISP and numbers, huge, yeah, getting it wired into distribution and being printed and all that stuff that I didn't want to take on.

Speaker 1: 19:35

Yeah, it's all pain in the ass. Yeah, it is I looked into self-publishing.

Speaker 2: 19:39

I really did and I was like yeah, no yeah. So I got in, got in with them and, and you know that's, and it's been on sale for let's see December, what is it now? August? So you know, eight months, eight months or so, now that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 19:55

I'll tell you what the review is. Alone to get reviews like that, I mean that's not easy. It's not easy to get like you usually like Begging people to review and people are like, oh yeah, totally gonna do, and nobody gets around.

Speaker 1: 20:08

No so reviews are hard to come by. So that's, you know, those are definitely worth their weight in gold. You know, just to get that's, that's a lot of reviews, so that says a lot, a lot, really, really cool. I love. I love that it's gonna potentially let's, let's manifest here. I love that it's going to become either a movie or series or something. I think that's really really cool. See how I just this is how I see you're noticing very quickly, I'm sure this is how I do everything. I just decide this is how it's going to be, this is what will happen.

Speaker 1: 20:45

Hi clay, want to be my co-host here it is sensing a pattern here, so that's why I feel like you know, I feel like I have the authority to Say that's gonna happen not too soon though, because I'll lose you to that and then you know, then I'll be sitting here talking myself again.

Speaker 2: 21:05

So no, I.

Speaker 1: 21:06

I would never not wish success on you, so I take that last part back. Oh, oh, so listen. So they're gonna be wanting to know the people who watch the show they're gonna be like. So this guy Clay, that Cookie Elsa has on, where does he stand on the issues, on stuff and things? And I just wanna tell everybody that I did not bring on a bleeding heart liberal for my photos. I think everybody already guessed that.

Speaker 2: 21:37

Probably yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Probably understood that. So let's talk for a couple of minutes. I'm not even paying attention to time. See, this is what happens. I'm not even paying. We're okay, we're good.

Speaker 2: 21:48

So that'll be my job, I guess. Yeah, yes, I'm gonna have to buy a big clock. I'm gonna have to put it on the wall where I can see it.

Speaker 1: 21:55

Yes, Can you be in charge of that?

Speaker 2: 21:57

I can be in charge of time so nice.

Speaker 1: 22:00

Oh, my relief factor just went yeah, you could be like. Elsa, no, just yeah, we're done.

Speaker 2: 22:07

We're gonna figure out like a chat function where I can just tell you to knock it off.

Speaker 1: 22:11

Yes, we need that. Yes, I think we do have it. I think we do have. Yeah, there's a little chat. Good, I'm so excited.

Speaker 2: 22:17

Yeah, guys, we're like working out our plan right on here with you, in front of your very eyes.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Yeah, Ha, ha, ha ha. But so just before we got on, I was taking a quick look as I started wondering. I was like geez, who has already thrown their hat in, you know, definitively for the 2024 presidential run, and I looked at it. I was kind of surprised that there's only at this moment, as far as I can read, only three definites on the Democrat side, and of course that's Biden, and I'm already forgetting who the other two is Biden, oh, Kennedy.

Speaker 2: 22:57

Kennedy.

Speaker 1: 22:59

And a woman Marianne, something. I'm forgetting her name Marianne Williams, I think her name is and we have like 13 people on the Republican side that have thrown their hat in.

Speaker 2: 23:11

It's kind of crazy right, I mean truthfully, to have three, you know two, more challenging the incumbent. I mean that says something in and of itself. To have 13,. Maybe it's early to have 13 on the challenging ticket, but 13, you know, in the early stages is, I don't think that's all that uncommon, because you're gonna have four or five of those. They're gonna figure out very quickly that they can't get the financial support to do anything and they're gonna fade away before they gain any momentum at all.

Speaker 1: 23:42

So yeah, I saw like four of them that I wrote off like immediately I'm like I don't know who you are, never heard of you. Don't like your face, you're out, so yeah, so yeah. So that's interesting because I really didn't know, like, is this a normal amount of people to see throwing their hats in?

Speaker 2: 24:04

basically, I think two years out, it's probably early for 13 people.

Speaker 1: 24:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 24:10

You're gonna see that You're gonna see some deletions and then you're gonna see some ads. So I think you know, when all is said and done, somewhere 10 to 12, I think in the earliest stages, probably for whether it's Iowa, whether it remains Iowa.

Speaker 2: 24:26

I know that's kind of a weird upper grabs thing, but you know, when Iowa rolls around, to have 12, you know, 10 to 12 on the ticket, I don't think is out of the realm of norm. But I do think that to have two challengers, but one serious challenger, because I think Kennedy is a serious, about as serious a challenger as you can have for the incumbent I mean sitting- in the president to have somebody who's that aggressively campaigning against him from his own party is. I can't remember the last time that that happened.

Speaker 1: 25:00

No same, and you know. So, kennedy man, he's an interesting dude, really interesting guy. I mean, how is he gonna get the support of his party? Because his party hates him, right? I mean, they're terrified of him.

Speaker 2: 25:13

You know, I think you know he's taken a risk. I think, in that the opinion of the president, even inside of his own party and I think probably it's an indicator of what's being said behind closed doors potentially is that you know, outwardly there's all kinds of support. Inwardly that may not in fact be true. And let's be honest, he's a Kennedy. You know there's a lot of gravitas that comes with that name inside the Democratic Party, right? So if nobody else is gonna challenge the president, president Biden, then you know he might as well take a run at it, because I think it is again a good indicator that he may not have as much support as people believe he does inside the party. You know, I think it's clear.

Speaker 2: 26:04

Oh, by the way, the vice president, your favorite person on the planet, my favorite, she provides you so much material. She's not helping. I mean, she's not a. You know, she's actually probably hurting the president as much as anything. Because everyone knows, listen, politics aside, his health issues are not. That's not something to be scoffed at, right, right? You know his age. You know clearly there's some questions about his mental. You know mental faculties, his capabilities, and to see that what is coming behind him, you know if he steps down.

Speaker 1: 26:39

Right.

Speaker 2: 26:40

Some unfortunate medical incident happens and she becomes the president. That's not a promising proposition.

Speaker 1: 26:47

No, it's-.

Speaker 2: 26:47

I just saw a thing today she's the least popular vice president since they've been running polls about the vice president, because for a long time nobody really cared.

Speaker 1: 26:57

Right.

Speaker 2: 26:58

But for as long as they've been doing it, she's the least popular vice president in history.

Speaker 1: 27:02

And you know the thing that gets me Clay. Here's the thing that just blows my mind and it shouldn't anymore. I should not have a surprise bone left in my body, but I do, and you know my videos, you know my content, the stuff that I put out there, of course, like we just said, the Kamala Harris impressions and everything which, by the way, about 85% of the time is literally just me repeating exactly verbatim what she said. See, you know, and people like you know people from the left.

Speaker 1: 27:35

they're like all mad at me, like that's not nice to make fun of her. I'm just repeating what she said, Like I'm just telling you exactly what she said.

Speaker 1: 27:42

So you know, don't be mad at me, be mad at her for saying something so dumb, and but these people are like, they come in the comments and they're like she is a wonderful vice president, she is very smart, and it's like where are these people getting their information? Like even with a skewed mainstream media who loves to paint the picture that they want to paint. And now that's like, even with that, to sit there as a rational, thinking human being and listen to her, the words that come out of her mouth and to sit there and go gosh, she's really smart is mind blowing to me. And yet there they are in my comments section.

Speaker 2: 28:27

And listen in our lifetime. Think back to some of the vice presidents who weren't great speakers Dan Coyle, who's the first one from our lifetime right.

Speaker 1: 28:38

Yes.

Speaker 2: 28:40

And what did they do? They minimized exposure, right. I mean clearly minimized exposure, right. That's what you do as the White House, as the administration. You know Dan Quayle's a smart guy. I know you misspelled tomato potato, whatever it was, but I mean he's a smart guy. He may just maybe not a great public speaker, so utilize his talents in a different way. Keep him behind the scenes, keep him working things administratively, policy type decisions, those kinds of things, but don't put him in the limelight. Nobody has figured out in the White House to not put her in front of a camera, and it's too, late.

Speaker 2: 29:27

The cat's out of the bag, oh, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 29:29

Everyone knows right. Right.

Speaker 2: 29:31

And if I think, a change in tactics for them at this point it would be almost as damaging.

Speaker 1: 29:37

You know like where the vice president is doing it. They know they can't put Joe out there any more than they already do. You know that every time is a risk and a fail, Like every time. He has not gotten through a single public appearance without saying or doing something. That is, you know, at the very least eyebrow raising, and you know. And then there's her with her word salads, and you know, and I don't know, I guess, whoever her staff writer is, or her team of writers, or her, it's got to be writers, which is even more bizarre. But she just recycles. You know the same speeches. You know her unburdened. You know, we have, we have videos of her saying Did you see the latest one, the Community?

Speaker 1: 30:23

Banking. The yeah banks are in the community because they serve the communities. Where the banks yeah, it's like God, like is this real life? I always feel like we're getting punked. You remember that show from the nineties? I feel like we're getting all the time with this, and you know. But again, none of it scares me more than the people that jump into my comment, because they represent a portion of our society.

Speaker 1: 30:51

They're going he's a wonderful president and there's no scandals, not like orange bad man, you know, and that's their answer to everything. By the way, if you take a stroll through any comment section of any conservative figure, person whatever, and social media and I could literally go on there and I have I can make a video about the weather. You know, it's, you know, having a wonderful day. Well, you know, thanks to Trump, we have global warming. Yeah, it's just, you know it's crazy. Now, speaking of Trump, we've got over on the Republicans. We've got Trump, we've got DeSantis, we've got Pence, we've got Larry Elder, we've got Vivek. Let's see if I can do it, rama Swami, I think I did it right.

Speaker 2: 31:41

I think that's about right.

Speaker 1: 31:43

I think so. Nikki Haley, tim Scott and then those other ones that I've already written off is gonna be gone before you can even blink. I wasn't happy about DeSantis running because I wanted them to wait. What are your feelings on that whole drama?

Speaker 2: 32:01

Well, you know it's interesting because you know the Trump base is as deep and as solid as it is. So, if he chooses not to run which I don't, which I don't think is gonna happen I don't think that his personality or his ego will allow he's already committed to it, and then, once he says it out loud, there's no turning back.

Speaker 1: 32:24

That's it.

Speaker 2: 32:27

But for whatever reason, if he is not in the race come election day, the person who has his endorsement is the winner, for lack of a better term. But I think, strategically for the Republican party, that you know, the decision is is he the most likely to win? And I don't know the answer to that. I wrote a blog. That's another thing I do, and if you ever read it you'll find out that I just hold everybody accountable. I don't care what political party they're in, if they're I like that.

Speaker 1: 33:05

That's what we need. That's what we need.

Speaker 2: 33:07

I call them out for it all the time. I like that, but a third party candidate in this election would turn things on its head completely, because there's so many people who are you know whether they're never Trumpers, right? So no matter what, if he runs, they're gonna vote against him, it doesn't matter who's on that.

Speaker 1: 33:30

Yeah, it could be a potato and they'll vote for the potato, yeah.

Speaker 2: 33:33

And then there's so many people now who are the same way about President Biden.

Speaker 1: 33:37

Right.

Speaker 2: 33:38

Because they see what he is incapable of and where his health is heading. And oh, by the way, who's sitting in the vice president's office? Right, they will vote against him, purely because they don't want. It's not whoever's on the Republican ticket. They're not voting for them, they're voting against the sitting president. And again, there's so many people voting against. You know, former president Trump, that that middle right now, I think, is actually growing, and it's a good thing, because you remember when we were young, the fight was for the middle. You always have the deep blue and the deep red right. Nobody has to fight for those votes, they're gimmies. It was the middle which was a fairly large portion of the population in the United States.

Speaker 1: 34:21

Huge portion, and I really don't understand why we're not a louder voice.

Speaker 2: 34:26

Yeah, that's who the candidates we're fighting for was the middle, and I think that that middle is growing, but it's growing in a weird way. Like I said, it's the opposites. It's that I'm not voting for him. I'll vote for whoever else, but I'm not voting for him, and that goes in both directions. So the Republican ticket is gonna be very, very interesting. You know, I have preferences which you know, at this point I'm not gonna say to anybody because it's just not worth it, Right.

Speaker 1: 34:55

No matter what you say. No matter what you say, somebody will fight you over and there's 13.

Speaker 2: 34:59

So you know, from now until two years from now and you know they're gonna weed themselves out.

Speaker 1: 35:06

Yeah, very true.

Speaker 2: 35:07

And it'll go down, so but it's gonna be a very interesting election in the next. There's a lot that's gonna happen in the next few years between now and then.

Speaker 1: 35:15

Yes, I saw something interesting. It was like kind of partially funny, partially interesting and just partially curious. I was scrolling through something, rather one of the platforms and Roseanne Barr was on somebody's podcast and they made a bet about the 2024 elections and she says very adamant I don't know why I didn't watch the whole thing, but she believes that there is not even gonna be an election. So she obviously believes that there's, you know, some crazy stuff afoot and you know, if somebody said something like that five years ago, we would have just laughed and said, okay, she's a little bonkers. And you know, it's very sad that we're in a day and age where you kind of take a pause for a second and go would not be out of the realm of things that I can imagine in the world.

Speaker 2: 36:08

They said it in 2022. It was not prevalent, but there were people leading up to 2022 that were saying, oh, that's how Trump's gonna stay in power. He's gonna stay in the White House. I remember he's gonna shut down the election. It was noise and it was a lot of you know. People took it as fringe, like, oh, that guy said he's crazy. You know what? I mean Like anybody but you're right, now we think about it, you know, three years removed from that, and we go Okay, all right, I'm listening.

Speaker 1: 36:39

We've seen a lot of things happen. This would not be impossible.

Speaker 2: 36:42

No.

Speaker 1: 36:45

I don't know about you, but I am an optimist. I'm a realist and an optimist. Can you be both? I don't know if you can be both, but I'm deciding. Sure, yeah, it's going to be a real. Yeah, of course you can right, you're a realist, you know how things are, they don't surprise you. But you're also hopeful. Yeah, that works. I had to really think about that for a minute. Yes, okay, we're good, we're good. But yeah, I mean definitely cautious optimism here as to what's going to happen. Sure, you made a really great point about the whole middle class. I mean, we really are our voice. I count myself among that Boy. I mean we really have to start making our voices really be heard and make our voices heard with our votes and not by, like you said, not by the lesser of the evils.

Speaker 1: 37:35

You hear that a lot right, like well, I'm just going to go vote. I'm only voting for the lesser. They don't really like this one, but he's the lesser of the evil, so I'm going to go with that one. And because I'm such a vocal conservative, everyone from the left that comments on my stuff automatically assumes that means I'm a Trumper. So our ultra maga, and it's not true or untrue. I'm for whoever I think is going to be the best for our country, and I don't really care. I don't care what party they're actually from, you know, as long as I believe that they are what's best for this country, that's what I'm going to vote for, and that may or may not be Trump at that time, and I don't know. And I probably just pissed off a whole bunch of Trumpists. Sorry, guys, but I don't.

Speaker 2: 38:25

Here's a long way away A long way.

Speaker 1: 38:28

Thank goodness it's a long way. People, hopefully their grudges won't last as long as they've already tuned out. They're like what you don't know. Here's not the greatest thing.

Speaker 2: 38:39

Skip the leap.

Speaker 1: 38:41

Yep, bye, all right, ok, so listen, I keep going on. I could keep you on here all damn day doing this, but, lucky for us, we've got so many more of these episodes, upcoming and exciting things to talk about, great topics. Clay is going to bring all kinds of stuff to the table for us, and you're not going to just hear me going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah All the time. So I'm super excited. Hopefully Clay is super excited.

Speaker 2: 39:10

I am for sure.

Speaker 1: 39:12

Yes, and I know you guys watching are super excited for all of this. We've got a lot of really fun stuff coming on over the course of the fall and so stay tuned. I will keep I will keep the wrong stuff in your face to remind you to come watch, to subscribe to the show so you get notifications when we're doing something new and exciting to talk to you guys. Clay anything you want to tell everybody before we sign off for today.

Speaker 2: 39:41

Yeah, again, very excited to be here. I you know, I hope to add, hope to add to the show. If you're going to keep it under control, you're going to keep the show in line.

Speaker 2: 39:51

Yeah, if I'm subtracting from the show, I'm not doing my job, so but I'm now in charge of time. We've made that adjustment and and and I will. I will keep both of us on track as best I can, but no, I'm super excited and very appreciative of the opportunity. I think that this dynamic is going to be a lot of fun. You obviously have a great sense of humor and, but you're very focused on on the things that you want to address and you know, I think we're going to be great sounding boards for each other and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 40:23

Absolutely. I love it. I love it. I'm really really excited. If I haven't said that already like 500 times, I'm really really excited. Guys, listen, I thank you all for for joining us in our our premier episode. We're going to call it our premier episode, why not? And we look forward to seeing you in the next ones. Guys, take care and we will see you soon.