Joseph Gradante (00:01.014)

Welcome ladies and gents to another episode of Orwellian Optics podcast by Allio Capital. I'm your host, Joseph Gradante. I'm here with our Chief Investment Officer, AJ Giannone. You want to introduce yourself, AJ?

AJ (00:13.582)

Thanks, Joseph. My name is AJ Giannone, Chief Investment Officer here at Allio Capital. I'm excited to have another great podcast of Orwellian Optics with you guys. My favorite two coworkers here, Joseph and our Chief Operating Officer, Chris Morgan. Take it away, Chris.

Chris (00:27.432)

Hey, J. Joseph, hey, everybody excited to be here. So a couple of weeks ago, we talked about this decline of American exceptionalism and the impact that it's having on younger generations. So, Joseph, what impact does that have on the future of our economy and prospects as Americans?

Joseph Gradante (00:46.656)

think it, you before we go there, you got to look at who's at the front and center of really these two wars of ideas. You know, in my opinion, we are on a precipice of a second American Revolution, if you will, but not a violent revolution. It's really a war of ideas. You know, on one side, you have the, in my opinion, the modern day Benjamin Franklin, Ian Musk, right, who's leading this side of freedom, freedom of thoughts and

the focus on individual responsibility that we as adults have the ability to make the best choices for ourselves. And I think, you know, free speech, right? Cause that's what Elon Musk is all about is free speech and freedom of thought is crucial to discourse, right? And it's through discourse and it's through maximizing input that you get optimal output, which leads to innovation. And on the other side, right? You have a

pretty dark character that you don't see much. George Soros, right? This is the authoritarian side. There's no more Democrats and Republicans. mean, Democrats and Republicans is tantamount to Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. What you have is an eclectic, united group on one side, right? People like Russell Brand, Elon Musk, R .F .K. Jr., Eric Weinstein, Matt Taibbi.

You know, these guys all have different ideas, right? But what they all agree on is that free speech is sacrosanct. And Ian Moss, he's constantly front and center in the media. And he didn't have to buy Twitter. He didn't have to do that. He did that because he's passionate about what he knows is crucial to a free republic, right? But George Soros, you rarely see him do interviews.

You know, he, backs a lot of shadow organizations. think there's over 200 and, you know, I can tell you from my own personal experience, moving from New York to Portland, you know, when I got to Portland, it was probably, you know, the prettiest city, in the entire country. And I, and I was so happy and proud to be there. It was the one place where you could, you know, buy marijuana and have open carry and walk around with a gun. so I thought it was pretty cool. and then.

Joseph Gradante (03:07.616)

You know, the George Floyd riots happened and right before they happened, was walking around, you know, Portland, I used to, I love walking around the city. I would just walk around and I would see on each block these stacks of bricks. And I was like, what are those bricks doing there? They just look so out of place. Well, who paid for them? Soros, right? was, obviously it was the organizations, right? Cause you can't, it's hard to tie it back to him. He just gives money and then you have these professional provocateurs.

these people that go to different cities and they start protests and they take advantage of vulnerable young people and get them to participate in these protests. I think, you know, yeah, so on one side you have these two different figures, if you will. you know, I look at George Soros as, you know, Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars trilogy. In fact, I'm going to pull up a picture here of him and a picture of Palpatine side by side.

Chris (03:57.376)

you

Joseph Gradante (04:05.382)

and you can look at their eyes and, you know, it's just, here you go. And so, yeah, you have these two. And so this is, I think, really going to determine the future of our economy, right? Is who wins these war of ideas. Because on one side, it's going to, you know, free speech, in my opinion, is essential to innovation, it's essential to education, and you need those things for productivity. But AJ, what do you think about the subject?

Chris (04:15.222)

Thank

AJ (04:34.434)

Yeah, thanks for teeing that up there, Joseph, because to me, as an investment guy, first and foremost, I'm always looking for the next great wave of innovation. I these are the areas where folks have spent their lives learning, determining where they want to be most productive from an economic sense and also from a personal agency sense of things that people are passionate about, things that they want to.

Chris (05:00.648)

you

AJ (05:02.026)

focus on in terms of their ability to deliver value to the society that they're a part of. And in that sense, it's absolutely critical that people as individuals are given the agency and the autonomy to come to these decisions themselves. So when you think back to the founding principles of our country and the basics of freedom that we take, know, sometimes for granted in this case,

It's really critical that we foster an environment through supporting people like Elon Musk in his goals of finding unique platforms and ways to protect the freedom of speech that we hold so dear to enable this facilitation of discourse and idea generation that's so critical to enabling America to maintain its stature on the world stage. So to me, it's really all about this continuous cycle of innovation and that

is an impossibility if we don't have the free speech and the autonomy to make those decisions. And that's the real root of the issue to me.

Chris (06:11.419)

Yeah, that's absolutely right. AJ, another piece of that, I think, is education. This country is seeing such a lack of education. We were towards the bottom of lists of developed countries. And the people that we do have in this country going to our highest institutions come from other countries often. Fully half of my graduate school cohort was from China.

And they're not staying here to innovate. They're leaving. They're taking what they've learned. They're taking the technologies they've seen, and then they're going to innovate in other countries. So Joseph, I wonder, are some policies? What are some ways that we could encourage people to stay here and improve our country instead of just taking what they're learning here and globalizing it?

Joseph Gradante (06:54.954)

One is, you know, and I not to really tout Trump. In fact, I'm wearing an Andrew Yang shirt here. you can see, you know, Andrew Yang, you know, he's an entrepreneur, he's an innovator, and he's leading the forward party. And I think we need more parties in this country. there is a Trump policy that, you know, proposal that I think we should tout is the idea that we attach green cards to degrees. I think there should be a little bit more fattened in than just the degree. But I do think it should be the

the crucial variable in that equation, you to incentivize them to stay here. Oftentimes they go to our best schools and they go back to China or they go back to India and they start companies and they create jobs in those countries. And I think we want to keep that talent here. We want to keep the best talent here. I mean, if you look at countries like Norway or Sweden that have these great social safety nets, but in Sweden's case,

I believe they have more billionaires per capita than the US. I know for a fact, both countries are much wealthier per capita. And so they only take in people that are gonna expand their pie, that can contribute and expand the pie. They don't take in net debtors, right? And so, that's important. They take in net creditors, right? And so that's why they're able to have...

you know, the innovation, right? And another factor there is those countries don't have a military. Yes, they are homogenous populations and they are small geographically, but I do think there's some lessons that could be learned from the Scandinavian model for sure. But I think to even have a shot at this, I mean, you saw what happened, you know, in that debate, the collusion of corporate media and, you know, I'm not even going to call them the left.

I'm going to call them the authoritarian fascists because that's what I mean, you saw Dick Cheney and those guys not to beat a dead horse, support Kamala Harris. So, you know, that's what's going on here. I mean, there's a war and if you don't, let me pull up this already an article by Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's former labor secretary and

Joseph Gradante (09:12.438)

You know, it's pretty amazing. So the title here is Ian Musk is out of control. Here's how to rein him in. And it's just, it's, it's so rich, right? Because he's talking about things here. when you juxtapose it, right? To George Soros. I mean, you can't even compare it to what Soros is doing, but because Robert Reich, ideological, from an ideological standpoint,

agrees with this authoritarian model, right? This collectivist model, as opposed to a model built on individuals. Think of participation trophies, right? Like, you know, that's what Robert Reich believes in. So, you know, they're showing all this stuff here about Elon Musk, but everything that they accuse Musk of, you can multiply that by 100 and attach it to George Soros.

And yet there's very little exposure of George Soros in the mainstream media. Why? Because, you know, he controls, you know, most of the people that are on that side with the side that you would call the left, but they are really the right, hence the name of this show or well, he had optics up is down and left is right. And that's what we're trying to expose. But, yeah, you know, this is, so this is, you know, at front and center.

of the war here going on. In fact, there's an event on the 29th that I'm going to be attending, Save the Republic event. And it's not a pro -Trump event. It's an event focused on unity, right? An event focused on the exchange of ideas. And that's what we need, right? We need people that maybe disagree from a policy standpoint, but what they agree on is that they should all have conversations about this and look at the data to optimize policy. And so...

Yeah, you know, with that AJ, you know, what are your thoughts, particularly on guys like, you know, George Soros and his collectivist model and how it really, and its impact so far on our culture.

Chris (11:12.918)

We'll right back.

AJ (11:22.838)

Yeah, it's absolutely detrimental in a variety of different ways. I mean, first and foremost, it just, to me, violates some of the really founding principles that this republic was built on with regards to personal agency and the ability of an individual to define their own destiny. Even more than that, just to kind of go back a step, when you're talking about the policy that you referenced of giving

green cards to people who achieve degrees here. I mean, this country was founded by people who were incentivized to improve their life on an individual level and take risk and sail across the oceans, go into the unknown, into a risky venture for all that potential upside. And obviously the results have been astounding, you know, well past any measure of what those, you know, original seafaring ventures might've.

might have envisioned at the time. what I think that illustrates is that that dream needs to be nurtured and fostered to remain alive and well. And we have all these intelligent people coming here to our universities from all over the world seeking out that better life for themselves. And then to your point, you know, they're being forced to leave, to go innovate and create companies and create jobs in either their home country or some other area to

the absolute detriment of the working people of America who don't get to benefit from being able to find jobs or employment or own equity in any of these startups or enterprises. So, you know, to tie that back to, you know, the insidiousness of some of the George Soros policies that you're looking at, I mean, they're all really centered around this idea that, you know, the nation state isn't the sovereign governing entity of the world, or at least it shouldn't be.

it's the corporation and the large entrenched corporation. So, you know, there's really, I think, line of battle that you can draw visually between the policies that would enable increased startup formation, increased capital flowing to startups, venture capital, entrepreneurship, individual identity, individual agency, and some of these, you know, top -down

AJ (13:45.358)

corporatist collectivist mandates that are really just designed to keep things as static as possible and maintain the status quo, if that makes sense.

Joseph Gradante (13:55.126)

Yeah. And I think you look at, you know, the WEF, I mean, Alex Soros, right? George Soros' son is there and he has no credentials whatsoever. So here's this, you know, global think tank that has a heavy handed influence on the cabinets of many elected leaders in nation states, right? And it just goes to show you that, you know, this isn't really about meritocracy, right? Or credibility or what people bring to the table.

Chris (13:55.69)

Yeah.

Joseph Gradante (14:24.802)

This is about a plutocracy and an oligarchy that is really looking to have this scary influence on our futures. One of the things that they need to really get control is destroying the American Constitution, because the American Constitution stands in their way in many cases, at least from an ideological standpoint.

Chris (14:45.023)

Mm -hmm.

Joseph Gradante (14:52.438)

The government has the majority of the weapons. And so for the constitution to be viable, the people have to be able to enforce it, which they can't. But nevertheless, right, you still have people that I think, you know, that have the character, right, to stick up for people like Eric Weinstein, right? Who's a professor who most of his time has been spent leaning left. People like David Rubin, right? Again, this is a guy who, you know, liked Ed Koch and

You know, Church, right? And so some of their, you know, their ideas are pretty left leaning, right? So they don't agree with a guy like Trump on everything, but yet, or, you know, guys like Russell Brand, know, Tulsi Gabbard, you throw all these people into the mix, they disagree on so many things, but front and center is this free speech thing. And, you know, I want to pull up this one more time, you know, this article, right? So, you know, they're talking about basically,

Elon Musk, right? And so, and how he's using free speech and that's what bothers them, right? When Jack Dorsey had control of Twitter, right? And some of his lieutenants were doing everything to censor and stifle debate on the platform. You didn't see any of these articles. And here's another article. Actually, it's the, I don't know if it's an article or it's the cover here of the New York Times, but asking if free speech is dangerous.

So you know, a couple of years ago, the authoritarian, was, you they were looking at the second amendment and people were like, well, you do we need guns, right? They're not gonna, the idea was, well, yeah, maybe they go after the second amendment, but they'll never go after the first. Really? Because they've already gone after the fourth amendment, right, with the Patriot Act, right? They've already gone after the eighth amendment with private prisons. And the way, I mean, we have a recidivism rate of close to 80 % in this country. Again,

If you look at Scandinavian countries, they have a 20 % recidivism rate on their prisons because they invest in training and they allow and in fact foster those people reentering the economy and being contributors to the economy and then therefore paying taxes. our constitution has already been trampled on. That's the point I'm making. So why wouldn't they go after it? The first amendment, that's what they were always going to go after, right?

AJ (17:18.222)

It's always in the name of safety. That's the thing is it's always in the name of we're going to protect you.

Chris (17:20.022)

Yeah, of net. Of national security, which it does, national security is a term that never ends, right? The same national security priorities from 1992, other than the Soviet Union, are still on the list in 2024. And that list is still growing. So you can't even define what it means to keep you safe. They just say that as a way to make you feel good while they're telling you what to do.

Joseph Gradante (17:45.686)

Yeah, I know that that's a hundred percent accurate. And when you look at the impact that the clock of its had on the decline of our education system, that is going to have immediate consequences for our ability to innovate, which is needed for production. We are declining by almost every metric, you know, when it comes to education. And know Chris, you you had done some research around this and I particularly, I thought maybe you can pull some of that up and speak to it.

Chris (18:15.542)

Yeah, I have a chart here that shows Americans left behind, essentially. So it talks about rankings in math and science scores. out of 40 countries, the United States falls number. Actually, what would you guess, Joseph, AJ? Any guesses where the US falls?

AJ (18:33.742)

25.

Joseph Gradante (18:35.938)

I'm gonna say 29.

Chris (18:41.078)

You're both close 34 right behind Malta right above Slovakia. Brunei and Turkey are at the very bottom at 49 and 50. So that shows you where we are. That's not very confidence inducing, I don't think, for the future.

AJ (18:48.027)

of course.

Joseph Gradante (18:52.556)

Wow.

Joseph Gradante (18:58.646)

And these are the participation trophy people, right? They want equality of outcome as opposed to equality of opportunity. because outcome has to be about what you put in. I know in the state where I live in Oregon, you know, the argument is, well, migrants can't keep up with the test and so they're just going to throw out the entire grading system, which is essentially, you know, from a statistical standpoint, right?

Chris (19:00.957)

Yeah, exactly.

Chris (19:07.551)

In this.

Joseph Gradante (19:26.624)

catering to the lowest common denominator as opposed to trying to raise the living standards of everyone. It's catering to the lowest common denominator and that's going to have grave, grave consequences on our economic future because these are the future non -innovators, if you will, of America, the future employees of America, the future entrepreneurs of America, right? They have to come from our school systems. so when you, I mean, another...

Chris (19:45.536)

Yeah.

Joseph Gradante (19:54.188)

factor in this, not to go down too many rabbit holes here, but the teachers union, right? When you look at that authoritarian side, know, unions can be a great thing, right? They can be a great thing. They can raise the living standards of workers, but when they are abused, they can be a terrible thing. And so, and that's what's happened in the case of the teachers union, because they're given tenure, I believe after six months, even if it's a year, right? I mean, their jobs should be tied to some level of

Performance right and so I mean to give them tenure at that point What incentive do they have to produce better tested tours and better outcomes? They don't they have no incentive and so you need this, you know values based incentives is incentive system that is trying to Track upwards and instead they are they are tracking downwards and I think it's You know the six year in a row that we've declined

in our math and reading proficiency. So yeah, pretty scary.

Chris (20:58.646)

you

AJ (21:00.994)

Yeah. And you, and you can tie that back to, you know, realistically, like the entire concept of governing education from the top down with things like standardized tests, prioritizing, you know, rote memorization over creative thinking. And, and in all of these areas, I think, you know, really we're leaning on a education system that was designed, you know, and envisioned and conceived really over a hundred years ago to produce.

Chris (21:01.503)

It's really...

AJ (21:31.18)

what are effectively worker bees. And we're even failing at that now. mean, to your point, Chris, between the math and science pieces of this, I mean, these are key areas where children are being left behind and given, you know, really no hope to catch up. It's going to be very difficult to staff up all of these key areas of innovation in things like biotech, life sciences, AI, technology.

you know, science and math, space exploration, all of these areas where the U S is really going to need to be a leader in the 21st century. If we don't have the key employees and the key personnel to take up these roles and push these areas forward and innovate in a way that allows us to maintain, you know, that level of supremacy. And I think, you know, going back to the education piece, like there's really no movement or, or any kind of

impetus for change here. We're just seemingly content to let our students wither away in mediocrity.

Chris (22:33.096)

Yeah.

Chris (22:38.614)

It seems like the only change we ever do get are in the forms of things like no child left behind. Like Joseph said, this this medal for everybody teach to the lowest common denominator. And that's a direct affront to AJ. What you were saying earlier, the risks that these seafarers came from from England to the to the New World to had no idea what they were expecting, but they were doing it for personal freedom, for individual responsibility to shed the crown.

and to shed all of the rules that come with it. So what we're doing now by saying, doesn't matter how hard you work in school, the ideas you have, the effort you put in, we're worried about this little guy who got an F on his two plus two. You cannot equate those two and expect to come out with something innovative, interesting, and creative.

Joseph Gradante (23:28.822)

Yeah, I think, you know, and again, it's the identity politics framing this around, you know, race. They talk about, you know, the students at the bottom or the migrants. So again, to my point of bringing in these net debtors, right, they bring debt, they bring debt to our country, right, because whether it's bringing our test scores down or just, you know, increasing, you know, the public debt, the government's debt, because it's more

resources that we have to give to non -US citizens as opposed to those at the bottom. so, eventually when these people, not just those at the bottom, but the people that they're also pulling down, because the data shows that, right? The data shows that our test scores are declining. Well, then what ability are they going to have to provide for themselves, whether it's as worker bees, as AJ put it, or, you know,

forget about creating jobs, right? And so then they are dependent on the system. so then taxes have to go up more to pay for them. And so this really has a completely nefarious effect on our overall system. And I just want to focus on this one particular, AJ, you talked about the control of corporations. And so we've seen in a debate that Trump was fact -checked five times, Kamala Harris wasn't fact -checked

at all. And so back to this article, right, by Robert Reich, it says, you know, in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission should demand that Musk take down lies that are likely to endanger individuals. And if he does not, sue him under Section 5 of the FTC Act. So they're talking about lies, right? Regulators around the world should threaten Musk with the rest if he doesn't stop the 70 -day lies.

And hate, you notice the word hate, right? Because anything can be defined as hate. Anything that they disagree with can be defined as hate and disinformation. So, you know, what, what Elon Musk is really doing is trying to reinforce the idea of a free press, which is essential to a free and fair republic. It's essential to democracy, but you don't see proposals like this. know, mean, Kamala Harris set up there and lied repeatedly and yet, you know,

Joseph Gradante (25:54.774)

where is the power of the corporation to hold her accountable and to hold her in check? It's only those that they disagree with that they want to use this power against. And that's my point. so, you know, Ian Musk, you know, both through Tesla and through SpaceX, you know, is a great innovator, right? And that's why I say he's the modern day Benjamin Franklin of our time, because he's at the front and center of this war of ideas. But, you know,

the power is lopsided in terms of the resources and the conduits at the other side of the explosion. We gotta redo that part.

Chris (26:37.038)

2635. Okay, keep just keep going into it.

Joseph Gradante (26:39.884)

What was I saying? The resources at the disposal of the other side are, when should I start going, Ian?

Joseph Gradante (26:50.316)

You know, the resources on the other side are almost infinite, right? What they have at their disposal. And here's this one guy controlling one platform for free speech. You know, look at the media, right? You look at CBS, ABC, NBC. CNN has gotten, I would say, a little bit better over the past couple years, but still, you know, can throw CNN in there. And then you have, you know, Fox.

You have this one, and they're not even really a dissent invoice, because I would say things, they lean right, but there's more balance, I think, on Fox than some of these other networks. I mean, I think CNN has gotten better, like I said, but you look at something like MSNBC, which is owned by NBC, obviously, it's essentially state TV. I mean, they have people like John Brennan and James Clapper on this network. I mean...

John Brennan, if you don't know who he is, this is the guy who was responsible for waterboarding, right, under Dick Cheney, torturing. Yeah, enhanced interrogation. And they have him as a contributor. I mean, to my point that this is the side of fascism and authoritarianism. And in fact, John Brennan, I think in 1980, I don't know what election it was, but he voted, he either voted or identified himself as a communist. So.

Chris (27:53.938)

Enhanced interrogation.

Joseph Gradante (28:15.234)

I mean, that's what you have going on is this one side. it's scary because, you talk about the seafarers coming from England to what's now the United States. It's scary because when you think of liberalism, right, for 200 years, was all about, more than that, 250 years, was all about breaking down centralized power.

You know, the monarchy and dictators, and now it's moving back in that direction. And people don't understand that these rights that we have, this is a fairly recent phenomenon. mean, the U .S. Constitution is the first document to ascribe rights to individuals, right? It wasn't the first document to talk about democracy, but it was the first document to ascribe rights to individuals. And oftentimes in the media, you know, now,

They will criticize the ideas of the founders. You saw in George Floyd riots, statues of Teddy Roosevelt being tore down, of Thomas Jefferson. There was even demands to take down Abraham Lincoln statues. What they want to do is really erase that part of history because when you look at, say, the 20 ,000 years of recent recorded human history,

most of that time was spent with very few having all the power and resources and everyone else being suppressed. And then you had basically Sir Francis Beacon, the scientific method, which led to the enlightenment and guys like John Locke. And then you had, obviously the American Revolution with Thomas Paine and people like Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin really fostering these new ideas. But in the grand scheme of history, what I'm saying is that

This is fairly recent, right? Because we're in 20, so you figure you go back, you know, what, 250 years? I mean, that's not a lot of time for a country to be an empire. And what people don't understand is that, you know, America is an idea. It wasn't a country. In fact, it was 13 countries, the colonies were 13 countries, united around this one idea. And it was an experiment. It was a minimum viable.

Joseph Gradante (30:40.802)

product. And that minimum viable product eventually led to the Civil War. We ended slavery. We lost more people in that war than any other war. It led to the women's suffrage movement. And then it led to the Civil Rights Movement. And it also led to the rise of the middle class. And this is where unions were a very positive force. And this is why at Allio Capital and particularly on Aurelian Optics,

We are independent. are independent. We are giving you the analysis fair and unbiased, right? And telling it. So yeah, there's a lot of aspects, right? Again, we're an Andrew Yang shirt, know, of, know, libertarianism, like I've said before, it's not a right or left thing, right? You can have social safety nets and you could have innovation and a great economy at the same time if you...

destroy ideology and focus on the data science, right? We are in this era of data science that we can use to optimize policy. you know, I just mentioned, you know, how this minimum viable product led, you know, eventually to the civil rights movement and the rise of the middle class. you know, Chris, you speak to the decline of, you know, American culture and American exceptionalism. So I want to go, you know, I want to show this video here that I think really defines what it means to be an American.

of John F. Kennedy and his go to the moon speech.

Joseph Gradante (32:56.33)

I gotta redo it.

Joseph Gradante (33:20.146)

So you heard enough it I'll have to replay it because my battery is done. I want to finish this actually I'm starting to freeze up here. So

AJ (33:35.95)

cool.

Chris (33:38.451)

I have something good to finish on too. It's not substantive, so if you want me to tee it up and then kick it to you to close things off AJ.

AJ (33:47.351)

Yeah.

Joseph Gradante (33:48.898)

So do want me to say Chris, like with that? You know, I'm going to say Chris, you know, what do you say? What do you, what do you think of the speech or what do you just think of? Okay.

Chris (33:51.701)

Yeah.

Chris (33:56.608)

Yeah, definitely. And then I'll kick it over to AJ and we'll start rapping.

Joseph Gradante (34:05.365)

sun.

Yeah, find that in charts, but it leaves a lot of power on this thing. When you record these.

Hopefully it won't freeze up.

Joseph Gradante (34:25.292)

Let see if I can get back on.

Joseph Gradante (34:34.806)

You ready, Chris? Let's hurry up.

Chris (34:37.386)

Yes. Yeah, I'm ready.

Joseph Gradante (34:43.084)

So Chris, what'd think about that speech?

Chris (34:46.1)

Man, I love that speech. One of my favorite things is he says we don't do things because they're easy. We do things that are hard and we're faced as a country with that right now. I think we have a really big responsibility as a company, as an investment company, as a podcast to open people's eyes to individual freedoms. And those individual freedoms really start with economic freedoms. And that's what we have to get to as a country. So, AJ, just to wrap us up here.

What do you think of all this? Put the pieces together for us. Maybe an exclamation point here.

AJ (35:21.398)

Yeah, I mean, to me, it's really that simple, Chris. It's the fact that doing hard things is a worthwhile endeavor in and of itself. Given the choice between an easy alternative and a hard alternative, the person who runs toward the danger, who approaches risk with an attitude of that this is a necessary component of living a fulfilling and prosperous life is the person

who is going to generate the superior outcome nine times out of 10. So to tie a bow on this, to me, it all comes down to that assumption that, you know, really individuals are absolutely worthy and capable of providing for themselves, of owning that agency and making decisions that are in their and their family's best interests. It's incumbent upon them to achieve a level of education with or without

you know, the government's help to realize that potential that everyone has within themselves. And it's incumbent on us as a company, as you know, like you said, a podcast, as a populace, as a nation to rise to meet these challenges in a extremely competitive 21st century where we have threats from abroad. have threats that are considered maybe military threats. We have threats on the innovation side with other countries and companies.

looking to effectively steal our lunch and capitalize on the fact that we've made some missteps over the last 20, 30 years. So, you know, all in all, to kind of weave it back to what Joseph said in regards to, you know, the founders of this country promoting these ideas of liberalism, of destruction of centralized power, it's really all about enabling that freedom of speech.

of the individuals to arrive at optimum solutions through free and independent discourse that is the genesis of all the innovation, prosperity and productivity that this country has created. But Joseph, mean, is there anything you want to add here?

Joseph Gradante (37:30.464)

Well, I wish I could, but I think you just articulated that perfectly. I don't think it could be said any better than that. And, I just think it's crucial that people get involved, right? And people don't get afraid and they stand on the side that, that they believe it, you know, is right. And, and, you know, I think without free speech, have nothing. Forget about democracy, forget about, you know, our economic prospects. They're not going to, free speech is the center of it all. And to allow.

Chris (37:33.643)

Yeah.

Joseph Gradante (38:00.342)

You know, these, the WF, right? It might not be an organized power, but it is a centralized power. And there is an overabundance of influence, you know, from global bankers and IMF and the Bank of International Submits. And, you know, these people that hide in the shadows again, as opposed to somebody like a Russell Brand or Elon Musk, you know, that are really the heroes that are fighting front and center.

you know, for our rights and our liberties. And I just think it's crucial that we support them. And that's why, you know, I myself, I'm going be going to the Save the Republic event on the 29th in DC. You know, and I like the fact that it's not a pro -Trump event. It's really an event about uniting people with different ideas. But without free speech, you know, it wouldn't be possible. And I just think most Americans take it for granted. But with that, folks, we thank you for joining us. This has been another episode.

Verwellian optics again Allio capital don't forget to like and subscribe and check us out on Apple Spotify YouTube or wherever else you get your podcast peace love see you next time

Chris (39:11.68)

Thanks everybody.

Joseph Gradante (39:13.474)

Yeah, I think we did really well on this one.

AJ (39:14.282)

Thank you.