The Corrected Transcript of The John A Castro Interview, US 2024 Presidential Candidate on The Neoliberal Round Podcast

The John A Castro Interview with Rev. Renaldo C. McKenzie on The Neoliberal Corporation's News Commentary Podcast, The Neoliberal Round —See the edited full transcript below, with a summary after (all totaling 20181 words):

Renaldo McKenzie: Hey good morning, how are you?

John: Good, sorry I had some trouble getting the setup.

Renaldo McKenzie: Yes, and that is fine, I completely understand I would get it, I had some connection myself.

Renaldo McKenzie: It’s good to have you on.

John: yeah, good to have you too.

Renaldo McKenzie: Yes, yes, it's great to have you, let me begin officially. Good morning, I am Renaldo McKenzie and welcome to another episode of The Neoliberal around podcast and finally we have with us, Mr. John Anthony Castro, the US 2024 Presidential Candidate, good morning john and welcome again to the show, and I am so we are so delighted to have you.

John: Thank you, thank you, oh.

Renaldo McKenzie: Good weekend, for you, very busy weekend?

John: Oh no actually very relaxing weekend.

Renaldo McKenzie: That is good that's good So who is John Castro, who is John Anthony Castro, and I actually visited your Page [johncastro.com ] and saw that you were born [on a German military base] ….

John: … that’s what's on my birth certificate….

Renaldo McKenzie: Okay, and do you speak some German.

John: very, very, very little like very rudimentary elementary.

Renaldo McKenzie: Okay, good and um so first of all, tell me what was life-like growing up in Germany.

John: A very different we didn't have TV on a regular.

John: Yeah and yeah That is something that's very unique about my life, the first 10 years of my life was in Germany.

John: And yeah whenever we wanted to like we had an aunt back home in Mississippi that would record TV shows like Simpsons in living color and stuff like that Saturday night live and then she would put it all in a VHS cassette and then mail it to us in Germany, and then we would watch the same episodes like 1000 times. But, it was mostly playing outside of the playground that that's actually where I learned German. I didn't find out till much later in my life for my mother, my father that I apparently spoke fluent German when I was child and they said you just picked it up on the playground just playing with all the other German kids. So yeah it was it was it was pretty interesting but, but I was there, because my father was stationed in the military and so uh yeah first 10 years of my life was out there in Germany.

Renaldo McKenzie: Yes, okay that's Nice and any problems and adjusting when you came to the US [from the military base]?

John: And you know I mean Oh, when I came back, yes, yeah, the customs were a little bit different. You know, everybody over there, at least in the town that we were in they were very, very, very warm very friendly you know, so we will always hug each other, kiss on the cheek whenever we saw each other, and I remember I got in trouble in elementary school when it came back and I did that. Haha?

Renaldo McKenzie: Haha, wow, They were, wow yeah you don't do that here.

Renaldo McKenzie: Yes, yes, yes.

John: That was pretty funny I had to I had to kind of adjust that.

John: yeah because I mean in Europe, you know it's everybody's a little bit more warm but.

John: But yeah, it was. It didn't take too long, though.

Renaldo McKenzie: And you know I saw that you work, that you worked at pizza hut for two years while you were in high school, and let me tell you, I have been talking about the interview with you, with many different people and they were. There was a stop the violence march here in Philadelphia weekend and I got. To meet several hundred people interview them and many of the young people had questions for you, many of them have dreams and One young lady and I'm going to actually play the question, so that you can hear it one young lady said she played, and he wants to be a musician. And she wants to be a big musician and she wanted to find out, you know how—they can relate to you because you worked at Pizza Hut—but here you are and actually you know I would write a question and I'm going to tell you what it was—you know what, I mean, let me not assume. Where were your parents born…here in the US?

John: yeah they're American they're born here in the US.

Renaldo McKenzie: US, okay great so…and, but, but you have a name it's “Castro” and you know I'm Jamaican and many people, we are familiar with you, Fidel Castro, so when people hear your name,??what comes to mind or do they react or do you find that you have to explain your lineage?

John: I’m sorry was the last question.

Renaldo McKenzie: The name Castro evokes a lot of ideas, do you find that you have to explain sometimes…?

John: yeah I mean it's a it's funny because yeah of course that's come up my whole life.

John: You know I heard it a lot growing up as a child, and so you know, naturally, when you hear people make that direct reference to another person so many times, you're going to be curious like who is this person that charity my name, and so I actually did a lot of research.

John: You know, on Cuban history, even though I'm Mexican American.

John: You know I did a lot of research and human history from Fidel Castro was just because, again, like you, I would hear it, at least once every three to four months from the age of five all the way to like 17 you know all throughout high. School so. You know there's only so much before a person is going to be like you know who this person is who really want to understand like, why does everybody know his name. But, yeah I mean it's a name, you know I look at one thing that made me feel really happy was when Obama got elected you know, because his name was Barack Hussein Obama and we had Saddam Hussein you know, In Iraq, and I know a lot of people thought like oh that's it, you know his name is too weird it sounds like Osama and it sounds like terrorist and a dictator together, but you know to me a name is just a name.

John: You know it's my dad's name, you know, at least, at least in my lineage a lot of people don't know this, but in Texas there's actually a Castroville, a city called Castroville, South of San Antonio And it routes back to an individual by the name Henry Castro. Who is actually one of the founders of the State of Texas, they were only the top three people that brought the most settlers to the State of Texas with Sam Houston, everybody knows his name??Stephen F Austin, everybody knows his name and Henry Castro. And what's funny is that. Well, I mean not funny I think they're subtle motivations behind it, but it seems that, even though Henry Castro brought more settlers to the State of Texas than Stephen F Austin. Stephen F Austin is obviously more widely known and I feel like the contribution of Castro family to the founding of the Republic of Texas is really, possibly even intentionally downplayed but yeah the name actually has a lot of significance in the State of Texas, that I think. Our history has suppressed.

Renaldo McKenzie: that's interesting Thank you so much, and you know on my blog I started about 2010 there's one thing that I've always said I've often said, and that is what is the ultimate of all things? The ultimate all things is that we become one with reality in all of our individuality and then I said, a man once said “once you label me you negate me.” And that is Kierkegaard and I actually was reading something you said it was quite remarkable, which I wanted to ask you about and you said—when someone had asked you some-time ago—what do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to the office? and you responded by saying “to always promote the interest of the nation over any individual or interest.” How do you propose to do that, and how does that speak to you and the fact that we live in a society that is becoming more divided?

John: Yeah, it's tough, especially in this hyper politicized environment, you know it's a it's very difficult I'm a very pragmatic person…. I grew up poor, you know, my family, for that's our background, you know I became a Union organizer I looked at the system and the way it was structured and I felt that there was a lot of you know inherent limitations and barriers put in place, I was able to overcome those and but I know that I'm the exception, not the norm. Yes. And so I, I always told myself, you know if I'm able to get out of this hole I'm not just going to you know cut and run, like everybody else, I want to build a ladder, and I want to help others as well and I don't know what it is about human nature, a lot of times people just they're like hey I went through it, you can go through it too and I believe that perpetuating injustices is an injustice in and of itself, and it makes you a you know, a passive participant, you know, in the in the system and I don't want to do that. I want to look back at the system and figure out how to fix it as I got older I started seeing more and more having more friends that were of a diverse political background, Conservative Republicans, and I started seeing their world perspective and how some of their views makes sense I didn't agree with them all, but they made sense, and so I started becoming more well rounded. And what I eventually realized is what really makes America great is that you get liberal ideas you get conservative ideas and you force them all into a building, you know that we call Congress and you force them to hash it out and what comes out of that is the best of both parties, but I think whenever there's one party rule I think you're going to have disastrous consequences, you know whether it's a far right state like you know, Alabama you know, or whether it's a far left state like California on you're going to see when it's like one parties and power you're going to have a lot of bad outcome because you're not getting a well rounded view of the world and a well rounded approach to solving problems, and so you know, there are there are again conservative policies that that I agree with under liberal policies today. When it comes to I would say, foreign policy and economics that's where I'm definitely on the conservative side. When it comes to social issues, I'm definitely more on the liberal side and see that's the part that a lot of conservatives are like wait a minute, then, if you agree with the liberal on anything, why are you running these republican on and it's just like look. It’s more from a libertarian. Yea and like they're even things that very few things that I agree with libertarians. On but, most importantly, is the fourth amendment. I don't like government intrusion in any sense, and so, when I see You know, conservatives, being misled into being obsessed with the lives of LGBTQ individuals to me it's just like leave them alone, you know, what I mean like who cares and then, especially on the issue of abortion, they always ask me, are you pro-life or pro-choice, and I say I'm pro I support the right to choose life. And it's not that I'm trying to be a politician and like trying to play, both.

Renaldo McKenzie: Sides, right.

John: What I'm trying to say here is that it has to do again with personal liberty, individual liberty, individual responsibility, you know. You make those choices and You know even me as, as you know, having grown up with a really strong Christian background, you know to me it's like hey we're not a theocracy, we don’t impose my beliefs on other people! I think it's incumbent upon Christians to go out there and win the hearts and minds of people. Use life don't try to do it through government, and you know that, that's not what Christian is supposed to be about you know. So, you know it's things like that you know I take a very again very pragmatic approach to everything I approach each issue based on the facts and the data, you know and whatever works is going to work and it's funny because you know, even though I get labeled a rhino as a result of that you know rhino—Republican in name only, a lot of people don't seem to realize that's exactly what Reagan was.

Renaldo McKenzie: Reagan…

John: A lot of my beliefs, except the economics, because I think he was horrible with economics, but A lot of his beliefs and mine are we're about like 99% alone on all the political stuff except on some of the economics that trickle down economics, it was a good theory at that time they tested it out turned out to not be good that's, the only thing that I think Reagan was really diverse. But a lot of people don't know the Earned Income Tax Credit which people have labeled the most socialist tax policy that grabs wealth from the upper class and gives it to the lower class. Yeah, they don't realize that was engineered by the Reagan’s administration, I mean think about that for a second. Yes, yes, there is a thing that now people attack is one of the most socialist tax policies in the internal revenue code was actually designed by Reagan. And, of course, you know, he did it more from the corporate socialism Stance, actively subsidize low wages, you know and put that on the government's credit card rather than you know, on Wall-Street, and you know publicly traded companies that can afford it, but again.

Renaldo McKenzie: And I wanted to ask...

John: … yes good sorry.

Renaldo McKenzie: … some time ago, I was reading an article in The Atlantic written by David French, where he said that, You know “…the Republican Party is changing, it's no longer that party of individualism and free-speech … so on and so forth and I've said this change is not new as it is based on the context of the day and based on your ability to exact power, extend power and so on and so forth…. But, here you are saying that and you're speaking to the issue you believe that “The earned income credit” was something that Reagan designed and that it’s a social policy that somebody like Reagan would have wanted and it's not necessarily a liberal policy So although you are Republican, you also promote certain ideals and you said something, and you said something about being poor or your experience of poverty; does that experience affect or influence some of your policies, some of your ideas? You seem very interdisciplinary, because I was looking at your website. You said you were born into a working-class family, a working-class, which is very good, and I just want to tell everybody if you're listening to the program Mr. Castro reached out to me and I was very moved by that. But, I can relate to who you are, and you said you're trying to provide opportunity, and this speaks volumes to me as an individual. The fact that you are trying to connect with individual at the local as a way to promote other initiatives. But you said, you were born into a working-class family and you said you were poor and I was going to ask you a question earlier and I didn’t get a chance to ask the question I said, Here you are Mexican-American after college, you had $325,000 in debt at [38] Yet, you are able to have a net-worth of over 20 million and a successful businessman, how are you able to accomplish this and it's quite remarkable?

John: Yeah I’m…, I used to say, I used to downplay it. But I’m the exception, you know I’ve??been lucky a lot, I still do think that I was lucky, I think there were a lot of times growing up, and I could have ended up arrested, I could have ended up in jail, you know just that that's the, I guess, the side-effect of growing up in, you know, the poor neighborhoods so I wouldn't clarify that we were born into a poor family. My father and mother's hard work, 20 years in the army. And then, after that, having you know the retirement pensions, we were able to live more of a working-class standard, but all of my family, all of them have a very, we come from a poverty background there's no question. And so, I know the struggles, I know the hurdles that are faced. I know that sometimes you can't pick and choose who your friends are you know I didn't. I lived Next door to the troublemakers that you know I befriended growing up. And thankfully, you know there were times, where I wasn't with them where they did something. You know the coalition ended up in jail, and you know, to this day I’m thinking wow if I had decided to go with them that day, my whole life would have possibly been derailed and how many other people out there are like me that could have had a successful company that you know could be running for office but made one mistake that growing up and now their whole life is you know derailed as a result of it and so, yeah it's pretty scary thinking about things like that. But you know, as far as what I did, I just kept getting student loans, studying, I kept getting more degrees and I kept just hoping that this is all going to pay off, yes, yes, yes. And I know that you know, unfortunately, and sadly a lot of people have done the exact same thing as me and not been as lucky or been as fortunate and that's the reason that I’m not quick to say, like most people would like Oh well, I did it, you know you can do it, too, and I feel like that's a myth—that the system creates you know to basically use somebody like me as a poster boy, to say that you know oh look, you know, he did it through hard work and he was able to tell his business. For years, like, let's be honest, that's one in a million, if not one in a million chance that, that would happen, and it happened to me and again I'm not going to pretend that is something that's easily replicable. So, you know that being said, you know that's why I want to look back at some of the hurdles that people face and try to find ways to correct it, you know one solution idea that I had was to give $1 for dollar tax credit for all the principal paid back it's not just the interest and let's be honest,?the student loan interest deduction is crap?you know it's small, it reduces your tax-bill by a few hundred bucks what the hell is that. Right, and so, I would say dollar for dollar not only interest, but also the principal amount, so the way I view it is tax-free until death. So, as long as you're paying back your student loans you shouldn't be paying into the tax system, yet, and I feel like that would incentivize people to be like you know okay cool you know I can do my student loans now, instead of paying my $5,000 tax bill. And I feel like that's also a way of incentivizing people to go out there to start a business and try to make it work and at least be alleviated from these burdens and monthly payments like what is the income-based repayment plan that was a godsend for me.

Renaldo McKenzie: It was...

John: I was, I was able to get my bills down to practically nothing, and I feel like that's what actually helped me start my business, if I had been built with these monthly payments.

John: I would have never started Castro and company which became a very successful international tax Law firm, and I would have never been able to invent AI Tax which, well, interestingly, it was just valued last week at 180 million so.

Renaldo McKenzie: Well, and I wanted to ask you some questions about AI Tax because you and your successful business and you.

Renaldo McKenzie: And you said it was just valued at what…?

John: 180 million, trust me that floored me too.

Renaldo McKenzie: What is AI Tax, what is what's that about?

John: So I had been working on this for the last two years here at the office we called it,?the Manhattan project?because it was really secret we didn't talk about it with anybody and unfortunately, as a result of being very secretive, a lot of people thought that we were doing something nefarious um but in November of 2021 last year, I ended up getting awarded a 12 and one patent—a patent covering 12 concepts from the US patent Trademark Office and it covers artificial intelligence in the use of tax-planning, tax legal Defense and tax preparation so basically it's like turbo tax on steroids. You know it's going to help you through every aspect of your tax return, if you have questions about Oh, do I qualify for this deduction…? It'll actually thoroughly prep you for any particular legal position.

John: If you have a question about like right now, when you do your taxes, for example, it says oh this year dependence, but what, if you have a question of like well you know I took care of my niece or nephew for a few months, like right now to claim that person, you know. Unfortunately, right now, you're at the mercy of Google right, you have to do a bunch of Google searches and you're there for like two hours and then you're stressed. Yes, right or not, because you'll find 10 different answers to the same question online. Our software will actually guide you through a Quick process that gives you a legal conclusion as to whether you can claim that person. So that's kind of like a you know the opening part of the software, but it'll even let you for example treat positions and stuff like that so yeah basically it grabbed all the knowledge that I got in the LMN program at Georgetown and put it into software code so.

Renaldo McKenzie: Oh nice, so not only were you studying the theory and the principles, the concepts of law and what kind of Attorney are you now, a tax attorney?

John: International tax yeah.

Renaldo McKenzie: International tax, but because you are young, you use the technology at your disposal.

Renaldo McKenzie: Now my next question I looked at some of your plans and some of your proposals and I said I couldn't—I was reading your platform—I couldn't tell if you're a Democrat or Republican.

Renaldo McKenzie: And I’m not going to ask if you're Republican or Democrat because, to be honest, that is not important right now.

Renaldo McKenzie: And I actually (did) spoke with several individuals who are aware that I'm interviewing you. One young man was asking if you were a republican a Democrat, you know, I told him that's not important man, you have to listen to the platform and what you're promoting one of the things you recently said about student loan and President Biden is considering canceling student loan debt and there are Republicans such as Thune who said that we shouldn’t continue to foot the bill know for these individuals as the economy is recovering now but, but of course I don't know if that is true of the economy, because economists are suggesting or indicates that.

John: We’re about to go into a recession.

Renaldo McKenzie: But he is here saying that we shouldn't continue to pay for or continue to have the burden on such spurious claims.?

Renaldo McKenzie: Fascination….

Renaldo McKenzie: Well, but you released a statement saying “I work my ass off but I'm the norm…,” and you just alluded to that and you said something about debt enslavement, and what was it that you said…?

John: I mean it's a lot of people in my prior position/field, you know…. When, when you're struggling month by month trying to earn enough to pay off your student loan, it does feel like debt—enslavement.

Renaldo McKenzie: O.K.?

John: You know, a lot of people will immediately, you know, on my side of the aisle will immediately say well it's their choice you know they went to college and it's kind of like, you know, it's a bit, it's a bit insensitive to just, dismiss fellow Americans right away.

John: You know, colleges don't prepare you if you had parents like mine that didn't go to college, you know, you don't have anybody advising you going. And you know, they're like Oh well, that's why the College, they have those advisors anybody that actually went to college is going to laugh at that suggestion right away right because you try. You try to meet with these advisors and they literally have a boilerplate statement that they just read to every student and you're just kind of like okay thanks that didn't really help anything. They don't give enough information on careers you’re going into it. They don't tell you what the salary expectation in this particular field is, they don't help you get a job afterwards, some do, some do. Not all of them, and especially not the ones you know in question, you know that we're very predatory but you know where it was just literally Greenville and you know for those that don't know is an institution that basically promises you to sign up and pay the tuition you're going to get your degree.

Renaldo McKenzie: Right and then your degree.

John: And open up all these doors all these opportunities but you don't realize that you know, in the real world, people already know that some universities to some degree don't really give that degree any real weight and so you end up spending all this money to get this degree and then you know it turns out that it's not really worth the paper it's printed on. And in the business world any contracts where anybody fraudulently induces you into a contract is avoidable contract as like contract one—o—one. You know you can't fraudulently induce or deceive people into a contract yet that's exactly what happened to a lot of these students and so it's not a question of like Oh, should we just like embrace a liberal policy of canceling the student debt? No! Should we enforce basic contract law, which is that they were fortunately induced into getting this degree that's practically worthless on and, unfortunately, you know that Democrats aren't the best at messaging sometimes, and I think it's because they're trying to express what the motivation is from their heart and Republicans, I see a lot of times are very motivated by logic it's just like well.

John: You chose this product, and therefore you have to pay for this product. And I wish that democrats would approach situations from more of a very legal and an analytical and logical standpoint like we understand that everybody's motivated, you know, out of their heart, but I think if they messaged it better, they would be able to reach people on the other side and, and again I think there's been there's been Presidents like that, on both sides Clinton was really good at that and that's why he got elected twice I think so was Obama. And you know, on the right Reagan you know that's why there was Reagan democrats, you know Reagan was able to explain that look conservative policy isn't always just about analytics data and logic like we have a heart too and he was always trying to find that middle-ground.

John: You know and that's why he found that middle ground like with the earned income tax credit expansion of various social programs.

John: And he saw it is like hey this kind of benefits Wall-Street right, you know because it's going to subsidize some of the low wages paid by Walmart and all these companies, and so it even got Walmart I mean even got a Wall Street support.

John: You know, for a lot of its policies, because he was able to find that middle ground, and I really think that you know that's what this country is missing, again, you know is if somebody that can be that that voice of bipartisanship to try to bring both sides together and actually get things done, because if not we're always going to be in the stalemate if we keep electing these extreme ideologues you know, at the end of the day.

John: Of course, it’s going to have a little bit of a concern twist, I’m trying to reduce the deficit, pay down you know the enormous frickin debt and But yeah .

Renaldo McKenzie: And you know, and I saw that you said that, although you’re trying to reduce the federal deficit, but at the same time, you also believe that government have a responsibility to improve social services, and how can we do that, and reduce the federal debt at the same time?

John: Yeah and I'm glad you asked that I'm really glad you asked that because, when people saw my firm taking off it started turning heads, they were wondering how is this because I graduated in 2013.

John: And within three/four years, my firm was netting over a million dollars a year and that turned heads real fast real fast within a few years I was interviewing people from Georgetown I had just graduated a few years prior and.

John:?I was able to do this because I fully leveraged technology?at the end of the day, all it was I, I digitized marketing where is everybody before international tax attorneys would fly to countries put on you know these presentations at the Ritz Carlton or the Hilton And spend all this overhead and to me, I always was trying to find a way how to do things on the lean on how to do things more efficiently, more effectively, and I was able to spend less and generate more, and that was not the prevailing wisdom at the time.

John: The prevailing wisdom was you have to spend more to make more and I completely flip that around and keep overhead and my margins so high on that I got a lot of offers from big firms like Baker and McKenzie, they wanted to onboard me right away to find out what are you doing and how are you doing it.

John: And, of course, when they couldn't figure it out…. I brought it up one time at a conference and this attorney was kind of following me he was kind of curious as to how my firm was growing so fast and he asked me how I spend my marketing money, and I said so, a good chunk of is actually on Facebook and his response, I’m never going to forget his response, he was like you mean the place where my kids hang out, and I was just like you know it's that attitude that’s not generating any revenue. Yes, and it's because what a lot of people didn't know. And what was unfortunately weaponized by trump in 2016, was the power of what's called?micro targeting?on?social media?I don't want to get too far off track, but.

Renaldo McKenzie: It was?

John: Those types of techniques of keeping overhead down, but still maximizing by focusing on efficiency. And I realized, you can bring this to the federal government, you can bring social programs um one of the things that AI tactical operation that we're about to go public with is going to do is, we want to do what Elon Musk did for NASA we want to do for the US Department of Treasury.

John: What we actually want to do when we come into the US Department of Treasury is to start digitizing a lot of the offices, in particular in the internal revenue service we wanted to be able to digitize collections on client correspondence, there's a lot of aspects that can be digitized.

John: Yeah and the fact that I was able to build a company that has now you know, has valued at a hundred and $80 million is proof.

Renaldo McKenzie: That’s s as amazing, that’s what’s I’m trying to do….

John: I know how to actually get this done and the same can be done with social programs.

John: It's just that we keep on using the old school approach to social programs. And it's very costly. It's very inefficient and that's why people get very frustrated with government services right, you know they always equate government bureaucrats with small.

Renaldo McKenzie: Yes, yes.

John: And it's because it is a very accurate sentiment, you know um.

John: But yeah that's the approach that I would bring, which is just bringing a lot of our social programs, a lot of our departments and agencies into the 21st century, reducing that overhead and making it much, much more efficient.

Renaldo McKenzie: Well, this is this is powerful Thank you so much for that, and so you are bringing real life issues you're bringing what you have learned as an entrepreneur, as a successful businessman and applying it to government as a way to make create change and, of course, you talk about the digital issue, the question I wanna ask about digitizing, about the digital world in terms of privacy and security and…?

John: Oh yeah there's definitely those.

Renaldo McKenzie: And You know former President Obama talking about looking at how we can regulate communication and information and I have oftentimes said that social media is the greatest victory for social movements and peoples. What it does is that it decentralized information, control and communication is to make popular what was the monopoly. So in one end we want to regulate information, but at the other end, we have to be careful because regulating information that they don’t limit or control access, because people are suspicious, what is your position on regulation of information and privacy and security??

John: Yeah I mean we have to be careful and that's something that we’re very cognizant of as well and you know there's a code provision 6103 of the internal revenue code, which you know mandates tax payer privacy and yeah it's very it's very difficult um you know one thing that I think that we really need is a you know we have air force, we have army, we have marines now we have space force.

John: I think you need a?digital force, and I think it needs to be its own branch of government, you know, and unfortunately instead, what we've done is we've created these sub agencies with or sub departments within each agency rights of CIA has their digital command NSA… they all have their digital commands so there's no digital force, um, but the problem is that, it's such a new it's like a platform for potential warfare now right like they even talked about cyber warfare and so it's kind of like you know the air force is in charge of the air navy's in charge of the water, Armies for land, but we need it, we do need a cyber force and it needs to be part of the digital, the digital space and that way you get you get all these sub departments from all these various agencies, whether it's the DA. Even the DEA all of them have a really good cyber force put them all together.

John: You know now you've got the best and brightest minds all finally under one roof working together and that's what's very difficult to accomplish the same reason why they realized that even cyber space is becoming its own, almost like a battlefield right and that's where they had to bifurcate now you know the air from zero gravity space, you know and that's what tried to spin off and create space force, which I think was actually a really smart move.

John: I think the real one that's current now and present is digital space and and, unfortunately, that one is it's very fractured.

Renaldo McKenzie: And I you know I published an article talking about the next threat to the world, the next war is on the information and digital front end.

Renaldo McKenzie: Because look what's happening in Russia and China, and so on, and the issue of privacy, information and I talked about the information sharing between countries and the wars between countries can create or escalate even further privacy issues, but I think privacy is a major issue.

Renaldo McKenzie: And I think there's not much policy around security or privacy, I personally speaking, I have had tremendous issue with digital security and privacy and data leak, so that is something I believe that we need to as leaders we need to start exploring that because you have access to the digital and that can create problems.

John: Oh yeah, yeah and just so I’m really clear one thing I agree with well I don't even say, agree with the libertarians because I haven't heard them say this. It has to do with the fourth amendment. The 14th amendment was passed, for example, you know, in the 1860s it didn't really have any teeth to it. Until almost 50 years later, when they decided 100 years ago and they decided to expand the 14th amendment to private actors before it was only seen as applying to the government kind of like freedom of speech right like, yeah shall pass no law abridging you know the freedom of speech or I can't remember the precise wording, but you get the point it limits government involvement not private involvement right so that's why, you know, when big-tech companies engage in censorship it doesn't violate the first amendment. But one of the things that I have advocated for is, we need to extend the fourth amendment to private companies because. Unfortunately, this loophole has been exploited by our own intelligence community and what they've done is they've effectively subcontracted a lot of digital espionage to private companies that then when they violate the fourth amendment they're like Oh well, you know that was them, you know it wasn't contractors and and I think that's that's very unfortunate and it needs to be branded, and that makes me no friend of the intelligence community but I need to call it, as I see it, and it's a problem it's been grossly abused.

John: And I could go on a long time on that but, of course, another one where like people get sensitive is the first amendment I don't pick and choose you know which amendments I like, and I do think that the first amendment is about time that it extends to private companies as well.

Renaldo McKenzie:?Yes.

John: If they're, if they are deemed to be engaged in providing a public domain in a public forum, I believe that it should now, of course, then that sounds like I’m defending Trump and the fact that he's banned from a lot of these programs.

John: Unfortunately, you know, he would benefit from something like this again, I think I never think about the current situation, I think what if the tables are reversed.

John: You know, and you always have to think things of that way and again that's where our founding fathers were always focused on us, you know what happens if you know the other side gets this or you know. So, you get the point.

John: But yeah I really think that the fourth amendment should be extended private actors and that would include a lot of these data companies, so if they violate your privacy rights, you would have grounds to then Sue them in Federal Court.

Renaldo McKenzie: This is quite interesting, you know that I have tremendous amount of questions and people ask me about the issue of subscription.

Renaldo McKenzie: The issue, or the fact that we are now requiring subscriptions, you don't purchase products anymore and pay a one time fee now you rent.

Renaldo McKenzie: And people talk about all that creates more profit, in a sense, because now, you have to Shell out more money, so that affect incomes over time.

Renaldo McKenzie: And then, of course, there are people doing research that looks at the correlation between what customers in society, are now, required to do.?

Renaldo McKenzie: Because now you're not paying a one time fee, you know you're paying fees or subscription.

Renaldo McKenzie: And I wanted to find out what are the views of our political leaders in this as some of the questions, people are asking is how is that so many things are subscription based but it creates more income disparities and poverty in society.

Renaldo McKenzie: Or the whole issue of subscription and fee for service and all that is, that is changing the way in which we look at customers in terms of how they now pay for products and that creates problems for consumer.

John: Yeah, absolutely um you know, and unfortunately I feel a lot of that was initially motivated by tax policy. If you buy a CD-ROM at?Best Buy??for Microsoft word, it’s now based on income, but if you sublicense the technology out to the Netherlands, and then that Dutch holding company sub licenses a subscription fee out, you know so like a temporary license. Then the Dutch source income, even though it's a US customer and so that was initially m, it was actually a tax policy that drove that new design.

Renaldo McKenzie: Interesting.?

John: But they are making more money off of it right, not just $100 or a quick hundred books. You know it's less it's only 15 a month it's 15 months for life, you know. Unfortunately, this is one of the byproducts of Free-Market Capitalism and I think that somebody needs to step in and provide an alternative, but how do you do that?

John: If they are not enforcing anti-trust legislation. Anti-trust legislation for those that don't know. I can go into a long history of why they use the word trust, but it's basically monopolies right.

John: yeah, monopolies are illegal because you're using your power to effectively and unlawfully neutralized competition, and so it's anti-capitalism, when you think about it, it doesn't create competition because the idea of capitalism is competition which allows the best to prevail right so.

Renaldo McKenzie:?Right.

John: But a bunch of burger joints you know, in a mall you know 12 months later. Most of them will go bankrupt and go under right because the one who makes the best meals and has the best customer service is going to be one that prevails that's the theory behind capitalism/monopolies. On the other hand, is the one restaurant sabotaging all the others. So that they go on. And that way you're forced to buy their product, regardless of whether it's good customer service and I think that back in the 80’s and 90’s…. and so on, but what's happening right now is that they're not enforcing this these anti-monopoly laws, why??Because these monopolies got even smarter. They stopped not only neutralizing their competition but neutralizing political opposition and they engaged in lawful bribery through the are lobbying system?so effectively. Again manipulating our democratic processes to further you know entrench themselves, you know as the dominant force within a particular industry and again, this is not going to make me any friends. You know, it is a corporate community and the ones that know that they're engaging in that and they're like okay that’s about how much we operate but, that is the truth exactly how they operate and so it's a multi faceted approach, we need to go after the lobby malls.

John: And the way that lobbying is done it's been corrupted overtime to where basically now it's just legalized bribery that's all it is.

John: And that's all it is and that's why, when I ran my Congressional campaign, I funded it with like 500,000 my own money. I didn't take a single dollar because I didn't want that that type of undue influence, because no matter what any politician says. If somebody, if a group of people and they all work for one company and they're all giving you 25,000 they helped to raise $500,000 if they're basically bankrolling your entire political campaign, you can say you are independent as much as you want, but at the end of the day, if they if they tell you to do something you're going to do it, and you know I feel like a lot of politicians just try to limit their corruption right like well, yeah only only for these groups of people and it's because I kind of agree with them on most of the things and you're effectively like negotiating your soul right.

John: Unfortunately, we need changes to this… it needs to be more tightly regulated. You know, since the times of Kennedy when I feel like it was a little bit better, but that you know, coupled with you know our tax policy which actually drove this this initial subscription based model. So then the enforcement of antitrust legislation protect against these monopolies, breaking them up to allow new competitors to come into the market, I think all those three things combined would would be the way to address that particular problem.

Renaldo McKenzie: Thank you, and I have another question for you as we get ready to wrap up not too long from now, but I have lots more questions. But, who is your greatest inspiration, I read where you said Americans and we can explore that but beyond that I want to, I want to go deeper. And I also want to ask you about a recent tweet on twitter where you said people should sometimes stop looking to or asking?

the government for help with income disparity m, get off your feet, stop asking and start demanding it! I know at Amazon, young people are out there, demonstrating, and then over the weekend young people organized a “stop the violence March” in Philadelphia.

Renaldo McKenzie: So, for you are, you are, you said this and it was quite profound—you said that one of the ways we can create change is to start unionizing and I I study Unions and stated in my book “Neoliberalism…” that Unions are on the decline, and a recent Professor I interviewed suggested that Unions are still weak.??What’s your position on this and what do propose?

John: Yeah, I mean again this is to me, this is free-market capitalism and again with a lot of capitalist you know when we bring up whenever I bring up unions they're like oh well, we don't like that you know.

Renaldo McKenzie: Yes, yes.

John: So you like individual responsibility and you like freedoms, but not many mediums are organized efforts to demand higher wages and better benefits, and so you know again it's a little bit of that; no political hypocrisy, but yeah absolutely you know this is free-market capitalism it's free.

John: And, just like you, as a business owner I’m free to engage in business and my employees are free to organize if they feel that I mistreating them or not paying them properly. All my employees get paid very, very well and have very, very generous health benefits as well, I do that because I want to make sure that you know I take care of them they're healthy and happy they're going to be healthy and happy, making this company more money and we're all going to you know benefit, you know together as a result of it so. That being said, I absolutely support Unions, I think that you know, I’m against the centralization of power in a sense, whether it's in income disparity… I don't like it, whenever things are one-sided; I like things balanced, that's what I'm about, and so, when I see that gross imbalance, you know with companies that are made, posting billions and billions in profits and you have their employees that are going home and checking on their, you know, housing benefits and checking on their SNAP food benefits.

John: To me, that's upsetting and it's because these companies can afford to pay living wages. Yet they, and they have economists, you know, and their financial office that actually take this into account. Well, you know if we paid them at “this level” they'll be eligible for these benefits and so it's still their salaries actually up here and what you're actually saying is, we can effectively shift this onto the government's corruption card right.

Renaldo McKenzie: Right….

John: ….We Just keep going higher and higher we've already just become numb to it um and I disagree with that I disagree with that. I think this burden needs to go where it belongs, which is, you have a duty, you have a responsibility toward your talent for your team, toward your employees.

John: And you know, unfortunately I think it's a result of the the the 80s, you know where things were just very disconnected, for example, this is a concept that most people don't even really think about, but it's small things like this that matter.

John: What do we call the department that's in charge of managing all of the talent and all of your team Members, we call it Human Resources.

John:?When you think about that term, a person, as human resource; what is a resource it is something that you extract, you expend and then there's something that's left over the byproduct, and you just discard it. We're human beings, you know, we're people, we're family, we're TEAM members, husbands, fathers, brothers so on. But calling it calling a person, a human resource is disconnected [from that sensitivity and that value].

Renaldo Mcenzie: Right, yes.

John:?And so, referring to your people as human resources, you know is just about as gross as it can get when you think about it.

John: But yeah, we've just come to accept that term. But that's why even here, we refuse to call it, Human Resources… we call it?Talent Management Department, you know it's just like at the end of day that's what we're doing, we're helping to develop them. We're treating them like family, and again I think it starts with terminology and then from there, we can start changing you know, the way that we do business and conduct business.

Renaldo McKenzie: Okay, you said that some time ago that “I’m probably the only Republican who has been calling for long-term investments in hydro-electric energy for years…” and you went on to say, “everyone wants energy independence, they just don't want more energy companies [more] competition, but the question is you believe that we can continue to drill now, and become energy independent while still being environmentally responsible…So what are your views on the planet the O-Zone layer and global warming, and at the same time developing independence, while exploring solar energy?

Renaldo McKenzie: And a lot of this are new concepts and you're a young American, you're a young Americans and you get to lead the charge and to educate people some more about that, but so I would like to hear your vision?

John: Yeah, absolutely…. Unfortunately, the Republican Party used to be known as as the party of environmentalism. And Teddy Roosevelt was a big environmentalist, he's the one that really advocated for the expansion of the national parks system in the United States and somewhere along the way, I feel like the Republican Party just got derailed you know and equated environmentalism with you know “Tree hugging” and it's just kind of like look it's about, you know, when I when I talked to my fellow Republicans about this, I like to take the Christian angle.

John: Which is that it, you know we are stewards of God’s earth, at the end of the day, like yes, we're Republican or Democrats with this, with that, um, but we also have a duty towards God and duty towards preserving this earth, and all of its majestic beauty I've seen a lot of it and it's gorgeous and I don't want to see it ruined. And even if there's a 1% chance that humans can be contributing to this uh, why not, you know and also let's look at it from a national security standpoint, do we really want to stay reliant on Saudi oil, you know, do we do we really want that um and so, people like will say, like oh there's oil and coal right, you know… but it's like yeah, but if we increased domestic production of the grid. Like, for example, I’ll give you a quick example if everybody tomorrow about a Tesla and sort of driving a Tesla tomorrow we'd have blackouts nationwide.

John: Why, because the grid can't support it because it doesn't, it doesn't create that much electricity yet we'd have to like pump out more coal, and so the only way to really sustain putting all these vehicles on the grid is to start expanding the grid and empowering the grid with more inducing more energy and so that is going to require more wind turbines, you know, and now it's just gotten ridiculous, right, like now—now most people that are anti-green energy, which I hate calling it “green-energy”, its just infinite sources of energy. And with these free infinite sources of energy right that God gave us the wind and the sun, it's the water God’s basically [said] I gave you guys as free energy and you're not using it, what else’s wrong?

John: And so it's like we need to be investing in this infrastructure, you know it's to me it's like, it's God’s infrastructure, let's invest in this, let's expand it and if we had this we'd be able to shift more vehicles onto the grid, and that means less oil. We wouldn't need as much of, for that [growing the grid and shifting more cars on the grid] would again decrease our reliance on these foreign imports of oil and that goes towards energy independence, but what people don't understand, is that energy independence isn't some finish line, right—like, We accomplished it for a few months under Obama, we accomplished it for a few months under Trump. But, something always happens,??why? Because you think the Saudis are fools; they know what we're trying to do and they're always going to try to engineer some sort of international crisis or issue or market manipulation in order to frustrate our ability to become independent.??You know, [for example]… if you see [a] person trying to go clean [off drug addiction] [people who profit of these addicts] is going to try to find a way to to make them, you know, relying on their product, just like the subscription service. You know, they see that you know, there might be new market entrance that are going to offer flat fees again. They'll do anything in their monopolistic power to frustrate that into the those plans. So that being said, energy independence is something that is not just like a one-time process but accomplishing something like that need to then be sustained, because they're going to be market participants out there; Saudi Arabia they're going to do everything in their power to try to frustrate that and try to prevent that from happening.

John: And so, when we view it as a national security issue, I think that would get more conservatives on-board, but like I said, what I’ve generally found is that they don't want to support this because a lot of the people, leading these companies tend to lean left.

John: And so it's like oh no we're just making a new generation of liberal billionaires and they don't want to be part of that and... It is frustrating

Renaldo Mckenzie: … and that's part of the suspicion and now I have three questions—quick question—that some young people ask. This first one is from Zion, she is 17-years old, a singer, songwriter, rapper, producer from Virginia, but now lives in Philadelphia. She said to me, she said this, “What steps are you taking in order to move the people forward? What are you doing for us for the positivity of the people?”

John: I’m so sorry I had an alarm clock continue.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes, she actually says what, what steps are you taking or will you take in order to move the people forward and what are you doing for the positivity of the people?

John: I think it's bringing that bipartisanship back. Okay, I think that's it. Unfortunately, social media and the Internet age, because when you think about the Internet age it’s brand-new, right. It shouldn't be. We've just been given this new service that allows all of us to communicate and what did we do, we all retreated into our ECO-chambers.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes.

John: Instead of communicating with each other, we just, we did the same for anything we were already doing before.

John: Right, yes it’s in the digital's in the digital space um and I think that that's unfortunate. I used to really enjoy shows like?Crossfire?where you'd have somebody representing the Liberals, somebody representing the Conservatives. And yes, each hash out their ideas. They try things similar to that now, but you can tell, if it's a left-wing program they bring in the most ridiculous right-wing person. And then, if it's a right-wing program, they bring in the most ridiculous left-wing person, Right, that way it makes the other side of ridiculous. I’m, what I’m talking about is bringing in intellectuals on both sides and having these public forums and these very respectable public debates. And that way, people get educated people who understand where where the Republicans are coming from on this issues, I still disagree with them, but at least I know that they're not totally ridiculous or they're not motivated out of you know, something evil.

John: I truly believe that everybody, everybody is motivated out of love for this country. We just have different ways we all want to get to where we're going, right? Which is a better country, a better nation, we just have a different a difference of opinion as to what that is and how to get there that's, the only thing, but we all love this country. Look, the far-left, they love this country. Republicans, far-right, they love this country. We all love this country, we just forget we disagree on the means and the end goal, but again, and I think it's what I’ve said is really an important part of my candidacy which is to bridge that ideological divide—bridging that, those ECHO chambers.?

Renaldo Mckenzie: …and I know Obama tried that one, sorry to interrupt you, I think I remember when Obama, Obama became President he wanted to lead by bipartisanship and he wanted to bring everybody together, but the first couple years it was very difficult to get anything through, and so why do you think you…?

John: Exactly and so, when you're talking with people American people, particularly American voters, I think that's that was his golden opportunity and I think he did it extremely well, obviously.

Renaldo: Yeah.

John: But, once you have power you you can't be shy about utilizing it. I felt like unfortunately that that would be my critique of Obama’s first two years in office, yes, is that he was given a mandate and he didn't have the—I’m going to take a lot of heat for this—he didn't have the courage to use it.

John: Yes, I really felt that, that was a missed opportunity on his part right, you know a lot of his plans, his agenda but, of course, when you saw that Trump got that same effective mandate and the guy was, he was not afraid about using it. And A lot of his policies got enacted and he was really able to to reshape and reform the federal government in a very unique in unprecedented ways and a lot of people, of course, on the left were extremely upset. But one thing I’ve always said, hey he was given power at least he had the courage to use it. And using it very, very effectively, and so you know again, there's time when you're campaigning it's it's about enlightening your fellow Americans, bringing everybody together so that they can make a wise and informed decision about who they want to lead their nation. But, after that, when you're given power it's not election mode anymore it's time to use that power, and to put forward your policies and what people voted and believed in it's time to put that into action, you know so, in other words after the campaigning, talk is over, it’s time to put your power into action.

John: And yes, and I feel like that's, unfortunately, where some politicians go wrong again they get in power, and they want to keep talking.

Renaldo: Right.

John: it’s like the time for talking is over like they gave you the power….

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes, you are a man of action, it seems, but, you know I know we've been talking for a minute, but I have another question from some more young people: “what do you believe is the best way to change our Community…?” Well, I guess you've already alluded to that but this was from Jayden a young man, and he says that, he's about 17 years old, he asks, “what do you believe is the best way to change our Community and another young man zachary asks, “how would you change around what's going on…every now and then there's lots of helicopters and sirens, as if we are a surveillance community?” This is a young in Philadelphia, and if you know what’s happening in Philadelphia with killings and violence and policing—violence and violence is on the rise, and recently there was even a stop the violence organized by some of these young people. I was a victim of theft myself and at the same time people are falling into more abject poverty. Tell me would you like to respond to zachary and Jayden here. And again there's the issue of police reform.

John: Yeah, absolutely, I mean so it's what I had mentioned before about how we're becoming a surveillance state and it's because the fourth amendment is I mean, as it applies to the government, has already been severely watered down, and then it doesn't apply to private actors. So you know if you're a government agency, all you have to do subcontract out, you know surveillance to a private market participant and there you go you completely circumvent the fourth amendment. But yes, you know it's it's unfortunate that we you know we have to balance the need to effectively police communities and keep your family safe but you know also, in other words, we need to think of new ways of policing and you know, unfortunately, I can I can see the police departments efforts here, just like hey look we're trying to keep them safe, right. I grew up in the hood, yeah like you know just before actually before I go into this, let me just give a little bit of background on that.

John: Yes, well, people can know that I can relate on. You know, when people say oh What was it like for you growing up? Growing up for me was Saturday night playing basketball in the street with my friends and then having to hit the floor because an Ak-47 started sounding off down the street. Yeah there was a crack house down at the end of my street in Laredo Texas on Elm street, if people want to look it up, if they don't, believe me.

John: My aunt lived at 18 East elm street Laredo Texas, that's where I lived, and right down the street was an apartment complex and there were several times we had drive-by shootings. So, that was my childhood—my childhood was calling the police, with an active gunfire going off and then the police showing up 35 minutes later, 35 minutes later.

John: Now that I live in a very affluent neighborhood and I call the police about seeing a suspicious animal and they’ll be a police, you know there’ll be a police Vehicles outside my front door within three to four minutes tops you know. So, like 160 seconds, they are at my front door. So, I know what it's like I know what it's like.

John: The difference is, I grew up a little bit upset with police officers, because how I felt that they discriminated in their ability to provide effective policing to poor areas.

John: Yes, but then in the 90s, you know as I got older I started seeing how there was over policing. And so, then the police departments were just like, oh well, you know these poor people are never happy right, you know we under police they complain, over police they complain. Well, again it's like what I said before, I’m all about balance moderation, you know, and unfortunately we've become an extreme society where either extreme we're not going to give you any policing or we're going to police the hell out of you.

Renaldo: Yes.

John: We have to find that balance and you know, I would want to look more into that particular issue of what's going on in Philadelphia. Yes, bring it to my attention because I want to see how we can strike that balance but the fact that there are young people, you know complaining about it, wouldn't suggest to me that they've gone to the extreme end now, you know which is over, or like you know how in Chicago at one point, the police threatened to not provide any police.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes, yes.

John: I understand there’s frustration I get it. From the police side and from the Community side, but again I think it's because we're failing to find that balance, that moderation. And so you know, thank you for bringing that to my attention, I want to look a lot more into that but, like I said, I think it would likely stem from an overreaction and yes, the over policing.

Renaldo Mckenzie: You know, you talked about balance and now my next question is going to be, how do we find that balance and you're aspiring to be one of the leaders of the future, to become President, how do you find that balance and what do you or would you do in order to get to that…?

John: Yeah, I mean, I believe that.

John: I believe, with the brain and with the wisdom that God gave me and with all the LIFE circumstances that that he put me in. He gave me a very well-rounded view of the world I’ve been on the far left, I’ve been on the streets marching for living wages and unionizing actual workers. I’ve??been with boots on the ground and now I’ve been on the other side. I’ve been a business-owner. And I’ve been in charge of employees and payroll millions, in payroll and having to decide on how to provide health benefits and in affordable ways for the business that says, you know so now I got to see the other side, like you know oh wow this stuff isn't free you know. Someone gotta pay for it, you know and finding again that balance. And so you know, unfortunately, I don't think it's something that can necessarily be found by anyone other than somebody that has a very well-rounded experience and we need to find that—these well rounded leaders that can look at both sides and find that common ground—it's very hard.

John: But again it's it's something that I have found that I have a knack for; I’m able to sit down with Republicans and get them to quickly see both sides.?Again I’m a Republican, I’m conservative, I’m still going to lean towards my party's policy positions but I’m going to try to find a way to accomplish these goals in a way, that's palatable for Liberals.?So, for example, again Reagan, what did Reagan want to do? He wanted to support Wall-Street. He wanted to see a big economic boom. And so, what did he did… he found a way to subsidize wages for these corporations; governments credit card! How did he do that? The?Earned Income Tax-Credit, a very novel way, now we can look at it in-retrospect, and say, hey that's corporate socialism, right, this corporate handouts. Let's try to find a way like now that we’ve got a healthy economy again let's try to shift it back to companies, but maybe we're about to enter into a recession so maybe we should maintain it for awhile.

John: But it's that type of seeing both sides and fully understanding it that empowers me with the ability to find that middle ground and to stay away from toxic ideology.?Again, I still believe in conservative principles; that's the foundation that's what drives all my policy.?But I’ll always do it in a way, where we can get at least 70-75% of the public behind it and again that was the artful tactic of Bill Clinton, that was the artful tactic of Ronald Reagan, you know, yes there's no question, Ronald Reagan was a Republican, right, he's like the hero. But he was still able to reach out to the other side and get people. And Clinton as well, there's no question, was a Democrat who is a liberal, who was able to reach out to the other side and find ways to get them to buy in to the positions and so, again that's what my candidacy is about. It’s probably not the right time, you know because we're hyper politicized, but it has to start somewhere and it's going to start with my candidacy.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yeah. I’m gonna ask one last question. One older gentleman said oh I’m concerned about my Medicare; do you have any position on healthcare or answer the seniors who I spoke with regarding leaving Medicare where it is?

John: Yeah, I mean,?medicare is great, I want to leave it where it’s??at, as far as our healthcare system, I wanted to do something that was pretty similar but a-little-bit different with a Capitalist twist of what the Brits did with their?National Healthcare system. I wanted to create a?national health care Council,?but kind of like—and this word libertarians hate the the analogy, but this is the only analogy, unfortunately, I can make, but again—like the Federal Reserve.?The Federal Reserve, a lot of people don't know this,?it's really a?brokered-power-sharing-agreement?between the?banking establishment and the United States Government?and there's a whole book I’m a bout it, you know, called?The Creature From Jekyll Island

Renaldo Mckenzie: Jekyll island.

John: Yeah yeah?the creature from Jekyll island?was, it was actually a negotiation that took place on an island called Jekyll island, you know which you know sounds like Mr. or?Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

John: Yes, and what they did is?they created this new system, the Federal Reserve and they shared power between the CEOs of the major banks and then government bureaucrats and together they create monetary policy and set banking policy.

John: And unfortunately, as much as libertarians hate this, it was the best we could do with that time because there was a there was a lot of dangers and a lot of the cons outweigh the pros when you go central and have just a regular US Central Bank on it, I can’t go too much into it for this episode. But you know if people read the book?The creature of Jekyll island,?they would understand,?I want to learn from that. But build something similar, but better avoiding those mistakes that we made with the Federal Reserve and create a national health care Council?and having the national health care accounts putting all those companies together, along with you know government bureaucrats. And what that effectively does is it’s creating a?de-facto single payer system but it's a privatized single payer system.?And so, by doing that, we would be able to dramatically drive down healthcare costs, the power elite that's currently in power, the status quo wouldn't object to it, right because it's further entrenching their power. By pulling from the Council with like the Federal Reserve that's why the banking CEOs accepted it when the Federal Reserve was created because they knew that hey this is making this pretty much like permanent fixtures of it’s economic system, and so this would be the one way where Wall Street would be on board. Liberals would be on board, because there'd be like a, de facto, you know single payer systems—let's do it and, and I think, and it would drive down health-care-costs, and so the entire American public could get behind it.

John: But you know it's it's what they always say the devils in the details, you know so. Yeah, broker this and negotiate in a way, where we're not just thinking of an immediate solution, but the fact that this could be a permanent part of our system for the next hundred and 50 years, we have to make sure we get it right. I felt like they rushed to the Federal Reserve system and that's why they call it?the Creature of Jekyll Island.

John: You know, because you know it. It was just fraught with a lot of loopholes and which opens the door to potential abuses, but that would be my solution and again best of both worlds, you know. Republicans would not object to that, they've actually kind of liked the idea and Liberals would too.?Again, it's not everybody's dream, you know, neither side would be totally happy, but it would be a permanent solution to fixing our national healthcare system.

Renaldo Mckenzie: I agree with this.

Renaldo Mckenzie: And one young man said you caught his attention because he wasn't I mean I asked him about getting student loan. He said “no, I didn’t want that cause when I’m finished in four years what would I owe plus interest,” so he dropped out of of college instead and joined the army; and that was quite interesting. One other young man, you know, because he had to look after his sister’s young kids, dropped out of college and delayed his career and life. And these, people I think that you can connect with them and they with you…, you, you had an experience, where you've seen all that…you've seen all of that happening in society, the vulnerability, those at the margins, different peoples within society are struggling, you speak to that. But having said that, what are your fears as you think about this new thrust in this endeavor; what are you feeling, are you fearful of the future, the present And will you get over them?

John: Okay, I missed the first part because.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Oh sorry, what are your fears and do you think about the future and this new thrust that you are embarking…?

John: Yes, yes um you know my fears is you know, based in history, which is that you know there's that old saying, “don't kill the messenger.” You know, everybody knows that saying quite well, it's so for a reason.

John: It all throughout history, messengers have been killed. And so you know, unfortunately, you know we're trying to bring a message we're trying to say something positive, something good and, unfortunately, some people just don't like being told that and so that's always a concern you know it. But, especially in this hyper/politicized environment, you know we saw things happening like where you know some?Trump supporters were trying to run a Biden bus off the road. Now you know we saw this ridiculousness right, you know, radicalization?of one side, in particular, but, both sides of becoming hyper-politicized and pulled apart to both extreme ends. But it's also roots back to gerrymandering and the Supreme Court has not had the political spine, to do something about it, and to put an end to gerrymandering—tried to create a formula—they'd rather just do this, hands-off approach and watch our Republic erode from from within, and so you know I?have my fears, and I have my concerns about doing this.

John:?I mean the central part of my candidacy is that I'm going to be suing trump in New Hampshire.

Renaldo Mckenzie: I, and I saw and I was I’m so happy you brought that up that's what I wanted to ask….

John:??yeah yeah.

Renaldo Mckenzie: …And you said that only certain people have that authority to do so, and so on and so forth…?

Renaldo Mckenzie: Well, yes, sorry about that.

John: Yeah, so, unfortunately, the Court said, elaborated on this term called?standing, where you have to have a?direct entry?and a voter doesn't have a direct entry. I disagree with that, just out there for all the viewers,?I think that every single American would be a have a direct entry if somebody disqualified was running, but unfortunately the courts have not held that and unfortunately once it goes to the general election, they view it as what's called a political question which is their way of saying we're not going to resolve that.

John: So the conclusion, based on all my legal research is that, it would have to be a fellow Republican Presidential Primary candidate that brings this suit against Trump to allow the federal judiciary, the opportunity to determine the extent to which section through the 14th amendment anti-insurrection disqualification costs applies to Trump and I fully intend on doing that and, as you can imagine, with some of you know his fanatical supporters.

Renaldo Mckenzie: …can you repeat that again, you full intend on doing what?

John: Oh,?I fully intend on suing Donald Trump in New Hampshire, the reason is that, that’s the first Republican Primary, in the country, and so the filing for that will open, I believe the second Tuesday of November 2023 so next year.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes, yes, yes.

John: And I would have to wait, I mean I’m going to be there, like the morning it opens right.

Renaldo: Yes.

John: We’d have to wait until Trump files and then we're both good and then literally at that moment we're going to just electronically file the federal [paperwork] and so at that point that kicks off the litigation, you know between?John Castro Vs. Donald Trump. And it would be the question of whether he was disqualified under Section three of the 14th amendment which says any person that has given aide to comfort or participate in any way to insurrection is in those both hold public office and so we'll see at that point?if the federal judiciary makes a declaration. But I can tell you that you know, the fact that everybody's already rallying behind DeSantis in Florida is evidence that they think Trump is going down in flames.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Okay okay, right.?

John: Yeah, but, yeah that's that's a big part of my my candidacy, but because I view him as poison and toxic and so a lot of people are like Oh, but you're about bipartisanship bringing everybody together, so why are you trying to have him disqualified. But, it's just like look, you can't have toxic poison in the mixture when we’re bringing everyone together, because there's an active element that is trying to prevent that. And you have to neutralize that first once we neutralize that then we can bring everybody together and so, you know, but...

Renaldo Mckenzie: I understand where you're coming from here, so it says here is it that you're about bipartisanship, you believe that, you are against extremism, because you believe that that to get progress, and it will be hypocritical to what you are about if you don't intimidate, there is a process to this, you know the same time, you have to also remove the toxic, while at the same time, think about moving forward from that; it begins with things like the the new believe that Mr trump is part of the toxic and?you believe that he bares the responsibility for what happened in January 6?

John:?Oh yeah, I mean, based on what I’ve reviewed, a lot of the evidence from the committee and I think when they finally put this all together, it's going to be a book, like the 911 Commission report.?I think it's going to be very clear that this was orchestrated starting two days after the election. Yeah, it had to do with the fact that they immediately, they were immediately replacing people in the Pentagon. They were putting people in key positions.?They were changing the authority over who could activate the National Guard, and they were immediately promoted Michael Flynn's brother gave them an x Ray and then put them in the right department, they would oversee and have power over at National Guard and other elements of protection in Washington?DC. There’s, no doubt, a lot of people just don't know this yet, because it hasn't been revealed, yet they were actively trying to overthrow the American republic, they were going to overthrow it that was there that was their goal. Yeah, they decided to back down when they saw that things weren't going as planned, the plan was to zip-tie members hold them hostage, get them to flee and then at that point, make a declaration of a new Republic, they were literally going to overthrow the entire federal government!

Renaldo McKenzie: Yes, wow.

John:?Yes and people just, they think that people like me and others are being hysterical and it's just because they haven't seen evidence, yet, but I think once the evidence is revealed they're going to see how close the American experiment came to completely collapsing.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Collapsing! Oh Thank you so much for that information.?

Renaldo Mckenzie: Where do you draw your greatest inspiration? I know you said from them every single American, and do you have siblings… family and do they inspire you? What drives you when you get up in the morning, what makes you tick and so?

John: Yeah, I mean, I draw my inspiration from a lot of sources—founding fathers—you know—Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, um, you know, I know, most people don't view?Thomas Paine?as a founding father, I do um because it was his writings that you know, led to the free thinking movement on you know Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Teddy Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan… a lot of people.

Renaldo Mckenzie: A lot of people…

John: …I mean, Again I think everybody, you know, because you asked a Republican who’s his/her greatest heroes, right they always say?Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan?right like… it’s??both sides all sides it's, it's everybody, you know, I’m in more of the social realm,?Martin Luther King,??Mahatma Gandhi.?You know, again it's, it's very you know, focusing on the peaceful part, that you can make change.?There are a lot of people that don't believe you can't make change except through violent means?right?like the only real power comes from the barrel of a gun, you know that's a very popular saying.?But, I don't agree with that you know and that's what politics is about—politics is about influencing people you know it's about talking to them,?explaining your side of the story and getting them to slowly agree they might not fully agree, but at least if you can get them to at least, see where you're coming from—that in and of itself is powerful, because now you've made that person more well-rounded and at least they can intellectually disagree with you and understanding your side of the story as well. But it will get them to slightly change their position as well, having new-found knowledge and understanding.

John: Yeah, um so yeah absolutely from a lot of different sources, you know growing up, you know my brother was a big influence on me and he was the one that introduced me to politics and.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Your brother is older than you…?

John: My brother is older than me by four years, and you know when I was in high school he introduced me to the?anti-globalization movement, you know, against the World Trade Organization, The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.?You know the?battle of Seattle in 1999?and all of that, and so that was sort of my introduction into you know our?rigged corporate economy.

Renaldo Mckenzie: And everything about that, all of what you have just said, every single issue that you have spoken about is I n my book?Neoliberalism, Globalization, Income Inequality Poverty And Resistance,?from research I conducted while at Penn, that's because the world, some people don't understand the World Trade Organization, like how others do, especially if you are from the Global South or you have any kind of affiliation with the global South…. You know, maybe they have experienced with the IMF and so on, so forth, so I can understand what you're saying here, but will continue with that and I apologize because.

John: No, no, no..., so yes, yeah so that was my introduction into global-politics and then understanding how our rigged global economy works.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes, yes.

John: And then you know what—to—kind—of—do about it, you know, because again you're always try to paint it as a false false equalization I guess like, I forgot what the term is but basically false equivalence that's it.

John: Yes, because they say oh if you're against our current economy, then you're anti-capitalist, right your socialist, and it's just like, no, no, no.?I there's some market-capitalism and what we have right now in the United States is not free-market capitalism it's rigged “corporatism” [capitalism] there's a difference?if we had risen up, we'd have entrepreneurs being able to start up very easily you'd have a ton of you've had that you'd have a very robust small business economy right. Think of the 1960s, you know, we had more wealth, we had a robust middle-class, because a lot of businesses were local; the local pharmacy you know the local butcher all that and now that's all been replaced with Wall-mart, CVs Walgreens. And just you know that means that when you spend money in your local community, it goes out, it goes out to Wall-Street investors in New York and so on. So, again, you know that's that's what I always tell people because you know once I start talking about Labor Unions and living wages and people think you’re like— oh you're so.

John: But you know that is true, liberty and freedom of contract, And then I tell them if you really want to get into what capitalism, is.

Renaldo Mckenzie: In other words so you're saying that capitalism capitalism that we have now is not the one based on the Protestant Ethic that we have them, the one that promotes individualism and free speech and free and fairness in competition and so on and so forth, so you're saying that by wanting unions and having strong involvement in government and so on, this is important?

John: Yes, oh absolutely absolutely.

John: Yes, yeah yeah absolutely and I?felt like it was really good in the 60s, you know, yeah, but then you know all throughout the 70s, especially the 80s and 90s and 2000s you had this consolidation of corporate power,?and I know that… look naturally, in a capitalist economy, you're going to have corporations and merge right because they provide their product or better service. Yes, but then again like I mentioned before you get into that own competitive behavior where you start sabotaging your competitors you start abusing the lobbying process to create new legal barriers to new entrance um you know and and again it's it’s me having later in life studied at?Harvard Business School?and starting to understand how they do and manipulate the system later that I started understanding like oh okay so that's how they got to the position that they're at now, and so the question is how do we resolve it now well that's we have the laws on the books, the anti-monopoly balls.?Yes, forcing them, because every time we think about enforcing them against Google or Facebook or at Apple or any of these corporate Goliaths, they start pumping millions of dollars in federal lobby and they buy out state legislatures, and they bought out the entire US Congress already.

John: So, yeah I?mean it's, it's unfortunate but, like I said, my background, my knowledge and with my understanding, I know how to approach this. I know what needs to be done to actually fix the system. And it would be in a way, where we could definitely get bipartisan support to rally behind it.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Great and then, finally, you just said something about companies being bought out… and one young man said to me, asked, well he said, I wanna, know his plans before he [John] gets contaminated…? And this is a good question. He said that other people have great intentions and pure—pure—intentions and then, then they get into office….

John: Yeah, yeah, I get that, power, power corrupts, and then I mean the lobby the lobbying system in Washington DC was specifically created m to give the power elite control right, I mean it's like I don't want to get too far off topic and I?want to focus on staying pure?but I’m here in Texas, for example, a lot of people are surprised to find out that all of our judges are elected, even our Supreme Court judges are elected. And so people ask, “why?” Well, you have to go back to the founding of the Republic,?the land-owners, which were the aristocracy at that time the elite status quo, they did not like the idea of an independent judiciary So what did they do, they made judges electable why. Because through elections and bankrolling their campaigns, you can effectively control the judges and so think of.?The same concept applies to the?lobbying system,?why was?the lobbying system created to begin with, it legalized bribery, well, it was created, because of the elite wanted; they were afraid of people in Washington DC being too independent. They wanted to have a way to corrupt, them and to erode their independence?with the time and I knew this from the get-go, which is why my first, both my campaigns for Senate, which was more of a PR stunt, I’ll be honest, the Congressional race, there was more serious, you know I spent over half a million dollars of my own money. But I did not take a single dollar and that specific by design I don't want to be corrupted and that's me acknowledging that money is a corrupting influence. With as much as I say that I’m pure it would become difficult right if somebody has given me to $3 million to a super PAC for me to not answer that person's phone call or not to give that person special access, special preferential treatment.?And that is why I decided from the get go I need to focus on my business, But first, build a successful company, sell it for everything it's worth, and then use that wealth that I generate to run an entirely independent campaign and so that is why in this campaign, I want to put a lot of money into New Hampshire to see how I perform.?But, yeah it's and it's all going to be contingent on New Hampshire to see how we… how or if we can get at least the top three.

Renaldo McKenzie: Okay.

John: I might consider I think either way we're going to go all the way to the Convention, right, and I can get into strategy later, but I think that I’m running now, and I definitely want when we have to do New Hampshire. But I’m still young. I’m 38 years old and I fully do...

Renaldo Mckenzie: 38 Oh, you know I said I told everyone that you were 44 but you're 38, 38, 38—younger—than, you are younger than me…?

John: Yeah, but I’m definitely not, this is not the first time and last time I’m. And I think this uh this may become a thing for me, you know. I am running until the American people feel fit to select me to lead them.?

Renaldo Mckenzie: And what's different about this than the last?

John: …um well you mean the Congressional run?

Renaldo Mckenzie: I mean, what is it what's, what's new about it.

John: Oh, what's new? Yes, so I mean as we've been putting together the strategy and we've had volunteer come up as volunteers in New Hampshire, Iowa, California, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada—I mean we have people all over the place.?Yes, I’m putting together the campaign infrastructure and that's why some people are asking like, Oh, is this a serious run? I would not be spending I’m a very busy man.

John: Yes, I’m not only building the company, but I’m also setting the ground, and this is the reason why I’m starting so early. I know I’m not going to get any party support, right, from the Republican National Committee. So, I’m gonna have to do all this on my own. Yes, but I’m already putting together the campaign infrastructure to make this possible and?I’m also letting my campaign volunteers know this isn't a one off presidential campaign.?I hope we get lucky, and that we can come out on top in New Hampshire and that might drive the momentum. There might be a sudden like Obama-type surprise you know where….

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes, yes.

John: But, I do also acknowledged that the likelihood of that is very low.?So, I’m letting all of our volunteers know that I’m in this for the next 24 years—there's going to be multiple presidential campaigns. Until again, we can convince the American people that our ideas are solid that we can actually get stuff done.?And when we start getting away from this divisiveness and start coming together again as a country they're going to be looking to leaders that were the leaders of that bipartisan movement—that helped achieve that and that's where we feel that we can then merge and then run a very successful presidential campaign and then hopefully be in charge of the rule.

Renaldo Mckenzie: If people want to get involved in your campaign, where can they go? And on?Community Development, a lot of people in communities, they see that as much as we have talked about stimulus and so on and so forth, communities it’s as if the investments, the financing, funding are still not reaching the communities, and people are not getting the funds. People like Shaquille O'neal says that he had set up a “Mama and Papa funding or loans program but it's still not reaching them. There's so much talent in communities and I, and I do research as well, anthropological studies where I go into community, I go into cities, I do comparative studies, I go into communities and I asked hundreds of questions to hundreds of people. I get involved in the Community, when I see what's going on and it's not reaching them. So much talent and so on, you know, is there any plans that you have in terms of access and reach and just to get or really connecting with people in terms of business at the community levels?

John: Yeah, yeah absolutely and it's like what you said. um you know the difference between you and I and others, is that we roll up our sleeves and we go out there, you know, I didn't hire a bunch of people to try to do organizing for me when I was in college, I went out, and I did it myself I started knocking on doors meeting with sanitation workers for the city and convincing them to sign a Union card.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes.

John: You know, I went knocking, door-to?-door, you know, fast food restaurants and trying to get them to sign up for the service—employees international. But a lot of other people don't do that, they don't meet people where they are at, boots on the ground, you know. Roll your hands and get your own hands dirty, and I think that's unfortunately what a lot of people don't do. And so you know, unfortunately, that means that a lot of money just ends up getting wasted on the inefficient administration of those funds, and then they don't actually end up hitting the Community. The difference between, again, me and others, is that I would actually go out into communities, I would do like a boots on the ground inspection. And unfortunately that's that's, the only way that it can be done. It requires a lot more legwork. But yes, but if you want to see your vision come to fruition, you have to be willing to put in the energy and that's what I’ve generally found in politics, there's a lot of passion, but there's not enough actual boots on the ground—energy being done.

Renaldo Mckenzie: You seem like a?Man of??Action—getting things done…?

John: Absolutely absolutely I mean you have to have a good plan.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Right!

John: So, you don't want to get in there without a plan. But, it's again balance, you know?I found that there are a lot of leaders out there that are too obsessed with precision, they want everything to be to be accurate before they pull the trigger. But then, a lot of times that obsession with precision can lead to inaction, but then there's entrepreneurs like me, right, that we just like sometimes roll, roll the dice first, ask questions later and then that's, you know, that's that's the extreme and, and so what I’ve generally found, being in both politics and business, is to find that middle-ground um you know, where, where you can do the planning, but also, you have to have a clear red-line that by this date we're pulling the trigger so do the best you can planning, but then you eventually have to execute.?And again, you have to actually be boots on the ground inspecting these communities and making sure that the funding is actually reaching them. And so, so yeah again having personally experienced that you know, I think it puts me in a really good position to do, and a lot of people don't like this, you know micromanaging you know they viewed micromanaging as a bad thing. And the business can be a bad thing, sometimes um, but I think in government as especially as an Executive being you know the Executive of the Executive Branch, you have to micromanage, you have to make sure you know your agencies are doing what they're told because you know these agencies have employees that do not agree with your political views. And this is what is sometimes referred to as?bureaucratic resistance; Biden is experiencing this right now with Trump holdovers. And Obama experienced it for some of the Bush holdovers. You know, you'll always have the bureaucracy, and these are just ordinary people that don't agree with your political views and you're trying to implement the policy and they're going to do everything they can to derail it. And so again, you know as an executive, you need to be at those departments, you need to be in those communities and making sure that your policies are actually being effective. It’s also that understanding, that knowledge that I would bring to the table of being able to make sure that, you know, nobody's screwing with our agenda.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes, yes, oh great thank you so much; guys, for those of us who are just joining us we're here with?the 2024 Presidential Candidate John Anthony Castro and it’s refreshing! A young man who is very experienced, who has tremendous hope and dreams and coming up from a grassroots organization, and he's taking the world by storm so much vision, so much passion,??so many ideas man. And how can people get involved in your campaign?and what and what you're doing?

John: Oh yeah just go to?johncastro.com ?and I’m really big on on Twitter right now so.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes….

John: You know I would invite people to Twitter, I know everybody's really upset right now with Elon Musk taking over.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yeah yes.

John: But I just say,?look, you know, you're not going to win over people by staying in an ECHO chamber and, if anything good is going to come out of Elon Musk, it's going to be that he forces everybody into a room together and, yes, some of us dislike each other.?Nobody can tell me they dislike Trump more than me I’m literally making my entire campaign about suing him.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Right.

John: You know so, yes, you know don't?nobody can ever accuse me of liking Trump but, I don't I don't mind if he comes back on Twitter yeah he's going to use it to try to race bait he's going to use it to try to subvert democracy.?Yes. But we're strong; let's confirm them, let them come to us let's engage. Let's talk with them and not to troll them, but we had to try to educate and try to learn it. And enlighten them. And I’m not afraid to back down from a fierce debate but I’ve generally found that?social media?has done that, to a lot of people they're afraid of others that oppose their views and again, I think that that's one good thing that could come of it. Which is that it could help bring us back together again forces us to talk to each other, and then you know, hopefully, things will get better.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Thank you so much, and you have the last word, do you have anything you'd like to say to anybody here or to the audience and we’d be glad you’re seek to become a great leader in this country.

John: Yeah, just, you know?don't get discouraged with short term losses. You know when Trump got elected you know I know a lot of people felt really demoralized wondering where this country was headed, But, I also feel that it was a lot of complacency, you know, they elected Obama and then everybody just felt like Okay, I can go home now no you can't go home.?You know, you need to continue pushing, it's a never ending struggle and you need to constantly stay engaged, and you just constantly stay involved. You need to be in it for the long-run, right, like I’m not gonna if I, if I lose in 2024 I’m not going to get discouraged and you know I’m going to come back and again…I’m going to keep coming and coming, yes, until I die.

John: So, you know, you have to, you have to understand and have that long-term strategy, because you're going to get very quickly exhausted, very quickly demoralized and you're going to detract from politics, right, you'll see that immediate gratification that immediate short-term. So, I would just say that you know you got to take the losses with the wins and it'll make the wins much better when you get there!

Renaldo Mckenzie: Good! Thank you so much, I am I’m inspired by you and I’m a young man that's trying to do that building an organization and a a personal brand and it hasn't been easy….

Renaldo Mckenzie: But, I’m inspired by you I’m inspired by what you have said and and I, and I am wishing you all the best and guess what I know that we will find other opportunities to connect I hope.

Renaldo Mckenzie: I invite you to come back on the show, and as we grow and as we get better and bigger and for those of us who are listening to the show Thank you so much.

Renaldo Mckenzie: This is the neoliberal Corporation, serving the world today solve tomorrow’s challenges and and you can reach us at?https://theneoliberal.com , and support us at?https://anchor.fm/theneoliberal/support . Thank you so much, and you will be able to view clips of this podcast as well as on our YouTube channels and various feeds and, of course, on various channels and podcasts streams. Thank you so much, and have a great day.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Alright, so that is it for those who are listening well Okay, thank you.

John: Yeah absolutely Thank you.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yes, man, and I hope you do come again, and do, and I will send a copy of it I'm going to edit it and listen to it and listen with your copy of it well okay.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Absolutely, thank you man.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yeah and I hope we get to we get to connect in real life.

John: yeah definitely definitely I’ll let you know next time I'm in DC maybe we can grab lunch.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Yea man, yea man, and I believe that you are going to do well Okay, thank you.

John: Thanks So much. I appreciate it.

Renaldo Mckenzie: Take care.

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In Summary:

The interview was almost 2 hours long and we broke the interview up in two Parts, A and B. In Part A I lead the discussions with some general questions about who John is, his, childhood, and started to explore his platform and his plans for America. In Part 2, we continue the interview but included several recorded questions that a few individuals asked me to put to John.?

In Part A, he stated emphatically that the student interest deduction is crap, because as long as you’re paying student loan, you shouldn’t pay back taxes. Secondly, his company, Castro and Company which started AI Tax (an international Tax law firm) is now valued at $180, 000, 000 (AI Tax stands for Artificial Intelligence in terms of Tax planning). Thirdly, he beautifully highlighted the difference between Democrats and Republicans. He said that Democrats messaging is usually based on the “heart” while the belief is that the GOP bases its arguments on logic and legality. He suggests that there needs to be a balance or a middle ground, and that’s what we need someone who can bring people together and bridge the political and racial divide. (Which in my estimations can only be resolved by “stop thinking Race.” He stated that he is at a very unique position given his experience with life on all sides. He responded to a question I asked: How do you plan to improve social services while being fiscally responsible? He replied saying that this is possible because as a young man that is of the twenty-first century he has found leveraging technology, as a way to realize those two goals since he has done it with his business which has grown rapidly in just a few years. He went on to say this facilitates the ability to spend less and generate more. On the matter of information, security and privacy, he promoted the idea of a “Digital Force” like the military and various branches that prospects various aspects that can pose threats. In fact, he states that the 4th Amendment needs to be extended to private companies, so that private individuals can now sue if these companies violate their users privacy and security. What was really telling and interesting was his view that Trump should not be banned from Social Media because this threatens free speech and states that we must explore other ways to discipline individuals who cause insurrections, which he discusses more fully the issue of Trump in Part B. On the issue of anti trust, he believes that these laws need to be enforced including enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, and asserted that monopolies are against the de-centralization of power & underscored the importance of the Human not as a Resource, But as Talent, for then we will not think of the human as a way to discard, for then he the human would be treated as family. We explored the issue of Energy Independence which he is one of his platform plans, where he believes that we have a responsibility as stewards of God’s Earth. He stated that the GOP, use to be known as the party of Environmentalism & Teddy Roosevelt. But that the GOP got derailed equating environmentalism with “Tree Hugging,” which I have said is a result of the poor messaging & the issue of language which John alluded to as well.??He stated that on the issue of drilling, we must develop a prudent way of transitioning from coal & oil to solar energy. One way to do so is to grow the super structure, or grid, for the more we grow it, the more we can slowly do without oil & create innovative ways of producing energy that ultimately saves the planet. But it’s a process.?

In Part B, we posed several questions from the public who recorded questions for Mr. Castro. One powerful question came from Zion, a 17-year old young Philadelphia resident who is voting in the next elections. She asked: “what are you doing to promote POSITIVITY, and to move the country forward. John answered quite interestingly enough reiterating his approach to lead in bipartisan way; “we all love this country but we all disagree on the means and the goals. Bridging this ideological Divide is the most important aspect of my campaign. I challenged him on this saying, well Mr. Obama tried that at first and failed, how do you expect to be any different? John hesitated a bit, then provided an answer that was rather academic and erudite. He said quite intricately that “Obama had power but did not have the courage to use it. It was a missed opportunity on his part.” He went on to say that “Donald Trump on the other hand got power was not afraid to use it … at least he had The courage to use it.” Mr. Castro said, which was quite ingenious and effective, “put Power into action, that’s the problem you know, [people] get into power and wanna keep talking.”?

I posed two more questions I got from two high school seniors: what’s the best way to change our community and to avert turning us into a surveillance state?

John and said quite remarkably saying we need to think of new ways of policing he said he grew up into the hood and at the end of the street was a crack house at the bottom of Elm Street there were active gunfire going off and when we called the police they would take 35 minutes but now I’m living in an affluent area and if there’s a problem and we call the police they arrive in five minutes. John went down to say that there is an inability to provide effective policing we are either over policing or under policing, we are very reactive and need to find a balance.

I followed up with a question: how do we find the balance??

John responded pointing to his experience, he said that “I am well rounded, I’ve been at the far left, been unionizing been a worker, employee and now I’m on the other side. I’m an employer a business-owner. I’ve seen both sides, so, I am at a very unique place to be able to bridge the divide.” With profound passion he said emphatically, I’m a well rounded leader who can find a common ground. I am Conservative but I’ll find a way to pass policies that make it palatable and I will show how it was done with the earned income credit.“ Then as if to switchgears he said “stay away from toxic ideology I believe in republicanism and will find a way that includes the other side and find ways to get them to buy in!”?

I then posed another question that came from a senior who was concerned about his health care and had a question for Mr. Castro. He said please leave Medicare where it is and was concerned and wanted to know his position on Medicare.

Mr. Castro responded in a comforting way as if he was speaking to the gentleman directly. He said, “I will leave it where it is.” But will create a national healthcare council resembling the Federal Reserve structure, where banks and governments share an equal stake, but will avoid the mistakes. He pointed to the book, “The Creature of Jekko Island.” He went on, even to recommend further, a “de-factor—single—payer—system, that is privatized that will drive down health-care costs.?

I then asked Mr. Castro what are your greatest fears and his response was quite telling. He said “don’t kill the messenger,” and pointed that during the last Presidential elections it was becoming dangerous as there were several attacks in campaigns by the other side. This was a very important issue because he stated that he plans to censor Donald Trump at the New Hampshire Primary and will bring a suit against him on the second Tuesday of November 2023 for giving aid and comfort to the January 6 insurrection. He said that “Donald Trump is poison and toxic” and that “one cannot have poison and toxic when you are bringing people together, one must remove the toxic which is Donald Trump. He believes that Donald Trump bares some responsibility in the insurrection and stated that it was orchestrated or planned days before the insurrection. What was breaking for us here at The Neoliberal was when he stated that “they were actually trying to overthrow the republic… they were literally trying to overthrow the federal government,” and that this was called the American experiment, (which I (the host) estimate believe resembles the Russian special operation that Russia or Vladimir Putin is conducting in Ukraine right now).?

I asked him what were his greatest inspiration or influence in his life. He stated that he draws inspiration from everyone, as there are values one can appreciate from various peoples.??This is important, he continues here saying, “politics is about influencing people and talking to people so that they can understand you. He also drew inspiration from his older brother where he developed an interest in the anti-globalization movement and the Seattle protest against the IMF and the World Bank and understood how the rigged corporate economy works. He stated that there’s a “false equivalence” in that if you’re against Rigged multi nationalism you’re labelled anti-capitalist. But what we have is not Free Market, but Rigged Multinationalism.” He stated that the capitalism we have today is not the one we have of yesterday (which I interrupted him to say that’s exactly the point I wrote about in my book “Neoliberalism, Globalization, Income Inequality, Poverty and Resistance.”) He went on to say that we must Protect our capitalism, alluding to the fact that in the 1970’s there was this consolidation of market power, (in which Walter Licht explored in his book Labor Economic History of America).?

I then posed a final question to Mr. Castro which came from a young gentleman in his late twenties. The young man asked: “how do you stay [pure] and uncontaminated as people usually are bought once they get into??office??

John responded, revealing that that is why he built his successful company so that he can use the money to finance his campaign and has used most of his personal funds to finance his campaign.?

As we came close to wrapping up the interview, I throw out some other questions around:

1. Community Development: I asked “I study people in community at the local levels and notice that despite the efforts to help and fund small businesses in communities, it’s still not reaching the people who need it. How can we resolve this issue to ensure that these programs reach the targeted population?

He replied: we need to “get our own hands dirty, roll up our sleeves… and monies gets wasted on too much administration. There needs to be boots on the ground!” Further, on this issue he stated that we need to “micromanage agencies from bureaucratic resistance,” which is also an obstacle for many Administrations getting their plans to work at the agency levels. Hence, we will assume that he will ensure that agencies are micromanaged to ensure that his plans are reaching the peoples within communities if elected.?

As we get to the end of the interview, I asked about Elon Musk’s take over of Twitter. He said: “I’m not against it, if anything, good is gonna come from Elon Musk is that he literally forces everybody into the room together… some people are afraid of people who oppose their views…”??which he says is anti-bipartisanship.?

Finally, we ended the interview with a message to those with big dreams and aspirations. He said, “don’t get discouraged with short-term, losses, we need to continue??pushing, constantly staying engaged, don’t give up… having a long-term strategy is [vital] or you will be discouraged, and one must take the losses with the wins!”?

Renaldo C. McKenzie,

Author?of Neoliberalism, Globalization, Income Inequality Poverty And Resistance,

President?of The Neoliberal Corporation?

Producer, The Neoliberal Round

HTTPS://theneoliberal.com

HTTPS://renaldocmckenzie.com

HTTPS://anchor.fm/theneoliberal

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