Episode 235 - Convo with Michael Rectenwald Libertarian Candidate for President

[00:00:00] If you're a California conservative, a libertarian, a moderate Democrat, believe in common

[00:00:11] sense or just the same person.

[00:00:13] This is the political podcast for you.

[00:00:15] It's the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:27] What's going on, everybody?

[00:00:28] Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the California Underground Podcast.

[00:00:31] I am your host Phil along with me as always is my trusty co-host, the best and fastest

[00:00:36] researcher in the West Camille.

[00:00:38] And tonight we are very honored to have our first presidential candidate on the episode

[00:00:43] or on the show Dr. Michael Reckonwald who was running as a libertarian.

[00:00:48] Michael, welcome to this show.

[00:00:50] How are you tonight?

[00:00:51] I'm great.

[00:00:52] Thanks for having me.

[00:00:53] Good to be here.

[00:00:54] Absolutely.

[00:00:55] So obviously running as a libertarian, you're not up on stage with the big stars on CBS

[00:01:02] and stuff like that.

[00:01:03] So why don't you tell people and introduce yourself to the audience who you are and where

[00:01:08] you came from?

[00:01:09] Sure.

[00:01:10] Yes, Michael Reckonwald and I am the former NYU professor who took on the woke mob for

[00:01:18] free speech.

[00:01:20] I'm also an ex-Marxist, turned radical libertarian.

[00:01:27] I'm the author of 12 books including Google Arcapelago, Beyond Woke, Thought Criminal and

[00:01:35] The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty amongst others of course.

[00:01:40] And I'm running for president as a libertarian.

[00:01:44] And I have been dwindled by major figures in the libertarian movement like Dave Smith

[00:01:49] and Josh Napolitano and Walter Block and Jeff Dice, former president of the Mises Institute

[00:01:58] and a host of other people.

[00:02:01] And my website just so I get this out there for the campaign is rectheregime.com that's

[00:02:08] REC Theregime.com.

[00:02:13] So I think people would be curious to know how does a former Marxist go from one end

[00:02:19] of the spectrum all the way over to a diehard libertarian who's now running for president.

[00:02:25] How does that transformation even happen to someone?

[00:02:28] Was it you picked up Murray Rothbard's Anatomy of the State or was this something else?

[00:02:34] It's not that simple.

[00:02:36] It isn't about, you know, the research came later but it really had to do with the kind

[00:02:45] of a trauma that I sustained at the hands of the woke mobsters and they opened up my eyes

[00:02:55] to see exactly what they represent.

[00:02:59] And I soon saw them as the totalitarians, they want to be is that they are.

[00:03:06] And then I started into an entirely different, I had a kind of Gestalt shift and you know

[00:03:17] it wasn't, it wasn't within hours really of seeing what I was looking at that I became

[00:03:24] a civil libertarian.

[00:03:26] That is somebody believes in individual rights as primary.

[00:03:32] And then did some started into research and reading deeply.

[00:03:38] And also reading about the history of, you know, I knew about the history of leftist political

[00:03:45] criminality but I went into a deep dive in that.

[00:03:49] And at the same time exploring the libertarian tradition through Ludwig von Mises first

[00:03:58] and then Rothbard and then Hoppa, that's Hansehrmann Hoppa.

[00:04:04] And many others.

[00:04:06] And so you know all these last five books I've written have all been from a libertarian

[00:04:13] perspective.

[00:04:15] And I started into a new life phase from being a full professor at NYU to becoming what

[00:04:26] I call an intellectual entrepreneur.

[00:04:29] And that is living by my wits and writing and producing material that people actually

[00:04:37] want to read.

[00:04:38] I'm like academic research and writing which you know, garners very few readers.

[00:04:45] So I reached a much wider audience.

[00:04:49] My story at NYU became national news.

[00:04:53] And I was soon on all kinds of TV shows and stuff like that and have been on them since.

[00:04:59] But that sort of propelled me into the media sphere.

[00:05:07] And then I should say that I really recognized that the left that I had been associating with

[00:05:16] was, I really was misplaced there in the first place.

[00:05:21] I really didn't belong.

[00:05:25] And because I had always kind of suppressed or repressed various thoughts that I'd had

[00:05:32] that you just aren't a lot of think and that are verboten, there's potential thought crimes.

[00:05:38] In fact, I was having those thoughts and I recognize at one point that if I expressed

[00:05:46] what I was thinking as an NYU professor, all hell would break loose.

[00:05:51] And indeed it did.

[00:05:53] Yeah, it's, I went to law school sort of around the start of the Trump years and left school

[00:06:02] law schools are notoriously left leaning anyway.

[00:06:06] Let's say Trump just made everybody and every faculty member go out of their mind to the

[00:06:11] point where when I was president of the federal society at our school, which is a nonpartisan

[00:06:15] organization, although they say they're mostly libertarian, people couldn't stand that

[00:06:22] I had scheduled someone from the fire organization which just wants to talk about free speech

[00:06:28] on campus.

[00:06:30] And people on campus were calling for my head saying, how dare someone actually have someone

[00:06:37] like this on campus?

[00:06:38] We can't allow people like this on campus.

[00:06:40] What are they going to talk about?

[00:06:41] What are they going to tell our students when it's literally just someone coming in and

[00:06:45] saying, here's your rights on campus.

[00:06:48] Here's how your free speech is protected if you have any issues where a nonprofit organization

[00:06:52] will fight on your behalf.

[00:06:54] So it is pretty incredible how far down the rabbit hole or down this path academia has

[00:07:01] become where they pretend that they're all about constructive discourse or constructive

[00:07:11] dialogue.

[00:07:12] But they really aren't.

[00:07:13] Like you can argue in this little sandbox and that's it.

[00:07:17] But if you're out here and you believe something different, we're going to ostracize you

[00:07:23] and make you feel like you're not welcome and you should be kicked out of school.

[00:07:27] Is that sort of am I like on the other path?

[00:07:30] I mean they have the over 10 windows is very scoot and very narrow and when you go outside

[00:07:41] of it you're going to find what you didn't realize was there all that time.

[00:07:48] And that is you're going to hit a third rail and then you will see what shock you create

[00:07:55] and what shock it'll create for yourself.

[00:07:57] That's exactly what happened to me.

[00:08:01] I had no idea what was in store when I made some of the statements that I made and they

[00:08:10] were very sensurious and very unaccommodating.

[00:08:15] That's to put it mildly.

[00:08:17] And so yeah, it's quite an experience but for me it unleashed a whole new era of creativity

[00:08:29] I just exploded with writing and essays and speeches and stuff like that.

[00:08:36] So it was very liberating when I renounced the whole left in one fell swoop, renounced

[00:08:45] Marxism, renounced the whole establishment really.

[00:08:51] It is the establishment that's the other thing we're talking about the establishment itself.

[00:08:57] So the political establishment is the leftist totalitarian establishment.

[00:09:04] Right.

[00:09:05] Yeah, I watched you on Tim Poole just recently and you had mentioned about how we need

[00:09:11] a leads to sort of decouple and I don't know if you can see it, I'm wearing my the elites

[00:09:16] hate you sweatshirt.

[00:09:18] So I think we're on the same page regarding the elites and how they control this country.

[00:09:23] Yeah.

[00:09:24] So running for the roots of the elites.

[00:09:27] Yeah.

[00:09:28] Subvertive elites, yeah.

[00:09:29] So versive elites that's a good way to put it.

[00:09:32] They certainly, the elites don't like us and they definitely want to do everything they

[00:09:35] can to control us.

[00:09:37] But running for president as a libertarian, I'm sure you hear a lot of the criticism.

[00:09:43] I get it as well when I if I bring a libertarian on or something they say, oh, they don't have

[00:09:47] any chance to win.

[00:09:48] Why do you care?

[00:09:50] Explain to the listeners why it's so important that there is a libertarian president candidate

[00:09:54] out there on the trail talking about stuff.

[00:09:58] So somebody has to represent liberty in a principled fashion and that's where the libertarian

[00:10:03] candidate comes into play.

[00:10:06] And you know, the thing about libertarianism, it is if you hold the view, it is the most

[00:10:14] principled position out there.

[00:10:17] And it'll it gives you a guide stone for treating any kinds of issues that come up.

[00:10:25] And you have, you're not just swaying with public opinion trying to test the waters with

[00:10:31] different views.

[00:10:33] You're actually making a principled stand on all these issues of the day.

[00:10:38] And this is very important for the American public and any particular nation state population

[00:10:48] to hear.

[00:10:49] They need to know what it is that liberty liberty is.

[00:10:53] I need to know what liberty is and why it's the most essential property that human beings

[00:10:59] have.

[00:11:01] And why it in fact, it has to be defended.

[00:11:04] So while we may not win the election, and I'm not deluded enough to think that you know,

[00:11:10] I listen, I want to win, but also I'd like to win the lottery too.

[00:11:16] But winning, we have to redefine it in terms of creating more libertarians.

[00:11:23] Producing, you know, getting it's a 50 state media tour.

[00:11:28] And it is also an opportunity to reach the public in a way that they won't be reached by

[00:11:38] these, you know, equivocating and rather compromise politicians that are on the stage.

[00:11:50] I'm not a politician at all.

[00:11:53] I never had any political ambition whatsoever.

[00:11:56] I was asked to run by the measus caucus of the instance of the measus caucus of the libertarian

[00:12:02] party.

[00:12:03] And you know, I have spoken for them at various events and I'm a big believer in their

[00:12:11] vision.

[00:12:12] And so they asked me to basically be this spokesperson for that vision.

[00:12:17] And that's why I accepted it.

[00:12:19] And you know, we're work, I'm running on a campaign of decentralization, localization,

[00:12:26] resting power from the federal government and investing it in the people at the local

[00:12:31] level.

[00:12:32] And so that's the message we're not talking about some white knight riding into DC and

[00:12:40] fixing everything like every other candidate is promising.

[00:12:44] In fact, most of the libertarian candidates are promising that.

[00:12:48] I think I'm the only candidate in the entire race, including all the other parties that's

[00:12:54] not promising things that can't be done.

[00:12:57] And I don't think that this system can be reformed or fixed or even overthrown from

[00:13:02] the top down.

[00:13:03] It has to be done from the bottom up.

[00:13:07] That's actually a perfect segue because I was going to be my next talking point in

[00:13:11] my next topic.

[00:13:13] I read your essay about two nations and we've, I mean, we've talked about it on our podcast,

[00:13:23] not nearly as eloquently as you put it in your essay and I urge any of my listeners go

[00:13:29] to Michael Wreckingwall.com.

[00:13:31] Check it out.

[00:13:32] It's a great essay.

[00:13:33] Thank you.

[00:13:34] You dive into sort of the common, the difference between globalism versus localism.

[00:13:39] And we've talked about on this program, especially regarding California.

[00:13:44] California is an enormous state, 40 million people, 58 counties.

[00:13:48] I mean, the thing could be run like its own country, like its own mini-united states.

[00:13:54] And when you talk about the difference between San Diego County and Bute County or Inyo County,

[00:14:00] I mean, they're vastly different with different peoples and heritage and culture and to think

[00:14:06] that Sacramento can rule over all 58 of these counties that are so diverse.

[00:14:12] Yeah.

[00:14:13] You kind of step back and go, well, this is ludicrous.

[00:14:15] Like there should be more power in the counties, in the cities.

[00:14:21] And I think we saw a little bit of that in COVID where people started to wake up and

[00:14:28] go, what are my county supervisors doing?

[00:14:30] Why are they instituting these COVID mandates?

[00:14:32] Or we had a mayor here in San Diego County, Bill Wells of Elk Hone who basically said,

[00:14:40] look, I'm not listening to Gavin Newsom.

[00:14:42] I'm not going to send the police to enforce any of these business lockdowns.

[00:14:46] If any of these businesses want to stay open, I'm not going to be the one to punish him.

[00:14:51] And that sort of local protection is a great example of how localism can push back on centralized

[00:14:59] power.

[00:15:01] So could you talk a little bit about that and sort of this idea of localism and bringing

[00:15:05] it the power back to localities?

[00:15:07] Yeah, that's right.

[00:15:09] And COVID is a great example of why this is necessary in fact because to drive their agenda

[00:15:17] with the status, globalists, whatever you want to call them, they need to drive their

[00:15:23] agenda into the fabric of society at the local level for that, for their policies and

[00:15:30] imperatives to succeed.

[00:15:32] And likewise, if these things can be resisted at the local and individual level, then their

[00:15:40] policies fail and their draconian measures as under COVID fail.

[00:15:46] So that's why localism is so important.

[00:15:49] So the idea is that now it's important to put people in place in local offices that are

[00:15:57] supportive of and fighting for freedom that are trying to resist centralized control,

[00:16:06] unconstitutional laws and mandates and are nullifying them by virtue of the 10th Amendment, frankly.

[00:16:15] And so it's necessary.

[00:16:18] So even at the local level I will say there is a lot of, I think I just saw an article

[00:16:26] in the New Yorker, which I don't really often read but somebody pointed it out to me.

[00:16:31] And it was about how there really isn't that great of a difference between the rural communities

[00:16:37] and the cities, the urban centers in the sense that in both places, there are, there's the

[00:16:48] status, you know, every bit is, every bit is compliant and complicit with the state,

[00:16:54] the federal state as in the urban centers.

[00:16:58] So that's why it's important to get the right people into these positions so that, you

[00:17:05] know, look, they're trying to drive agenda 2030 and gender 21 into the local communities

[00:17:13] to have the kind of policies that these globalists would have adopt adopted at the local level.

[00:17:21] So we need to have people in there that resist these things and that vote against them,

[00:17:27] that vote to nullify.

[00:17:31] And to as your mayor did simply to refuse the dictates that they're dishing out and

[00:17:39] to be aware of what the agenda is that they're trying to resist too.

[00:17:44] So that's all very important.

[00:17:47] Speaking of California, we're, you know, a very blue state here where they're constantly

[00:17:51] screaming at us, equity and equality.

[00:17:55] And I saw you or a guest on a don't tread on anyone podcast with Keith Knight and you

[00:17:59] paraphrased a quote from Will Durant equality is the enemy of liberty.

[00:18:04] I loved that.

[00:18:05] Will you expand on that a little bit for our audience?

[00:18:08] Sure.

[00:18:10] So equality and liberty are very, you know, there's a great deal of tension between them to

[00:18:15] the two.

[00:18:16] And because when you enforce equality, you basically have to curtail the liberty of people,

[00:18:25] especially those who would achieve more, who would own more, who would, especially when

[00:18:32] you're talking about what they call equity.

[00:18:34] Equity is the production of equal outcomes for people regardless of anything.

[00:18:41] And so when they're trying to force equity on you, it curtails the liberty of people

[00:18:49] because you have to squelch people.

[00:18:53] You have to squash them in order to create equality.

[00:18:56] It's kind of like the novel by Kurt Vonnegut Harrison, Ferguson and where they in this

[00:19:05] novel, they effectively, if somebody has too many too high of an IQ, they provide, you

[00:19:11] know, send brain waves into their brain to disrupt their thinking or they reduce their

[00:19:18] height or something like that.

[00:19:19] So this all cuts against individual, individuality and of course liberty itself because you

[00:19:27] have to restrain some people.

[00:19:30] And even in the case of the Soviet Union, you had to kill them in order to attain this

[00:19:36] so-called equality.

[00:19:38] So equality and liberty and also democracy, equality and I'm sorry, democracy and liberty

[00:19:44] are very, it's very fraught with tension because a majority might vote to rob you over

[00:19:52] your property which is exactly what democracy does.

[00:19:56] In many cases you get people on the voter rolls who decide that your wealth is not earned

[00:20:03] or that you don't deserve it or that you shouldn't have it or that you have too much.

[00:20:08] And so they vote to rob you of it, you know, so this is why democracy and liberty are also

[00:20:15] somewhat antithetical actually.

[00:20:19] Going back to the localism issue, you had finished your point about electing people

[00:20:27] into these local positions and so important.

[00:20:31] During COVID I remember getting a lot of messages through social media and people said, you

[00:20:36] know, what can we do?

[00:20:37] What can we do?

[00:20:39] And you gave them the answer which is you have to get people in these local positions,

[00:20:43] whether it's school board, city council, county supervisor.

[00:20:48] And it's so crucial and I think people thankfully are starting to see that and see that these

[00:20:54] positions do make a difference.

[00:20:57] And I think part of your goal as a presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party is also

[00:21:03] to help lift those candidates up as well in the local positions.

[00:21:07] Is that correct?

[00:21:08] Yeah, that's right.

[00:21:09] We're trying to promote people to run and to help them run and to enable them to rest

[00:21:16] power from the central government by getting in office and by getting the state, you know,

[00:21:25] the federal state off of our backs.

[00:21:27] And so yeah, we're trying to encourage that because this is where rubber meets the road.

[00:21:35] So yeah, indeed, the campaign is about that.

[00:21:37] So being successful will be, you know, that's why I say the campaign is really not just

[00:21:42] a campaign.

[00:21:43] It's a movement, it's a movement to usher in this decentralized revolution as we call it.

[00:21:53] As exciting and one of the most exciting pieces of news was Lily Wu winning Wichita out

[00:21:59] in Kansas.

[00:22:01] We actually brought it up on the show.

[00:22:03] Was it last year?

[00:22:04] You're not in Kansas anymore.

[00:22:05] Not in Kansas anymore.

[00:22:08] But I literally, I was watching the election results come in and I kept, and I think I

[00:22:13] tweeted out two minutes before she was announced as a winner saying that Republicans will never

[00:22:20] make headway or change the party or grow their party if they don't know how to win in urban

[00:22:25] cities.

[00:22:27] And then about a minute later, Lily Wu won in Wichita and I sent that tweet out and

[00:22:32] said it looks like the Libertarian party has figured it out.

[00:22:34] Why can't Republicans?

[00:22:36] So I think that's a bit great sign that Libertarians have figured out we can flip blue cities

[00:22:41] that were formally run by Democrats into our column.

[00:22:47] Do you know much about that race?

[00:22:48] Do you have an opinion on probably why she won that race or?

[00:22:52] I don't have too much, I don't know much about the race frankly.

[00:22:55] Okay, but do you think that Libertarians have that opportunity that Republicans are just

[00:23:00] not getting into the cities and connecting with those new cities?

[00:23:03] So they have a lot of baggage that they're carrying with them whereas Libertarians do not

[00:23:08] have that baggage.

[00:23:10] That's a great input.

[00:23:12] Yeah, I mean, like we can be representing, we could be basically be purist with our rep in

[00:23:20] representing the ideas that we have and the policies and the way we would undertake so-called

[00:23:27] governance associations either with some sort of

[00:23:34] well, I don't know.

[00:23:35] You know all the things that attend to the idea of the Republican Party and Trumpism as well as part of that.

[00:23:44] We don't have that kind of baggage to carry around so we can represent these views and then they'll be just seen for what they are.

[00:23:52] Kind of a silly question but I'm very curious on your opinion.

[00:23:55] The internet is split on this.

[00:23:57] Founding fathers Libertarian or not?

[00:24:01] Definitely.

[00:24:02] Not all of them.

[00:24:03] I mean, some were more Libertarian than others.

[00:24:08] The federalists were much more Libertarian and that they wanted to give power to the local level and they pushed the

[00:24:21] 10th amendment and nullification for the for nullification.

[00:24:25] And they also got rid of they introduced the Bill of Rights and as a kind of countermeasure to some of the centralization that the Constitution itself represented.

[00:24:43] And so I think that not all of them were as Libertarian as others but the spirit of Libertarianism ran definitely deep in the founding fathers.

[00:24:54] Do you think they take out one look at where America is now and pass out or have a heart attack and shock of how far?

[00:25:02] Well, they would not recognize it as the country they founded because it's a big giant bureaucratic state, the largest state in human history.

[00:25:12] With the largest budget ever for a state and the most, you know, interventionist country probably in history as well.

[00:25:28] And they wanted nothing to do with foreign entanglements or foreign wars that had nothing to do with the United States directly.

[00:25:38] And so they would look at the United States as a pernicious even evil empire really, I think.

[00:25:46] Yeah, that's always been the one constant in my political lifetime and I've been on the left, I've been on the right.

[00:25:57] The one thing that I've always been is anti war.

[00:26:02] I need to, I've always been anti war. It's one of the most things that I almost don't negotiate on with a lot of people in terms of we should not be involved in these foreign conflicts.

[00:26:13] We should not be sending money over there. We shouldn't certainly be sending our sons and daughters and military over there to die in countries that have nothing to really do with us.

[00:26:25] So I'm of the non interventionist belief that we should be staying out of these foreign conflicts, but that doesn't seem to be that doesn't seem as popular with current Democrats and Republicans.

[00:26:37] I mean, we just had two nights ago or last week was it with the presidential debate? It was almost like they were arguing over who could be the biggest war hawk which to me gives me my stomach of like, is this the George Bush era again?

[00:26:50] Is this like 2002, 2003 all over again? Is Republican Party. It's just scary to me.

[00:26:57] Yeah, well, it's a unit party too. It's not just the Republicans.

[00:27:02] It seems that there's one area that the Democrats and Republicans agree upon and that is the area of foreign intervention and war.

[00:27:13] They both seem to be eager and there's neocons of course in both parties.

[00:27:22] And so that's what ties them together, that's what makes them the unit party as Mary Rothbard put it, it's in war that the state really comes into its own.

[00:27:31] That's where the state really becomes what it is and becomes the epitome of statehood or state is among should say in that it, it justifies itself through war too.

[00:27:50] It uses war as a means of legitimation. That means to make itself seem absolutely necessary to the citizens who are figured as needing the state's protection against this enemy when in fact, this is an enemy not of the people but of the state.

[00:28:10] And so I've been anti-war since I was seven years old. As far back as I can remember when watching the Vietnam War on television and not falling for the anti-Soviet propaganda of the Cold War, not falling.

[00:28:27] And then of course when the first Gulf War hit I was against that. And then of course the Iraq war and even the Afghanistan war.

[00:28:37] So in now this one, and of course Ukraine.

[00:28:42] So I've been anti-war all my life, even as a leftist. In fact, I was a speaker at the anti-war rally in New York in 2002.

[00:28:55] Or so it was a 2001, I can't remember. But anyway, it was 2001 where Bush George W. Bush took over in February of the year that he took over. I already knew that there would be a war in Iraq. I knew that they were going to bomb Iraq.

[00:29:10] And then when they did it, you know, I was very vocal about that. I ran an anti-war website. So activist site. So yeah, I've always been anti-war.

[00:29:23] And of course the represents like the first of all, it increases the aggression of the state on its domestic population through taxation and tax aggression, if you will.

[00:29:41] So obviously in the case of the United States, it increases the in tip of the country in foreign lands. And it actually wrecks our relationships with many places that we could be in good stead with otherwise.

[00:30:00] And of course it's immoral in the sense that it violates the non-aggression principle. That is, you should not initiate violence against anyone.

[00:30:10] You only have the right to act in defense of person and property. So I believe that all these wars have been have been unjust and violations of the NAP non-aggression principle.

[00:30:26] I also believe that we should pull our troops from all 903 bases around the world. We should not be arming and funding Israel's on slot and devastation of Gaza.

[00:30:40] We should not be funding Ukraine. We certainly shouldn't fund an armed Taiwan. All of these things should stop.

[00:30:48] That actually leads me to my next question, but Phil, do you want to go ahead first?

[00:30:52] No, go ahead.

[00:30:54] Okay. Since September of this year, nearly 30,000 migrants have been dropped off in San Diego.

[00:31:02] And in 2022 the DEA seized enough ventanol to kill every American twice. So open borders are often a libertarian stance. Where do you stand on that personally?

[00:31:14] Well, as a candidate and personally, I am not an open borders candidate at all. As a matter of fact, okay, I start from the principle if we lived in an ideal, which I would conceive of as an ideal society of perfectly private property society where there was no public or state property.

[00:31:36] If somebody could come on your property is if they were invited to come on, you can't just walk onto somebody's property, walk into somebody's house uninvited and stay there. So I take that principle and apply it to the state.

[00:31:54] The state, so called state property is really the property of the citizens who pay taxes in that state. Likewise, no one should be allowed into the country unless they're invited explicitly.

[00:32:08] And therefore anybody that just crosses a border without an invitation is actually violating the non aggression principle or the very primary principle of libertarianism.

[00:32:21] I am against open borders. I think we should have immigration by invitation only in that means say a person could invite somebody to rent the property or buy a house or a company could invite somebody to work.

[00:32:38] And then they'd have to go through the whole naturalization process if they wanted to become citizens, but nobody should be just allowed to cross into a country without an invitation.

[00:32:51] By that stance, there are also in borders candidates in the race. I'm sorry, there is one open borders candidate in the race and I think it's lunacy.

[00:33:01] It's creating a humanitarian catastrophe on top of the disaster that it's creating for the country in terms of finances. I mean, you know, we're luring these people in with social welfare and opening the borders and basically inviting them in unlisted.

[00:33:24] And they're just able to just walk right in and then sign up for effective benefits that some citizens don't get.

[00:33:32] And it's just an outrage, it's robbery of the city.

[00:33:37] But I think Phil Hunt also so yeah, sorry.

[00:33:41] No, that's okay.

[00:33:42] I was just going to yeah, I was just going to echo your sentiment. And I think that's one thing that libertarians people from the outside kind of look at libertarians and jump to the conclusion, oh, libertarians are open borders.

[00:33:55] But I think correct me if I'm wrong, I feel like more of the Mises caucus have lined up with this position of if you pretend if we all just sit here and go, this is private property. This is our country.

[00:34:08] I mean, the state has public property which we effectively grant to them through taxes and that's a whole different issue.

[00:34:15] Which they steal from us, they're allowed to have this property because by the force of violence or the threat of violence, they take this property.

[00:34:25] So effectively as citizens, we own all of this land anyway.

[00:34:29] Right.

[00:34:30] So we should just be able to say no, you're not allowed to come into our land which is our country.

[00:34:35] And by invitation only that's that's that's definitely a little bit stricter on the other side of what people.

[00:34:45] Yeah, if I may jump in.

[00:34:48] Let me say this that not only should they have to be invited but the person who invites them should be financially and socially and otherwise liable for that person.

[00:34:58] So if they destroy or kill somebody or rob somebody it's on it's actually the person who invited them is culpable.

[00:35:07] And so that even adds more to it.

[00:35:11] Now, I've been told that this is actually a very liberal policy because it would allow corporations just to invite people in to work for them.

[00:35:22] And I said that's fine as long as they're invited but as long as that corporation then takes responsibility for them.

[00:35:28] Yeah, yeah.

[00:35:30] And again, that's more of a privatization of immigration where the corporation is inviting and taking liability for their actions anyway.

[00:35:38] And if they want to take on the risk of bringing those immigrants in that's up to them and they have to do all the consequences if it goes south.

[00:35:45] So can you add a question you want to just in all want to go you said many of these migrants are coming and they're getting better benefits than a lot of our citizens.

[00:35:54] I've read different, different numbers but in California there's like between 10,000 and 20,000 homeless veterans.

[00:36:03] Do you believe that we should be doing more for them?

[00:36:07] If so what?

[00:36:08] I think what we've done to veterans is an absolute travesty, an absolute travesty.

[00:36:15] So we've wrecked their lives through PTSD and other illnesses and mutilated their corpses and you know in many cases just psychologically damaged people and physically.

[00:36:29] I read an article in the New York New York Times which I also don't read much.

[00:36:35] And in that article they talked about this campaign, I think it was in Yemen where they were firing candidates at such a rate that these people sustained microscopic brain damage from.

[00:36:52] From the ongoing shelling because of the vibrations of their heads brains.

[00:37:01] And these people suffered all kinds of problems they thought that was PTSD but it actually was something even more.

[00:37:11] More physical, more more like she can baby syndrome but for exactly so these people these poor veterans were like hallucinating and.

[00:37:21] Having you know like really bad panic attacks and you know severe anxiety.

[00:37:29] I think that first of all they shouldn't be used this way in the first place so but now that they have been used this way.

[00:37:38] And that is in these aggressive wars, they should be compensated up and the state is culpable for that.

[00:37:48] They should be compensated by the state and you know they shouldn't go on any further so we don't have any further compensation like this.

[00:37:59] But these people were robbed of their lives really robbed of their futures in many cases and psychologically and physically destroyed in many cases so.

[00:38:14] There's really no addict there's no sufficient compensation for that but nevertheless they should be compensated and that means probably housed and fed and given medical services without cost and I don't mean the veterans administration they should be seen at the best hospitals in the world.

[00:38:38] Yeah. I mean, I think that's part of why I'm so anti war is because I think one of my family members came back from World War II was only 23 and he lost his leg.

[00:38:52] He actually had his leg amputated by the while there was a prisoner of Nazi war hospital.

[00:38:57] And to think that the trauma he went through that he dealt with the rest of his life because of what he saw in World War II when he had to go through it at such a young age.

[00:39:07] People forget or they're blinded I guess or that they're just so ignorant of the idea of like there's a human cost to war.

[00:39:16] And it's easy to sit on social media and say let's go send everybody to war let's go do this you know, kill the bastards but they don't ever want to see the repercussions or the fallout or who comes back and how they come back.

[00:39:32] So that always that's that's one of the big things that makes me anti war is it's just people just forget about veterans once they come back.

[00:39:39] It seems like they just don't care they don't think of them as real human beings.

[00:39:45] So one thing kind of a weird pivot now from that but I want to talk about the economy in California.

[00:39:57] Simply because the economy we hear people at Gavin Newsom say California is the fifth largest economy and they love to tout that the Democrats in Sacramento always say it's the fifth largest economy of whether that's true or not sometimes it's fifth or eighth or whatever.

[00:40:15] They always try to say look we're the fifth largest because of our incredible policies that's why we're the fifth largest in my theory has always been I think California is fifth largest despite the policies of Democrats and if we were to truly unleash the.

[00:40:37] This sort of ability and the abundance of California what we have here it could be even higher it could be a lift for the entire country it would be an enormous place of wealth and abundance.

[00:40:53] Do you have any opinion on sort of the economic policies in California because they are kind of spreading to the rest of the country so yeah I have a lot of opinions on I mean the principal opinion is that when you're.

[00:41:06] That when you when you dedicate money to welfare and homelessness and even drugs and whatever you whatever you hold out money for you actually produce more of what you're trying to mitigate.

[00:41:23] This is a law of economics I can't remember the name of this law but I've been looking forward for three weeks actually but I can't find that I read it once and should have saved that file but I did not.

[00:41:37] In any case it's a law of economics that when you when you pay for something and you put money for something you're going to get more of that something you could look at it in terms of the supply curve generally that is the more you supply something the more you're going to have of it.

[00:41:52] So if you if you supply more money for any widget for example you'll get more widgets produced if you supply money for welfare and other social programs you're going to get more of the very problems that you're trying you're supposedly trying to mitigate I don't even believe that that's what they're trying to do.

[00:42:14] I think they're trying to ingratiate people to the state by virtue of handouts that then make people cripples and dependence and then they have their loyal subjects then and voters so.

[00:42:30] So and this is also the way the state operates on a national level too and increasing welfare and it holds it creates a hostage class of the state the state has kind of class in hostage and these people will show their field tea for the state.

[00:42:51] And even for its warfare policies because they're not going to buck the system at all because they're living off of this and they can't you know they've become disabled to live in any other way so this is a this is the problem cripples people it creates literal cripples and you know so California throwing all this money at homelessness I know they have like in San Francisco.

[00:43:20] I think they spend $850 billion a year on homelessness and I think New York spend somewhere around 1.2 well way less I don't know exactly the number but it's I mean they spend way less per capita New York does not way less in number I think it's it's a bigger number but it's let it's less per capita.

[00:43:49] So and look at San Francisco it's a total disaster.

[00:43:54] So yeah actually.

[00:43:58] Oh yeah it's clean right now because present she is there Gavin Newsom I don't know where he hit all the homeless people but Camille actually it's funny you bring up this because Camille you sent me an article literally just the other day about this about homeless nonprofits and it was I don't know if I'm quoting it right it's about the incentive program in the center.

[00:44:18] It's about incentives that if you pay to get rid of homeless and you give all these nonprofits all the money well if someone's making $500,000 a year as a CEO of a nonprofit that helps homeless.

[00:44:35] Why do you think they will?

[00:44:37] Yes there's never going to get rid of homelessness.

[00:44:40] They have a distance and have to get rid of homelessness.

[00:44:42] They need homelessness the same thing goes for like racial issues you know if you know like in the university I said this many times.

[00:44:53] These people that have departments of like black studies or this studies and that study these people don't have any interest in getting rid of the problem because they actually need the problems to survive to make money.

[00:45:06] The problem is the source of their income and so they're not going to mitigate the problem or ended certainly they don't want to end it because then they're out of a job and that goes for this issue as well.

[00:45:19] Yeah and in California to your point about reliance on the state they have got quite the strategy between you have the nonprofits who are profiting from all this money and the grants that they're getting to solve these social issues.

[00:45:36] There's issues like homelessness and then you have the unions which are probably the biggest enemy of Californians going and they unions pretend at this point that they're for the workers.

[00:45:49] But when you actually look at the unions here in California like the California Teachers Association which is the biggest and most powerful.

[00:45:55] They rarely actually care about their members more they care about the presidents and the CEO the people are running the unions who then take all of your money and donate it.

[00:46:06] To the politician who then rights in that industry.

[00:46:12] Yeah so it seems they we just.

[00:46:17] He must have hit a real profound point there.

[00:46:21] Oh, I broke their hand in my back yet.

[00:46:25] You're back on.

[00:46:27] You said something so profound that you you turned into a statue.

[00:46:30] Oh, I broke the internet on it.

[00:46:33] It was a good point.

[00:46:34] I'm sorry I can't say it again.

[00:46:36] Now I was just saying about the unions in terms of California has gotten it down to a science where when they passed AB five they basically got rid of all of the gig economy and contract.

[00:46:48] It's the freedom and the liberty to kind of just hang out a shingle go to it again.

[00:46:54] I'm sorry because just never going to get to say this.

[00:46:58] Speaking of California Brown out snow I'm just kidding.

[00:47:02] Sorry did I get.

[00:47:04] Yeah, you froze again.

[00:47:07] It's the dam unions anyway I'll get this point out.

[00:47:11] The unions have been trying to take over every single aspect of every part of our economy.

[00:47:18] Since AB five contractors they limit the ability for anybody to have the liberty and freedom to move on from that point.

[00:47:27] Okay, I don't know if it's the I don't know if it's the point or maybe close programs.

[00:47:32] I don't know something's eating your bandwidth over there.

[00:47:36] You might back yet.

[00:47:38] You're back.

[00:47:39] Okay.

[00:47:40] Yeah, anyway that was my point about unions.

[00:47:42] I'll just move on from that point because they don't want to get it out.

[00:47:45] Yeah, between the unions and everything else they want everybody a public worker or a servant to Sacramento in the state so.

[00:47:55] And I think people need to realize they're not here to help you.

[00:48:01] The state wants you to be subservient to them not to have freedom to do what you want to do.

[00:48:08] If California could just get out of that mindset where people start to work and have the freedom and businesses aren't taxed or regulated to death.

[00:48:18] I think the opportunities here in California could be absolutely enormous.

[00:48:23] It would be a cornucopia, I believe.

[00:48:26] It would be it would be the envy of the world I believe but right now we're seeing how the state monopolizes every industry or they're trying to.

[00:48:37] And the detrimental effects it has on the people so that was my point.

[00:48:42] I was trying to get around to it.

[00:48:44] Yeah, it's a good point. That's actually 100% right.

[00:48:49] So what would like you know, I know you're right for president but let's say you were to become governor of California.

[00:48:57] Tomorrow what would be something you would you would tackle right away.

[00:49:02] So first of all, get all the money out of that's take all the.

[00:49:09] You know, I tackle the education system first and turn it private altogether.

[00:49:16] Get rid of state funding for it altogether.

[00:49:19] I would get rid of all the welfare programs but you have to ramp that down slightly.

[00:49:26] I mean, you can't simply well that people are already out in the street but I would ramp down very rapidly.

[00:49:36] The social welfare programs that are being put in place certainly I would stop the.

[00:49:44] The the bills that are in that are floated about reparations that would be off the table 100% San Francisco's got a crazy reparations bill that they're floating.

[00:49:59] I don't know what's happened with it lately but it's seen.

[00:50:04] It's basically the idea that if you're white, you you have to be punished for what people did in fact in another in other states not in California.

[00:50:17] And I would get all I would deregulate as much as you can within a state all these industries and I would.

[00:50:29] And you know, what else would I do that's pretty much I would cut the budget by like 75% frankly the state budget.

[00:50:39] I think actually we played a game when Angela MacArthur was on the last time and we actually went through all the like executive agencies under the governor.

[00:50:50] And we went through like line by line and I think she ended up if she was governor, I think she ended up cutting like 75% of the agencies that we went through were like cut or no cut cut cut just by name alone.

[00:51:04] Yeah, I would do a Javie MLA on California big time.

[00:51:09] I just ripped these agencies out and just just abolished them straight up just to start over.

[00:51:17] I mean, it would it would the state needs like the bandages ripped off because this is a mess this and it will not heal until they get these until the state interventionism is is gone.

[00:51:36] And people don't realize that actual real social welfare increases dramatically when the state is out of the business of social welfare.

[00:51:46] The state is nothing but a parasite.

[00:51:50] The state is effectively a parasite that lives off the capital of any society.

[00:51:56] It is a capital sucking.

[00:52:00] You know, it's what what I'm saying like Ross Perot here.

[00:52:05] A giant sucking sound I'm hearing.

[00:52:09] It's a total parasite and it just lives off the capital and therefore depletes the capital base and decreases wealth and create increases misery.

[00:52:19] And so the state is the enemy and as a governor, I would dismantle it as fast as I could.

[00:52:26] Too bad with the average.

[00:52:28] I treat it as a American needs like an elimination diet with our politicians.

[00:52:33] Just get rid of all of them and then slowly add in a few and then if they're not working, okay, get rid of those added. Okay, just like you know, just get back to what's not working.

[00:52:42] What's making us sick and only keep the ones that are really effective.

[00:52:46] Exactly.

[00:52:47] I think a subtractive or eliminationist is the idea eliminationism and subtraction.

[00:52:54] Instead of adding things, you know, which brings me to RFK Jr., which is like he's got these ideas of just adding this adding that.

[00:53:04] You know more regulatory commissions and you know he thinks that the problem is regular.

[00:53:10] Yeah, the problem is regulatory capture but the only way you get rid of regulatory captures by getting rid of regulation regulators period.

[00:53:18] I'm not by you know trying to extricate the corporate money out of it, you know, because whenever there's something to be captured, it'll be captured.

[00:53:26] So get rid of the capture capture bull eight, the capture bull entities and therefore you get rid of the capture.

[00:53:33] I don't know why people can't understand this.

[00:53:36] People like him or leftist progressives in general, they just don't get it.

[00:53:42] Yeah, call me crazy but I don't usually trust when a politician says I want to solve government issues with more government because that doesn't it seems like it.

[00:53:52] That's the wrong way to go about it.

[00:53:54] I know you got a.

[00:53:56] Sorry.

[00:53:57] Yeah, I was going to say Nikki Haley.

[00:53:59] I saw I don't know if you saw that clip today of her saying she wants to require everybody on social media.

[00:54:05] I mean, I guess war with Iran wasn't enough now she wants to go to war with everybody on social media.

[00:54:10] Bring all those deals.

[00:54:12] Yes, I did I tweeted something I quote tweeted it yeah, she wants basically to have a registry in effect of everybody that's on social media.

[00:54:21] They have to be in under their own real name and all this is just unbelievable.

[00:54:28] She is a total authoritarian totalitarian not in the case.

[00:54:34] And the fact that they're given her all this airtime and all these networks is just to the on belief.

[00:54:40] I mean, and then she must have had 50 tweets supportive of Israel today.

[00:54:45] So Candace Owens had you know she should run issue.

[00:54:49] I think I support her for president of Israel.

[00:54:56] I mean, I my theory is.

[00:54:59] And we're kind of getting off topic from California but that's okay.

[00:55:04] California is everything you know whatever happens here comes to your state eventually.

[00:55:11] Well, Nikki Haley to me and this is the impression I'm getting is that she's the candidate that's going to play nice with the beltway.

[00:55:22] She's got a lot of people who are going to play with the

[00:55:25] staff and establishments with the donor base with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin and Boeing and she'll play nice with the military and

[00:55:32] industrial complex and she'll play nice with the media like that.

[00:55:36] It seems like they're almost trying to shove this early 2000 establishment GOP.

[00:55:43] Back down people's throats, and I think she's probably the personification of it to my in my mind.

[00:55:48] They were managed to roll all of the so called anti war anti establishment.

[00:55:56] Republicans back into the fold vis-a-vis this Israeli conflict they got them all back into the fold and other all raw rob or war.

[00:56:07] You know, these were the people that were saying no aid or funds to Ukraine.

[00:56:11] These were the people that were saying a rock the rock war was a mistake.

[00:56:15] They were saying that they were going to play a terrible travesty.

[00:56:18] These are the people that were saying get the state off of our backs.

[00:56:22] They're now all together in it.

[00:56:25] It's unbelievable.

[00:56:28] It's like these people where they they must have been just team players so they don't really see.

[00:56:34] Prince, they don't see anything from a principled position standpoint.

[00:56:39] Yeah, it seems like it's wherever their next paycheck or or board C is going to be.

[00:56:44] President, but where will he be sitting on the board next which war company will he be sitting on the board next?

[00:56:51] I think it's going to be.

[00:56:54] What is that company that makes twinkies.

[00:56:58] I think it's going to be that company host.

[00:57:01] Yeah, he might be on the board of that.

[00:57:03] Yeah, he could be on the board of hostess or maybe.

[00:57:07] Blimp.

[00:57:09] So we have a couple minutes left before the hour.

[00:57:13] I want to thank you again for coming on.

[00:57:15] I plan to try to touch on everything.

[00:57:17] There's some essays of yours that I had read that I wanted to talk about,

[00:57:20] but maybe we can talk about them another time in the final couple minutes.

[00:57:26] If you had anything to kind of let people know more about you.

[00:57:32] I guess sort of if your summation of your your can is a where people can find you.

[00:57:37] Sure, so you know my campaign slogan set that all recklessly regime.

[00:57:44] That's REC the regime by the regime I'm talking about the state of course,

[00:57:49] but also all of its all of its appendages.

[00:57:53] The corporates corporations big farm a big tech.

[00:57:58] The military industrial complex the fed that is the federal reserve and so forth.

[00:58:05] So wrecking the regime means dismantling this whole configuration.

[00:58:10] And so we're doing it through localization and through at Liberty education.

[00:58:17] The way to reach the campaign is that wreck the regime calm.

[00:58:21] If you want to know more about me, you can go to Michael rectin wall calm where I keep everything a record of all my writing and all my essays and appearances.

[00:58:33] And media citations and all that.

[00:58:39] And you know I've been at this for the Liberty fight for about eight years now.

[00:58:46] And I'm really I think I'm the only anti war candidate in the race.

[00:58:55] I mean there are others in the Liberty and party, but I think of the most strength strident strident.

[00:59:02] And strenuous anti war candidate that's making that one of the main planks.

[00:59:07] So if you're looking to be, if you're looking for an anti war solution or an anti war candidate,

[00:59:13] you can get behind it's not going to sell out or equivocate than that's me.

[00:59:19] But it's not wrecking the regime is not me doing this.

[00:59:23] It's all of us undertaking this together.

[00:59:28] Yeah, and I highly recommend to any of our followers or listeners go check out Michael right now wall calm those essays that I brought up are great.

[00:59:39] I was kind of.

[00:59:41] Been doing on them in the past couple days.

[00:59:43] I just went down the rabbit hole.

[00:59:44] I've been enjoying him and I'll continue to read him.

[00:59:46] And if you want to learn more about my goodness campaign go to rectin regime calm.

[00:59:52] So thank you Michael for coming on.

[00:59:54] If you ever want to come back on let us know next year whatever open invitation.

[00:59:59] Thank you so much.

[01:00:00] I appreciate that maybe we can talk more about you possibly being governor of California,

[01:00:05] that might not be a bad idea.

[01:00:07] You're sitting there going.

[01:00:08] If I lose this the fault position they give me I thought that's what they told me.

[01:00:13] I don't know.

[01:00:14] Yeah.

[01:00:15] I mean, I would take it based on our conversation tonight.

[01:00:17] I'd be all for for Michael Reckonwald for governor of California.

[01:00:22] Yeah, thank you for coming on and to finish out the show as we always do.

[01:00:27] If you like our show make sure you subscribe like share review all that stuff comment helps with the algorithm.

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[01:00:41] Tell you all good night later everybody.