Mr Bearded Truth – 41 – The Jones Act with Feena Bonoan.


After being signed into law in 1920, the Jones Act has made commerce more difficult to our remote locations — Hawaii, Alaska, and even the US territories.

Join Jason as he sits with Feena Bonoan, a US Senate Candidate for Hawaii, as they discuss the Jones Act and why it needs to be ended.

Upcoming event:
Brevard Florida, Election night gala event on November 8th, 2022: https://www.lpbrevard.org/Gala/

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Episode Transcript

DISCLOSURE
This episode transcript is auto-generated and a provided as a service to the hearing impaired. We apologize for any errors or inaccuracies.
FULL TRANSCRIPT TEXT

[Music] hello and welcome to mr america the bearded truth covering political and
0:13
social issues one liberty at a time with entertaining insights of current events and important discussions on topics that
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affect us all shining the torch of liberty and brightening the future by bringing libertarianism into our everyday life
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and now your host the friendly neighborhood libertarian jason lyon mr murica the bearded truth
0:33
on muddied waters media
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hello everybody welcome in i’m so glad it’s another beautiful friday friday
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which means you’re of course here on mighty waters media with me mr merkel the bearded truth i’ve got an excellent
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guest today it is the one and only beena
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but know it so today she uh is joining us today we’re going to talk a little bit about
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the jones act we’re also going to be talking about something in the little near and dear to a lot of libertarians
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hearts and that’s of course talking a little bit about the war on drugs specifically around cannabis reform um
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so i’ve got some updates on the william henry um situation circumstance up there in
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indiana so it will be uh we’ll have a lot of things we’re gonna be touching on today so it’s gonna be well worth your time educational
1:30
because the jones acts is something that we talk a lot about but it’s not something that a lot of people dive into
1:36
so today we’re gonna be doing that with fina and i am so incredibly excited for that but before we get into the show of
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course i have to i have to address this comment i should
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tune in here because my social media comments are going to kill my social score um
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watch out for that that communistic social score um first of all thank you guys each and every one of you guys for
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joining in today whether you guys are joining us on all of your favorite social media platforms whether that’s
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course for continuing to give me a platform to reach out to and use uh and voice my opinions my
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over to anchor dot fm slash mighty waters slash subscribe we’ll be getting in on that um and of course i want to give a huge
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shout out if you guys missed last week’s episode we had spike cohen coming on and we talked about what’s ailing us we
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talked about how to fight through some of the mentality some of the physical ailments that that bring us down at the
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to the darkest holes and from that conversation the dapper squirrel we put up a post for them
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um to sell some of their shirts and because of what spike had done because of this episode
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they were incredibly blessed we didn’t know that they were in an economic hole of sorts and so we were help able to
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help them through that so thank you to each and every one of you who saw those posts who went on there purchased the shirts
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um in support of that amazing cause amazing people running that and and helping people when they didn’t even
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when we didn’t even know they needed the help it’s it’s truly an amazing feeling so i wanted to thank you guys all for
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being a part of that um but we do have to talk about here’s that dapper squirrel if anyone’s looking
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for it dapperscroll.com products and then you can find the dear person graphic tee
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um we do have two events coming up that i want to shout out for everybody so if you’re looking for something to do in
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ohio um on august 20th and 21st this is something that you’re going to want to
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be a part of um we’re going to talk about criminal justice reform it’s going to be a summit
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for two days you can sign up it’s it’s free event they’re going to cater in food they’re covering hotels just head
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on down to rebrand.ly cj or you’ll be a part of this spycone will be there i will be there kelsey
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lyon will be there um there’s going to be a it’s a star-studded event and we’re going to be talking about criminal justice reform
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engaging in the political arena whether that’s a county city or at the state level
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um being able to take these steps to make a brighter future for all this is
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something you’re going to want to be a part of head on over to rebrand.ly cjr to sign up today
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if you’re looking for something to do this election night head on down to brevard county florida
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if you head down to melbourne florida uh to brevard zoo and uh naomi nami river
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lodge spike cohen myself and a bunch of other amazing libertarians libertarian podcast
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there’s gonna be a table there for defy the power and stitches and glitches that you’re
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going to want to get some merch from this is going to be one hell of a night
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one hell of an event and they’re looking to get help and so if you guys are able to make it there november 8th this year
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down there to brevard county florida head on down to lpbrevard.org gala sign up uh to join if if this is
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something where you’re not going to be able to make it but you want to sponsor the event or you want to be a part of the brochure head on down to
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lpbrevard.org gala hyphen sponsors um
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my militarism almost came out and i almost said gal attack sponsors i don’t know how many people would would get that reference um outside the military
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um but head on down over there there’s many ways he could be a part of that event
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and it’s going to be incredible just that that night that john jordan
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marlow guy there he is a mayor that was elected as a libertarian and re-elected
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he is moving the way forward he is how we can get this done i also want to give
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a big shout out and a thank you to kelsey lion designs you can also go to kelseylion.design
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brand new website uh so we’ll be getting this updated in no time but if you’re a candidate if you have a business if you
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have an event coming up and you’re looking to take it to the next level kelsey line designs is going to do that
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for you whether it’s logos brandings business cards publications what have you if you need a graphic designer
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kelsey will be able to take care of you like no one else can use the code uh
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muddy waters and she’ll give me a nice discount over there nug of knowledge you’re looking for some
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nugs you’re looking for some knowledge you’re looking for some love nug of knowledge head on over there use the code bearded truth they’re going to give
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assure you it’s green it’s happy and it will be able to make you at least think that
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you’re sounding a lot smarter while you’re on it um it’s great stuff i i know plenty of people who have used this
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head on over there nug of knowledge use the code beard of truth you’re not gonna regret that make sure you’re in a state
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that’s legal for legal for happiness and i think that may be it so today i do
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have on oh my god it’s it’s liz coquillard uh we’re going to be talking about you here in a second liz so you
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got to stay tuned for this so we do have fenan um binon coming on
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and we’re going to be talking a little bit about the jones act talking about what it is how it actually functions and then we’re going to be moving on to the
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cannabis reform as well so it’s a double header today i’ve got an incredible guest i’m so excited to have her coming
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on um and if she it looks like she may be ready for me so perfect
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how is it going aloha it’s going great it’s uh
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8 a.m well 8 8 13 a.m in the islands and i am happy to be here and happy to
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be on your show and thank you for having me absolutely i am i’m so incredibly excited that we were able to make this
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happen it is so early in the morning for you and and so i have to apologize for
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that but you’re here it’s it’s it’s an incredible time the jones act keeps coming up and
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so i knew i saw you uh down there in sparks nevada um speaking at the
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microphone throughout the convention and you know i i saw the enthusiasm i saw the compassion i saw the empathy
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coming out through those uh through those words and so i knew that you were going to be one of
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those people and i saw on your campaign website that the jones act is something that you’re concerned with as every
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person from hawaii alaska and any of the us territory should be um
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but this is it’s what what kind of opportunity is this also
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well before we dive into things you got to hop on a post of mine uh a couple
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weeks back where finally we had it confirmed that the entire muddy water team thrown up the shotgun and you were
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the one to actually inform me that was it was called the shaka i’ve always called it just the hang loose when i’m riding
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motorcycles when i’m hanging out there it’s just you know hanging loose what what have you uh so so you’re teaching
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everybody whether whether intended or not and and so i want to thank you for coming on this morning
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yeah shoot if i knew you were going to talk about the shaka i would have put up a different sign i’ve got a sign that that’s the shaka because that’s the big
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thing in hawaii you know you say hello aloha and uh you you put you you let someone
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in in traffic right it’s very customary you gotta throw the chakra you gotta throw the chakra and um
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so one of my signs is just a big shocker in case they can’t see my hand they see the big sign that’s just got a
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big shocker on it so yeah it’s uh definitely a hawaii thing but it’s it’s spread through our surfing um
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our surfing community out here which spread to california florida and a lot
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of people do associate it with hang loose but it’s a shaka
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see yeah so i i think that i got mine from more up the coast where nobody wants to go
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surfing up there in washington state where the water is is has ice cubes year round it feels like um now that i’m i’m
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a resident of south carolina i can go lay in the ocean much like you guys can almost year round and it’s just
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beautiful it’s amazing you get to see those sunsets washington not so much so i i don’t know who brought it up there
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but i i wouldn’t attribute it to the surfers probably a lot of the the pacific islanders um who live up there
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um but it it it’s incredible little piece of culture that i’ve brought with me across the coast i think i’m the
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older motorcyclist uh that was right up here riding up and down the east coast and every time i’d see another cyclist
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or a writer i would just you know throw him up the shotgun and and it just stuck with me
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so i want to tell you a little bit about the shock i know we’re deviating from the message right now but
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the shaka has a mixed history there’s no true like origin story that’s like 100
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percent factual or everyone’s got a little different variation of the same meaning though
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and i’ve heard variations of a man that got like three of his fingers chopped off right and he
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was in charge of the um the train that was out here in hawaii and kids would jump on the train
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to get a free ride but only if they saw him wave and so that’s one of the stories that’s
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that’s the predominant story that’s out here in hawaii but the message of it
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throughout different stories is the same which is it’s safe it’s cool
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get on board i love it i love it learned it so much now i think
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i think that this is the perfect segue it’s safe it’s cool get on board let’s end the
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jones act so what what is the jones act uh i’m so glad you asked and i know this
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is like springing on you but in the chats i did post a youtube video if you
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can play if it’s possible i don’t know let’s see and this youtube video is from hawaii’s
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grassroot institute which is hawaii’s think tank it is the um
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it’s really the most trusted think tank out here in hawaii and it was started by a libertarian
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and um it’s a great video it really explains the the nuts and bolts
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of the jones act which as a libertarian when you hear end and
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any kind of act we’re already like oh yeah i’m on board if it’s making less government yeah check me for the box
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right yeah so it’s it’s an easy sell to libertarians but for
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people that like to use the government to ensure job security it’s not necessarily something
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they want but it’s something that everyone will benefit from at least in
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hawaii for sure in alaska puerto rico
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because everything that comes to um our states has to come from a jones act
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ship and what that means is all the ships have to be flagged in american ship has to be owned by americans
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staffed by predominantly americans and also has to be built in america which
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we’re not that great of a shipbuilding country that’s not our bread and butter export yeah so i have the video up let
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me pull this up and play it for you um everyone can see that i hope i don’t
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know if you’ll be able to hear this so i apologize if you can can you hear it
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ah all right well you get to see at least do you know at least what’s being said
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can your audience hear it yeah oh great
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no they can’t okay hold up let me fix that
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all right no they can’t uh so i’ll have to fix that at a later time
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uh sorry about that guys um so anyways what they were saying in there is that this is a 100 year old um bill
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this was uh the maritime bill uh merchant maritime bill of 1920 the the
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the reason why it’s called the senate or the jones act is because the senator’s name was
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you guessed it jones um and so what this did was this made it where
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the actual real effects of this made it to where just as fina was saying you had to have american ships american
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flagships american staffed american built and everything else this was created as
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it wasn’t justified as hey we need to have americans produce this and provide this this was provided as a national
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security thing this was on the um on the in the wake of world war one
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where uh senator jones and many others were concerned that america’s navy wasn’t going to be built enough it wasn’t going
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to be strong enough wasn’t gonna be robust enough and so we need to force america to build more ships and so why
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not use the merchant routes and so they created this bill and what was what the result of this
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um was that they created this bill to where you know
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as we we expressed some of those concerns that the only people who’d be able to go from a us port to a us port
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was these ships and so this left out hawaii alaska and all the the us
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territories um thank you tj for giving me a pass on this one uh
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but um so how does this actually affect
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why how does this how has this impacted hawaii as a result of this
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so i want to touch on what you already what you just said real quick so you’re right it was passed after
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world war one with the intentions of making sure that we had enough uh
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sea force in the event of another war world war which did happen world war
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ii and we were the prevailing sea force in world war ii so
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um that was also at a time where we were still building wooden ships
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and now we’ve moved on to steel and the idea comes from
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like colonialism and even previous war civil wars where we
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we america and other countries would take merchant vessels throw a cannon on it and call it a warship
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and we’re in a new era right so it doesn’t really work we have plenty
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of warships right now we’re still building warships we’re not building anymore we’re not building as
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many um container ships and shipping ships as we are warships so it’s kind of
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a moot point to say it’s like a security issue anymore it may have been thin not
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anymore a lot of things change in 100 years so how it affects hawaii
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if you go online you can see lots of videos of the ridiculousness of the
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jones act my favorite one is where is in alaska where they have this conveyor
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belt that they will put boxes shipment like you know things that are going
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elsewhere they’ll put it on a conveyor belt take it down a couple yards
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put it back on the conveyor belt put it back up and send it back and it’s past the jones act
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that’s you know anytime you make a rule a law someone’s going to find a way to get
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around it they’re going to find a loophole and that’s what they’re doing and it’s just like these ridiculous things right
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um how it affects hawaii obviously it affects our cost of living out here everything is impacted by the jones x
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when it comes to price because it costs even if you
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even if you buy local there’s things you can’t buy local there’s things that hawaii doesn’t manufacture yeah we are in a world
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economy right now we are in a world economy and the world has more shipping um
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vessels than we do so in covid during coven we were hurting for toilet paper way longer than you
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guys were and and that it wasn’t just toilet paper it’s food it’s gas
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and so let me tell you um i’ve got two stories to tell you about in hawaii one
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of them i heard from the last podcast i was on from a native hawaii person
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and he was telling me about his friend that was opening up a food truck
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so he had a food truck shipped to hawaii and when it got here because it wasn’t
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shipped correctly according to the jones act he either had to pay to ship it back
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and get it shipped correctly or they could smash it right there and
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destroy it and to me that’s that’s getting in the way of business
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that’s in the way of small businesses you know food truck guy he’s not he’s not
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building a corporate america something he he’s not making millions of dollars where he can just ship it back
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and get it done the correct way right and he sure can afford to have it just smash he just
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bought that that’s that’s an investment that he made to further his livelihood yeah right
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so there’s one instance the second instance happened today and it’s not a rare occurrence
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i’ve lived here for almost 10 years and i would say it happens at least annually
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and that is that we found a snake in hawaii in kapolei which is where i live in the
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um home depot now for folks that don’t know hawaii is
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absolutely zero snakes zero snakes we do not tolerate snakes snakes would devastate the um ecosystem
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out here yeah where one of the few places in the world do not have snakes
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we have indigenous birds we have birds that live nowhere else except for hawaii
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a snake into this environment with devastated especially something like the pythons
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that they have in florida i just read recently that the anacondas are even in florida now we don’t want
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that in hawaii yeah would think the jones act
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being something that the government puts out and supposed to follow the laws and everything you think that that it would
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benefit hawaii to have the jones act in place so that they’re looking through the cargo making sure that there’s no
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invasive species coming over here but it’s not it’s not serving hawaii at
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all no it if it was doing even the least for hawaii we would not have snakes ever
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come to hawaii i think with both of those stories i i think it’s really important um and john
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morrissey put in the comments for the first story of the the truck driver or the the food truck
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if he was a large business if he was a large corporations the politicians would have bent the rules for him but because
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he was a small business those barriers are there to keep him down um so so that’s incredibly important to note when
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it comes to the snakes issue right their idea of protecting hawaii their idea of
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protecting alaska and all these other things is to just look at the vessel not to look at the contents of the vessel
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which is which is one of the utmost failures of this but i want to i want to highlight this in the way that this
23:42
functions right because hawaii alaska these are i used to be an alaskan resident for for many years
23:49
they are dependent upon trade from coming outside of its of its borders
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when it comes to hawaii there are thousands of boats that travel past
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hawaii shores that go to california that go to washington that go to these these ports up and down the the west coast
24:08
because the jones act is there these boats can’t stop at hawaii and
24:13
then go to california if they wanted to actually go to hawaii they would have to go to hawaii and either go up to canada
24:20
to one of their ports or go south to mexico or even further south in order to
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come back and touch touch base with with the amer with another american port um
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it’s just not logistically smart for how small of a population hawaii is for
24:39
them to make a a long detour in that way so the jones act is actually making it
24:44
more um more difficult for exporters or for
24:49
importers of hawaii of of alaska to be able to get those goods and services so the shortages you guys have is as a
24:56
direct result of of malfeasance of of keeping the jones act in place
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so i do want to touch on something um that you mentioned about ships bypassing hawaiian going to california that’s true
25:08
some of them do come straight to hawaii but then they can’t go to california they have to come straight to hawaii and stay here but even if they come straight
25:15
to hawaii they’re going to come to oahu because that is if you didn’t know
25:21
hawaii is many islands it’s uh we there’s really there’s eight but we say there’s nine
25:26
because we can’t count vegas but that’s another story one’s a journal all right jupiter sorry not jupiter
25:33
if they come to if they come to hawaii they’re going to stop on oahu because that’s our biggest port
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now if they stop in oahu they can’t go serve hilo on the big island they can’t go serve lihue which is our
25:46
neighbor island they passed it first to get to oahu they can’t go serve maui molokai alumni
25:52
they have to just serve oahu and then they’ve got like you said they got to go touch another foreign port
25:57
um or just don’t come back to america so we originally were getting a lot of gas from russia and then when we had the
26:04
embargo our gas prices shot way up probably further than um the mainland as far as percentages go
26:10
because we were getting direct shipments from russia because they can do that
26:16
they stopped in oahu though now let me tell talk about a whole nother industry besides the shipping industry that is
26:22
affected by the jones act that we haven’t talked about and that’s the cruise line industry
26:28
we have one cruise line that can go around oahu or that can go on around hawaii because it’s the one jones act
26:34
approved cruise line and if you’re wondering how do i get to
26:40
hawaii if i don’t like planes you don’t you you don’t because there’s no ship
26:45
that will do it yeah no cruise line can go from
26:51
and cruise down to hawaii which is only about maybe a two day three day if you
26:57
really crew like really like tugging along like maybe that maybe that is cruise line speed three days to get here
27:03
typical cruises last seven days or longer right um
27:08
yeah that doesn’t happen when i got married i had a um one of my best
27:13
friends my best friend from high school we met when i was 13 and been best
27:19
friends ever since she couldn’t come to my wedding because she doesn’t like planes she’s like she wasn’t going to get on
27:25
plane and we’re trying to figure out how are we going to get my friend that’s you know can can at
27:31
least get to california to get over here and we’re looking through it’s like all right well maybe you can get on a
27:38
a merchant vessel and ride but that’s space based on space availability
27:46
and you’re probably gonna have to work while you’re there it’s not a cruise line yeah you know you’re doing the work and even if you got here
27:53
right you’re not allowed to get off the boat and stay oh
27:59
it’s it’s weird it’s so um the entanglements oh that’s that’s a lot
28:05
of entanglements with the jones act but you know what i said it earlier when we were talking before the show and i’m
28:11
gonna say it again now this is predominantly probably libertarians are listening
28:16
right as libertarians we don’t really need to know a lot about some particular act
28:23
that’s inhibiting the production or business or really
28:29
we’re against it already yeah you know we’re we’re down to end it yeah that sounds great if it’s getting in the way
28:35
of progress and getting in the way of people’s lives get rid of it and it’s been around for
28:42
over a hundred years the last time we had any kind of repeal to our constitution any kind of repeal for um
28:49
laws was prohibition and i’ve been reading up a lot about
28:55
that lately because i’m running for u.s senate and as a libertarian
29:01
you know i’m i’m not down to go make new laws i want to see how we can undo some yeah
29:07
so the last time we undid one was prohibition and how they did that was with the convention of states
29:14
they didn’t do it through um you know just merely the senate they did it through a convention of states and they
29:20
voted on to repeal the prohibition law so i would like to see some more um
29:27
activities like that and i’ve i’ve actually been trying to get involved with the convention of states been a big
29:33
supporter of it because that’s that’s the direction now it’s one of those things that if you actually do get a
29:38
convention of states together you’re not really sure what’s going to happen it’s a pandora’s box yeah exactly
29:44
so you know it’s one of those things that we could lose our gun rights or
29:50
we can get more freedoms in in liberties we don’t know yeah you know
29:55
it it is definitely pretty crazy but um you know when you were talking about it it reminded me of the most underrated
30:01
president in our entire history and that was a silent cow and my favorite
30:06
absolute favorite quote of his um was that it’s more important to remove bad legislation than to enact good
30:12
legislation and when we look at the way that we have just stacked legislation on one over another over another over
30:18
another there’s so many layers of bad legislation that have come as a come from this that the
30:25
we have to start tackling those and start removing as much as we can and and this jones act is definitely one of
30:31
those um i want to touch on this just for for the audience’s sake because when we talk about this people talk about it
30:38
proponents of the jones act will talk about it as national security if we get rid of the jones act then we’ll have
30:44
chinese boats coming from from china and floating up the mississippi and infiltrating our entire country and
30:51
they’ll be dumping off troops is is kind of this this hypothetical unrealistic thing because um
30:58
just a quick fact check on this there’s boats that are in the open ocean and there’s boats that go on rivers
31:05
they don’t they don’t mix they don’t match very well it’s like having um a drag car that’s also going
31:12
off-roading you just you don’t have that you have to make a lot of changes and boats aren’t one of those things that you can change on the
31:17
fly in in that way um yeah i no i will disagree with you there because i i was in the navy
31:23
i was in the navy and out in the rest of the world you’d be surprised what people consider
31:31
seafaring like they’ll call a speed boat a little dingy fishing boat they’ll be in the open ocean like
31:37
many miles away from shore like we’re around you know we’re fishing
31:43
so side note what what what did you do in the navy well i was a computer and networking
31:50
technician for the weapons system originally that was my big job that’s what i got hired to do
31:55
and um being in the military you take on collateral duties so i was also a
32:00
community relations coordinator across the world i dealt with countries all across europe
32:06
and then my final duty station i was a prison guard
32:11
for hawaii’s own mini alcatraz so when i got here i thought that was taking duty and that the majority of the
32:19
prisoners were going to be like you know pineapple thieves and kitten smugglers
32:27
i was wrong and it’s a mixed bag and there’s no pineapple these are kitten smugglers in there it’s mostly
32:32
pedophiles domestic abuse people that smoke some
32:37
pot and people that didn’t show up to work and they’re imprisoned wow
32:43
so that’s see i i usually have like a cool story because i was in the navy as well i was
32:49
a nuclear mechanic on submarines so double head yeah so i said the tube
32:54
all day long that’s all i did um didn’t do much because i was a pre-call but it’s it’s it’s cool to find another
33:01
uh navy fed out there um well when they were letting um they were when right before i got out
33:07
they were starting to allow females on subs and i was one of the people that they were looking at because they they
33:13
had certain certain people that they looked at to go on subs and as my original job as an
33:21
agent’s fire control man that’s something that they could have made into
33:28
that’s amazing so we got out probably roughly around the same time i got out in 15.
33:34
um 2016 for me that’s amazing um i was on
33:39
the east coast so so we were nowhere near each other i i it was actually funny because i when i went through
33:45
training i was on the east coast too i was on i was in norfolk for several years yeah
33:50
norfolk and then um we like you guys have your training down in uh georgia
33:56
correct so i did mine in south carolina oh my training
34:02
all your training yeah so i did three years two and a half years of training in south carolina but it was all at the
34:08
nuclear uh facilities um there’s there are some training down there in georgia for the boomers um for the boomer class
34:16
and for the the conventional rates um but i went from there i was first one qualified mechanic at my class that was
34:23
not going to elt and i put on my dream [ __ ] i was like hawaii california
34:29
washington guam japan and they were like groton connecticut and i was like there you go
34:35
that’s that’s not even the the right coast that’s y’all’s home that’s y’all’s
34:40
home groton connecticut yes yes submarine home of the world um and well
34:45
our home was a little town called a smaller town than groton connecticut i promise you that called dahlgren virginia and dahlgren is
34:53
about 45 minutes from d.c in the armpit
34:58
of virginia and there’s nothing around that they got a walmart
35:04
recently that’s terrible yeah brought was i was
35:11
so glad to have met my wife while i was up there but that was the only thing that that was good from connecticut um
35:17
so i got out and i immediately moved south i was like southbound get me out of here and um
35:23
so so that was good um so we both now are living in
35:28
that we weren’t originally stationed in you guys stationed there for the end of your tour and you’ve made your home there i
35:36
came back to my training ground states of south carolina but we both have been fighting different
35:41
fights and and i think i want to say in hawaii you guys have medical you guys don’t have recreational
35:47
yet correct correct we do have medical now i’m i told you i’m running for u.s
35:53
senate and one of the other things that i’d like to do is give the people what they want what
35:59
they have been asking for for decades and that is to legalize marijuana deschedule it
36:05
so as a veteran someone that carried not one gun
36:11
two guns usually usually had two guns that was the you know roving m16 watch
36:17
so that m16 a nine mil and ammo packs and i and i’d carry that for
36:23
at least five hours every five days guarding the ship protecting my brothers
36:30
and sisters in arms protecting myself protecting the country and i got out of the navy and i was like
36:37
let me get some weed right yeah let me get some weed i want to do it
36:42
legit so i got my medical marijuana card and if i had realized the consequences
36:48
of it i probably would not have gotten my medical marijuana card because if you get caught with marijuana in hawaii you
36:54
just get a ticket and i know this because i’ve been with people that have gotten tickets before
37:00
they they sometimes get their weed back and the cop carries on and that’s it
37:06
right but when you have a medical marijuana card you’re not allowed to hold a gun yeah
37:11
not a lot of purchasing guns you’re not allowed to touch a gun so i i kind of i’m involved with some of the
37:17
gun clubs out here in hawaii even though i’m not allowed to own a gun and like i was out
37:24
i was out shooting guns with them [Music] had some pictures taken with them
37:30
and then about a week after i posted them you know the the guy that’s in charge of
37:36
the gun club he’s like gotta delete those trouble
37:42
can’t have you getting in trouble we need you to actually go out there and do the thing right yeah
37:47
and so it’s one of those things i would never have gotten a medical marijuana card if i’d known that i was going to be
37:53
sacrificing my rights yes to protect myself to protect my
37:59
property to protect my family that’s part of who i am
38:05
i wouldn’t have joined the military if i wasn’t that kind of person yeah i’m the kind of person you want to
38:10
have a gun and the reality is and this is this is gonna be [ __ ] up but i’m gonna say it i’ma say it anyways
38:17
the reality is i’m more likely to shoot myself than anyone else as a veteran yes
38:22
no and that’s the thing is like i i talk about this a lot because the reason why i got out was because
38:29
i have ptsd and and so i’m fighting that battle constantly and
38:36
for me when i was active duty i had the choice of get help for my ptsd
38:43
or maintain in a military status that is a that is a choice that people are
38:49
forced with and so that’s because you had a clearance and i know that because i had a clearance yeah
38:55
when you have a clearance you do not go see anybody about your
39:01
head problems you don’t talk about your feelings yep you don’t you don’t even you know you can’t
39:07
confide in anybody except for maybe the church but definitely not the military church
39:12
better be outside they don’t want you to talk either it’s not just like you don’t have this
39:18
personal responsibility of like i have my job i have my duty for this that and the other to maintain my clearance you
39:24
are encouraged don’t talk to people just just do come in do your job if you’ve
39:29
got to go and and booze it up go ahead booze it up we can send you to alcohol therapy um
39:36
just don’t come don’t drive drunk just just do just self-medicate if you will
39:42
but don’t right double medicate lots of alcohol yeah just just don’t don’t let there be a
39:48
paper trail with it and and so the the the troops see this and so we
39:54
realize that there’s a choice there of do i take care of myself or do i put the military first and so when you put
40:01
this in front of of of people like yourself when you get out and you’re like can i i can get a medication card now
40:08
unbeknownst to you it was a choice of do i have the right to consume
40:14
um whatever i want into my body because it will be beneficial in a medicinal way
40:19
or do i have the right to be able to protect myself my family my home
40:25
we can’t keep having these choices of either people don’t get the help that
40:31
they need or they’re able to continue doing what they need to do in order to survive
40:36
these these shouldn’t be choices being pinned against each other but sadly the way that our legislatures have worked uh
40:42
in states and certainly against in the federal government is that you have to sell a right to gain another right
40:50
it misses the whole idea there that these rights are inalienable in fact
40:55
by you owning yourself by you owning your body you get to choose what goes in your body i don’t get to tell you you
41:00
don’t get to put mcdonald’s in your body because it’s terrible for you i don’t get to tell you to to stop drinking 16 red bulls in a
41:07
day that that’s probably why you actually have um insomnia
41:13
we don’t get to tell people what they put in their body but for some reason merely putting cannabis under your body
41:20
which doesn’t make you a violent offender doesn’t cause you to become violent people do become violent um by virtue of
41:27
their own nature but those shouldn’t be prohibiting you from being able to exercise your second
41:32
amendment correct and the reality is most people well i mean i don’t want to say most
41:38
people more people get violent when they drink yes it’s the common trope that happens
41:45
when people drink that’s part of the reason why i don’t drink because i start throwing i might start throwing food
41:53
so i don’t i don’t really drink um so i like to smoke weed it keeps me calm keeps me focused i’m not a couch potato
42:01
pot head i’m the kind of pot head that kind of freaks other people out in that i smoke
42:06
some weed and i’m like let’s get this [ __ ] done yeah yeah no that’s that’s me too like i i used to when i used to
42:13
smoke i would smoke and then i’d go rebuild the car engine i would smoke and i would go build something i would smoke
42:18
and i would go breathe something like i was going to do things and it helped like clear my head enough um the only
42:24
violence that i would ever commit when when i was under the intoxication of of cannabis was on a bag of cheetos or
42:31
doritos like i don’t don’t stand in the way of me in them but but apart from that like cool
42:38
calm and collect i would i would laugh more at your jokes so if you’re if you’re trying to be an aspiring comedian and you need somebody
42:44
to to prop you up come come find me give me a bowl and let’s go um yeah and you know what i’m the kind
42:50
of smoker that um i’m not necessarily going to share my weed with you
42:57
i maybe will ask if you would like some weed but if you say no i’m not gonna push it i’m definitely not pushing it that’s
43:02
more for me um i’m not gonna hand you my blunt necessarily you’re probably gonna have to ask for it because i’m probably gonna
43:09
smoke that all by myself and it’s it’s a it’s a different community it’s a
43:15
different community nowadays than than it was even back in the 60s like hey come on man just smoke this joint you’re
43:22
not cool if you don’t smoke this joint i don’t care if you smoke my joint i don’t want you to smoke my joint because that’s more for me yeah you know you
43:28
take my weed if you want a joint go buy your own weed roll your own joint i can show you but i’m not going to roll
43:34
it for you yeah i’m going to learn i’m still so offended by the dare of like
43:39
how often they were telling us you know people are gonna come off of you drugs i’m like why why did you guys give me
43:46
you know between that and and quicksand being prevailed as like the worst thing ever in the world that we’re gonna
43:52
confront this all the time like bro i failed the dare let me tell you how i failed the dare
43:58
i was the dare essay winner like my essay went into like little books or whatever to be published for
44:05
other kids for the future and i regret my dare essay i really do my mom had it
44:12
framed in her house and it’s just like my mom smoked pot and she thought it was hilarious you know
44:18
um but i i regret what i wrote because it’s from a small
44:25
child’s point of view are you saying children are not infallible i think uh there’s a couple
44:30
children in the news that make i’m just kidding no you you have such a limited view of
44:36
the world as a child yeah you don’t understand things and for people to be pushing
44:42
agendas which the dare is an agenda
44:47
onto others of telling them how to live their lives
44:53
these children are just going to soak it up and let me tell you when we grow up and we learn the truth we’re not going to be
45:00
happy with what we were taught yeah and and i don’t want to share too much of matt wright’s story but matt wright was
45:06
talking about with his life you know he was raised in a very conservative household and drugs were
45:11
bad okay and and he tried weed one time and he was like this was not nearly what it was like
45:19
made out to be like this was not that bad and so by virtue of of the terrible way that
45:25
people frame it as as a um as it being the gateway drug it’s more the laws around it it’s more the stigma
45:32
around it that when people try cannabis for the first time and cannabis is something they’ll
45:38
advocate for people to try out um for the medicinal purposes um
45:44
for the relaxation effects for you know for a litany of things um people go if
45:50
this is made illegal is is it true what they say about meth is it true what they say about black tar
45:56
heroin is it true what they say about cocaine about msd about you know all
46:02
these other drugs and it’s just like people try those and and when we talk about the
46:08
idea that the first time you shoot up heroin could be your last time um you know that’s true but people
46:16
because they’ve been stigmatized because the propaganda around it they’re more apt to try these out rather
46:22
than actually being truly educated on these things um and and of course
46:28
indoctrinating children is you know without going into the military thing this is why they go after young people
46:34
people that don’t have their pref frontal cortex uh fully matured yet is because they want to get them when
46:40
they’re susceptible to these things and so you know as we go out there and we talk about it at the state level of of
46:46
medicinal cannabis or at the state level of legalizing um recreational or
46:52
decriminalizing or at your level of pushing at the federal level of ending the war on drugs these are things that
46:58
we have to do because an ignorant society that is throwing people in their cages for for
47:04
lifetimes um as a result of wanting to put a plant in their body um it’s got to end
47:11
sometimes yeah you know when you talk about going and
47:18
giving the government hell right that’s what libertarian
47:24
yeah so when you go to the [Music] when you go to the
47:30
the table to make a deal right you don’t go there
47:38
and offer what you’re willing to walk away with you go there you ask for it all yes ask
47:46
for it all and so i would love you can quote me on this
47:53
i’d love to get rid of the fba i’d love to get rid of the fda just see ya
47:59
i got i got to cover these because these are going to be showing for a while now oh don’t don’t talk about ending alphabet
48:06
agencies on this show i’ll i’ll get too excited now nobody could you imagine what that would
48:12
do i mean not just marijuana not just marijuana don’t think about drugs don’t think about the the the things that
48:18
people put in their body necessarily for you know to get high or whatever don’t think about those yeah think about
48:24
cancer treatments yes think about where the fda isn’t being
48:29
applied to right now when it comes to fast foods when it comes to how they’re they’re encouraging bad food for your
48:36
body for your consumption but they’re banning things you got pyramid oh my god the guy pyramid made me fat i know it
48:44
did i can blame any childhood obesity and really my family’s even to that
48:50
degree and my family had diabetes they were they were like some of my family they were big and it’s because they were
48:55
listening to that food guy pyramid 12 servings of bread and pasta a day going to make everything go good you kidding
49:02
me 12 slices of bread that’s i would have a stomach ache i’d be so
49:08
bloated and fat if i ever just did that just a week of 12 slices of bread i i
49:16
correctly and you would be just so fat yes we don’t need that much food i think
49:21
they were i feel like they were plumping us yeah like i i i laugh because i i feel like 12
49:29
servings of of carbs or bread and pasta is like a light me a light day for me i
49:34
i i love and adore them that’s that’s like my sacred cow so don’t you look like you work out you look like you
49:40
maybe exercise a little a little if not you look like you you do something i’m lucky i’m lucky i am incredibly blessed
49:47
and lucky for some people it is some people 12 servings of bread okay but
49:53
vast majority of americans do not need 12 servings of hamburger patty on it and lettuce and
49:59
tomato and onion and cheese and all that good stuff that’s in the food guy pyramid oh lord yes no absolutely and
50:06
it’s one of those things that you know we value freedom here right and if you want to eat 12 servings of bread in a
50:13
day if you want to do those things you can it’s bad for your health the same thing when we talk about drugs
50:21
drugs as the government has called them right if you want to do 12 servings of cannabis in a day have at it enjoy it
50:29
enjoy your time do it safely don’t don’t go out there and and be a potential threat to others through by
50:35
doing it um so you know don’t go out there and be like all right i smoked a couple bowls i’m gonna go speed racing
50:41
down the highway you know do it comfortably from the confinements of your own home don’t be like those
50:47
alcoholics out there that are driving around drunk all the time that are like well you know i it’s my freedom to do
50:52
what i want to do don’t pose a risk to others be safe be good make your own decisions it’s your right
50:58
to your own body to do these things you know it wasn’t included in the food guide pyramid either
51:04
the basic necessity for life water that’s how you know it’s [ __ ]
51:10
oh yeah that water that’s actually probably what saves me the most is i drink
51:17
i drink one caffeinated drink a day in water that’s basically all that i drink
51:22
all day long and and that’s the one thing that can help kick-start for people if you guys are
51:27
looking for uh just a quick uh health pro tip if you guys are looking to kick start your metabolism in the beginning
51:33
of every morning ice cold water first thing in the morning when you’re hungry and put a put put some lemon in it that
51:40
that will help kick start that um but yeah it’s exactly right there’s so many
51:45
things that are being missed that they don’t care about when it comes the fda in the way that they structure all this stuff they don’t care what’s actually
51:51
going into your bodies but they will work to deregulate and control it in preventing you from doing this
51:57
i did promise that i was going to touch on the story of elizabeth coquillard and her uh significant other of william
52:04
henry for the audience you guys may have remembered we had them on william henry was facing some drug charges for having
52:11
a couple grams of marijuana in the county um so he got sentenced for
52:17
basically time served and plus two days i believe it was no no parole no um
52:23
no uh probation after the fact so he got off light if you will but they had stacked the jury against him but this
52:30
really speaks to the idea that even in a state where it’s legalized um for you to consume this stuff that the state will
52:37
still work in its even allow for a jury trial of wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars um in
52:44
order to confine somebody for these things um that sometimes you make a good enough case to where they’re going to
52:50
let you off quote-unquote easy for you living your own life i will say some benefits about having a
52:56
medical marijuana card it’s got me my weed back before
53:01
so when covid was happening it was probably like a year into co
53:07
videos after the the 2020 election i had a um an incident where i think i
53:13
maybe had like a stroke and so i had my friend take me to the
53:18
hospital and i did the whole like coven check-in before i even got into the hospital
53:24
they’re checking my temperature asking me um what i’m there to be seen for and go through that whole process
53:32
and then i go get to go into the hospital and going into the hospital i had to go through a metal detector and a
53:38
security guard and it took my purse sent through the the metal detector or
53:45
whatever and then without asking me opened up my purse
53:52
and took my bowl out took my weed pipe out fourth amendment doesn’t it i’m
53:58
confiscating this and i’m like that’s my medical week that’s my that’s like my respirator if you will i
54:04
mean i have a medical right to have that and he’s like not on premises and i’m
54:09
like we got into an argument and i finally was just like i’ve i’m leaving i can go to a medical facility
54:17
and be treated with dignity right and i’ll take my pipe back would not give me my pipe back it would not
54:24
give me so i left i had to catch an uber
54:30
to go from one hospital to the other because my friend had already left if it i could have
54:36
there could have been a lot of things different that happened yeah you know i fell
54:42
leaving the hospital that just like checked me and was like yeah you need to go see the doctor get an ekg and all
54:48
this stuff they saw me fall
54:53
and because they knew that i had a medical marijuana pipe with me which of course they all everybody thinks they see a pipe and it’s crack of course
55:00
everybody thinks every pipe is crack pipe it’s not and um and it smelled like weed straight
55:07
smelled like ganja you know so it’s like no questions about what what this pipe is for
55:13
and um so they saw me fall get then wait for my uber nobody came to help me i
55:19
went to the um the military hospital got checked out did my blood work and of course what
55:24
they told me was you could you should have come and seen us sooner and i’m just like well i would have but
55:32
i was arguing with the security guard about my medical device so i had my husband come pick me up from
55:38
the the medical hospital after i was released and this has been like at least 12 hours
55:44
yeah of ordeal and before i went to go eat before i did anything
55:51
i went straight back to that other hospital and i called the cops on them now the cops didn’t come the first time
55:58
i called them because i think they probably thought i was [ __ ] around whatever i was i was joking but i wasn’t so i called them again
56:04
they were there in 10 minutes the cop came out looked at my medical marijuana card looked at my pipe
56:11
and by the way they had already like locked up my pipe and and the the boss had said that the cops would have to
56:17
come to get my pipe back which is why even when i showed them a medical card
56:23
and showed them that um i was a medical marijuana patient and this is my property
56:29
they still weren’t giving it back to me so i had the cops come out
56:35
and they’re like yeah she’s a medical patient and that is her property that’s equivalent to them reaching into
56:42
my purse and grabbing out forty dollars out of my wallet and saying this isn’t you’re not
56:48
gonna have that or it’s like dollars that’s my property yeah or like an asthmatic person of
56:54
taking their inhaler or taking uh somebody who’s diabetic taking their needles away like you don’t you just get
57:00
to take people’s medical equipment away from them because you’ve deemed it anybody’s thing from anyone exactly you
57:09
do not have that authority now if you didn’t want that on your property
57:14
okay i’ll put it in a locker or something or maybe they could give me an option to
57:20
before my friend left go put it in her car but that wasn’t an option no
57:26
they have unposted warnings of don’t bring this stuff up and then when you bring that stuff up they’re going to to
57:33
trample you and a comment from from facebook was i hope you called him a bootlicker um
57:39
but but i wouldn’t do that in front of the cop that just got my weed back for me
57:44
i would have laughed and laughed with the cop afterwards i’ve been like look at that boot licker out here just take people’s medical stuff but um but no but
57:51
it really does speak to to this idea of when especially when it’s a medicinal thing
57:57
that you have a right to your equipment not just the medicine the the
58:03
method of of it being ingested that is a part of those medical rights and and we see where the state
58:10
tramples on that um i see that we’re coming up at the end of the show but i wanted to give you the last couple of a couple minutes i want
58:16
you to plug your campaign site plug where we can find you where we can follow you where we can learn more and where we can support you on your race to
58:23
the u.s senate sure my name is fina benoit and you can find
58:28
me on the internet or you can find me live in person in hawaii if you want to come out and help
58:34
with my campaign come on i need you i want you take a vacation come on down to hawaii help me wave
58:40
signs um it’s actually kind of fun and so that there’s that phenomenon.com
58:46
is my website you can find me on facebook i’m finna be knowing instagram i’m phenomenal26
58:53
twitter i’m finna be knowing i have another website fina for senate of another website
58:58
fina.website so i’m trying to conquer the internet as much as i can so i have three different
59:04
websites depending on what you want to know
59:10
like what’s your interest right so if you’re big into films and content
59:15
probably go to fina.website i i did have a i do got a
59:21
excuse me just smoke some weed [Laughter] i do have a film degree from hawaii
59:27
pacific university and have an award-winning film that’s kind of like
59:33
out there it’s it’s a science fiction type film but it’s about compliance
59:38
and a lot of people probably like it it’s a short film so i have short films
59:43
i have uh blogs on the fina dot website the phenifer senate is more about issues
59:50
like where i stand on things elaborated and the um finance.com
59:58
is just like it’s the nitty-gritty it’s to the point
1:00:03
donate um get involved here’s a very little bit about me a few pictures that’s it like
1:00:11
the business perfect well it’s like how deep down the rabbit hole do you want to go yeah
1:00:18
which level of libertarianism do you want to be into on this website that’s that’s incredible
1:00:24
um i i’m looking forward to continuing to see your campaign i’m looking forward to seeing you continue to be successful
1:00:31
and and branching out there and pushing good libertarianism but also good for
1:00:36
culture for our society for the good of every american out there um as we know libertarianism is best at um but i want
1:00:44
to i want to thank you so much for your time today and and uh thank you so much for waking up so early
1:00:51
for me i don’t know if you had to wake up early for this or not but with you being a clown
1:00:56
we were in the military come on now yeah no i know i’m not that early i wake up at like 10 o’clock now i
1:01:02
i i gave i got rid of a lot of those military-isms i still speak it though sometimes it’s bad um but i want to
1:01:09
thank you so much for taking the time to join me today thank you for having me absolutely folks
1:01:15
all right guys what an incredible episode that was um sitting down talking with fina and
1:01:22
and talking about the jones act something that keeps coming up in history because it’s it’s keep standing
1:01:27
against uh not just the lower 48 spoken as a continental us but also against our u.s
1:01:35
territories and hawaii and alaska learn a little bit about that and also talk a little bit about the cannabis
1:01:40
because these are these are things that are going to keep coming up in history and we got to keep being equipped to have these discussions as we look to
1:01:47
break down these barriers stand in the way of the betterment of our society so i want to thank fina for joining us
1:01:53
today um next week we’ve got uh i will not be back next friday i’m actually going to be heading out i’m
1:01:59
going back up to that terrible land of connecticut if you guys are our viewer from there i love you i just don’t love
1:02:05
your state or your region um so next week no no beard of truth
1:02:10
but we’ll be back the following week um but of course matt and spike will be here next week so you guys are gonna get
1:02:16
three more episodes make sure if you guys want that third exclusive one you guys head over to anchor fm slash mighty waters
1:02:21
subscribe to get a part of that we love each and every one of you guys for checking us out viewing us for
1:02:27
sharing us for commenting for liking the videos for hitting the bell on youtube or hitting uh hitting us as your
1:02:34
favorite on money waters media uh on facebook for giving us the five star reviews on your podcast for everything
1:02:40
that you guys are doing we appreciate you guys and love you guys and for those of you in the exclusive group you know we love you a little bit more um i hope
1:02:47
you guys have an amazing weekend hopefully you guys gotta enjoy your fourth of july you guys have the same number of fingers you guys went into the
1:02:53
weekend with um but with that i think that’s gonna be it
1:02:59
for this week i hope you guys enjoyed today’s episode i know i love this conversation it was a great time
1:03:05
hope you guys are gonna be well be good and keep fighting the good fight and i’ll see you guys


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Jason Lyon
Jason Lyon
Jason Lyon - USN Submarine Vet -Minarchist/Constitutionalist - #Liberty advocate - Principles over party - Constitution over Idolatry
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