Bitcoin Is Dead
Welcome to Bitcoin is Dead, the ultimate Bitcoin variety show where host Trey takes you on a journey through the ever-evolving world of Bitcoin. Each episode brings new personalities, fascinating locations, and insightful conversations with politicians, educators, and innovators shaping the future of Bitcoin. Whether you're a seasoned Bitcoiner or just starting your journey, tune in for thought-provoking discussions, unique perspectives, and a deep dive into the ideas and people driving the Bitcoin revolution.
Bitcoin Is Dead
Lt Gov Candidate Hal Weatherman on Bitcoin, God, and all things NC | Bitcoin is Dead
We explore the profound importance of self-sufficiency, examining how modern dependencies—whether jobs, substances, or social media—shackle true freedom. With Al's insight, we uncover the challenges that young graduates face, often burdened by debt and dependent on their parents. We emphasize the value of trades and practical skills, advocating a shift towards a dignified life filled with purpose and independence. This conversation aims to inspire a generation to break free from societal dependencies and take control of their destinies.
In an enlightening discussion, we blend the concepts of Bitcoin, financial literacy, and independence, drawing connections to biblical principles of property ownership. Al shares his visionary ideas for transforming abandoned textile mills and landfills in rural North Carolina into Bitcoin mining hubs, creating a new revenue stream without additional taxes. We also address critical issues such as income tax, the Federal Reserve, and student debt, underscoring the paramount importance of financial independence. Stay updated on Al's journey across North Carolina through his social media platforms and website, and don't miss this episode packed with innovative strategies and insightful perspectives for a self-sufficient future.
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Welcome back to the Bitcoin is Dead podcast. We are sitting here today with Al Weatherman. I've heard a few ladies call him the hot weatherman, but I'm not going to talk about that. We also have Tom the tax man, jones and me, trey Carson, host of the Bitcoin is Dead podcast. Al, how are you Tell us about what you got going on?
Speaker 2:Doing well and thanks for having me. And you know we've been on the road now for 18 months, almost 18 straight months. I'm the Republican nominee now for Lieutenant Governor here in the state. But of course we started out 18 months ago. I was in an 11-man crowded primary field so we had to campaign, you know, for 16 months to win the primary. But then I was challenged to a runoff by the second place finisher and so that cost us two more months of time traveling the state and we ultimately defeated him in 99 of 100 counties and we won with 75% of the vote. So I think I'm very well positioned as the nominee going into the fall to have a really good shot to win this race. I have a Democrat opponent, obviously. Her name is Rachel Hunt. She's you know I'm conservative. She would be a self-described liberal, urban liberal politician from Charlotte-Mecklenburg and I think we match up very well against each other. I like my chances. I'm actually up in the polls right now, which I'm not that I put a lot of stock in polls, but it's good to see that you're up and not down and and things are going well. You know we that kind of.
Speaker 2:The cornerstone of my campaign is travel. The first fruits of my time, my labor, my efforts are invested in traveling the state because I feel called to run this race and I feel called to run it a certain way and I'm trying to connect with people as much as I can, one-on-one, have conversations like this, real conversations, unfiltered, unedited. I do Q&A all over the state. I was the only candidate out of the 11 candidates who ran in my primary who went to all 100 counties. I went to 35 counties five times or more. I went to 10 counties 10 times before we stopped counting. So we don't count that anymore. And so we've done a sizable amount of travel, even since then. And as we were talking off air, we were talking about just this week alone, like on July 4th I think I'm doing four parades that one day, by the way, especially 98 degrees on July 4th and we have a big campaign bus, but I don't ride in the bus. In the parades, we walk either in front of it or behind it. So you know this is what it's like a typical day and I love it.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to lie to you.
Speaker 2:I love our state, I love it.
Speaker 2:It would be my honor to be your lieutenant governor, in part because I love our greatest asset and our greatest asset are our people.
Speaker 2:I really believe that, and so I get to travel the state every day and to meet with our greatest asset our people every day. And I get to meet them, from the janitor to the CEO and everywhere in between, and I count it great joy that I have this opportunity for this window of time win, lose or draw. I get to go through the state and have really meaningful conversations with people at all levels that I might never have that opportunity again, and it's certainly not missed on me that it's an opportunity that most people will never have. It's an experience that most people will never have in their life to travel the state every day, to go to all 100 counties, to learn your state intimately intimately, because when you're done with this process, you know your state, you know its strengths, you know its weaknesses, and it just gives you a perspective that only a handful of people really have. And so I really enjoy it and but I hope I win, I hope it's all not in vain.
Speaker 1:I hope we we pull out a victory and because again, it would be my honor to serve the people of this great state. To my knowledge, there's not been a Democrat lieutenant governor in over a decade or so right? Is that accurate?
Speaker 2:Well, so, yeah, dan Forrest, you know I ran. Dan Forrest was your previous lieutenant governor and I was Dan Forrest's chief of staff and I ran all his campaigns. So I ran his 2012 lieutenant governor race, where we won. We were only the second Republican elected to the office of lieutenant governor since 1896. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:So when we won in 2012, with the exception of Jim Gardner, who won in the 80s, in the early 80s, mid 80s that was it. 80s in the early 80s, mid-80s, that was it. So you know, jim Garner Republican. Dan Forrest Republican. Mark Robinson Republican. So there's only been three Republicans elected in state history. And so, yes, you're correct, but historically, the seat was held by the Democrat Party. But, for that matter, historically, all of the council of state seats all of them, all of the duly elected statewide officials Department of Insurance, department of Public Instruction, agricultural Commission, attorney General all of them for the entire history of your state up until roughly 2012, really, with only a few exceptions were held by Democrats, and now it's almost completely reversed. The norm is, the assumption is they're probably going to go Republican. There's no reason to think that trend is not going to play out this year as well, and we're certainly putting forth the work to make sure that we maintain Republican control of the lieutenant governor's office.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to make the assumption that you win. You serve a successful four-year term. What do you think the state looks like after your first four years?
Speaker 2:Well, I think the general assembly Republican-led general assembly has done a great job to make us a business-friendly state in so many different ways. I remember when the state was under Democrat control, the GA went Republican in 2010. We started winning statewide races in 2012. So ever since 2010, you know, the General Assembly has done great work of lowering the corporate income tax rate, lowering individual tax rate, removing a lot of excessive regulations, regulatory burdens that spurred job creation when they removed them, and so when we've done that, you know, despite having some Democrat governors who've tried to veto so much of the things that have led to our success. So, you know, I think one will be. You know, four years from now, if I'm elected, what would it look like four years from now? A lot of it on the business side, on the tax climate side, will look the same. We'll continue the good work that's already being done.
Speaker 2:My personal passion is, you know, I have a burning desire to drive a new generation of people into the trades, and you know, if I could do one thing, you know, in the limited window of time, that, and you know, if I could do one thing, you know, in the limited window of time, that the people of this great state and the good Lord gives me, if I get four years, and that's it. Four or eight years, you're in that window. If I could do one thing, I'd like to create a two and two degree, a specialized degree to help remove the stigma of men and women who work with their hands, to help remove the stigma of men and women who work with their hands. I would like to see a new generation of people, when they graduate from high school, have the option to go get their certification and or associate degree, or both, from one of our 58 community colleges and transfer that degree over to a four-year university in the UNC school system, one of the 16 UNC school systems, and they get a stripped-down degree. They don't have to take French, they don't have to take English, they don't have to take world history. They don't have to take any of that. They've already decided what they want to do. They want to be an entrepreneur, they want to own a trade-related business. So give them a stripped-down degree in graphic design, in marketing, in budget, in finance, business, and combine those two degrees and certifications that come with them into an entrepreneurial trade degree so that they can say you know, did you graduate college? Yeah, I graduated from Chapel Hill.
Speaker 2:What was your degree? In Entrepreneurial trades Plumbing. I majored in plumbing and they have a college degree, but they have a skillset. They don't have some degree in Egyptian poetry. They don't come out of school a hundred thousand dollars in debt and they're going to have no problem finding a job. And if they don't want to find a job, they just start a job, because they are skilled workers and they can hang their own shingle and go out and be a plumber or be HVAC, or be a commercial welder, be an electrician, whatever it is they want to do.
Speaker 2:And you know, I just think that's where we need to be right now as a society. And you think about the world you live in, if for no other reason, think about AI. You know artificial intelligence and think about you know. You hear these horror stories and I think they're real. By the way, I think we're on the cusp of another industrial revolution and it's going to be almost overnight. It's going to happen so quickly, it's going to be a blink of an eye and you're going to see whole industries of people laid off and they're going to be not blue collar, they're going to be white collar. You're going to see paralegals overnight. How many hundreds of thousands, if not several million people are paralegals in this world Overnight, limited? Why do I need you? We've got artificial intelligence that'll do that. And so you start thinking about the world we're about to enter into. We are actually entered into it now, and I can tell you one thing AI can't do. It can't unplug your toilet when it's stocked up, and so I think it's a great time to start pushing people into working in the trades. But let's give this mom and pop mechanic, let's give this mom and pop machinist, let's give this mom and pop plumber the tools they need so that when they go into that profession, they don't see themselves as a mom and pop. They see themselves as a startup plumbing operation that has a goal to hire 10 plumbers and become a very successful entrepreneurial business. And oh, by the way, what's your business in plumbing?
Speaker 2:You know, I had a plumber one time, a guy he did. This is where I picked up all this. It was years ago. At the time he was 34 years old, we were on the Eastern part of the state, he was a commercial plumber, not residential. And you know he? He said he was a Marine, uh, he got, he got out of the, out of the Corps, he, he, um, he took his GI bill, he went to NC state nothing against NC state. But he said it wasn't for me. I realized it wasn't, it's just, it's I, just I didn't want to do it.
Speaker 2:And um came back and he said he had an elderly friend, uh, who ran a plumbing business whose sons did not want to go in the business. So he said I'll do it. And because he didn't want to be behind a desk and he was a commercial plumber, had several big corporate accounts and went in there within five years, the guy's 65 and saying you know, I'm thinking about retiring. My boys don't want the business. Why don't you do a structured buyout of my company and then you own it? And when I met him he was 34 years old and he was very humble. But he said I'm just going to be honest with you. I'm a multimillionaire, I've got like 48 plumbers that work for me. And he said y'all were doing it all wrong.
Speaker 2:I was with Dan Forrester, our previous lieutenant governor. We were meeting with him and we were talking about how do we drive people in the trades. He said you're doing it all wrong. You don't go to a 17-year-old in high school in the world we live in today that glorifies money and glorifies commercialism and glorifies materialism, and say you know what, son, you know what you need to go? Do you need to go be a plumber? Because all that kid hears is I'm going to have a plunger and clean out crap out of toilets. That's what you want me to do, that's what you think of me, and so what you do is you go to that kid and say do you want to be your own boss? Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Do you want to have people that work for you? Do you want to call the shots? Yes. Do you want to make six figures a year? 100,000 guaranteed a year? Yes. Do you want to do that? Yeah, go be a plumber. See the difference Big, big marketing push there, big difference of how you sell that to somebody.
Speaker 2:And they're like well, that makes sense, why don't I do that? But I think people are putting it together now. I mean they're questioning why do I pay all this money? Why do I pay $150,000 to go to a four-year degree? Get a degree that can't lead to a job. If it does lead to a job. It leads to a $40,000-a-year job where, for six months, you could get certified in a trade that could earn you $100,000 a year. Why would you do it? And people are questioning it now and they're like, well, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 3:And so you wealthy, even though I'm a capitalist and I'm fine with that.
Speaker 2:My ultimate goal is I want to drive people to be self-sufficient. I feel called to run this race. I feel that part of my calling that's on me is to deliver a message that we as a society, as people, as individuals most people I know are addicted to something, and whether it's their job, whether it's pleasure, whether it's drugs, whether it's sex, whether it's alcohol, whatever it is, man wants to live free. But man can't live free until he's self-sufficient. And you know that's what God wants for us. God wants every one of us to be self-sufficient, and self-sufficiency, to me, is a, it's an internal piece that God will put on a man or woman when they are living their life in such a way that they are no longer dependent on anything else, any entity, any person, anything. They're not dependent on anything but God. And when they're in that zone, he will give you a piece, and that piece is him telling you you are finally now living your life in such a way that I can mold you and I can use you in my service, and that's where you're going to find your purpose in this life. And so I think you know, when I talk about the trades, what I'm really talking about is one component of driving people to be self-sufficient, that they can live lives where they're not dependent on anything.
Speaker 2:You think about these young kids coming out of college today. Think about it. They spend all this money. They come out of college, they've got a degree that's worthless. They figure that out when they go out and go on the job interviews and can't get a job or their jobs that they wouldn't take because the money is so low. And then they realize they're deep in debt.
Speaker 2:And the first thing that they have to do when they're filled with hope and they want to go tackle the world, and what's the first thing they have to do? They have to tuck their tail between their legs and go back home to their mom and dad and live in their basement. You know what that does to the psyche, especially to a man, what that does to the psyche of them, and that's the first dependency right? You took somebody filled with hope coming out of college. They should be ready to tackle the world and you've made them dependent on day one on who? On their parents which denies them their adulthood, denies them their dignity, denies them their respect, denies them their self-sufficiency, denies them that peace and I promise you. I promise you, it will be no time before they turn to another form of dependency because they're depressed, whether it's alcohol or all the other things we talked about, and that's how it all starts. I want to free people from their dependencies.
Speaker 3:I hope that makes sense. No, it does. It does. I mean. It just is blowing me away because, again, as I told you earlier, I'm in the tax preparation business and I deal with a lot of self-employed people. And that was the first question I had for you is how did you come to this realization that that's what needs to be done for the generations to come, for our economy is to give people a purpose for them to go to work where they're going to be self-sufficient, because what you said is plain common sense. But I think so much of the social media and what have you, the different propaganda out there has completely distorted Because I got a grandchild and I'm trying to teach him those same things there as well that they've gotten distorted as to what gives you a purpose in your life.
Speaker 3:And even though plumbing can be a dirty business electrician, heating and air it's needed A roofer. I had a roofer tell me one time. He was standing on top of a roof and he had other guys with him. He said look out there. He says probably 1,000, 2,000 houses and at some point in time these houses are going to need a new roof. Well, guess who they're going to call? They're going to call a roofer. And if you said it in your house and a hurricane is going through and it's leaking, you're going to be on the phone trying to find a roofer there.
Speaker 2:That's exactly right.
Speaker 3:And the things that you said. And again, my question to you is the Marine, is that what brought you to that realization? Or you just had that common sense and said OK, look, I mean, I'm a believer, you just had that common sense and said, okay, look, I mean, I'm a believer, it looks like I'm a believer.
Speaker 2:My wife and I were very prayerful during this process, as we were, you know, deciding to run for Lieutenant governor. We felt called to run and I felt called to run a certain way, you know, and so I was very prayerful about. You know, if God calls you to do something, he'll give you the message to do it and he'll provide the provision to do it, and he's done both. And so, you know, from day one it was very clear to us the things we wanted to lift up, and one of them was self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency for man, mankind, man and woman. Self-sufficiency for man and then self-sufficiency for the state. But you know, as a believer, that should be an easy connection, right? I mean the person that I pledged my life to my eternal security, to right Jesus, was a carpenter. He worked with his hands. Why should it surprise anybody that I find dignity in work, right? You know, jesus said he didn't even have a place to lay his head at night. He wasn't caught up on the materialism, it was so minuscule to him. That was not his purpose. You know, you talk about young people finding their purpose. They're never going to find their purpose unless they find God. They're not. God intends you. He intends for you to find your purpose in this life. And so you know, I can't wave a magic wand as Lieutenant Governor and make everybody go one way or this or the other. But you know, common sense alone dictates some of this. Think about this They've started polling the youngest generation. So I'm generation X, which I hate that title, but I'm generation X. And then you know there's generation Z, generation alpha, now the youngest generations, and they've already started polling these individuals. This is really interesting. They're polling as the most intrinsically pro-life generations that we've ever seen in our lifetime. Now think about that In today's culture. They are coming into life knowing that life itself is special, sacred and has a purpose. They just don't know what their purpose is. They're looking for their purpose and they know that is they're looking for their purpose and they know that. But it's interesting, the same Generation Z, generation Alpha, pulls off the charts as the most stressed out anxious and suicide-prone generations we've ever seen. Those two are in disconnect.
Speaker 2:And if you think about it, where do you spend the bulk of your adult life? On a day-to-day basis, you spend it at work. That's where you spend your time. You spend eight hours a day at work. You come home maybe dinner, spend a couple hours with the family and then you go to bed, get up the next day. Where do you go? You go to work. You spend the bulk of your time at work.
Speaker 2:I think that what's happening is these younger generations are coming into life with hope. Happening is these younger generations are coming into life with hope and then they encounter who, they encounter us, and they immediately lose hope. And it's because we've denied them their God-given destiny of finding fulfillment in their work and we've said no, you can't do these works, these jobs are below you. You need to go get this degree, go this path, and it's stranding them. And then they immediately be frustrated. They're frustrated when they should be excited about life and finding dignity, and so it's a combination of these things, you know, really.
Speaker 2:You know I could say that I came up with it. They're not my ideas, they're just not. It's what was laid on my heart. This is what you should go out and preach and when loser draw. We've been faithful to that call to preach this message of self-sufficiency, and it's not just for individuals, you know I equally preach a whole message about self-sufficiency for the state, because I think the way forward for our country is not the salvation of our country, which I think our country's in a very precarious spot right now. I think the salvation of our country is not going to come from Washington DC. I actually think it's going to come from the states. I think that's what our forefathers always intended. They always wanted the states to reign supreme. They never envisioned the world that we live in today, where the federal government that's unaccountable and far away from the people would be the ultimate arbitrator of all things. They wanted the power closely vested, as close to the people as you could get it.
Speaker 2:And our state is addicted to federal funds. And let me explain. I'll use an analogy. You know I always use the analogy of the drug dealer. Just watch the drug dealer. It's a horrible analogy, but it's an apt one. Watch the drug dealer on the playground. The first round is always for free. First round's always for free. Why? Because he knows when the kid is addicted to that drug, he can lace that drug with absolutely anything and the kid will take it with a smile on his face. That is our state today.
Speaker 2:Our state is addicted to federal funds, not realizing that the liberal left has basically hijacked virtually every federal funding source. Sel. All it is is the DNA of the woke agenda, broken into its component parts, tied to federal funds, laced to federal funds, and then given to suckers like us. And then we take it and it's like cancer. The second you take it into your institution, whether it's a school or a hospital or a corporate structure or whatever it is. The second you take that money into your structure, like cancer, it metastasizes and it grows, and that has infested our entire country now, institution after institution, and it's accelerating.
Speaker 2:And the way forward is making our state dependent.
Speaker 2:Because of our dependency on the federal government, we are now susceptible to falling from within, because we're changing our very values and our cultures of who we are. Because all these three-letter acronyms I just named, they're not about uniting us as a people, they're about dividing us as a people and it's working. It's dividing our country at a time where we should be uniting. And so the way forward is for states to have the financial wherewithal to start severing the ties that bind us and saying we don't want those federal funds. Why? Because we don't like what's attached to them and we're self-sufficient and we don't need it and we're not going to take it. Thank you very much. And that's how you move forward. So it's self-sufficiency for man that I'm preaching, but it's also self-sufficiency for your state. It's the same message, also self-sufficiency for your state. It's the same message Everybody needs to free themselves up to where they're not dependent on anyone, so that we can start living the life that God intended for us and for our country and for our state.
Speaker 1:You know it's funny Howes that, following your message here across a couple of different media outlets to include podcasts, your message has remained consistent pretty much what you just said. I know that you've been around the Bitcoin world a little bit. I don't know exactly what your experience is, but I know that you visited a Bitcoin mine not too long ago and us, as Bitcoiners, we're heavy in the trades because we need electricians, we need plumbers, we need hands-on people. It's a very trade-heavy realm and I thought when I originally talked to you that was kind of how we would orient this podcast. But I actually wanted to do something different. I wanted to kind of break down I can't convince you how Bitcoin aligns with your goals. It's too much. It's a whole road that you're going to walk down as time allows. But I do want to recommend something that may kickstart it, because the goal of our podcast is to is to say hey, we're, we're here, we're friendly. You know we want people to do well. We we don't. We're not scam artists. We don't mean harm. We don't mean harm. We hate effectively most of the federal government and especially the Federal Reserve, which obviously isn't a part of the federal government.
Speaker 1:But I want to make a book recommendation to you. It's very quick, roughly 100 pages, and it's called Bitcoin in the Bible. I'm writing this down Bitcoin in the Bible makes the case that the foundations of Bitcoin is actually spelled out in the Bible, starting with thou shalt not steal. Because thou shalt not steal inherently means that you have to be able to own property, and to be able to own property, you have to be able to defend property. And to be able to defend property, you have to have a way to defend it. So in the physical world you have the Second Amendment, but in the dollar world, there's no defense against confiscation, limiting transactions, things of that nature.
Speaker 1:Where Bitcoin comes into play is Bitcoin says ultimate responsibility is upon you, safety is upon you. If you had 100 gold bars sitting in your safe and somebody came and robbed you, you can't go to the bank and get those 100 gold bars back. Bitcoin works in the same way. It's just digital. So I encourage you to take this message that you have about the trades, about being independent and being able to support yourself, and look at those values and apply them to the Bitcoin world and see how we line up. My prediction is it won't be long, probably some point throughout your first term as lieutenant governor. There's going to be Bitcoiners that are going to come knocking, and my only hope is that, when they do, you at least hear them out, lend them a friendly ear, because I think, in large part, we're on the same team.
Speaker 2:Well, I definitely. I will definitely read the book. I have a policy anytime anybody recommends a book to me, I read it. And so, because I think you know we have these encounters, because you never know what the purpose is, and so you know, I'm all in favor of that. I can already tell you. You know, I have absolutely no problem with Bitcoin. I have no problem at all. I have a major problem with CBDC. I don't want centralized control. I don't want that. It's too much control for the government. But I certainly like what little I do know about blockchain technology. I like the security and safety and decentralization of it.
Speaker 2:One way that I already know that interests me, that I want to pursue more if I'm elected lieutenant governor is, you know, in touring the Bitcoin mining facility. You know we have so many abandoned textile mills throughout rural North Carolina that could easily be converted, many of them. Now I don't know if there's enough hydroelectric to get them to the energy needs that they have, but you know, some of these rural communities think about this. I know if your landfill creates methane. Methane is a viable source of energy and there are conversion mechanisms that could be used to fuel anything, including Bitcoin mining Virtually every county in the state has landfills, and so, you know, I would love to see counties start to invest in their own Bitcoin mining operations, utilizing the landfills that they have to fuel it, because you're basically creating a revenue stream without taxing your people, because at that point, the county is actually controlling the investment and they're reaping the rewards.
Speaker 2:My understanding of Bitcoin mining operators and people doing Bitcoin in general is that they don't see other Bitcoiners as as competitors at all, and so, you know, usually I would have a problem with the government, like a county entity competing with a private sector entity, but in Bitcoin mining, let the county own the Bitcoin mine, let them put it in abandoned textile, let them put it over a landfill to fuel it. You're basically recycling. You're using waste to generate energy. To create what Revenue? Without taxing your people? So many of these rural areas have lost a lot of their revenue base over the years as tobacco has declined, as textiles, as furniture has declined, and they have infrastructure and they don't have the tax base to support it. And so, you know, I think the Bitcoin mining could create revenue for these otherwise tax poor counties without taxing their people. So, you know, you'll get a very friendly year for me if I'm elected lieutenant governor.
Speaker 3:Let me go back to what you was talking earlier about the whole thing of where basically our government and things is unfolding. It's making the working people a slave. Because one of the things people fail to realize is that income tax, when you get down to it, income tax is penalizing you for being productive. Tax is penalizing you for being productive and tying back into what Trey mentioned here earlier about the Federal Reserve. If people go back and look, the Federal Reserve was created then income tax was passed as a constitutional amendment. So you have to ask yourself how do these two things kind of tie in with one another? Well, you have to have the income tax to take away from people productivity, to pay the interest. That's being funded by the Federal Reserve, by select few banks there.
Speaker 3:And what people fail to realize is whoever controls your money controls you. And you were speaking earlier about the whole concept of the student debt, and that's what I look at. I look at my daughter. She's come out of school $40,000, $50,000 of debt. Well, they now become a slave to the federal government Because whether they pay the debt off or not, depending upon what the current administration does, there's still a debt out there that's going to show up on your credit report.
Speaker 3:And if you move forward to anything you want to do in life. If it's not the point of getting an apartment, your credit report's going to be pulled off. You're delinquent. You're 90 days behind on your student loan? Oh, we're going to pay you back, and that's one of the things that is not being told to the general public is the reason you're in this financial situation is because of the individuals who control your money and how they manipulate it, not to your advantage, but to their advantage, and that's why you've now become a slave to income tax, because, regardless of what you do or how you do it, you want to pay an income tax at some point in time. And again, that tax is taking away from your productivity, which has now made you a slave to the federal government.
Speaker 2:Listen, I agree. I mean, the Bible is clear, right, the debtor is a slave to the lender, and so that's true in anything in life. And so, of course, and you know, I have a major problem with you know, my son is a freshman in college and you know, I see, is a freshman in college and, um, you know, I see the credit card offers he gets and I'm like, you know, my kid is unemployed. Well, I mean, he does work but, um, you know, he doesn't make that kind of money. And uh, and I'm like, how is it that these kids are coming out of school with credit card debt? Um, you know, at what point do we as a society take responsibility for saying, hey, we're not going to tempt this kid with, you know, commercial debt so early in life, when they don't know the difference? I mean, it really begs the question is when are we going to really start getting serious about making sure our kids, when they graduate from high school, that they have some basic form of financial literacy, that they know the dangers of debt, that they understand the principles of compounded interest and what that would do for you for good if you start early, just basic investing basics?
Speaker 2:You know we need to be teaching these things, and not systematically. We do pockets here and there, don't not systematically. We do it pockets here and there, but not to the degree that we should, and um it just, it's a failure of our school systems at all levels to not prepare people, Not only that, I mean once you get to the higher university level, the higher ed level, we're teaching just the opposite. The capitalism is bad, the free enterprise is bad, the socialism is good and, you know, the single greatest killer of people, of their hopes, their dreams and literally murder, are these civilizations and cultures that embrace socialism and what it leads to. And so we're just teaching everything wrong and we just need to get back to basics and go back to the founding principles of this country and get all this other crap out of the schools. You know, just get it out, Just get it out and go back to the basics and let's add to it some some new things, you know, like financial literacy.
Speaker 2:You know our kids, our kids. They don't know how to write a check, everything about that. They don't have a red check.
Speaker 3:They can't write in person. No, I did and again I deal, you know, in the tax preparation and when they have the W-2, they don't know how to read the W-2. They don't know how to read their pay stub.
Speaker 2:They don't know what a W-2 is. More or less how to read it.
Speaker 3:We've never taught them Again. Going back to my daughter, the first time she got a check she said you know who are these people taking money out of my check?
Speaker 2:That's right, I'm with you. I mean it sounds like we're very copacetic on our worldviews, but no, you'll always have a friendly ear for me. All constituents will have. Listen, I am a conservative, I'm a limited government constitutional Christian conservative, but I'm very aware that if I'm elected lieutenant governor, you know what does it mean to be a constitutional conservative? It means I believe you have constitutional rights and I want to protect your rights and I want to. I want to protect you from the government infringing on those rights. And I don't care who you are, care what your beliefs are, I don't care what your race, color, creed, anything that is. I'm still going to protect your constitutional rights and freedoms and I think that's good. That's the society we need. We're deviating from that.
Speaker 2:It's not my side that's deviating, it's the other side. It's the worldview of the other side that's deviating from those constitutional principles. And you see where it's leading us? It's leading us off a cliff as a country and we've got to get back to those founding principles and not do it on the defense. I hear Mark Robinson. He's running for governor. He says all the time it's not just that we're right, that we're on the right, it's that we are right, our ideas are right. These are basic principles. It's smart to not go in debt early in life. It's smart to control your own destiny. It's smart to be self-sufficient. It's smart not to be dependent on the federal government. These are not ideas, these are just common truths and we've gotten away from that in society. So I'm rambling now. I'm just.
Speaker 3:You know you got me going and along the same line and of course it's really not saying anything new here is it's smart to have those basic family principles there, where you have a mother and you have a father, to create that sound family doctrine there. And that's one of the things they've been proving that when a child comes from a sound family, where they have sound money practices and they teach sound principles of education, that child is going to be more inclined to succeed in life and not become dependent upon the government. And one of the things that, of course, has been distorted is there's so many different forms of being dependent upon the government. If you're born into a government housing, you live off of government food and government subsidies for your utilities, you're more inclined to wind up in the prison system. Well, what are you then? You're another slave. You just move your dwellings from a government housing where you couldn't walk out the door to government housing where you can walk out the door and nobody's really been willing to say okay, this is the problem. We need to strengthen the family. And it starts in the home and it carries over into the school, it carries over in the churches as well. There, and once you begin to establish a sound foundation which is biblical based. Because the Bible tells us, if you got a strong foundation, you're going to have a strong structure.
Speaker 3:And I think a lot of people don't realize how subtle that leftist, that communist, that Marxist message is. Because when you begin to peel the onion away, you begin to see that Marxism has one objective and one objective only to divide and to destroy, to turn the neighbor against the neighbor. That's right Against the system. Because their objective is to divide and to destroy. But unfortunately the school system is not telling the truth about the evil of communist dictators, totalitarian dictators, marxist dictators. And when you look at these countries, what happened to them? They're living in constant fear, constant fear, and they are a slave and they are afraid from the time they wake up even to the time they go to sleep, that somebody's going to knock on their door and drag them out and cut their head off.
Speaker 2:That's right, amen, I'm with you, brother. I mean absolutely, I'm with you.
Speaker 1:Well, hal, I know you probably got some other things to do, you probably have some other interviews or whatnot but I want to thank you from the Bitcoin community, because it's not often we get a politician of any sort elected or hopeful to even talk to us. A lot of people think that we're something that we're not. We get mixed up with other types of cryptocurrencies that are scammed. I understand.
Speaker 3:But we're free market, free market, free market today, free market tomorrow, but we're free market, free market, free market today, free market tomorrow.
Speaker 1:But I do really thank you, Like honestly, I do thank you.
Speaker 2:Is there a way? Let's do it again. We can do it again.
Speaker 3:Hey, when are you going to be in the Burlington Alamance County area?
Speaker 2:Oh Lord, I couldn't answer that off the top of my head, but it'll be soon, because I'm crisscrossing the state all the time.
Speaker 3:Just look at your website and see.
Speaker 2:So I put out teasers once a week. So on Facebook I'll put out like how Weatherman's going to be at this parade or how it's going to be at this thing. So, yes, you'll know when I'm doing something public in your area when you see those teasers going. Like I said, I'll put two or three of them out every week on Facebook and so I don't know off the top of my head. But it doesn't take me, doesn't take much for me to stop in the burlington grand area for no other reason that uh knw is right off the highway and I eat there all the time. I'm always looking for an excuse to stop at that exit in particular so, hal, we're going to come knocking one day.
Speaker 1:You'll hear from somebody who's like me at some point about Bitcoin, and when we do, we're here to help.
Speaker 3:And also how to improve the North Carolina Department of Revenue.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, bitcoin has a lot of weight. When you talk about improving things, you can just look at any company that's adopted Bitcoin as a strategy they. When you talk about improving things, you can just look at any company that's adopted Bitcoin as a strategy. They're through the roof in terms of stock price and returns. But I don't want to hold you up too long. Is there anything you want to tell everybody before you jet?
Speaker 2:I was just saying. If you want to learn more about me or where I stand or anything like that, or contact me, you can just go to HalWeathermancom or I'm on all social media major platforms. You know Facebook, twitter, instagram under my name. That's it Awesome.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, Hal, it was a pleasure speaking with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, y'all too, y'all take care, call anytime, all right.
Speaker 1:Good luck, we're behind you. Yeah, we'll be voting, thank you.
