Who Should Hold Power: Party Committees Or The People

A grassroots case for Pennsylvania leadership meets a managerial blueprint from UPS, focusing on taxes, elections, and schools. We lay out what the lieutenant governor does, why credentials matter, and where policy should shift to restore trust and value.

• defining the lieutenant governor’s three core duties
• crisis leadership and parole oversight experience
• eliminating the 58¢ fuel tax and reining in spending
• voter ID, ending Act 77, and tighter election oversight
• school choice with funds following the student
• freezing senior property taxes and prioritizing audits
• distinguishing patriots from party endorsements
• website resources for plans, resume, and positions

If you got a chance and you get a chance to sign one of his petitions, let's get him on the ballot and let's see what happens

Transcript

Sponsors, Disclaimers, Opening Riff

SPEAKER_05 1:22

Views and opinions expressed on this program are those of John Marietta and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Fayette County Recorder of Deeds Office or Fayette County government. This program is privately produced and funded, and no county resources are used for its production or promotion.

Introducing John Ventry’s Candidacy

Patriot vs GOP Establishment

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Laser Brothers, Highland Motorsport, Humber Sanitation, Fed Structure, Motor City, Premier Autoglass, Fayette County MAGA Patriots Group, HBJ Radio LLC, Meusers Garage and Tire Center, Solid Foundation Ministries, The Ink Spot, JB Market and Dunbar, Mung's Auto Body and Repair, Fayette Structures, and Pine Creek Structures are coming on board with us. Hey, I'll I thank everybody for tuning in. I really appreciate it. I got a just gonna go ahead and go right to the opening. This is a half-hour show, and I really like half-hour shows because they don't last too long, right? I I got John Ventry with me. So I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what, I like friends and neighbors. I like a man who don't need a golden key to open the doors of government. A man who don't bow bow to the party bosses or the fancy suit crowd. I'm talking about John Ventry, a true son of the grassroots. He ain't running for the good old boy's table. He's running so the people can have their seats back. Now let me tell you something. The establishment crowd, don't take it too conny to folks who stand up to their little kingdom. You know it, and I know it. They sneer, they smear, and they shout out at anybody who won't kiss the ring or play the game. They become they become so high and mighty that they think they can decide who's worthy to speak for we the people. They think they can they think they can decide who is gonna speak for we the people. But that's not how freedom works. The torture of liberty don't belong to a committee. It belongs to the common no to the common no-man who still believes in God, the country, and hard work. And they'll call folks like you and me names. A mock, the we the people movement, and the grassroots patrons. But that just shows how scared they are. Because they can't control the truth, they can't bully conviction, and they can't buy the spirit of a man who serves something higher than politics. That's why they try to silence men like John Bentry, because he answers to the people, not the puppet masters. And I am reminded of Galatians 6 9, where it says, Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. That's a promise, brothers and sisters. If we keep the faith and keep plowing forward, the grassroots harvest will come. So when you hear the name, John Ventry, don't think establishment. Think revival. Think grassroots. Think of a man ready to serve, not to rule. I wrote that this morning. Very good. I like that. Did you like that? I mean, maybe maybe I could be your campaign. No, I don't got time to do that. I don't have time to do that. I don't got time to do that. Um, I I do I do have to make a correction from yesterday. Um a lot of people say the radio is dying, but uh, we're gonna do something completely different, and uh we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna expand our radio presence. And it's gonna be I I got it wrong, and I have to apologize to Nick. Um it's Marietta Broadcasting Network.com. So uh I've I I got it I I called it MBC, uh, but it and that that that is correct, and that's what the logo says, but it's actually Marietta Broadcasting Network.com. And if you want to go to that, you can check us out. We got uh um we got uh we're we're trying to expand uh last month on the platforms that we uh we we filter through and go through. We had 450,000 views. We had a little more than that, but we'll just call 450,000 views across the platform. And uh I'm gonna thank everybody that tunes in all across the country, all across actually I got I got people in Somalia now listening to me and Uganda, and uh of course my Australian friends, and they can't wait till I get back here. Um I'm hoping to get back here. My wife wants to go back real soon, but it's gonna be a while yet. Um but, anyways, I want to thank you all for tuning in and I appreciate it. I know you guys are listening different times, and with the computer and Facebook and all these different platforms, uh you're able to do it much easier. Okay, so we've we've covered everything I had to cover so far today. So now it's Joan Ventry's turn. Okay. Um and uh you're running for lieutenant governor. Yes, I am. And you're running on what ticket? A Republican. Okay, so you are uh a Republican. Um do you want to qualify that at all, or you want to be like the like like Well, let's put it this way.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

I'm not the GOP candidate, I'm the Patriot candidate. Okay, and there's a world of difference between Patriots and committee people and the people that unfortunately the 80 percent of the uh people we've elected to office in this state that they just don't protect us, they don't defend us. Uh it's only about 20 percent that I'd say that we've elected that are true patriots and MAGA candidates, and that's who I am. And you know, I was up in Allegheny County at a big uh Patriot meeting, and uh the woman in charge, you know, she got up and she says, I've known John for seven years, he's never once wavered. He's never wavered on his conservative and MAGA beliefs. Uh you know, and then she went into uh when she uh attended the governor debates four years ago because I ran for governor. We had a debate in Newcastle, and there was, I don't know, 10 or 12 candidates for governor at the time. I was there. Oh, you were there. You remember? Yeah, yeah, I do. They went right down the line. Every one of the governor candidates, and the question was, did Joe Biden win legitimately? And they all said, well, there's nothing you can do about it, you've got to accept the results. It got to me. Luckily, I was the last candidate in that line. And uh I said, Joe Biden did not win legitimately. Joe Biden uh is not my president because Democrats cheat and Joe Biden cheated. That auditorium, if you remember, exploded. I mean, uh they were like pounding the chairs because they were waiting for a patriot candidate to tell the truth. And that's exactly what I did. You know, and that's what separates me from these other candidates. You know, you w I was running against Maastriano at the time, but you know, he was a patriot candidate. And I'm a patriot candidate, and we're different than the bulk of the ones that get elected.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Is that where they divided with I I'm pretty sure I was up or that is that where they divided half of the candidates who have spoke one time and half spoke another time?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

No, we were all in the line. Okay. We were all on the stage. Charlie was there? Uh yeah, yeah, Charlie, yeah, he was like next to me, and then Dave White and and uh a few others. But you know, that she reminded me, I had forgotten about the debate, and um, you know, it's one of the things you you you got I don't want to say his name, but you got that attorney from Pittsburgh who's endorsed now as the lieutenant governor, you know. Now I I debated him three times. And in that debate, I mean, I'm telling you, I won that debate. I think I won all three, but I won that debate hands down. You know, I beat him in that debate, I got the standing ovation, and then a week later we had our debate in uh Butler and he didn't show up. Yeah. I mean, come on. You know, I I hope that they do debates this time around and I can debate him again. Uh right now there's just three candidates, but I'm I'm looking forward to debating him.

Debate Moments And Election Claims

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Well, I'm sure that um I'm sure that there'll be a debate somewhere close around Pittsburgh. I do I do believe that. Um they had uh, like said they had a debate up at um Cannonsburg the one time. Uh and um I was I was uh I was actually uh introduced to all the candidates up there for the lieutenant governor. Uh that was that was last time, I believe. Yeah, last time. And then um and we but um the one time uh I was at the one debate, and like you said, uh I I believe that uh um the your the your opponent didn't show up, and uh I'm thinking Doug Mastriano didn't show up at that one.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Well yeah, he didn't do any of the so Doug he didn't show up at any of the debates until I think after the petitions were in, then he did one or two debates, and that was it. But he didn't debate prior to the petition cycle being over.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

I don't know if we're gonna I was uh I got to be uh I got to be up in Indiana County with uh uh for another one that they had uh for but that wasn't for the lieutenant governors. But there the Patriots groups are uh are out there. Uh one of the biggest Patriots groups in the whole whole state right now is in Washington County. Uh Green County is uh there's a good many over there, uh Fayette County. Um it's it's growing. Uh it and it's a we the people movement. I mean, people are people are tired of being told what they who they should vote for. I mean, to endorse before a primary is just utterly ridiculous. And then here's what else they do. If you if you're not the chosen candidate they want, then they then they won't they won't endorse you after the primary either. So uh they it it we've we've all seen this happen.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

But anyways. Let me just say, endorsements are for cowards. That that that's about as simple as I can put it.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Well, hey, um let's get on with things. Uh you're you're the lieutenant governor candidate, uh, and uh we we you're a Republican, so we don't go have to go into 2A and all the other things. I know that you're I know that uh you believe uh the your shirt says never socialists, so if they can see it, yeah. We're not gonna we're not gonna worry about that today. Um I'm sure that you believe in the Constitution the way it was written. Absolutely. I believe you believe in the state constitution. So we can we can forego that.

SPEAKER_04 12:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

So okay, you're going to you're going to Harrisburg. Um maybe we need to just tell people just a little bit about what a lieutenant governor is supposed to do, maybe just for a minute or two.

What A Lieutenant Governor Actually Does

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Yeah. And this is one of the reasons why uh I'm running for this position, is I there's three things that a lieutenant governor does. They oversee the Senate, they're in charge of any crisis that takes place, and they oversee the parole board. So I fit that absolutely perfectly. And I don't think you've had a candidate for lieutenant governor that fits all three. And I say that because I was an executive at UPS for 26 years. So I can oversee the Senate. I've overseen so many large meetings and and functions. The crisis part of it, I was UPS's crisis management director for Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia. So if a crisis came up, they called me. You've never had a candidate with crisis management background. And then as far as the parole board goes, I have a degree in criminal justice. I was also their State Security Director in six states, and my last 15 years, I had Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia. So I've got the criminal justice background. The attorney out of Pittsburgh doesn't have that, he's not he's not a uh prosecutor, so he doesn't have that background for the parole board. He doesn't, he's never been in charge of crisis management, which is what the lieutenant uh governor does. And I've got 26 years of executive experience. What he doesn't. I fit this job 100% to the T. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

So uh you you you convinced me that you fit the job. Uh so the next thing uh we need to go to is is what do you what do you um how do you identify with our president?

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Oh I'm I grew up in Queens. So uh I I you know the Trump name for me has always been my whole life I've known the Trump name. I've never met him in in person. But you know, when he first uh ran, my daughter texted me in 2015, and her comment was Dad, Trump is you. That's what she said. You know, and I said, Well, you know, I'm Trump, he's not me. But you know, as a matter of fact, my son replied to it, and and she he said to both of us, Dad's tougher than Trump. I mean, I'm I'm you know, I I do I do my job and uh you know I get results and I hold people accountable. But yeah, I understand Trump, and I've said to people, you know, if if you grew up in New York, you understand the personality, the way he does things. That's I'm just used to that. And I think that people who didn't grow up in that environment don't really understand his personality. I do. I I know where he's coming from, and I and I understand it. And uh, you know, he's very creative, and so am I. You know, he published some books. I've published 14 books. He had a reality TV show. Well, so did I on the History Channel, also on the Discovery Channel. Uh he was uh he owned this company, but I was an executive. There are so many parallels between between Trump and I. I mean, again, I think I fit right in there to also. Um okay, you're elected. What's what do you what do you do first? Well, the first thing I'm gonna do, and I can't do it from lieutenant governor, though, is I'm gonna convince Stacey Garrety that the first thing we need to do is eliminate the 58 cent uh fuel tax in this state and put six to eight hundred dollars back in everybody's pocket and finally give back to the people. Because what we're doing right now, Shapiro's budget is spending 7 percent more than we take in. He's done that all three years. Uh you just can't have, you can't spend, which is gonna be a$7 billion deficit in a couple of years. So I want to eliminate the fuel tax. And the reason I want to do that, working for UPS, I understand transportation. The 58 percent uh fuel tax, first of all, is going to put six to eight hundred dollars back in everyone's pocket, it is gonna lower transportation costs, and it's gonna lower inflation. To me, again, that's a perfect thing to do. It's a very regressive tax, and uh that's job one for me is to get rid of the fuel tax. And people say, well, how are you gonna do that? Well, it's$1.1 billion, it's 2% of the budget. They've they've increased spending over 40 percent in the last five years. I can find you two percent. You know, I worked for UPS, if you remember their first commercial. We run the tightest ship in the shipping business.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

And I mean we control costs, and I will easily get us two percent, and we will get rid of the fuel tax, and that's gonna benefit everybody in the state.

Fuel Tax Repeal And Budget Math

SPEAKER_02 18:01

Okay, so uh I guess the next thing is is we're gonna work on a fuel tax. Um, I think one of the most important things that we can work on, or you can work on, and uh, and I know that uh you'll have a lot of people's ear, I think uh is we have to get uh voter voter integrity back to uh in in our state. We have we have to we have to completely eliminate Act 77. Um I and uh and of course you talk to the you talk to the legislators and they say well we need X amount of votes and then the Senate we do have it. But but you but actually it it it can happen if we do the right things and we can't actually there's there's actually uh some people on both sides of the aisle that are that are looking hard at it right now.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Well, right now, nationally, 83 percent of the people of the United States uh want voter ID. They don't want mail-in ballots, they want this thing to be secure. And you know, we've had the majority in in Harrisburg in the General Assembly, and we still didn't do these things when the when the Republicans had the majority. And unfortunately, it was the Republicans that passed Act 77. Out of all of them, and I think there was like between the Senate and the House, like 147, 148, only three voted against it. That's it. Three.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

There was one senator, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah, and two in Lancaster.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

And I always tell everybody, evidently, that they they must teach still teach reading in Lancaster because them two them two representatives read it.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

I mean, I was I I I I you know I I was a member of Judicial Watch, so I get their monthly newsletter, and I said, what's up, that's not possible. We we couldn't have passed uh melon ballots. That's and I had some heated arguments, you know, with Kim Ward, with Eric Nelson. Uh why would you pass a Democrat initiative? Explain that to me. I don't understand it. And it was passed 98 percent of the Republican vote passed it. I I don't it doesn't make any sense to me. But we have to we have to get rid of uh Act 77. We've got to get rid of these satellite offices. Uh around Philly and Pittsburgh, you've got these offices open for 90 days prior to the election, and basically what it is is to recruit Democrats, and they come in, they recruit them, they show them how to how to uh become Democrats and how to vote Democrats.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

The primary will be uh not not not as much.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Right, yeah. But but we we shouldn't have these 90 days before the election. And plus, you go there and you want to observe it? No, you're not allowed to be a poll watcher uh because they're not really voting there. They're grooming them there, is what they're doing, so you can't watch it. And then, you know, the drop boxes and all of that. Uh there's no reason for that. You want to drop it in a box, then go to your uh election bureau, go inside, and hand it to them at the desk, and you could drop your ballot off.

SPEAKER_02 21:40

Well, I think we gotta keep I think we gotta that's the number one thing. And uh our senator right here in uh Fayette County, he voted for Act 77, and uh uh our representatives did too. Uh the only one that uh that uh I will say that uh had anything to say against it was uh Bud Cook. And uh he was the and uh he was the only one that said we made I made a mistake. Yeah.

Voting Rules, Act 77, And Oversight

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Well and then the other annoying thing is when you confront a lot of them, they say to you it was good legislation. They will not even admit that they made a mistake, at least Bud did, but these other ones won't say they made they said no, it was good legislation. It was good for the Democrats. You know, that's how how Trump lost seven his 786,000 vote lead. He lost that over the next three days because of mail-in ballots. Well, uh what else would we like to touch on? We got about eight minutes. Okay, well, uh a couple of things. One thing is I want real school choice, and it it's not what they're what we've been talking about. We spend 36 percent of the budget on public schools,$25,000 per student. It's incredible. Fifth highest in the country, but we're ranked, I think it's like number 39 in the three Rs. So what you want is you want these students going to cyberschools, but what did they do? They pulled$175 million from cyberschools because you can keep it in the teachers' union monopoly school system, right? So you want them going to Catholic school, you want them going to cyber schools, you want them homeschooling, you want them to go to any private school other than a public school because it costs about$8,000 less and they get better grades. You know, every company has outsourced. We need to run Pennsylvania like a business and start outsourcing this public education because it's a failure. And throwing more money at it is is not the answer. Another thing is, you know, we need a dose department, Department of State Efficiency. And technically that should fall under the Treasurer. But I I was surprised to find out that uh it would fall under the the Treasurer and what other people Well, I would just take the department heads, all of the secretaries of, and they I wouldn't add people. They would meet monthly or quarterly, go over to spending, and and that that's where they would start to look at efficiency. But we have a uh House Oversight Committee that looks at tax dollars and tax spending, and they haven't met since 2019, since COVID. So they're not looking at spending. And and there Shapiro's first thing he asked was, how much can I spend? And how much can I take from the uh Rainy Day Fund and the Reserve Fund? And that's exactly what this guy has done. And again, why do we need another attorney like my opponent? Shapiro's an attorney, and he can't balance the budget. Do you really want another attorney, or do you want an executive like myself who's similar to Trump, who's gonna get things done and understands business? That's what we want, and that's what we need.

SPEAKER_02 24:59

I uh uh uh how do you feel about the money following the children?

SPEAKER_01 25:03

What do you mean the money following the children?

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Instead of if you if your children don't go to the public school, should that money come to you so you can send them to whatever school you have.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

Oh, yeah, yeah. We've got to work it out. You know, we have to work it out so you know you're paying school taxes. You know, Arizona has the best system, and and that money follows them, and then you go to whatever pup private school, Catholic school, and you know, the state then it gets paid. There's a voucher system, all of that. But that's what we got to do because you're gonna save$8,000 a student, not go into public schools. And and real quick before we run out of time, I want to freeze senior uh property taxes, right? Uh I want them frozen. I think we've and I'm a senior, we've paid enough. How about eliminating them? Yeah. Well, here's the thing. I I I would rather eliminate a bunch of other taxes like the uh fuel tax, uh tolls, lower sales tax, only because if you talk to an accountant, um the property tax is the only one that's tax deductible on your income tax return. The others are not. So why get rid of the one that's a deduction when you think about it? I think any tax guy is going to tell you that to keep the deduction and get rid of the other taxes that are not tax deductible.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

How would you feel about them doing a complete audit of the state? Oh, absolutely. Okay, yeah, yeah. I really I'm advocating for that here in the county. I think our county needs to have a complete uh audit, and it has to be done by somebody other than it has to be outside of the county. I mean, we can pick some group somewhere and uh and put their name, put five names in a half, and pull somebody out and let them do it.

School Choice And Spending Reform

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yeah, it absolutely has to get done. And we you know, we also got to reinstate those pro-life counseling uh centers that uh Shapiro got rid of. You know, I mean everything this guy does, he doesn't have the mannerisms of the AOC and and the squad, and everybody says he's moderate, but he's not. I have 50 reasons on my website, voteforventry.com. Fifty reasons not to vote for Shapiro. He's very smooth, but every single time, a hundred percent of the time, he goes far left with his policies. There's nothing moderate about this guy. If you want to read my fifty reasons not to vote for Shapiro, go to voteforventry.com and you'll see them.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Yeah, and that's how people can uh find out more about you.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Yeah, and you'll see my plan, you'll see my resume, uh, you'll see when I ran for county commissioner. You'll if you read m my website, you're gonna like everything about me. And if you voted for Mastriano, who in the primary ran away with it, you know, uh then you'll vote for me. And I'm the patriot candidate this time around, but for Lieutenant Governor. If you voted for him, vote for me.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Well, um the uh anyways, uh I I I don't know if that's a good I don't know if that's a good thing, but I'm well I'm just saying I'm the patriot candidate.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

That's the way I'm saying because he he did get a lot of the vote, you know.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Well I think that what what's gonna happen here is is and I I hope the Republican Party has uh looked down their nose at all the Patriots. Yes, yes, absolutely. And um, like I said, uh I I often think about the the Revolutionary War. Uh if if these people would have been running the war, uh uh Daniel Morgan wouldn't have been allowed to fight.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Yeah, we're we're at a three we're at three percenters. But here's the thing, though, is that you know, uh the committees and these endorsements, they're they're a very small part of the population that votes. Trump got 65 percent of the vote as a patriot, you know? Yeah. There are there's a hundred times more patriots out there in Pennsylvania than committee people uh that are working this endorsement against me. That's why I say if you're a patriot, go to my website, vote for me like you voted for Trump. That's a better example. Yeah, yeah, that is the way. That's the example, but I was I was thinking our election, you know. Uh Johnventry.com? Uh uh voteforventry.com. Okay, the number four? Yeah, number four. Voteforventry.com.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Okay. Uh believe it or not, we're we're gonna have to close up here, and uh we've got about a minute left. Uh well, uh thank you for coming in. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Uh if you have time, we'll get you back on another time.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

And uh and uh you you know how to get this all out on social media. We got somebody working on that right now. So, anyways, um I want to thank everybody for tuning in today. It's been a it's been a pleasure uh talking to John and uh getting his name out there. And uh if you got a chance and you get a chance to sign one of his uh one of his uh petitions, let's get him on the ballot and let's see what happens. So, on this road called life, you have to take the good with the bad, smile with the sad, love what you got, and remember what you had. Always forgive, but never forget. People change, things go wrong, but just remember the ride goes on. God bless each and every one of you, and God bless America. I am John Marietta, and I am the hillbilly.