November 4, 2024 • 46 mins
Ever wondered how a former fifth-grade science teacher could shake up Florida's political scene? Meet Ben Braver, our guest on this vibrant episode of Let's Get Comfy. Ben's journey from the classroom to the campaign trail is nothing short of inspiring. His activism at the University of South Florida led to a statewide protest that challenged the controversial demand for student health records. As he runs for the Florida State Senate in District 23, Ben is on a mission to combat inequalities and fight for educational reform, proving that passion and determination can drive real change.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the economic challenges Floridians face, touching on wealth concentration, housing affordability, and unfair tax structures. We unravel the web of corporate monopolies and policy decisions that exacerbate these issues, all while weaving in some personal insights and hobbies that make the journey relatable. With a love for indie rock, video games like Overwatch, and sports such as hockey, I share a bit of my world, adding a personal layer to our discussion on these critical topics.
As we navigate through the pressing issues of environmental conservation and education reform, we highlight the importance of preserving Florida's natural beauty and improving public schools. Ben shares his vision for expanding Medicaid and enhancing public transportation, especially for seniors and those in underserved areas. By fostering community engagement through initiatives like weekly conversations, we emphasize that meaningful change starts with us. Get ready for an episode packed with thought-provoking discussions and stories that inspire action.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome to another episode of the let's Get Comfy
podcast.
Home.
Love, peace, joy, but most ofall comfort.
Florida's number one healthcareeducation station.
I'm your host and soleproprietor, norman Harris, and
yes, I did it again.
Another special guest, thistime a Florida State Senator
candidate, mr Ben Braver.
(00:35):
Welcome to the show, sir.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for blessingthe show.
I want your presence Such ayoung individual like yourself,
I'm so grateful to have you here.
But I want your presence Such ayoung individual like yourself,
I'm so grateful to have youhere.
But I want the audience, thelet's Get Comfy listeners, to
know about you and what you doand some of your accomplishments
(00:56):
.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, so I am a teacher in Hillsborough County
fifth grade, the best grade I'ma science teacher and I'm
running for state senate here inFlorida, district 23.
Now, the area I'm running foris District 23, and it goes all
the way from Brandon all the wayup to Dade City and then out
east to Plant City.
It's a huge area, but what itcovers is some of the most
beautiful parts of the country,these beautiful pastures, these
(01:24):
amazing small towns that we needmore investment in.
And I just graduated from USFgo Bulls.
While I was there, our governortried to take the private health
records of our students, whichis a ridiculous breach of human
rights.
So what I did was try to get apetition started.
We got 2,000 signatures in aday and then we realized that
(01:46):
wouldn't be enough becauseDeSantis would just fire our
president if she didn't send inour students' private health
records.
So we started to walk out andwe got 5,000 students and
educators to walk out of everysingle university in Florida on
February 23rd 2023.
And it was an incredibledisplay of our appreciation for
(02:07):
diversity and for our educationand saying that we need our
education, we need our healthcare to be private and for us I
got an MSNBC and CNN for that,which was just so proud of that,
and it was great to shine alight on what was happening in
Florida.
Then I became the Director ofState and local policy for the
(02:28):
Young Democrats of America andwhen I got back to Florida and
when I became a teacher here Isaw how underinvested our
students are and how muchthey're just taking away from
the future of our state but notgiving our students the
opportunity to achieve theirfull potential.
And I knew there was one personwho's responsible for that my
state senator and it justdisgusted me to see him as our
(02:51):
representative.
It made me sick to see how hewas hurting my community and
claiming to represent it.
So I had to step into the raceand ever since I've gotten in
I've seen the support of myfriends, my family and my
community and how much everybodywants to see change, wants to
see a better Florida that worksfor everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Wow, man, you inspire me already.
I mean, how did you take thatstep just to initiate that at
USF, like to initiate thatsupport of those signatures and
for it to even spread throughoutFlorida?
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, luckily I had been building a base throughout
my entire time there.
The first year that I was there, caitlin Bennett, who became
known as the Kent State gun girl, actually used to live in Ohio
my dad, right of the road fromKent State and she went there
with like an AK-47 strapped toher back on graduation just a
ridiculous display of force fora graduation, just really weird
(03:46):
right.
But then she went around tocollege campuses all across the
country for years trying totrigger the libs and she went to
USF where she got a hugeresponse from people because we
didn't want her there justspreading lies about COVID,
right, spreading lies about ourhealthcare.
And so I led the rally againsther, which really became a
starting point for me, likeboosted me out into saying like
(04:08):
I have a voice and I want to useit and luckily, as a camp
counselor it's very loud, sothat really helped me.
And then there are these peoplewho would always go on campus
with these disgustinganti-abortion signs, like with
fake images meant to triggerpeople's trauma because it's an
invasive procedure.
Even though I believe it shouldbe safe, legal and free, it's
(04:29):
invasive and it can be traumaticfor some people and these fake
images were meant to triggerthat trauma response and it was
disgusting to me.
So I'd bring my guitar outthere and actually play in front
of them and it became a thingon campus.
I would hand out condoms andregister people to vote and sign
them up to volunteer withPlanned Parenthood so they could
make their voices heard andstand up to this hate.
(04:51):
And then I got involved withthe College Democrats as well as
Planned Parenthood GenerationAction.
Yes, I saw that and I becamewell-known as an organizer on
campus.
So when this thing thatDeSantis did stealing our
private information happened, Iwas able to have this large
network with my friends acrossthe entire state.
It was able to spread veryeffectively, right, and people
(05:11):
cared.
Yes, they cared about protectingtheir freedoms.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, that's really good.
Yeah, that's good, and youconnected with your other
network, and having goodassociates is always very
important as well.
(05:35):
So, but with you becoming, orstarting in the race for, a
Florida state senator, what Imean, you sort of went into what
sparked it, but how do you gointo seeking that level, though,
like that's top tier?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
man.
Yeah, you see the arbitraryinequality right In a capitalist
system, in any market system,there's going to be some
inequality and that's fair.
That's fine.
If people aren't putting in asmuch work, they shouldn't get as
many rewards.
But we see when the poorestpeople in Florida, the bottom
20%, are paying 13% of theirincome as taxes and the richest
(06:07):
1% is only paying 3% of theirincome in taxes.
That's government mandatedinequality.
That's pushing the poorestpeople down and giving that
money to the richest and I justcouldn't abide by that.
Now, the one open seat inFlorida when I looked was the
state Senate seat that I was in,and if I didn't run for this
(06:30):
then we wouldn't get everysingle legislative race
contested.
Right now every singlelegislative seat is contested.
If I didn't get into this raceit wouldn't be.
And I looked through SenatorDanny Burgess' record and while
he's an affable guy, when if youmeet him you like him, his
policy hurts the people and Ijust couldn't stand that.
And yes, state senator is ahigh role.
(06:51):
But it is clear there is policythat hurts people and there's
policy that helps people, rightright.
Danny Burgess sponsored a billto not let our local communities
regulate how much our water isbeing polluted.
That is a policy that hurtspeople.
I stand against that.
I mean, this is Zephyrhills.
The most famous part of thiscommunity, is our water right
(07:13):
Zephyrhills Water Company, buthe's selling out the people of
Zephyrhills for that corporation, and so there's just so many
instances of that kind of policywhere it sells out the people
to these monopolies, and I standagainst that at every single
turn.
And there are great think tanksand great organizations across
Florida that propose fantasticlegislation that you can tap
(07:37):
into that I'll be working within order to help the people
rather than hurt us.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That's wonderful stand that you're taking.
Wonderful stand that you'retaking so we have to acknowledge
right because others are gonnastate this as well is how young
you look and you speak to justyour age, and how that's not an
issue at all and why peopleshouldn't question your
abilities and your passion.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
One of the great things that I found is that I
haven't found anybodyquestioning it, and it speaks to
a larger problem in our entirepolitical sphere.
I mean the reason PresidentBiden stepped down was because
people saw him as too old toserve Right.
And yeah, you can see it.
At the debate I was leading a,I had a watch party and some of
(08:24):
the most sycophantic Bidensupporters ever right, we're
within 100%.
When they saw him, I mean oursouls left, our body, right we.
When we took that first pause,we saw this just isn't the
person we weren't running.
In fact, nine out of 10Americans said that.
And then the democratic partylistened to the people.
Joe Biden listened to us andsaid I understand that you don't
(08:46):
want me to be the nominee, andnow we have a fantastic nominee
in Vice President Harris andGovernor Tim Walz.
And when I talk to people, theysay we want younger
representation because so manyof the people in the political
scene are so old and especiallywith the rate of technological
(09:07):
advancement with AI just in thepast two years, we aren't living
in the same world that we didjust 20 years ago Just 20 years
ago.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
yeah, and so if you didn't grow up five years ago?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
so if you didn't grow up with that, it's very hard to
understand the problems thatpeople are facing today.
Right, right, and so we needyounger representation and we
should have representation forall people.
Diversity matters.
What experience you lived inmatters to what policy you're
going to support and whatproblems you even understand.
(09:40):
Yes, so we need representationfor younger people, for people
who will live in the world thispolicy will affect.
You're right, and people seethat, they understand that and
they care about supportingyounger people.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Okay, so at USF, right, what are some of the
clubs or associations were youinvolved in?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I was involved with Planned Parenthood, generation
Action, which was a great group,and one of our main points was
to educate on safe sex right andto educate on a lot of the
areas that Florida is justfailing in.
For instance, they created.
It used to be that you couldopt out of sexual education,
(10:22):
which is fair.
If you're a parent who wants toteach your kids yourself or
doesn't want your kids in thatclass, you should have the
freedom to opt out of it.
But now our state Senate madeit an opt-in program, which
means, by default, kids don'tget the education on how to be
safe in their life.
We know that abstinence onlydoesn't work because when you
(10:44):
make something taboo, kids wantto do it more.
Right.
When you don't let kidsunderstand the dangers, they
don't know the dangers right?
That's why, at USF, when thepreachers would come in and just
say that abortion was wrong andthat you shouldn't have any sex
, that's a bad way.
If you want to preventabortions, the best thing to do
(11:07):
is to hand out condoms.
That's the single mosteffective way to make sure
people aren't getting pregnant.
To hand out contraceptives.
But what they're doing rightnow in our legislature is
removing access tocontraceptives and they're not
just forcing women to remainpregnant, but forcing women to
get pregnant like that.
So I was involved with them.
(11:27):
We were teaching people how tohave safe sex.
I was also involved with CollegeDemocrats, a great group that
was restoring civil conversationon campus.
We actually had a great debatewith the college Republicans and
the people there.
We learned from each other.
We understood that we're notenemies.
We just have different views onhow to achieve safety, how to
(11:48):
achieve prosperity for allpeople.
I was involved with the Jewishorganization Hillel, which was
great, and a bunch of other justgroups on campus chess club and
it was great to meet a ton ofdifferent people and while I
care about politics a lot, I wasable to bring it into every
different sphere and show peoplehow, even if you just care
(12:12):
about chess club, it's stillimportant to support the policy
that matters to everybody.
Because when DeSantis put inbills like HB 999, it restricted
the freedoms of those clubs whohad nothing to do with politics
from speaking out and speakingtheir views and it's just
ridiculous and it restrictedthem from having diverse thought
(12:33):
in their clubs, which we needfor every club.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So just me researching you more and
learning more about you.
If you could explain to ourviewers what is pro-choice,
pro-free market, pro-florida.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
What does that mean to you?
Yeah, so pro-choice means thatyou should have bodily autonomy.
I mean, it's what our countrywas founded on the idea that
nobody else has a say over whatyou do with your body, right.
And when it comes to abortionaccess, it is one of the best
things for this state.
(13:08):
When you give people thefreedom to choose what they want
to do with their lives, you geta more free floor to get a
freer market.
If we had pro-choicelegislation, if we didn't have a
six week abortion ban in thisstate right now, we would have
33,000 more people enter ourlabor force and, on average, our
(13:31):
women would get $1,000 more ayear to their jobs.
Right now we have the HydeAmendment in the nation, which
means that the state, thenational government, can't put
any money towards an abortion,which is crazy, because that's
reproductive healthcare, one ofthe worst effects of the
abortion ban, because a six weekabortion ban basically is a
(13:54):
total abortion ban.
It goes by the last time youhave a period, which means if
you had a period four weeks ago,right, and then had sex on the
last day before the period, thenyou could have only been
pregnant for two weeks, right,but you would still be covered
under the six-week abortion ban.
Now, pro-free market.
(14:14):
I'm majoring in economics.
I'm a huge economic nerd.
It's what really got meinvolved in politics, because I
can see that the inequality thatwe have is arbitrary.
There are six people in thiscountry Larry Ellison, bernard
Arnault, jeff Bezos, elon Musk,mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates
who control $88 billion morethan the bottom half of all
(14:38):
Americans combined.
That is disgusting.
The money is out there.
It's just kept in six people'shands, and so when you see
people, when you see one fifthof all American children unable
to afford food right, notknowing where their next meal
would come from and we see thatmoney is there you have to get
(15:00):
out and speak, because that isstealing from the people.
We see monopolies coming intoFlorida and our legislature
letting them steal from us.
There's an affordability crisisin our housing market.
We cannot afford the homes inthis state, and it's because
BlackRock bought up 41% of thehomes on the market, turning
(15:23):
what once was a way to buildwealth into a drain on our
wallets, into these monopolies'pockets.
We need to make Florida free.
This downtown, zephyr Hills,should be a bustling hub of
local stores, but it's notbecause big businesses, these
big box stores, have stolen themarket because they can provide
(15:44):
the services for cheaper.
They make wages go lower becausethey hire more people and then
set the wages for the state.
So we don't get the wages weneed to buy the goods that we
want, to buy the homes that wewant.
We become homeless and thenthey buy private prisons and
(16:05):
they make being homeless illegal.
So they set wages lower than wecan afford, prices above what
we can afford, housing pricesabove what we can afford, push
us into homelessness, put usinto prisons for being homeless
and then profit off us being inprisons.
It is not a free market.
It is a market controlled bycorporations.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And we need to return it to the people, man that's
the braver.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
You're preaching today.
Yeah, you're preaching today,man.
Hey, that is wonderful how youstated that, man.
But I always say as well to myfamilies and friends I say how
can everything around us go upexcept for our salaries?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I don't understand that Profits are at a 40-year
high.
Ceo pay rose by 3,185% since1980, since Reagan started
cutting back on unions, workerpay at most depending on what
you looked at rose 8% 3,185% to8%.
(17:06):
We are more productive than wehave ever been and our wages
don't reflect that.
It's because those at the tophave been stealing from us and
we can see the policy allowsthem to do that.
The corporate tax rate is 5%.
Our sales tax rate is 7.5%.
(17:28):
Corporations are paying less intaxes than most people and they
drive people to Florida.
They advertise it saying don'tworry, you don't have an income
tax.
Isn't that so nice?
That's what they say all thetime.
But when you have to spend allof your money, when you have to
buy things with all your money,you can't save any of it.
That sales tax becomes anincome tax because all of your
(17:53):
income is spent.
All of your income is spent onpurchasing things rather than
being saved.
So those people making a goodamount of money, making a living
wage, don't have to pay a salestax as their income tax.
But us making you know, I'mmaking $47,000 as a teacher.
I have to spend all that money.
(18:13):
So that 7.5% sales tax becomesan income tax.
It's stealing from me, so Ipay.5% sales tax becomes an
income tax stealing from me, soI pay more than corporations
that do in this state.
Yeah, and my taxes go tofunding roads that those
corporation used to fuel theirbusiness.
Right, so my taxes go tosupporting them.
Their taxes don't go tosupporting us.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Man, that's then.
That's why you're standingagainst that.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Exactly yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Mr Ben Braver, first of all, when I first saw your
name I was like, okay, this guyhere, he's going to win
something in life at some point,as your name fits it very well
being braver and you remind meof my movie.
It's me thinking on a, I guess,more simplistic level.
Braveheart, that's one of myfavorite movies, Mel Gibson.
So going in that sort ofchanging gears here, I
(19:03):
understand your passion there,right, what a wonderful
introduction.
But what are some of yourhobbies?
What do you like doing?
I love playing guitar.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You sing too.
No, I'm a terrible singer.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Well, I tell you what man.
I think you have a good voice.
Do you ever try?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I have a strong voice .
A strong voice I don't have astrong pitch, though Got it.
My sister tells me it's likeknives stuck in her ears.
Now I do love doing karaoke.
Okay, the people around therelove singing with me or try to
sing over me, so they don't haveto hear me.
But I love thing over me, sothey don't have to hear me.
(19:41):
Um, but I love playing guitar.
Um, I love chess great game.
Um.
I love hanging out with myfriends.
Um, video games of course,great.
Uh, other hobbies that I havefavorite video game favorite
video game.
Okay, uh, overwatch, you everplay it?
No, oh, I was.
I was every day after schooland hang out with my best friend
.
We'd play Overwatch for so long.
There's another great gamecalled Nidhogg, an indie game.
(20:02):
You're just a guy with a swordrunning at another guy with a
sword and it's like a sidescroller and you have to fight
to get to the other end of thescreen.
Honestly fantastic game.
I spent probably 200 hoursplaying that over my life.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Okay, any sports at all.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Any sports Watching Love, watching hockey Go
Lightning, go Bolts.
And, of course, going to theUSF football game Go Bulls.
That was my most fun and nowwe're going to start winning
again.
Yes, yes, I was about to saythat piece.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
there was a little missing.
Yeah, the winning piece.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
When I was in high school, I was in the marching
band and my high school teamlost every single game for my
entire four years.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
It was for four years .
For four years, how manycoaches did they?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
have One.
I mean, I think we did notswitch it out he had to know
somebody.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
He was there for four years and lost every game.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Every single game.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Wow, and then at.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
USF.
Every game for the three yearsthat I was there, graduated a
year early, okay, but then thatyear that I graduated early, we
started winning because we gotByron Brown great quarterback.
We finally had the winningrecord the year before I left
USF God.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I know I don't know man.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
You didn't bring bad luck to the sports.
Huh, I would.
I would actually.
You can find pictures of me Iwas.
I would go in this full greensuit with a cape and with like a
hulk outfit on me.
I'd be leading the cheers.
That very loud voice love doingthat.
Um, but yeah, it was.
It was sad but it was funbecause the students at usf best
students in the world and wecared I don't know, man, that
had to be like a state record tolose every game for four years
straight.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
That's football, right, football, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
But we had the Bucs, which is fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yes, yes, we had Brady, so we'll go ahead.
At Comfort Measures Consulting.
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If you're caring for a lovedone as a caregiver, you don't
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You need to have options right.
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(22:07):
First consultation is free.
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Talk to you soon.
We're going to go ahead intothis maybe sort of hobby trend.
(22:30):
We'll go into somethingexciting which I like to play
games on the show as well.
So a couple of questions.
What's your favorite genre ofmusic?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Genre of music I'd say indie rock.
Indie rock, yeah, I like, witha driving beat.
Dr Dog is great.
I have a song O'Nelly perfectvibe.
Perfect vibe I don't say fun ismy favorite band.
We Are Young is my probablyfavorite song of all time, but I
like that, just like vibeymusic okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Uh, if you could uh snoop through one person's
belongings a famous celebritywho would it be one?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
person's belongings it could be dead, live, yep okay
, and by belonging is anythingthey've ever owned, or doing one
anything that they ever ownedokay um, I guess I would have to
go with oh, this is hard, theirbelongings, um, and get away
(23:28):
with it too.
Get away with it.
Oh, they wouldn't even know.
They wouldn't even know.
Okay, all right, all right.
Uh, my mind is absolutely blank.
I didn't.
I've never thought this is aninteresting question.
I've never thought about thatbefore.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Um, honestly, you know what Trump I want to see
what he has like, what littleknickknacks he has around, like
what things?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
because he just doesn't seem like a person to me
at all Like a character, yeah.
So I want to see what he ownswas like important to him you
know, yeah, character yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
So I want to see what he owns was like important to
him.
You know, yeah, what would yousay is important to you?
Like one, whether it's a objector a gaming system, or a boat,
or what is something you say noone better not touch it.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
That's mine I'll tell you what.
Uh, my tie-dye t-shirts.
I I love my tie-dye.
You know, I to camp, I was acamp counselor.
Okay, tie-dye is I love it,it's really cute.
Any pets, any pets I have a rat, bat, cat, just terrible dog,
muck, duck, the worst thing ever.
But I love it.
(24:31):
It's very cute.
But it runs up and bites me,just random.
If I high-five somebody, if Ismile, if I just look too hard
in this general direction, it'llrun run up teeth.
It draws unhinged like a snake,right it's.
It loves me, though, but that'sjust way of showing affection,
okay.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Then this other dog, a hard bite or like a just a oh
yeah, oh yeah it gripped.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, dog, a hard bite or like a, just a oh yeah,
oh yeah it it gripped.
Yeah, I'd have to run up thestairs as a kid I uh what the
yeah, that's a unique type ofrelationship there yeah, yeah,
uh.
We have another dog ned, thebest dog ever.
It's like a lump of meat.
You're gonna throw her around,she doesn't care about anything
does not bite me, doesn't biteanything, got it.
Uh.
Now if muck duck gets aggro, uh, if he starts getting
(25:18):
aggressive then Ned will follow,but she doesn't know what she's
doing, she's just barking.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Wow, that's an interesting type of dog.
I don't think he'd be in myhouse.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, it loves my mom more than anything.
I think that's why it hates me.
My mom loves me and is jealous.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh, yep, that's probably what it is yeah.
Yeah, so this I can tell youvery interesting.
You have a wonderfulpersonality.
What do you think your students, what do they enjoy about you?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
That I don't give homework.
I don't believe in it.
What If you want to get into it?
It trains people to do freeovertime.
School is practically afull-time job, and the way that
this government is mandating itnow it has to be bell-to-bell
work, doesn't give any breaks,very little recess for the kids,
(26:02):
right, it's training them onhow to be a good worker or how
to be a good prisoner.
Right, the straightschool-to-prison pipeline is
real.
And homework trains them on howto do overtime.
Now, if my kids don't finishwork working class, yeah, they
should finish at home, becausethat work's important for them,
right, but I don't give homeworkbecause I believe that's wrong.
Now, they also love me becauseevery day I go into work and I
(26:25):
have a briefcase and I slam iton the table and say what do you
think's in this briefcase?
And they really love doing that, and I'm a science teacher.
I believe in fostering theirnatural inquisitiveness.
Right, if they have a questionabout how something works, we'll
delve into it, because at thisage they're not going to
remember what the DNA stands fordeoxyribonucleic acid, right,
(26:46):
they're just not going toremember that.
Yeah, I never knew it.
They're just going to rememberhow to ask a question and how to
find an answer.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Oh, gotcha, and especially with AI.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
that's what's really important to teach them critical
thinking skills, and that'swhat our government is literally
against teaching criticalthinking.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So let me ask what does your principal think about
the no homework policy?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
My principal loves that we get results and loves
that our kids are learning.
A lot of the kids come in herebehind the state average and our
state average is well behindthe national average and one of
the main reasons is because ofCOVID.
They weren't given theopportunity they needed to
succeed, to learn the basicskills that they need.
But when you foster theirnatural inquisitiveness, when
(27:34):
you foster their want to askquestions, they do better.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I feel like that, as an adult, you foster my
inquisitive nature.
That's what I read about,that's what I'm interested in,
but yes, for sure.
Yeah.
So asking you this nextquestion because you seem very
highly motivated and so youdon't need to be motivated by
anyone else, do?
Speaker 2 (27:58):
you, it helps.
I mean, having a team next toyou is when I did the whole
Stanford Freedom Walkout I wasabout an MSNBC right and it was
great and I told them I can'tcome on.
One our entire point is aboutdiversity and how these
marginalized people have beenattacked, and I'm a straight
(28:21):
white male.
If I go on there by myself, Ican't represent the people.
They're asking me to speak for.
Two the entire point is aboutdiversity and that nothing gets
done without other peoplesupporting you and helping you
along the way.
So I told them I'm not comingon unless you let me bring
somebody else.
They said no, we only want you,and I'm like that defeats the
entire message.
(28:41):
So, finally, let me bringsomebody else on Representative
Ana Eskamani, an incrediblestate legislature who is doing
the work out in Orlando to helpthe people.
And, yeah, having a team alongwith you, having that diversity
of thought, helps you, and sothat really motivates me when
other people are showing howmuch they care and how much good
(29:01):
that we all can do right.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
So you're gen z correct?
Yeah, all right.
Uh, would you consider yourself?
The rep is a greatrepresentation um, I'd hope so.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I I hope to be a great representative of my
generation.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yes, yeah, okay, uh, if electing you, what does that
mean for a Florida agingcommunity?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
The same problems that the aging communities.
Their real defining trait isbeing on a fixed income right,
because there are so manydifferent things beyond them.
When you're older, you usuallyare retired, right, and if
you're not, you need even moreeconomic help.
But with insurance, homeinsurance and car insurance
(29:42):
skyrocketing, with the benefitsthey're receiving and the
pensions they're receivingplummeting, we need to get those
people who are on a fixedincome just like the younger
generation, just like the oldergeneration more help.
They have the least resourcesand they need the most
investment.
I agree, and so it meansthey'll see more help.
They have the least resourcesand they need the most
investment.
I agree, yeah, and so it meansthey'll see more investment.
If you're a person who is beingdisregarded by the state, right
(30:06):
, who isn't here, coming in with$400,000 right off the bat?
I'm here to help you, becausewhat we see is that Florida is
the land of opportunity ifyou're already rich, but if
you're not, they're just pushingyou further down and stealing
your money and giving it tothose who are already rich.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Right, right, got it.
So how do you keep Florida, theretirement state, aside from
those people that's coming herealready rich?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
So being the retirement state is because
we're warm right Now.
We are not going to see anyproblems with warmth in the
future is why I can't canvas orgod's eye door knocking, because
you come to the door drenchedin sweat.
It looks like you just took ashower you came here.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
I remember that's how we initially met.
Yeah, we went door to door.
He is hands-on.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I can't admit that yeah, it's what you have to be.
I mean, and I hear so manystories from people that I
wouldn't be able to hear if Iwas just paying for ads all the
place like, my opponent is rightand I get to hear what people
actually need.
Yes, sir, um, actually myopponent's office is right down
the street and I was talking tohis neighbors who had never even
(31:12):
heard of him, right, never evenseen his face.
Um, with his office being rightnext door because he doesn't
care about the people, he justcares about the big businesses
and how he can help them.
But keeping it the retirementcapital of the world is about
keeping our nature intact,keeping it to be a place where
people want to come.
But just this week DeSantis usedthe Department of Environmental
(31:35):
Protection to start paving overour natural parks.
The state, the Hillsborough,the river park of Hillsborough
County, right down the road, isgoing to be paved over with disc
golf and pickleball, and sevenother parks across the state are
going to have golf courses andhotels built in them.
(31:56):
It's disgusting.
I mean we need that wildlifeOnce that gets destroyed.
For instance, the USF ForestPreserve, which I helped lead a
protest against paving that over.
That was the last naturalwildlife corridor in the state.
If that was destroyed, all ofour wetlands would be destroyed.
And it's not just important forthe environment if we're
getting people to come down here.
It's important for our waterquality.
(32:18):
We have 8,000 people coming inhere every single week.
If we don't preserve that waterquality, we will all start
seeing drastic negative healthconsequences to ourselves and to
our children.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
That is very true, very true.
So, from the education aspect,right, what are some improvement
you'd like to see just ineducation in general?
And I would say, more targetfocus on our students in higher
grades, so from ninth grade to12th grade?
Speaker 2 (32:51):
So two different things.
First of all, we're spending4.2.
Billion on our privateeducation system.
With the new vouchers that myopponent supported, 75% of that
money will go to people whocould already afford a private
education, which means they'retaking $3 billion out of the
(33:13):
public education system out ofpoor people's hands and just
giving it to already rich people.
Even so, even for that last 25%who couldn't afford one before
they denied a rider, they deniedan amendment which wouldn't
allot these private corporationsfrom raising their tuitions by
the exact amount the voucher wasfor.
So those people who it wassupposed to help and give more
(33:35):
choice to can't even use it toget more choice.
And 69% of the private schoolsthat we have in the state are
unaccredited, meaning we don'tknow what they're teaching.
And if we took that $4.2billion back, gave it to the
money the taxpayers wanted tofund the public school system,
(33:55):
then we would raise the stateteachers' pay from $54,000 on
average to $69,000 on average,which is the national average
pay.
We would hire the 5,000teachers that were missing in
this state and we'd eliminateall school meal debt, which
shouldn't exist in the firstplace In the first place.
And we'd still have $800 millionleft over.
(34:16):
We're spending more moneyprivatizing our education system
.
We're spending more moneydestroying our education system
than it would take to fix it.
And in our higher level gradeswe need more individual
opportunities.
We need where a bachelor'sdegree gives you access to a
full-time, good paying job.
They've just become hedge fundsthat give out degrees Right and
(34:52):
they don't actually prepare ourstudents for the future.
We need to stop that and we needto make sure that everybody has
access to vocational jobtraining and to higher education
when they want it for free,because you need a bachelor's
degree to have a good, payingjob at this point, and a
master's degree is a newbachelor's degree.
You're right, and I mean.
(35:14):
These universities have largerendowments than some countries'
GDP.
They've just become hedge fundspeople to place their money in,
rather than places to actuallygive our kids skills, and what
we see is that you shouldn'tneed that bachelor's degree,
because most of the skills youget for a job you get on the job
and when you make sure ourschools are funded, it gives
(35:36):
kids the work ethic they needright and the critical thinking
they need that employers want tosee, not just sitting them
through endless boring classesthat don't teach them what they
need.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Right, because I haven't used PIE since seventh
grade.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yep, yep.
Things are so specialized wedon't need to learn everything
right.
We need to learn in the lowergrades.
Yes, you need a basic education, and that's one of the best
things our government providesgiving everybody basic education
and a lot.
Once you get up there, youshould be able to specialize.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Gotcha.
Now, if and I'll just say this,and I'm just going to ask you
this question If our audiencehere for our 60 and above
audience, right, if they'relistening to you right now, what
is a strong message you couldoffer?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
them.
We want to expand Medicaid.
A lot of people in this state800,000 people don't have access
to it and it's because ourstate Senate and state
legislature have denied federalfunds to expand it and they
claim to be fiscally responsible.
We don't want to waste thetaxpayer money.
We pay our federal taxes, wepaid for those services and
(36:50):
they're denying the servicesthat we paid for.
Right, they're not beingfiscally responsible.
They're denying the services wepaid for and we need that.
We need to make sure that, ifyou're living on a fixed income,
that you can stay there right,that you're getting your pension
, you're getting your fullpension, you're getting your
social security right.
The way the Republicans have setup the system, they have broken
(37:14):
it and then blamed it for beingbroken.
If we gave people the wagesthey deserve, right, didn't let
these corporations and theseexecutives steal all of our
money, we'd have enough moneyfor the Social Security system,
because all of it is being putin these very few people's hands
.
We don't have the taxes goingto it that we need it to be
(37:35):
going to, and so our SocialSecurity system will be bankrupt
by 2035.
Our social security system willbe bankrupt by 2035.
And Rick Scott, the currentstate senator for this area was
indicted on stealing billions ofdollars for a Medicaid program,
but he's still our statesenator.
Yeah, he used the FifthAmendment like over 20 times
(37:59):
during those trials, because youuse that when you don't want to
make yourself, when you don'twant to show that you're guilty
for another crime.
So he was guilty for manycrimes against the people who
need their health care.
He was targeting the mostvulnerable people and that's who
I'm running to protect.
I'm running to give everybodyaccess to their health care.
I'm running to make sure we havepublic transportation, because
(38:22):
those over 60, they have tostart thinking about whether or
not they could drive.
But there is no public way toget from place to place.
You have to give all of yourmoney to Ford and GM and Shell
and BP, who are destroying ourenvironment, and we have to give
all our money to subsidizingthose vehicles with roads, which
means they're subsidizing aprivate corporation, right,
(38:43):
there's no public way to getfrom place to place.
You have to give your moneyfrom private corporations, and
those over 60 can't do that aseasily.
We need public transportationbecause so many of them live in
food deserts where they don'thave easily accessible
nutritious food, and when you'rethat old, that matters even
(39:04):
more, so we need to give themaccess to that through public
transportation.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, you can't have proper healing without proper
nutrition.
It does not work.
So, as we wrap up our wonderfulconversation here today,
definitely enjoyed it.
But what's new for you?
Some new initiative that youmay have coming in the future?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
I appreciate that we are going.
We are doing weekly communityconversations every single week
at crate in Wesley Chapel.
Great, like I love it, becauseone of the few places where they
make sure it's only smallbusinesses.
Now, right next there are a tonof huge big box stores, right
Places built for cars, not forpeople.
(39:46):
But, crepe, you have to havesmall businesses and I love it.
So we're supporting those smallbusinesses by holding weekly
community conversations at CafeZorba every Saturday at 7.
8 am, 7 pm, 8 am okay.
And we are also doing anothercommunity conversation every
single week from anywhere inPasco and Hillsborough.
(40:06):
On my website, benbraverorg,and on all my social media,
which is at benbraverfl,specifically on my Facebook and
Instagram, again at benbraverfl,we are posting where that
weekly community conversationwill be.
And on my website, benbraverorg, you'll find a ton of different
ways to volunteer, and there isa great website, mobilizeorg,
(40:28):
where you can find volunteeropportunities for any Democratic
cause that you want across yourarea or anywhere across the
nation.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
That's really good.
I think I want to join at leastone of those sessions at Crate.
Crate is a wonderful venue.
Building Crate has been amonument almost here in Pasco
County, definitely off theinterstate, like you said,
fostering the small businessesin a way where it's generated a
lot of attraction to the countyas well, where it's generating a
(40:57):
lot of attraction to the countyas well.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
There's so much economic development when these
Republicans who claim to careabout the economy, right, all
they do is let monopolies takecontrol of it, which destroys
the economy.
Small businesses are the wayyou get a thriving economy,
(41:20):
that's a free economy.
Thriving economy that's a freeeconomy.
And even Adam Smith in theWealth of Nations, the Bible of
capitalism that he wrote all theway back in 1776, I think.
Even there it says that youneed a strong government to get
rid of the monopolies that areinherent to capitalism.
That's how it works, right.
But you need a stronggovernment to control the
monopolies and the oligarchies,control of our economy and to
(41:43):
make sure that it is actuallyfree.
You need that balance.
But these people don'tunderstand that they sacrifice
our economy on the altar offreedom, while they're pushing
it down, keeping it in chains,in shackles that are tied to
these monopolies.
We need to free them of thatand make sure small businesses
can thrive.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yes, sir, yes sir, and a lot of that comes from
just what you're doing now andwhere you're starting your
career off at in the schools,like you said, removing that
vocational, it removed a lot ofentrepreneurs, right, growing up
, from plumbing to carpentrywork.
All of those things were takenout of schools years ago, right,
(42:24):
but it also allowed themonopoly to happen yeah well,
with the law corporations takingover those, those aspects in
business.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I, I was just thinking about, I really just
put into words.
I'd like the other day Ihaven't actually haven't said
this on any uh channel yet, butthey, america has gone from a
place that celebratesentrepreneurship to celebrating
franchises.
Right, and because franchisesthey're like a mcdonald's that
comes into your uh community.
They make money by, uh, makingtheir prices higher than the
(42:59):
cost of goods.
So any place makes money, right.
But for the corporation to getthat money they have to make it
even higher, right, which meansmaking their prices higher than
the cost of the goods.
So any place makes money, right.
But for the corporation to getthat money they have to make it
even higher, right, which meanswhen we spend money at a
McDonald's, some of our moneyfrom our local community gets
put into McDonald's headquarters.
And so those franchises that wesee everywhere steal money from
local communities and funnel itinto those monopolies hands.
(43:22):
But if we had entrepreneurs,that's keeping the money in our
communities hands, just likecommunity land trusts.
When we see these monopoliestaking over our localities,
buying up all the homes andrental units and turning the
homes into rental units, that'sdraining the money from our
economy, putting it into thosemonopolies' hands.
(43:42):
But if our state which I wantto do invests in community land
trusts so that the land stays inour community's hands, that
money stays in our community'shands and can be further
reinvested in our community,building it up rather than
draining it up.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Man, that was deep right, you just enlightened me
with that one but so veryinspiring conversation, mr
Braver.
I mean just, I know our comfortlisteners probably learn a lot
about you, just what I learned,honestly, I have to be honest,
when I saw how young you wereand just what you're aspiring to
become.
It takes a level of confidence,it takes a level of somebody
(44:22):
being motivated.
Bravery, bravery.
There you go, yeah, but thankyou so much for joining let's
get comfort podcast.
I think you did a wonderful jobtoday.
We I hope your listeners reallytune in.
Please check him out.
He indicated all his socialmedia accounts, his website as
(44:44):
well, where you can follow him.
If not join.
You said on Saturdays at 7 am,7 pm, 7 pm yes, sorry about that
.
7 pm at Crates you can jointhis discussion group here.
He also allows volunteering.
Become more involved in yourcommunity, in civic engagement
as well.
(45:04):
But thank you so much fortuning in.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yes, I want to say I appreciate what you're doing.
You know, uplifting localvoices.
Yes, make sure that everybodygets a chance to engage with the
community and learn what'sgoing on, because that's so
important when we're losing somuch our media space.
So you taking stepping up andmake sure that local voices can
be uplifted and can speak out.
I appreciate that so much.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Thank you very much.
It's a journey with me juststarting, but again you gave me
the opportunity.
Some people would have notstopped and said I follow back
up Cause what we met a couplemonths ago and we still stay in
the communication and you stillkept your word and joined the
show.
So I'm very grateful, man.
So thank you All right.
Yes, sir, Thank you All right.
Thank you, Stay tuned.
(45:48):
Thanks for watching.
If you found this informationhelpful, don't forget to like,
comment and subscribe and hitthe notification bell so you
never miss an update.
Have any comments?
I want to share your thoughts.
Drop them in the commentsection below.
Until next time, stay in power.
Welcome to another episode of the let's Get Comfy
podcast.
Home.
Love, peace, joy, but most ofall comfort.
Florida's number one healthcareeducation station.
I'm your host and soleproprietor, norman Harris, and
yes, I did it again.
Another special guest, thistime a Florida State Senator
candidate, mr Ben Braver.
(00:35):
Welcome to the show, sir.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for blessingthe show.
I want your presence Such ayoung individual like yourself,
I'm so grateful to have you here.
But I want your presence Such ayoung individual like yourself,
I'm so grateful to have youhere.
But I want the audience, thelet's Get Comfy listeners, to
know about you and what you doand some of your accomplishments
(00:56):
.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah, so I am a teacher in Hillsborough County
fifth grade, the best grade I'ma science teacher and I'm
running for state senate here inFlorida, district 23.
Now, the area I'm running foris District 23, and it goes all
the way from Brandon all the wayup to Dade City and then out
east to Plant City.
It's a huge area, but what itcovers is some of the most
beautiful parts of the country,these beautiful pastures, these
(01:24):
amazing small towns that we needmore investment in.
And I just graduated from USFgo Bulls.
While I was there, our governortried to take the private health
records of our students, whichis a ridiculous breach of human
rights.
So what I did was try to get apetition started.
We got 2,000 signatures in aday and then we realized that
(01:46):
wouldn't be enough becauseDeSantis would just fire our
president if she didn't send inour students' private health
records.
So we started to walk out andwe got 5,000 students and
educators to walk out of everysingle university in Florida on
February 23rd 2023.
And it was an incredibledisplay of our appreciation for
(02:07):
diversity and for our educationand saying that we need our
education, we need our healthcare to be private and for us I
got an MSNBC and CNN for that,which was just so proud of that,
and it was great to shine alight on what was happening in
Florida.
Then I became the Director ofState and local policy for the
(02:28):
Young Democrats of America andwhen I got back to Florida and
when I became a teacher here Isaw how underinvested our
students are and how muchthey're just taking away from
the future of our state but notgiving our students the
opportunity to achieve theirfull potential.
And I knew there was one personwho's responsible for that my
state senator and it justdisgusted me to see him as our
(02:51):
representative.
It made me sick to see how hewas hurting my community and
claiming to represent it.
So I had to step into the raceand ever since I've gotten in
I've seen the support of myfriends, my family and my
community and how much everybodywants to see change, wants to
see a better Florida that worksfor everybody.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Wow, man, you inspire me already.
I mean, how did you take thatstep just to initiate that at
USF, like to initiate thatsupport of those signatures and
for it to even spread throughoutFlorida?
What was that like?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Well, luckily I had been building a base throughout
my entire time there.
The first year that I was there, caitlin Bennett, who became
known as the Kent State gun girl, actually used to live in Ohio
my dad, right of the road fromKent State and she went there
with like an AK-47 strapped toher back on graduation just a
ridiculous display of force fora graduation, just really weird
(03:46):
right.
But then she went around tocollege campuses all across the
country for years trying totrigger the libs and she went to
USF where she got a hugeresponse from people because we
didn't want her there justspreading lies about COVID,
right, spreading lies about ourhealthcare.
And so I led the rally againsther, which really became a
starting point for me, likeboosted me out into saying like
(04:08):
I have a voice and I want to useit and luckily, as a camp
counselor it's very loud, sothat really helped me.
And then there are these peoplewho would always go on campus
with these disgustinganti-abortion signs, like with
fake images meant to triggerpeople's trauma because it's an
invasive procedure.
Even though I believe it shouldbe safe, legal and free, it's
(04:29):
invasive and it can be traumaticfor some people and these fake
images were meant to triggerthat trauma response and it was
disgusting to me.
So I'd bring my guitar outthere and actually play in front
of them and it became a thingon campus.
I would hand out condoms andregister people to vote and sign
them up to volunteer withPlanned Parenthood so they could
make their voices heard andstand up to this hate.
(04:51):
And then I got involved withthe College Democrats as well as
Planned Parenthood GenerationAction.
Yes, I saw that and I becamewell-known as an organizer on
campus.
So when this thing thatDeSantis did stealing our
private information happened, Iwas able to have this large
network with my friends acrossthe entire state.
It was able to spread veryeffectively, right, and people
(05:11):
cared.
Yes, they cared about protectingtheir freedoms.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, that's really good.
Yeah, that's good, and youconnected with your other
network, and having goodassociates is always very
important as well.
(05:35):
So, but with you becoming, orstarting in the race for, a
Florida state senator, what Imean, you sort of went into what
sparked it, but how do you gointo seeking that level, though,
like that's top tier?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
man.
Yeah, you see the arbitraryinequality right In a capitalist
system, in any market system,there's going to be some
inequality and that's fair.
That's fine.
If people aren't putting in asmuch work, they shouldn't get as
many rewards.
But we see when the poorestpeople in Florida, the bottom
20%, are paying 13% of theirincome as taxes and the richest
(06:07):
1% is only paying 3% of theirincome in taxes.
That's government mandatedinequality.
That's pushing the poorestpeople down and giving that
money to the richest and I justcouldn't abide by that.
Now, the one open seat inFlorida when I looked was the
state Senate seat that I was in,and if I didn't run for this
(06:30):
then we wouldn't get everysingle legislative race
contested.
Right now every singlelegislative seat is contested.
If I didn't get into this raceit wouldn't be.
And I looked through SenatorDanny Burgess' record and while
he's an affable guy, when if youmeet him you like him, his
policy hurts the people and Ijust couldn't stand that.
And yes, state senator is ahigh role.
(06:51):
But it is clear there is policythat hurts people and there's
policy that helps people, rightright.
Danny Burgess sponsored a billto not let our local communities
regulate how much our water isbeing polluted.
That is a policy that hurtspeople.
I stand against that.
I mean, this is Zephyrhills.
The most famous part of thiscommunity, is our water right
(07:13):
Zephyrhills Water Company, buthe's selling out the people of
Zephyrhills for that corporation, and so there's just so many
instances of that kind of policywhere it sells out the people
to these monopolies, and I standagainst that at every single
turn.
And there are great think tanksand great organizations across
Florida that propose fantasticlegislation that you can tap
(07:37):
into that I'll be working within order to help the people
rather than hurt us.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
That's wonderful stand that you're taking.
Wonderful stand that you'retaking so we have to acknowledge
right because others are gonnastate this as well is how young
you look and you speak to justyour age, and how that's not an
issue at all and why peopleshouldn't question your
abilities and your passion.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
One of the great things that I found is that I
haven't found anybodyquestioning it, and it speaks to
a larger problem in our entirepolitical sphere.
I mean the reason PresidentBiden stepped down was because
people saw him as too old toserve Right.
And yeah, you can see it.
At the debate I was leading a,I had a watch party and some of
(08:24):
the most sycophantic Bidensupporters ever right, we're
within 100%.
When they saw him, I mean oursouls left, our body, right we.
When we took that first pause,we saw this just isn't the
person we weren't running.
In fact, nine out of 10Americans said that.
And then the democratic partylistened to the people.
Joe Biden listened to us andsaid I understand that you don't
(08:46):
want me to be the nominee, andnow we have a fantastic nominee
in Vice President Harris andGovernor Tim Walz.
And when I talk to people, theysay we want younger
representation because so manyof the people in the political
scene are so old and especiallywith the rate of technological
(09:07):
advancement with AI just in thepast two years, we aren't living
in the same world that we didjust 20 years ago Just 20 years
ago.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
yeah, and so if you didn't grow up five years ago?
Speaker 2 (09:19):
so if you didn't grow up with that, it's very hard to
understand the problems thatpeople are facing today.
Right, right, and so we needyounger representation and we
should have representation forall people.
Diversity matters.
What experience you lived inmatters to what policy you're
going to support and whatproblems you even understand.
(09:40):
Yes, so we need representationfor younger people, for people
who will live in the world thispolicy will affect.
You're right, and people seethat, they understand that and
they care about supportingyounger people.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Okay, so at USF, right, what are some of the
clubs or associations were youinvolved in?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I was involved with Planned Parenthood, generation
Action, which was a great group,and one of our main points was
to educate on safe sex right andto educate on a lot of the
areas that Florida is justfailing in.
For instance, they created.
It used to be that you couldopt out of sexual education,
(10:22):
which is fair.
If you're a parent who wants toteach your kids yourself or
doesn't want your kids in thatclass, you should have the
freedom to opt out of it.
But now our state Senate madeit an opt-in program, which
means, by default, kids don'tget the education on how to be
safe in their life.
We know that abstinence onlydoesn't work because when you
(10:44):
make something taboo, kids wantto do it more.
Right.
When you don't let kidsunderstand the dangers, they
don't know the dangers right?
That's why, at USF, when thepreachers would come in and just
say that abortion was wrong andthat you shouldn't have any sex
, that's a bad way.
If you want to preventabortions, the best thing to do
(11:07):
is to hand out condoms.
That's the single mosteffective way to make sure
people aren't getting pregnant.
To hand out contraceptives.
But what they're doing rightnow in our legislature is
removing access tocontraceptives and they're not
just forcing women to remainpregnant, but forcing women to
get pregnant like that.
So I was involved with them.
(11:27):
We were teaching people how tohave safe sex.
I was also involved with CollegeDemocrats, a great group that
was restoring civil conversationon campus.
We actually had a great debatewith the college Republicans and
the people there.
We learned from each other.
We understood that we're notenemies.
We just have different views onhow to achieve safety, how to
(11:48):
achieve prosperity for allpeople.
I was involved with the Jewishorganization Hillel, which was
great, and a bunch of other justgroups on campus chess club and
it was great to meet a ton ofdifferent people and while I
care about politics a lot, I wasable to bring it into every
different sphere and show peoplehow, even if you just care
(12:12):
about chess club, it's stillimportant to support the policy
that matters to everybody.
Because when DeSantis put inbills like HB 999, it restricted
the freedoms of those clubs whohad nothing to do with politics
from speaking out and speakingtheir views and it's just
ridiculous and it restrictedthem from having diverse thought
(12:33):
in their clubs, which we needfor every club.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So just me researching you more and
learning more about you.
If you could explain to ourviewers what is pro-choice,
pro-free market, pro-florida.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
What does that mean to you?
Yeah, so pro-choice means thatyou should have bodily autonomy.
I mean, it's what our countrywas founded on the idea that
nobody else has a say over whatyou do with your body, right.
And when it comes to abortionaccess, it is one of the best
things for this state.
(13:08):
When you give people thefreedom to choose what they want
to do with their lives, you geta more free floor to get a
freer market.
If we had pro-choicelegislation, if we didn't have a
six week abortion ban in thisstate right now, we would have
33,000 more people enter ourlabor force and, on average, our
(13:31):
women would get $1,000 more ayear to their jobs.
Right now we have the HydeAmendment in the nation, which
means that the state, thenational government, can't put
any money towards an abortion,which is crazy, because that's
reproductive healthcare, one ofthe worst effects of the
abortion ban, because a six weekabortion ban basically is a
(13:54):
total abortion ban.
It goes by the last time youhave a period, which means if
you had a period four weeks ago,right, and then had sex on the
last day before the period, thenyou could have only been
pregnant for two weeks, right,but you would still be covered
under the six-week abortion ban.
Now, pro-free market.
(14:14):
I'm majoring in economics.
I'm a huge economic nerd.
It's what really got meinvolved in politics, because I
can see that the inequality thatwe have is arbitrary.
There are six people in thiscountry Larry Ellison, bernard
Arnault, jeff Bezos, elon Musk,mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates
who control $88 billion morethan the bottom half of all
(14:38):
Americans combined.
That is disgusting.
The money is out there.
It's just kept in six people'shands, and so when you see
people, when you see one fifthof all American children unable
to afford food right, notknowing where their next meal
would come from and we see thatmoney is there you have to get
(15:00):
out and speak, because that isstealing from the people.
We see monopolies coming intoFlorida and our legislature
letting them steal from us.
There's an affordability crisisin our housing market.
We cannot afford the homes inthis state, and it's because
BlackRock bought up 41% of thehomes on the market, turning
(15:23):
what once was a way to buildwealth into a drain on our
wallets, into these monopolies'pockets.
We need to make Florida free.
This downtown, zephyr Hills,should be a bustling hub of
local stores, but it's notbecause big businesses, these
big box stores, have stolen themarket because they can provide
(15:44):
the services for cheaper.
They make wages go lower becausethey hire more people and then
set the wages for the state.
So we don't get the wages weneed to buy the goods that we
want, to buy the homes that wewant.
We become homeless and thenthey buy private prisons and
(16:05):
they make being homeless illegal.
So they set wages lower than wecan afford, prices above what
we can afford, housing pricesabove what we can afford, push
us into homelessness, put usinto prisons for being homeless
and then profit off us being inprisons.
It is not a free market.
It is a market controlled bycorporations.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And we need to return it to the people, man that's
the braver.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
You're preaching today.
Yeah, you're preaching today,man.
Hey, that is wonderful how youstated that, man.
But I always say as well to myfamilies and friends I say how
can everything around us go upexcept for our salaries?
Speaker 2 (16:44):
I don't understand that Profits are at a 40-year
high.
Ceo pay rose by 3,185% since1980, since Reagan started
cutting back on unions, workerpay at most depending on what
you looked at rose 8% 3,185% to8%.
(17:06):
We are more productive than wehave ever been and our wages
don't reflect that.
It's because those at the tophave been stealing from us and
we can see the policy allowsthem to do that.
The corporate tax rate is 5%.
Our sales tax rate is 7.5%.
(17:28):
Corporations are paying less intaxes than most people and they
drive people to Florida.
They advertise it saying don'tworry, you don't have an income
tax.
Isn't that so nice?
That's what they say all thetime.
But when you have to spend allof your money, when you have to
buy things with all your money,you can't save any of it.
That sales tax becomes anincome tax because all of your
(17:53):
income is spent.
All of your income is spent onpurchasing things rather than
being saved.
So those people making a goodamount of money, making a living
wage, don't have to pay a salestax as their income tax.
But us making you know, I'mmaking $47,000 as a teacher.
I have to spend all that money.
(18:13):
So that 7.5% sales tax becomesan income tax.
It's stealing from me, so Ipay.5% sales tax becomes an
income tax stealing from me, soI pay more than corporations
that do in this state.
Yeah, and my taxes go tofunding roads that those
corporation used to fuel theirbusiness.
Right, so my taxes go tosupporting them.
Their taxes don't go tosupporting us.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Man, that's then.
That's why you're standingagainst that.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Exactly yes, sir.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Mr Ben Braver, first of all, when I first saw your
name I was like, okay, this guyhere, he's going to win
something in life at some point,as your name fits it very well
being braver and you remind meof my movie.
It's me thinking on a, I guess,more simplistic level.
Braveheart, that's one of myfavorite movies, Mel Gibson.
So going in that sort ofchanging gears here, I
(19:03):
understand your passion there,right, what a wonderful
introduction.
But what are some of yourhobbies?
What do you like doing?
I love playing guitar.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
You sing too.
No, I'm a terrible singer.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Well, I tell you what man.
I think you have a good voice.
Do you ever try?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I have a strong voice .
A strong voice I don't have astrong pitch, though Got it.
My sister tells me it's likeknives stuck in her ears.
Now I do love doing karaoke.
Okay, the people around therelove singing with me or try to
sing over me, so they don't haveto hear me.
But I love thing over me, sothey don't have to hear me.
(19:41):
Um, but I love playing guitar.
Um, I love chess great game.
Um.
I love hanging out with myfriends.
Um, video games of course,great.
Uh, other hobbies that I havefavorite video game favorite
video game.
Okay, uh, overwatch, you everplay it?
No, oh, I was.
I was every day after schooland hang out with my best friend
.
We'd play Overwatch for so long.
There's another great gamecalled Nidhogg, an indie game.
(20:02):
You're just a guy with a swordrunning at another guy with a
sword and it's like a sidescroller and you have to fight
to get to the other end of thescreen.
Honestly fantastic game.
I spent probably 200 hoursplaying that over my life.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Okay, any sports at all.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Any sports Watching Love, watching hockey Go
Lightning, go Bolts.
And, of course, going to theUSF football game Go Bulls.
That was my most fun and nowwe're going to start winning
again.
Yes, yes, I was about to saythat piece.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
there was a little missing.
Yeah, the winning piece.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
When I was in high school, I was in the marching
band and my high school teamlost every single game for my
entire four years.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
It was for four years .
For four years, how manycoaches did they?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
have One.
I mean, I think we did notswitch it out he had to know
somebody.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
He was there for four years and lost every game.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Every single game.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Wow, and then at.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
USF.
Every game for the three yearsthat I was there, graduated a
year early, okay, but then thatyear that I graduated early, we
started winning because we gotByron Brown great quarterback.
We finally had the winningrecord the year before I left
USF God.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
I know I don't know man.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
You didn't bring bad luck to the sports.
Huh, I would.
I would actually.
You can find pictures of me Iwas.
I would go in this full greensuit with a cape and with like a
hulk outfit on me.
I'd be leading the cheers.
That very loud voice love doingthat.
Um, but yeah, it was.
It was sad but it was funbecause the students at usf best
students in the world and wecared I don't know, man, that
had to be like a state record tolose every game for four years
straight.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
That's football, right, football, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
But we had the Bucs, which is fun to watch.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Yes, yes, we had Brady, so we'll go ahead.
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We're going to go ahead intothis maybe sort of hobby trend.
(22:30):
We'll go into somethingexciting which I like to play
games on the show as well.
So a couple of questions.
What's your favorite genre ofmusic?
Speaker 2 (22:37):
Genre of music I'd say indie rock.
Indie rock, yeah, I like, witha driving beat.
Dr Dog is great.
I have a song O'Nelly perfectvibe.
Perfect vibe I don't say fun ismy favorite band.
We Are Young is my probablyfavorite song of all time, but I
like that, just like vibeymusic okay, all right.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Uh, if you could uh snoop through one person's
belongings a famous celebritywho would it be one?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
person's belongings it could be dead, live, yep okay
, and by belonging is anythingthey've ever owned, or doing one
anything that they ever ownedokay um, I guess I would have to
go with oh, this is hard, theirbelongings, um, and get away
(23:28):
with it too.
Get away with it.
Oh, they wouldn't even know.
They wouldn't even know.
Okay, all right, all right.
Uh, my mind is absolutely blank.
I didn't.
I've never thought this is aninteresting question.
I've never thought about thatbefore.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Um, honestly, you know what Trump I want to see
what he has like, what littleknickknacks he has around, like
what things?
Speaker 2 (23:48):
because he just doesn't seem like a person to me
at all Like a character, yeah.
So I want to see what he ownswas like important to him you
know, yeah, character yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
So I want to see what he owns was like important to
him.
You know, yeah, what would yousay is important to you?
Like one, whether it's a objector a gaming system, or a boat,
or what is something you say noone better not touch it.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
That's mine I'll tell you what.
Uh, my tie-dye t-shirts.
I I love my tie-dye.
You know, I to camp, I was acamp counselor.
Okay, tie-dye is I love it,it's really cute.
Any pets, any pets I have a rat, bat, cat, just terrible dog,
muck, duck, the worst thing ever.
But I love it.
(24:31):
It's very cute.
But it runs up and bites me,just random.
If I high-five somebody, if Ismile, if I just look too hard
in this general direction, it'llrun run up teeth.
It draws unhinged like a snake,right it's.
It loves me, though, but that'sjust way of showing affection,
okay.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Then this other dog, a hard bite or like a just a oh
yeah, oh yeah it gripped.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yeah, dog, a hard bite or like a, just a oh yeah,
oh yeah it it gripped.
Yeah, I'd have to run up thestairs as a kid I uh what the
yeah, that's a unique type ofrelationship there yeah, yeah,
uh.
We have another dog ned, thebest dog ever.
It's like a lump of meat.
You're gonna throw her around,she doesn't care about anything
does not bite me, doesn't biteanything, got it.
Uh.
Now if muck duck gets aggro, uh, if he starts getting
(25:18):
aggressive then Ned will follow,but she doesn't know what she's
doing, she's just barking.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Wow, that's an interesting type of dog.
I don't think he'd be in myhouse.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, it loves my mom more than anything.
I think that's why it hates me.
My mom loves me and is jealous.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Oh, yep, that's probably what it is yeah.
Yeah, so this I can tell youvery interesting.
You have a wonderfulpersonality.
What do you think your students, what do they enjoy about you?
Speaker 2 (25:42):
That I don't give homework.
I don't believe in it.
What If you want to get into it?
It trains people to do freeovertime.
School is practically afull-time job, and the way that
this government is mandating itnow it has to be bell-to-bell
work, doesn't give any breaks,very little recess for the kids,
(26:02):
right, it's training them onhow to be a good worker or how
to be a good prisoner.
Right, the straightschool-to-prison pipeline is
real.
And homework trains them on howto do overtime.
Now, if my kids don't finishwork working class, yeah, they
should finish at home, becausethat work's important for them,
right, but I don't give homeworkbecause I believe that's wrong.
Now, they also love me becauseevery day I go into work and I
(26:25):
have a briefcase and I slam iton the table and say what do you
think's in this briefcase?
And they really love doing that, and I'm a science teacher.
I believe in fostering theirnatural inquisitiveness.
Right, if they have a questionabout how something works, we'll
delve into it, because at thisage they're not going to
remember what the DNA stands fordeoxyribonucleic acid, right,
(26:46):
they're just not going toremember that.
Yeah, I never knew it.
They're just going to rememberhow to ask a question and how to
find an answer.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Oh, gotcha, and especially with AI.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
that's what's really important to teach them critical
thinking skills, and that'swhat our government is literally
against teaching criticalthinking.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So let me ask what does your principal think about
the no homework policy?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
My principal loves that we get results and loves
that our kids are learning.
A lot of the kids come in herebehind the state average and our
state average is well behindthe national average and one of
the main reasons is because ofCOVID.
They weren't given theopportunity they needed to
succeed, to learn the basicskills that they need.
But when you foster theirnatural inquisitiveness, when
(27:34):
you foster their want to askquestions, they do better.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
I feel like that, as an adult, you foster my
inquisitive nature.
That's what I read about,that's what I'm interested in,
but yes, for sure.
Yeah.
So asking you this nextquestion because you seem very
highly motivated and so youdon't need to be motivated by
anyone else, do?
Speaker 2 (27:58):
you, it helps.
I mean, having a team next toyou is when I did the whole
Stanford Freedom Walkout I wasabout an MSNBC right and it was
great and I told them I can'tcome on.
One our entire point is aboutdiversity and how these
marginalized people have beenattacked, and I'm a straight
(28:21):
white male.
If I go on there by myself, Ican't represent the people.
They're asking me to speak for.
Two the entire point is aboutdiversity and that nothing gets
done without other peoplesupporting you and helping you
along the way.
So I told them I'm not comingon unless you let me bring
somebody else.
They said no, we only want you,and I'm like that defeats the
entire message.
(28:41):
So, finally, let me bringsomebody else on Representative
Ana Eskamani, an incrediblestate legislature who is doing
the work out in Orlando to helpthe people.
And, yeah, having a team alongwith you, having that diversity
of thought, helps you, and sothat really motivates me when
other people are showing howmuch they care and how much good
(29:01):
that we all can do right.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
So you're gen z correct?
Yeah, all right.
Uh, would you consider yourself?
The rep is a greatrepresentation um, I'd hope so.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I I hope to be a great representative of my
generation.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yes, yeah, okay, uh, if electing you, what does that
mean for a Florida agingcommunity?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
The same problems that the aging communities.
Their real defining trait isbeing on a fixed income right,
because there are so manydifferent things beyond them.
When you're older, you usuallyare retired, right, and if
you're not, you need even moreeconomic help.
But with insurance, homeinsurance and car insurance
(29:42):
skyrocketing, with the benefitsthey're receiving and the
pensions they're receivingplummeting, we need to get those
people who are on a fixedincome just like the younger
generation, just like the oldergeneration more help.
They have the least resourcesand they need the most
investment.
I agree, and so it meansthey'll see more help.
They have the least resourcesand they need the most
investment.
I agree, yeah, and so it meansthey'll see more investment.
If you're a person who is beingdisregarded by the state, right
(30:06):
, who isn't here, coming in with$400,000 right off the bat?
I'm here to help you, becausewhat we see is that Florida is
the land of opportunity ifyou're already rich, but if
you're not, they're just pushingyou further down and stealing
your money and giving it tothose who are already rich.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Right, right, got it.
So how do you keep Florida, theretirement state, aside from
those people that's coming herealready rich?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
So being the retirement state is because
we're warm right Now.
We are not going to see anyproblems with warmth in the
future is why I can't canvas orgod's eye door knocking, because
you come to the door drenchedin sweat.
It looks like you just took ashower you came here.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
I remember that's how we initially met.
Yeah, we went door to door.
He is hands-on.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I can't admit that yeah, it's what you have to be.
I mean, and I hear so manystories from people that I
wouldn't be able to hear if Iwas just paying for ads all the
place like, my opponent is rightand I get to hear what people
actually need.
Yes, sir, um, actually myopponent's office is right down
the street and I was talking tohis neighbors who had never even
(31:12):
heard of him, right, never evenseen his face.
Um, with his office being rightnext door because he doesn't
care about the people, he justcares about the big businesses
and how he can help them.
But keeping it the retirementcapital of the world is about
keeping our nature intact,keeping it to be a place where
people want to come.
But just this week DeSantis usedthe Department of Environmental
(31:35):
Protection to start paving overour natural parks.
The state, the Hillsborough,the river park of Hillsborough
County, right down the road, isgoing to be paved over with disc
golf and pickleball, and sevenother parks across the state are
going to have golf courses andhotels built in them.
(31:56):
It's disgusting.
I mean we need that wildlifeOnce that gets destroyed.
For instance, the USF ForestPreserve, which I helped lead a
protest against paving that over.
That was the last naturalwildlife corridor in the state.
If that was destroyed, all ofour wetlands would be destroyed.
And it's not just important forthe environment if we're
getting people to come down here.
It's important for our waterquality.
(32:18):
We have 8,000 people coming inhere every single week.
If we don't preserve that waterquality, we will all start
seeing drastic negative healthconsequences to ourselves and to
our children.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
That is very true, very true.
So, from the education aspect,right, what are some improvement
you'd like to see just ineducation in general?
And I would say, more targetfocus on our students in higher
grades, so from ninth grade to12th grade?
Speaker 2 (32:51):
So two different things.
First of all, we're spending4.2.
Billion on our privateeducation system.
With the new vouchers that myopponent supported, 75% of that
money will go to people whocould already afford a private
education, which means they'retaking $3 billion out of the
(33:13):
public education system out ofpoor people's hands and just
giving it to already rich people.
Even so, even for that last 25%who couldn't afford one before
they denied a rider, they deniedan amendment which wouldn't
allot these private corporationsfrom raising their tuitions by
the exact amount the voucher wasfor.
So those people who it wassupposed to help and give more
(33:35):
choice to can't even use it toget more choice.
And 69% of the private schoolsthat we have in the state are
unaccredited, meaning we don'tknow what they're teaching.
And if we took that $4.2billion back, gave it to the
money the taxpayers wanted tofund the public school system,
(33:55):
then we would raise the stateteachers' pay from $54,000 on
average to $69,000 on average,which is the national average
pay.
We would hire the 5,000teachers that were missing in
this state and we'd eliminateall school meal debt, which
shouldn't exist in the firstplace In the first place.
And we'd still have $800 millionleft over.
(34:16):
We're spending more moneyprivatizing our education system
.
We're spending more moneydestroying our education system
than it would take to fix it.
And in our higher level gradeswe need more individual
opportunities.
We need where a bachelor'sdegree gives you access to a
full-time, good paying job.
They've just become hedge fundsthat give out degrees Right and
(34:52):
they don't actually prepare ourstudents for the future.
We need to stop that and we needto make sure that everybody has
access to vocational jobtraining and to higher education
when they want it for free,because you need a bachelor's
degree to have a good, payingjob at this point, and a
master's degree is a newbachelor's degree.
You're right, and I mean.
(35:14):
These universities have largerendowments than some countries'
GDP.
They've just become hedge fundspeople to place their money in,
rather than places to actuallygive our kids skills, and what
we see is that you shouldn'tneed that bachelor's degree,
because most of the skills youget for a job you get on the job
and when you make sure ourschools are funded, it gives
(35:36):
kids the work ethic they needright and the critical thinking
they need that employers want tosee, not just sitting them
through endless boring classesthat don't teach them what they
need.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Right, because I haven't used PIE since seventh
grade.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yep, yep.
Things are so specialized wedon't need to learn everything
right.
We need to learn in the lowergrades.
Yes, you need a basic education, and that's one of the best
things our government providesgiving everybody basic education
and a lot.
Once you get up there, youshould be able to specialize.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Gotcha.
Now, if and I'll just say this,and I'm just going to ask you
this question If our audiencehere for our 60 and above
audience, right, if they'relistening to you right now, what
is a strong message you couldoffer?
Speaker 2 (36:26):
them.
We want to expand Medicaid.
A lot of people in this state800,000 people don't have access
to it and it's because ourstate Senate and state
legislature have denied federalfunds to expand it and they
claim to be fiscally responsible.
We don't want to waste thetaxpayer money.
We pay our federal taxes, wepaid for those services and
(36:50):
they're denying the servicesthat we paid for.
Right, they're not beingfiscally responsible.
They're denying the services wepaid for and we need that.
We need to make sure that, ifyou're living on a fixed income,
that you can stay there right,that you're getting your pension
, you're getting your fullpension, you're getting your
social security right.
The way the Republicans have setup the system, they have broken
(37:14):
it and then blamed it for beingbroken.
If we gave people the wagesthey deserve, right, didn't let
these corporations and theseexecutives steal all of our
money, we'd have enough moneyfor the Social Security system,
because all of it is being putin these very few people's hands
.
We don't have the taxes goingto it that we need it to be
(37:35):
going to, and so our SocialSecurity system will be bankrupt
by 2035.
Our social security system willbe bankrupt by 2035.
And Rick Scott, the currentstate senator for this area was
indicted on stealing billions ofdollars for a Medicaid program,
but he's still our statesenator.
Yeah, he used the FifthAmendment like over 20 times
(37:59):
during those trials, because youuse that when you don't want to
make yourself, when you don'twant to show that you're guilty
for another crime.
So he was guilty for manycrimes against the people who
need their health care.
He was targeting the mostvulnerable people and that's who
I'm running to protect.
I'm running to give everybodyaccess to their health care.
I'm running to make sure we havepublic transportation, because
(38:22):
those over 60, they have tostart thinking about whether or
not they could drive.
But there is no public way toget from place to place.
You have to give all of yourmoney to Ford and GM and Shell
and BP, who are destroying ourenvironment, and we have to give
all our money to subsidizingthose vehicles with roads, which
means they're subsidizing aprivate corporation, right,
(38:43):
there's no public way to getfrom place to place.
You have to give your moneyfrom private corporations, and
those over 60 can't do that aseasily.
We need public transportationbecause so many of them live in
food deserts where they don'thave easily accessible
nutritious food, and when you'rethat old, that matters even
(39:04):
more, so we need to give themaccess to that through public
transportation.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah, you can't have proper healing without proper
nutrition.
It does not work.
So, as we wrap up our wonderfulconversation here today,
definitely enjoyed it.
But what's new for you?
Some new initiative that youmay have coming in the future?
Speaker 2 (39:24):
I appreciate that we are going.
We are doing weekly communityconversations every single week
at crate in Wesley Chapel.
Great, like I love it, becauseone of the few places where they
make sure it's only smallbusinesses.
Now, right next there are a tonof huge big box stores, right
Places built for cars, not forpeople.
(39:46):
But, crepe, you have to havesmall businesses and I love it.
So we're supporting those smallbusinesses by holding weekly
community conversations at CafeZorba every Saturday at 7.
8 am, 7 pm, 8 am okay.
And we are also doing anothercommunity conversation every
single week from anywhere inPasco and Hillsborough.
(40:06):
On my website, benbraverorg,and on all my social media,
which is at benbraverfl,specifically on my Facebook and
Instagram, again at benbraverfl,we are posting where that
weekly community conversationwill be.
And on my website, benbraverorg, you'll find a ton of different
ways to volunteer, and there isa great website, mobilizeorg,
(40:28):
where you can find volunteeropportunities for any Democratic
cause that you want across yourarea or anywhere across the
nation.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
That's really good.
I think I want to join at leastone of those sessions at Crate.
Crate is a wonderful venue.
Building Crate has been amonument almost here in Pasco
County, definitely off theinterstate, like you said,
fostering the small businessesin a way where it's generated a
lot of attraction to the countyas well, where it's generating a
(40:57):
lot of attraction to the countyas well.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
There's so much economic development when these
Republicans who claim to careabout the economy, right, all
they do is let monopolies takecontrol of it, which destroys
the economy.
Small businesses are the wayyou get a thriving economy,
(41:20):
that's a free economy.
Thriving economy that's a freeeconomy.
And even Adam Smith in theWealth of Nations, the Bible of
capitalism that he wrote all theway back in 1776, I think.
Even there it says that youneed a strong government to get
rid of the monopolies that areinherent to capitalism.
That's how it works, right.
But you need a stronggovernment to control the
monopolies and the oligarchies,control of our economy and to
(41:43):
make sure that it is actuallyfree.
You need that balance.
But these people don'tunderstand that they sacrifice
our economy on the altar offreedom, while they're pushing
it down, keeping it in chains,in shackles that are tied to
these monopolies.
We need to free them of thatand make sure small businesses
can thrive.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Yes, sir, yes sir, and a lot of that comes from
just what you're doing now andwhere you're starting your
career off at in the schools,like you said, removing that
vocational, it removed a lot ofentrepreneurs, right, growing up
, from plumbing to carpentrywork.
All of those things were takenout of schools years ago, right,
(42:24):
but it also allowed themonopoly to happen yeah well,
with the law corporations takingover those, those aspects in
business.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I, I was just thinking about, I really just
put into words.
I'd like the other day Ihaven't actually haven't said
this on any uh channel yet, butthey, america has gone from a
place that celebratesentrepreneurship to celebrating
franchises.
Right, and because franchisesthey're like a mcdonald's that
comes into your uh community.
They make money by, uh, makingtheir prices higher than the
(42:59):
cost of goods.
So any place makes money, right.
But for the corporation to getthat money they have to make it
even higher, right, which meansmaking their prices higher than
the cost of the goods.
So any place makes money, right.
But for the corporation to getthat money they have to make it
even higher, right, which meanswhen we spend money at a
McDonald's, some of our moneyfrom our local community gets
put into McDonald's headquarters.
And so those franchises that wesee everywhere steal money from
local communities and funnel itinto those monopolies hands.
(43:22):
But if we had entrepreneurs,that's keeping the money in our
communities hands, just likecommunity land trusts.
When we see these monopoliestaking over our localities,
buying up all the homes andrental units and turning the
homes into rental units, that'sdraining the money from our
economy, putting it into thosemonopolies' hands.
(43:42):
But if our state which I wantto do invests in community land
trusts so that the land stays inour community's hands, that
money stays in our community'shands and can be further
reinvested in our community,building it up rather than
draining it up.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Man, that was deep right, you just enlightened me
with that one but so veryinspiring conversation, mr
Braver.
I mean just, I know our comfortlisteners probably learn a lot
about you, just what I learned,honestly, I have to be honest,
when I saw how young you wereand just what you're aspiring to
become.
It takes a level of confidence,it takes a level of somebody
(44:22):
being motivated.
Bravery, bravery.
There you go, yeah, but thankyou so much for joining let's
get comfort podcast.
I think you did a wonderful jobtoday.
We I hope your listeners reallytune in.
Please check him out.
He indicated all his socialmedia accounts, his website as
(44:44):
well, where you can follow him.
If not join.
You said on Saturdays at 7 am,7 pm, 7 pm yes, sorry about that
.
7 pm at Crates you can jointhis discussion group here.
He also allows volunteering.
Become more involved in yourcommunity, in civic engagement
as well.
(45:04):
But thank you so much fortuning in.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yes, I want to say I appreciate what you're doing.
You know, uplifting localvoices.
Yes, make sure that everybodygets a chance to engage with the
community and learn what'sgoing on, because that's so
important when we're losing somuch our media space.
So you taking stepping up andmake sure that local voices can
be uplifted and can speak out.
I appreciate that so much.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
Thank you very much.
It's a journey with me juststarting, but again you gave me
the opportunity.
Some people would have notstopped and said I follow back
up Cause what we met a couplemonths ago and we still stay in
the communication and you stillkept your word and joined the
show.
So I'm very grateful, man.
So thank you All right.
Yes, sir, Thank you All right.
Thank you, Stay tuned.
(45:48):
Thanks for watching.
If you found this informationhelpful, don't forget to like,
comment and subscribe and hitthe notification bell so you
never miss an update.
Have any comments?
I want to share your thoughts.
Drop them in the commentsection below.
Until next time, stay in power.
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