EP256: The Wild World of Politics and Elections with Craig Mason

From a 60-pound weight loss journey to questioning media influence and government accountability, Craig Mason explores the intersections of personal transformation and societal challenges. Craig shares how semaglutide and lifestyle changes reshaped his health while he dives into thought-provoking topics on taxation, leadership perception, and the need for critical thinking in today’s world. This engaging episode blends practical tips with sharp insights, offering a fresh perspective on thriving personally and navigating complex systems. Don’t miss this powerful conversation!

 Key Takeaways To Listen For

• How semaglutide and lifestyle changes help achieve lasting health through hunger stabilization
• The importance of clarity, respect, and communication for effective leadership in life and politics
• How media shapes public opinion by prioritizing narratives over facts
• Why critical thinking and verifying information are essential in a world of biased stories and political smearing
• Ideas to create fairer taxation and improve government efficiency.

About Craig Mason
Craig Mason is a seasoned Branch President and Senior Mortgage Advisor with a unique approach to financial strategy. By combining his expertise in residential, investment, and commercial lending, Craig operates with the philosophy of a financial advisor, helping clients maximize cash flow and reduce monthly liabilities. His specialization in restructuring debt and uncovering hidden advantages in mortgages empowers individuals and families to achieve their financial goals, including creating more cash flow for retirement investments. Craig’s dedication to delivering tailored solutions makes him a trusted expert in the mortgage industry.

 Connect With Craig

• Website: Mason Mortgage Advisors
• LinkedIn: Craig Mason

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, election politics, always saucy, always hot, always contentious. So many emotions at the recording of this episode, we didn't know who was going to win the election. It was recorded prior to the 2024 United States presidential election. We wanted to wait till the election was over to send and share this episode as being dropped now as a reminder of, Hey, we didn't know who was going to win. But at the end of the day, we need to work together for prosperity, for peace, for progress. And so Craig Mason and myself took on this endeavor. What a thrilling conversation we had. I can't wait for you to listen in. I'm Dr. Nate Salah, and this is A Call to Leadership. Craigson. Nice. Good to have you back. Thank you. What happened? You look like. 

[00:00:55] Craig Mason
Taking up less screen. Yeah. taking up less sc taking up. 

[00:01:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Less cast on the pod. I didn't have to do the wide screen. I know. Yeah, no, really? You, you look good, man.

[00:01:01] Craig Mason
I appreciate that. What happened? I hit, uh, did you hit a, instead of when it hit a low, I hit a high. And, uh, decided to make some changes and started, uh, January on. I was 271 pounds. And well, what is normal like in just historically for you? What's a normal, well, I'm two 14 right now. And I still wouldn't say I'm skinny. So I would say two 25, 200 to two 25 is good. I was, uh, two 40 for a long time. Um, and putting some muscle on and still kind of just look stout and stocky. And then man, it just, I don't know what happened. I just continued to blow up and just. Consuming way too many calories. So you went from 214 plus or whatever. Well, I was 199 in 2012. Okay, that's some time ago, but since our last recording, Oh yeah. Last recording, I was, I'm down almost 60 pounds ish.

[00:02:09] Dr. Nate Salah
60 pounds. Wow. Yeah. When was that? It was about six, seven months ago. I think, wasn't it last year? Yeah, last year. Oh, actually it was last year. Yeah. Maybe time flies, bro, when you're getting older. Yeah, I know. A year ago. Let's just say it a year ago. Next year I might be 280 and I will do it again. It'll, it'll keep up on you. And it's not hard, by the way, I was talking to my wife about this the other day, and I'm obviously my slender. I'm a slender physique. Yeah. Close to the same forever. Right. However, you know, when you're between, you know, 150, 160 pounds, the percentage is quite higher. Like if I gained 10 pounds, let's call it 15, 15 pounds is 10 percent of my body weight. Right. Right. It's a huge like jump. And, but it's not hard to do that. Like if a cloak. Average caloric intake, what's like 3, 600 calories for a pound. I mean, I know it's, it's, it's rough. 

[00:02:52] Craig Mason
I didn't even know that. 

[00:02:54] Dr. Nate Salah
But yeah, it's not hard. You ever look at menus now and they have the calorie counts. I do. Some stuff. Cheesecake factory is a great example. It's like. Just, it's in the name. Oh my goodness. Like 2, 700 calories for not even the whole meal, you know, it's just like, oh, okay. And, and it's like, or more. Right. And then you're like, Oh, my goodness. No wonder why it's so easy to pack on weight. 

[00:03:16] Craig Mason
When I started. So I always thought I could outwork the calories, you know, Hey, I'll do this today. And then I'll just go no carbs. I'll eat high protein. I'll work out extra play a couple nights extra hockey. And I just feel like it always outperform it. But I was constantly I couldn't do what I did. 10 or 15 years ago, you just, you can't outrun it. So it does from what I found scientifically impossible to lose weight without a caloric deficit. And when I started on the shot, uh, semi glutide in January, I noticed a pretty quick weight loss, but then I would start noticing. I'm like, all right, let me think what I ate today. So I had a. Protein shake for breakfast, 185 calories, a protein shake for lunch or skip lunch and then had a small meal of 385 calories for dinner. I'm like, man, I had 700 calories today. And like you said, one meal at Cheesecake Factory could be pushing 4, 000.  

[00:04:06] Dr. Nate Salah
Oh, a hundred percent. And regular restaurants too. You say, okay, I'm going to get the nachos. Like 1900 calories. And that's just an appetizer. 

[00:04:15] Craig Mason
That's just getting warmed up. You'll be 271 before you know it. And then you think about like, okay, well, just one Reese's peanut butter cup, like your candy thing out front. I saw the Whopper and I was like, in all fairness, the shot does make it to where you can eat a little. You don't have to eat as healthy. I know that sounds crazy. You just eat a lot less. It's not saying don't eat healthy. Like last night was chicken and salad and we got some salmon and things like that. But anyway, so yeah, lifestyle changes and so much better. So you do you feel less hungry? 100%. So here's the thing that the shot does. It doesn't make you lose weight, so you never get hangry. As you know, being in a busy industry, you don't always have time to meal prep and stop.

[00:05:07]
 Like if I have a, taking a mortgage application and it's noon and I'm need to eat, it might be two o'clock or two 30 and I'll get a couple of phone calls then I'm shaky and then sick. And then does a grilled chicken. Sandwich sound good. Then your body is telling you your sugar levels are off. So a Pepsi and a cheeseburger or, you know, microwave pizza rolls, something just quick, you know, like your body needs it. Now that goes away, like your body's tricked into like not, it just stabilizes your glucose levels, I guess. So it's, it started as a, uh, Diabetic drug for diabetes, and then they found out that people were everybody was almost losing weight on it because it stabilized your hunger, but you also don't even you don't act hangry. Right. Like you don't feel those spikes. So anyway, it's it's been. 

[00:05:48] Dr. Nate Salah
That's, that's great, man. Again, look great. Uh, and for me, I found that I don't, I don't really eat during the day. I do some grazing. It'll be, you know, I try to get some protein during the day and some, some complex carbs, but on it, and I don't really drink coffee, but I do, I do have a cough, a cup of coffee a day. Okay. And I started at about 1130. Okay. Well, cause I'm not necessarily, I don't, it's not like I don't need the alertness from coffee, but what I found that sipping on a cup of coffee from like 1130 to two, uh, is, uh, it's actually an appetizer present too for me. Yeah, personally, I found that I was like, Oh, you know what? I don't feel like that, that urge to like, and I was actually just talking about this with my nephew who is just here, uh, on, uh, doing some entrepreneurship. Right. Just met him. Yeah. And I was telling him about how, when I used to. Well, back when we had the mortgage company, we'd go downtown and we'd go down to a restaurant, have some pizza lunch, 7.99 pizza lunch, and I would be like, so like tired at one o'clock or two o'clock in the afternoon, three, I'm like, oh my goodness, what am I going to do? 

[00:06:51] Craig Mason
I feel so much better not eating at lunch or something small. But just, I have a little muscle milk, 32 grams of protein already in the, I'm not cheaping out and getting the powder. I'm just buying them. So they're ready to go. They're cold. They taste better. 185 calories, 32 grams of protein and like no sugars, basically. 

[00:07:10] Dr. Nate Salah
So you cut out all the sugars. It's important to their, especially the refined sugar, you can get some, some natural sugar, but the refined sugar is an enemy really. If you refine sugar and sodium, you know, we're not physicians, so we're not giving mental advice. 

[00:07:21] Craig Mason
However, is there going to be a disclaimer? Right. 

[00:07:24] Dr. Nate Salah
Type two diabetes, heart disease. I mean. It just goes hand in hand and there's so much if you, if you're watching it and you're like, Oh, you don't watch my sodium levels. I've had clients come in who have had a heart attack and now they're like, okay, now I got to watch my sodium levels. Well, I want to do that before I had my heart attack. 

[00:07:40] Craig Mason
It's just a reminder for me. So it's, it's interesting that you bring up. Preventative, uh, care because when I first went to, um, you have to get prescribed a shot of Zempik or whatever brand. It's semi glutide. You have to go to a doctor prescribed. They say, yes, you're overweight. You could use this. If somebody wants to lose five pounds, they're going to say just Workout, you're gonna have to do something, but, um, but 60 pounds. Right, right. So, uh, and some are more, you know, there's even bigger cases, but, uh, what I found frustrating from, from the health care industry was that it was a big struggle to try to get the prescription. Through my insurance because they won't pay for any weight loss drugs. But if you're diagnosed with diabetes or your a one C or whatever the thing's called, uh, is in line with being pre diabetic, they'll give it to you. But if you don't go get the test to be diagnosed, so how about this? Why wouldn't they, if heart disease is down, uh, my cholesterol is down a hundred points. Uh, I'm in the safe zone, the good cholesterol is up, bad cholesterol is down. Why wouldn't they do this for themselves to save money in the long term for heart surgeries and all kinds of things. So they're like, well, you can't have it for a weight loss drug, but you can have it if you have diabetes, use it as a preventative measure. 100 percent no sense in holding out. I don't, I didn't understand that. So, so I had, I paid for it myself, um, through a local place in Chesterfield, but, uh, worth every penny. And I, you know what? I save so much money on food and even alcohol. You're just have very, very little desire to drink alcohol. I'm not saying I don't force it down. 

[00:09:24] Dr. Nate Salah
Once in a while with the boys, but, uh, well, there's another one though, that can spike the levels and, and, and cause you to be unhealthy and in excess, of course. Yeah. How do you feel? 

[00:09:35] Craig Mason
Awesome. Getting out of bed is easier. My knees, hips, uh, can turn my head without fat rolling on my neck and ice hockey, uh, has been, I've kind of been back, uh, playing goalie with, you know, old man hockey, but, um, there are guys are saying I look a lot quicker. And I mean, you think about, you know, even a 45 pound, uh, plate that goes on the bar at the gym. Like if, yeah. Carrying that on my back. Plus. Oh, yeah. You know, another 15 pounds. I don't even think I'd be able to move. 

[00:10:05] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. But anyway, so I wonder how that also impacts stress levels, especially in you and I are both intertwined in some some of the election stuff. And we follow pretty closely politics and whatnot. So you've got, of course, you know, Stress from that, but I suspect that, you know, there's different parts of wellness, right? You have different, I look at five different areas and there's more, but I say there's spiritual wellness, whether or not you believe in a creator is, you know, sort of your spirit, uh, your emotional wellness, your mental wellness, your, uh, physical wellness, your financial wellness, right? Those are all areas of health. In life, those are, I would say, like, primary, like, those are five primary areas. Most people focus on, like, if my mental health is out of whack, I'm not functioning full health. My emotional, my physical, my financial, all of these, you know, my spiritual. A lot of folks are like, you know, so I suspect that this physical realm helps with some of the other ones too. 

[00:11:06] Craig Mason
Everything. A hundred  percent. Even just like wanting to do things. Not that I wasn't physically, I wasn't physically enabled or unable. I just, uh, didn't feel comfortable with myself. I guess I didn't really notice it until now. Like once you slim down and get back to where you should be, you don't mind going to Six Flags with the family or, you know, I don't know, it just, it, for me, that was a little bit of, uh, Embarrassment, I guess, for where I, where I'd gotten.

[00:11:31] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. It's comfort really had, you know, it's such a comfort. So stress levels decrease, but at the same time, it is an election year. Yeah, yeah, it is. But it seems like it's never not right.

[00:11:38] Craig Mason
I feel that way. It's just, since 2016, 2015, it's been an ongoing, people just. 

[00:11:51] Dr. Nate Salah
Do you remember when Donald Trump first said he was running for president? Do you remember that back in 2015? Was even, didn't he try and 12 as well? Yes, this is true. Yeah, this is, so he got it. It was out pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah. Get further, get further. And with the Republican ticket. And I remember that. I remember the first thing I was like, no way. I mean, what, what's he, what is he running as a Republican for? He's a Democrat. Right. That's the first thing that came to my mind. That was the first thing. And then, uh, and then he said, uh, Well, he was asked if he would, if he would endorse the Republican ticket at the primaries. He said, well, if, if I, if I win, right, you never know what's what he's going to say. And so, of course, he wins. He wins the, uh, the 2016 election, which. Surprisingly, because I think Hillary was up by what, like four points or something. Something pretty wide just before the election. So it was kind of like done deal in a lot of people's minds that she was going to be the next president United States. Right? Of course, that's not what happened.

[00:13:00] Craig Mason
No. Yeah, no, it was. Uh, yeah. Quite. I think Trump really pushed, um, against the establishment and, and was really trying to expose, uh, Hillary for things that she'd done that kind of gets swept under the rug. People kind of turned a blind eye to it. If you're, if you're polished, if you're a polished politician, it's like, Oh, well, she deleted 30, 000 emails and Burn the, you know, bleach bit, whatever. It's okay. Cause she's well spoken and articulate and, and she's refined. And then Trump kind of was like, I'm going to stomp on all this stuff and we don't need this. I don't need to pay to play. I already have money and we're going to come in and clean this stuff up. 

[00:13:42] Dr. Nate Salah
So do you remember the Dave Chappelle skit where he, he talked about Donald Trump became, he said a stomp He said during the debate, he was like, I think Hillary, and I'm not a botch it up a bit. He said, Hillary said, you know, you, you, you take advantage of the tax code and the wealth. He's like, yeah, I do. And because I'm wealthy and I can take advantage of that. Right. And, and so do you. And he's like, and Chappelle is like, you know, that moment's like, oh my goodness. He's, he's being honest about the stuff they do at that level. Right. And. It was almost like he was going to say what he was going to say, which in a way was like, Oh my goodness, is he really saying that? And the other side was, Oh, he is saying that. And I think that nobody really knew how to take him because he wasn't playing by the rules. There were, there were rules that you play by with politics and, you know, and what to say and what not to say. And he was like, I'm not doing my thing. 

[00:14:41] Craig Mason
Yeah, I think the reason he won is because he was not presidential. People always say he's not presidential. I think people wanted out of that. I don't know what brought it to a head, but, um, it got, you know, ugly down the stretch. With the Russian, like there's just a lot of stuff and, you know, Trump, uh, you know, things that he said on a bus with certain people that, you know, there were things that he said. And, uh, but again, you know, a lot of people swept that under the rug as well. Yeah. So, um, but so he has his policies and it is what it is and he loses in 2020. 

[00:15:17] Dr. Nate Salah
Do you want to get into that? Yeah. Did he lose? 

[00:15:21] Craig Mason
Did he lose? I don't know. We could go, we could go deep dive conspiracy. 

[00:15:28] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, you know, there are conspiracy theories. Let's talk about them. Why not? It's my show. 

[00:15:34] Craig Mason
Yeah. Um, well, you, you wonder, uh, with eight years and again, this isn't me taking one side or another. I just try to take an outside approach to, to understand everything, no matter what side of what the debate is. I always try to take both sides. Even if it's not my believe in, I'll, I'll at least look at the other side and say, okay, well, I see why they feel that way or I understand that. And I, and I respect that if it's, you know, if it's not too far outside of scope, but you wonder if in 2016, like you already mentioned. Hillary was a shoe in. So you had eight years of Obama. Here comes Hillary. And a lot of people would say that Obama might not really been running the show that he may be puppet on a string. Hillary was next in line just to continue it. And all of a sudden Trump wins and they're like, Holy cow. So then you have this is just Factual other than Fox news, every single media outlet and every Democrat completely came after Trump nonstop for every single thing for four years. He really didn't even have a fair shot to run.

[00:16:42]
Uh, this is just me and I don't agree with everything he does. I don't like the things he says all the time. I it's, it's, it'll turn your stomach and make you embarrassed. I've felt flush before listening to him talk and turned off the radio or I can't, when does it end? You know, he just, So even recently, you know, but, um, but I, his policies, I think, are what really separates him from and, and, and policy wise, I don't think that he's a hypocrite like a lot of other people are like people are flip flopping now, like, Oh, if we need a frack, I'm going to switch. But anyway, I don't want to get too far off topic. We're talking about conspiracy, conspiracy theories. So anyway, I don't think they were prepared for Hillary loss. No, this is highly likely we're not paid at all. So how does in 2020 Joe Biden, who was a gaffe then the sniffing babies, kid, people's kids and people like cringing away from him.

[00:17:31] 
I mean, this is like stuff caught on camera. This isn't just hearsay. He hides in his basement the entire campaign. Trump's hit in every single state. We go to bed. Trump is up by a landslide the night of the election. I remember where I was. I was actually in Palm Desert, California. I'd been on a 3600 mile jeep trip and my copilot with me was, he voted one way and I voted another. We shook hands at the end of the night and said, uh, congratulations, your candidate won. And the next morning woke up and we're like, what, what happened? Like, where did these 30 million boats come from? And like, what, what just happened? It just, it was, I don't know, it just seemed pretty far fetched, like not possible, you know, here we are four years later. 

[00:18:19] Dr. Nate Salah
Here we are four years later, exactly. Now you have a very tight race. Of course, at the airing of this, we'll have an answer, so we should do a little prediction. Um, man, do a little prediction. So right now it's really, really close. It is razor thin. Within the margin of error, either way.

[00:18:38] Craig Mason
Where there could be recounts in states, multiple swing states, swing states, Pennsylvania. Yeah, there's, there's a lot that could go into it, but, uh, I don't know. What do you think if you had to bet if I had to bet your whole, here's your portfolio? 

[00:18:55] Dr. Nate Salah
Oh, man. Well, of course it's tough. It's that close. Yeah. Yeah, you could, either way it's, it's really a flip a coin. It's a, it's a coin flip. It's a coin flip. It's trending. If we were look at trending, Harris has, has lost some ground over the last two weeks. Yes. And it's trending toward Trump. So depending on that, if I were to use an algorithmic trend, if nothing changes, if something doesn't happen to where she gets a big turn or he, you know. If he's imprisoned for a felony and then pardon himself, I think that would be awesome. By the way, that would be a first. I don't know. I think it'd be a. 

[00:19:33] Craig Mason
Pardon me the door and then he brings all the prisoners with him. Let's go to the capital. No, too soon. 

[00:19:43] Dr. Nate Salah
That would be pretty, uh, it would be different. It would definitely be a t shirt. It would be. Oh, my gosh. It's a lot of t shirts. So, so if we're trending that way. And nothing changes. Then I would say math would put Trump in the White House. I think right now for sure as well. Um, not for sure, but that's if I had to bet if that was the trajectory. 

[00:20:02] Craig Mason
I think after the first debate, I think Harris would win. Thanks. Thanks. Kind of clobbered him a little bit. Yeah, really got him off his game. She won that 100 percent and yeah, but when it came to the vice presidential debate, that was a landslide. It was actually very cordial. I think it was, it was pleasant to watch both guys. I thought were very respectful. I agree to each other, but I think walls looked, um, really out of place compared to, to Vance. And I think it also showed that You know, Vance, why he was a never trumper and became because he didn't believe in him first, and he was watching the media and listen to, you know, most of the media is negative trump. And you gotta, you gotta wonder why. And, you know, I think a lot of people, even, uh, friends that I have that are that are Democrats, um, feel that the DNC Probably has a large ownership in, uh, what, what the media puts out. 

[00:20:57] Dr. Nate Salah
It's important to bring that up because not only is there a large negative approach to him, I don't think I've ever seen anyone in the history of politics be so, uh, reviled and hated. Unbelievable. Like, like, like, Viscerally by individuals and groups of individuals.

[00:21:16] Craig Mason
And people loved him all through the eighties, nineties, two thousands. There's pictures of him with Oprah and all the celebrities loved him and he was on The Apprentice. And you know, then all of a sudden, like He starts talking about draining the swamp and cleaning things up. And now he's, you just wonder like the, the, he's an existential threat to. Yeah. And, and, and, you know, so I've been watching, I try to watch everything except Fox because I know what Fox is going to say.

[00:21:43] Dr. Nate Salah
Sure. They're going to, I would say if you, you could probably MSNBC and Fox are probably two stations that have their stake in the ground with their individual candidate. Right. But man, like they will get 

[00:21:52] Craig Mason
fixated on, you know, yeah. One little thing trying to drive him to the ground that just, you know.

[00:22:02] Dr. Nate Salah
Like dancing at a rally or wherever. Oh, it's a town hall. He was, he was dancing and tell said that he's mentally, uh, you know, incapacitated. 

[00:22:10] Craig Mason
You know, I don't know what his recent speech about, uh, Arnold Palmer. Did you? I didn't catch it. Oh man. He basically told, he was in the town where Arnold Palmer grew up and he told this long story about, I don't know if I should be talking about this, but you can edit this out if, if, if whatever, and then he ends up at the very end and you know, Trump talks, talks, talks is too much. So he wraps it up and he gives Arnold Palmer big, strong guy. He was a bricklayer and his dad was, uh, you know, anyway, and he goes on and then he talks about him in the shower and how the guys were very impressed with his. Yeah, it was bad. So I'm very disappointed in that. I'm very disappointed that he said, then people like, Oh, and then I see a lot of people going on Facebook saying, you know, this is not what a leader does. And I want to, I want to think what's all to think about something right here, everybody. So people do make mistakes and we can all lead great lives and or attempt to lead a great life and, and put others before us, um, and be giving as, as parents and friends and employers and employees. So yes, he said this about, uh, seeing a guy's stature.

[00:23:15]
In the shower had no place being said. He could have stopped way before that. But I want people when they judge him on this leadership, you don't need an idol for leadership. Like your leadership should start with you and your household and what you can control. And what I see is a lot of people around me will not be the best example. And I'm talking about Children. So you want to talk about being a leader and everyone's like, Oh, your kids, if, you know, if they heard him say this, so did he say something that was probably not presidential? And he shouldn't have said yes, but he was addressing a group of adults now. He wasn't at a cigar club where he should have just been telling the story with his buddies or not telling the story, whatever. But I see people, a lot of people use. They don't have a filter when they're around their children. They use profanity, they say things that they shouldn't say. And let me tell you, I know that kids under 10 or 8 or 7, the parents will be watching R rated movies and have the kids there. Maybe throwing a tantrum as an adult at home or arguing over dishes or who's vacuuming. I mean, there's so many things that we can do at our level. We don't need to worry about something he said Or, Oh, that's not what a leader should say. Let's look at ourselves first and start at home. That's just what I thought about when I was like, all right. So he said something like, get over it. Do you think that's the worst thing you heard that he said Arnold Palmer was well endowed basically. He didn't say that, but that's what he alluded to.

[00:24:38] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, no, that's a, that's a, that's a really good point. You bring up and he's not presidential. Okay. I mean, he's never been presidential, right? The presidential 60 was president 20. He's never been presidential. No. And in terms of like, if I were to go back and say, what president was most presidential in my lifetime, I would probably go back to Reagan and say, in terms of like the, the kind of person who was, Affable and who was intelligent and who brought both sides of the aisle together. That's what I would say in my lifetime is the most appropriate model for the office. Have I seen that since then? I haven't. Obama was pretty smooth. I mean, he was, he was very articulate. Yeah. And intelligent. Yes. And those are qualities that we do. We associate with effective leadership, effective communication styles, intelligence. Those are all aspects of it. However, I look at Donald Trump as a, and I had no disparaging to, to New York real estate moguls, but I look at him as a guy from New York, who was in real estate all his life, who. Care. He loves his country. I believe he loves his country too. I believe Kamala loves her country. I believe these people love their country in their own way, but I do believe that he, he loves his country. And he stood in the gap in a way that he felt was appropriate based on his life. You weren't, you're not going to change this guy. You're not going to change his mouth. I mean, I remember his kids saying, I wish we could just take the phone away from dad.

[00:26:13]
Like just get them off of Twitter. Twitter, right? Yeah. Okay. So I know you're not going to change that about him. I know you're not going to change some of his practices and behaviors. I'm sure that some of the things that he's done have been unethical. I'm sure that some of the things I've done in the past have been unethical. Maybe not to that degree, but I've never been at that level either. So I can't make the determination judge. Like you said, it's, I think it's important to take that off the table first. 

[00:26:33] Craig Mason
And then look, what does he, what do you bring to the table as a parent and a leader at home, and what does he bring to the table? Just hurt. Like. Kamala, I just don't understand. Even, even CNN and, and some of these other places are even saying like really ripping on her, like she's not giving interviews. She is not speaking like they think it's the same as, as Joe Biden. The only way to win is to hide her from, I mean, you wanna talk about Trump's mouth. she is not in a bad way, just in an embarrassing way. Not saying Trump can't be embarrassing, but like she just can't put a sentence together. Right. 

[00:27:07] Dr. Nate Salah
And I'm not defending Trump by any means. I would never do that. Uh, these are adults. You didn't defend him. You just said he is who he is. Yeah, that's it. And that's, you take him as he is or you don't. And yes, there are so, so many things that are so offensive about what he says. It makes them an easy target. 

[00:27:26] Craig Mason
We were talking about this before, but it's all this perception on Facebook and Instagram, mostly Facebook and the news. It's the perception of what the client brings to the table. You know, so some people perceive that Trump is this vile, misogynist, Hitler, just, I mean, he's been calling me. That's what's going on right now saying that he wants military and he's never going to leave the office. I mean, these things are getting pounded into very impressionable people's minds. But the reality of it is, no matter what the candidate is, whether the impressionist Trump is going to be a dictator or Trump's going to fix the economy. Um, he there's no magic button for Trump to push or, or that Harris is going to bring everybody together and unify. There's no magic button for her to push either. It's just the perception. Right. Just like the market moves based on perception, there's, there's no rhyme or reason to it.  

[00:28:18] Dr. Nate Salah
A lot of times, this is actually a fundamental aspect of leadership theory in academic circles, leadership, effective leadership is truly based on perception. It's so, for example, we have, uh, an acronym for, for, for leadership effectiveness ocean. So ocean is, it's got five different levels or five different types of aspects of a leader's behavior. I'm not going to go through all of them, but it's all based on really a follower's perception of those five attributes. It's not whether or not they can actually achieve those or implement those. It's a perception. And so we perceive whether or not this particular leader can magnify our interests. That's the goal. The problem is there's so much smearing and I know it's nothing new, but there's so much smearing and it gets old. I mean, it just gets old to the point to where you're like, you know what, let's just stop. Let's stop. I know. Focus on issues. Focus on policies. Just focus on what they, not only campaign promises. By their track record and then just have more of an objective view instead of demonizing individuals on both sides.

[00:29:27] Craig Mason
Even, uh, not even candidates, but friends on fighting over, you know, been best friends since kindergarten and over the 2020 election. I saw people saying, you know, You know, we're not friends anymore or separating on Facebook or whatever. It's a, the funny thing is, is neither of those people, I'm not saying that your vote doesn't count, but neither person is going to change anything. Individually. I know that sounds very low. Cause you know, you want to be motivational, but like every single person can make a difference, but look, they're not going to change gun control and these two arguing over. It's not going to go anywhere. So at least. Just like you said, just stop talking about it or, or at least respect each other if you do. 

[00:30:14] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. How about that? And that's, and that's where I think when you and I were discussing the vice presidential debate. There was respect, they were cordial, they were sincere, and perhaps, you know, you can talk about the issues that were discussed, and who quote unquote won the debate, the underlying, the underlying attitude and atmosphere between the two of them I found to be refreshing, I'm like wow, it was, oof, why isn't this the norm, and I actually found that in, I don't know if you remember the debates when George Bush Uh, two was running for president and the vice presidential debates were going on very similar. They were sitting, they were, they were cordial and relaxed. I'm like, how about that? What a novel concept. Like. 

[00:31:03] Craig Mason
Can we flip the VP and the president? Like, could you imagine Trump as a VP? Sit down. You're fired. Second place. You're fired. But he would fire it. Oh, man. Yeah, he'd have Vance murdered or so. I don't know, but. 

[00:31:22] Dr. Nate Salah
Do you think Vance was a good pick?

[00:31:23] Craig Mason
Oh, man. I mean, at first he was getting a lot of heat. I think he is probably the most well spoken and put together person that I've seen in 10 years. 

[00:31:35] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, when it comes to deficiencies. In terms of, obviously Trump is not the most eloquent public speaker, right? He uses superlatives all the, all the time. You're always the best. 

[00:31:48] Craig Mason
This is, this is the best podcast I've ever seen. You have billions and billions and billions of viewers. 

[00:31:54] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. Elon Musk is the smartest person on the planet. I mean, he's a smart guy. To the likes you've never seen. Yeah, yeah. And that's, that's, that's his, his style. Okay. We know that's not the case, right? Everything can be exhausting. Yeah, it can be exhausting, especially, you know, all of the, uh, he's just over the top with, um, with that, uh, whereas, uh, Vance is, is much more metered. He's, he's thought out in terms of his, how he speaks. He's an attorney. Uh, so.

[00:32:24] Craig Mason
Extremely respectful, even when he would call the moderators out for fact checking him on the wrong item. I just liked his approach about everything. He does not get rattled. It's almost frustrating to the people trying to rattle him. You can see it bothering them. How cordial the guy's almost too nice. What'd you think about walls? I thought walls kind of came across as like super goofy and kind of scatterbrained. You see when they asked him about being in China during the Tiananmen square thing, and he's like, He just froze up and he didn't answer the question. Yeah, he just said, well, I was there, but not there, but it doesn't matter. I kind of messed up. And yeah, people were like, What's goofball talking about? 

[00:33:05] Dr. Nate Salah
Truly, truly not his, his strength in that space. I see Walls more of a superintendent of a school system. I mean, that's, and I think he comes out of the school system. If I, if I remember correctly, he comes out of education. And I can see that. I can see that, uh, is, I'm not sure his, how, you know, how well he governed, uh, as well. I haven't found Minnesota, is that what it is? Yeah, I believe so. And he's from 

[00:33:29] Craig Mason
Nebraska, which I found kind of interesting that he wasn't from Minnesota and Yeah. became the governor. 

[00:33:34] Dr. Nate Salah
Oh, what's interesting, and I heard this on, um, one of the, the commentaries that I thought was an interesting perspective was the, the pairing where Trump, uh, paired a much more qualified speaker orator, whereas Harris did not.

[00:33:49] Craig Mason
I also find it very hypocritical, and I just don't know how people's eyes aren't open. Like, could you have picked a more anti democratic candidate? Like an old white guy? Like the ultimate devil right now, right? An old white guy. I mean, how does this happen? That's what people are saying. We need to get, we need to turn the page and get the, and an old silver haired white guy, uh, now I don't think it matters personally, gender, race, age, what a candidate is. They are who they are and you definitely should be in for your qualifications. Not for any other reason, but I was very shocked. Let's be honest, your sidekick, the VP is. Pick to help you along, and I think that was a very, very bad pick for Harris. 

[00:34:39] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if Harris wins, what really changes? And I don't mean like policy wise. Yes, there are going to be changes. If Trump wins, there are going to be changes. I think we put a lot more emphasis on the next four years. 

[00:34:55] Craig Mason
Perception perception. So remember when Trump in 2016 got in on the stock market skyrockets now it crashed during COVID, but, uh, you know, that's another story for another day. Um, but, uh, you know, the market's up now, which is, doesn't affect families, uh, that don't invest in the stock market, you know, inflation still isn't under control. So that would be, you'd wonder if. You know, rates stay high if Harris is in just with the perception of consumer confidence, like, all right, well, we've had double digit inflation the last few years and there's nothing that's been done about it other than just kind of ride it out, you know, I don't know. Um, yeah, but what's going to change? It's that magic button that we were talking about, probably not much either way. 

[00:35:46] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, I think that's, I mean, yes. There are those who say, obviously, this is, you know, the most important election in our lifetime, right? Whatever, same as 2020 and same as 2016. Right? And I mean, there's, I'm sure there's truth to that in the sense of particular policies, right? So particular policies will live and die based on this election. So it could be that important for any individual set of policies which affect individuals and businesses and American life, right? It could affect, uh, any family who, uh, Is going to lose a loved one to war, which perhaps wouldn't have been a policy with a different administration. 

[00:36:21] Craig Mason
So, yes, I do think you have to look and I know people keep saying this. Were you better in four years under trump or four years under biden? And, um, I mean, I've had this. I just don't see me. How that's even comparable. I mean, there were no wars under Trump. He may have gotten into a tweet battle with Meryl Streep. You know, that probably hurts some people pretty deeply. He didn't make any friends in Hollywood. That's for sure. But who cares? I don't know. I just feel, uh, it's, it's not even close as far as what's going on now. It's a, it's a mess right now. I mean, it really is a mess. 

[00:37:00] Dr. Nate Salah
What if, what if. Bring it. Donald Trump won the presidency? P. Diddy went to jail. Trump pardoned him. 

[00:37:12] Craig Mason
I'm going to tell you something. Trump would not do that because he'd already talked about the island with, um, who's the guy that, uh, Jeffrey Epstein or whatever, the Epstein Island and, and Bill Clinton had been there and it's, so I think Trump would be, he might like women a lot, but I don't think he would go that route over 3000 people out over P. Diddy. I don't know that all the details, but, uh, I mean, there's some stuff caught on camera. That's not. Good, not good at all for anybody. Um, but yeah, P did, did you have any idea? I don't follow close enough, but I didn't have an idea, but, and I don't know, obviously never met the guy or anything, but just, it didn't surprise me. Okay. And I don't know if it's just even like the way he, Acted like just overly cocky and confident. And, um, he was in a movie, a kind of a movie after swingers with, with the same guys from the movie swingers. Did you ever see the movie made? Oh, no. So the movie made is a really, it's a good movie as well. And P Diddy played this kind of gangster that was moving some money to, to these guys were, it was, it was, uh, Vince Vaughn and, um, John Favreau anyway. And he just. The way he acted in that, I felt like he wasn't acting and it was really him. Yeah. So, I mean, there's no way anybody could have known anything about this.

[00:38:32] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, I, I, I don't, I never, you know, I just knew about his songs and I was actually pretty surprised. I didn't know about, I mean, I guess what happens behind closed doors for with celebrities. I mean, he's got an illness obviously. And you know, it's a crazy time right now. I mean, it's, there's always crazy things. 

[00:38:46] Craig Mason
But, and people are looking to go after anybody for anything right now. I mean, man, you got to get the next hottest story, you know, and, and they just, and the funny thing is, is two weeks later, you know, the world was crumbling and then now two weeks later, that's still going on, but let's move on to the next story, right? Yeah. What's the next story? Yeah. Like Ukraine is, yeah, it's just still going on. It's devastating. Yeah. I had some clients from Ukraine and they're like, it is way worse. It is way worse than what's being reported. Cause I was a little hesitant to talk to him about it, but I brought it up and I said, Hey, you know, and, and they're like, If somebody, if Trump were in office, this wouldn't be going on. And, uh, they said that she, my client said that, um, her brother was walking down the street in Ukraine and the Ukraine military just grabbed him and said, you're, you're, you're an able body. You're now in the military. And he was enlisted right there off the street in the military. Wow. Every able body. Man, yep. I mean, that's just, you're getting drafted right off the street or I don't know, but.

[00:39:50] Dr. Nate Salah
And Trump made a campaign promise. Yeah. He said before he, he, um, basically the day he gets elected inauguration, you know, stop it. Yeah. Yeah. And I believe him. Yeah. He met with Putin. That's one thing about him is that he's a deal maker. I mean, you, you can't say he's not, he's made deals his whole life. You might not agree with the deals he's made, but he's a deal. 

[00:40:13] Craig Mason
Man, if it keeps the greater good, I mean, at certain costs, obviously, but I mean, I'm just gonna have to come out and say it is with Trump. I realize I understand. Um, and this is what I'm talking about. Understanding both sides. I understand why people don't like him. It's not hard to see things that people don't like, but I also don't see how they're, they're so worried about not getting Trump in that they're not even looking at their own candidate and the own outcome or their own corruption on their side. Like what cost? I mean, even look back to Bill Clinton, all the stuff that he did. Yeah. And it's no big deal. He's a great, he's a great man. He's the greatest, you know, he, he's given speeches at the DNC and you're like, we're listening to this guy. Why? He cheated on his wife. He raped the gal and settled with her and who knows what else? And it's like, yeah, but he's, he's a great president. I mean, you can play the saxophone. Yeah, right. And then, and then trump is just come at him for everything. And then, and it's like some gal that he didn't even meet and there's no proof 20 years ago. And now, you know, it's like, It just, I don't know, man. It's just, it's something doesn't feel right. And if people don't question, yeah, government just in general, you know, just in general. 

[00:41:26] Dr. Nate Salah
That's a, that's a, that's a great starting place. And I love again back to Reagan. I love when he said, you know, I'm from the government. I'm here to help when somebody knocks on your door. Those are the worst. The last word you want to hear. Yeah. Last word you want to hear. It's important for everyone Listening and everyone existing to use sound judgment, question, everything, and not, not, not necessarily in a way that you're, you know, that you're a skeptic for everything, but it's really just, you know, the old saying trust, but verify, verify. Okay. You know, I trust that there's a possibility that this information could be accurate. Let me verify it. Right. How much more informed are our decisions when we take that approach to life and not just say, well. The news told me what I should believe today. Like, yeah, but what's their agenda? What's their bias? What is it that they want to accomplish? And is it in your best interest? Is it true? 

[00:42:17] Craig Mason
You can't trust any of it now, man. Like it's crazy. Like when Walter Cronkite would report the news, it was just facts. When you start hearing adjectives and personal opinions and stuff, op eds, I'm not like, I'm not a big op ed person as far as political stuff. When I started seeing adjectives, three words in a sentence. I'm like, I'm done. I just give me the facts. What happened. 

[00:42:39] Dr. Nate Salah
And sometimes you see, even the, the reporter has got this sort of look on their face. Like I'm out. I'm gonna get you 100%. I'm gonna get you. And, and, and, you know, we're human beings. We can tell body language. We can tell when someone has a nasty person. 

[00:42:55] Craig Mason
Yes. You're a nasty, nasty person. That's what Trump would say. You're a nasty person. Remember he tells us, he's like, you're nasty. I don't like you. This interview is over. You're nasty. But, uh, anyway, yeah. So, so I think it's important to question. everything. 

[00:43:07] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. Question everything. It's a good thing. It's liberating to question everything. When I was working on, when I was in school and I had to get to source documents for all of my, my research, it changed the entire, my entire vision. For everything, so everything I saw, unless there was a source document, it was really just hearsay, right? It was really just an opinion, everything, everything. Now I have a confession to make because I was early in my program and I remember my wife, Tara, saying something to me about, I can't remember which article she read and I asked her about the source. That didn't go over well. I was like, okay, maybe not your spouse. Maybe that's, however, that said. Your credibility increases by your ability to get to the root of any claim because a true claim that's worthy of even discussing is a claim that supported by a justification and evidence because we make so many claims with no evidence behind it with no real evidence.  

[00:44:14] Craig Mason
You know what they do now is they'll take a clip. A small clip of a larger story, and they'll take it out of context and spin that because of four or five words, and it might be completely opposite of what was really said. Like it happened a lot with Elon Musk and Trump's interview. They would be like, Oh, they don't believe in. And renewable energy, that's not what they said at all. They said that renewable energy had a bad perception because of Chernobyl and a few other things. And they went on to say, we need that. We need nuclear plants to create power. Anyway, the whole deal. And so, but, but all these places took this little clip out. So what I do. And tell people to do it's back to you. Sourcing. I'll go watch the whole interview. Watch the whole thing. 

[00:44:57] Dr. Nate Salah
The entire thing. Yeah. Or no matter where the whole question. Exactly. Yeah. From the beginning to the end of the end. And on both sides, by the way, I'll hear something too. There'll be a clip. And I'm like, you know, I'm going to check out the entire question. 

[00:45:06] Craig Mason
Yeah. So I didn't really believe the Arnold Palmer thing either. Like I was like, really Trump's making stuff like that. And man, he was like, yeah. 15 minutes and we're to the end. I was like, he didn't say it. And then sure enough, he's like, Oh, then we saw him in the shower. I was like, okay, he said it. But I think being fixated on that again, it just, it's trying to spin, trying to spin that negativity. 

[00:45:26] Dr. Nate Salah
But, uh, but anyway, he did say during the 2016 election, I could kill someone in time square and you know, nothing would happen. And that was also a soundbite clip. And I was talking with somebody that said, well, In context, he was saying that the, that there's no real law. I mean, there's like, you know, it's, it's a lawless place, right? So it's not like he was saying, he wasn't saying like, I'm going to go, I can do that because I'm Donald Trump. Right. So, so like you said, context now, somebody listening is like, Oh no, that's not what would happen. Irrelevant. You have to understand the context exactly to understand the meaning. Right. Otherwise you're flying blind or you're just essentially telling someone else is telling you what to think. And that's a very dangerous place. 

[00:46:10] Craig Mason
Right. Even the, the. Grab him by the thing. If you listen to the whole thing. Yes, that wasn't great to say, but he wasn't just saying he could do that to anybody. He was explaining the circumstance of the people being where they were. And there was just more to it than just saying I could just go up to any woman and grab them. That's not what he was saying.

[00:46:27] Dr. Nate Salah
Any soundbite, any, even us talking today, someone could do. Take up just a section of that and then run with it. So you have to, you have to take the time to listen, be a good steward of the most valuable real estate on the planet that between your ears, that's really the, like the lesson of the day is to be a good steward of it. And it's so important that whatever comes in that we are, we have boundaries and borders that give us a sense of understanding rather than simply being sheep. Lead to the slaughter. 

[00:47:02] Craig Mason
Oh, modern. I use that all the time. And I get it. Not everybody's a leader. Most people aren't. Other than, you know, within their own household. But it's kind of like, uh, when I'm going to shift gears kind of into that, but I was going to ask you a question about, it was, is like us, like the United States breaking off from Great Britain, like not wanting to be sheep. There were just. Yeah. Yeah. They left already and then now, so anyway, and that was over. Was it 1% tax or 2% tax? 

[00:47:26] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, it was no taxation without representation. Right. They wanted, they, they wanted to be represented in, in parliament, but they, they could not. Yeah. I mean, oh yeah. The taxes were extremely low. 1% comparatively today. Right. So, so this is, this is really, I'm tracking you now, this is really shifting gears

[00:47:39] Craig Mason
So, so we had a revolutionary war over 1% tax or 2%, but I, I don't wanna misspeak, but I know it was low. It was one or 2% and now there's people paying 40. Plus percent taxes and pay your fair share and all this stuff. And it's pretty insane to me that you get all the tax and I think you might know something about taxes, but, uh, you get taxed on your income and you get taxed on what you buy, you get taxed on what you own. At what point do you think, do you think that the government, I think that the government shouldn't rely on its citizens to fund the government. I think we should. Participate and pay a fair share, whether it's a 10 percent flat tax or whatever, and a consumption tax for sure. But at what point do you think, and do you think it could be sustainable for the government to operate as a business, the government should run themselves as a business. 

[00:48:32] Dr. Nate Salah
Private enterprise, if you're 100 percent correct in our, uh, massive. Waiting of our government being reliant on individual taxation is ranges. However, it's somewhere in the neighborhood on average of anywhere from 55 to 70 percent of our national budget is paid for through individual taxation. It's massive. Unbelievable. It's massive. And we're talking trillions of dollars, right? 

[00:48:57] Craig Mason
Almost for accountability. For government action. That's if you're just relying on. It's like welfare checks to the government.

[00:49:05] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, and the accountability level is the non existence of it creates such a disparage in the quality of the service of any government service, including what's up with the IRS. Oh, man, you know, you get the letter Gestapo. Yeah, you get the Gestapo. Yeah, you get the letter. It says, Hey, you may owe us money contact us. Okay, sure. I'll pick up hours away on the phone, right? And I've had horror stories of clients calling me in tears. I was on hold with them. I spoke with someone and then for hours, by the way, and then I get hung up on and if I can even get through, by the way, And so there's that, and now there are wonderful IRS representatives, who I spoke with before, who are true, good human beings.

[00:49:49] 
Of course, there's folks who aren't in that size, suspect in any business, you're going to have that. However, if it was run like private enterprise, it would be a much different animal. The first thing you would do is you would beef up your customer service. So no one was on hold more than five to 10 minutes. You would not have that. And there's reasons why, by the way. Because if you're trying to collect a debt, you probably want to be able to get people on the phone so that you can work that debt out, but people can't even get through to pay it. I mean, that's a problem. 

[00:50:18] Craig Mason
So you wonder if that's a tactic. A fear tactic, let's make them wait it out and just pay it. See if they'll just pay it. 

[00:50:23] Dr. Nate Salah
Why not? Why not increase the responsiveness and put more people at those phones? Hey, guess what? If we need more people to work. That's a job. 

[00:50:32] Craig Mason
You know, it infuriates me. And again, we say we're the greatest country, which we probably are. Um, that doesn't mean that we're as good as we could be. But don't you think it's, it's extremely infuriating that we're fearful of the IRS. When you get a letter from the IRS, you're like, you get a pit in your stomach and you didn't even do anything wrong. But then even when you see it, just trying to prove. 

[00:50:57] Dr. Nate Salah
Oh, or just like my W2 that I filed just like, or just trying to understand it. Even that, oh my gosh, yes. It's another language altogether sometimes. And there's sometimes that there, like you said, the Gestapo sometimes, you know, that was your term. It is. Yes. And I'll hold onto that. Say, for example, you've got a business and you don't. Get your W2s in or the social security administration doesn't receive them. You say you sent them and you get a penalty and, and they don't want to waive the penalty, even if the burden really is, is shouldn't be on you because if you send them, you send them, right? Just send them another copy. Say, they say, we don't want your other copy. We don't want your copy. We're just not gonna remove the penalty. I mean, you're talking sometimes 10, 15, 20, 000 for the government not receiving a copy of something. This, this is my case, by the way, that you're talking about. That you could easily just resend. Just reset them a copy. And they say, no, no, no, no, no, no, we don't want your copy. We would rather have the 10, penalty. You didn't file it. Yeah. It's ridiculous. It's crazy. It's, it's, it's, it's such a horrible burden on a taxpayer.

[00:51:57] Craig Mason
So I went to the IRS. So I had a W2 that I cut myself and paid the employer and employee side had proof the pot to the IRS. They even said they had it. And then file the W two with my personal taxes from my company to me and but for some reason, the Social Security Administration didn't get a copy, even though they were paid the taxes do they were paid and had it three years later, they come back and say you didn't file that with us, although we've had your money sitting here. You didn't file that with us. You owe us 10, 000. So now I'm fighting that out and I will, I mean, I'd pay an attorney 15, 000 to not pay them 10, 000. 

[00:52:42] Dr. Nate Salah
And you almost have to get an attorney, a tax attorney to jump in. So then you're going to have to spend thousands of dollars for a tax attorney to get that waived. And it's like, Hmm. Okay. So I can get the IRS to respond if I have legal counsel, but I can't get them to respond. If I'm just a taxpayer. Yeah. So there's a additional burden on the taxpayer. So you've got that system is broken and then extremely. Yeah. And then you have other systems which are broken in terms of all the, the, the earmarking and all of the other issues that are in government. Of course, you know, we know, Okay. Corruption and people wonder, like, you wonder why you don't trust the government. Well, it's because of those reasons. Because there's the oversight is very small. The systems are broken and we don't see an end in sight. We don't see any reprieve as citizens. And granted, yes, I would. I mean, my parents came here for a reason because it was better than where they were. And I'm thankful that they did. And I'm a patriot. I love our country. There is opportunity. It just comes at a big cost sometimes. That's true. 

[00:53:46] Craig Mason
You know, like large companies. Especially like the Democrats will talk about giving billionaires breaks. But the funny thing is, is all the supporters of the democratic party and contributors, the DNC own fortune 500 companies. And I always feel like the people that get hurt are the middle class. Upper middle class and small business owners. Just get crushed under democratic policies. Just get crushed where that's who they're supposed to be. You know, like JFK, right? You know, that's the democrat that people are holding onto. 

[00:54:20] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. Um, well, and then you see RFK who, you know, Who left that, which shocked me even that he went, not only he went from all in one sort of year, he goes from Democrat to independent to now he supports and supports Donald Trump.

[00:54:33] Craig Mason
And all the Democrats love them. He was going to be like, maybe this should be our guy. And then all of a sudden he's like, well, this, this, this, and this, and that all lined up with what Trump said. And they're like, oh, he's crazy. He's a conspiracy theorist. And he's like, well, that's not what you said. Like. Two weeks ago. He was the best thing ever.

[00:54:49] Dr. Nate Salah
He was your boy, right? But anyway, I also think it's people just don't give Trump enough credit for, I mean, basically every single thing that he said, not the goofy stuff he said, but all the things that he would say that people would fight him against came true, like the Russian hoax that was funded by the DNC. And there's proof. That Hillary Clinton was involved and, and it's just nothing. Or how about, um, in February of 2020, when he says, Hey, there's a virus that we believe came from a lab in Wuhan that was man made, we need to stop all flights from China into the U S to protect. And then you have Nancy Pelosi coming out saying, Oh, you're a xenophobe. This is crazy. You're racist. Why would you stop? And then look what happened with, with all the in misinformation and government control and shutting down schools and the vaccine lies. And then now it's like, okay, well, the vaccine doesn't prevent you from getting it and it doesn't prevent you from giving it and we really didn't need to shut the schools down and it just kind of had to play itself out. So sorry for the inconvenience, folks, all the people that went out of business. Yeah. Carry on.

[00:55:56] Craig Mason
Yeah. And I feel like one side of the aisle just doesn't hold anybody accountable. It's just like, it's just okay. Bill Clinton. It's okay. Things that, that Obama did. It's just okay. Biden can't even have dip dip dip chocolate chip ice cream. And it's just okay. Because he's not Donald Trump. It's okay. Right. It's okay. Eggs are quadrupled in price and milk is quadrupled in price. And, you know, a bag of chips might go from 2 to 3. That's a pretty stiff increase or 2 to 4. That's okay, because it's not Donald Trump. Hey, and the mean tweets went away, right? Yeah. I mean, the mean tweets, everybody said, look at the people in Ukraine. They love. And how about Israel? They're loving the no mean tweets right now. I bet that's making a big impact on their life. 

[00:56:45] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah. So anyway, there's, there's a lot to think about, but we shall see, we shall see what happens in just a really just a couple of weeks, I suppose. Right. So now we're going to rerecord and both say that Harris wins. Right. Yeah. I might just hear this before. We'll see. Maybe it might. What about the day of the election day before the day before the election? They are on Wednesdays, which would be Wednesday is the day after election. 

[00:57:12] Craig Mason
So maybe we'll open some people's minds up to reconsideration. I don't think Missouri is gonna much. 

[00:57:20] Dr. Nate Salah
Yeah, but hey, you never know what happens. Right. And, uh, it is true. And, and, and, and I think the lesson of the day is truly, uh, to protect your mind and vet what you hear regardless of whatever it is, whatever you think. 

[00:57:32] Craig Mason
Yeah, just think, think for yourself. Yeah. Question. I'm not saying be a conspiracy theorist, but you know, it's like sometimes as a parent, you just tell your kid to do something and then they ask you why. And you're like, because I said so. Well, you don't want the government saying because I said so. Yeah. How about an explanation? You know, so like your kid. Okay, well, listen, this is why. Because when you slam the door too hard, it can cause cracks in the drywall and you can Put extra stress on the hinges and the door frame and just try to explain to them things like that, you know Why don't we run in the house? Well, cuz you could fall and hurt yourself slide and you get tired of just saying things So you say because I said so but we don't want to take that for granted and yeah, we should be asking. Yeah Yeah, asking questions and and requiring a coherent answer. Yeah, why? Why am I paying 40 percent taxes? Yeah. You make a billion dollars and don't pay. Right. I don't make a billion dollars. 

[00:58:27] Dr. Nate Salah
Well, I guess that's really the next step. 

[00:58:30] Craig Mason
Yeah. Make a billion dollars. Yeah, exactly. If I didn't have to pay taxes, it might be a little bit easier. 

[00:58:35] Dr. Nate Salah
Thanks for being here, man. Again, you look great. Thank you. You as well. Well, my friend, thank you for joining me on this episode of A Call to Leadership. If you've been listening, you've probably heard me talk about our accounting and advisory business. And this show was actually born out of that business, those relationships. I found that entrepreneurs and professionals were missing aspects of their leadership. That fed into their bottom line and help their businesses be successful. So I'm so thankful that I've had all those years in that area to feed into this. And the truth is that so many people still need accounting and advisory help, and they don't know where to go. If you're. In that place where you feel, oh my goodness, my tax person or my accountant, I can't find them, or maybe the service wasn't up to my expectations. Do not despair. I'll leave how you can find us in the show notes. And one of my team members can do some discovery and help you along your journey. You're not alone. My friend, you always have help. I'm Dr. Nate Salah. Can't wait to see you on the next show of A Call to Leadership.