Jesse Ventura | Talks at Google

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>>Female Presenter: Welcome everybody. It's great to see a big crowd here. We're excited today to welcome Jesse Ventura to Authors at Google in Santa Monica. Jesse's a former Navy Seal and professional wrestler and, I have to say, I was lucky enough to see him wrestle live back in the day a few times. [applause] And I loved it and I especially used to love watching him as a commentator on television, cause he was always astute and funny. And he used to say he was the only commentator who told it like it is. And I have to say he's still telling it like it is throughout his career. He has gone on to become a well-known actor and TV personality, governor of Minnesota, visiting fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a bestselling author. His bestselling books include Don't Start the Revolution without Me and American Conspiracies. He's the host and executive producer of the TV series, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. And today he's gonna be talking about his latest bestseller, 63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read. So please join me in welcoming Governor Jesse Ventura. [applause] >>Jesse: Thank you. It's great to be here. First, I'd like to state, just so you know a little about me, well, beyond what the nice introduction. I'm a throwback. I'm computer illiterate. Not a good thing for you. [laughter] And I have never owned a cell phone in my life, nor will I ever now. I've made it a life's mission. I think that if I survive maybe another 25, 20 years on this planet, I can put it on my grave stone and I'll be the only one who will be able to do that. I've already instructed my wife, if I go first; I want "he never owned a cell phone" put on it because. And I'm a dinosaur, I guess, but I enjoy it because, I'll tell a funny story first when I bought my dream car back in 2003. A twin turbo X50 Porsche, 450 horsepower, 6 speed that is so fast today I've never floored it; that's how fast it is. When you order a car like that you have to get a slot number because they're made by hand in Germany. And when you get your slot number, you have to have ordered what you want. And my car salesman, who I'd previously probably bought a half a dozen cars from through the years, cause my wife and I enjoy Porsche's and she like Audi's and they're basically under the same roof. Probably fifth or sixth car and my salesman, Rob, is going through the list and didn't even ask, he just looked at me and said, "And where would you like your cell phone?" And I looked at him and I said, "I don't want a cell phone." You would've thought I was ordering a car without tires. He gave me a look unbelievable, but then I said, "But do you see that six CD player; the thing you can stack six CDs in?" I said, "That I want." The reason I don't want a cell phone in my car, my Porsche, is because first of all, it's a manual transmission six-speed, which requires you to use both feet and both hands at the same time. So therefore, where's the cell phone gonna fit in? And also, because when I drive that car it's the enjoyment of driving not the enjoyment of talking on a phone when I drive and I wanna drive it. And it's not California and it's not LA, either. I can drive it and get it past 40, which I always laugh when I come out here and see all the exotic cars. Where the hell do they drive them? You get past 40, you can't get past 40, but I got a Ferrari. [laughter] I mean, anyway, that aside; to the book. The last book I wrote was called American Conspiracies, where we went down basically from Abraham Lincoln and moved forward and talked about conspiracies and wrote about conspiracies from the conspiracy side, basically. Naturally, I took a great deal of heat for it. It seems today that if you at all question your government's story, you're a conspiracy theorist, which means you believe in anything, you're out in left field and all this stuff and green men are coming from Mars and everything like that, which I think is highly unfair. So in light of that book, which was a bestseller, and by the way, I might add Conspiracy Theory spent seven weeks on the New York Times top ten bestselling list. And yet, was not reviewed by one mainstream media in the United States of America, including the Times itself. And that it was on their top list; their top ten for seven weeks. Why? Why, if not just to say the books a piece of crap in the end. Why was it ignored? You don't ignore a book like that, so Dick Welsh, my co-writer and I, we decided, "Well, let's take a different approach with this next book. Let's do a book that they can't put any blame on us for, for theories or what I might think. And so we chose, and this was before WikiLeaks, we started this project up to a couple three months before WikiLeaks even happened. And we said, "Let's do government documents." That way, the government documents speak for themselves and they're real; they exist. So this book has nothing to do with any type of theory, conspiracy theory. Every document that is in this book is reproduced. We wanted them to do that, to where I just don't tell you about the documents and give you my opinion, which I do do, but the documents are all reproduced, in full, so you yourself can read them and judge for yourself what the document says. And we tried to go basically through my lifetime and I'll be 60 this summer, so we go back that far, and we progress forward to the modern time and we get documents all the way along the way. All the documents are legal. We didn't break any laws; they're out there. We didn't break anything top secret or that hadn't been unclassified. They're all in the public domain. And I will tell you this; this book to me is terrifying. This book was not easy to write. I'm a six-year Navy veteran. I love my country. I have the rare privilege, my brother is a Vietnam veteran; I am a Vietnam veteran. And I have the rare privilege that not too many people can say, my father was a World War II veteran and so was my mother. Not many people can say their mom was a World War II veteran. My father has, I think, six or seven bronze battle stars in World War II over in Europe. And my mother was a nurse in North Africa during World War II. And not too many people can say your mom is buried in a National cemetery. So that's why the book was difficult, because this book tried my patriotism and it stretched it too thin to a string. Because as I went through these documents and looked at the behavior of my country, it was appalling. It was shocking that we were involved in things that we've been involved in over the last 50 years. In fact, I got chastised for bringing up a word that I find ironic; I guess you're not supposed to use. When you read this, what bothered me, but I'll use it. I tell it like it is. Where are we at? [Jesse laughs] I believe many instances in this book, you can substitute the word Nazi and it works. There's behavior in this book that is as you'd expect it from the Nazi's. But it isn't the Nazi's, it's us. It’s our country. Now, people say, "Documents are secret. What right to --who's got the damn cell phone, shut that off. Consider this a green on a golf course, that's a hardline. OK, I stand corrected.-- [laughter] Anyway, these documents are appalling. Our behavior has been appalling in reading these documents of the things that my country has done. And yet, in most cases, no one has ever been prosecuted, no one has ever been tried for any of this stuff in the book and that troubles me. Now, let me move forward quickly to WikiLeaks for a moment if I can. I think WikiLeaks is a hero because of the fact that last year, in one year, our country declared top secret 16 million documents; 16 million documents that you and I are not allowed to see, in one year. I had to figure that must be just about everything they do. Just about, maybe, I don't know how many documents they would have. But I find it interesting that when I was in the military as a Navy Seal, I had a top secret security clearance. It was required. And I've been a mayor and I've been a governor. Now I'm neither; I'm a citizen. At what point do I lose my top secret security clearance? How am I any different today than I was before when it comes to security? And yet, because I become a civilian, or a citizen, now I'm not allowed to know things that I could know as a governor, that I could know as a Seal. Yet, I'm the same person. But I guess being a civilian puts you at the bottom of the food chain, or citizen of knowledge and I think it’s wrong. Now, the thing that you'll see in the book that I dedicated the book to Congressman Ron Paul. And I did that because he was the only person in our Congress when WikiLeaks happened that stepped out on the floor of Congress and gave, what I thought, one of the greatest speeches I had heard when he stated unequivocally that WikiLeaks has killed no one. How many people have been killed from the lies, the false intelligence and the deception we got to put us into the Iraq War? Also, the fact that I think what he said that was extremely important was that in a free country like ours, when telling the truth people accuse you of being a traitor or treason. When the truth equals treason in a free society then we're hurting. When telling the truth means people accuse you of being a traitor? The truth is what it is. The truth is the truth. When I ran for governor, I never used a prepared speech for anything to win because I ran under the premise of "if you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory." And that's true. I always remember, I was in my first debate and I sat down and there were like, seven candidates standing and a black woman, civilian, sitting to my left and they all walked in. They're carrying books, bins, papers, all this stuff. They're all loaded down and I come in with nothing; sat down at the table. This woman had one of those legal pads, you know with the yellow paper and a pen. And she set it on the table and she slid it over to me. And I looked at her and I slid it back and she said, "Well, don't you think you'll need that?" And that's when I told her, I said, "Ma'am, when you tell the truth you don't have to have a good memory." And I'll never forget the smile she gave me, and nodded. She got it, then, that I'll tell the truth. And I made the biggest mistake in the debates you could possibly make in a political debate. I was asked a question on TV in a debate and I simply said, "I don't know." There was like this deadened pause of two seconds and the crowd erupted into cheering and applause. And then when that was subsided, I said, "But if it's important, I'll learn." Well, I think that people appreciated honesty and I think the people appreciated hearing someone running for office that didn't claim to know everything. And I think that they realized at that point that truly honesty was more important to elect somebody now. The state of our country today: We're in a mess and who is to blame; the Democrats and the Republicans. They have been in charge for my entire life. I am an Independent; dyed in the wool, true and true. I despise them both equally. Not one over the other; I dislike both. I'm an equal opportunity despiser of both our political parties. I agree with what Ralph Nader said, "We are a two-party dictatorship in this country." Now, how can we break it? How can we take our country back? See, I not only talk about things; sometimes, I give solutions. How can we take our country back today? I believe it's as simple as the nose on your face, if I can use that cliché or another one. But unfortunately, we can't see the forest from the trees. How can we do it? It's simple. Stop voting for Democrats and Republicans. Remember, voting is not a horse race. You're not there to pick the winner. You're there to vote your heart and conscious for the candidate you believe fits your values the most and who you believe in, and if you do that, you have voted correctly. You have not wasted your vote. Wasting your vote is trying to pick a winner. And we all like to be with winners so we can all brag and say, "Yeah, I voted for this candidate and he won, or she won." But to me, that's not doing your civil duty, your civic duty. It's voting your heart and conscious. And a way we can start, a way we can immediately start to take our country back, how about this? I'll back up a second. I no longer believe in the third party movement [pause] and I'll tell you why. The Democrats and Republicans have corrupted the system so badly that any third party in which to survive will have to corrupt itself. Where you've already got a two-headed monster, why would you want a three-headed one? I now advocate the abolishment of all political parties in the United States of America. Turn them into political action committees, which is what they are anyway. Certainly they can endorse, but end it there. And on every ballot in the United States of America, here's a simple thing we can do: Remove the party designation and put down only the name. It's too simple and the system's set up for it. If your conservative, you don't need to know anybody's name. You look for the party, Republican, Republican, Republican. If you're Liberal, you don't need to know a name, Democrat, Democrat, Democrat. By only putting down the name, would then require you, as a voter, to educate yourself. What does John Smith stand for? 'Cause you wouldn't have that crutch in there that would tell you Conservative or Democrat. And then there's one, and you in California can get away with this stuff because you've got that nonsense where you can put everything on the ballot. The next thing would be simply this: how about on every state, local, and national ballot, we offer the final choice at the bottom that you can vote for, "none of the above." Now, people laugh at that, but what that truly is is a vote of no confidence in government. That could do volumes; huge. Cause imagine for a moment, let's say I'm a Democrat and I defeated my Republican opponent for Congress but I lost to none of the above. More people cast their vote for none of the above than what I got. Wouldn't that make them go out there with a change of attitude? You lost to nobody. Yes, you're the Congressman, or the Congresswoman, but you lost to none of the above. And I'm willing to bet, right now, there are elections in this country where none of the above would prevail. And that's what's wrong with that, a vote of no confidence? That would send a huge message, huge, to every elected official. Imagine these ideas coming from a pro-wrestler. I didn't go to college. I didn't, I'm not a political science major and I'm certainly not a lawyer. Imagine that. All these ideas that this pro-wrestler comes up with. But anyway, those are a few of the things that as you look into this book, and I will open up here for questions in a minute, because that's usually the best way. I don't wanna just lecture, lecture, lecture. I'd like to answer questions on what's on your mind. But as you look through this book, I hope it does frighten you. I hope that it's a wake-up call. I hope that you will be engaged citizens, stop being lemmings because right now we're a country full of lemmings. We can march right off the cliff and we don't even look left or right. Why? It's the dumbing down of America because of our media; our media. Our media was supposed to be the fourth branch of government. They were supposed to be the watchdog of the other three to report back to us. Well, they're not anymore. They're in bed with the government. They're the government's mouthpiece now. They're no longer a watchdog. Cases in point, what's the top story these last three, four weeks? Charlie Sheen. You can't turn the news on now without hearing a report on Charlie Sheen. Now, Charlie, he's got some problems. I feel bad for him, but he hardly deserves but maybe a mention at the end of the news, not a lead story. And what was it a year, year and a half ago? The main story the death of Anna Nicole Smith. I almost threw up. Every day they're doing mobiles. They're sending down mobile reporters outside the hotel. "Well, we're down here in wherever she was, the Bahamas, or wherever the hell it happened, and we're in front of the hotel where Anna Nicole Smith died." Hey, I was alive in '63 when John Kennedy was assassinated. Anna Nicole Smith got way more press in the end than the assassination of our President, because her's went on. It's still got legs. I just saw it the other day. Some judge made a ruling to give her house to her boyfriend or something. That's newsworthy? It's like when I was supposed to have a television show on MSNBC, but that's a whole other matter. They tried to tell me what I was supposed to cover every day and at the time, you'll recall, you remember the murder you had here where the guy killed his wife out in the boat or whatever a couple years ago? >>Unknown audience 1: Peterson. >>Jesse: Pardon me? >>Unknown audience 1: Peterson. >>Jesse: Pet-, yeah. That murder. Well, they were shoving that down my throat every day to cover that and I go, "Wait a minute. There's ten thousand murders a year." Now, that was a tragic murder, but there are ten thousand murders a year, every year. How is this one so important? Now, it might be important to all you Californians because you live here. It's close to you. But go back to Minnesota with me. We have our own murders. Why do we need to know about yours? And yet, every night, every night, day in and day out, that is the dumbing down of America by our news media. And we're at fault because we accept it because we like this titillating journalism. And you know what the downfall was to our news? The show 60 Minutes. Now, let's hear me out. 60 Minute's a marvelous show, but here's when it was the downfall. Up until that point in time, pre-60 Minutes, the news departments lost money so they would make it up in the entertainment division cause they felt, "Well, we'll lose money but it's our job to inform." Right? Along comes 60 Minutes. Low and behold, it goes to number one in the ratings. The bean counters upstairs, the light goes off. "You mean we can make money with the news?" There was your downfall because from that point on, the news became about making money, not informing you. It became ratings rather than information to smarten you up. Now, you have, and here's the dangerous part because of that, you now have the news; they're into creating the news, not into reporting it and that's very, very dangerous in my opinion, very dangerous. So, it's up to us to be vigilant citizens. Tom Jefferson said, "Dissention is the greatest form of patriotism," and I believe that and I endorse that completely. There's nothing wrong with dissenting. There's nothing wrong with holding elected officials feet to the fire. If you don't, you will get bad government. So, I hope you'll read this book. I hope that you'll digest the documents that are in it. I hope you're as shocked as I am about what some of the documents are and if there's any in particular that you see and would like ask me about as you look into the book, feel free to do so. I won't go into them now, because reading is supposed to be pleasure and it's supposed to be you doing it. So I'm not going to, unless you ask me specifically, I'm not going to go into the things that are in the book, but I will do this. I opened and closed the book, more or less, with two quotations. The first quotation comes from my particular favorite President my whole life, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. And here's what President Kennedy said to us, "There is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there's a very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment." Sounds familiar, doesn't it? We're gonna keep you safe, right? Then, I like to finish off also, just to show it runs through our entire country's history. I'll quote Patrick Henry. Most of us remember Patrick Henry as saying "give me liberty or give me death." That was a great quote, brave quote. But he also said this. Patrick Henry, quote, "The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them." And I think that those are two real great Americans, and the words they speak are, in my opinion, very true. So on that note, I'd like to say thank you, Google, for having me here. Lunch was terrific. It's a remarkable company, I heard, that feeds you. Geez, you're like the Navy. [laughter] Well, they used to feed me. Three hots and a cot all the time and no, actually, I'll will tell you this. I was the Naval Amphib base, Coronado, California and we won Best Chow Hall for like, eleven years in a row in the 11th Naval District. Every Thursday, we would have steak and lobster in the Navy. And I was on what they call "COMRATS" because community ration type thing, because our jobs take us away from the base so often as a Seal that they pay you money. And so, you have to eat, paid to eat at the Chow Hall when you're there. But I think lunch was 65 cents and you'd get steak and lobster. So that's not a bad price. Of course, then again, let's remember this was way back in early 70s when the economy was much different, but so was my salary. Cause when I joined the Navy initially, I made 122 bucks a month; 61 dollars a paycheck. And I'd blow it that first weekend and then be stuck on the base the rest of the time. 'Cause I wasn't very economically sound back then, I guess. So thank you very much. It was a pleasure for me to be here and now I'll open up for questions. [applause] I'll tell you, excuse me, that's a first. No one, other than the hand finally, I've never done a speech where everybody froze and didn't ask a question. [laughter] Go ahead, sir. >>Male audience 1: This is kind of a two-part question. First-- >>Jesse: OK, but give it to me one part at a time. I've been on the road for two weeks and I'm going on about four hours a night every night. I'm dog tired. So, slow and easy. >> Male audience 1: Sure, sure. What was your motivation to run governor back when you did? And the second part is simply, in being a governor in the state, what was the one thing you walked away with that you've learned the most about how our government works? >>Jesse: OK, my motivation and I'll give you my first, my fun motivation. This is the joke. There's a gentleman in Minnesota by the name of, a great businessman, by the name of Wheelock Whitney, and when I first won governor I was speaking to a group of businessmen and Wheelock was there. And they asked me the same question, "What motivated you to become governor?" And I looked right at Wheelock Whitney and I said, "Well, I was a mayor and it didn't work, so I figure if I get to be governor, it will work." Well, Wheelock Whitney happens to be a member of Augusta National where they play the Masters. And I said, "I figured if I won governor, Wheelock Whitney would then take me to Augusta and let me play Augusta, Georgia", which is the heaven of professional golf. And then I looked at Wheelock and said, "Wheelock, don't force me to have to become President." [laughter] And he was a man, he burst out laughing and he said, "You're going to Augusta." And sure enough, he was good enough to take me there and I got to play Augusta National and if you're a golfer, that's the same, I think, as going to heaven. Now on a serious note, what inspired me to become governor was something really interesting. Let's move back if we may, to 1998, when our economies were robust, remember that? Interest was nothing. Everybody was making huge money. Well, the State of Minnesota was in such fiscal shape then, they were getting budget surpluses. In other words, they did their budget but because the economy was so robust, they were bringing in more than what they budgeted for. Well, the one year, guess what they did? They spent it. They thought they were kids in a candy store. They thought, "Whoa. We brought in more money than what we budgeted for. That means we can go buy extra stuff." Well , I was outraged. I was doing talk radio and I said, "Wait a minute. If they brought in more money than what their budget needed, then that money should be returned to the tax payers." So I basically ran on that. I said, I was doing talk radio and I was so angry, I said, "Maybe I should run for governor." Then you backed yourself in a corner and of course, on talk radio, if you lose your credibility you're nothing. And so, I forced myself. I had to run and I can honestly say, pre-9/11, we had three more robust economy years and I gave back tax rebates to every citizen of Minnesota. They named them "Jesse checks." And I did it even over the, you'd think the Republicans would have gone with me all the way, but they wanted it to be an income tax rebate. Well, an income tax rebate means you gotta declare it, which means then it's part of your income which means the federal government's gonna take a third of it. And I thought, "This isn't the Feds money, it's ours." So I did it. It was successful in a sales tax rebate because you can't deduct a sales tax so therefore, they can't take the money. So when you got your check, you could spend it. Now there is a true stimulus package, not the bullshit you're getting today. The stimulus package, if you wanna get, send the money to the people. The people will spend it that will go spur the economy. I met an old woman, elderly woman. And she came up to me, she told me, "Governor," she said. "Thank you for that Jesse check." I said, "You're welcome, ma'am." She said, "You know what I did with it?" I said, "What?" She said, "I needed a new lawn mower. And I went down and bought it and I named my lawn mower Jesse." [laughter] And I was very flattered over that, this elderly woman who wanted a new powered lawn mower for her backyard. 'Cause contrary to LA, we in Minnesota do have backyards. They have grass and trees, too. I gotta dig California occasionally. So that was what really inspired me to run was that budget where they didn't give back the surplus money to the people. It was our money and they were spending it like kids in a candy store. So, next question. Right here. Actually, we'll go closer to the mic. I'll get to everyone, but we'll try to keep it close to the mic. Yes, ma'am. >>Female Audience 1: Have you ever considered running for a Presidential election in 2012? >>Jesse: President? >> Female Audience 1: Yes, in 2012. >>Jesse: I've considered it. I've thought about it. And I'll be very honest. As an Independent, the cards are against you because you'd think it was a universal thing; if you're running for President, every state to qualify should be the same, correct? But it’s not; they do that on purpose. Every state, you have to jump through different hoops to get ballot access and when you try to get it, the Democrats and Republicans will bring lawsuits then to tie you up in court so that by the time you get through with court the election's already passed you by. That's the system they've created to keep anyone else out of the game. It's like playing a football game and they get to be the referees and they can also change the rules at half time. That's what you're up against. >>Unknown audience 2: [inaudible] >>Jesse: Right in, well other than that fiasco, unbelievable in Alaska where it worked, I have never, ever seen a write-in candidate ever win. But Alaska did give me a slight ray of hope cause it happened up there, but let's remember, those are Alaskans and there's not exactly as many of them as there are Californians or the rest of the country. Smaller numbers, you'd have a better chance. The bigger numbers you're dealing with, the more difficult it would be. Now, say now though the Libertarians, which I am kind of Liber-, I like to think of myself as libertarian--small L, not capital because the true Libertarian believes there isn't, there should be no government. That's an anarchist. I understand that there should be at least some government; that government does have a role. The other part of that question of will I run is this, being President is an oxymoron. What I mean by that is that you stand for freedom but you yourself have none. When you hold those jobs you give up your freedom. It's gone and I like my freedom. I like living in Mexico now, because down there I'm just a big gringo. Nobody pays, other than being a big guy, they'll look at me but they don't know who I am. And I enjoy that right now after the career I've had. So it would require me to have to want, as I like to refer to it, it would require me to want to go back to jail. Now, not saying I won't do it and I'll tell you something else honestly. Before I put my butt on the line, this country better show me it’s worth it. You better show me it’s worth it this time. I've already done four years as a mayor, four years as a governor and six years in the Navy. That's 14 years of my life I've given to the public. And to do that job, I need to know it’s worth it. And right now, the people of this country are not showing me that. They're starting to. I like the protest in Wisconsin and I like how things are stirring up, but in order for me to win we gotta think revolutionary. In order for me to win, you gotta be ready to elect Che Guevara because I will change things if I won. And what would I do? I'll tell you what I would do. First thing I would do, I would cut defense spending, which is something, I don't know if you can win off that because they use fear on you, that, "Oh, if you cut defense spending we're all gonna get killed. We're all gonna be." Well, I would close every base we have throughout the world and I would bring our young men and women home and back to our own country and we would defend our country from here. We wouldn't be colonizing anymore, or creating this empire. We're following the Roman Empire right now. So that's why, and that would cut spending. If you're truly gonna balance the budget, you can't do it without cutting defense spending because that's the biggest thing out there. And how many times can we blow up the world? We've got technology, you're at Google here. We got technology now and weapons we don't need. Why do we have 50 thousand troops in Germany; fifty thousand troops in Korea; fifty thousand troops in Japan? Seems to me those wars were over 50 years ago. Why do we still have troops there? So those are a few of the things I would do. You call me radical, I guess, because I would not be doing what mainstream does. I'm so disappointed in Barack Obama. I really thought he's a dynamic speaker, but I really thought there's no change. I can't tell the difference between him and Bush, just that he can read a teleprompter. [laughter] But other than that, I don't see any change and so, also it's difficult. He's an incumbent and as an Independent that's tough. You're better off when the incumbent leaves and the election's open, which would be 2016. And by then, I'll be that much older and I don't know if I would have any energy at that point to want to do the job. But it's hard to beat an incumbent, people, very hard. When I ran for governor it was because there was no incumbent governor, which opened it up for me to do that. So, next question. [pause] And you can go on any topic. I'm not, you know. >>Male audience 3: I've also got two questions and I'll just give them both to you at once 'cause I'm pretty sure you can remember the first one. >>Jesse: All right. >> Male audience 3: First one is what color is your Porsche? And the second one is, so you've got 63 documents in here. >>Jesse: Yup. >> Male audience 3: I'm sure there were many more. Do you have any examples of what other documents you would have liked to have included? >>Jesse: Not really. It was tough enough doing the 63. We chose 63 because that was the year John Kennedy was assassinated and murdered. So we thought that was a good number. I don't want to go into any, these are enough. Digest these and what color is my Porsche? It's like a lapis blue metallic, which is that, I had to think a minute because they got those names for every color, which is a very deep, dark blue. And then I got the beige interior with it and I got the most wood that you could get on the interior and that was sick, really. I wasn't gonna get it at first till I came home and I told my wife and she looked at me and she says, "It's your dream car; don't hold back. Get everything on it you want." Well, the wood alone, because it’s all hand-carved, it runs across the top, around all the speakers, the wood alone was ten grand. And I thought, "That's obscene in reality of the world That's pretty bizarre, but what the hell. Money's made to spend and also remember this, on that note." The economy, when all you hear about is cut spending, cut spending, cut spending, I got news for you, people. If we don't spend, there is no economy. The economy is based upon spending. Spending creates jobs. You have to buy things; you have to have money moving. If we all cut everything, now don't get me wrong there, our government does and is in places it shouldn't be. But think of that when you get brainwashed on cut spending, cut spending. The economy is based upon spending. That's what makes it work. You buy things. The money, that's what creates jobs. Spending creates jobs. Why do you think they always renew unemployment? That's because unemployment, when you're on unemployment, you spend every cent of it. That spurs the economy and starts to create jobs so then you're not on unemployment anymore. Think of it. How other way can there be jobs if there's not money being spent? And besides, you can't take it with you, people. That's what I always say. You come into the world naked, you leave with it naked. You can't take a dollar with you. Spend the damn stuff. Enjoy it. You work hard for it. That's the fruits of your labor. But then, make sure that your kids and things like that are taken care of. But buy stuff. What the hell, you can't do nothing with that paper. Substitute it in the bathroom, maybe. But other than that, you spend it. It's what spurs the economy. Next question. >>Male audience 4: So what do you think the government should do? What are the important things that the government does in our lives? What shouldn't they do? >>Jesse: What should they do? Well, I'll put it to you this way. Let's go to health care for a minute. That's always a cantankerous, but now they've labeled it Obama care. To me, it's a human right. If you're sick, you should be able to go to the doctor. If we weren't spending all our money on these wars, we'd have more money. We could have health care three times over. You don't hear a word about that. It's fine to spend money to kill people, but health care? Oh, my goodness. And for these hypocrites in Washington, now I'm talking the Republicans who are blaming Obama, Obama care, "oh, we're gonna repeal it." Well, why don't they start repealing it by giving up their government-run health care? The Senate and the Congress has government-run health care. It's provided by the government for them. They want you not to have it, while they go to the bank with it. You don't see any of them saying, "You know, I'm a stand-up type person. I'm gonna give up my health care being a Congressman and Senator for me and my family to set an example." Do you hear that? Anybody know of one of them doing that? Then what are they? They're hypocrites because they're telling you, and then I'll flip it a little farther. If government health care is so terrible, then are we screwing over the military again? Because the military's had government-run health care since World War I. So I guess we're sticking it to the military again, giving them a substandard thing. But all I know is my dad would go nowhere else. I couldn't get him to a civilian place. He went to the vet's hospital and there no changing at all. I will say, in Minnesota, not all the vet's hospitals are good, but in Minnesota; they have an outstanding veteran's hospital. And you couldn't get my dad to go, he'd ride the bus all day long just to go there and this and that. So, and what other thing? Well, infrastructure. Those are things the government should be paying for, so that we can do our commerce. Fix our roads and bridges. Let's do something constructive instead of destructive. Wars are destructive. Let's get out of the wars and put our money to workforce, building up and making our country what it ought to be. And those are just a couple. I hope they helped a little, but you get where I'm coming from. Next. I don't know what my, hold on. Let me check my schedule so I can make sure that. No, no, no, hold on. Let me, let me. I like to answer all questions. I feel good doing that. Let's see. OK, my pick up was probably, I gotta go to Fox Sports, which is over on Pico. How far, how many minutes? It's LA, so you can't say miles; you gotta say minutes. >>Unknown audience 3: [inaudible]. >>Jesse: How long? >> Unknown audience 3: [inaudible]. >>Jesse: Twenty minutes? OK, then. I should be good then till probably about 2:30, I would guess, or 2:50. What time is it now? >>Female Presenter: Ten of two. >>Jesse: OK, good. We got another 20 minutes then, easy. Unless she's trying to get us out of here. I don't know. >>Female Presenter: I wanna make sure we have time to sign books. >>Jesse: Oh, yeah. That's right, too. OK, I forgot about that, so we'll take a couple more questions and, next question. >>Male audience 5: So, staying on the same theme of government and what it should do, your Patrick Henry quote, what kind of openness do you have a hope for in government? And [inaudible] when? >>Jesse: Well, I would hope, certainly, I understand that certain things have to become secret when they're timely. As a Navy Seal, I don't want them opening up and saying what operation I'm going on where the enemy can set up and do me in. But when the Op's over and maybe a year's gone by, then bring it all above board. Let's get a little time element and they could figure out a way to make things time sensitive. And if they're not doing anything illegal, dirty, murder and that, why would they fear? Bring it above board to us so that we can know. We have a right to know. We pay taxes. Yes, sir? >>Male audience 5: Outside of defense operations, maybe. >>Jesse: What's that? >>Male audience 5: Outside of defense operations. >>Jesse: Oh, then they should bring everything forward. Why would you cover up anything? I don't understand why you'd have to cover up anything. If everything you're doing is, and you believe in it, is good, there's no reason to keep it secret. In fact, if it's successful you'd want it out there. You can brag, then. So, to me, only marginal things that would be that you would keep secret. But everything else, cause we have a right to know. It's all done with our tax dollars, people. You have every right to know what they're being spent on. And that way you can be a good voter and know that the people you're electing, if you disagree, you can remove them, or attempt to anyway. Next question. >>Male audience 6: So I also believed in Obama with the change and what I think we're witnessing now is him completely squashed by the two party system, or the Republicans in this case. And you brought up the exciting and worthwhile idea of getting rid of the two parties. I can't see how that could even be possible in today's world and it's something I'd love to see. And it's something that's necessary. I don't know, I mean, we all bought into the belief of change and then saw him completely stymied by that ability. >>Jesse: OK. >>Male audience 8: Our forefathers created this country with the concept of the right to bear arms, is actually the right to, if a government become corrupt in and of itself, we have a right to stand up and say no. That's radical. But how can you see us get through this two party system and really be able to make a difference without the same thing happening again? >>Jesse: Let me tell you, I disagree. I don't think it’s the parties that are stopping Obama. Always remember, he who has the money calls the shots and the US government has no money. Where do they get their money? The Federal Reserve, which is a small little group of bankers in the private sector. You know what I think they did to Barack Obama? I think he got in office and then they showed him the Zapruder film and they said, "See what we can do? You sure? Do you wanna fulfill all those promises you talked about?" Because to me it clearly shows that President may only be a figurehead and that there's people behind the scenes that we don't even elect who are truly calling the shots. That's the only reasoning I can give to it, because as governor, I was pretty powerful and no one could influence me and I held true on most of my campaign speeches and what I promised. But it seems to me that how could he not be doing anything that he campaigned on and why all this massive compromise to accommodate quote "the Republicans?" So I think that it goes beyond the parties when it comes to who's running the operation. That's just my opinion. Next question. >>Male audience 9: How can we get past it? >>Jesse: Huh? >>Male audience 9: [inaudible] >>Jesse: Well, like I said, stop electing them. That would be a good start because I only raised 300 thousand dollars, people, to become governor. I made more money at the job than I spent to get it. But then again, I didn't need name recognition. Everybody in Minnesota knew who I am. I'll brag. I'm one of four people in Minnesota where all you have to do is say the first name and they know who you are. There's Jesse, there's Prince, there's Dylan, and there's, I forget. What's the other one? And Sid. We have a columnist named Sid Hartman, who's been writing for like, 70 years, a sports column. And we're the four people that all they have to is say our first name and everybody knows who they are. And I was written by a writer and I was pretty proud of that to be in that type of company. Yes, sir? >>Male audience 10: [inaudible] >>Jesse: I don't know. I'm just saying that's my theory. >>Male audience 10: So, hypothetically, if they exist, then you wipe out the two parties. What will stop that [inaudible]? >>Jesse: Well, if you don't take the dirty money, if you don't take the corporate money like I didn't. I accepted no PAC money. The only thing that I accepted were 50 and hundred dollar donations from individuals and believe me, in a job like that, a hundred bucks ain't gonna buy you much influence. If you gave me a hundred dollars and come back to me later and say, "You know I gave you a hundred bucks." I say, "So what?" That's not enough money to buy the influence with me. And I can also tell you, since I didn't take from one lobbyist money, when I got into office I didn't even see a lobbyist. I banned them. I told my staff, "Tell all the lobbyists to go get new jobs." Cause I said, "They're not getting in my door." Why do you think they wanted me gone, outta there? I got my own ideas. I don't need a lobbyist to try to convince me what's right and wrong. Now granted, I do use other people and consult them. Certainly I don't know about everything but I had a great commissioner, too. Anyway, next question. >>Male audience 11: Can you say something about what effect you think the JFK assassination had on this country? And specifically say something about the Reagan Administration. >>Jesse: The Reagan Administration? I think the effect of JFK's assassination was simply, really simple. If you can kill the President and get away with it, what can't you do? What can't you do? And like I said, we had a confession on my TV show. Did I talk about that? Yeah. My showed his fault. We had a confession to the murder of John Kennedy and yet, there wasn't one word in the mainstream media. E. Howard Hunt from Watergate confessed to his son, Saint John Hunt, on his deathbed. He said the CIA did, and it wasn't a confession of remorse, it was a confession of pride. That's what was scary about it. It was a CIA operation. It was called "The Big Event" and I suppose if you're killing the President, it is a big event. You wouldn't call it "The Small Event." And he named the people: William Harvey, who at that time headed the CIA's assassination, teams when they were trying to kill Castro, and a guy named David Sanchez Morales and he was one of their main operatives on the ground. And he's also famous for, four years later, he was in Bolivia when they put Che Guevara up against a wall and shot and killed him. Morales was there and allegedly took Che's Rolex watch and he wore it as a trophy. And I believe what Howard Hunt said. He would have no reason to lie. He did it to his son's, and Saint John, his son, how many of you remember the Three Tramps in Dealey Plaza? They had these photos of three bums, the tramps? Well, if you look close at the old tramp, if that's not E. Howard Hunt then he has a double. Cause even his son looked at that photo and said, "Yes, I believe that's my father." So, and who else for an eyewitness is better than a son? I mean, come on. Think of your father. You think you could recognize him if you saw him in a photo? I think I could recognize mine, father. Find a last question and then we'll sign some books. >>Male audience 11: I'd be interested if you said something about American history. >>Jesse: Oh, wait a minute. You wanted to know about Reagan. >> Male audience 11: Well, just American history since JFK and how we got to where we are and whether you think that the Reagan Administration had anything to do with it. >>Jesse: When they took out Jack Kennedy, then they removed our leader without a vote. They removed him with a bullet and from that point on, who knows? But like I said, I think there's a higher authority that's commanding our government. And it's the old thing: follow the money. He who's got the money has the power and the best I can tell, that's the Federal Reserve. They can't, Ron Paul asked for an audit. We can't even audit these people and their done illegally. Did you know that? It came in at like, 1913, and our Constitution said that there could be nobody that could borrow the country money and charge interest. They charge us interest. These people print the money and give it to the US government and then charge us interest on the money. They're our lending institution. They're the bank to the US government and the Constitution, that's against the Constitution and they never, it was never ratified because if you're going to change the Constitution it requires two- thirds of the states to ratify it on a vote. It was never done. It was never done. And now it's too late; they're entrenched. We got the Federal Reserve now. And just so you know, another example, quickly, of why it doesn't matter electing a Democrat or a Republican for, I think, it’s the last 40-, 50- some years, we've had Democrat and Republican presidents back and forth, yet every Secretary of the Treasury, regardless of Democrat or Republican, has come out of Goldman Sachs. None of the other ones, nobody qualified in any of the other ones to be Treasury secretary, just Goldman Sachs. So again, it doesn't matter if you're Democrat or Republican; your Treasury secretary comes out of Goldman Sachs, or seems to anyway. Any final questions? Wow, you guys are good. You haven't asked me no stuff about wrestling or-- [laughter] I usually always get a question. Maybe you got one for me. What about wrestling? >>Male audience 12: Sorry, not about wrestling. >>Jesse: OK. >>audience 13: It's hard enough to imagine one person having the integrity to effect changes, but the government is not just one person. While your governor, you have secretaries and there's a huge bureaucracy underneath you and is one person, one right person, at the top really sufficient to change things, or do you have any plans or any ideas how that one person can bring changes to find more right person? >>Jesse: Yeah, you're absolutely correct. You can't make major changes 'cause the bureaucracy's so big. You usually can't. You can simply nudge it over a little and get it going in the right direction, hopefully. But we're talking here revolution by not electing Democrats and Republicans and making wholesale change. That's revolution and if that happens then wholesale changes can happen, but right now, which is simply all Democrats and Republicans, you're exactly correct. You might get minute, little changes but nothing of any significance. We've gotta cleanse ourselves of these two parties before you do anything. And if that doesn't happen, I agree. There won't be great changes at all. There'll be just small ones. Thank you very much and I'll sign some books if you want me to. [applause]
Info
Channel: Talks at Google
Views: 481,823
Rating: 4.7789559 out of 5
Keywords: TalksAtGoogle, Authors@Google, Jesse Ventura
Id: 8pS1edpeGqI
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 55min 51sec (3351 seconds)
Published: Fri May 06 2011
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About the car - First Drive: 2003 Porsche 911 Turbo X50

http://www.autos.ca/first-drives/first-drive-2003-porsche-911-turbo-x50/

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/tellman1257 📅︎︎ Nov 19 2012 🗫︎ replies

I watched the whole thing..... I like watching people do speeches at Google.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/Gr3yGhost 📅︎︎ Nov 20 2012 🗫︎ replies
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