Milwaukee Uncut
The podcast that brings you closer to the city of Milwaukee by highlighting entertaining, uncut stories from Milwaukee legends and uncovering the restaurants, bars, spots and events around the city you need to check out! Milwaukee Uncut is hosted by Richie Burke and produced by Story Mark Studios. Located in the heart of Walker's Point, our Milwaukee roots run deep.
Milwaukee Uncut
Tommy G: MKE YouTube Star Investigates Data Centers, The Pentagon, Scientology and More….
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The most fearless man in Milwaukee makes an annual appearance on the show. Tommy G started off in door-to-door sales while doing prank videos on the side trying to get his YouTube channel off the ground. Then in 2022 he put out a documentary on the KIA Boys. The video generated over 8 million views. He and his team have produced about 250 weekly documentaries since and now has over 3.5 million subscribers and has generated over 500 million views. All geared towards giving people inside access to the hard to reach people, places, and situations in the world. In this episode we are joined by Tommy himself and his right hand man Keegan.
In this episode we cover:
- The Pentagon
- Insider trading
- Data Centers
- The impact Tommy is trying to make on America
- What he’s pessimistic and optimistic about
- What he’s scared of
- And more
Let's cover issues that the average person in America is impacted by and represent the people because that's who makes up the channel. These are things that the average American will feel good about if it's accomplished. Now what keeps me positive? When I'm going from city to city around this country, I feel a lot of love in the streets. Americans are great people. Our government's not so great. I talk to people across the aisle. I have great faith that the people of this country, um, we are gonna band together, we are gonna build things together. We just need we just need to be put in the right position by our leaders.
SPEAKER_02Do you guys ever get scared messing with some of these people on Capitol Hill, messing around with a multi-billion dollar company that clearly has a lot of power? Hey everyone, welcome back to Milwaukee Uncut. We've got YouTube sensation and absolute Milwaukee legend Tommy G and his right-hand man Keegan making their third annual-ish, third appearance on the show. They've now done over 250 documentaries on YouTube and have generated over 500 million views, which is it's just absolutely crazy what their team does on a weekly basis. So we talked to them about what they've been up to recently, including investigating the Pentagon and insider trading, data centers, and AI, the impact Tommy and his team are trying to make with their reach, his mostly younger male audience's current views on Trump and the government, what he's pessimistic and optimistic about when it comes to America, the most scary situations they've been in recently and more. I also just want to um add a disclaimer, say we typically do not talk about politics on this show, but because of the nature of what Tommy and his team have been up to recently, they've done a number of kind of nonpartisan but politicized topics. So we do discuss those in this episode. Before diving in, I just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee Uncut possible. We'll kick things off with Nikolay Law, the Midwest law firm injured. Get Nicolay and Russ, and the team will take great care of you. Drink Wisconsin Bleed Beverage Company, best vodka, brandy, and canned cocktails in the game, available at bars and liquor stores across the state. And now available at Amfam Field. Make sure to check out the corner bar over in Wright Field. And last but not least, our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. If you're looking to get your finances together and have a goal that deals with your money, your earnings, your investments, go talk to the experts at Annex. They have an amazing team ready to listen and help you with your personal goals. Annex Wealth Management. Know the difference. All right, let's dive in with Tommy and Keegan. Guys, we have got Tommy G making his annual appearance on the podcast, joined by his right-hand man who goes on all the adventures and edits a lot of stuff and does a lot of um setting things up as well. His fixer. Keegan. Keegan. Keegan is it Keegan is in the building. If you don't know, they've got 3.5 million YouTube followers on the channel. Tommy G giving you inside access to the hard-to-reach people, places, and situations. Over 500 million views on YouTube. And you guys have put out about 250 weekly documentaries at this point, really popped off with the Kia Boys four-ish years ago at this point. Yeah. Four-ish years ago. It is really amazing what they are able to do every week. So much respect for you guys to actually find a story, go to some absolutely crazy location most of the time, film with these people, come back and edit something every week. It's um truly remarkable. And um recently they have investigated the Pentagon data centers, taking you inside the most expensive doomsday bunkers. Tommy G worked in the Texas oil fields. That was that was a fun that was a fun one. And um even got to hang with Rick Ross, Ricky Rose, the boss in his Miami hangar, large airplane hangar, is that where it was, among other places. So um that's just that's just a a normal week, any of those things for these two. Welcome back.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for having us. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what's um what's been each your favorite doc you've put out recently and why? And if anyone wants the backstory on Tommy, he's came on a couple times, so we'll link those episodes, but uh we'll just dive right into things today.
SPEAKER_00I'll start with the Pentagon piece because really what we were doing was investigating their budget, where we live in a country where if you don't pay your taxes, the IRS will come after you, you could face fine or jail time. And if the Pentagon keeps spiraling us into another endless war in the Middle East, and they they've failed every single audit that they've ever had, it's just business as usual. And I feel like uh the the hypocrisy of that is not something that we wanted to sit by and watch. So we spoke with U.S. senators, we spoke with one of the gentlemen from the movie War Dogs, who was an arms dealer. Uh, we spoke with ex CI agent John Kariaku, uh Lieutenant uh Colonel Douglas McGregor.
SPEAKER_02Mark Kelly was on the Arizona.
SPEAKER_00Mark Kelly, Senator from Arizona. Shout out to Mark Kelly. And so, anyways, we did a well-rounded look at how our money gets pilfered away. Our infrastructure is crumbling, people can't afford rent, yet we always have money for bombs in this country. So that to me stands out as a piece that I was really excited to work on recently.
SPEAKER_03Keegan. I feel like the Texas oil field one was just a blast.
SPEAKER_02Because how scared were you guys when you went up in that private plane at the beginning and he was like, Yeah, there's a storm coming. If we get hit by lightning, it's too late anyway. And then and then the plane that guy seemed like uh he's definitely a gamer. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00A little bit of a maniac?
SPEAKER_03Yes. I guess you guys are too, but um I feel like you have to be a little bit of a maniac though to like to do that job. Because you're I mean, you're risking millions of dollars at a time. You're you're just drilling into the earth with a straw hoping that you strike oil. And the people that are working for you, I mean, they're working those 12-hour shifts, and it's a dangerous job. So just seeing how that oil rig works where all these guys are just sweating away, drilling down into the earth, and you know, they're around some dangerous equipment. It was you have to be a little bit of a maniac to do that.
SPEAKER_02Do those guys get paid well? 20 bucks an hour? 20 bucks an hour.
SPEAKER_00Plus, you factor in they have they have as much work time, so they let's say they work um 80 to 90 hours a week, so more than half is their pay is an overtime, and then they apparently get bonuses a lot. The guys, I guess, are happy with what what they get. I guess in that area, there are not a lot of job opportunities. A lot of those guys are felons, but still, it feels like it was a little bit low given the the danger of the work, but not only that, they have to be away from their family for months at a time. Once the oil starts flowing, they are on there working seven days a week, trading off. They have the night shift, the day shift, 12 hours, 12 hours, and they're constantly passing the baton all for about $20 an hour. It seems a little low to me.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I think he was saying, like, with overtime and everything, they're making seven to eight grand a month, but you're definitely earning it, you know, with all the overtime and just the danger of the work.
SPEAKER_00They are busting their ball sack to get that paycheck.
SPEAKER_02You got speaking of the Pentagon, you uh investigated insider train trading from the Senate members.
SPEAKER_00That happens in our government?
SPEAKER_02I think it maybe once or twice. Yeah. And went there and handed out awards in their offices.
SPEAKER_00That that was a piece we were happy about. Um, we use a local Milwaukee business owner for the plaques, by the way. I think it's Crown Hardware downtown. So shout out to that guy. He's a cool guy to work with. But uh, it is a bipartisan issue impacting our government where we have some politicians that, despite being full-time public servants, they also have enough time in their schedule to function as an active stock trader. And it happens that a lot of them sit on committees. Let's say I'm in the Armed Services Committee, and then I'll I'll you know, I'll buy Raytheon stock. And so there's all these conflicts of interest.
SPEAKER_02Your wife will buy it, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's one of their big cover stories, is it's not me trading that when we were in Nancy Pelosi's office, her staffer came out and he's like, You're not allowed to film in the office. I'm like, Well, you're not allowed to inside our trade. So touche pal. And he's like, it's not Nancy trading the stocks, it's her husband. It's like, oh, her husband just happens to be the most uh the best stock genius that this generation has ever seen. Or Nancy is telling him a few tips. And it it's to me what is also fascinating is that we didn't get to cover this side of the insider trading. But it seems like every time Donald Trump tweets that there's peace in Iran, someone is making a multimillion dollar bet in poly market on oil futures, and someone is profiting to the hundreds of millions of dollars multiple times. And so there and a further investigation needs to be done about that. But uh, we're in a place where the average American is really having a difficult time. Credit card debt is at an all-time high, default is at an all-time high, paycheck to paycheck is at an all-time high. Yet our politicians who are this is this is a job where you carry the weight of your constituents on your back. You're supposed to have some sort of civic pride and duty to do the best for your country, yet it seems like a good portion of these people are more will worried about their bottom line, and it's just unfortunate. And we decided to award plaques in a very sarcastic, silly way that we felt pleased about.
SPEAKER_02And then you guys did the data center piece. I saw Charlie was on that one.
SPEAKER_00Charlie Barrett's great guy, smart, very smart man.
SPEAKER_02Which was cool. Um I looked it up right before you guys came. I think the uh the market cap for AI right now is 20 trillion. I don't know if that number's I I'm guessing that's relatively accurate, and the market cap for the entire SP 500 is 70 trillion, which is wild. Um what did you guys learn on that one and why why did you do that piece?
SPEAKER_00Well, these data centers were creeping in all around the country, and I think it's one the most inbound emails I've ever gotten about one subject was people around the country saying, Hey, I'm in Indiana, my utility bill is going through the roof, and the data centers we think are causing it, or hey, I live in Virginia, I can't even sleep because the hum of a data center is creeping through my home. Before the piece. And so, and then when you see the the the rate of expansion that they're proliferating through the country, and then you see that in the the big beautiful bill, they try not um we're trying not to regulate AI for 10 years in order to be more competitive to China, who apparently is this diabolical threat. Although I haven't threatened been threatened by a Chinese man recently, I can maybe speak differently about the Israelis, but um so there's this problem that's sprinkling all around the country, and we want to get ahead of it because it almost feels like if gone to the worst case scenario of how these data centers use resources, um, not only are people's bills going to skyrocket, but our very water tables are at risk, our natural resources are at risk. And I am not convinced due to the lack of transparency by these data center companies, a lot of these local uh council members are assigned to NDAs in the negotiations. And so it doesn't feel like this above-board deal where everyone knows what they're getting. And then there's there's these also the it's lopsided negotiations where the citizens are gonna get locked in at or the data center rather gets locked in at a very low rate for uh that they get a wholesale rate of their water usage and their electrical usage. And in some places, if they exceed that, then the citizens foot the bill for the cost, on top of all the TIFFs and tax credits that these data centers are getting and not paying taxes for many years. So it just feels uh a little foreboding.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and it was definitely interesting. Like there's a guy, I you should have him on for sure if he's down uh Prescott Bulch down in Caledonia. And he's a guy who spent I think 30, 40 years in the tech finance industry. So he knows this issue very intimately. And he was just looking at the numbers and saying, you know, these data centers, they have maybe a 15, 20 year shelf life. And the tip that we're giving them is 20 years. So by the time these things are obsolete, there's a strong chance that they'll never pay a dime into the actual tax base of the city.
SPEAKER_00And and on your point, from a financial standpoint, the S P 500, let's just say it's a a good percentage of it, is weighted towards the AI sector. So these these companies are spending trillions on their balance sheet, they're maybe making in the low billions. The math doesn't really add up that this is gonna be uh it feels like a house of cards potentially in our economy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I just pulled it up too. Oh Open AI posted a $38.5 billion net loss in 2025 against $13 billion in revenue. Like, I I think with how big the market cap is, like obviously AI has has a lot of value, and maybe I just don't see the the vision of it clearly. Like, I don't I would hope it doesn't take over like everything, but it almost seems like that's what it has to do for the these investments in it and the market cap to to be a reality and a good investment in a way. I don't I don't know. It seem it it all just seems very inflated to me. As someone who is not very educated on uh bubbles and crashes, etc. It just doesn't seem to add up.
SPEAKER_00The business fundamentals make no sense. How your business would be valued or my business would be valued is not how these businesses are being valued.
SPEAKER_02No, and they're valued at such a high multiple while reporting just billions and a loss.
SPEAKER_00Catastrophic losses.
SPEAKER_02Which I know Amazon lost money for a long time, but that was over kind of a 20-year stretch, and you know, they they threaded the needle to be a uh obviously a very, very, very high value company. But um I think I think you said it in that documentary too, and uh from what I've watched, it it does seem like uh kind of a winner-take all race, too.
SPEAKER_00It seems like it's done in a very haphazard way. I think that the future definitely is gonna have AI integrated into it. However, the way that these companies are going about it, it's almost as if like we're willing to to have a financial loss of catastrophic proportions in order to achieve this maybe future where they succeed. It just uh I think we need to go about it with a little bit more caution, a little bit more guardrails, and in a way that values people, the environment, their resources, their kids first, and then the tech companies, and not the other way around.
SPEAKER_02You guys have been doing I know you always did some political stuff for pieces like this, but it just seems looking at your recent content, it's maybe skewed a little more that way than in the past of you going to the the craziest hood or investigating cartels, which you still do that too. But um is there a certain impact that you're trying to make right now on this country?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, I what was it three, four months ago, where you called me up and you know, we were talking about the different pieces that we were working on, and you basically said, Hey, we've built this channel over the last four years. There's issues that we obviously care about. And Tom was saying basically, what's the point in having a channel if we're not gonna talk about the things that we we care about and our audience cares about too?
SPEAKER_00We want to represent the common American because it feels like we're in this fight for our country. And it's not on multiple fronts, but we had we had some team, we had uh end of the year meetings, and every single guy in the team said, Look, we've covered the hood enough, we've covered some of the dangerous stuff enough, we've seen it so many times. Uh let's cover, let's cover issues that the average person in America is impacted by and represent the people because that's who makes up the channel and that's who keeps us employed. So we're we're going after these issues that I think if we can solve the Pentagon budget, if we can fix data centers, if we can reveal the Epstein lists, things like that, these are things that the average American will feel good about if it's accomplished.
SPEAKER_02It seems very nonpartisan too. It seems like you guys don't take any side on the political aisle, whether you're going into the the Senate or the House, you're calling people out on on both sides, Democrat and Republican. I thought the AI piece was was well done. You did get someone who's actually building a like a crypto AI data center as well as someone who works for one in in big tech. So yeah, are you trying to maintain a level of non nonpartisanship throughout all of this?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm fiercely independent uh politically. And to me, I'll cheer for either side if they do well, and I'll go after each side if they don't. But the the thing about this country is uh it seems like an illusion that you choose one side and things will magically get better because a lot of our trouble is bipartisan. Uh the endless spend on wars is bipartisan. The foreign interference and the enabling of it is bipartisan. These data centers, uh all these key things, um, they don't have much of a different stance on. It's these micro little social issues, like, you know, do we want this guy or girl on a football team? Like who like the in the scheme of things, who cares compared to our economy collapse.
SPEAKER_02Which which I believe less than 0.1% are affected by. It's a very minor very, very minor, minor issue, something like that.
SPEAKER_00Um But Democrats and Republicans go hand in hand in a lot of nonsense that ruins the average American life.
SPEAKER_02Um I'm just curious, you have a your demo skews like younger male, right?
SPEAKER_0020 to 40 men.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's like 80% men in the U.S., 25 to 45.
SPEAKER_02I think I remember seeing correct me if I'm wrong, this might have been happening around the election, which would have been, you know, a year, a year and a half ago at this point or a little more. But um I think you put out a poll on like Instagram stories or something. I remember I remember seeing it. I think it was like, do you want Trump to win or something something like that? And I think it was like 98% of your audience clicked it. Do you remember that at all?
SPEAKER_00I don't think it was that high, but I definitely think at that time, and this is a different Donald Trump than the Donald Trump we know now. The Donald Trump that was on his way to an election campaign, at that time, I think, in the mind of the average young man in this country, was a bit of a hero in a way. He was a guy that stood against the system, that allegedly got an assassination attempt, although I think a lot of people think that was fake at this point. He was the guy that wasn't gonna bring us into new wars. He was the guy that was gonna go after the Epstein class and release the files. That was a very different prototype. So at that time, I would say, yes, a lot of my audience was for Trump. I would say, at this time, um actually, the other thing I'll add about Trump, at that time he was the guy that actually talked to people like me and you and go on different people's podcasts. Kamala Harris had the opportunity, and it just I think that made her very unlikable was this this lady doesn't even want to talk to us, but she wants to lead and represent us. That doesn't feel uh right. But I think now if you were to poll the audience, I would say they're just fiercely anti-government at this point. And what choices the government left them? I mean, how else could you interpret some of these things and be excited about what our government is doing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was I was just curious if um having your pulse on your audience, if you guys think that that has shifted it all. And alluding back to what you say, I I agree a hundred percent. I think, you know, I met I met with um just talked to someone who's who's running for uh you know primary office, and it just blows my mind, especially after watching what what Trump did, what what Mandami did in New York, who's probably not the most qualified candidate to become the the mayor of that city, or what Sprent Spencer Pratt almost pulled off in in the LA mayoral race, and those are people on both sides of the coin. It was like, yeah, Kamla was in in elections too. I think the the person with the most money wins, it's either like 82 or 93 percent of the time. It's it's high. And she outspent Trump by a wide margin. Well, she was doing these rallies in front of 10,000 people and running TV ads. Trump was hanging up 50 million free views on her on Joe Rogan and going on every podcast and playing golf with Bryson and in all this kind of off the cuff uh stuff. So I I completely agree with with your assessment right there.
SPEAKER_00Um and Mundami ran a really, really cool campaign. I would guess it was a very cost-effective campaign, too. His media sponsors like him doing a bench press in the park surrounded by citizens, him by a trash cleanup, and he was very relatable, and he also spoke to the pulse of the people at that time, which I think Trump did when he was on his election cycle, which Mundani spoke to affordability, which I think red or blue, no matter color, race, whatever, you feel that in this country. And uh now the the thing we'll see is once these guys get into office, what do they stick to and how do they innovate and what changes for the average person?
SPEAKER_02Um, I can't say I felt very good about the world after while watching some of your recent documentaries last night, but I'd be curious to hear both of your takes on what what maybe you're most pessimistic right now when it comes to this country or this world.
SPEAKER_00Any subject is on the table? Huh? Any subjects on the table?
SPEAKER_02Any subjects on the table. And what you're most optimistic about right now. What what gives you hope for the future? Let's start with the negative and then move to the positive.
SPEAKER_03The negative, I feel like right now a lot of people are they're they're just like experience this this like deluge of whether it's affordability, whether it's you know, foreign foreign actions, whether it's war. I mean, our I don't know about your feed, but it seems largely that it's kind of hard to escape. Any sort of just negative storm that's coming, like, ah, I guess we're bombing this country today. Ah, I guess that debt's at at this percentage. So I think just uh people don't don't feel like they're able to even latch on to anything that they can feel like they're they're really able to fix.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean the other problem with the feed and going into big tech and data centers is the the platforms have realized that it it used to be sex cells on those, now it's rage and anxiety cells. So things like that are gonna naturally over-index, even if disproportionately to what's actually going on in the in the world.
SPEAKER_00I would say that what I'm most pessimistic about is twofold. Domestically, it's the fact that either side of the aisle continually does things that are bankrupting the country. And so we spent in the last, whatever, 20 years about a few trillion dollars, tens of trillions of dollars on war. But what about our infrastructure? What about our education? We've been taught that any tax money that goes to war is fine, but any tax money that actually goes to helping people is an entitlement. And to me, it's like if we're gonna spend the tax, it might be might as well be on something that the average person can get behind. For example, to quantify it, the the Pentagon wants to pass a $1.5 trillion budget for next year. That could fund 20 years worth of college students for free. That and it also could fund seven years worth of every entire U.S. The entire U.S. And that could fund every single working parent in this country to have seven years of free childcare. Now, I'm not saying everything should be free, but I'm just saying I'd rather have that than the bombs. Um and then what other what else makes me pessimistic is what I view as a hostile foreign takeover from the Israelis, and it comes from many angles. It comes from how they're buying elections, like they bought the Kentucky election. And we have to aggressively fight against that because they're infiltrating at many different levels. Right now, they're trying to do a U.S. Israel uh Israel military merger through Section 224. They're trying to do mandatory intelligence sharing. Um, they are getting fiercely in bed with us. And I'm reading um Netanyahu's biography right now. Keep going. And what he's done for Israel is remarkable. He pulled them from like a quasi-socialist state to a free market economy that has a really great GDP. They went from a not very powerful country to one of the top 10 in the world, and they're very small, pound for pound. Like that they have tech innovation. Um, there's many things that you could say the Israelis should be proud of, but the uh the arrogance, the aggressiveness of which they're sweeping into our country, and even Donald Trump, who's arguably the biggest Zionist puppet that has ever walked the earth for the for America, um, as soon as he has a a little bit of hesitation about the Iran war, Miriam Adelson's uh, who's his top donor, her news outlet is saying how he's betrayed Israel. So, like you can go to the end of the earth for these people, and if you still don't do as exactly as they say, like you're a dog on a leash, then you've betrayed them. And so they're not very grateful. They're not very thankful for we're we've we've propped up a lot of their economy uh through the through military spending. Uh we've given them weapons, we've given them technology, and they're not very thankful for it. And I'm sick of them, and I really would like to divorce. And I don't it could be any foreign nation. If if this was insert trade out Israel and put China, Russia, Ukraine, any we need to focus on the issues that the average American back home will have their lives noticeably improved. Instead, we're funneling billions, sometimes trillions, into these wars that none of us really wanted.
SPEAKER_02No, and I I just looked it up too. I wasn't sure the exact stat, but the US spends outspends the next six to ten countries ranked two through ten combined. It's outrageous. Depending on the year. And that's with it, that's with a $950 billion budget. If that increases to $1.5 trillion, that's probably I would think more than the next 20-ish countries combined. And it's like what for? And I know the uh to maintain our nuclear arsenal, which will hopefully never be used. The amount of spending on that, on something that, again, will hopefully never be used is astronomical.
SPEAKER_00Richie, to answer your other question, though, what keeps me positive is let's when I'm out in the street, when I'm going from city to city around this country, I feel a lot of love in the streets of the con Americans are great people. Our government's not so great, but we, the American people, are such a wonderful group. And to me, what's amazing is I talk to people across the aisle. I feel like there's like 10 major things that we all could agree on, and that would we'd all be happy if that was the uh you know the the marching orders going forward. And so I have great faith that the the people of this country um we are gonna band together, we are gonna build things together. We just need we just need to be put in the right position by our leaders.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I th I think the government in in big tech, speaking of the algorithms, has has pinned us against each other. And uh I got I got friends on both sides. I think they're all good people. It's like I think we're 80 to 90 percent of us fall in that middle where we're just kind of like exhausted of what's going on, and hey, let's let's come together. That would be good.
SPEAKER_03That'd be good for the country. Yeah, and going going off of of what Tom was saying too, I think when when we were covering the Pentagon piece, obviously you look at that spending, and especially with like you know, section two two four, there's a lot to be concerned about. But I think a silver lining from that piece was when we were interviewing Adam Smith. Um this was out we were out in Congressman Adam Smith is Adam Smith, he's a congressman out in Washington. Okay, and he was in favor of this 224 bill. And Tom set up an interview with him, and after we were done interviewing, because he was one of the guys leading the charge for this, after we were done interviewing, about a day later, we got an email from his team and it said, Hey Tom, we want to let you know that because of conversations that Adam Smith has had with both his constituents and you, that he's actually changed his position on it. So I think it's highlighting the fact that, hey, it's the common man. I mean, Tom and I, we don't have credentials, we're not, you know, super media. We're just we're guys. And I think having those conversations with people who are sitting in the Capitol Hill and them changing their positions because of those conversations, I think it was really cool to see just the power the average person has.
SPEAKER_00Our pressure matters when we can band together. I the bug's life analogy keeps crawling into my head. The ants are stronger than the grasshoppers if we band together.
SPEAKER_02You guys get in front of a lot of powerful people, whether it's on Capitol Hill or hanging with Rick Ross. Um how much do you guys get rejected behind the scenes? Hey guys, summer is here. It is time to get out on a patio, enjoy the weather, and maybe take a hard look at your financial life too. Annex is a holistic wealth management firm based right here in Milwaukee that helps you with everything retirement planning, smart investing, estate planning, legacy planning, and tax strategies all under one roof. They'll help you declutter your old accounts, dust off your investment strategy, organize your estate documents, and build a plan focused on your goals. That's our good friends over at Annex Wealth Management. Know the difference. Just head on over to annexwealth.com and let's dive back in with Tommy and Keegan.
SPEAKER_03A lot. Like, for example, uh, we just finished up a series that we were doing with Cook County, the Cook County Sheriff. Cook County Jail. So Chicago, their jail, their sheriff's department. We've been able to film four separate times with them now.
SPEAKER_02Why does the jail want to have you guys in? What's the upside to the jail?
SPEAKER_03So it didn't start with the jail. It actually started with a ride-along where we were covering their vehicle theft unit. And they wanted to show, hey, car theft. I mean, that's that's really what made our channel pop was the Kia Boys car theft. They wanted to show, hey, we're we're trying to stop this issue. And so a lot of times, you know, it's not necessarily we're doing a piece where it's it's purely, hey, just hang out with us. Like they're they obviously they have an incentive where they want to highlight something. And while we're there, we're not just gonna do a PR piece for 'em. But we want to highlight the people that are doing things to change. And so that's why Cook County agreed to reach out or to to do a piece with us, even though the top 50 other major cities um we've we've been emailing them pretty heavily for the last few years, and um it took a good year or year and a half for Cook County to agree to sit down with us. So there's there's a substantial amount of rejection behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it depends on where we're looking because sometimes our close rate is extremely high. Like I would say, if a criminal reaches out to me, I hop on the signal app, I talk to them, it's like a 99%. Like, let's do this.
SPEAKER_02Well, if a criminal reaches out to you, I I would hope you can close that deal.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Especially with that door-to-door sales background. It's a warm over there.
SPEAKER_00A warm lead, market and sales force is a prospect that's going to close. Um, we were just in Indiana covering a guy that does prison drone drops. It was a pretty gnarly little operation, and he showed us all sorts of stuff, including where he cut a hole through the fence and it got patched up of where he ran into the prison to deliver a payload that had uh fallen off course. But, you know, when we're doing outbound leads to U.S. senators, I would say we reach out to all 100 on every subject that we go to Washington, D.C. for, and maybe three to five say yes. And usually it's the people that agree with us. That's that's the other thing is we want to talk to the other side of the coin.
SPEAKER_01For example, that's what I like about you guys too. Like it's yeah.
SPEAKER_00We we want that because that makes the story more exciting, too. We want the the pro data center guys, but a lot of them didn't want to talk. We want the pro, you know, hey, why should we do this Section 224 merger? But a lot of those people don't want to speak. An example of that recently is we're doing a flock safety expose. Flock safety is the leading uh company that does the the licensed plate reader cameras. There's none in Milwaukee, but I believe there's some in Wawatosa, and then they're they're in 4,000 cities around the country. And this is a company that has a lot of positive applications. We've been with U.S. Marshals when they track vehicles going and they're like, okay, this guy's wanted for an armed robbery. Now we we followed him to where his house is, now we can move in and arrest. So that's a positive thing. But there's also a lot of uh creepy potentials that can come from uh the power that Flock gives law enforcement. And so what our little mission was was to go there, put them under surveillance, go to the employee parking lot, film their uh license plates. And we had a friend, Ben Jordan out in Atlanta, a YouTube journalist, who was gonna run that through an algorithm he created, and we see all the information that gets pulled from the license plate. And in the process of doing this, we uncovered that they secretly moved from their headquarters, which by the way had no flock uh signage. You would never know that they existed in that place. They secretly went to another location where, again, you on the building, there's no sign that a major multi-billion dollar company even exists here. Um, we went to their drone location where they have this new product line where they're trying to, it's like a first responder where if you get in a car crash, a flock drone will appear on the scene and just film it just to have footage of what's going on. Even that company was under a front company, a CES construction. And when we talked to the employees there, we were like, hey sir, just let me know you're under surveillance, but don't worry, it's for your safety. And they didn't feel comfortable about that. So they called the cops on us. And then when we actually had a confrontation with them, he's like, You made me feel unsafe. And I said, So me filming you without your consent made you feel unsafe. He said, Yes. I'm like, point proven, man. Like that's how we feel too. Um, but we talked to their PR team, and they were considering joining the interview, and we were willing to fly, like, stop our story, put it on pause, fly to back to Atlanta, and and interview whatever representative they want us to talk to, but they don't want to participate. And that to me, maybe it's a little bit of confirmation bias, but I find that people that are truthful and transparent don't have many things to hide. And so whether it's a sketchy U.S. senator that insider trades or a company that I'm a little concerned about the scope creep of what they're doing around with their cameras, uh, we find that the other side of the coin typically does not want to join the story.
SPEAKER_02Do you guys ever get scared messing with some of these people on Capitol Hill, like walking in with an award for for um stock trading and applauding them, or messing around with a a multi-billion dollar company that clearly has a lot of power and you're filming stuff and putting it on the internet, or does that no?
SPEAKER_03With Capitol Hill in particular, it you'd be surprised at how easy it is to walk into the office.
SPEAKER_01It looked like it was a good one. Any one of us can do it.
SPEAKER_03You can just walk in and walk into an office.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Do you go through security when you You go through security? So they let you bring all your camera gear in there and all the cameras, all the flax.
SPEAKER_00You don't need to have an appointment, you don't need to even have a reason.
SPEAKER_02It's easier to get in there than uh than a buck scam.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00And so going, what was the question again?
SPEAKER_02It was you guys get scared at all messing messing with people on Capitol Hill or like investigating a you know several billion dollar company that could probably make your life a living hell if they really wanted to, uh, with their lawyers and and stuff.
SPEAKER_00Um there's some moments where I've I after I post a video, it's like I should probably look out on my street and see if there's any car, like private investigators tailing me or anything like that. I I get a little paranoid. Um, you know, if you hand a uh senator like Rick Scott, who's worth half a billion dollars and you mock him in his office, a guy like that has connections, he has power. Um, we also kind of mocked the the what is the DHS uh Mark Wayne Mullen. Mark Wayne Mullen.
SPEAKER_02He's now one of the top yeah, the Oklahoma guy saw that. He's made a lot of money stock trading.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that boy is doing good. Yeah, he's he's he loves Raytheon. He he somehow had the perfect bets before he went into Venezuela. He knew exactly which companies to invest in that would benefit from us taking out Maduro. So he I don't I don't know. We were looking for the crystal ball in his office and we couldn't find it. But when you mess with people like that, there isn't a little bit of an apprehension of someone could make my life probably miserable, or people that are litigious. Um, I've been worried about lawsuits, but the good thing about that protects us.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_00What protects us from any of these sketchy organizations, like let's say Scientology or Kenneth Copeland, is if they were to sue us, they have to put their documents up for discovery, which I think would reveal a lot more than we even know about them. And so I think because I um we're we we hit the hammer properly, they are probably dirty. That's why they don't want to bring more things to the light.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you guys did Scientology. Or it was was Copeland just was he Scientology or who was he just the mega pass to get out down in Houst Texas somewhere?
SPEAKER_00His rent a cop uh because we we infiltrated his private runway.
SPEAKER_02That's a that's a funny that's a funny one for anyone who needs some good entertainment. You guys he tried flashing a gun on us. I watched it like maybe six months or a year ago, it was a while ago.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, we we made it to his private residence because all the opening, yes. And uh ended up with a little standoff with his security, and he got really aggressive with us, and that was perfect. I hope security gets aggressive with us when we do these things because he just made it he just multiplied the reach that the piece is gonna get because of how his security operated.
SPEAKER_02Um what's the most scary situation you guys have been in recently? I know I know the other time it was when you were pinned down by the Mexican police when you were with the cartel, but um anything in the last six months or year where you thought you might hear anything?
SPEAKER_00When we were doing the the oil field piece, they put me up on an oil derrick. So it's this little metal platform that's about a hundred feet off the ground. So they they f they uh put me on a cable, hoisted me up there. I had slippery cowboy boots on. It was like 5 a.m. So it's very dark, and I'm terrified of height. So I would say that to me was a spike cortisol moment. And they left me up there for what, 45 minutes to an hour. You were up there for a whole hour. Yeah, and so I eventually just calmed down.
SPEAKER_03You can't press a button and just I didn't want to be a little bitch.
SPEAKER_00I didn't want to be like, hey, come get me.
SPEAKER_03Um plus he wanted to make us 20 bucks for being there for an hour.
SPEAKER_00I was very tempted though, about like one minute in. I was when I was on it, I was kind of panicking. I was just like, what am I doing up here? And so I wanted to yell, but I knew the manly men down there that were had done this their whole career, they probably wouldn't respect me, so I just had to keep it internalized.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Keegan, what about you? I think it was it was the oil episode, but it was a different part, and it was when I thought we were going into a jet, and I'm I know nothing about planes. And once we got there, like I saw it was a more or less a little puddle jumper, and we're flying through a lightning storm in South Texas, there's no lights below. I mean, we're in the middle of nowhere, and this storm's coming in, and the guys who are used to just flying around on planes to the oil rig, it's just business as usual to them. But for us, being airborne and not the world's most trusted, trusty uh aircraft, it was a bit freaky.
SPEAKER_00It also felt like this oil guy was trying to really show how much bravado he had. And I'm like, dude, we have no one we have to impress with this. Like, if we need to wait an hour, are we are we gonna die become some guy really wants to look tough for the camera?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well is that guy the real deal, or is he a poser, or what was I guessing?
SPEAKER_00He seems pretty legit. I think um, like we didn't do an entire investigation of his his whole company, but as far as a man that's out there investing in oil, he has that Texas cowboy entrepreneurial spirit, 100%. He's got it. Um, but it's definitely like a little bit of like he had the my fish is always bigger than your fish energy, where he always had to like be the man, and it was like, can we just not be the man in a lightning storm?
SPEAKER_02What are you guys most excited about coming up?
SPEAKER_03Anything in the works? Really excited to head to South Dakota. Yeah. I think that's gonna be a blast. We're heading out. What are you doing there? We're going out to Pine Ridge. Or not Rosebud. Neighboring to Pine Ridge. Right next to it. And um, we're gonna go an Indian reservation, yeah. The Sioux Reservation, and we're heading out there and we're gonna do a ride along, and then we're gonna see their jail as well, and then we're also doing some you've had a lot of people from their community reach out. So we're trying to also just cover, hey, what's life like on a reservation? Because you know, if you look at it, I was looking for people that had some big social media presence there, and there's only like two. And so I think it's it's really cool when we get to take those cameras and bring them in there and just document something that you know most people don't get to see and and tell the story that the people on that reservation want us to tell for them.
SPEAKER_00Reservations are wild places. I I almost all of them I've been to. Um, you're talking about extremely dilapidated housing. Some people don't have electricity, some people don't have running water. There's extremely high addiction rates. Like in Pine Ridge, I think it was 80 or 90 percent of the population is addicted to alcohol or meth or both. There's a lot of violence, there's a lot of domestic disputes, and there's also a lot of people trying to help. Like we met a mom in a mini minivan in Pine Ridge who runs moms against meth, and she would just drive around, get calls on her phone, maybe she'd bring supplies, maybe she'd drive someone to a doctor's appointment. But these are these extremely rural communities where from end to end, it's like you might have 25,000 people that are in a 1,600 uh mile square area, and they're beautiful places, they're sad places, and there's a lot of people with stories to tell. It's also a place where a lot of people go missing. Uh, murdered and missing indigenous women is a big topic. Any reservation you go to. It's just, you know, like one of the most common t-shirts I see people wearing is like the face of a loved one that either was killed or they don't know where they are. Um, there's a lot of cartel smuggling that goes on in reservations. There are these weird sort of jurisdictions where they have their own law enforcement, and the only law enforcement that can enter a res is federal law enforcement, I believe, with some sort of warrant or reason to be there. But local police, like there's this just uh it's an outlaw place in some ways. And uh, but colorful people, colorful stories, uh cool culture that you get to see. Uh, we're hopefully gonna get into a sweat lodge and experience some of that tradition. What is a sweat lodge? Sweat lodge is a place they kind of install it's like a hut that they heat up and there's drums, there's some chanting, and you sweat and you sit there until you start to interact with the great spirit, I guess would be my uh estimation of it. There's something about um putting your body into that kind of duress.
SPEAKER_02It's like an Aaron Rodgers ayahuasca retreat.
SPEAKER_00Aaron Rodgers would be right at home.
SPEAKER_02You would be right at home at the Maybe we'll see him there. At the Sioux Sweat Lodge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Five stars on Yelp. I think we'll see him there one day.
SPEAKER_02Any anything else, those kind of Keegan's pick? What else you guys got coming up?
SPEAKER_00I'm equally excited about uh South Dakota. I'm also very excited about West Virginia. We're trying to get into coal mines there. West Virginia is another very overlooked place where it's beautiful landscape, winding roads, mountainous, and it's also a city that's been very exploited by uh big companies in their area. And right now the data centers are moving in, and people are very concerned about their water supply. Uh, but another place where you meet people with stories. Um, I have a guide out there that he hunts everything from bear to squirrel, and I hope to eat at least one of those while I'm out there. And the the mission of this channel, in some ways, is adventure going out into the world to a place the average person may have not seen and seen it for ourselves. And so I'm I I want to book my tickets ASAP. I'm I'm eager to get there.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you guys for popping back in today. It's always great seeing you and appreciate all you do. And I'm wowed by all what you do. Thank you for having us.
SPEAKER_00You're the man, Richie. Thanks for having us.
SPEAKER_02Hey everyone, thanks so much for tuning in today. And before signing off, just want to thank our partners who make Milwaukee on Cup possible Annex Wealth Management, Nicolay Law, and Drink Wisconsin Blee Beverage Company.
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