Why Joel Lava Is Running for Congress: Accountability, Community, and Real Leadership

In this Private Lounge conversation, Carmen sits down with Joel Lava, who is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in California’s 30th District. Joel talks openly about why he decided to run, what pushed him from activism into a congressional race, and why he believes Democratic leadership has lost its sense of urgency and fight.

Joel explains his frustration with the lack of impeachment discussions, the importance of Rule 9, and why he believes elected officials should be mobilizing communities instead of avoiding hard conversations. He shares how his weekly rallies outside Rep. Laura Friedman’s office grew from two people to dozens, and why accountability and accessibility from representatives matter.

Carmen and Joel dig into the realities of running for office, the pressures candidates face, and how good people can get swallowed by the institution. They discuss AOC, the Taiwan moment, double standards in politics, and the expectations placed on public figures.

Joel also talks about gun violence, the influence of gun and ammo manufacturers, the Tiahrt Amendment, and why focusing only on “assault weapons bans” misses the real problem. He breaks down how little the public knows about gun brands, why that’s intentional, and what meaningful reform would actually require.
This is a candid, detailed, and deeply human conversation about politics, accountability, community power, and what it really means to step into public service.

Topics include:
• Why Joel decided to run for Congress
• Rule 9, impeachment, and Democratic strategy
• Community mobilization and political courage
• Town halls, accessibility, and constituent accountability
• AOC, Taiwan, and media double standards
• The realities of campaigning and public expectations
• Gun violence, the Tiahrt Amendment, and industry influence
• Affordability, accountability, and the future of leadership

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Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth


DISCLAIMER:  As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast.  Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance. 

Transcript

[00:00:00] Carmen: all right, Joel, how you doing? It's so nice to have you on the show again.

[00:00:04] Joel: it's an honor to be back, Carmen on A A TJ, all about the joy.

[00:00:10] Carmen: Yeah. And this is the private lounge and so welcome. But we have you on for a very specific reason and I'm so excited for you. But of course I have a million questions. You're running for, the US House of Representatives Congress 30th District. Right. And this is, Adam Schiff's old seat. Is that correct?

[00:00:28] Joel: It is. Then he left to go, uh, to the Senate and Laura Friedman came from State Assembly and won the election to take his spot, a

[00:00:37] Carmen: So let me ask you the first question. What, I mean, I'm glad you're doing it. I thought you've always should have, you know, thought about running. But, what was the moment where you were like, I need to just get involved in, get into politics? You've always been involved in politics, but I mean, running for Congress is a real decision.[00:01:00] 

[00:01:00] Joel: Yeah. Um, well, obviously people have been telling me to run forever, and I'm always like, no. we partially 'cause I just thought at the time these were also more normal times. I thought there was just all you read, have you ever read Bills? And they're like 300 pages and it's footnotes and I was just like, I, I'm not built for that.

[00:01:21] Joel: I think one thing I was thinking about, you know how they say when guys get older they start getting more into World War II or birding. I think as I've gotten older, I'm more able to pour through policy papers. so yeah, I, once Trump got elected, even though I've always been political, I got like in the streets, I became one of the leaders of Tesla takedown.

[00:01:41] Joel: Um, I got, I was a spokesman then and, and

[00:01:46] Carmen: during his first term, you were very active. That's what you're talking

[00:01:50] Joel: yeah. That's the kind of active that I've always been where I make a political video here and there and do canvassing for whatever. Um, sorry about that. Um.

[00:01:59] Carmen: It's okay.[00:02:00] 

[00:02:00] Joel: And, uh, yeah. Then when, uh, starting this in the fall, I was like kind of getting sick of holding a sign 'cause there haven't been a protestor or a petition or a boycotter before.

[00:02:11] Joel: Um, the Tesla protest seemed like a perfect storm of reasons that it would work and it actually has worked

[00:02:18] Carmen: It has

[00:02:19] Joel: and is work is working. Um, and then I just start to get really upset. That no one was even talking about impeachment, let alone filing. And I, and as I say, like how many, how many more American citizens have to be killed?

[00:02:33] Joel: How many more crypto bribes does he have to take? How many more extra judicial killings?

[00:02:39] Carmen: But can you explain just a little bit like what you mean by that? That you know the impeachment you, you're upset that they have not. Um, started procedures even talked about it at all.

[00:02:51] Joel: yeah, I got, I get tired of watching. 

[00:02:53] Joel: I start to get upset that they weren't even talking about the word impeachment. I assume it's because, hey, we're [00:03:00] doing great in the polls and all the special elections. We don't wanna start talking about impeachment and it'll cause MAGA to circle the wagons and bolster Trump support.

[00:03:08] Joel: I'm sure that's the thinking, which is classic democrat thinking, which is let's not do the right thing and the hard thing because it might be scary and it might be a bigger fight, and we don't know how to fight. So,

[00:03:18] Carmen: Okay, but I have a question. Is it also because they don't have the power?

[00:03:22] Joel: Okay, they, so here we go.

[00:03:26] Carmen: I'm asking a question.

[00:03:27] Joel: no, no, no, no, no. And I'm, this is a very common question.

[00:03:31] Joel: Um, anyone can call for impeachment. It's called Rule nine. By law it has to be a vote. Alright? So then you say, well, there's not enough votes to impeach. And my response to that is. Then why are you in Congress? If you don't have enough votes to get done what you want and you're a Democrat, then why do you even fly out to dc?

[00:03:50] Joel: Why do you even show up? Because there's not enough votes, so I don't buy that sec. Secondly, imagine if every elected dem from the House and Senate [00:04:00] stood on the steps of the Capitol holding articles of impeachment unified that would show fight, that would show that would seize the narrative. And the opposite of doing that is feckless silence.

[00:04:09] Joel: So why remember Republicans? Voted to repeal Obamacare like a hundred gazillion times. It never passed, but we knew where they stood and we saw that they're just running into the wall headfirst over and over. And that creates a narrative. Well, re Republicans will fight, and we know Democrats have the polls show right now that people are frustrated.

[00:04:29] Joel: Democrats just aren't fighting. They don't have

[00:04:31] Carmen: Okay, but you kind of just answered. I mean, your example of the Republicans makes complete sense. I get it. But they actually weren't able to get rid of Obamacare even though they, in my, um, opinion, wasted a lot of taxpayer dollars and a lot of time trying to get rid of Obamacare.

[00:04:53] Joel: who won in 2016?

[00:04:56] Carmen: You are saying it's because of Obamacare?

[00:04:58] Joel: I'm saying there's not one single [00:05:00] thing, but I'm saying the cumulative effect, that's the other thing. I feel like a lot of Democrats are like, we're not gonna do that 'cause it, it alone will not be a silver bullet to fix things. And it needs to be all a coordinated, all out frontal assault. So that's, those are the reasons.

[00:05:16] Joel: Um, and again, it's just showing fight that the, the entire MO of Democrats is. They're scared to fight if, if victory is not assured, and I just look at any superhero movie, the hero gets his butt kicked in the first act, and then in the final act he is bloodied and beaten and you think he's down and you think it's hopeless.

[00:05:33] Joel: But he digs deep and he still finds a way to win. Democrats get punched once and they run away crying and they modulate and they capitulate.

[00:05:42] Carmen: Okay. I don't even know what to say to that. I, I just wonder if, um, I look it, I agree with you. I just wonder, I don't know if I fully agree with you, but I understand where you're. Where you're headed and what you're thinking about. But I guess my question would be is [00:06:00] you have this idea of fight. How do you think you're gonna be able to make everyone else do it?

[00:06:05] Carmen: Do you think no one else has thought of what you're thinking of is what I'm trying to say?

[00:06:10] Joel: Right. Well, and to, to answer your first question, so I got really passionate about just every, every week there's some new scandal that would sink another presidency, and no one's even saying the word impeach. And so I started to hold rallies outside Laura Friedman's office once a week. It started with just like two of us and then four, by the end of it, we had like 25 people all in her office, very respectful, you know, writing her comment cards.

[00:06:32] Joel: She would not respond. she's. She won't respond. We're asking, why are you, when are you gonna hold a town hall? And I said, you know what? If she doesn't even answer respectfully why she, I asked, will you vote to impeach? And if not, why? And she wouldn't answer that. And I said, if she doesn't respond, I'm gonna run against her.

[00:06:48] Joel: So I ran against her. Um,

[00:06:50] Carmen: awesome. That makes complete sense

[00:06:52] Joel: so what is fighting To me fighting is many things as political fighting, not, not physical fighting. first [00:07:00] of all, it's the simple question. Ww JL what would John Lewis do? if I wanna do the John Lewis Platinum plus plus plan, I'm not saying we all need to be out there getting arrested, but I'm not saying it.

[00:07:14] Joel: That's part of it. You need to be, I, the, being a, an elected official holds a lot of weight. So if I want to go down and protest ice somewhere, or protest this or that about Trump and I act and I do get arrested. No one cares if I'm an elected official that has a lot of weight, a lot of eyeballs, a lot of narrative seizing, and a lot of people going, oh, like that woman, I, I don't, I'm blanking on her name, in, New Jersey where she got arrested when they were trying to go and inspect the detention center.

[00:07:45] Joel: And they say she pushed an agent, she didn't, Was a big deal and it's like a huge deal. And that's what someone no one heard of. so that's part of fight. The other fight is I'm sick of hearing people say, this is wrong, blah, blah, blah. I don't, I, in the same sentence, they should be like, this is [00:08:00] wrong.

[00:08:00] Joel: And that's why I, we, the Democrats are proposing this legislation or they are breaking the law and that law, they're breaking when we hold them to account. Is a felony and they will get five years, define what they're doing instead. It's just these platitudes of, oh, it's wrong and it's unconstitutional, and then it's okay, you are not like right now, democratic leaders are reporters.

[00:08:22] Joel: They're telling us what's wrong. We know that we have MS Now and we have New York Times, and we have media. We don't need our leaders to tell us what's wrong. We need them to tell us how they're fixing it. And the last part of fight is mobilize people. For instance, I represent the 30th district. Three movie studios, a ton of creative people, from content to creators to the creative middle class.

[00:08:42] Joel: There's a huge Armenian, culture and population here. It's 750,000 people. We should be leveraging that power of community. To fight, and this is something we told Laura Friedman, who I'm running against. We said, if you hold a rally right now about agricultural [00:09:00] policy, you might get like 10 people. If you hold a rally where you're holding articles of impeachment that you are about to file, the next day you fly to Congress, you'll have 3000 people cheering for you.

[00:09:10] Joel: And, it's, again, it's like we have such a vital, we're a major city. We should be leveraging the power of the people, which is what I've been doing. For the last year through Tesla Takedown, I organized ice out rallies. I, we had 1500 people. Again, I, I credit Donald Trump and the killing of Alex Freddy more than anything I did.

[00:09:31] Joel: But I'm mobilizing the people, or we are, I don't want, it's not

[00:09:35] Carmen: Well, it sounds like to me that you really got, I don't wanna say inspired, but really upset that your representative isn't actually talking to the people, isn't actually having, uh, did she not have any town halls at all?

[00:09:51] Joel: She, it's funny. I really, I, she's a good person and a nice person by account, so I really don't want to go after her as much as the party itself. And I [00:10:00] wish she was a man. 'cause I have this great phrase, I'm not running against a man, but a mindset. So I don't, um. So she held a town hall. It was on C-span in April.

[00:10:10] Joel: And in it she's like, it's important to look your constituents in the eye. That was when all the Republicans were hiding. Um, she's like, I went down to Orange County and held a town hall 'cause their representative wouldn't even show up. And by any measure, I don't think she's held a town hall since. After those words and I got her on video saying it, but I actually contacted her office and I said I would, 'cause I actually wanted, I found this all out 'cause I wanted to watch her town halls just to see who she is, what she talks about.

[00:10:39] Joel: More detail. I couldn't find anything. So I contacted them. I said I would like a list of all her town halls, if any, her on video. And I would like to know when her next town hall is. She pointed me to one other town hall she did with another person. And then that was it. It was like a three paragraph response.

[00:10:55] Joel: Thank you. I appreciate the response, but no mention of any future town halls. [00:11:00] It's crazy.

[00:11:01] Carmen: That is crazy. I mean, that, that part is inspiring. That you've like, I understand better that part of it than I always go back to like a OC and the three of them when they started out and they had the fire in the belly and you know, they were kind of like, how you are right now. They were. Upset and angry and ready to take on Congress.

[00:11:22] Carmen: And we've watched them also kind of acquiesce. And I don't think it's because of anything that they're doing wrong. It's that the institution of our Congress is, you know what I mean? There, there must be something happening there that makes it harder to do what I think those three, when they started out wanted to do.

[00:11:44] Carmen: Does that make

[00:11:44] Joel: don't, I, I know what you're saying. I don't like if we just focus on a OCI wouldn't say she acquiesced. Um,

[00:11:50] Carmen: I don't mean that she acquiesced on purpose.

[00:11:53] Joel: I don't think she lost her fire.

[00:11:56] Carmen: well, but she's not running around with, uh, articles of [00:12:00] impeachment.

[00:12:01] Joel: And I fal her for that. But I mean, she, she did go, she went around LA a year ago doing the Bernie tour all across the country getting 30,000, 50,000 people showing up to their rallies.

[00:12:14] Carmen: So what I am trying to say is, is it possible that there's just something else happening that the institution is, it's broken clearly, but you keep blaming the Dems and I'm just trying to figure out why people like her and the three of them and others who are doing a lot as well, aren't doing what you want your Congress person to do right now, which is why you're running against them.

[00:12:38] Joel: Well, I would say I, I'm calling out the Dems for not. Putting up enough resistance. Um, and I am a Democrat and I'm running in a Democratic primary, so it's not, I'm not here talking about the problems with the Republicans. Also, it really bothers me now when people are like, there's a double standard and if Biden said this or if Obama said [00:13:00] this, and I'm like, that was a great complaint up until the early two thousands and now we know their playbook and if we're still just complaining after knowing their playbook.

[00:13:08] Joel: All this time we're basically, we're enabling the abuser. Like we know the problem and we haven't fixed it and we haven't pushed back. And there's a lot of ways to push back on the double standards that there's a whole other conversation. Um,

[00:13:21] Carmen: Well, let's talk about a

[00:13:22] Joel: I, no, I would say real quick 'cause I'm running and I'm already, it's crazy experience so far.

[00:13:27] Joel: I'm just over a month in. I see how really good people. You get sucked into it. And it's a lot because you have good intentions. You don't wanna rock the boat, you wanna follow the party lead, you want your committee assignment and say you, your, say your, your issue is, uh, opiate addiction and that's what inspired you to go to Congress.

[00:13:48] Joel: Well, people want you to take all these stands on these controversial things like trans something or some crazy environmental thing where the community. Doesn't want it or does want it. And all your [00:14:00] constituents are like, take a stand, blah, blah. And you're like, if I do that, it could end my career in politics.

[00:14:06] Joel: And then the whole reason I joined was for opiate and I won't even get anything done there. So then you want to compromise. So I think that's part of it. Me, I'm not doing this to like get that committee assignment and keep my head down and do this for for reelections. Like I want to stick my neck out.

[00:14:21] Joel: I want to take the punches and I want to call people out and I. I want, Congress has to honor its oath to the Constitution. It has been broken for decades, and that's how we got into this mess. the system of government is designed to handle Donald Trump like it was designed for a tyrant to how to handle it.

[00:14:38] Joel: It's Congress that's not doing its job.

[00:14:43] Carmen: Let can, can we go back and talk a little bit about a OC and the whole Taiwan situation? 'cause you had kind of put that in the um. And I didn't see it live.I'd heard about it, I saw snippets or whatever, but basically she was, at, wait, let me just get my little [00:15:00] paperwork. she was at the Munich Security Conference and someone asked her, should the United States defend Taiwan if China invades and. She kind of hesitated and didn't answer quickly enough, fast enough on point enough, and I just wanted to get your feeling. 'cause then that became like a huge meme and a huge talking point. I wanna get your feedback on that.

[00:15:25] Joel: Well, there's a lot of ways to skin this cat or look at it from variety of angles. The first angle is what we were just talking about. Um, if a Republican paused that long, if any, there's any other Republican, whether we heard of him or not, it wouldn't even have made the news if Trump paused like that.

[00:15:41] Joel: Well, that's okay, but for some reason, this female former bartender is held to this high standard where she's supposed to be like an expert. And if she just pauses or hasa brain fart and who knows what happened, maybe she, her stomach hurt, like we don't know. it suddenly there's this like.

[00:15:57] Joel: There's a,it's a scandal. [00:16:00] So there's that, there's this whole double standard thing. And again, the way to push back against that, I compare it, the analogy is like when you have kids and you're trying to discipline them or sleep, train them, it's possible to do it, but it's, there's a reason why some parents look like they, their kids are not disciplined or something.

[00:16:17] Joel: It's 'cause you're tired and if you wanna sleep, train your kid it, you do it and you can do it in less than a week, but you will not be sleeping that week. So parents just keep pushing it off. So the way she pushes back against that is she quickly reacquaint herself with all things Taiwan, and she goes on Fox News and she goes on the attack, the counter attack, but she's busy and she's doing this and she's doing that.

[00:16:40] Joel: And so it, the narrative grows and it was ridiculous that the president of the United States. Was talking about something, nothing to do with a OC, and he goes out of his way, punching down. It's a power dynamic. He's more powerful. She didn't say anything about JD Vance, and he's attacking her.

[00:16:58] Joel: Like again, there's [00:17:00] this, there's this narrative. Democrats are weak, Republicans are strong, and here we see it as this man's punching down on a woman. He is not getting any consequences for it. Uh, as far as her pause. I mean, it didn't, it didn't look good. I mean, just as far as extemporaneous speaking, but it doesn't matter.

[00:17:16] Carmen: who, who, who didn't see it. I mean, basically she could have answered it in a whole different, um. I mean, I feel bad for people because people get so incensed because they hate someone. And let's just be honest, that's why this happened. People want to hate a OC. So instead of being like she had a brain fart or she had a moment, or maybe she doesn't know what's going on with China and Taiwan, you know, she didn't know what to say.

[00:17:42] Carmen: She could have answered it 15 different ways. You know, she's a representative of New York. She's not into foreign policy. She could have said, you know what? I don't have enough information at the moment. I'm going to get back to you with an answer. There are different ways to answer that, but you know what?

[00:17:56] Carmen: You can't be perfect all the time. So I just want our [00:18:00] audience to know what happened. And then people who want to hate on a OC, um, whose name is, um, Al, what's her real name? Alexander Oca Cortez.

[00:18:09] Joel: And that's the other thing. JD Vance called her Ms. Cortez, which isn't even her last name. It's Ocasio-Cortez. Um,

[00:18:15] Carmen: well, JD

[00:18:15] Joel: but I would say that's another,

[00:18:17] Carmen: know what happened. Yeah,

[00:18:19] Joel: another thing running, just in the short amount of time I've been running, I'm feeling it from people like they suddenly I'm a I'm, I'm a different reality that I exist in.

[00:18:28] Joel: I'm supposed to know things and I just, I'm feeling it how like. People expect you to be this best speaker and never make a mist. It's like we hold our politicians to a higher standard that is com. We don't even hold our CEOs to that. Like

[00:18:42] Carmen: But we don't even hold the president to that standard, so I don't, you know what I mean? It's such a weird dynamic

[00:18:48] Joel: I would say about Taiwan, it's an interest.

[00:18:50] Joel: It's really interesting that that was what this was all about for me, because first of all, she should know about it because. Representatives take votes on matters of, [00:19:00] well, if Congress was functioning, they would take votes on foreign policy. Um, under Obama, they wouldn't do anything and he was begging them to hold a vote on Syria and they wouldn't.

[00:19:09] Joel: but I've been asking for a couple years now, like I'm not up on Taiwan, and I go, I've just been asking people, uh, people who are like either from Taiwan or know the, I'm like, why would it be bad if China invaded Taiwan? Like, how would it affect my life? I can tell you how Russia invading Ukraine affects my life.

[00:19:30] Joel: But,

[00:19:31] Carmen: but we don't know

[00:19:32] Joel: but like what, what would it do to the world EC economics? What would it, would the people of Taiwan be suffering or would they just be living under like, so there's, it's just kind of this calling card of like, we can't let China go after Taiwan. And I'm just like, could we explain why that's bad? So I need to research that too.

[00:19:47] Joel: I'm not yet an elected official, so this one pocket of foreign policy, I'm still looking into.

[00:19:53] Carmen: Well, I think it's interesting that you say that as you've started, doing this, that people expect so much from [00:20:00] you, you know, and I'm curious how you're kind of answering people back when maybe they're maybe pushing too hard. It

[00:20:09] Joel: Oh, luckily it hasn't been that extreme yet. I'm, I, what I am is I'm feeling the vapors of stuff and, I've, uh. It came up with this analogy of what running so far is and it's like, imagine there's like a gentle stream of electric current going through your body that's very pleasurable while you're also getting punched in the face.

[00:20:29] Joel: So it's,

[00:20:30] Carmen: And so you still wanna do this, huh?

[00:20:32] Joel: well, it's like, it's so humbling, yet invigorating. Um, I. I emailed a well-known award-winning journalist who writes like award-winning books a couple days ago, and I said, I'd love to talk to you. He is like, yeah, I'm available tonight. I'm like, I have no, I don't know that he would've talked to me if I wasn't running.

[00:20:50] Joel: I, I just met my state assemblyman, Nick Schultz. I was at a town hall, I mean a, a neighborhood council and like we actually had a real [00:21:00] conversation. I think he's a really nice guy and would've talked to me anyway, but. So it's like I'm already meeting all these interesting people. I'm assembling a team. I have a buddy who has a, he's another creative director, but he's starting an agency that does all kinds of consulting and the team he has assembled is like Titans of the industry.

[00:21:16] Joel: And I'm just, so that's been really cool. But then there's other times where like, I gave a speech to a nig, a democratic club, and it was just bad. Like I just, and just, or just like I. I do this, the more respect, well, the more respect I have for people who are either ran or are who are actual elected, like it's a thing, man, and we just, we just take politicians and put in a compartment in our mind that they're like, just like professional athletes or something.

[00:21:43] Joel: Like they're not real people.

[00:21:46] Carmen: Did you trademark? Um, impeachment and Accountability. Did you

[00:21:52] Joel: no, no, that's just, uh, did I put a TM on it?

[00:21:56] Carmen: yeah. I was like, I wasn't

[00:21:58] Joel: my, that's my [00:22:00] way of like demonstrating messaging, which I think Democrats really need to do better at is don't ever just say, um, is affordability and accountability.

[00:22:09] Carmen: Oh, is that what it was? I'm so sorry. Oh.

[00:22:11] Joel: those would just be like, it's like one word because those to me are the two things people that affordability has become such a catchphrase.

[00:22:19] Joel: I like, I'm scared to even say it 'cause it feels inauthentic. Affordability and accountability because that's, that was a problem under Obama with the Banksters. No one was held accountable for destroying our economy. And then under Biden, obviously nothing happened to Trump and yada yada. And people like, there's always Democrats was like, look, let's look forward.

[00:22:38] Joel: And it's like, no, we're looking backwards. People break the law. They gotta pay the consequences 'cause this is America and we have a rule of law.

[00:22:45] Carmen: Right. So affordability and accountability. Yeah. Although impeachment and accountability kind of works too. Um, let's talk about some of the things that are really dear to you. Like, and that sounded weird how I said it, but gun [00:23:00] violence is one of the things that you've always been involved, with trying to change what's happening.

[00:23:06] Carmen: Wanna talk a little bit about that.

[00:23:07] Joel: Yeah. Well, actually I've not always been involved, but I got very involved starting after Valdi. I had an idea for the campaign that I launched after Newtown, but I was like, if this was a successful campaign, it could end my marriage and my career and my job. And then by the time it valdi happened, my marriage was over and I didn't have that job anymore.

[00:23:29] Joel: And the whole, the whole idea is like we've seen no movement in Congress and I, I wanna be very careful to say outside of politics and inside there are people who are really working at it. For reasons we already kind of touched on nothing's happening even though 85% of the country wants sensible gun laws.

[00:23:45] Carmen: Well, I just think it'll be interesting to hear from you about how that whole, the lobby, I mean the NRA lobby is

[00:23:52] Joel: well that's, that's my campaign is ignore the NRA. They're a front group for the gun and ammo manufacturers. So my campaign [00:24:00] is going directly after the gun and ammo manufacturers. What I've since learned by doing this. Which is a lot. I've learned a lot. It is dense. It all comes down to I don't want government taking my guns, so we can't register weapons.

[00:24:12] Joel: And there's something called the tart amendment. It's all dense. But this tart amendment is like literally, it's a damn holding up all progress on gun violence. Um, and it, 'cause there's a,

[00:24:23] Carmen: gonna be one of the things that you're interested in.

[00:24:26] Joel: when I hear anyone say we need to do an assault weapons ban, that immediately tells me this person doesn't know anything they're talking about guns.

[00:24:32] Joel: It's a talking point. Just so for anyone listening, first of all, all these school shootings with AR fifteens, those are not assault weapons. Those are assault style weapons. They're just semi-automatic rifles, the same as a handgun. And even if we were to ban all assault weapons and all long guns, including.

[00:24:51] Joel: AR fifteens that would be getting rid of 4% of all homicides, so to say. We need the first and only thing they say is we need to ban assault weapons shows just how [00:25:00] they don't understand, and that makes me really angry because people are dying and nothing, we can't even pass sensible gun laws that we do understand.

[00:25:07] Joel: And it's because leaders and pundits on TV don't even understand the problem. I like to, I've been telling this to people I talk to. I was like. I'll bet you can name 20 car brands right now, but if I asked you to name Five Gun Brands, you couldn't do it. And there's a reason for that. Despite gun brands.

[00:25:21] Carmen: I dunno.

[00:25:22] Joel: Yeah. Despite gun brands, guns taking over our lives when we're living in this, our kids are living in a state of true trauma, yet we don't know anything about these guns. And there's a reason, and there's one of the reasons is they don't report the gun that's used in. What you'll now, when you listen, we've probably talked about it.

[00:25:39] Joel: When you listen to reports or read it online, it says a firearm was used at most, it was like a handgun. They don't say it was a Ruger, nine millimeter. Imagine if we found out that like 30% of all domestic, uh, murder, like violence with guns was with Ruger and Smith and Wesson. What would that mean? I don't even know, but I'll bet we could do [00:26:00] stuff with that information.

[00:26:01] Joel: We, we cannot get that information.

[00:26:03] Carmen: Well, it's so interesting that you see, this is why I'm so glad you're running. And, and, and just getting involved because this is the kind of stuff, you just taught me something. You're right. It never even dawned on me. I can't name one gun manufacturer. I really, I mean, you just said one that sounded familiar, but I can't name one, and I

[00:26:21] Joel: that weird

[00:26:22] Carmen: Beretta, but a Beretta is the style of gun, right?

[00:26:25] Carmen: It's not a brand name.

[00:26:27] Joel: no. Beretta is a brand name. It's one of the top brands. It's one of the biggest money makers. It's like they make like 800 million a year.

[00:26:33] Carmen: Oh my God. See, I, I, I, okay. I didn't even know that. See,

[00:26:36] Joel: Yeah, I thought Beretto was a style as well.

[00:26:39] Carmen: Really? Oh,

[00:26:39] Joel: Yeah. I thought that Beretto was like the little tiny gun that you put in your purse.

[00:26:43] Carmen: Oh no. It's a nice gun. It's

[00:26:45] Joel: Well, it is, but I, I know now,

[00:26:47] Carmen: but

[00:26:47] Joel: it's, it's, it's infuriating to know we've been induced into this learned helplessness. Like, how do we not know this? It's, it's weird.

[00:26:55] Carmen: You know, the only reason why I know what a Beretta is, is because when I was [00:27:00] acting, one of the things I chose to do was to actually go learn how to shoot a real gun. Not just take a class with a fake, you know, as an actor. 'cause I, and that was the first time, even though the way I grew up, it was the first time I actually shot a gun.

[00:27:15] Carmen: I have to tell you, I, I mean, I was like, and I'm good. I never need to do that again. Like it was, it, I realized the power of it and how Yeah. Anyways.

[00:27:25] Joel: For the record, I for the record, I love shooting guns. I think they're fun. I'm, I'm not anti-gun. I'm very pro-gun range. Um, and back in the day I would take dates to go shooting. It was just like kind of a fun icebreaker.

[00:27:41] Carmen: Um, are you a fan of people who say they, you know, hunt and that's why they have 95 guns and Uzi? Probably not.

[00:27:51] Joel: Uh, I'm not a fan of that statement 'cause I don't think it's honest. Um, you don't use, uh, ar 15 to hunt. Um, uh, [00:28:00] that's, I've, I've done like a lot. I, I I don't wanna, like, I, I know so much and I could talk about it, so you're gonna have to regulate me, but, um. It, it's collector, it's the, the way people collect guns.

[00:28:10] Joel: There is a, first of all, it's as I says on my website, it's in the business interest of gun and ammo companies to create a culture of fear and violence. In order to increase profits,

[00:28:21] Carmen: What's your website again?

[00:28:23] Joel: name them to shame them.com.

[00:28:26] Carmen: sorry. You're, you're one for Congress.

[00:28:30] Joel: Oh

[00:28:31] Carmen: You're so funny.

[00:28:32] Joel: well, the Congress one is Joel lava for congress.com.

[00:28:36] Carmen: You forgot for a moment why we're

[00:28:38] Joel: We were

[00:28:40] Carmen: I just wanna make sure for the audio. Um, it's joel lava for congress.com.

[00:28:44] Joel: guns. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's, um, yeah, the, there's like this hysteria and there's this fear. That's why gun sales go up under democratic presidents. 'cause there's just this, the, the, the gun. The gun [00:29:00] industry builds up the hysteria along with a lot of other people. Um, but the col guns, it's, it's their like, I get it.

[00:29:07] Joel: I, it's like anything else, like cars or motorcycles or, you know how there's like this whole subculture of people who drive Toyota FJ Cruisers and. You see 'em, it's really popular now. Like those, the water spout that goes up on the side and there's all this like survival equipment on, like, so that's what guns are.

[00:29:24] Joel: It's just, and the AR 15 is a fun gun to shoot and it's got so many cool modifications you can put to it. So it's no different than tricking out your car with spoilers and rims and, and sound systems. 

[00:29:34] Carmen: So we're gonna stop talking about guns. Now we're gonna move on to another subject because, because I have a whole, we can talk some other time about guns, you and me personally. But let's talk about you wanting to bring back film making to Los Angeles, because I think that's a really profound one, and I want to hear why, how and what's your pitch?

[00:29:57] Joel: Well. My pitch is that I'm [00:30:00] in the industry and I'm feeling the pain of, of the industry. So it's, it's self survival. There's nothing like that. Um, I will say that our current rep, Laura Friedman, there is a bill to bring filmmaking back to America. 'cause this is a federal job. So, and no other representatives, like from Georgia is gonna say, yeah, sure you can send your work back to California at the expense of my people.

[00:30:24] Joel: Um, a lot of it is state and local. but I'm not just looking. I think part of this is we've lost a lot of work and people have moved to North Carolina and Georgia and Canada and Ireland and Budapest, and you don't just pass a law and all of a sudden people just pick up and move back again. So that's a problem and I think AI is a real problem.

[00:30:47] Joel: Um. So I wanna do everything I can at the federal level, including not just this one bill, but also, again, this is where I get back to the fighting thing and the messaging. Maybe on the federal level, I can't do a lot, [00:31:00] but I, I've been granted by winning this seat, I've been granted a bullhorn that state assemblymen don't have.

[00:31:08] Joel: So I can hold rallies, I can partner, I can get my megaphone on the national level. I can go and meet the press if they'll have me and I can talk about it. No one's talking about it.

[00:31:18] Carmen: And people should know that you're, you're in the industry, you're an actual film director, DGA director. You've been in the business for a long time, so this is near and

[00:31:27] Joel: I do, and I'm also creative director, do a lot of visual effects and lotion, graphics. and that industry is hurting as well. It's 'cause they're all connected. If one's hurting, then the other's hurting. and like film titles. So, uh, so that's what I would do is work on anything I could do to help the country get the work back.

[00:31:45] Joel: But I also, as far as my constituents, it's like this is a huge community of people who work in the film industry as there is throughout many districts in the area. And I think there's gonna be hard times like the coal industry, and I want to be aggressively [00:32:00] looking out for my constituents who there may not be a a solution and they may be screwed.

[00:32:06] Joel: And I wanna make sure that we're helping them and thinking about it ahead of time, which I am because I'm one of them. that's my, perspective and take on it.

[00:32:14] Carmen: Why should people vote for you?

[00:32:17] Joel: Uh, 'cause what I said earlier is because I'll, I'm, I want to stick my neck out. I want to take the punches. I want to lead and fight. I want to get bloodied and I want to get back up. and I want change. I want Congress to res assume its role and honor its oath to the constitution.

[00:32:35] Carmen: Would, would you say that you are patriotic,

[00:32:38] Joel: Oh yeah. And also I was born on the 4th of July, so vote Joel lava June 2nd.

[00:32:44] Carmen: Yeah. 

[00:32:45] Joel: um, yeah, I'm very patriotic. I've always felt bad that I wasn't in the military. luckily my dad and my uncles were, I would actually support like other countries, mandatory service or mandatory, if not in the, [00:33:00] military than you would do He would work as a teacher or just like service to

[00:33:04] Carmen: public service.

[00:33:06] Joel: Yeah. But it could also include, I think if we had more people doing that one year of service like Israel or Singapore or a lot of countries do it. I think the way we approach our wars, we we're about to invade Iran. Sorry, Iran. Um, I think if people had more skin in the game, we'd have more perspective. I think we've benefited from 40 years of prosperity and peace overall.

[00:33:30] Joel: Not counting nine 11, but like the General American hasn't felt it. And here we are, people, people think they were born on third and think they hit a triple. And, so yeah, I'm very patriotic. I, these people are like, even like Tammy Duckworth, I think the senator from Illinois, she lost her legs, but it wasn't in combat.

[00:33:48] Joel: It was in like a practice mission or something. And she's been like, someone tried to like, no. When you sign the line say, I will join the military. That means at any moment your life could be in danger from training to true combat. [00:34:00] And most of us don't sign that line. Most of us don't lay it. We have lost a sense of civic duty in this country.

[00:34:06] Carmen: That is

[00:34:06] Joel: sense of duty to our country and the Democratic experiment and, um. And I also, as far as patriotic, I do believe in good government. I can tell you just even running for office, I had to get a FEC account and they gave me an actual person, like if you have a car accident, you get your insurance person.

[00:34:25] Joel: He's super nice and I've been dealing with the LA County Board of Elections and the really nice and responsive. Then when I tried to set up a bank account with like a private bank, it was miserable and there are all these hoops I had to go through and it's just one of many examples how government does work.

[00:34:41] Joel: It's been demonized by the other side, like government equals fraud, government equals waste. It's demonizing millions of people who work for government. Successful programs in government, people are ignorant of all the things government does from like forecasting the weather to helping agriculture

[00:34:58] Carmen: People are learning [00:35:00] really in a hard way, what government does, you know, or what it could do, uh, because we're losing some of that

[00:35:08] Joel: Mm-hmm. Well, that, and that's because we got high on the, it's like the story of the grasshopper and the, and the ants or whatever, you know,

[00:35:15] Carmen: Yeah, I, I think we just never, and I don't know, I never thought that there would be a time in my life that there would be someone worse than some other presidents and vice presidents that we've had in office. You know? I just never thought we'd have somebody who would have no moral core at all. 

[00:35:35] Joel: And that's, that's why we're so frustrated about how is this happening? How is, how, why are people not even like, it's one thing to say Trump's bad and he is unconstitutional, but I'm not gonna do anything about it. Like Cory Booker

[00:35:47] Carmen: really that's what they're saying? I think people don't know what to do. I think people are frozen. Don't know what to do. I'm not making excuses for

[00:35:55] Joel: know. Well, that's fine if you don't, if you don't know what to do, that's fine. Let somebody else [00:36:00] take over. Step

[00:36:01] Carmen: Oh, you're talking about in Congress though. That's what you're saying. You're

[00:36:03] Joel: And what are you talking about? The people in the

[00:36:04] Carmen: saying in general. In general, I feel like people feel helpless, and then when you're listening to your representative and maybe they're not doing anything, you feel like, well, if they can't do anything, I can't do anything.

[00:36:17] Carmen: You know what I mean?

[00:36:17] Joel: Exactly. That's a failure of leadership. That's why I was talking about mobilize. That's why I was talking about mobilizing my district and the people, like when Trump took over again, there were people in the streets. People were like, they, we wanted to do something and there was no one there to help us to lead us.

[00:36:32] Joel: People were willing to follow, not lead. People were like, I'm so angry. Point me in the direction. Gimme an order and I'm gonna do it. I want to do, I want to take action. And there was a vacuum. There's an emptiness of leadership. That's the problem.

[00:36:45] Carmen: But I think people get confused by what leadership is because then when they see someone like, let's say Gavin Newsom, who is. Doing what he needs to do with his fire or whatever. Then people are mad and angry with him. You shouldn't be like that. And then [00:37:00] Governor Pritzker in, you know, Illinois does his thing and people get upset and it just seems like you have to choose to be a leader and do what you wanna do no matter what anyone says.

[00:37:09] Carmen: You just gotta jump in with both feet

[00:37:11] Joel: Well said Carmen.

[00:37:13] Carmen: and I'm so glad you're doing it. I'm so excited. Any last words? Mr. Joe Lava for congress.com.

[00:37:23] Joel: feel free to donate. Um,

[00:37:26] Carmen: Yes, absolutely. When you go to the website, you can offer to volunteer, you can offer definitely to give some money. You're not taking any PAC money at the moment, right? You're not taking any big

[00:37:38] Joel: I, I laugh only because the idea that a pack has even offered me money is, is funny. I really, when I, when I first started running, it's like, I don't wanna take people's money. Like if you have money to give it to immigrant, like legal defense funds or to cancer research. Like don't. But I've been putting in my own money so far.

[00:37:58] Joel: I've been putting in thousands [00:38:00] and I would like at least to get that back. but the money goes to, there's two main things that would go to, it would go to voter outreach.

[00:38:07] Carmen: Mm-hmm.

[00:38:08] Joel: as far as like volunteers knocking on doors and stuff, and it would go, I'm not, it would go to digital advertising 'cause that is a little money goes a long way there.

[00:38:18] Joel: Um, and like the filing fee to be, to run is $1,700. Um,

[00:38:24] Carmen: I didn't know that for real.

[00:38:26] Joel: Yeah. But now if you get, it's basically a dollar a signature. If you get 1700 signatures, then you don't pay. So if I had decided to run months earlier. I could have spent like all my weekends getting signatures and then not had to pay it. Um, I did get, uh, I got 388 signatures in two weeks.

[00:38:44] Carmen: Okay, wait. 'cause the filing deadline is March 6th, is that

[00:38:48] Joel: uh, there's something called in lieu of filing fee, so that was February 4th. So if you want to not pay the fee, you have to turn in your signatures by the fourth. So I did, and I had [00:39:00] hundreds of signatures, which was really cool. Um,

[00:39:03] Carmen: but not enough to, okay, so now what you're hoping is that you can get, at least get money for digital advertising and money to recoup the 1700 minus 3 83, whatever that is.

[00:39:14] Joel: Yeah. And, and some other, other

[00:39:16] Carmen: Some other administrative costs while you're going through, so people please go to joel lava for congress.com and you know, give some money and also please volunteer or offer to volunteer 'cause

[00:39:29] Joel: LA Melt ice

[00:39:31] Carmen: What did you say? Lava melts ice. Is that your tagline? That's

[00:39:37] Joel: I have several. That's, that's actually a t-shirt I have. Um, we're there

[00:39:41] Carmen: Is it on the website?

[00:39:43] Joel: Uh, it's going to be soon. Yeah.

[00:39:46] Carmen: Okay. That's good. Who came up with that when you were kids? Did you come up with it? I love it. Lava melts ice.

[00:39:54] Joel: it was a group project. There was actually, I don't know if you saw, uh, two weeks ago, this woman from Australia posted on [00:40:00] threads that her son came up with lava melt ice and LAVA stands for. Locally angry, very active. And it became like, it was like the viral sensation for two days.

[00:40:11] Joel: And I've been desperately trying to, I've been pinging her every day like I'm real, like it's my name

[00:40:17] Carmen: Right.

[00:40:17] Joel: but she's not responding.

[00:40:18] Carmen: Are you on all social media? Like where can people check you out besides going to your website? It would be on threads for sure.

[00:40:25] Joel: I'm actually not on threads. I'm on Instagram and uh, Facebook.

[00:40:30] Carmen: said threads. Oh, blue Sky you meant?

[00:40:32] Joel: I'm on Blue Sky. Oh, the woman whose viral thing, she was on Threads.

[00:40:35] Carmen: she was on threads. I'm so sorry. So you're on

[00:40:37] Joel: I should, I guess I should be on Threads. So I'm on Blue Sky. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.

[00:40:44] Carmen: Okay.

[00:40:45] Joel: Instagram.

[00:40:46] Carmen: all your socials below, huh?

[00:40:48] Joel: Instagram, I, yeah, that's a big one. I'm not, I'm not really

[00:40:52] Carmen: all your socials below.

[00:40:53] Joel: Yeah.

[00:40:55] Carmen: Okay, cool. Well, Joel, thank you so much. I'm so happy for you. I [00:41:00] am. And

[00:41:00] Joel: happy for you

[00:41:01] Carmen: why are you happy for me?

[00:41:03] Joel: 'cause I love that you've, your, your podcast and you've been sticking with it and expanding and like talking new topics and different people and you've got, um, a really good, not that you weren't before, but like your, your communication and the way you talk is like really cool and

[00:41:19] Carmen: Oh, thank you. No, I've, I've definitely grown and I've gotten better and yeah, we, we have some really great, we have some great guests coming up in the future as well, so I'm just glad we got you in and hopefully we'll. Get you back. and of course I'm here to do anything I can to help you.

[00:41:36] Carmen: 'cause I believe in you. And I'm just so, I say this without any, without being condescending. I'm so proud of you. I really am. Because I think if anyone should be running this country or I want people like you, you have integrity, you're authentic, you, you're a good human being, and you care and you don't just.

[00:41:54] Carmen: It's not lip service. And so I'm grateful that you're running. I wish that I could vote for you. I can't, I don't live [00:42:00] in your district, but I'm here to help in any way, shape, or form. So, uh, thank you for being on the show. I appreciate you.

[00:42:07] Joel: Thank you all about the joy, Carmen.

[00:42:10] Carmen: Thanks everyone. We'll talk to you guys next week. Go to Joel lava for congress.com. Thank you everyone. And remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy. Bye everyone.

[00:42:20] Joel: Bye. Thank you.