This is the FCB podcast Network. Great when they trunk job foot change at top n We don't listen to y'all this d out We don't listen to y'all this d hotel. Make um scream out now. I gotta sound dun because the rockets in the crowds like tune in the charge for the Outdoor. Tune in the charge for the Outlaw. Welcome to the Outlaws. This is darfy old King Benmorrow alongside Robert and Valley and Daunte Brian. Don't forget too like. It's on Facebook and Facebook dot com Flayers the Outlaws Radio. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at d Outlaws Radio. Dante, how you doing, sir? I am doing very well, very well. I'm excited for this interview we got coming up. Uh but yeah, I'm happy. It's Friday. Good to be back. Just a crazy week, so you know, all things from enter Man. We're doing well again. Uh. I hear that you're ready to go for your hot tases. Man, I'm jack Man. I'm so fired up. Man. I just I've been stealing on this for the longest ever since you know, some of this news has been and I'm just like I don't understand how you know certain politicians in our city can just like not get it. Guys, this is a a very big deal. You need to you need to buckle up, and you have willing participants. Let's just keep going. Stay tuned, y'all, Stay tuned DNA. Later on in the show, miss O'Malley, Hey, how are you? I I'm cool. I am getting over a cold that my daughter decided to give me, and I also am healing from a double root canal yesterday. Oh oh my god, I didn't know that. Yeah, so how are you? How are you able to talk? Oh? My god, I've finished. It's actually not but you know, I've actually been in bed, just laying down, resting all day. I did have a horrible, horrible headache, and it's like I'm like I've been starving, but I'm like, God, I want to eat, but I can't eat. All right? How long is your what do you want a liquid diet or something? Well? I just ate, but like yesterday, like right after like last night, I couldn't really eat. I've actually made like kind of like how Panara does it, like the bread bowl soup. So I got the bowles and I went and bought the soup from B Jay's yesterday and made some bread bowl soup and stuff like that. But it's like it wasn't enough. I'm like, I'm starving. So I finally was able to eat today like more man. That is like that is the word. It is two things on your body like you don't want your stomach to hurt or your mouth. Oh those of them, those I will tell you that. That Dennis, he had no mercy on I like so badly wanted to grab his hand and shove him away. And I had to squeeze the headband that I had, like the the ear muffs headband kind of thing. I was squeezing it because otherwise I definitely would have pushed him. Because it wasn't the ghetto Dennis, you guys, it was very the dentistry, all of them ghet um. No. They numbed me really well. And he was like, do you feel like you need to be numbed more? I'm like, yes, please, like because I can feel it, you know. And he's like and then he you know where they pull it where they're lifting it up and pulling the two up, and the dude like he hit my top teeth with the thing that he was trying to pull the bottom teeth up with. He hit my top teeth on accident, really like kind of hard when he like, you know, when you're pulling on something in your hands and accidentally hit something. Oh man. And I just wanted to be like you mother, like I couldn't speak though, I couldn't speaker. Yeah, And I think that I might have turned pale when they did it because the lady she kept asking me, She's like, are you okay? Are you okay? And I'm just sitting there staring at her, like, yo, I feel like I'm about to pass out right now. Oh my god. Oh man, that's an awful experience. Man, And I didn't even know we had a whole conversation on the phone. Yeah that's because you know what, I actually just took some IV pro from like maybe probably an hour or so before that. Yeah, because you sound you sounded normal, then you sound normal now. But that's oh man, man, I feel for you there. Girl, that's living life other than that, just been working, you know, except yesterday is called off right, all right, we have a very special interview that we're going to get to right now. All right, we have a very special guest on the show today. He is running for Congress. Chris, Chris Bandwig, Welcome to the show. How you doing, sir? I am doing great, w and thank you to you and Dante for having me on the show. Absolutely absolutely so First, before we get into your run for Congress, talk a little bit about your background, what you were doing with the world that you were in before you entered into politics. Yeah, that's a that's a great question, and I'll say that most of your listeners have probably never heard the name Bamwick before, and in truth, that's because there are only six Badwigs in the United State, and five of them live in my house. My dad lives outside of Chicago, and my family came here. My grandfather at the end of World War Two, escaping a communist prison camp in Yugoslavia, made his way to Austria to meet up with his fiance. They had married, had my dad there and they applied for refugee status in the United States. They were there a couple of years, were granted status, and then they came over here and started life in Stow in some county out of three wooden boxes. So growing up with those stories and that family like my grandfather. For example, he escaped the starvation at work camp, but he didn't just escape the one time. He used to escape regularly to bring back food for the other prisoners. See, you don't grow up around folks like that and not feel that responsibility to do hard things for other people. So for me, that led to to one truly appreciating what this nation offers to the people that live here. So I was able to pursue business as a part of my life. I've had parts or holes of small business. I've worked at Fortune five hundred companies at executive levels and have really been able to enjoy that success since my grandfather started here working in an entire mold factory. But at the same time, I valued this country and what we stand for enough that I joined the Marine Corps and I've spent the last just about twenty four years serving both active and reserve in the Marine Corps. Just this past week had my promotion ceremony to the rank of colonel. Now most, if not well most of my time in the Marine Corps has been overseas, helping to stabilize other governments nations in combat zones, and conducting counterinsurgency to get rid of the forces that would undermine a government. So I can tell you, Dario, that when I came back here in twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen and I saw what was happening in our country, it disturbed me a great deal. Having had twenty years of trying to manage other destabilized, dangerous countries, seeing those same things happen here in the United States was very disturbing. So that that's a bit of my background. After three combat tours in the counterinsurgency and government stabilization, I could tell we were on a bad path here. So let's talk a little bit more about that. Because you're a serious person doing serious work, and now you're in the wacky world of politics. What made you decide to come into this cesspool and try to make a tiffling? Well, you know, it was not not something I aspired to in truth and politics is not something I am drawn into. But in that background of seeing the struggle of our nation, it I think opened my eyes up to it a little and I was approached by one of our state leaders and asked to run for the position. Now, to your point, I said, no, I'm not a politician. I don't want to be involved in this, and they asked me to think about it and pray about it because they were feeling as though my skills might be a benefit to our nation here in the political realm, being an elected official. So I went back to my family and I said, hey, you know, was asked to run for this. I was asked to think about it and pray about it. I wanted to see what you think. And they, my wife and my kids, all said no, you know you've been gone too long. Kids going into high school. We really want it around. I said, well, you know, we need to consider it, pray about it, think about it. It's not an aspiration of mine, but if it is a calling to serve, if this is God working in our lives, we need to be obedient. We need to answer it. And so they took it away and they were thinking about it about it, and I was surprised that my kids actually came back and said, hey, you need to do this. When we look at the world and we know what you can do, we want you to try to help fix this. I said, okay, well we'll start the process. I don't know how to do it, but we'll figure it out, right right, So we're talking with Chris Bandwig, who's running for Congress. So let's talk a little bit about your district first. For people who don't know what is your district, talk a little bit about what's in your district. No, a very good question, and because of all the redistrict it's hard to keep up. But I am in District thirteen, and that will be Summit County, all of sum County, the top half of Stark County, and a little piece of Portage County which includes Magador and Western Suffield Township. It is It's an interesting district in that it's a fifty to fifty district, meaning fifty percent Democrat fifty percent Republican. So it is a toss up district currently held by a Democrat representative, and I'll be running, as you know, as a Republican. It is the kind of place where hard work and connecting with the people can make a difference. It's a diverse district. We've got some rural, lot of suburban, and even a little bit of urban. When you think about Akron. There are a lot of different people with a lot of different priorities in this district, right, absolutely so, And speaking of that, your district is very competitive politically. It's actually one of the most competitive in the state, which means in order for you to win in November, not only are you going to have to be, of course talking to Republicans, but you're going to have to talk to independence and Democrats as well. What is your message, You're unifying message to these the people with diverse political views in your district. No, you're absolutely right, And when I think about that fifty to fifty district, it is as a Republican, you're going to have to be able to appeal to all the Republicans right, and then you're going to have to win a majority of independents and moderates. And the message for me from the beginning when I said, yeah, we're going to do this, but we're going to do it right. We're not going to be the polarizing effect you see in the world of just narratives. For me, this is all about the American working family, and we need to get our policies prioritized back to what benefits the people that in this nation, and what I mean by that is our communities, our neighborhoods, the families that live there need to be able to work a job that can provide for their family. They need to feel safe in the neighborhood that they live in, and that goes across all neighborhoods. They need to feel like the justice system is there to protect them from persecution or wrong and isn't there as a weaponized system to punish them for their political ideas. To me, it's about getting away from these fringe, divisive ideas and focusing not just the message, but the actual effort of the position on the eighty percent of things that we all agree on right the things where we can make an impact. And I know I'm not ignorant to the fact that we're very divided right now as a nation, and I've seen that in many of the nations that have been to I've seen a lot of the challenges we're going through right now live out in other countries. I have to, and anyone in this position is going to have to navigate that professionally and set the example of where we want to go in the way that I behave. So it's got to be a message about the American working family, and it's got to be lived out in everything that I do. We're talking with Chris Banwick, who's running for Congress. Don't take her ready, Hey, Chris, and I just wanted to circle back really quick to when you were deciding to get into the race. Was there a specific issue that you were approached about that that people thought you would have had a specific area of expertise, or was there a specific issue that kind of pushed you over the top to make you think about it, because I know you said you were hesitant at the beginning and flat out rejected it in the beginning. So I was just wondering if there was something specific that you saw within our country or within the district that made you say, you know what, I gotta I gotta you know, I gotta think about this a lot more. Yeah. Yeah, there were a couple the things that have been weighing on me and just not knowing what I could do about it as an individual, I certainly didn't think politics would be the way I do. Serve on Hudson's City Council as an that large member, and what got me into that was with my civil affairs background, it's a lot about how to make communities work, economic development, the governance and the legislative process, how to help people find solutions, right. So when I was approached, part of what tipped me over is it might be unique for me is one that background we need in Northeast Ohio economic development, and I've been doing that in the nations that I've been to, from microeconomics and bread shops to produce in river valleys, right and then connecting that through infrastructure in the region to increase trade and really develop the lives of the people there. But one thing that hit me square in the face, and that this conversation, was the number of regional conflicts around the globe right now and the way that our foreign policy has led us to the precipice of a number of global I want to say, global disasters. If we're not managing these things right, we're going to be in for a world of hurt. And my background provides over twenty years of national defense and foreign policy experience, and in truth, I don't think you're going to find that in a lot of the career politicians or the traditional profile you see run where they're coming out of state legislature or they've gone to be kind of lobbyist so they know how to work the angles and work deals. But maybe they don't have the same perspective on the risks related to our foreign policy decisions. We're talking with Chris Banwig, who's running for Congress, So talk a little bit about, man, what it's been like so far on the trail. I mean, it's a huge undertaking, of course, and you know, many people who are listening may have never, you know, done anything like that before. Talk a little bit about what it's been like since you've gone into the race. Now. It when I describe it to my kids, I said, this is going to be like a deployment, and they know what that means. Said, I'll still live here, but I will not be home if we're going to do this right. And that was before they said, yes, do it. I wanted them to understand what it would mean. So it's been on the road every day, every night, a couple times a night, because, as I said in the beginning, if I'm going to do this, it's going to be done right. If I'm going to represent the near eight hundred thousand people of this district, I need to know where they're at and what is important to them. I don't want to trust a whole or you know, a narrative to tell me what the most important things are. So it's busy, but it's also incredibly rewarding to hear from people what's on their mind, what their priorities are, and how much they appreciate you. Somebody who's coming in as a citizen legislator, you know, somebody who I have every intent to go back to my job after at most a couple of terms, and that'll be up to the voters. But I'm not going to DC to be a career politician. I want to work go there provide solutions that are going to create a better environment for the families that live in our communities that I'm going to go back to and have to live in. To me, that's what it should be about. And I see the excitement in the people that I've met with about new leadership in DC, leadership that has that attitude, and I'm seeing it pop up in a lot of other candidates, people who are coming grassroots, outsider candidates who maybe didn't get groomed by the system for this, And honestly, I think that that's going to be refreshing for us, both as Ohio thirteen and of a nation. So let's fast forward here, Let's say you know, you win, you win the nomination, and you get elected. What's your priorities? Give me three, two or three of your top priorities should you get to Washington. Again, good, good question and clear in that one. I hope I don't have to still deal with it when I get to Washington. But the most imminent threat we have today is the open border, and it feeds the challenges we have in our communities, particularly in Northeast Ohio. Before the open border, the border crisis that we have, I would have told you that, you know, it's the economy, jobs, inflation, the cost of everything in our community, from the cost of a box at Cheerios to the fact that today you've got to make about one hundred thousand dollars a year as a young family to afford a home, whereas three years ago it was about sixty thousand dollars. The hidden tax inflation is eating us alive. But right now, the border is the biggest challenge we've got because we're we are allowing risk into our communities in the form of illicit drugs, criminals, potentially terrace has been validated, and that makes our communities unsafe. Now I can tell you to connect it to the economic side. Even the less like scary part of it is when you bring in folks who are going to flood your working population, it's going to drive down the average wage. And in a normal set of circumstances, we would be managing immigration to the point which it wouldn't upset the apple card turn over our employment world. But the way it's happening today, the average working American is going to be competing against somebody who may be getting, you know, is five thousand dollars visa card. Well, he can work for a lot less and maybe it's under the table, maybe it's over the table, but he can accept a lower wage because he's getting a stipend from the government to just be here and settle. And that may sound like a fanciful idea, but I watched the same thing happen during the Syrian refugee crisis when the refugees went to live in Jordan, and they ended up being more non Jordanians in Jordan than there were Jordanians, and they were the refugees there that displaced people were subsidized by food and a payment to keep them and their families floating, and they were not supposed to go work in the economy, but they did, and they could accept a half wage and still lived because they had their stipend. But it eliminated or reduced the jobs that the Jordanian citizens could have because you know, they didn't get a stipend and they had to compete with that lower wage. I think there's a lot coming out of the border and the crisis we've got going on there, and I'm not even diving into the fentanyl and the human trafficking that we've already heard a lot about. Now second, I'll link it into It is the economy. It is having jobs that could support a family. It is cutting the spending, stopping the ex so that we can control inflation, so the wage you earn represents your ability to buy at least the basics in life. I think statistics came out just this week that just to buy the basics, an average family is now spending over one thousand dollars more per month. And for somebody who's making over one hundred thousand dollars, maybe that's painful, But for somebody who's making thirty to sixty thousand dollars a year, that's a huge impact. So when we talk about my priorities, One, I hope I don't have to deal with it because we've already fixed it by then. But it's the border crisis. Two is our economy, is the inflation and jobs in Northeast Ohio. And then third, I would say it's probably crime and justice. And I put those two things together because it's about public safety. We've got to be able to believe in our criminal justice system. We have to have you know, law enforcement supported so that they can do their job and do it well. We also need to address, you know, issues of breaking the law, whether it be career criminals or somebody who's not a career right. We need to uphold the law so that people have a good expectation that they'll be treated fairly in their community. All Right, As we get ready to wind down, here a couple more two more questions. One for people like you said, you're you're not a career politician, this is this is a new experience for you. Serving isn't a new experience, but serving in this way is. Yeah. For people who are listing that's a name who maybe thinking about doing the same, what advice would you give them? Yeah, I would say, talk to the people around you, learn the system a little bit, and then prepare yourself. I think there are a lot of people who want to dip a toe into it and don't understand the burden that it will be and like the administrative maze that you have to navigate. And that's why I say prepare yourself, because if you know what you're getting into and you appreciate how much work it's going to be, you're much more likely to succeed in giving your best to the people you're trying to represent. And that second piece of go out and talk to them, know what you're offering. Too many people today are living in social media and they think they know what everybody's thinking, but when you get out there, you may find that it's different than what you've been hearing. And for me, you need to be able to represent all of the people that you're going to represent, not just a niche group that you feel particularly inclined to. Right, That's what elected officials are supposed to do. That's America, right, right, absolutely. And last question here is something we periodically ask people who are running for office, just because of our own curiosity, just to get a little bit more of a taste of the personality of the person. If I had Chris Bandwig's phone right now and I went to his spotify, what's in his partless? What are you? What are you listening to? What's in your playlist? Give me a couple of songs. Yeah, I'm going to open it up. But Toby Mack, generally speaking, if it's a Toby Mac song, I love it. Help Us on the Way is probably the last one that I've been listening to a lot. Uh huh. It's an encouragement to me, right right, Okay, okay, I liked that. I like Toby Mac. I like like a couple of his songs. Everything by Toby Mac is one of my favorite songs. Yeah, that's a that's a pretty good one. So man, thank you so much for coming on the show man spending time with us, and good luck on the campaign. TRUP and I appreciate it. And if your listeners want to learn more, I'm at Bandwig b A, n W E, G f O rcongress dot com and you can find me on Facebook and Twitter x as well. But thank you jo much for having me on today. Absolutely, I'm glad you did that too. I usually I usually give an opportunity for the candidate to plug that at the end, but I forgot for a second. So glad you did that. You're already picking up the ropes of this new world. You're here for you, all right, Thanks, all right, stay tunered. We have more to come here on the Outlaws. These days, it seems like everybody's talking, but no one is actually listening to the things they're saying. Critical thinking isn't dead, but it's definitely low on oxygen. Join me Kira Davis on Just Listen to Yourself every week as we reason through issues big and small, critique our own ideas, and learn to draw our talking points all the way out to their logical conclusions. Subscribe to Just Listen to Yourself with Kia Davis and FCB Radio podcast on Apple, on Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. Real Talk, Creel Conversations, We got the heat. Hell Yeah, this is the Outlaws Radio Show. Welcome back, Welcome back, and listen to the Outlaws. And that was the time to show that we like to call it tea time with row, Turn it up, yell, see out the infectation, relatest to celebrity news and gossip. You bet that explanation. It's tea time with Row on the Outlaws radio show. All right, y'all. So there's like actually a lot that was going on, and we were kind of away for a while, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have so much to talk about, but so let me just go ahead and started off with we all talk about Beyonce first. I know that the guys do not like to talk about her because they like to avoid the Beehive, but we go go ahead and talk about this real quick. So Beyonce did switch over to doing country music, and honestly, so there, I mean, I haven't heard them to her songs too much. I didn't listen to it, the whole songs, but I do know that a couple of her fans wanted these songs played on a certain radio station, and the radio station was like, yeah, we only play country music, et cetera, et cetera. And then literally within twenty four hours, I tell you this, the Beehive does not play. They made sure that her songs were being played on that country the country station, and it definitely like they made have happened in twenty four hours. Well, I'm like this I don't see I don't see it as that big of a deal. Men, She's from the South. If she's making country music, they should play it, you know what I'm saying. I don't, you know, I'm kind of with the behive on this one, so they ain't gotta come for me. I'm kind I'm kind of bad, tay, I'm I'm pro Beyonce, and I the reason why I'm pro Beyonce just as an artist is because none of her albums sound the same anyway, So it doesn't surprise me that she's you know, moving into a different genre, you know, and it's probably just for this one album, right Like, if you look at all of her solo albums, they're all none of you cannot say any of them really sound the same, which speaks to sort of her versatility, you know, as a as an artist. Right So I think I think it's actually pretty cool. Now. You know, that's not my lane or my favorite genre of music, so you know, I probably not I'll probably listen eventually, but I mean I'm not rushing to go listen to it now. But it doesn't surprise me. I think it just you know, speaks to who she is more right, like she she's always been somebody who's taking risk and decided to wait in the new artist. And plus, like you said, it's part of who she is, right, She's Southern, right, So what's the you know, I think the country station refusing to play her music, they were just being fuddy duddies anyway about it, you know what I'm saying, Stop it all right? Okay? So next Wow, we are going to talk a little bit about the Super Bowl halftime show. I mean you guys, and there is first I would like to say, there was before I get deep into everything all the happy stuff, I do want to say you know that there was a shooting that happened during the Super Bowl celebration parade. Uh, and there was a lot of people that were shot in pill Yeah, so uh my condolences to those those families. So now during the halftime show, so let's start off with Usher uh and Alicia Keys. So a lot of people were like cracking on her well because her voice cracked literally in the beginning of starting singing. And you can hear during their the performance that her voice was a little you know, raspy and cracking, but she sounded good. However, I think that a lot of people don't take into consideration that these celebrities are very much human. You know, they do either strain their voices or they do actually get sick. I mean, wow, who knew like they get sick. Maybe she's getting over a cold, but you know, she was doing her thing following that Usher during their performance, he wrapped his arms around her, and everybody's like, oh, her husband ain't going like that. You know he gonna. They're making all kinds of memes and gifts about him, and he turns around and he was like, you know what, you guys are focused on the wrong stuff. Did you see that that dress was bigger than that stage? Like, did you even see any of the performance? And I'm just like, you know what, random applause to him? I mean, I mean, I'm sure compared to what we talked about before with Usher, when Kiki and him, you know when that happened, you know what, her her baby daddy lost it. Yeah. He he's a little handsy, right, yeah he did. He warned everybody, watch your girl around me through playing for real. But that was like fifteen years ago. He's grown ass and now he just got married too. He got married the Super Bowl. Wee kid as well. He did man your hands away from other like look, man, he just he ain't ran into the right one, And like look, I got love for Usher. Usher is a part owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, so he wanted us. As far as I'm concerned, I got love for Usher, But come on, man, you're a little too handy. Brother, You're a little too handsy. Otherwise, other than that, I thought the performance was good the game, which at first I wasn't even interested in watching it. I'm sorry, y'all. I know we got fans of kidsas City, but I just wasn't interested in the matchup. Man. But I'm glad I watched it because it was a hell of a game. It was a really good game. Halftime show was good. Just everything was good. But Usher is a little too handsy. Dante. Your thoughts on the halftime show and on the game itself. I look at halftime show was pretty good. Uh, I was. I was entertained, you know, in the moment, I was kind of like, I wasn't really feeling it. But you know, who really who really got me there. I was a little hype to see Alicia. She's always been a you know, a crush. I was kind of but uh, she was pretty good, I thought, but then, oh no, her name is escaped her. I thought her performance was when she came out on the guitar, I was like, oh, you know what I'm saying, Like, I thought that was pretty dope. You know, bringing out Little John was was pretty cool too. So, you know, I thought it was a pretty good halftime show all the way around, and it was entertaining. I uh, you know, the game itself was kind of wild, man. You know, it started very very slow, as the Super Bowls tend to do, and then it you know, it really picked up. Man. It was one of those games like you know, one and lost in the margins. I thought it was. It was a very very interesting game, especially you know, in the second half. It was a fun game, and it still has people talking. Right, overtime rules, overtime strategy going forward and fourth down, right, all the stuff. I think that Super Bowl had pretty much everything that we wanted or that we could won in the Super Bowl. Right. It was a good game too, evenly matched teams, no real controversy as far as like who the winner was or should have been, strategy, conversations, The refs didn't involve themselves, and it was a good halftime show, so I think all around them was a w for the NFL. So I got to ask you this before we go to rivals last topic. I was talking to my homeboy, who who also tends to you know, and at the game a little bit by you know, some little extracurricular activities. But he was like, he wasn't putting no money on the game because the odds makers had it so close, like I think it was like Pansas City plus two or something. Yeah, underdog, Yeah, did you put an you put any money on it? I had. I had some some different wagers. The best one obviously was getting Kansas City as an underdog. I didn't take him to win the game, just take them as an underdog to cover they want out right, So there was that one. But I had season long or futures on both sides, so it wasn't something that I was gonna win either way because I had a super Bowl future on the Niners and I had a super Bowl future on the Chiefs, So it wasn't you know, I didn't need to to really do much because I was gonna walk away from the game with something anyway, because I had already I think, I want to say in November I placed the Chiefs future because I was I mean it was they had lost a couple of games that maybe they should have won, and you know, they were kind of struggling and people were like, they're gonna have to go on a row. So they were the markers kind of down on them. So I played them, and I had I've had a Niners ticket all year, so I didn't really need to do much in that game. But yeah, yeah, it was a if you like, if you're a believer that you know, the better quarterback should always you know, if you get points with the better quarterback, just take them. You know. That was, you know, a game for you. You got the Chiefs as underdogs in three straight games to close the season, all right, so so you made out, you made out, all right? Yeah. Yeah. It was a good season and a good close and I was very again, I thought the game was fantastic. Man, it was a good game. It was better than I thought it was gonna be. Absolutely and well I was I kind of believe that the forty nine Ers were the best team in the NFC all year. So they, you know, should have been there in the chiefs. I mean, you know, you got the best coach and the best quarterback and you know maybe in the league. So I mean they you know, they're obviously one of the best too. And now that people are gonna talk about Mahomes as being one of the greatest, right Robin Matt. So before I jump off of that topic, actually I have to say, did you guys see Jermaine deprise socks? Yeah? And you know what he tried to He tried to clean it up instead of looking like an old schoolgirl. He was like, don't play with me. And it showed. I think they were Louis Vuitton and it's like Louis Vaiton. Just because of Louis Vatan does not take away the fact that it looks like you got little frillies around. I think they're like five hundred dollars. Those are like so what you still I can buy the same looking socks and they got little frillies. Listen as a little girls. It's not in that brain people, clown man, listen. I mean, I don't know, but he did. He had he understanding. Hold on, Nah, he showed, he showed the side where said Louis Batan, And I think somebody looked it up and think those those socks are like they're like four hundred and ninety five, five hundred dollars something like that. I just sent a picture just so you guys. You know, you guys can see in the group chat on Instagram. Uh a prime example of what people were clowning him about. You have to know, they made it look like it was like one of the little uh like one of those uh baby dolls. It's a courtoon character with the big old baby alone. I'm gonna leave him alone. That's that's that's one of those and that's one of the us. All right, we go, we go, okay, but uh so next? Uh So. Kanye West has actually been pretty quiet lately, you know, kind of to himself. I mean, I mean outside of I think him and his daughter actually created us just recently too, but he dropped an entire album, actually, him and Tie Dallas signed. They dropped an album and I think it's called Vultures, and probably within just a day or so after dropping it, Apple Music actually removed the entire album. And it's like, basically, so is it like, is this this this is whole to cancel culture kind of thing, just because you know, of what happened prior, Like, you know, I don't know, I don't know. I've been I've been trying to figure that out. I heard about that, but yeah, I don't I don't know. I don't know. So it says by just to see. The album was removed from Apple Music and iTunes. Rolling Stone also reported uh yuga am I saying that right uh with the music distributor. Or distributor told the news that they declined to work with uh work with Kanye just last year, but they they he up they uploaded the album anyway. So, I mean, I think that Kanye said a lot of wild disrespectful things and he's trying to you know, I heard him apologize on the post that he made on Instagram a while back. But you know, he got to make amends, man, I mean, well, right, I mean, and he does, but that's gonna take some time. But also at the same point, it's like, what if Kanye just comes out and he just creates his own platform, that would be that would be something big and different because honestly, during the you know, with Cancel Culture and you know, just these big companies. A lot of these companies like they may never give you. I mean, for prime example, like you know, look at Chris Brown. You know he's a lot of the a lot of these places won't work with Chris Brown. You know, he'll never be able to perform like at a super Bowl kind of thing, like type of thing like once you once you reach that level, it's like can you get back there? Mm hmm. Okay, So all right, I'll see what happened. All right, So I'm reading he did get a new distributor. So what happened was the reason why it was pulled off an Apple to Apple Music and iTunes was because of the distributor. So the distributor didn't want to put out his music, so they removed it. And I guess apparently it's back one now now that he he got another label. So so he went switched it over. Okay, Well, because I'm like, like, is it due to like And it's due to what he had went through and what he had said last year. I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. I'm sure it has a lot to do it. And once again, I mean, he didn't say this suff he said also he has another issue. On Wednesday, Spotify removed the song good Don't Die from Vultures after Donna Summer's estate complained it sampled the singer's work without permission. So you know, he has a couple of issues on this album. But they said the song Carnival is number one on Spotify's daily Top Songs Global chart, and the song burn and F Something, I guess he's not doing gospel music anymore. F something in the top twenty. So you got anything else? You're good? Yeah? Yeah, I think that I might actually be good. Yeah, I'm all right, doctor, Any thoughts on that? Yeah, I don't really think anything that happens to Kanye is cancel culture. I mean, if a platform says we like your brand hurts us, or what you've done in the past can hurt us, and we don't want you or anything to do with you on our platform. Like I mean, I don't really think that's cancel culture. I mean, I you know, I personally would feel the same, not necessarily in Kanye's situation, but just like I mean, if somebody came on our show, I wouldn't want to have somebody on my platform if they said racist things about you know, black people, and I don't think that would be like, for example, if I own, if I was a CEO Apple, or I was a large shareholder in Apple, large enough shareholder to make a difference if you were if you were a musician and you had things negative things to say about black people, your music ain't coming on my platform. Correct, I don't. I'm not about to You're not about to make money off my platform, and you don't say it disrespectful things about my people. So like, I you know, personally, I don't think that's canceled culture. I just think like, I mean, hey, you you obviously don't want to be on my platform. You do. You got these feelings towards towards people that look like me, so you know that you know that's you know, that's Kanye's bed. I mean, if he he apologized for those things. So you know, right before the album dropped, of course, which was you know, very interesting timing of you know, right the anology is coming out. When the apology went viral, it was like, okay, so why is he doing this now? Right? And everybody's like, oh, he's he's probably back on his med occasion. It's like, no, man, Kanye. You know, Kanye is not stupid. He knows what he knows, right, So he decided to play buddy buddy so far to one side and then came back was like, oh shoot, I kind of oh oh shoot. All those label execs and all these you know, bad people I was talking about, Oh I kind of need them. So let me apologize, right, let me try to get let me try to get back in good graces. And you know people don't forget so quickly and easily, man, right, especially when you say something like that. And that's that's always been my argument as well. We'll close on this Dante's I totally agree. Like when people will say, hey, you know he's being canceled because he said something bad about Jewish people and this Jewish person didn't like it. I'm like, dude, you couldn't come on our platform and say something anti black. I'm not go let you be on this platform and trash black people. Why do you think that you should be able that that your Jewish manager, that you've managed, your Jewish manager for dropping you because you said something that gets Jewish people. You know what are we talking about up? Oh, that's cancel culture. It's like no, man, these people don't want to be associated with you no more because you you aard. You you harming them. People don't want to Yeah like you you you're not as You're not as lucrative financially as you think you are, especially not anymore right Ada Adidas showed you that, and yeah, man, like as creative as you are and as incredible as you are in that creative space, you know you ain't above it, right, because that's what you want. And a lot of these guys, man, they forget what they actually are. Kanye is not super dynamic in terms of finance or business. He's talent. He's talent, that's right. And a lot of times people get out of try to get out of their lane, try to do the you know, oh I'm bigger than music. Oh I'm bigger than X Y and Z, or I you know, I'm the business myself. It's like, actually, you know, you need partners and you need distributors, and you need people to help you do X Y and Z. Because at the end of today, he's talent, and talent needs to be managing. Talent needs to be distributed and that's not his area of expertise. And you know, don't piss off people that you need to distribute and manage your talent and then go and then get mad at them when they get ready. Oh they canceled me. Yeah, no, they don't want to do business with you, right, Like, come on, man, like to stop it? All right? On that note, stay tuned. You're gonna hear more from Dante coming up next here from the Yellows walcome back, walcome back. Now is the time of the show to be like call Dante's Hot Takes, telling the truth whether you like it or not. It's Dante's Hot Takes on the Yet Lawns Radio show. All right, So we have a situation going on in Cleveland here where the Cleveland Browns want either a new stadium or they want Cleveland brown Stadium to be renovated and updated. The problem is is, as it is in all you know cities that have pro sports, who's gonna pay for it? Usually the team and the ownership group has so much leverage that it's not even really a discussion. You know, the city can push back a little bit, but usually, like what we see in Oklahoma City for the Thunder, they're building a new nine hundred million dollar arena for the Oklahoma City Thunder and the ownership group is paying fifty million dollars while the taxpayer is gonna put eight hundred and fifty million dollars of the bill. The City of Cleveland is very different because the Haslms have proposed a fifty to fifty deal where they they would put up half of the money still not on the building, of course, but they would put up half of the money, and the city would have to come up, you know, with financing for the rest. Right of course, we know that would be through taxing. As of right now, the City of Cleveland is kind of pushing back and we're sort of at an impasse to the point where the Haslums have made a leverage player looking into I don't know if that by that purchase of one hundred and sixty one hundred and seventy six acres of land in brook Park, which is not in the city of Cleveland, it's the suburb has gone through, or if that was something that they were looking at. But they could be looking to take the Browns outside of the city of Cleveland, which would be a disaster. So let's point the finger where it needs to be pointed. And that's at the Mayor's office, who doesn't seem to understand a the economic disaster that it would be if the Browns left the city of Cleveland. He also doesn't understand from a business standpoint that someone with leverage like the Browns and the Haslms have here don't often or ever after a fifty to fifty deal when they don't have to. Because here, again the dirty secret about pro sports is it's not really a negotiation. The Browns leaving the city would be devastating from a tax standpoint, it would be they would still be in the area, they would still be in the region. But Sundays not having the Browns in Cleveland, not only is it a tax problem for the city, it's also a depression level problem for local bars, restaurants and different businesses that profit and benefit from the Browns being in Cleveland eight or nine times a year. So the city of Cleveland is trying to play hardball where they have absolutely no leverage. The Haslams are giving you an out here. They are trying by saying we will put up half of the funds here, which, again, if you follow pro sports, or if you just follow this from a business standpoint. They don't need to do that. They have all of the leverage because they can move outside of the city. They can go to Brook Park, they could try to find land elsewhere. They all they really would need to do is to stay in the region. They have the money to put the bill and go sowhere else. So the problem that I see with, you know, the mayor is I don't think he fully understands the economic impact that this would have. I don't think that he understands from a morale standpoint on from this based on like the city of Cleveland, I don't think he has a fundamental understanding of how serious this is and how serious the haslms are here. I don't think this is a threat because let's just be honest, the stadium does need to be renovated. We can look back in the late nineties and say, Okay, they just threw the you know, they just threw Cleveland Brown Stadium together, and you know, highsight is twenty twenty. But you can't look back twenty five years in the past and blame anybody that was involved with that project because they were just so desperate to get the team back. But twenty five years later, almost thirty years later, it's time for renovations or a new stadium with a dome, because that will also generate revenue for the city of Cleveland, who would still own the building, which is the most important part here. So they just had a Beyonce concert last summer at Ford Field in Detroit. You can do stuff like that here in the winter time. Right right now, Cleveland Brown Stadium is home to the Cleveland Browns for eight games maybe nine depending on the schedule, per year, and that's pretty much all we use it for. You know, sometimes you may have a hockey game or a high school football game there. That's about it. If the city's gonna own the building, why not be able to use the building for more stuff all year round. You're paying for it regardless, you might as well get your money's worth. You're gonna get a Final Four here. Do you know what's happened to every single team that built a dome stadium, They got a Super Bowl? And Cleveland has the infrastructure as we've had the RNC, we've had NBA All Star Weekend, we've had the Major League Baseball All Star Game. You have the infrastructure to host a Super Bowl if you build a dome stadium. You're gonna get one in the next seven years. That state, all of that is going to pay for itself. So I just want people in the city, and I want the mayor's office to see the forest from the trees here and say, this is much bigger than just we got to hold these billionaires accountable. This is so much bigger than that. This is a revenue play that will benefit the city for the next thirty years. Maybe go ahead, Darbia. Yeah, I agree with every syllable of what you said. You know this, the Browns moving to the suburbs cannot happen. It would be a major blow to the city. I think it's important to keep these three major teams in the city. You and and then and let me just address this this part real quick. And then we're gon clubs. So you hear a lot of people saying we couldn't get really ten dollars to the stadiums and the rich, the rich billionaireves and Webb prob problem. But I want to make a couple of points. One. First of all, like Dante mentioned, the city of Cleveland owns the building. The Browns are, so the fact that they're that they're willing to put up half of the money and still not own the building in and of itself says a lot about their desire to stay in the city of Cleveland. Second of all, the only reason you have a Browns and that they're not the Baltimore Browns, which is what Art Model was originally going to do. The reason why you still have the Cleveland Browns is because the city sued the team for breaking the lease. That's how you got the team back. So without the city owning the building and being able to have a say via the lease, you're screwed. Thirdly, there's a law. There was a state law that was passed after Art Modell did what he did that essentially said any team that takes public money before they can move outside of the state, before they can team somewhere else outside of the state, they have to first negotiating good faith with the city that they're located in, and if that doesn't work, they have to negotiate in good faith with a to sell it to a willing buyer who's willing to keep it in the same city before they can consider moving. That's how the Haslms got the Columbus Crew. They own the Columbus Crew. They got that because the ownership was getting ready to move the Columbus Crew, the Major League soccer team, from Columbus to Austin, Texas, and because of state law, Jimmy Haslam and his team was able to swoop in and get control of that team and buy the team. Do you think, obviously, if some one who's already benefited from that law, you think they don't know how that law works. So let's say they have enough money. They're billionaires already and they just made ten billion more from selling from the cell of Polot Flying j going through. If they were to say, all right, you know what, screw it, the city doesn't want to play ball. We're gonna move to brook Park and we're going to pay for it ourselves with no tax money, guess what happens? Then you can't tell them nothing. You could be ten or fifteen years away from the from the Nashville Browns for the Chattanooga Browns if that were the case. The only leverage, since Dante was talking about leverage, the only leverage that you have is the fact that you own the stadium and the fact that you've given them tax money. Because that's how the state law came. So if you force them to leave and go to a stadium where they pay for it all by themselves, they can do whatever the hell they want to do. So people need to think a little clearly. They need to be a little smarter. Stop being so damn stupid. Oh, we don't need to get this money to these exact cats. You'll be sitting there looking stupid and the team say, all right, what's good. We out that money that you give to them. Teams is the only leverage that you have with those teams. Donte last words and let them not the follies. Yeah, I just want to let them be known that any sports fan that lives in a major city that has pro sports, you have to pay to play. You have to pay something in order to play these leagues. Uh, our billion dollar entities and these franchises are billion dollar entities. You're gonna you're gonna pay something. You're either gonna pay and keep them there or you're gonna pay the taxes to you know, cover the revenue that was lost. So uh, because let me tell you something. If the Browns were to leave the city of Cleveland and go to Brook Park, if you live in the city of Cleveland, your taxes are gonna go up. They're just sorry because there's gonna be a massive, massive hole in the budget. So you know, you gotta pay the play. And the fact that the matter is is that the haslms are saying, you don't even have to pay as much. Right, We're not gonna do you like other other cities do, right because we don't need to. The HASLMS and Dan Gilbert specifically, have done tremendous work in the city of Cleveland, tremendous work in the city of Cleveland with their with with their dollars, so they're not even doing you like they could do you. Right. The HASLMS could say, you know what, we want a new stadium and we don't want the city and we don't want to pay for none of it. They could do that because certain certain cities have have had to go through that, and guess what, most of the time, cities are gonna say, Okay, we'll do it otherwise. Otherwise you're gonna get situations like you're just not gonna have pro sports in that city. Right, It's gonna be the Cleveland Browns that play in Brook Park, or you know, I know in Detroit. It was a bit. It was a big problem when the Detroit Pistons were in Auburn Hills. Right now they're you know, they're finally back now, but you know certain things. You know, we talked about this off the era, but it's like, are any of the pro sports teams actually in Dallas? Right? We know the Cowboys are in Arlington, right, So in that certain cities can can handle that. The city of Cleveland cannot. So recognize where your leverage is, understand that, and also understand that you're gonna pay one way or another. You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter at T Brian t A E B R. White, Miss O'Malley. You can follow me on Instagram at Real Robin O'Malley and Facebook at Robin O'Malley. And you can follow me at D D King print area where it is D T H E K I N G p I N One more time. Thank you to Chris Van Wicks for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. We are out of here, see you next time. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where Real Talk Lifts. Visit us online at Fcbpodcasts dot com.
Ep. 395 - Chris Banweg talks about his campaign for congress, bridging the political divide and more
