Inside USA- Jesse Ventura- 01 Aug 08- Part 1

he was one of the world's most famous wrestlers until he hung up the spandex and went into politics he became a mayor and then governor of Minnesota today he spends half his year in Mexico and half here in Minnesota's Lake Country but his views are anything but retiring he says that the United States today is on the brink of fascism he questions the official story of 9/11 and later in the show he will tell us what Fidel Castro told him about the assassination of John F Kennedy he is of course Jesse Ventura and he's my guest on this special edition of inside us Jesse Ventura leads a pretty contemplative life these days out of the spotlights glare generally I'll come out here in the evenings you take at least 20 to 25 cast before or after dinner another one out there which is not to say that he's lost his competitive edge he pulled a 20-pound fish office don't easily yeah I've got before my wife got a 45 inch muskie I got a 42 inch one she caught a 20 inch walleye and a 29 inch walleye does your wife generally beat you and everything nope nope nope she just probably has more time to fish at times than I do sounds like an excuse to me no it's like anything if you do it more and do it more often you're gonna have more success from the person that doesn't and each is better you know she might be you know in fishing there's no better or worse it's luck that's why they call it fishing and not catching when we sat down to speak to him at his lakeside home he'd been ruminating all week about going back into politics it was just 48 hours after the filing deadline for the Minnesota Senate race I talked to Terry her wife and week when we came in and she said at an hour and a half before the filing deadline your motorcycle was out in the garage and your riding clothes were bonded to her yeah what's going on well I I was contemplating going down and filing and and then we talked for another half hour and then she said to me you've always believed in fate and destiny and I said that's correct and she said then and we didn't know which way to go and she said then why don't we flip a coin and that's what I did right on the floor here I took a quarter and I said heads all filed tails I won't and I flipped the coin up in the air and it landed on the floor and it came up tails so destiny it was the flip of a coin ultimately in the end you really decided on the basis of the flipping because if the coin would have come up heads I'd have gone down and filed I want to talk about the state of America maybe some of the reasons why you were tempted and why it's clearly still a possibility for you to re-enter political life on page 2 of your book you say the United States is on the brink of fascism and that was probably finished almost a year ago who we are fascism by definition is when corporations team up with organized religion and control the government do I have to say anything more wouldn't you say that we're on the brink if we're not there it seems that corporate America I don't believe that our military fights for the people anymore I believe the military of the United States is now the strong arm of the corporate America one of the one of the distinguishing features of fascism is not the slow or fast erosion of civil liberties but living in a police state that doesn't allow for civil liberties as a small L libertarian you you hold that to be one of the highest values in American life and where we had well we had a tree attacked we're having I mean last week the Democrats who are supposedly opposite the Republicans I don't believe that I think it's like Pro Wrestling I think that in front of the public they make us think they're all angry at each other but the reality is behind the scenes they're all in rooms cotton deals and they're the best of buddies and when you look at what the what the Democrats allowed to again happen a week ago they destroyed the fourth amendment again illegal search and seizure they gave bush and resumed it excuse me they're not in cahoots together so how do you solve it in wrestling when that when when both sides are on the same side you the point to the matter is you're always on the same side and wrestling you just portray it differently to the crowd to the public and that's what they do I think your book is called don't start the revolution without me well how do you take back a system that you feel is on the brink of fascism in America today you have to get al independence elected and they have to go there and we have to in my opinion we have to destroy these two political parties that are destroying our country and I'm not alone in that thinking if you go back to our founding fathers John Adams Thomas Jefferson and George Washington they all state stated clearly that the downfall of the United States wouldn't come at the hands of an outside entity that it would come from within and they said it would come when political parties took over the government I think they're there and yet at the same time the vast majority of Americans 75 or 80 percent say that the country is going in the wrong direction 9 out of 10 Americans say that it needs to be fundamental change in the health care system people don't like Americans don't like the way that this country is going yeah you're lemming C must be learned they don't run there but they don't vote that way do they Jefferson one of his great quotes was dissension is the greatest form of patriotism I'm just trying to reconcile this with the fact that you are a proud former Navy SEAL military my brother's a Navy SEAL my father's a world war two vet and my mother was a World War two vet I lived in a household with all four people served in the military at a time of war so do you identify with the pacifists yes I think war wars the failure the complete failure of politics when politics fails you have war well clearly politics has failed because we have war what if the war was the purpose of the politics well yeah that may be it - I don't know I didn't make that decision but I don't like it and I don't like the fact that our country it's destroying our economy it would back me up the other day the two major things that I've talked about in my politics has been the debt which you don't hear either the Democrats or Republicans even come close to talking about why because they're both equal offenders and it's indefensible we're over nine trillion dollars in debt now well I think sorry to be fair I think the Democrats are talking about restoring a sense of balance in the in the country's finances whether or not they're sincere is another question well no they're not because number two on the list to restore our economy just get out of the war in Iraq well if the Democrats are so for getting out of the war in Iraq how come they haven't did it they control both houses you know what their response is we can't override Bush's veto right get the political aide they don't need to they control the money yes the spending the spending bills have no time to do is stop the money and you stop the war but it's because they're on board remember when I told you about wrestling and it shows okay but hang on the way other political reality for the Democrats is is whatever they say the reason is they know they'll get beat up in the elections by the Republicans as unpatriotic pacifists who are weak on terrorism and are putting a control so in other words they're making a political decision as opposed to what they really from their hearts believe be called politics right no not in my world in my world you go with what you believe whether it's popular unpopular you go with your values and where your heart is and the hell with the next election anybody that voted for the war in my opinion should not hold public office because they were duped and we don't have time to have leaders who can be duped you also have a policy proposal in your book about the people who decide to go to war having to pay a price in their own family well you know one thing right now about our economy it's starting to suffer and you know what the positive about that is I see our country's finally starting to feel some pain from this war all the money that so we're losing channeling into this country that I don't understand what the benefit is for us in the end I haven't profited I haven't looked around and said gee since we've invaded Iraq my life is somehow better I would challenge any American to any United States in because I don't use the term American if I can help especially since even living in in Mexico yes any United States and I would challenge them to come forward and tell me how they've benefited from the invasion and the war in Iraq or perhaps they could ask an Iraqi yeah how they benefited anyone how does anyone benefit from war well certain people do that make money off it there's always profit ears in war like a Lebert and they're making a fortune and who used to be the president of Halliburton let's make that a skill testing question we've got to take a break but I want to talk to you about JFK Fidel Castro and the CIA when we come back

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 175,252

Rating: 4.9104118 out of 5

Keywords: Inside, USA, Jesse, Ventura

Id: 4SoxTEn833I

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 05 2008

Reddit Comments

[u/BentSlightly]

It was so satisfying living in Minnesota when he ran for Governor. Watching him beat "Skip" Humphrey and Norm Coleman, on the news that night, was pure bliss. Still the only Governor to actually return money to the taxpayer. Minnesota is infamously greedy, for their specialized appearance of "Progressive Politics".

[u/johnmudd]

Perfect timing for me. I faced a tough decision earlier today. I hadn't seen this post yet but I ended up in a similar situation as Jessie.

I applied for a job at the beginning of this month, was told the pay rate and then, just before the interview, was asked to cut my rate to meet HR's requirement. I agreed, had a great interview, was told I had came out as the top candidate. A few days pass, all interviews were completed and I was still on top. But HR asked me to cut my rate again because there were other candidates who were willing to work for less.

The fact is that I would accept much less to do the work because it's a perfect fit for me. But I'm also a perfect fit for the job. So it was a dilemma. Accept another cut, hope it ends there and hope I don't feel like a chump for the duration of the job or just say "no". Neither seemed like a pleasant path.

I actually considered flipping a coin. It was that close but, in the end, I decided to be a man and say "no". I'm kinda surprised Jessie stuck with the coin. There was no easy way out but at least I didn't leave it up to "fate".

[u/CtotheW]

Stop the planet, I want off.

[u/sleepyslim]

I want to be able to say, "My president can beat up you're president."

Seriously, if Jesse runs... he's got my vote.

[u/spinlock]

He's honest but not amazing. And yelling back at the idiots on the TV does not mean that he would make a great president.

[u/funnels]

I would campaign for this guy. Anyone else slowly starting to feel slowly betrayed by Obama? I mean, I still think there's a chance he could still be badass, but he made a lot of promises and he's not keeping many. Also, with the torture thing it's obvious now that he is a politician first and a president second.

[u/rotzak]

Weelllllll, I wouldn't go that far. He has some interesting things to say. He also has some really really dumb things to say.

[u/AnnArchist]

I support this post and think he could make a good president.

What pisses me off is that this is what happens in idiocracy.

[u/millstone]

I remember precisely one television interview with Jesse Ventura. I think it was during his campaign for governor.

"You say you want to register all the guns. You know who else required gun registration? HITLER!"

I laughed and wrote the guy off. Maybe he's better now, but first impressions, as they say.