Episode 8, Should We Run for County Commissioner… or Stay in Our Lane?

Santa Rosa County, Navarre, Pensacola… this is home, and this conversation matters more than people think. Local politics is where real decisions get made, the kind that shape our growth, our neighborhoods, and our future. We care about smart growth, transparency, and making sure our community is protected while still moving forward. So yes, we’re talking about county commissioner, leadership, and what it really takes to serve. 

This isn’t noise, this is real talk about what matters right here on the Emerald Coast. 

#SantaRosaCounty #NavarreFL #PensacolaFlorida #LocalPolitics #CountyCommission #CommunityMatters #GrowthDoneRight #VoteLocal #EmeraldCoast #RealTalk

 Thanks for listening to Pour Decisions. If you enjoyed this episode, follow the podcast so you don’t miss what’s next — and join us next time for more real conversations and honest pours. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Welcome to Four Decisions. I'm Aaron.

SPEAKER_04 0:17

And I'm David.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

And today is the 6th of April. We missed last week because David was once again in Georgia.

SPEAKER_04 0:23

Yeah. I was with Georgia with my dad.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

And my dog has congestive heart failure and she's coughing a lot underneath my feet. So I don't know if you can hear that. It sounds like she's hacking up a bone, but she has congestive heart failure. She's like 14. It's actually my dog that went to my mom, and then my mom went to assisted living, so now I have the dog back. We have the dog back. So we have the dog back. Yeah. And David loves dogs. Anyways.

SPEAKER_04 0:51

I don't mind dogs.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

All right. Well, today we are going to drink a bottle of wine that I went down to the Richie's. Richie's East.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

Richie's East.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yeah, went down there today because I was too tired to go and get a very expensive wine. But this is my favorite bottle when I go to Richie's. And it is Kinwood Pinot Noir, a 2022 California wine. And it's a good one because it's from made from the Kenwood family that made the stereos. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Uh well, I was gonna say something about they used to make really good stereos for my cars back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

So they made good wine too. Good car stereos and good wine.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

So yeah, I had a few Kenwood stereos.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

I can imagine.

SPEAKER_04 1:40

Back in the day when you could take out your factory radio and put in a new stereo by yourself without having to go to a shop and have all the computer and all that mumbo jumbo.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

You could just park it in your yard and remember when you like took the faceplates off, you know, like when you would park it and you didn't want anybody stealing your stereo, and then you like pushed it and the plate would come off.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

Yeah, the whole faceplate would come off.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Those were the days. You put your big boom box, you know, like speakers in the back, I bet you had that.

SPEAKER_04 2:10

I well, yeah. I made my own box, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

You did what what car did you have?

SPEAKER_04 2:16

I had uh I had a GMC sprint, which is very much like a it's basically it's an El Camino body, but it's a GMC sprint, and um, yeah, I had uh I had Kenwood stereo in it. I had gents and speakers. Um, but they were good back in the day.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

You were cool, right?

SPEAKER_04 2:36

I was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

I can tell.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

One of these long, long time ago, I was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

You're still cool now. Mr. Mr. 5800 followers on Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Look at that.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Don't don't I mean, I'm a little jealous, I have to say. Yeah, it took me a long time to get all my followers, and you know, post a few videos, and boom, you're well off on your way. Needed to get more content out there.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

I know.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

I I think you're so sexy.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Well, I've been sexy David content. I've been at my dad's for the last week and it's been very depressing. But uh, so I haven't had a chance to put out any content really, just trying to take care of my dad, make sure he's comfortable.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah. So uh here's to make you dad comfortable.

SPEAKER_04 3:16

Yeah, cheers.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Oh, look at that. I didn't wash that glass very good. It's got some spots on it. Uh-oh, cascade, you're letting me down.

SPEAKER_04 3:24

No, she's trying to she's trying to poison me again. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah. Some guys just can't take their arsenic. That's part of I'm gonna be dancing in July. Sasha Farber's coming into town, and I'm part of the first ballroom studio, and we dance with Sasha. It's at the Singer at the Singer Theater. And uh, I'm doing the cell block tango, and I get to play lipshits, and I get to mouth the words about you know, some guys can't take their arsenic.

SPEAKER_04 3:55

Nice, yeah, lipshits.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yeah, so that's gonna be a good time. That's I I don't know what date in July, but it's in July. You're gonna be out of town. It's that Saturday for the shingle roof. Yeah, and uh I'm dancing with my daughter Taylor, and yeah, it's gonna be a good time. We're doing uh umbrella, Ella, Ella Ella. Yeah, we're doing singing in the rain with a purple umbrella, and we and I don't get to dance this time.

SPEAKER_04 4:18

Yeah, shucks.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

I wanted him to, but I think he's using this as an excuse so he doesn't have to dance with me.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

Well, we have a family reunion we do every year. We've been doing it since I was born, and um it's at a place called Shingaroof Campground in McDonald's, Georgia, and we go there for a week every year, and that's where I get to see most of my kids and grandkids. They all come up there and make it a point, and it's uh it's our big family reunion we do every year. So yeah, I can't miss that.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

He's been going since he was born, and they've been going since they were born, and your dad was going since he was born. It's been there for like well over 200 years, and it stays in time. This little area is preserved, and it all these cabins are like back in. I mean, your cabin's like 1903, I think. Yeah, these cabins is 1908, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 5:06

Yes, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

It's like you go every time you go back there in July, it's like nothing's changed. It stayed in time, so yeah. Used to be a Confederate uh fort too.

SPEAKER_04 5:17

It was well, it was a training ground for Confederate troops at one at one point.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

But they were all tenting there, right? And then all of a sudden they're like, you can't tent here because we're taking it over for training.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

No, they they gave it up during those those years so that the they the troops could use them. But yeah, it was uh it's an old time of camp meeting where you go and listen to preachers preach at you twice a day, and and uh in a big uh uh tabernacle in the middle of the field, and then all these all these cabins that are built all the way around the uh the tabernacle. And uh it's very cool. And and different families own the different cabins. Um my dad's family probably has about four cabins out there, four or five. And um, so we get to see those folks when we go up there. And just uh yeah, it's a cool, it's a cool uh place to go. And it it really has uh it just stands still in time. It it hasn't changed hardly at all since I was a kid. And uh that's why I tell my my kids and and my family and everything. It's the really the only constant I've ever had in my life. You know, everything changes. We've when I was a kid, you know, we moved, I moved out, and my parents moved, and you know, everything changes. Your city that you grew up in completely changed, McDonough completely changed, Atlanta completely changed. But uh single roof campground is always the same. Has a little spring that comes out of the corner of the ground down there, and there's uh fresh water. Fresh water, and we we drink that. My dad uh has been drinking that water for years. And uh, matter of fact, while I was up there, I ran down and got uh I don't know, about uh about 10 gallons of water for him.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

That's why he's 98 years old. Maybe he is he's 98 years old. I drink as much of it.

SPEAKER_04 7:00

Maybe we should bring some of that water back. I I was going to actually, and then we ended up using it, uh, me and Jenny. But I had a I had a big uh gallon thing of water I was gonna bring back, but uh I drank it while I was there.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

So yeah, well I'm glad you're vibrating.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Speaking of growth, I told uh I told everybody that I wasn't gonna talk about politics.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

But I'm like fired up today. I I put it out there on Facebook. I'm fired up today about a few things that are going on in the state and in our county. So I figured, you know what? I'm gonna break the rule and talk about politics.

SPEAKER_04 7:35

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

Rules are meant to be broken.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, exactly. It might be a poor decision, but I'm gonna talk about it, you know, and uh, you know, you never know what's gonna come out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_04 7:50

So yeah. I was gonna say something.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yeah, I was reading about DeSanta signing into law on Friday, which I just read today, which is Monday.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Monday.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Yeah, that he's gonna have the state be able to make some decisions without the county approving it.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Well, these developers basically own our state, and um when they get upset, you know, you have to pass a law in their favor, or else they're they won't donate to your campaign anymore. And DeSantis, you know, obviously he can't run for governor again.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

I'm sure he's gonna go for president.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

But yeah, you know, it's funny because there's so many, so many people that love DeSantis. Oh, he's the greatest thing since sliced bread, you know. But you know, I want you all to remember when the COVID happened, he did shut down our state. So don't think he's all that, you know. I I I admire him for what he did do when he realized that um, you know, the vaccines weren't gonna work and he opened the state back up, and we're very grateful that he did. But the fact that he took our rights away as American citizens to start with was not very cool. But um, yeah, so the developers are sick and tired of going in front of these local county uh commissioners and and having to beg for this and that. And so uh DeSanta said, well, screw that, we'll just we'll just do a um a goal round so you don't have to do this anymore, and the state will just be involved in all these decisions from now on.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

So yeah, how about that?

SPEAKER_04 9:23

How about that for taking away your rights as locals? And they they just Tallahassee just completely took away our right to decide what, when, and where we want development in our county.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

And that's the thing, you know, everybody's like, oh, especially when you're a county commissioner and you have a real estate um license, which a lot of them do, which a lot of people here in Florida do.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

A lot of people in Florida.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I mean, if you don't have a real estate license, it's weird. But you know, I like to sell houses. Obviously, I haven't I've sold like one new house in the nine years that I've been doing real estate. Um, I'm I focus mostly on reselling homes that are, you know, been lived in. But the thing is, is that you sell somebody a house now, like especially a new neighborhood or a house in general, and you don't know what's gonna be built in the next five years. I mean, the state can now say, I'm gonna put a big ass development right next to you, and there's nothing you can do. Yeah, they're taking away the zoning and uh all the decision making in the zoning board and in the commissioning board. And I think it's ridiculous. So, I mean, it just makes me mad because I can't tell my buyer that when they buy this home, the woods in the back will never be touched unless it's in conservation. And now they have to worry about these big developers coming in, like DR Horton and everybody else, just mowing down the the trees and stacking the you know, four houses an acre, and damned if you like it, you're gonna get it anyway. So it just makes me angry. And I mean, I'm not a big commissioner fan right now, anyways, because I feel like a lot of them are stamping, rubber stamping these developments to go on. Yeah, you know, that some of the commissioners say, well, we need affordable housing. Well, what's really affordable housing, first of all, in this area, and second of all, well, we got to move down here to paradise. So why why doesn't why can't we allow other people to move to paradise?

SPEAKER_04 11:16

Yeah, one of our commissioners doesn't feel like uh the people that live in a community should be in charge of um how the community gets developed. He thinks everybody should have access to that community, whether they can afford it or not. It's uh it just makes absolutely no sense. You know, we're supposed to be stewards of this area. And how can we be stewards if we just open the floodgates and let the developers do whatever they want? I mean, and I'm not anti-development, I'm not anti-developer. There are some uh developers in this area that are have um really good ethics and and uh make very good decisions, you know, regarding the way they build and and you know, the way they design their um their subdivisions. But then there's a lot of them that aren't and that could care less because they don't live here, they just have a piece of land here, they want to develop, they're gonna develop it and then get the hell out.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

True.

SPEAKER_04 12:08

And um, you know, those are the ones we got to watch out for. Um, but what can we still the local community should have a say in it?

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Well, well, my question to you is how do we stop that? I mean, you know, I was on the zoning board for three years, and there was a lot of times I said no on the zoning board, and then it would go in front of the county commissioners, whether it was appealed or you know, whatever. It just they the county commissioners would overturn it, and it was so frustrating. And the last year of being on that zoning board, I was already done. Like, I checked out, honestly, because anytime I said something, it seemed like it got overturned. And it was like, why am I wasting my time? I'm volunteering sometimes until one in the morning. Yeah, I drive up there, listen to these people, I vote to protect their lands, and then this the commissioners turn around and slap us in the face. A few zoning board members have left because of it, because they don't listen to the people that they put in place on the zoning board. And it I just doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_04 13:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

So how do you stop it?

SPEAKER_04 13:13

Well, I don't know. I it I I guess it all comes down to money, it's like everything else. If uh if these developers didn't have the kind of money and and can and can filter you know um campaign contributions through multiple LLCs and multiple corporations, and they would funnel all this money to these it it's you just you would hope that it's not the money. You would hope it's not corruption of the soul when a commissioner agrees to do something for a developer. You know, you I would just I would just hope that it's not because they're crooked, you know.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Do you think they take backdoor money? I mean, I know I mean I can't say it personally here, but I mean I know a lot of politicians take backdoor money, you know, scratch my back, I'll scratch your on a federal level.

SPEAKER_04 14:07

I would say I wouldn't trust hardly any of them. There's probably three or four in in the federal level that that I would say that I would trust. Um, and that's it. Out of what, 200 and something, 300 members of Congress and 100 senators, there's probably a less than five that I would point to and say, I'll I trust that person, I trust that person. And our county commissioners, it's hard to say because I I don't I don't think they're getting bribes or kickbacks, or I don't think they're taking money, you know, just blatantly like that. But there's got to be an angle. There's gotta be somewhere they're benefiting from making these decisions. And whether it's campaign contributions, um, whether it's, you know, maybe a good deal on a house down the road, who knows? I that's what I'm saying. I I I I would hate to think it it would come to that. You'd hate to think that the people that you voted in that you trusted when you voted them in all of a sudden became corrupt.

SPEAKER_00 15:09

And that's the thing that a lot of people think, well, you're realtor and you're on the county commission, you're a county commissioner with a real estate license, you're getting some kind of uh sweet deal somehow because you can you can use your license and and sell houses or get a maybe a tip of some houses going to be developed or what have you. I don't know. I mean, at one point I was gonna write run for county commissioner this last um election. Yeah, county against Colton Wright.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

And um we went up there to to file the paperwork and everything, and come to find out that she changed her party affiliation about 10 days too late. And we're gonna qualify for this past, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

And it really was really disheartening because I had a lot of people when I stepped off the zoning board ask me to run. Yeah, and they were behind me. They said we need a woman up there. And they were, I mean, I at first it was a joke, honestly. Uh, there was a local reporter that was asking around if I was gonna run for county commissioner, and it got into my ear, and I was like, that's funny because I'm not very serious. I mean, I can be serious, but I'm mostly a jokester. And I was like, me as county commissioner, come on now. I don't feel like I'm that big of a dog. And then as I thought about it and people started reaching out to me after I stepped off the zoning board, um, I was like, well, why not? I mean, I have good intention. I would actually put my real estate license on hold if I were to run for county commissioner, which I'm not, but if I were, um, I would have put my my license on hold to show that I don't want to make, you know, they make they make $92,000, $93,000 a year as a county commissioner to show that I don't need to, you know, be doing real estate on the side. I mean, it is practically a part-time job, I heard, being a commissioner.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

Uh, it should be a full-time job, you'd think, with all the decisions they have to make on a monthly basis.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

Um, but um well, it's funny because when election times you don't know what's going on for the they get elected, and then the first couple of years you don't hear boo from them. And then and then as soon as they start to run for re-election, they start going to all these town meetings and show public chamber events.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Hey, look what I did, look what I did, look what I did.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

And half of them uh didn't support what they were running on to begin with. They they run on these slogans and then come four years later, they didn't do jack shit for what they said they were gonna run on. And that's just really disappointing.

SPEAKER_04 17:35

It is, uh, you know, and and honestly, in my opinion, the only way that you can change this is for the good people to start running for office. The the people with integrity, the people that can't be bought, the people that their conscience means more to them, having a clean conscience means more to them than any amount of money. That's the only thing that's going to change it is getting the people in there that have integrity, that really want to do the right thing and want to help the citizens of the county and and will sacrifice. It's a it's a huge sacrifice. I can imagine the kind of mud that gets slung at these people on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

I mean, it's damned if you do and damned if you don't. You can't never make everybody happy.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

You can't make everybody happy. And and you know, some people are just you know, what do they call them, keyboard warriors or you know, uh where they just they'll you know they'll say stuff on Facebook or Instagram or X, they'll say stuff that they would never say to you in person. And that's that's where I get caught sometimes when I'm I'm upset and I'm responding to something. I always think, well, would I say this to this person's face? And if the answer is probably not, then I don't I don't post it. Uh I can make an argument and and tell you that you're wrong without telling you you're a dumbass and that I hope you you know eat shit and die. You know, you can if if you that's all you got, then you don't even have an argument. You might as well just keep your mouth shut. If you're just gonna lash out at these people for you know for their decisions, that's fine. You lash out, but have a solution, you know, when you when you do that. Don't just lash out to be ugly or to be mean. So anyway.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

What do you think about those people? I mean, because you I see both sides of the argument too, because the county commissioners, you get four minutes. Well, you did on the zoning board, got the public could come up and talk, and then we get four minutes, each each person would get four minutes to speak. And then I think it at the county commissioner meetings, you only get three minutes to speak. I haven't been to a county commissioner meeting in a long time. Um, and there's a lot of people that come up and they they speak, and um, and they're there at every meeting, which is honorable. I mean, if you really want to know what's going on with the county, you should be at those meetings um and not pick and choose the meetings you want to be at. And you see the they they you know talk to the commissioners like they're they're very disrespectful. And then the county commissioners also shut them down, and they're kind of disrespectful. It's like a disrespectful thing going on between these people that are A, the people do pay their salaries. I get it, like we pay the salaries of the commissioners, so she we should be able to get up and talk and say whatever is on our mind. And then you got these commissioners that are kind of degrading, like they just talk down to these people, and it's almost like I rule and I get to make these decisions and you shut up, and you know, and they get frustrated. I mean, how do you how do you think you correct something like that?

SPEAKER_04 20:39

Get the right people. I mean, that's you can't fix that. You know, if people are gonna let the power go to their heads and and think they're above everybody else just because of the position they're in, then that's you can't just vote them out. That's the only way you can fix that, you know. Yeah, well, I mean I'm but then you hope the next person you vote in doesn't go through the same thing. You know, you vote them in because of all the great stuff they're talking about, and all the great stuff they want to do for the county, and then they get in there and and the power goes to their head, and next thing you know, they're a completely different person, and they're siding with the the developers at every you know, every turn. I you know, and that's you know, we've talked about it many times, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

Well, I mean, you did a great job on I'm just bringing this up because we you were seeing corruption on so many levels with the water board, with the Holly Navarre water system, before you decided to run for the board, and you saw a lot of things that were going down that you weren't agreeing to, and you said, you know what, I'm gonna do, I want to go in and I want to be on that board, I want to see what's happening, I want to, you know, to see what's behind the scenes. You got you ran, you won, you were on the board for three years, you were um the president uh or chairman of the board for two of those three years, and um you got to see what was going on behind the scenes, and after three years, you stepped off because you Said it's you know up and up. But you also you know had that board running. I mean, nobody was arguing.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

I mean, people would come up to talk to you and yeah, we had some meetings where we didn't have any any people from the um the water company, you know, any uh members of the water company even show up for the meeting because everything was going pretty smooth. I mean nobody was arguing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

They're all like high-fiving each other. I mean, that there was zero resentment and hostility going on.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

And um and even in the beginning when they all got up and the people that were naysayers, you know, pretty soon realized that you knew what you were doing and you what you said, what you meant, was what you said, you know. Um, and then you stepped off in three years, you said, I'm only doing this for three years, and boom, it's back to like business as usual, everybody's arguing again.

SPEAKER_04 22:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:52

You know?

SPEAKER_04 22:54

Yeah, I try to stay out of it now, but yeah, it's just it's just amazing to me that we don't have more people with integrity that care to run.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Well, why do you be do you think it's because they're worried about anything in their closet that might come out because the local newspapers love to dig up dirt, especially if they want to sway the voters to their thinking, which is kind of crazy. You know, you're as a journalist, you're supposed to be unbiased, you're supposed to give candidate A and candidate B the same time. I mean, that's I went to journalism school. I got a degree in journalism, and you're supposed to give candidate A and B and C the same amount of time in advertising. And it's become in this area, uh they tend to write pieces that make you want to either go for candidate A or B, and they'll they'll do hit pieces on the other candidate just to sway the readers on the internet or on in the paper to their way who they want to win, which is like why even I mean that just seems what's in it for you to write about that except advertising.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

Journalists are human, and humans uh have a tendency to want other people to agree with them. So if I'm writing a story as a human and I don't like this candidate for some reason or another, I might word my story in such a way that it kind of brings that to light, as opposed to you know being objective. And it's always gonna be that way. That's why you you need to have multiple sources of uh of news, you know. And and you kind of have to, you really need to go through it over and over because some of this stuff is just so fake and and so BS. But um, but it it's always gonna be like that. The news is always gonna be like that. You can't even AI. AI is is you know, you try to get your news from an AI source, well, it's biased as well because the person that designed that AI is biased. So all the news that you get, you'll never get news that is just information that you need to, you know, process. It'll all be always be leaning to the left or leaning to the right. I mean, some of them are very obvious, and you know, for the mainstream media has lost all credibility. I don't know anybody except from my dad, who's 98, that gets his news source from an on uh from a television station. They just don't do it anymore. It's not a thing. It's they've already proven to be so unreliable and so biased and so one-sided, and everybody sees through it now. And and I know CBS just put out a statement that their news is gonna be they're you know, they're gonna re-evaluate the way they do their news, and it's gonna be more objective and less, you know, that's BS. It's all BS. It's it's always gonna be warped. Uh, and it's all it you boil it down to it's all about the money, right? It's it's all about the money. Why do you think all these all these TV stations were pushing the COVID vaccine so hard, you know? Because Pfizer spends $30 billion a year on advertising. You don't think that pays some of these people's salaries? Like, oh well, if we lost Pfizer, it might not have a job. So uh I think we're gonna push whatever Pfizer tells us to push, and Johnson ⁇ Johnson and all these people, and they just hook, line, and sinker, they bought what the government was selling them, you know, and um and then they gave all that false information out to people, and now you got people that are dead because of it, that are severely injured because of it, because of that information. Um, but they don't care. It's all about the money. You know, it boils down to it. Same with the same with politics, you know, these politicians, um, especially in uh in an election year, how much money these TV stations and radio stations make from political ads. So you you better believe they want as much money in that system as possible. That's why you know you'll never you'll never see uh Citizens United um overturned unless it comes from the grassroots of us.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Let me turn off my radio, my phone.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

The citizens. Um, but politicians would never vote that down because they love that money, they love the money flowing. Um and the more money that flows, the more money they can skim off the top. And we're seeing that all over the country with Minnesota, California. Um and you think it's just happening in Minnesota and California? You're wrong. It's happening in every single state. There the the government, our government, has not put in place enough security measures to make sure this money doesn't go to the bad people. And it's just flowing at $30 trillion, $36 trillion in debt. I guarantee you that entire $36 trillion was stolen. It's in somebody's pocket, um, whether it's over in Afghanistan or Iran or Iraq or in Washington, D.C., or you know, it's that money was flowing, and there were so many people that got a hold of some of that money that had no right to, no reason to, except for the fact that it was free and it's there. And the more money that flows, the more money you can you can steal. And that's exactly what's happening in this United States of America. That's why I have no trust whatsoever in our federal government. Um, and our state government, I'm starting to lose faith. I thought I had some faith in our state government at least, but um yeah, that's starting to fade fast too. And I'm just gonna imagine what the next governor of this state's gonna do. We were safe with DeSantis for a while. At least he was a safe candidate. He wasn't gonna do anything crazy. And then they signed this into law, so maybe he's got some, maybe he's got some development coming up in the future.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

You got a booger on your finger or something?

SPEAKER_04 28:46

No, it was something on my hand. It's a piece of skin. I just got off my hand.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Well, then how do you how do you kiss it for me? Oh I'm sorry. How do you get honest people into the office then? And what constitutes an honest person with integrity?

SPEAKER_04 29:03

I mean Well, you won't know until after the fact. That's the problem.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

That's true.

SPEAKER_04 29:09

Somebody can tell you all day long they're honest. Yeah, you can have a hundred people come up behind you. Oh, this guy's honest, this guy's honest. As soon as he gets into power, you know, people change. I've seen it happen. It's amazing that uh people just throw away all their convictions and and would would would sacrifice uh a dirty conscience for money. See, in my opinion, and I'll say this real quick, but in my opinion, you know, the Bible says love others as you love yourself, right? You cannot every person was born with a conscience. And I would I would uh throw a little caveat to say that some people, serial killers, those kind of people, maybe they weren't born with a conscience, but most human beings were born with a conscience. Uh whether you know it gets seared or whatever they used to call it in in in church, you know, you sear your conscience or whatever. But in order to truly love somebody else, in order to truly love yourself, you have to have a clear conscience. Because if your conscience is constantly telling you you're wrong, you you you you know you're wrong here, you're wrong here, this is not right, uh I'm not comfortable, you're not doing what's right, then how can you have peace of mind, enough peace of mind to love yourself? If because if your conscience is not clear, you can't love yourself because you know there's something wrong. If you can't love yourself, the Bible says you can't love other people. Right? So a clear conscience is paramount to everything else, you know. Um and you know, Jesus himself said, you know, there's faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love. But you can't have any of those things without a clear conscience. And so these people that are willing to trade their clear conscience for money to me are they're just they don't understand the value of a clear conscience. They must not because they're trading their conscience, you know, they're doing something they know is wrong, you know, in order to make money.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

Right.

SPEAKER_04 31:26

Right? Like, I don't understand. That that makes no sense to me. Why would you do that?

SPEAKER_00 31:32

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 31:32

I mean, I understand money.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

I mean greed, I mean greed, I mean it's the seven deadly sins. You got greed in there. I mean, it's it's a thing, you know. Can't get enough.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

Yeah, so me and you should run for county commission.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

Well, I mean, that's my my where I'm going with this a little bit. You know, I've had I've well, I've had people approach me, ask me to run as a woman. Uh we have uh a one woman right now in District 2, Renee John Meyer.

SPEAKER_04 31:56

Yeah, I'm just not fine.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

So I mean tell them all the secrets. Renee John Meyer, I'm very uh um happy to see that she put her hat in the rain for that that position, and um and because we do need more female voices, uh, I believe, in our area. And I've had a lot of people come to me, David, which we've talked about this, because you were on the water board and you did such an amazing job as the acting chairman for two years, and that people want you to run for county commissioner. And you and I have talked about it, you know, would it be something you would ever consider? And you know, I I know you we've talked about it because sometimes I say, David, you should run for county commissioner. You're uh you're you're honest, you have integrity, you're smart, uh, you do, I mean, you could do some really you can do really good things. I mean, you can do really good things in this area. I know we love this area, we love Santa Rosa County, and you could really do some good things. But then I also say, well, you know, you're 62, and I mean, we're getting to the point now where we can, you know, after DJ gets out of high school, we can go on and travel and go see the grandkids and see the kids. And do you really want that headache? Because you know, time is so precious and you only have so much time, and you know, that's a four-year commitment. Um, eight years if you want to get retirement. But I'm just saying that it's a long commitment, so it's something to think about too. But I I go back and forth because I'm like, you would be really good at it. People like you, uh, obviously you got 5,800 followers on your video. Um let that go. I'm not gonna let that go. But um, and I think you would do really well. And then the other side of me is kind of a selfish person because I was like, well, you know, in a year after DJ graduates, we can sell the house, pick up and go wherever Costa Rico or wherever we can get a small house here in Florida, near the kids and grandkids, and a small house in Costa Rica, wherever, and go back and forth and be free. Um, and it comes down to I guess legacy and and what's most important. So is it you know, like where do you stand on that? I mean, putting you on the spot here.

SPEAKER_04 34:10

No, so you know, Bart, you know, when uh we had Bart on the show and and I asked him, you know, should I run for office? And he had told me a hundred times when when he came to the wine bar, when we had the wine bar, and we would sit and talk. And um after he got off work, he would come in and we'd have a drink and talk. And he told me a million times, don't do it, don't do it. You should never run, it's not worth it, don't do it. And then we were sitting here talking, and I asked him, Should I run for and I was kind of kidding. And uh he flat out said, Yeah, you should. And uh I thought that was strange. I thought it was I didn't, I wasn't expecting that answer.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Um and he was dead serious, yeah. And I've never seen Bart say dead serious things. Like he's usually like when I told him I was gonna run, he's like, Are you are you shitting me? You and I was like, I know, right? Uh you're the one that put it in my head, dude. Yeah, uh but yeah, it's like uh, you know, we're in district five. Unfortunately, the way the census comes down. I mean, we live in Navarre, we live in Santa Rosa County, and we should be representing Navarre, but unfortunately, the way the census came out, it comes all the way down Edgewood, right between Gulf Breeze and and Navarre, and comes down, and we are south of 98, and then that goes that stretch for District 5. Yeah, all the way to where?

SPEAKER_04 35:31

All the way to the town.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:33

You know, where the sign says, Welcome to Navarre, right there in front of the wine bar. Um, that's where it stops. And we are in District 5, which doesn't make any sense to me, but I don't make the rules and I it doesn't make any sense either that every uh district gets to vote on the other district's commissioners. That is wrong. Like, how would that happen in like a congressional district? You get to vote on your congressman. You don't get to vote on every congressman in the state, you get to vote on your congressman for your district. And in Santa Rosa County, this is how corrupt it is here. In Santa Rosa County, everybody in the county votes for every commissioner. So if there's a uh commissioner that somebody up in Milton likes, and you get a whole bunch of people in Milton that likes the commissioner, one person that's running here in Navarre, they can vote him in or her in. And the the people Navarre could all vote against it, all of them, and they could still get in. And to me, that's not right. I think each each uh district should vote on their own commissioner, and that should be it.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

Um and you you also agree on term limits too.

SPEAKER_04 36:44

Oh, absolutely. Term term limits, absolutely. Because the career politicians, it's well, we haven't seen that in in our commission, in our kind of commissioner uh situation yet. But uh but there has been people that have been there for years.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Who was that? What was that one that one bill, and that you were it was like a while ago, and that old person came down, it was like 90 some odd, and in the rock walker to go sign or something to make a vote for something that was going on in Congress or or something. Who was that person? You're like, my God, that person's been in Congress or the Senate for how many years, and they're like on their deathbed coming in to do a do a vote. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

You know, John McCain had brain cancer, and he went because he couldn't even speak. He just thumbs down.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:34

Yeah. And then Byrd, Senator Byrd, who was a racist Ku Klux Ku Klux Klan member, who was a big uh uh the Democrats loved him. And uh he was in Congress, he couldn't even speak, he was in a wheelchair, like and they were rolling him in. Somebody pick out of his hand and push a button or whatever, and he'd be like, ah weekend at Bernie's like Nancy Pelosi. God, her face is like so old. Like it might be petrified by now, like stuck in that.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Okay, now you can get all the Democrats that watch our show like all that.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

No, there's the Republicans like Mitch McConnell. Turtle faced Mitch McConnell. He's like as old as snot. He's yeah, he's older than the dirt this house was built on. And uh he's still there, barely. I don't know how. It's gotta be the easiest job on the planet being a senator or congressman because you just have other people do your job and you just go to parties and and drink all the time.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Why don't you run for sentence Congress? I guess you gotta start baby steps first. I guess I gotta the commissioner and the state representative, or you could just go right to state representative.

unknown 38:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

Go against Android.

SPEAKER_04 38:46

I wanted to get Patronus out. I can guarantee you I want Patronus out. He's our congressman right now. I took over Matt Matt Gates' place.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Yeah, what do you think? Why?

SPEAKER_04 38:54

Well, because he voted to hide all the sexual predators in Congress. He voted to hide all their names. It was an easy bill. Just vote no, and all the names of all the Congress people that have uh used taxpayer money to pay off their sexual victims would have come out along with the amount of money that they've spent. But instead, he voted to send it to a committee where it's gonna die, and he knows it's gonna die there. So I don't know why he did it. He still won't answer my emails. Patronus, if you're listening, you can answer my email. I've emailed you like a dozen times now asking you to answer my damn question. So at least answer my question if you're gonna be a jerk about it.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

So yeah, like rile him up, Patronus.

SPEAKER_04 39:37

Yeah, there you go, Patronus.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:38

Why'd you vote to hide all the sexual predators in Congress? Why'd you vote to hide their names? That's my question. It's a very simple question. And he doesn't want to do is answer me.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

He doesn't want to answer. He probably has his name's probably on there. Who knows?

SPEAKER_02 39:50

I don't I don't think his name's on there. He hasn't been there long enough.

SPEAKER_00 39:53

It's like recall Florida. I'm friends, we're just speaking of Renee John Meyer, um, her chance is her husband, and he has recall Florida. And he had uh one of the first things that Dr. Joel Rudman did when he became our state, uh, a rep is that he wanted to get recall Florida. And I said, that's never gonna fly. You're gonna put this bill on the floor, and nobody in their right mind that has run that is in office is gonna say, Yes, if you are found to have no ethics and you've done all these things wrong, that that they can vote you out, that you can actually lose your job over it. And I said, that's gonna be a hard bill to pass because a lot of those people would be corrupt and we'd be thrown out on the rest. So recall Florida is a great idea, but nobody in their right mind that's in office is gonna sign up on that because they themselves would be targeted.

SPEAKER_04 40:46

It's like term limits, like asking Congress to vote against term limits. It's like, uh, why would I vote against me keeping my job? You know, it's not never gonna happen. It's gonna have to happen uh another way.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

But you ever see that happening?

SPEAKER_04 41:01

You think that the other generation Yeah, what's it called? Uh Conference of the States or Commission of the States, where the the state can actually enact uh um a an amendment, a constitutional amendment. And uh so far, 22 states, I believe, have already signed off on it. So we've just got a few more to go before it does, but it takes a lot of money, it's gonna take a lot of time, so but eventually it'll happen. And I think that'll solve a lot of our problems. Term limits would solve a lot of our problems. Um, you know, Citizens United, uh, overturning that idiotic ruling by the Supreme Court. That was one of the stupidest rulings I've ever seen in my entire life. And I'm not even a lawyer or a judge, but I can see right through that. The Citizens United uh ruling was one of the most detrimental things to American politics and American sovereignty and American freedom that has ever been uh passed. Um that yeah, that was horrible, and that needs to go to to to claim that a corporation is a person. I mean, just on you getting down to the nitty-gritty, that's just stupid. It's just a stupid thing to say, it's a stupid thing to believe. And uh the fact that they can do that now and and funnel all these billions and billions and billions of dollars um through the system to get somebody elected or get somebody not elected, or you know, it's just it was a horrific, horrific, horrific for the American um uh system. And um and our freedoms are definitely at risk now. More so than ever before. And we just saw that during COVID. We saw it. Thank God that we don't have um yeah. I'm sorry, but thank God we didn't we didn't get a Democrat president. Thank God. They were on their way. They had us censored, they had us uh hog tied, they had us masked, they had us vaccinated, they had everything they wanted, except they didn't have the presidency, thank God.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Um speaking of presidents, I'm sorry I'm changing the subject. I just saw something today on my Facebook that kind of pissed me off, David. I don't know if you saw it. I signed a petition about uh that Donald Trump lifted uh protection rights for endangered species in the Northwest Florida, like the turtles and stuff, to be able to drill oil. Like I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 43:34

I'm I'm no no no, it was it was offshore oil drilling and and the uh the offshore drilling sites are exempt from certain environmental um um situations.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

Yeah, but you know, like I mean the BP oil spill devastated this area um years ago before we even moved here, and they were still paying out. as of last year, um, some of the companies and people that were affected. I mean, how do you think that's going to affect like if if we're offshore drilling near here and something leaks, I mean, the the animal, the the wild the wildlife, which I'm a big wildlife fan, as you all know, I'm on the board of the Animal Coast Wildlife Refuge. And how that affects um I mean one side we we should be energy dependent on the US should be on US oil versus having what we're going through now with Iran. And then the other side is you know at what cost? Because you also want to protect the very species, endangered species and stuff like that that are in our waters. So I mean what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_04 44:43

Well I mean the good thing is uh state of Florida has banned offshore drilling. So we don't have that here like like they do in Texas and and some of those Louisiana and some of those other states where they have offshore rigs everywhere. Um I don't know enough about that particular law to comment much on it but I do know that he's trying to make it easier for these companies to go out there and and um drill more oil. And we have plenty of oil by the way abundant oil it's oil is not what you remember when we were kids you saw that commercial and it was it was uh Exxon ExxonMobil commercial and it was uh the earth and it the and you started to see like earth from a one cell organism to a two cell and all of a sudden it became dinosaurs and then all of a sudden all the dinosaurs died and and you saw the thing go down into the earth and it became it became oil that's not that's not where oil came from that was a lie told to us to make us think that oil was very scarce like it was going to run out we got to be careful so they could they they could uh bump up the prices that's not where oil came from um and there's plenty of oil we've got plenty of oil to last us for at least a thousand years at this rate if not more so um yeah so that's not an issue but Trump is trying to make it easier for them and and just think about you know like me and Bart were talking about you know the the whole uh 98 could be completely different right now if it wasn't for the salamander what was it the snub nosed snap salamander or something something stupid like that the salamander that was protected and they said they couldn't go protected salamander so in in in instead of uh creating a a bypass to 98 here in this town uh we're stuck with bumper to bumper traffic because of some stupid salamander i was like oh yeah i saw him comment on something i saw him commenting something on facebook the other day about it the stupid salamander and like yeah every time you you're on traffic and you're in the 98 traffic bumper to bumper trying to get to work along base think the salamander because the salamander screws you're driving I'm all about salamanders don't get me wrong I used to have a pet salamander for a couple days did you get it from the well I got it from the creek yeah the creek where the fresh water yeah died in the jar in my room where I had it you were depressed about that I didn't know I didn't know they needed land to breathe I thought they just they lived in the water I just put them in water used to get like the little caterpillars you know watch them turn into butterflies and then they would just die and I didn't realize you know oh you're even more cruel or little lightning bugs the lightning oh yeah the lightning bugs in the jar yeah we used to catch them in the jar yeah those were the days yeah all right well I'm sure we probably talked everybody's butt off I just you know there's you know for 45 minutes but I just um you know it's been weighing on me and and and we've talked about you running uh whether you run or I run or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

I mean we're kind of the one same person. I mean if you ran I'd be right there beside you. Um because I think of us as like one person. Oh we are one. Oh we are one yes and um and trying to touch everybody and wanted to make sure you know just kind of get it out there because I don't like to talk politics um because like I said damned if you do and damned if you don't um I went to that whole zoning board thing and I saw how it works and if you don't agree with what you're county commissioner that you're representing they call they call they call you up and say hey you wanna you thinking about you know going another year intent. I want you to step down intent um because I don't agree with what you're doing because all this building in this area is absolutely out of control. I just cannot I I cannot believe that new high school down the street from us the DR Horton homes that are going around it and it's gonna be kids just learning to drive going to the high school and the traffic on that side when everybody's bitching about Herlbert that side is going to be horrendous and these kids I'm just saying that uh I was totally against having a high school on 98 and this is the reason because I think there's going to be some deaths at that intersection with the high school there's going to be some kid is running late for class or running late for school he's gonna run that stop sign to try to get in there on time and he's gonna get hit and he's gonna die.

SPEAKER_04 49:19

And the people that designed that high school and that bought that property are going to be held responsible for those deaths because it's gonna happen. It's just a matter of time. I mean I'm not saying that that would be you know if if they put a high school you know way back off the main road and if somebody died during a craft a traffic accident okay that's you know that's a one offer but we know that 98 is the most dangerous road in Northwest Florida. It's the absolute most dangerous road people get killed on 98 in this town almost on a weekly basis.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

Oh all the time I mean I just was did a Facebook post just the other day uh about sunrise in 98 and it's literally like I mean an eighth of a mile from us. Yeah and within like three weeks we've had bad accidents with deaths two deaths um because the the traffic signal is jacked up it's not turning left I mean it's just it's it's horrendous that we have to sit there and watch yeah uh all these deaths and backup traffic almost every day every time I leave the house now it seems like there's an accident there on sunrise or on Coral and or Edgewood which is up the street this way. I mean and we're like in the death Mecca of 98 and where we live and now we've got this high school and we've got the DR Horton townhomes going next door across the street is the homes. Yeah and there's more apartment buildings because our county commissioner needed to have affordable housing at 300,000 a year. I mean not 300,000 a year but three hundred thousand a home excuse me um which is not that affordable that's not that affordable affordable I mean for a lot of folks yeah but uh which you know sounds like a good reason to to put him up there but and I'm just saying that it's it's gonna be a shit show around that high school and and and thank God DJ doesn't go to that high school he's gonna be going to Navarre high next year as a senior because he's not they're putting freshmen and sophomores in next year. And I don't have to see DJ driving right there in the morning.

SPEAKER_04 51:20

Yeah you know a lot closer but this is a bad location but we digress.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

Well yeah we're just we're just rambling and talking politics but I this is my one time I know Tommy Nichols is chomping at the bits to come and talk to you. And uh we'll get Tommy on the show soon. He's uh he's doing real good in his recovery and we're gonna have him on here and I'll let him and you go round and round because he's from the north we say north like north in Santa Rosa County. Yeah in the south we're in the south of Santa Rosa County he's from Chuckwa and Chamuck yeah and they've got you know a lot of four farmlands out there in the north that are now trying to be redeveloped into subdivisions and our commissioner rep Rao is saying no no like stop you're not gonna come in and take our you know rural agricultural land and and rezone it because we want to we we're out here for a reason and save the farms and save the farmers and they need jobs too so good for you Rhett Rao.

SPEAKER_04 52:20

Yeah good for you and we appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

Yeah okay so that being said all right this is uh gonna be it um here's to poor decisions and politics and poor decisions and politics and politics see us next week hopefully David will be back in town so we can do this I gotta scoot away for another few days take care of my dad we appreciate you guys like follow share um we're up to oh we had 50 downloads last week yeah yeah we're getting big time Joe Rogan we're coming for your spot by all right have a good night guys cheers