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Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates Price and Coverage match limited by state law if you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off and Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H Vac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off and Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H VAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock, so your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. Hail the Flashlight King
Joe Susher
and now from the Mayor's office above the boathouse on
Chris Reivers
the east shore of Spoon Lake, it's
Joe Susher
Garage Logic, with Chris Reavers manning technology corner, Kenny Olson from the crabby coffee
Chris Reivers
shop, John Height in the newsroom, and
Joe Susher
of course the rookie here is your Flashlight King, firework commissioner and the keeper of common sense, your mayor, Joe Susher.
Chris Reivers
Greetings one and all. It's Reavers here in the GL Podcast studios with a Best of Garage Logic on this Friday, May 8th. And yes, I am well aware of what could happen today and I am monitoring the weather to see if we do in fact hit 70 degrees. The first 70 degree Friday in gumption county results in a garage door opener. So yes, I am firmly placing my eyelids and getting the weather reports from downstairs courtesy of our friends at Channel 5 Eyewitness News. Anyway, without any further ado, Josh Arnold, Investment Consultants brings you, by the way, this portion of garagelogic. It's one of my personal favorite episodes because he gets referenced on the show quite A bit. And that's former governor Jesse Ventura. I thought we haven't heard this one in quite some time, so I figured, why not? It seems like that it's only fitting that it could be a potential garage door opener. So without any further ado, I give you the best of garagelogic.
Joe Susher
This is Ricey. You've been hearing my friend Josh Arnold, Mr. Money Talk for years on the radio and the Garage Logic podcast with summer coming on, I strongly recommend you sit down with Josh for your no cost, no obligation, 48 minute consultation on your investments, including your IRA and 401k. You can benefit from Josh's years of experience navigating different market and economic conditions. And he'll always give you straight talk, not sugar coated advice. Give Josh a call now at 952-925-5608 and book your no cost, no obligation, 48 minute consultation, 952-925-5608. You'll be glad that you did meet with Josh and tell him that Ricey sent you. Fratelloni's Ace Hardware and Garden stores brings you Garagelogic podcast number 500. I know you were expecting me to say number 499, but we've had controversy that will be explored or explained later in the show. November 16, 2020. 68 degrees was the high on this day, and that occurred in 1953, and it was 2 below in 1933. And now from the mayor's office above the boathouse on the east shore of Spoon Lake, it's garagelogic with rookie on production, Chris Reivers, director of social media, John Height in the newsroom, and occasionally Kenny from the Krabby Coffee shop. Here is your flashlight king, fireworks commissioner and keeper of common sense, your mayor, Joe Sucere. We are joined by former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura. Hi, Jesse.
Jesse Ventura
Hi, Joe. How are you?
Joe Susher
You want me to call you Jesse or Governor?
Jesse Ventura
Call me Governor.
Joe Susher
I'll call you Governor. How frequently in the last four years, and particularly maybe in the last year, have you been sought out for your commentary about what's taking place in the United States?
Jesse Ventura
Well, surprisingly not a lot, Joe, because I kind of am totally boycotting United States media and have been for some time.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
And the reason for that is because I was involved in a lawsuit a few years ago, a defamation lawsuit and an unjust enrichment lawsuit, and won the case, the American Sniper case. One in front of a jury, one in front of a judge, and it went to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, where I find it to be corrupt, I find it to be horrible. They broke two of their major rules to overturn my case and take it away from the jury. And part of the reason was at that point of the trial, 32 major media conglomerates of the United States came into the case. Okay. To have it overturned.
Joe Susher
This is the Chris Kyle case that you've settled, by the way. It's over, Right?
Jesse Ventura
Right. Well, I was more or less forced to settle after they returned it for a second trial. And imagine this for a moment, Joe. How overwhelming must the evidence have been for the jury to fine for me against the dead war hero, his widow, and six of his buddies in uniform trying to convince the jury that the event happened when it didn't. And yet the jury found for me
Joe Susher
and the settlement, as I understand it, because you don't want to be painted as a bad guy. The settlement, as I understand it, did not come from Chris Kyle's widow.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, not at all. She was in no danger ever when he died. The legal system then automatically passed it to her.
Joe Susher
I got you.
Jesse Ventura
That's where it goes. She was in no danger. The book company and their insurance was. Were paying the freight for all of her lawyers, the expense, everything. And so basically, it was me against the insurance companies. But here's where the glitch came. I won a second thing called unjust enrichment, which is a Minnesota law. And what that means is that you can't go out and commit a wrongdoing and profit from would be like. Joe, let's say you and I, we got both clean records and we went out and robbed the bank, right?
Joe Susher
Yep.
Jesse Ventura
Okay, we get away with a million dollars, but we're a couple lunkheads. We have no experience.
Joe Susher
We get caught, how much would you get of the million?
Jesse Ventura
Hold on now. Now we then go. Go to jail, right? Okay, hypothetically, we're good criminals. We watch it. You know, we're good. We get probation after three years. Okay, well, what the court then ruled is that we could then go get our money.
Joe Susher
Really?
Jesse Ventura
Yeah. Oh, that if you. If you spent a year, couple years in jail, you could keep the money you stole. All right, because what the media had to do here was unjust enrichment. This was catapulting to fake news. It opened the door for it or helped, because now they can lie about anybody, profit from it, and face no penalty for doing it financially.
Joe Susher
Well, if you haven't been approached frequently, I am anxious to seek your counsel on exactly. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were.
Jesse Ventura
I have not also been approached. See, I work for RT now, Russian Television, right? And I've been there four years and they pay me for my opinion, okay? So I figure, hell, I'd rather go with the people that pay me than to work for the media who stuck it to me. And now I get to help their ratings and make them money. The hell with them. I'm not gonna make them any money anymore. So I'm not talking to them. And I don't. Anything that I say I do through rt.
Joe Susher
But it's Russian.
Jesse Ventura
So what?
Joe Susher
It's the Ruskies, Jesse.
Jesse Ventura
Well, let me put it to you this way, Joe.
Joe Susher
All right?
Jesse Ventura
They're about the best company I've ever worked for.
Joe Susher
Really?
Jesse Ventura
Yeah, they are. They, when I signed with them, they give me. They give me three months vacation, paid January, February and March to go to my home in Mexico, right? So who gets three months vacation?
Joe Susher
Not me.
Jesse Ventura
That's right.
Rookie
Joe only gets two and a half.
Jesse Ventura
Anyway, though, they also, during the course, when I signed with them, they offered me full health care, okay? And I declined it because I had it through the Screen Actors Guild. And I didn't want to create trouble because if you get two carriers, they're going to fight with each other, right? So I did not decline that. Well, part way through, I'm in Mexico, I get a letter from my 30 year reunion. Been a member for 30 years. Vested they pulled and took my health care from me because I wasn't working in the industry out in la. So I lost my health care. Now my wife and I gotta face something here. What do we do? Then it hit me. Wait a minute. RT offered me health care. I called them up, I told them the situation on my 30 year union just dumped me, I don't have my healthcare. Would there be a chance, could I reconsider and get it? The Russian lady goes, governor, I'll get back to you in about 10 days. I said thank you. She never did. In six days, Blue Cross Blue Shield cards arrived for my wife and I. Really? Yeah. So the Russians had no problem with giving me my health insurance. They also built a studio right in my basement. So during the pandemic it doesn't affect me work a bit because all I do is walk downstairs and hit three switches.
Joe Susher
Have you ever been to Russia?
Jesse Ventura
Yep.
Joe Susher
You have?
Jesse Ventura
I went over. They flew me over there. Before I signed, I went to this 10th anniversary of RT. It was the infamous one they all talk about. Let's see who Gorbachev was there, Putin was the keynote speaker, Jill Stein was there. Various other people I didn't see if General Flynn was there or not, I didn't notice him. I met Gorbachev that night. Here's an interesting note that took place, too. During my entire trial, the federal judges, in everything they wrote, they never once referred to me as governor. I was called Ventura. Yet when I went to Russia, Vladimir Putin walked all the way across the room to me, came over, introduced himself, held out his hand. He said, thank you, Governor. I said, you're welcome, Mr. President. He said, I want to assure you I will never interfere in your show in any way, shape or form. You have complete artistic control. I said, thank you. And for four years now, he's been a man of his word.
Joe Susher
All right.
Jesse Ventura
He has not interfered in my show. I can say anything I want. And they've been wonderful.
Kenny Olson
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Joe Susher
folks sitting with a notebook and pen, Mishke, the new podcast here in Garage Logic Land is now coming out twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays. If you're in fact scribbling this down, Wednesday is kind of tough to spell. It's not like it sounds. You want to spell it W, E, N, Z, but that of course would be a M. Friday is spelled just like it sounds. You're gonna be okay there, but Wednesday's a bugaboo. Let me tell you people. Just a pain in the patootie. Jeez, it's hard.
Chris Reivers
If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H Vac and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Reavers here once again, for my friends at North American banking company banking done differently since 1998 and back then they made a promise to deliver a better banking experience for their customers where you get to know your banker and they also get to know you. And you know what? They get it. They know that a lot has changed since then. However, this commitment to being a true community bank in the Twin Cities, that of course has not nor will it ever change. So you can see it for yourself. Six wonderful Twin Cities locations to serve you. Roseville and 50th in France. That's the home of yours truly. But you can also see them in Woodbury, Hastings, Shoreview and also in Maple Grove, offering you the same updated online and mobile banking tools as all of those other big national banks. However, the key difference is that key to customer service and being a true community bank in the Twin Cities. So see it for yourself online today it's nabankco.com to once again, it's banking done differently. North American Banking company member FDIC is an equal housing lender.
Joe Susher
How do people see this show in America?
Jesse Ventura
Well, the RT is the second largest in the world, following only the BBC. Okay, it depends if your carrier has it.
Joe Susher
All right?
Jesse Ventura
Now I get DirecTV where I'm at up here in White Bear and it's channel 321 on DirecTV. I don't know what it is on other carriers. I know some carry it, some don't. Here's the other good part, Joe, you'll enjoy. We have to register as foreign agents now. Where is our media on this? Where is our First Amendment outcry that we have to. I cannot go on the floor of Congress because I work for rt. I'm offended over that. I'm a Navy Vietnam veteran. I'm a mayor. I'm a governor. I've paid taxes to this country my entire life and I can't go on the floor of Congress because I work for rt.
Joe Susher
I'm unaware of that. I would think your American citizenship would trump that.
Jesse Ventura
Well, the problem is this. You're unaware of it because our media won't talk about it because we're their rival and they don't want us here.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
Because we do a better job than they do. You know how I can prove that? Simple. I've interviewed for every media there is, national, local, whatever it might be. And they all got a little system, especially the national NBC, cbs, you know, CNN and all them. Yeah, they do what's called a pre interview, where they call you earlier in the day and they get you to talk so that they can then adjust the interview accordingly if they don't want you to talk about a certain thing they know and they can steer away from it. Well, we at rt, I can tell you we have never, ever done a pre interview.
Joe Susher
We have never either on Garage Logic.
Jesse Ventura
Well, I don't do them. I simply, Joe, I bring a guest on, I tell their credentials, I let the guest talk on the subject. And it's up to you, the listener, decide if you believe the person or not.
Joe Susher
You take Covid very seriously. You and I are about the same age. You take it very seriously. How would you have handled it if you were the President of the United States?
Jesse Ventura
How would I handle it?
Joe Susher
Yes. Yes, thank you.
Jesse Ventura
That's a good question. When it gets to those things, Joe, I go back to my military experience, all right? And in the military, you learn one thing, something our current president is unaware of, and that because he didn't serve, you know, he's a draft dodger. Right. Anyway, you learn that you have to do things sometimes that you don't particularly agree with. And you learn you have to do things that maybe you don't like, but you still do them. It's required you do them. You grit your teeth and get the job done. To me, this country should have. They were on the right. First of all, they shouldn't have been lied to.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
When Trump found out in January how deadly this thing was, let me put it to you this way, Joe. If Donald Trump would have been the commanding officer of my underwater demolition team, he would have been relieved of his command. He would never command again. He would probably face a court martial and Portsmouth Naval Prison. This is the commander in chief of our military. Now. He lied to the troops. He covered it up, and he did it for his own personal gain and put the people or his troops in danger for his own personal gain. If you did that as a commanding officer, they would take your command so fast your head would spin. You'd be court martialed and go to prison.
Joe Susher
So for starters, you would have been out front with the American public.
Jesse Ventura
Absolutely. Absolutely. You cannot take. You have to tell the truth, tell them what they need to do, and then, of course, they need to respond. And that's why I'm disappointed in the American people today because of the fact that my mom and dad were both World War II veterans. And not many people can say their mom was right. My mom served in North Africa before Normandy. And then the people truly had to suffer, and they had to. They had rationing. The people truly had to give up things.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
All we're being asked to do is wear a lousy mask.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
And distance yourself. My mom spent her entire adult working life wearing a mask. She was the head nurse in surgery at North Memorial Hospital. Right, right. I mean, come on. If masks don't work, why do they wear them in surgery? And are they required?
Kenny Olson
Right.
Jesse Ventura
To stop germs. Simple. And yet we as a people have these phony baloney patriots they call themselves, who sit out there and say, I'm not going to wear a mask. Well, we have speed limits. We have other rules you have to follow. And your liberty stops the moment you infringe upon mine.
Joe Susher
What do you think of the divide in this country?
Jesse Ventura
It's horrifying.
Joe Susher
Could you solve it?
Jesse Ventura
I could have. If I'd have been elected president.
Joe Susher
How would you have solved it?
Jesse Ventura
Simple. Just get elected. No, I'll tell you why, Joe, you already saw the blueprint in Minnesota, right? Okay. Here's what had happened. I told people this. I said this is what would happen. They, meaning the Dems and Repubs, the two gangs. They need a common enemy. Okay. In Minnesota, when I won in 98, same situation, almost. I had a Democratic Senate and a Republican House. Whomever I aligned with generally prevailed. That worked until the third year. Then in the third year, they got in bed together. They started singing Kumbaya. I submitted the budget, which the governor has to do. They threw my budget out. They came back with their own budget. I looked at it. My key person, Pam Wheelock, their budget was horrible. It was a bad budget. It was bad. I vetoed it. They overrode my veto. They passed it over my head a second time. I vetoed it again. That's all I could do. And then they passed it. While I fooled them, I didn't run for reelection, so I didn't have to work under their budget. I left them with it. What happened in Minnesota after I left? You faced a $5 billion deficit, didn't you? Mm. Yeah. And that's the result of the Democrats and Republicans putting their parties before the
Joe Susher
People, do you regret not running for a second term? Do you regret not running for a second term, as you look back?
Jesse Ventura
Oh, yes and no. My only yes would be I always wanted to get unicameral one house.
Joe Susher
Yep.
Jesse Ventura
And I couldn't succeed in doing that in one term. I don't know if I could have a second term succeeded or not, because it's a big thing to do, you know, get rid of the Senate, basically.
Joe Susher
As governor, you were, if not the lead man, you were extremely influential in bringing light rail to the Twin Cities.
Jesse Ventura
Yep.
Joe Susher
Do you regret that?
Jesse Ventura
Not a bit. All right. Not a bit. And I'll tell you why. Why I did it. I went to Denver and I saw Denver so far in front of us. It's laughable. And when I went there, okay, economically, if businesses are going to come to the city of Minneapolis, say, first thing the business is going to say is, okay, where do our workers park? Well, yes, in my day, now maybe it's changed today, but let's go back to 2000. We would have had to answer nowhere. We're full because all the parking in Minneapolis was full. You couldn't get another car down there. What's the second business thing? The business is going to say, well, how's the mass transit? Well, we don't have any. Really. Well, then how do my people get to work if there's no parking and there's no mass transit? What do they take? Cabs. And so, you know, I looked at this. You cannot be a thriving metropolis in America without some form of mass transit. And Minneapolis, St. Paul was woefully behind. We had nothing because the mistake they made was done. Way back when I was a little kid, we used to have trolley cars that went all over this city.
Kenny Olson
Right.
Jesse Ventura
And they. And the gas industry and the car industry got us to tore them up, throw them out. And did you know our trolley cars are still running in New Jersey?
Joe Susher
Yeah, I had heard there are also
Jesse Ventura
some in Mexico maybe, I don't know. But it was a shame. And so my belief was, how can you be a thriving metropolitan area and not have some form of mass transit? Like New York has its subways, Chicago has its big trains that run all through town. Well, we at least needed something.
Joe Susher
But it's not thriving, sir. It's not paying for itself. It's not being ridden, really. Right.
Jesse Ventura
Well, you know, what do you do about that?
Joe Susher
Clean up crime in the cities, I think.
Jesse Ventura
Well, I don't know that. All I can tell you is that without it, you had no parking spaces. In downtown Minneapolis. And you don't, you know, And I think it serves itself well to the dome and to all of the sports stadiums. It keeps drunk drivers off the road.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
You know, hopefully. And hopefully it'll build up and do better. See, the thing is, you have to have an entire system to where you could get from, say, Lake Minnetonka to Stillwater for the afternoon and not drive your car.
Joe Susher
And Jesse, that's the way it used to be with the streetcars. Those were the exact destinations. Minnetonka to Stillwater.
Jesse Ventura
There you go. See, that's the mistake that was made. Joe was way back when. And then, of course, I should get you going now. You know, I'm getting rid of my entire. Basically my entire cylinder index.
Joe Susher
No, no.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, yeah. I'm going to paslo.
Joe Susher
You're going to what?
Jesse Ventura
I'm selling my Porsche. You want them?
Joe Susher
Oh, I'd certainly like to talk to you about it.
Jesse Ventura
I'm going to Tesla's.
Joe Susher
You are, huh?
Jesse Ventura
Oh, absolutely. It's there. The Tesla Roadster cannot be beaten.
Joe Susher
Kenny Olson would love to ask you a question, sir.
Kenny Olson
Governor, you touched on something briefly, and Joe changed the subject. You brought up loyalty to the party as opposed to loyalty to the people, which I kind of believe is part of the problem, that we're at such odds with each other right now. How do we change the fact that the Dems and the Republicans are loyal to the party and not to us? What do we do to change that?
Jesse Ventura
Well, you have to stop electing them, which is virtually almost impossible because they've created a system that benefits only themselves.
Joe Susher
That's right.
Jesse Ventura
You know, it's a two party. Ralph Nader had it right when he called it the two party dictatorship. And he's right on with that. And see, the whole system is set up to keep any third entity out of the game. Are you familiar what happened in the 90s with Ross Perot?
Joe Susher
Sure.
Jesse Ventura
Well, it's an interesting story because Perot got one out of five votes in 92. Then in 96, he wasn't even allowed to debate. Why? Because Clinton and Dole cut a deal. Dole didn't want Perot in the debates because Perot eroded from his conservative base. Clinton didn't want debates at all because he was so far ahead he didn't need them. And so they cut him down to two debates. They were held by design on the same night as the World Series. And that was the deal that was cut. And Parot was then eliminated from debating. Can you imagine? You get One out of five votes in America the previous election, and no one's allowed to hear you four years later. It's amazing. See, that's what's got to happen. We have to take our government back from these two parties. I believe it was John Adams stated, one of our founding fathers, he said, when political parties take over the country, that'll be the end of the country.
Joe Susher
Are you. Have you been satisfied with the Trump presidency?
Rookie
Don't hold back, Governor.
Joe Susher
Don't hold back. I want to know what you think. That's why we're talking today.
Jesse Ventura
You know, he had an opportunity to do some great things, and he accomplished a few. But his first big mistake. And maybe it wasn't a mistake because he won. And I can't deny the fact that he won the 16 elections. He just did it differently than I would have. He did it by becoming a far right evangelical Republican, which he's not. That's the biggest, laughable joke I've ever seen. Watching him stand there with him. Let me put it to you this way. How do you think the Republicans would have reacted if Barack Obama had been married three times and had kids from three different wives?
Joe Susher
Well, I think it would have been outrage.
Jesse Ventura
Exactly. And yet the evangelical right totally embraces Trump. I mean, what hypocrisy is that? And so when he joined the far right, that's when he really lost me. And then what really put him over the edge with me, where I had no time for him anymore. I didn't agree with the guy on everything, but when he trashed John McCain. Yep. Yeah. Because John McCain was a POW, spent a great deal of time in the Hanoi Hilton.
Joe Susher
That had to be hard on you to hear him say that.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, I'll tell you, when he did that, I thought you a draft dodger. And let me tell you something, a little story here. Every guy that served in the military as an enlisted man can relate this same story. Doesn't matter if you're Marine, Navy, army, whatever. You know, the first night of boot camp, you'll go to boot camp the first night, and one guy there in the middle of the night will go crazy, schizophrenic, wet the bed, cry for his mom, go nuts in the middle of the night. The authorities will come in and remove him while you're in boot camp. Out of sight, out of mind. That's the last you see or hear of that person. You don't know what becomes of them. Well, I think I can confidently say that person would have been Donald Trump. Who would Wet the bed, cry for his mom, and do everything else to get out of going. And what he did to John McCain, I'll never forgive him for. And then when he comes out and calls us Vietnam guy suckers. Well, you know, we didn't have rich fathers. He's your typical rich white boy who didn't have to go, you know, there's only one rich white boy I know that went. You know who that was?
Chris Reivers
Kerry.
Jesse Ventura
Huh?
Joe Susher
Kerry.
Jesse Ventura
No. Went in the military and went to Vietnam.
Joe Susher
McCain.
Jesse Ventura
No. Rich White boy. Oliver Stone.
Joe Susher
I also mentioned John Kerry. Wasn't he a rich white guy?
Jesse Ventura
Oh, I don't know. But my personal is Oliver Stone, right? Because you know that in Platoon, the Charlie Sheen character is Oliver Stone, okay?
Kenny Olson
Oh, I didn't know that.
Jesse Ventura
I learned that from his son Sean. Because I said to Sean, I worked with Shawn and I asked Shawn one day, I said, shawn, I said, when your dad did Platoon, I said, the Charlie Sheen character, I said, that was him, wasn't it? And Shawn kind of looked around, looked at me and nodded and said, yeah. So the Sheen character is because remember when he's there and he quit the big Ivy League school, joined us, the infantry go to Vietnam, and the black actor goes, man, we got to see a crusader.
Kenny Olson
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Remember that?
Kenny Olson
I do remember that.
Jesse Ventura
What we got here as a crusader. I'll always laugh over that scene. But no. And you know, Trump was a rich white boy. Rich white boys didn't go to Vietnam. I grew up in South Minneapolis where if you could manage to go to college, it did. But if you had to go to work, guess where you ended up? Vietnam. You know, and so I've got those scars that I carry with me. And when I hear someone like Donald Trump insult people who have more guts than he would ever have, and it bothers me every time I see him salute as the Commander in chief. And I don't know how these people run around with the flag. And then he comes out and says he's the most patriotic American comes out and he wants his face up on Mount Rushmore. Right.
Joe Susher
What do you think of Joe Biden?
Jesse Ventura
I don't much.
Joe Susher
Try not to.
Jesse Ventura
In a way, maybe we needed Joe because he's level headed and he's the exact opposite of Trump. You know, maybe that, but to me personally, we needed someone independent, but they made sure this was the year to do it, but they made sure you couldn't. The Green Party blew it with me. You know, I went to them and said, if you'll give me A clear path to your nomination. I'll run. They wouldn't do it. They did a preliminary poll, Fox News. It was unbelievable. They put Trump, Biden and me up there and I pulled 18% not even running. And in a three person race, Joe, I can tell you I only need 20 more. But then of course, you got to work in the electoral college, which throws it all out of whack.
Joe Susher
What do you think of the direction the Democratic Party is taking? Is it any different than the direction the Republican Party is taking? In other words, are we going to the extremes on both sides?
Jesse Ventura
On certain things, but then on other things they're right. Singing Kumbaya like they always do together. Like if it's time to go to war in the Middle east, they got no problems with that. Singing Kumbayan Both getting. See, they're all controlled by their corporate donors and the corporations are the ones that dictate where the Democrats and Republicans are headed.
Joe Susher
What do you think of the so called squad? Ilhan Omar, Ania Pressley, Alexandria, Occasional Cortex and Tashib, whatever her name is.
Jesse Ventura
What do I think of them?
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
They were elected by their constituents and their congresswomen in the United States and deserve the full respect. It's that simple.
Joe Susher
All right.
Jesse Ventura
They were. Hey, Omar wins huge.
Joe Susher
I know. She does. Yes.
Jesse Ventura
And those are her people. That's who she represents. They want her. Give her her due.
Joe Susher
You have a better attitude about it than I do.
Jesse Ventura
To me, it always. Joe goes back for the people.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
And she. Hey, I thought that one guy, that soft spoken black guy might take her.
Joe Susher
Lacey Johnson.
Jesse Ventura
No, no, no, no. The guy in the Democratic primary.
Joe Susher
Oh, okay. His name's escaping me.
Rookie
Yeah, I can see his face.
Jesse Ventura
Yeah. Boy, he had money. Geez. He was running an ad every 10 minutes, damn near, it seemed like, and she blasted him right out. And so obviously she is extremely popular with her constituents and that's. Isn't that what she's supp.
Joe Susher
I can't argue with that fact. Yes.
Jesse Ventura
Well, you obviously don't live in her district.
Joe Susher
No, I do not.
Jesse Ventura
And you probably wouldn't move there.
Joe Susher
Kenny Olson does.
Kenny Olson
I do, Governor. Actually, I live really close to Roosevelt, Governor, and I gotta feel like I'm not.
Jesse Ventura
Does she represent Roosevelt?
Kenny Olson
Yeah, she represents that district down there in South Minneapolis. And I don't feel like I'm represented at all. Not at all, sir.
Jesse Ventura
Well, then move.
Kenny Olson
Yeah, actually the house is on the market.
Joe Susher
Jesse, you were thinking of Antoine Melton. Mew.
Jesse Ventura
There you go. Yeah, yeah, there you go. I mean, he had those ads. And I thought, gee, he's a soft spoken, very intelligent man. And maybe because she's so controversial, he'll beat her. Shoot, she blew him out of the water, and then she took care of the other guy. So it's clear that her constituents like her. And as far as the other three throughout the country, what's the matter with getting their opinion?
Joe Susher
All right, what are you. Where do you.
Jesse Ventura
Joe, we're supposed to be the melting pot of the world, right? We're supposed to be the place where everybody comes to and survives, and we are the epitome. I've already come out and said we ought to take down the Statue of Liberty and put it in a damn museum because we don't follow the thing on it. We don't want your poor no more. We don't want your downtrodden. We only want your rich people and them that have jobs.
Joe Susher
Where do you stand on Trump's refusal to concede?
Jesse Ventura
It's ridiculous. It's utterly ridiculous. He's harming the country. He's playing into the hands of anybody that wishes ill to this country. Because if you can get the people of this country to not believe their elections, which I think it's an insult to all those people out there that defied the COVID virus, busted their asses and counted those votes, Democrats and Republicans, they were all watched. Even Trump's main guy in Homeland Security said this was possibly the most secure election we've had in this century. And for him to pull the crap he's pulling now because he can't face. He lost. Right. It's, you know, what type of example. And I guess to his followers, they think he's wondering.
Joe Susher
Yes, they do. Yes. Well, 72 million people voted for the man.
Jesse Ventura
I know.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
That's what causes me to take a deep breath and go, boy, I didn't realize there were 72 million. Hang on.
Joe Susher
Watch yourself, buddy. Watch yourself, buddy.
Kenny Olson
Tread lightly.
Jesse Ventura
I'm not running again, so I don't have to please nobody.
Joe Susher
That's true.
Kenny Olson
Then let them have it.
Jesse Ventura
Governor running. And I laughed when I went to Wheelock Whitney's funeral.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Arne Carlson, Governor Carlson was there. He got up, he said one of the funniest lines I've ever heard out of him. And unfortunately was at Wheelock's funeral, he said, everybody tells me, run, Arnie, run. He goes, hell, I can barely walk.
Chris Reivers
You know, speaking of that, Governor, when Trump did win the election back in 2016, I believe it was Joe or somebody on the show said, that you running in 98 laid the groundwork for him being elected in 2016?
Jesse Ventura
Well, we didn't necessarily lay the groundwork for him, but we did a little because he came and met with me.
Joe Susher
Oh, he did?
Jesse Ventura
Oh, God, yes. I'm forever getting pictures sent to me that I refused to sign.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, interesting. Together. No, he flew in here to meet with me. And the big thing he took from me, that you'll all know, and this is what he took from me when I ran for governor of Minnesota. I didn't do fundraisers. I didn't give a crap about the money, all right? I had name recognition as long I won the governor. I only raised $300,000, Joe.
Joe Susher
Really?
Jesse Ventura
Yeah. And that year, the Dems and Republic spent combined 12 million to beat me. And I won. So I raised 300 grand and I told my people, I said, look, I don't want to do fundraisers. I hate them, I dislike them. My mom and dad raised me. You get paid for work done. You don't come up to people and say, give me money so I can go do this job. But I realize it's a necessary evil. You have to do ads and you have to do all that stuff. But today it's evolved into jobs. Every one of these campaigns are nothing but jobs. Things where people get paid. It's all the transfer of money. Anyway, that aside, I. When I ran raising $300,000, I went out and I told them, book every college in Minnesota. And they told me, are you crazy? They said, college kids don't vote. I said, they've never had a chance to vote for Jesse the body. I said, are you kidding me? I said, if you book me at the college, they'll be hanging from the rafters and those kids are going to vote. So they did it.
Joe Susher
Yeah, they did.
Jesse Ventura
I went to all the colleges and it was just like I thought, kids. I went to Carleton. I went to the exclusive schools here. Went to all kids hanging from the rafters. Couldn't, you know. Then they came to me and said, look, you can't coach football on Friday night. We need you to campaign. And I said, baloney. I said, I coach in the toughest league in the state, which we were at the time. We drew 8,000 people to 10,000 people to every game, every night. I said, if you can put me in front of 8,000 people every Friday night, then I won't coach. He said, well, we can't do that. I said, then get out of here. I'm coaching. I'm in front of 8,000 people every Friday night. You know when I knew I was going to win the election?
Joe Susher
When?
Jesse Ventura
When we were playing, I was at Champlin park and we were playing our arch rival, Coon Rapids, right across the river in their stadium, right? We go over there to play them, their arch rival, Coon Rapids, Champlain. And on the other side of the field, the Coon Rapids side, they unreeled a banner, said, go, Jesse, go. Really nice. And I stood for a minute and thought, now they're a rival and if they took time to make a banner, I'm going to win this thing. But anyway, getting back to Trump and all that, what I did, I went to rallies. I went to things where people gathered. And I'll tell you this, if they show up at a rally, they're voting for you.
Joe Susher
Right?
Jesse Ventura
Because they ain't going to take time to go there.
Joe Susher
Well, he certainly seized on the rally idea.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, yes. And that's the big thing he stole from me was the rallies. I didn't raise money. I held rallies. And we did that on the college campuses. And you won't remember because it's not near and dear to you, but I have it framed downstairs in the enemy newspaper and it says, ventura wins the day after the election. And right underneath it in the sub headline, throngs of young voters turn out.
Joe Susher
Yes, they did.
Kenny Olson
That's what I was going to.
Jesse Ventura
Number one, I was right, which always makes you proud. And number two, that I inspired the young people to get out there and become players and that I will give Trump credit for this last election. Because of him, it inspired more people to vote than in the history of this country. And he deserves a kudos for that. The only thing is he did it because he was so shitty.
Kenny Olson
Governor, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you have a record number of voter registrations on the day of the election? Didn't we see a huge spike that day in registration?
Jesse Ventura
You mean way back in 98?
Joe Susher
Yes.
Kenny Olson
Yeah. When you were.
Jesse Ventura
We had same day registration. And what we heard that day, when we realized we were going to win or felt we could, was that word came us that the same day registration, which Minnesota has the lines to registrate were longer than the voting lines. And that was a key for us. We thought, they're not coming out to vote for a Dem or a republic. They're coming out to vote for something different. And sure enough, we were right because they predicted a 50% voter turnout because it was non presidential. Well, I was polling 27% the day of the election, it turned out to be a 60% voter turnout, and I went from 27 to 37. There was 10% out there that they did not account for. That came out and voted for me.
Chris Reivers
Governor, it's Reivers. I was a sophomore at Mankato State University. And I remember when you came through town and it was. There was buzz, but three of my buddies and I got in my car and drove back to our hometown of Faribault just to place a vote. And there was a buzz that day on campus. So you were right about the college talents for sure.
Jesse Ventura
No, I knew it would. My message to the kids was, you complain a lot, but they're not going to listen unless you become a player. You've got to take an active role in electing them to their jobs, then they will pay attention to you. If you're not an active player in them getting a job, they're going to ignore you from now until you're old.
Joe Susher
Did you always have an antagonistic view of the media? Does that stem from your wrestling days?
Jesse Ventura
Could have, yeah. That's very perceptive of you, Joe. Could have. Because, you know, in my day in pro wrestling, we used to live under a common term, and that was there is no bad publicity.
Kenny Olson
Right.
Jesse Ventura
As long as they're talking, you don't care whether it's good or bad as long as they're talking.
Joe Susher
But you seem to assume that the press was against you the moment you
Jesse Ventura
got elected because they were.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
That the press is in the pocket of the two parties. You know, they don't like any outside interference from any third entity or anything like that. And if they don't do it consciously, they do it subconsciously.
Chris Reivers
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Jesse Ventura
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Jesse Ventura
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Jesse Ventura
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Joe Susher
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Chris Reivers
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Jesse Ventura
Yep.
Chris Reivers
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Joe Susher
Why were you so hard on the city of St. Paul? It was funny. But you were hard on St. Paul in what way? Oh, you said the streets were laid out by drunk Irishmen and stuff like that.
Kenny Olson
Well, that was funny.
Jesse Ventura
Here's the reason why. That was David Letterman.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
And he set me up. And what could I do? Yeah. No, you gotta remember, Joe, I'm from Minneapolis.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
So I'm a Minneapolis kid. Yep. Now in Minneapolis, I grew up on 32nd street and 46th Avenue.
Kenny Olson
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
You know, exactly. If somebody's on 38th street, that's six blocks away, right?
Kenny Olson
Yep.
Jesse Ventura
You know, and it's all. It's that way. And then if it switches and goes to names, they're alphabetical, right?
Kenny Olson
Yes.
Jesse Ventura
St. Paul. In my whole life, take me over there, spin me around four times, take off the blindfold, and I wouldn't have a clue where I was.
Kenny Olson
Yes, he's right.
Jesse Ventura
Even after four years at the Capitol, I still.
Joe Susher
So as a kid, you didn't spend any time in St. Paul?
Jesse Ventura
The only time I spent in St. Paul, a friend of mine in the neighborhood, his father and mother were divorced and his dad lived over in St. Paul. And there used to be an old store over there that sold the classic comic books.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
And we used to ride the Lake Street Selby bus to downtown St. Paul because we knew where this store was. And we would buy these classic comic books there because they had them all. And that was my only dealing with St. Paul other than when the St. Paul kids would come to our side of the river and we'd fight with them. Yeah. The reason that happened was because in my day, St. Paul was a bunch of greasers and Minneapolis were the bald eaters.
Joe Susher
Okay, okay.
Jesse Ventura
You know, in Minneapolis, we were all shaving our heads. And in St. Paul, they all used brook cream.
Chris Reivers
Right.
Rookie
A little dad will do that.
Jesse Ventura
And they walked around with them pointed toed shoes with the elastic on the sides. See, the thing that was unique then was the two cities were as different as night and day.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
The kids were different. Everything was different between the two cities. And that was kind of neat.
Joe Susher
I agree. I wish we still had that rivalry.
Jesse Ventura
Yeah, yeah. And then of course, the other rivalry, Joe, was hell, St. Paul ain't beat us in a Twin City football game in what, 18 years when I was there. And we prevailed. How much of your Roosevelt? We were undefeated. We played St. Paul Central in the Twin City title game and beat them 21 to 6 at the Old brick house. And they had A team or St. Paul Central had Dave Winfield there.
Rookie
You referenced football earlier in champlin park in 98. Wasn't that the year that Creighton out recruited you guys?
Jesse Ventura
No, that was the year we beat them down at the Dome.
Rookie
Okay.
Joe Susher
That's where it was.
Jesse Ventura
Creighton was undefeated and they had beaten Maple Grove on the way there, which Maple Grove was our second place team in our division. So I let it be known to Greg Gagne and Verne and their kid played for Crete. Greg's kid Yep. I said, well, you might have beat our second team, but you ain't gonna beat our first team. We went out and ended Cretin Durham Hall's undefeated season.
Kenny Olson
Nice.
Joe Susher
Did you have a great relationship with your mother and father?
Jesse Ventura
I'd like to think so.
Joe Susher
Is your personality shaped by your upbringing, do you think?
Jesse Ventura
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I was a latchkey kid.
Joe Susher
What's that mean?
Jesse Ventura
Well, that means you both your parents work okay.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
In the morning I'd get myself off to school, right? And I'd get home before they'd get home. And so they used to call that a latch key.
Rookie
Put a little key on the rope. And that was your necklace.
Jesse Ventura
Well, I didn't have to do that. I forget where we kept ours. Hidden some damn. Under a flower pot or something.
Rookie
Under the carpet. Where George kept the money?
Jesse Ventura
Yeah, where George got the money. Right.
Joe Susher
Jesse Rookie has told that story. I would really love to hear it from you. It's a very charming story.
Jesse Ventura
Well, my dad. My mom and dad both lived through the Depression, right? And so my dad had kind of a feeling of not trusting banks fully. And we had moved from south Minneapolis after I graduated up to New Hope, close to North Memorial. So my mom was still working there, and we moved into the house up there. And my dad, of course, he was retired. He would spend all summer at the lake cabin and my mom would go up on the weekends, right? And so. But my mom liked that because when he was up there in the summer, she could do anything she wanted with the house in town, right? And he wouldn't know she'd have it done before and he'd never notice. Anyway, so he goes up to the lake, right? My mom had ordered, got all set up for new carpeting. So the old man's up at the lake and the new carpet guys come in and they lay in all the new carpet and the split level out in New Hope. And fortunately, they were honest carpet men because when they tore up in my dad's TV room, where he used to go watch TV all the time, he had slipped the carpet and I don't know if it was 10,000 bucks or something like that. I can't remember anymore, but it was in the thousands. He had had it in envelopes and he had slid it under the carpet.
Joe Susher
Oh, my word.
Jesse Ventura
And that was his hiding place, right? So these guys pull up the carpet and there's, I don't know, eight, six thousand bucks, whatever it was. And fortunately, they were honest men because the guy walked down with it and handed it to my mom.
Joe Susher
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
And he said, we found this under the carpet in the room right up there. Of course, my mom gets angry and hits her. That damn George. What the hell is he doing? And so she's now going to make him sweat.
Joe Susher
Oh, yeah.
Jesse Ventura
So she goes up to the lake that weekend, and I know about it. We all know. And she informs my dad, and his name was George, and I had a relationship. I called him George. And my friends did too. He was just. That's the way he liked it. And so she tells George she has ordered new carpet. And the new carpet men came in and put on all new carpet. And they're all over da, da, da, da. Bragging about it, right? He's sitting there, right? And all of a sudden, you know, he's in a cold sweat. He knows what's there and she ain't saying nothing about it.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
So he. She makes him sit there all the way till right before dinner, right? Yeah. And when he's sitting down for dinner, she walks out from the bedroom with the envelopes, flops him on the table and said, is this what you've been thinking about? Naturally, he had to admit he had. And then she proceeded to chew his ass out and warned him to never do that again. He said, like she said, what if something happened to you? I wouldn't know. The kids wouldn't know. No one would know that you had this money stored.
Chris Reivers
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
So anyway, that was the story, and it was pretty good.
Joe Susher
That is a pretty good one. That is a pretty good one.
Jesse Ventura
The better one was the first time we got him to try pot.
Kenny Olson
Oh, I gotta hear this. I gotta hear this.
Jesse Ventura
Well, I don't know if I dare tell it, Joe. It ain't legal here yet.
Joe Susher
Oh, hell, you're all. It's a statute of limitations has run out.
Jesse Ventura
You know what?
Kenny Olson
I. It just so happens I want to hear your. Your opinions on the legalization of marijuana first.
Jesse Ventura
I've talking to Governor Waltz about it. He wants to make me the point man. I'm for complete legalization. Mm.
Kenny Olson
Why is that?
Jesse Ventura
Why, Joe? Okay, I'll give you tell you exactly why cannabis has changed and given me my life back.
Joe Susher
Really?
Jesse Ventura
Yep. Without it, my life would be gone right now.
Joe Susher
In terms of a pain fighter, you mean?
Jesse Ventura
Oh, and it ain't even me, but my life would be gone.
Joe Susher
I see.
Kenny Olson
Oh, she had some health issues.
Jesse Ventura
She has given me permission to go public. Okay. Because of the reasoning, the first lady developed a late.
Joe Susher
What? You just broke up a moment?
Jesse Ventura
Because I'm getting Another call through. It's beeping, so I'll. She developed a late in life seizure condition.
Joe Susher
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
She was seizing two to three times a week.
Rookie
Holy. She's.
Jesse Ventura
They were bad. Out of control. What can I do? Seizures. For those that don't know out there, you are so helpless when someone gets a seizure because all you can do is comfort them and hope they don't swallow their tongue. Hope they don't. Something else doesn't happen and all that. Well, we go to the doctor. They put her on four different seizure medications, one after the other after the other after the other. None of them work. Bad side effects. She started losing her hair in desperation. We had friends from Baja, where I live in the winter, who live in Colorado. We drove to Colorado. She had a seizure the night before in the motel. We get to Colorado, my friends go in, they got the cards at the time, they get the medicinal at that time. Three drops under the tongue. Terry started taking it. Three drops under the tongue twice a day. And has not had a seizure since.
Joe Susher
Oh, wow, fantastic.
Jesse Ventura
Has not. Let me repeat that. Has not had a seizure since.
Joe Susher
Boy, oh boy.
Jesse Ventura
Now we come back to Minnesota. Minnesota. Then legalize. We were getting it illegally, but I didn't give a damn.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
You know, I was telling Terry, let's move to Colorado. Yeah, let's get the hell out of here. And so then Minnesota, legalized medicinal. Oh, she can get it here now. But you want to know what the problem is? We're so. We're so. What's the word I'm looking for? Limited. That what she has to take cost me $800 a month.
Rookie
Wow.
Jesse Ventura
You can't write it off. Your. Your insurance won't pay for it because it's pot or cannabis. None of that. I could get the same thing in Colorado for a hundred dollars a month.
Joe Susher
Why don't you?
Jesse Ventura
Well, that's what I have to do. Because she wants to get it here in pill form and da, da, da, da. And she goes down there and she's comfortable in what she's getting. And right now I care more about her health than the money. But the point being, if we would open up like Colorado has, the prices would then drop way down and people could get cured of sicknesses that this amazing plant can do. I spoke at the national cannabis convention two years ago. Years ago. It's a, what, $40 billion industry waiting to happen. Right? And we're standing. I tried to legalize when I was governor, and we're standing on the shore watching the ship leave the Harbor. We're on the dock and the ship's leaving. Did you hear about Illinois? Illinois, legalized in these trying times. And in the month of July, $71 million worth of cannabis in just the state of Illinois. Wow, 71 million. It's keeping their economy up, for Christ's sake. I mean, you're stuck in your house. What else can you do but smoke pot?
Joe Susher
Why? Why? You could live anywhere you want in the world. Why have you remained in Minnesota?
Jesse Ventura
Terry. Okay, she has family.
Joe Susher
Yep.
Jesse Ventura
I don't.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
And I acquiesce. Or what's the word? Acquiesce. Acquiesce, whatever it is, to her wishes, you know, and that. You know. And she lets me get away to Mexico in the winter.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
But that's the reason, really, I hate winter. I'm probably one of the few. Here's a good garage logician thing. I'm probably one of the few born and raised Minnesotans that don't know how to skate.
Joe Susher
I know you don't, because I played with you media hockey, and you were so dreadful, we had to put the goalie equipment on you.
Jesse Ventura
You didn't play goalie.
Joe Susher
Yeah, you did.
Jesse Ventura
Bull crap.
Chris Reivers
What'd you play?
Jesse Ventura
I never played Go. I used to get a hat trick. No. Yes. No. Yes. Because they'd bend the rules for me. I didn't have to worry about offsides.
Joe Susher
Okay, okay, okay.
Jesse Ventura
And there was another little thing we did. I carried my own puck, went down to the other end, I dropped the puck and go in and score.
Joe Susher
I swear we put goalie pads on you.
Jesse Ventura
No. In fact, the greatest game I ever had, I was playing in the Make a Wish game, and I was teammates with a guy who had a huge run in. And we were both laughing about it so hard in the locker room. The great rough tough from Slap Shot. Jack Carlson.
Joe Susher
Oh, yeah. Yep.
Jesse Ventura
And I don't know if you know the story behind Jack and I. I don't. Well, I was doing wrestling in the AWA days with Vernon. Right. In those days, Fern would bring people on that he knew at the U and all that during interviews. And one day he brought on Lou Nanny. And Lou goes on and does this interview with Vern, and they're done, and I got the next interview. So I went out there and I looked at that and said, oh, before we get to wrestling, I said, let me send a message here to one Mr. Lou Nanny. I said, nanny, anytime you want to find out how tough your tough guy is, Jack Carlson, I said, let him try me once. And we'll find out how tough Jack Carlson is. And then I went on to the wrestling interview, because in those days, you could do them that way. It was great. Well, what happened was, at the time, they played at the old Met. The old Met in Bloomington.
Joe Susher
Yeah. Met Center. Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Well, at the Met center, they put up big banners up there. Ventura, Carlson in the parking lot. And they had all this schmazz going on through this, that Jack and I were going to fight, find out who was tougher. And when it came down, years later, we're playing in the Make a Wish. We're on the same team. And so we're getting dressed in the locker room, and we started talking about it, and we're both laughing like hell at how the whole thing exploded in the media. And then I looked at Jack. I says, jack, we're on the same team tonight. I don't even know how to skate. But let's set this up. Let's you and I fight tonight.
Joe Susher
Yeah. Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
And we'll fight on the same team.
Joe Susher
Yes. Yes.
Jesse Ventura
So Jack says, great. So we go out there and the game gets going, and I get on the ice and I'm trying to stay upright, and Jack, it gets in the corner and Jack's out there. And so we both bump into each other, and right away we drop the gloves and we start throwing the forearms at each other and pulling the shirt off and all that stuff. And the announcers going, oh, we knew it had to happen,
Joe Susher
but they're on the same team.
Jesse Ventura
And so, you know, Jack and I did the phony fight and both of us got sent to the penalty box.
Joe Susher
Oh, I think that's ringing a bell. I think I was there.
Jesse Ventura
I gotta tell you this. What a wonderful guy he was.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Or is. Yeah. You know, I mean, total sense of humor on it. Went along with the program just great. And it's a shame he was in the playoffs and not in Slap Shot.
Joe Susher
Right. Governor, what's your relationship with Tim Walz?
Jesse Ventura
Very good.
Joe Susher
Do you like the way he's handling the pandemic?
Jesse Ventura
Yep. All right. And I'll tell you why. I have a good relationship with him.
Chris Reivers
All right?
Jesse Ventura
After he won election, and I know how exciting it is to win, then 24 hours later, he called me personally and scheduled a meeting with me. No other governor has ever done that. Never.
Joe Susher
Interesting.
Jesse Ventura
No other Dayton or Pawlenty never asked me about nothing. And Governor Waltz set it up for the following Monday. I went to the Capitol. He and I sat in a room by ourselves for, I would say, close to Two hours. And all he wanted to do was pick my brain.
Joe Susher
Why do you think so many people in this state resist his edicts? They resist keeping their gatherings small. They resist the mask wearing. They resist the social distancing. Why in the world has this had to become political?
Jesse Ventura
Because they're stupid.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
Is that a good quick answer?
Joe Susher
Yes, it is.
Rookie
Right to the point.
Jesse Ventura
Right to the point.
Joe Susher
I couldn't come up with a better one myself.
Jesse Ventura
No, they are. This is utter stupidity. Masks work. Like I said, my mom wore 140 hours a week. And my argument to these people is, okay, the next time you have to go in for surgery, tell the doctors and nurses they don't have to wear masks. They don't do nothing. See what kind of response you get, you know, from the doctors and nurses if you do that. No, it's called stupidity. And it's called turning something that shouldn't be political, that is a health issue, into politics. And we have only the guy in the White House to thank for ends. The buck stops with him.
Joe Susher
As you look back on your life, are you proud of the fact that you were governor?
Jesse Ventura
Oh, God, yes. Yeah. Oh, how would you not be? Joe, when I grew up in south Minneapolis, the last thing that would have ever passed my mind was that I would end up the governor of the state.
Joe Susher
I can imagine that would never have crossed your mind.
Jesse Ventura
Never. I fell into politics, really, by a mistake. Really, it was just over an issue up in Brooklyn Park, a neighborhood issue. And when I saw how corrupt the actual politics were, I just felt the need to participate and do something about it.
Rookie
Who was the shrub gate? Who was that? Bob.
Jesse Ventura
That was Bob Stromberg.
Rookie
Bob Stromberg, Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Shrub gate. What?
Joe Susher
Shrub gate.
Rookie
He had the city cutting his own shrubs. And that was.
Jesse Ventura
Yeah. No. I got a phone call from a constituent. I'm mayor. And she says, why are the city crews over at Councilman Stromberg's house doing his landscaping? And I said, well, I didn't know there were. They said, you ought to take a drive by. So I jumped in my car, drove over. They even had a team out there with the signs, oh, boy, you know, go and stop, you know. And they're trimming his, you know, because he had a sweet deal with Denny Palm. They had a Parks and Recs. And so you know how they had to get around it. I took it public. And they then had to offer that service to everyone in the city of Brooklyn Park.
Joe Susher
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
Wow. Otherwise, he was receiving something a regular citizen couldn't receive. You can lose your job for that as a city councilman or a mayor. You can't receive something that any other citizen can't receive. And he's sitting there getting the city of Brooklyn park doing his yard work.
Joe Susher
You know, you're considerably younger than Joe Biden, who will be 78. You are younger than Donald Trump. Do you think that you have a run in you as president of this country left? Yes.
Jesse Ventura
To be honest, yes. The only way I could do it, but the only way I'd have enough to do it was the way I explained it to the Greens. If you'll give me a clear path to the nomination.
Joe Susher
Meaning what? Explain that. Explain that.
Jesse Ventura
Well, a clear path means I don't want to go through like with the Green Party. They're fractured and they're a party in disarray and I would have had to fix them first and then take on the Dems and Repubs. Impossible.
Joe Susher
Because what I will say about you, and I've always said it, no matter how much fun I've had with you, this country, I think, is desperately hungry for someone who is real. And you're real. What I'm hearing is what you get. That's you. That's a virtue in my estimation.
Jesse Ventura
What's the difference between me and Trump is what I tell the truth.
Joe Susher
Okay, well, that'll prove to be the difference between you and Biden as well. What you hear from you. What you hear from you is real.
Jesse Ventura
Well, it's the truth as I know it, Joe. And I'm not above changing my mind. Right. You know, and by the way, did you know the story? I should tell you this. We got a few minutes yet, right? Sure. Did you hear the story about what happened to my TV show?
Joe Susher
No.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, you guys need to hear this one. Okay. I come out of office in O3, right?
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
I'm the hottest commodity out there.
Joe Susher
That's right.
Jesse Ventura
I'm the. I'm the voice of the independent. Been successful. So msnbc, CNN and Fox get a bidding award for me. MSNBC wins. So I signed a three year contract with them. This contract, Joe, was like a pro sports contract. Not as big as, you know, Peyton Manning.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
But it was healthy. Yep. So I sign a three year deal with them. I'm supposed to be on Rachel Maddow's time slot, Right. Monday through Friday. I tell msnbc, look, I want to do the show from Minnesota here. Yeah. They said, why? I said, because all we get from you are coast perspective. We need something from the Midwest.
Rookie
Clever.
Jesse Ventura
And I Said, my show is going to come from the Midwest and I want a live audience so that we get live people responding, you know, like Bill Maher, right? Live audience. They're good with it. They send their people out. The whole show's being created. We're doing it over at Channel 2. I provided, I think, 28 jobs to Minnesota. They're working on this show, people I didn't know, 28 jobs. We're about two weeks before going on the air, and we get a phone call. This is the spring of 03, right? And here I didn't get the call, but John Woodley did, who was working with me, had been my head of communications, was now with me on the TV show. Woodley gets the call from headquarters of cnn or not cnn, msnbc. And you know what MSNBC stands for, don't you?
Rookie
I'm afraid to ask.
Jesse Ventura
I'm afraid to Microsoft, NBC. No, it's a. It's. It's a dual ownership between NBC and Microsoft. Bill Gates, okay? That's why it's msnbc.
Joe Susher
All right.
Jesse Ventura
Microsoft, NBC. So we get a call from the headquarters. Woodley does. Here's the call. And it's right before we're going to invade Iraq. We haven't done it yet, but the drums are beaten. And I oppose the war. I opposed it from the start. We get the call. Is it true Governor Ventura doesn't support the invasion of Iraq? John Woodley goes, oh, yeah, he's a Vietnam veteran. He's vehemently opposed. He said, this is Vietnam all over again. Second question. Is there any chance he change his mind or no, he opposes the war in Vietnam. Is there any chance he changes mind? Was the next question. And Woodley goes on, I don't think so. He says, I've seen the governor change his mind when he becomes more educated on a subject. But he said, this is a war thing. He's a veteran. And he said, I doubt it. He ain't going to change his mind. Well, guess what happened?
Kenny Olson
They can do plug.
Jesse Ventura
They pulled the plug on the whole show at the same time. They had just brought back Phil Donahue from daytime. Phil Donahue likewise opposed the invasion of Iraq. They pulled Phil Donahue and he was their top rated show. So they pulled their top rated show. They wouldn't put me on because of the fact we opposed the invasion of Iraq. So tell me why I should trust mainstream media when they're clearly under the control of the government. If they have the power to keep you off the air because of a political position, you have what was in
Joe Susher
it for them to be so strongly in favor of the war in Iraq?
Jesse Ventura
I don't know.
Rookie
Weekly updates, ratings, advertising.
Jesse Ventura
It's because they get marching orders from the government and they're all entwined together. Because. Because our media promotes the government. Right. Whatever the government decides to do.
Joe Susher
Please tell me you got some money out of that deal. They just couldn't pull the. He had a contract.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, I got it all, okay?
Rookie
The governor does not walk away empty handed.
Jesse Ventura
I can guarantee you that rookie doesn't call me Midas for nothing.
Rookie
You're right. Anything this guy touches turns to gold. I'm glad you remembered that.
Jesse Ventura
Is there Joe? Here's what happened to me. I got silenced from 03 to 06. I had handcuffs on, I had tape over my mouth because my contract said I could not do any news shows and I could not do anything on cable or satellite tv.
Joe Susher
I'll be damned.
Jesse Ventura
They had me exclusively for three years. They paid me every penny for three years. And that's why you didn't hear from me till after 06. Because I was under a contract with them. And okay, when I went to Mexico, here's what happened. I went to Mexico on vacation. When I got out of office, Sean Penn lined me up with a great thing down there. In 04, I went and taught at Harvard.
Joe Susher
Yep, I remember you.
Jesse Ventura
Harvard fellow in, oh, five. I went back to Mexico again, traveled around, found the house I wanted and bought it. Guess who paid for it?
Joe Susher
Msnbc.
Jesse Ventura
Yes. Now it's time to teach you guys a little something about Mexican heritage or whatever.
Joe Susher
All right?
Jesse Ventura
Down there, homes are called casas, all right? Yeah, and everybody has a name to casa, right? Well, I came within an eyelash of naming mine Casa msnbc. They bought my costume and even gave me more money.
Joe Susher
Besides, you don't have a silo full of tortilla chips, do you?
Jesse Ventura
What?
Joe Susher
A silo full of tortilla chips.
Jesse Ventura
No.
Joe Susher
Have you ever heard the Great. Have you ever heard Will Sasso do an impression of you?
Jesse Ventura
I don't know.
Joe Susher
Oh, my God, Jesse, he's funny.
Rookie
He's more like, like you than you are.
Jesse Ventura
Well, that's great. You know, that's flattery is, you know, that's finest form of.
Kenny Olson
Of governor. He should be writing you a check is what he should be doing.
Jesse Ventura
I don't care. Make a buck off doing my voice as long as he don't get me in trouble. All right, everybody, let me talk to you. Turkey. Next. No, I mean as long as he don't get Me a lawsuit or get me in trouble or anything like that. I don't care.
Joe Susher
What's the back up, guys?
Kenny Olson
Can we back up? I have, I've got this burning question for the governor and it's back to weed and your. Your health. Right now. I'm wondering how you're doing with pain and stuff from your wrestling career. And have you ever tried CBD or weed or anything for that pain?
Jesse Ventura
Well, I've been involved in experimental medicine for a long time. Do I have pain today? Not consistent. I mean, I've had my hip replaced. You know, I had the new technique at the time in 08 called hip resurfacing. They don't actually cut your femur bone. They clean up your ball and socket, cover it with carbon titanium steel and put it back together.
Kenny Olson
Oh, sounds painful.
Jesse Ventura
No, it's great. You don't have a cut femur bone, you know, and I got that through a friend in Mexico who's a triathlete. And he said that's what happens to all the triathletes. They get this hip resurfacing. But you have to be a candidate for it. I had it done at male Dr. Truesdale, the best in the business. So I've had a hip replacement. I also, I suffer from something today that I don't know if it's at all related to wrestling, but I have non specific neuropathy of the feet, which basically means your feet are numb. And when they tell you non specific neuropathy. That was Mayo, too. That means your feet are numb and we don't know why.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Rookie
But that just means, though, that Joe might get a pretty good deal on that manual transmission Porsche, huh?
Joe Susher
You can't even push the clutch in.
Jesse Ventura
Difficult to drive it. But anyway, here's the deal with that. I have a hard time with my balance now. I can identify because people, people don't realize how much you need to feel your feet.
Kenny Olson
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Until you lose it.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
And like I've had to quit surfing.
Joe Susher
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
Because I can't balance on the board no more.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
You know, I can't have that feel, which you need to have, you know, otherwise you're going to take a lot of tumbles at the wrong time. Right.
Joe Susher
What year are those Porsches? What year are those cars?
Chris Reivers
Oh, here we go.
Jesse Ventura
Well, I got the big one. I got the one that is. It's lapis blue metallic. Yeah, it's a 2003911 biturbo.
Kenny Olson
Right.
Rookie
Was that another MSNBC buy?
Jesse Ventura
That was pre MSNBC all right. Bi. Turbo, I think. 450 or 500 horsepower, whatever it is, six speed. And the great thing about this car, I got all the wood on the inside steering wheel. Wood, everything. The great thing about it is, I don't think it has 23,000 on it.
Kenny Olson
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
It's 17 years old and has only 22,000 miles.
Joe Susher
What's the other one?
Jesse Ventura
I've never seen a snowflake. Yeah, and right now it's in my basement of my garage here up on the things that keep the tires round. Right.
Joe Susher
What's the other one?
Jesse Ventura
The other one is. It is the first Boxster S in the state of Minnesota.
Joe Susher
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
That's a 00. And it was the first. They came out with the Boxster and then they beefed it up with the Boxster S. I got the first Boxster S ever delivered here in 00. It's Arena Red with that kind of beige interior, like convertible. And that's my More car. I drive more. But that's a.00.20 years old and it's only got. Got what, 65,000 on it?
Joe Susher
Did you ever have to replace the intermediate shaft bearing?
Jesse Ventura
Nope. Well, I've heard about that, but I haven't had to.
Joe Susher
I heard about it the hard way because I sold my boxer to a great young guy and two weeks later, the damn thing failed on him.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, really? Yeah, I've heard about him. I've heard about it, but I haven't. Mine's only got 65. And the guys. I take it to a great place up here in White Bear.
Joe Susher
Yeah. Jesse, mine had 27,000 and it went.
Jesse Ventura
Wow.
Joe Susher
Yeah, but we don't need to. We don't need to hold you with car talk.
Rookie
No, but what did you do with the one you had in 97?
Jesse Ventura
No, my 91.
Rookie
90.
Jesse Ventura
Yeah, that would have been my Baltic blue one.
Rookie
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Okay. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. No, I just sold it. I seen it one day. Yeah. All right.
Rookie
But now let's get back.
Jesse Ventura
Locally bought it, and it was up at the Porsche place that I take mine to.
Rookie
Okay, we've got one more weed question. And it comes from Hemp John. Come on the air, Johnny.
Jesse Ventura
What do you got?
Rookie
Remember Hemp John?
Jesse Ventura
Vaguely.
Rookie
He was the John Bernbach. He was always trying to get you on the air with the hemp legalization, et cetera, all that kind of stuff. And he was a good fan of the show way back when.
Joe Susher
Jesse, have we given you enough time? You've been very great.
Jesse Ventura
Well, you know, whatever. But actually, I enjoyed coming on Today. Because with the pandemic how it is, God, you don't talk to nobody.
Joe Susher
Right. And plus, I'm not the media, so, you know, you've got that figured out.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, yeah, no, but it is that way. You don't talk to anybody. So when you get an opportunity to, you kind of really enjoy it when it happens, because it is. It's like we're living under house arrest now, where you got to sit in your home and, you know, check in and out and all that, but we got to do it. And I don't know how to plead with people, these people that think they're American heroes running around with their flags and no masks and all that. They need to wake up and understand that this pandemic doesn't know countries.
Joe Susher
When do you go to Mexico? When do you go to Mexico? Are you going?
Jesse Ventura
I don't think I can.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
Not this year. Because we just talked to our caretaker down there and he suggested we stay home.
Joe Susher
Really?
Jesse Ventura
Yeah, because he said they're batting down down there and, you know, I imagine my health care here might be a little better if I do get it.
Joe Susher
I think so.
Jesse Ventura
Being down in the end of the Baja. Although I will say this, at least Mexico gives you credit for being an adult when it comes to. Because you can buy most drugs right over the counter down there.
Joe Susher
Well, I did not.
Rookie
It's one of the benefits, huh? One of the perks of living in the Baja.
Jesse Ventura
No, no, and I not talking about pot and things like that. I'm talking about your regular pharmaceutical drug.
Joe Susher
Oh, I see, I see.
Kenny Olson
How are the prices?
Jesse Ventura
You gotta run to the doctor to get. Yeah, right. Like an adult. You can walk in and buy the stuff. Yeah.
Kenny Olson
Is it expensive, is it marked up? Or is it a good price?
Jesse Ventura
I don't know. Just that here you need prescriptions for everything. You gotta go to the doctor. You can. Like, like I'm on blood thinners. Right, Right. I can't get more than 30 at a time.
Kenny Olson
Oh, God, don't get me started.
Jesse Ventura
Blood thinners to get high.
Kenny Olson
Yes.
Jesse Ventura
There's no market for it. And when I go to Mexico, I'm in a dilemma because I go there for 90 days and they'll only give me a 30 day supply.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
And I go, what do I do now? Buy them off the streets down there. You know, do I get. Because I'm on the ship. What is it now? I forget. What's the name of the stuff? No, no, I'm not on either of them. I left that. Yeah.
Joe Susher
Coumadin Coumadin.
Jesse Ventura
No, no, no, no. I left the one that Arla Palmer, the golfer, advertised it.
Joe Susher
Oh, okay. I don't know.
Rookie
Zantac.
Jesse Ventura
No, you know, but it's another form of. Now they'll only give you 30 days of it.
Rookie
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
And I say to them, but I'm leaving for 90 days.
Joe Susher
Yeah, that's right.
Jesse Ventura
What am I supposed to do? Not take it for 60. And you're an adult and you figure, can't they give you a four month supply?
Joe Susher
You think so?
Jesse Ventura
I'm gonna overdose blood thinners.
Rookie
This would be a great endorsement for you. I can hear it now. Doodle doodle doo doodle zorato Doodle doodle doodle zorato. Doodle doodle doo doodle zorato.
Jesse Ventura
I'll tell you what else is great about Mexico, Joe.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
And I'm considering moving. If Terry would do it, I'd move to Mexico permanently.
Joe Susher
The taxes, I can imagine.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, no, their whole system.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
We always knock Mexico for being stupid and corrupt and all this. Are you kidding me? Do you know how their tax system works?
Joe Susher
I don't.
Jesse Ventura
You'll know. Now, your taxes are due. Property tax. You're at home. Right. Job.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
Okay. Imagine if you lived under this. Your property taxes are due in March.
Joe Susher
Okay.
Jesse Ventura
If you agree, like I do, to go down on January 28th.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
Which means February is only 28 days.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
If you go down, like I do on January 28th and pay your property taxes.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Mexico knocks off 20%.
Joe Susher
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
If you do it in February, they knock off 10%.
Joe Susher
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
If you do it in March, it's the normal price. And then, of course, April, the fine start. Oh, my. But if you pay early. Now here's my question. I do at the end of January. So in 30 days I get 20% on my money. Tell me an investment that would do
Joe Susher
that, I can't come up with.
Rookie
Once again, I give you King Midas.
Jesse Ventura
No. In 30 days I get 20. And now here's the. It don't end there. Here's the best part I actually was contemplating of going after dual citizenship, Mexican and US. Because if you're a Mexican citizen on the day you turn 65, your property taxes, whether you own a palatial mansion or a shack, get cut in half. Wow.
Joe Susher
You gotta talk Terry into the right thing here.
Jesse Ventura
No, they get cut in half because the Mexicans understand that you work your whole life for your home. And when you get 65, your income, it becomes harder to earn income. And they understand that. And they don't want you thrown out of your home.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
So they cut your. Imagine how many old people up here lose their houses because they're on fixed income and they keep raising taxes on them.
Joe Susher
That's a terrible problem. We talk about it all the time.
Jesse Ventura
But in Mexico, they cut your property taxes in half when you turn 65. But they're the dummies, right? Yeah. Now, here's my predicament. I was going to get dual citizenship. Right. You know what stopped me? RT no.
Rookie
Putin said, no way.
Jesse Ventura
What stopped me was part of the things you got to do to get Mexican citizenship.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
You got to be able to sing their anthem. I can't even sing ours. I knew I was dead meat at that point. The way I'm learning this.
Rookie
An just ripped up the paperwork and threw it away.
Chris Reivers
Huh.
Jesse Ventura
Well, it all goes back to that great joke you heard about the illegal immigrant that was up here.
Kenny Olson
No.
Jesse Ventura
Yeah, he was up here. And he went to the ball game and he said, I don't know why everyone thinks that the United States is so hostile to us illegal immigrants. He said, when I went to the ball game, they all stood up at the start and asked if I could see.
Chris Reivers
Hold on, hold on.
Jesse Ventura
The crowd stood up and said, jose, can you see?
Joe Susher
Yeah. Boom.
Rookie
What was the best thing about being the governor? What was the biggest perk?
Jesse Ventura
Biggest perk, I would say, is the international travel.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
Because I got to go to places and be treated very exceptionally well. You know, I went to China, and I'll never forget getting an audience and sitting down for one hour with Fidel Castro.
Joe Susher
Oh, boy.
Kenny Olson
Oh, that had to be fascinating.
Jesse Ventura
Oh. I'll tell you quickly. Castro and I became friends. Really?
Joe Susher
You were cozying up to Castro?
Kenny Olson
I never would have guessed.
Jesse Ventura
First of all, he told me I had to come back to Cuba and next time bring my wife and family, and he would take care of me. I never did, and I regret it today that I didn't. I imagine he would have put me up pretty good on the beach, probably, you know. And second of all, Castro was. I got the chance to sit with him for an hour, and with 20 minutes to go, I looked. I glanced down at my watch. He caught me, and he looked at me and said, I'm sorry, am I keeping you from something?
Kenny Olson
Oh, boy.
Jesse Ventura
And I thought, okay. Be honest. I said, no, sir. But I said, you've only given me one hour, and I have only 20 minutes left. And I said, I would hope I could ask you some personal questions. Castro looked at me and Said, ask me anything you want. So I said, well, I said I was about 12 or 13 years old when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And I said, I've been studying that assassination for virtually my entire adult life. And I said, there's many scenarios that you figure very prominently in. I said, I would just like to hear your take on the day President John Kennedy was murdered. Oh, my God. I couldn't shut him up, really. The first thing he told me was it was an inside job. Second thing, he said, Oswald couldn't make the shots. You know that as well as I, right? That's what he said to me. Third, he said, a lot of people like to put the blame on me. He looked me right in the eye. He said, do I look suicidal to you? I said, no, sir. He said, well, I'm not. And he said, I love my country too much. If I would have killed Kennedy, Cuba would have been wiped off the face of the Earth, right? Yeah, that's a good point. He said, I would never put my country in that position, ever. He said it was an inside job. And then he told me, he said he believed that Kennedy was on the verge of changing his policy to Cuba, because he said at that moment, a reporter Kennedy had sent to me named Gene Daniels was setting up a clandestine meeting between Castro and Cuba, or Castro and jfk, right? And when word came in that Kennedy had been killed in Dallas, and I learned this later by looking up Gene Daniel, the reporter, when Kennedy was announced he was killed in Dallas, Daniel said, castro immediately dropped his head and stared at the floor and was silent for about two minutes. When he lifted his head up, he looked and said quietly, this is bad. This is very bad. And so having an audience for one hour with Fidel Castro, and then it even went on from there. When I announced I was not going to seek reelection one day, I was going home. I wanted to go back out to my house, and Bosak or my chief of staff said, no, you got to go to the governor's residence. I said, what for? It's Friday, you know, don't go there
Rookie
on Friday, you know.
Jesse Ventura
And he kind of looked around and whispered, cuba. I said, oh, okay. So I went to the governor's residence. I'm there. In comes the Swiss embassy car, because, you know, Cubic can have no relationship here. Back then, guy from the Swiss embassy, I bring him in, bring him in the library, sits down. He said, well, you know, I'm here on behalf of Cuba. I said, yes, sir, I know that. He said, I have a message for you from Cuba. And I said, okay, what is it? He said, the message is this. Cuba understands that you're not seeking re election, but Cuba also wants you to understand that a friend of Cuba will always be a friend of Cuba.
Rookie
That's pretty cool.
Jesse Ventura
In other words, even though I was giving up my power, Fidel. Because when he said Cuba, that's another word for fidelity, right?
Kenny Olson
Yeah.
Jesse Ventura
He said, Fidel, sending you the message, you're still my friend. He was an office or not.
Joe Susher
He was a murdering dictator.
Jesse Ventura
He. He was not in. He was better than Batista.
Joe Susher
Yeah. Okay.
Jesse Ventura
Because here's your argument, Joe. I imagine there's a lot of murdering dictators when you got to take over a country. It's the nature of the business. Yeah. Second of all, Castro could have never won if the people weren't behind him. There's no way he lands with those hundred guys on the One coast and survives.
Joe Susher
Right.
Jesse Ventura
He had the people with him, so that means Batista was way worse than him. And I argue that with my Cuban friend Rick Sanchez at RT all the time. Yeah.
Joe Susher
I'm going to defer to you because you obviously have more experience there than I do. Pete's sake.
Rookie
So when the Swiss army or the Swiss car came up and he got out, you knew it was somebody important. Do you remember what happened when I came to visit you with my kids that one day when you were down in the basement? Do you remember what movie you were watching?
Jesse Ventura
No.
Rookie
Beverly Hills Cop. Yeah. It was down with that ugly yellow furniture in the basement. And you were eating a deliciously prepared. It was a cherry tart. So that's what I was hinting at when I was asking, what's the biggest perk about being a governor? So you got some guy cooking for you all the time.
Jesse Ventura
Oh, that's good. But that's bad too, though, because I gained a lot of weight.
Rookie
Ah, okay. I'll remember that when I run.
Jesse Ventura
And plus the other bad thing. You do nothing but go to lunches. So you're pounding in all this food and you don't get enough time to exercise. That's the great thing about the pandemic for me right now. Oh, man. I'm in the best shape I've been in in 10 years. Really?
Joe Susher
You're working out?
Kenny Olson
I saw a picture of you in August and you look fantastic.
Jesse Ventura
Well, I. This morning, before I did this show, I went downstairs and did 50 sets of weights. 750 repetitions.
Rookie
Any burpees?
Jesse Ventura
No, this is weights.
Rookie
Oh.
Jesse Ventura
And all in two hours. And Then I have an hour rest and then come on with you guys. But I work. And tomorrow I'll do five miles on the elliptic machine.
Chris Reivers
Hold on. One more thing, Governor. We've heard half the story from Rookie, but Rookie tried to tell the Arnold Schwarzenegger story, I believe, promoting the fact that you were gonna on the show.
Rookie
You remember your roast?
Jesse Ventura
Remember what?
Rookie
Do you remember your roast at the prom center?
Jesse Ventura
I don't know. I don't remember.
Rookie
When I came out and I had all the. I had the. The tights on, I had the big foam arms.
Jesse Ventura
I don't remember it. Rook. Sorry.
Rookie
Oh, well, it was. I did a perfect imitation.
Jesse Ventura
Rookie, you do so many stupid things, it's hard to recall them.
Joe Susher
It really is.
Chris Reivers
We're saving that as a liner for sure.
Jesse Ventura
Alone. Oh, that's so true.
Joe Susher
Jesse. Thank you very much and I hope we can do it again.
Jesse Ventura
Absolutely. Joe, I wish you well. Wish your family well. Stay safe, please. And please tell people as much as you can to wear the masks.
Joe Susher
We will.
Jesse Ventura
My God, let's get through this thing and get back to normal life in Minnesota.
Joe Susher
All right, I agree. Say hello to your family.
Jesse Ventura
You sure will. All right, you guys take care.
Rookie
Give the first Lady a big hug for me.
Joe Susher
Thank you very much.
Rookie
See you, brother.
Kenny Olson
Thank you.
Chris Reivers
Holy cow. Wasn't that phenomenal?
Kenny Olson
What an honor. God, that was fun. I've still got a whole page of
Rookie
questions as this was going on.
Joe Susher
I do, I do.
Kenny Olson
I have a whole bunch of things I want to talk to him about.
Joe Susher
He's amazing. We're on the air. Yeah, shut him up.
Kenny Olson
You know what that I wanted to do is I wanted to get you and the governor in a. In a cage match about the electoral college because he doesn't like it and you do. And I want to bring him back.
Joe Susher
I want to have him on again. Yeah, well, and he's clearly looking for stuff to do, right?
Kenny Olson
Cut him a check.
Joe Susher
I'm not cutting him a check. He'll come back for a podcast sticker.
Chris Reivers
The media.
Joe Susher
Yeah.
Chris Reivers
You know, that makes me want to do what? Fry up a meatloaf.
Joe Susher
From where?
Chris Reivers
Hey, I tell you what. I did what you told me to over the weekend. I got the Grundhofer Porchetta out. I put it in the crock pot. Frozen. I didn't even thought.
Rookie
Oh, wow.
Jesse Ventura
Okay.
Chris Reivers
I put it in frozen yesterday morning at about seven. By six o' clock, it was falling apart. It was unbelievable.
Rookie
What'd you put in with it?
Joe Susher
Nothing.
Chris Reivers
Absolutely nothing.
Joe Susher
He's doing it. All right, Jesse, lives out near Grundhofer's. It would be a very short run for him to get up to Grundhofer's. Maybe that's where I'll get there. Thanksgiving Turkey Free Range Fresh Turkeys, $2.99 a pound. You can even call ahead to Grundhofer's Old fashioned Meats in Hugo. 651-426-2800. But don't kid yourself, you still have to go to the store. When you do, you will succumb to the temptations of meatrtainment. Meatloaf brats, tomahawk steaks, Philly patties, rookie burgers, thick cut bacon, double smoked ham, you name it. And right now, Free range Fresh turkeys. It'll be the best turkey you've ever had. $2.99 a pound. This is Grundhofer's Old Fashioned Meat. It's on Highway 61. Where else? Right at the north end of Hugo.
Rookie
He's so close to Governor Ventura that Governor Ventura makes him call him governor. It's Joe Sushere.
Joe Susher
And then I ended up calling him Jesse the whole show. He called me Governor then I called him Jesse the whole show.
Chris Reivers
Kenny, who are you calling?
Kenny Olson
I'm calling Moon Motorsports. They're the family owned Palatial motorsports shop up in Monticello. They've been doing it for 50 years with a full shop, parts department and apparel division all in the house and the largest selection of ATVs side by side sleds and bikes in the region. You can see them all@moonmotorsports.com Speaking of motorcycles, Honda, BMW, Triumph, Yamaha, KTM, CAN AM and Ducati. Price is always better right now in the fall and winter. That means it's time to get out there and buy a new bike. Many manufacturers are offering excellent savings right now, some with no payments until 2021. And Moon Motorsports will give you free storage over the winter for the rest of 2020 if you buy a motorcycle now. But right now also a great time to save big on Michelin and Dunlop tires. And if you buy in the next couple of weeks, that is before December 1st, Moon Motorsports are going to pick it up and deliver your bike for free. So there's a lot going on right now at Moon. Great bike deals. Can't miss offers on Michelin and Dunlop's and snowmobile season on the way. You gotta exit Monticello. Stroll on in moonmotorsports.com a good place to start. They've been making dreams a reality up in Monticello for generations Your dream bike. It's sitting there on the showroom floor waiting for you. Check it out.
Joe Susher
Moonmotorsports.com when we started the show today, I said, this is Garagelogic podcast number 500. We thought number 500 was tomorrow, but at 8:23am today, I got an email from Paul W. Humrickhouse, who writes. Just wanted to wish you gentlemen a happy 500th podcast today. Yes, number 500 today, Monday, November 16, 2020. Perhaps you thought you were doing 4.99 to do, but back on May 8 and May 11, you followed podcast number 380 with another podcast number 380. That makes today 500. Enjoy official garage like Garage Logic Counter. Paul. So we verified this and we can't ignore the evidence.
Chris Reivers
Here we go.
Rookie
How do we know we have it screwed up?
Joe Susher
Here we go. Fratelloni's Ace Hardware and Garden stores brings you Garagelogic podcast number 380. May 8, 2020.
Rookie
May 8, 2020. You called that 380, right?
Jesse Ventura
Take two.
Joe Susher
Fraterloni's Ace Hardware and Garden Stores brings you Garagelogic Podcast number 380. The high for this day was 88 degrees, and that occurred in 1900.
Chris Reivers
That was May 11th.
Joe Susher
There was a glitch in our counting. So today was number 500.
Kenny Olson
By our counting, you mean your mind.
Rookie
Okay, but how do we know that we haven't made a mistake from 380 to 499?
Joe Susher
Oh, well, let's point. Let's not worry about it.
Jesse Ventura
No, we're.
Chris Reivers
You know what, Russ? I'll go back through every single. Since day one, we had the infamous star.
Rookie
We can rely on our listeners to
Chris Reivers
do our work for us under your direction.
Rookie
Under my direction?
Jesse Ventura
Please.
Joe Susher
Somebody verify that those numbers are thanks to Jesse Ventura. That was great.
Chris Reivers
Thank you, you rookie. Great job setting that up.
Jesse Ventura
You.
Rookie
I sat through. If I told you how many hours I had to sit with him on the phone. I knew every story they told.
Joe Susher
He loves to talk.
Chris Reivers
It was fantastic.
Joe Susher
He's lonely.
Rookie
During the pandemic, if I heard this when I was on the phone with him. One more time.
Jesse Ventura
One final note, rook, then I'll let you go.
Rookie
There's about four or five of those.
Kenny Olson
It took every ounce I had not to ask him solely AWA questions I wanted to do was talk to him about wrestling.
Rookie
Because you held back. He'll come back.
Joe Susher
All right. Thanks, G. Yellers.
Rookie
Podmn. You want to hear the prior 499? You can PODMN on your smartphone or you go to podmn.com and that's on your computer. Special shout out to Fred Lorise hardware and garden stores for all of their, what would you say?
Chris Reivers
Years of dedication.
Rookie
That's good enough. Well put. I'll just shut up. I'll be over here.
Chris Reivers
Hey now you can do your impersonation you want.
Jesse Ventura
Now I don't know
Chris Reivers
what normally would have sponsored John Heights newscast here in the garagelogic Best of podcast. I want to thank our friends once again at North American Banking Company for their continued partnership here in the GL Podcast. And also, ladies and gentlemen, it's going to be another beautiful weekend. Head on down and go see my friends at Harmony Spirits down there in Harmony, Minnesota. I know you can't see me right now, but I am rocking my my brand new Under Armour quarter zip that I got. They've got. Even if, hey, I got a deal for you. Even if you're not into alcohol, go down there and buy their sweet gear. It's fantastic. They're my favorite shirts that I own. Anyway, go into your local liquor store, ask for the Harmony brand by name. That is how all of you are going to continue to help us support the fine folks making wonderful handcrafted spirits in Harmony, Minnesota. And like I said, go into that local liquor store, go ask for the Harmony brand by name. And if you're in the area, stop in at that tasting room. They have a wonderful selection of the rotating menu of wonderful selection, selection of craft cocktails. And say hi to Larry and Damon and the entire Harmony Spirits crew. Doesn't matter what you're looking for. The rum, the vodka, the whiskey, it's all there for you. And also we've got some exciting news coming up in the next couple of weeks on all of you GL ers that might not be in the state of Minnesota and you'll be able to help out and support our friends at Harmony Spirits down in Harmony, Minnesota. I hope you've enjoyed the best of the garagelogic podcast. Everyone will be back in studio next Monday. Everyone have a fantastic weekend.
Joe Susher
My name is Mackenzie and I started
Jesse Ventura
a GoFundMe for the adoptive mother of a nonverbal autistic child.
Joe Susher
The mother had lost her job because
Jesse Ventura
she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child.
Joe Susher
So she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help help support them during this crisis. And we raised about $10,000 within just
Jesse Ventura
a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous donations from people who were really moved
Joe Susher
by the situation that this family was struggling with. GoFundMe is the world's number one fund fundraising platform trusted by over 200 million people.
Rookie
Start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com that's gofundme.com gofundme.com this podcast is supported by GoFundMe.
Kenny Olson
As you travel up and down the service road of life this week and celebrate our nation's birthday, it's important to keep one thing at the ready. Bugs Be Gone from our friends at Seafone. Now we receive a steady stream of testimonials from G Leers talking about the effectiveness of Bugs Be Gone and how easy it makes cleaning bugs, road grinding grime and other organic substances from windows, bumpers, grills, fairings, boats and what have you. Motorcycle riders. Be sure to keep a spray bottle in the saddle bags. One gl or he sprays his vehicle down and then pulls them out in the rain to let mom and nature do the elbow work. So many uses, so many ways to use it. You can spray it on the surface you need clean, let it sit for a minute or two and then wash like normal and the bug disappear with ease. Keep yourself well stocked. One in the vehicle, an extra one in the garage and buy a couple spray bottles for loved ones and friends. Isn't that what we do as glers? Help each other out, have a wonderful fourth of July holiday. From all of us at garagelogic and our friends at Seafoam, it is time
Chris Reivers
once again that we check in with our guy, Mr. Money Talk. Josh Arnold is with us once again right here in garagelogic. And now is the time for you to do the same. So do not delay. Do exactly what I did in pick up that phone and dial 992-55-608. That number once again is 952-925-5608. When you call that number, you're going to get Josh and he is there for you for that. Free. Yes, I use the word free. 48 minute financial consultation with absolutely zero obligation. And he will always give you the straight talk. He will never give you the sugar coated advice. And he is on the line with us once again right here in garagelogic. And boy, Josh, you nailed it. Because one analyst right now has raised his price target to match you. Money Talk. When it comes to Apple.
Jesse Ventura
When it comes to Apple, I've had a price target of $400 a share. And this is even before Apple's stellar earnings report last week. I had felt that Apple's product and services should be worth at least $400 per share. And with the add on feature artificial intelligence being incorporated in Apple's products that would give Apple a further boost. This particular anal eyes of Evercore who's probably one of the most bullish analysts on Wall street regarding Apple and the artificial intelligence highway up his price Target today to $400 and attributes a portion of that stock price movement up to Apple's use of artificial intelligence. And he said it all starts in June with the Worldwide Developers Conference when Apple's new theory of update will be introduced. I think actually that Apple's move with artificial intelligence has started long before this update we're hearing. And given Apple being more we'll say agnostic around artificial intelligence products, especially given last year Apple generated about $900 million on applications from AI and that is increasing a little bit this year. I do think there'll be a stronger ramp as we go go forward. I have said for several years that Apple as well as Amazon and Google should be long term beneficiaries of artificial intelligence. Additionally Apple got another we'll say boost today as did intel when both Apple and Intel reached a preliminary chip making agreement on newer chip manufactured by intel for Apple products. Now it could be that these chips will be manufactured through Intel's foundry with Apple's designs much like much like Taiwan Semiconductor already does for Apple. This is this deal will be a big big deal for intel which several years ago had lost Apple's Apple's chip business. So a return, Apple's return to intel definitely adds to intel or Intel's cachet currently and we've seen intel stock in the last month go from $50 a share up to $115 a share. Now part of that has to do with other companies. These moves towards intel and intel just after they announced their earnings last week finally, finally got above 2000. I'll say October 2000 high only. Cisco is the remaining company of the big four from the late 1990s to still be below its high from 2000 could be very interesting with Cisco as it does produce an awful lot of servers and the need for servers in the build out of data centers is big. Probably find out a little bit more about Cisco's business when they report their earnings in a few weeks. Meantime artificial and companies around that still are the leaders right now in the marketplace.
Chris Reivers
Excellent advice as always Mr. MoneyTalk. You heard him G yellers now is the time for you to pick up the phone and make the call for that free 48 minute financial consultation again with zero obligation. And you do that just like I did by dialing 952-925-5608 where you always get straight talk and never ever sugarcoated advice. Josh, as always, thank you so much for the time and the chat. Enjoy the rest of your day, have a fantastic weekend and we'll talk to you again next week.
Jesse Ventura
Look forward to it.
Joe Susher
Thanks Chris Investment services offered by Josh
Jesse Ventura
Arnold, Investment Consultant, llc. A security investment advisor.
Chris Reivers
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All investments involve risk. All comments and opinions are Josh Arnold's
Jesse Ventura
and do not constitute investment advice.
Joe Susher
Chris Reavers is a paid endorser. Everybody talked about it since I first moved to Oregon.
Jesse Ventura
The big one. The earthquake that trashed the whole West Coast. Total destruction. Officially calling it the largest natural disaster in American history.
Joe Susher
I just didn't know what would help me next.
Jesse Ventura
So I took it all.
Joe Susher
Even in the gun.
Jesse Ventura
It was time.
Chris Reivers
Cello American Afterlife Presented by Pair of Thieves. The number one fiction and drama podcast in America.
Joe Susher
Listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts available now.
Podcast: Garage Logic
Host: Joe Soucheray, with Chris Reivers, Rookie, John Heidt, Kenny Olson
Guest: Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura
Date: May 8, 2026 (Originally recorded November 2020)
Episode: #500
This "Best Of" Garage Logic episode features a lively, wide-ranging interview with Jesse Ventura, former governor of Minnesota, pro-wrestler, broadcaster, and perennial independent iconoclast. Hosted by Joe Soucheray ("The Mayor") and his Garage Logic crew, the conversation explores Ventura’s experiences in politics, his media career, thoughts on the state of America, his controversial work with Russian Television (RT), personal stories, and his unfiltered perspectives on recent events and the future of politics.
| Topic | Timestamp | |---------------------------------------------------------|------------| | Opening, reference to episode and why it’s a Best Of | 02:01–02:55| | Ventura on the Chris Kyle case and U.S. media | 04:56–08:42| | Experience with RT, Putin, and being a "foreign agent" | 08:42–17:25| | COVID-19 response and mask attitudes | 17:40–20:28| | On political division and the 2-party system | 20:50–28:17| | Light rail & transportation in MN | 23:07–25:35| | Selling Porsches, going electric | 26:09–26:21| | Why major parties block outsiders (Ross Perot example) | 27:19–28:17| | Trump, McCain, and military service | 29:10–33:03| | The Squad and representation | 34:27–36:46| | On not running for re-election, regrets | 22:34–22:46| | Legalization and medical cannabis story | 56:50–59:36| | On upbringings, family, and the hidden cash story | 52:14–55:39| | MSNBC show canceled over Iraq opposition | 71:01–76:51| | Cuba, Castro, and JFK assassination talk | 89:34–94:53| | Reflections on being Governor and entering politics | 67:04–67:46| | Fitness and pandemic routines | 96:05–96:19| | Final gratitude, pandemic advice, goodbyes | 97:07–97:28|
This epic interview showcases Jesse Ventura at his most iconoclastic and unguarded. From scathing indictments of the U.S. media and two-party system to personal tales of family and principled stances on marijuana legalization, former Governor Ventura combines storytelling, populist outrage, and wit. His views on pandemic response, American decline, and media corruption will provoke and amuse. For listeners both nostalgic for Ventura’s Minnesota era and curious about his outsider take on today’s America, this episode delivers memorable moments from a true GL “character.”
Memorable Sign-off:
"Please tell people as much as you can to wear the masks. My God, let's get through this thing and get back to normal life in Minnesota." – Jesse Ventura (97:10)
For first-timers and longtime fans, this episode captures the best of Garage Logic’s blend of local color, irreverence, and insightful conversation with an American original.