517: Why is this Military Veteran & Journeyman Electrician Running for Hayward City Council!? (w/ Michael Lema)

Brian Nichols  0:04  
focusing on winning arguments. We're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, happy Monday where? Brian Nichols you're on The Brian Nichols Show. Thank you for joining us on course on Qatar fun filled episode I am as always your humble host. Today, we're gonna have a special guest because not only is he an exciting candidate, but you folks that was Hayward in California you need to hear all about but also he's a supporting listener of the program. But before we get there, and they go ahead and give a special shout out to today's sponsor the expat money summit 2022 November 7 through November 11. Please join us for five amazing days with 30 expert speakers hosted by the amazing McHale thorup from the expat money podcast. It will if you watch for a week I promise it will help you reap the benefits for generations at the Brian Nichols show.com. Forward slash expat and get your free yes free tickets to this virtual summit today. One more time Brian Nichols show.com forward slash expat alright folks I mentioned today's guest he's a candidate he is running for the City Council out in Hayward. And today he's joining us on the program. Michael Lema. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show.

Michael Lema  1:27  
Hey, Brian, how Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Brian Nichols  1:30  
Hey, you know what, let's tell the audience what happened. This is round two, we're doing this because I got a blue screen of death here and my computer, fingers crossed. It doesn't happen again. We're gonna make it through this, Michael. But though this is part two of the conversation, and hey, we know what I'm still so excited to have you on the program. Because not only are you fighting the good fight out there in Hayward running for city council, but the big elnec see your name, bringing the ideas of liberty to some folks who so desperately needed. But you are also an amazing friend, great supporter here of The Brian Nichols Show. So thank you, for all you do. And let's do it. Do UAS solid give you a chance to introduce yourself to The Brian Nichols Show audience and let's dig into a little bit of why you're running for city council out in Hayward.

Michael Lema  2:12  
Hey, so, like Brian mentioned, I'm Michael Lema. I decided to run because in March of 2020, I got out of the Marine Corps after serving five and a half years. And I got back in mid March, march 15, I went to go work my first job as a normal person again. And they laid me off right after my first day, they're like, Hey, come back in two weeks, this whole COVID thing is serious. We'll, we'll call you when it's time to come back to work. Two weeks rolled around, I call them back like, Hey, I'm ready to go back to work. Like not yet, call us back in another two weeks, call them back again in two weeks. And they're like, You know what, we'll just call you. And so I was laid off for like two months, couldn't take it anymore. I got a new job, which is my current job now as the lead journeyman electrician for a crane company. And that was going great. I got sent off to the field, though, to a national laboratory, where I'm at. And my boss had given me an envelope with a paper in it saying I'm allowed to drive. And I was really confused. Why he said that, well, in my county and in my state there was a statewide curfew that you were not allowed to drive after 6pm. And that was the tipping point for me. I just spent five and a half years fighting for our quote on unquote, liberty. And now I can't even drive in my home state. It blew my mind. So I got in contact with my local Alameda County Libertarian Party saw what was was going on with there. And I was like, I want to run for Congress. And they're like, whoa, slow down. Let's try city council. So and yeah, so I just started getting really involved doing a lot of research, talking, joining like local Rotary Clubs Chamber of Commerce, Moose Lodge, American Legion, getting more involved in my community to get a better understanding of what was going on. And it helped me a lot and I was able to learn a lot. I won't be able to do as much as I want to as a city councilman, but I will have those friendships and relationships to sell my voices heard. And I will be outnumbered five to one on city council but that's okay. I want to I will win, I will get elected. And I'm hoping I can ignite a spark in the heart of the bay area to get other people to stand up and realize there's more people like us and there are them and really make a change in the heart of the Bay Area. A lot of libertarians in my state are watching this election because I live in arguably besides la the most liberal part of California. So if I can win, it'll set a good standard and a good a good way to see if people are able to win where we're at. So Yeah, well, and

Brian Nichols  5:00  
let's talk about winning, right? Because I know for. For some folks hearing the idea of people trying to win elections, it's a little icky. They're like, Well, does that mean sacrificing principles? What does that mean? Why now? If they listen to The Brian Nichols Show, Michael, like you? Do they know that that means no, no, we talk about selling Liberty based on focusing on meeting people, where they're at on the issues they care about. But also knowing who our audience is, before we go in and try to just spew our message to just anyone and everyone. So let's maybe focus on that who is right now the people that you're finding are those that are most resonating to your message?

Unknown Speaker  5:40  
Ah, that's a good question.

Michael Lema  5:45  
A lot of people are just like, fed up with everything like mainly the closures. And right now my county just instilled a mask mandate again, and people aren't having it. So for those of you that don't know, this is the second time where they have lifted the mask mandate and then re implemented it back other than like, the first time, people are tired of it, they want someone to stand up to it, they want someone to put an end to this nonsense. And I hope to try to notify all these county and state mandates were the only county in California with other than like, maybe la that has this mass mandate, all of our surrounding counties, nothing so that those people are super for me, it's going to be a battle of ideology. You have me very libertarian, classical liberal verse. MMA, my three opponents were very, very progressive want rent control, etc. And people don't want that. You're gonna have the vote blue no matter who, who, of course. But luckily, this is non partisan. So if I market myself correctly, I might sneak away with this one. And we've broken down the numbers, there's, I need 15,000 votes, it's an at large race. There's 9000 registered Republicans, those are mine. About 500 registered libertarians also buying 2000 Democrats against mass bandits and another 2000 Democrats that are veterans. So that almost puts me at my win number just right there. It's just about swinging the people that are like the moderate Democrats, the moderate Republicans, I can get them I can talk to anybody. Let's

Brian Nichols  7:16  
do that, then. And we're gonna focus on some top of mind issues as they pertain to Hayward. So let's talk about I went to your website, by the way, too. And folks, I encourage you to head over to Lima for hayward.us. And you can go ahead not only find out all the issues that we're going to talk about here today, but also Hint Hint, if you want financially support his campaign, and we're gonna, obviously tell you to do that at the end of the program. But here's where you can actually do it is that his website, but let's go towards some of these top of mine issues. Now, one of the issues, I think it's impacted everybody, it's not necessarily unique to Hayward, and it has been COVID-19. It's been the past two years, two plus now a years of COVID insanity. And I know those of us who were in blue states at the peak of the insanity really got to experience it firsthand day. So let's talk about what that has yielded in terms of aftermath. I know. I mean, I left Philadelphia, which we're seeing lots of folks leaving blue cities in mass because of what's been going on over the past two years. What's been the reaction to the COVID hysteria in Hayward specifically? And then what are people talking to you in terms of saying, Hey, Michael, what can you do for us?

Michael Lema  8:30  
Well, first and foremost, I will never ever vote to close down your business. That's your livelihood. That's that's who you are as a person. The way you put food on your table for your family will always be essential in my book, that it's absolutely ridiculous. Buffalo Bills is a staple in Hayward. They're even in the Smithsonian Museum for most iconic brew pub. In the United States. They're gone. They officially decided last week that we're closing our doors. This this 40 plus year journey is over. And it's really sad. You can look around and see a lot of empty buildings now in my city and they're gone permanently. Because of these lockdowns, these mandates, they weren't able to bounce back and it's really sad. I have a lot of close personal friends when we're in high school that used to wait would be a waiter there or bartender, not high school, obviously. But they used to work there and it's a part of our lives. I used to go there all the time as a kid and like order their fries, my dad would grab a beer in the memory is gone. So I promise first and foremost to never lock you down. Never mandate anything, your businesses, all the staples in Hayward will always remain open.

Brian Nichols  9:42  
Now we talked about you being in the Bay Area. And one of the big the big things that people connect the Bay Area with is this just homelessness pandemic that's going on the real pin and it really has been going on in America right now. I saw it in Philadelphia. It got bad there especially in the Ben Franklin Parkway at the peak of the pandemic What's been like the experience with homelessness, Ben in Hayward?

Michael Lema  10:04  
So this is kind of tricky. So every every fourth Sunday, my girlfriend and I, we actually feed the homeless in Hayward through the Salvation Army in the Rotary Club. And it's always the same people. There's, there's programs out there for help, but none of them really take advantage of it. And a big thing that's disturbing, like a lot of citizens in Hayward is they're building a mass like homeless, homeless, like apartment complex, right next to a middle school, a tow a middle school, which is nuts. And to get to like

Brian Nichols  10:39  
world serving like Michael, that that is genius. Central planning is what that is. Yeah, I digress continue

Michael Lema  10:47  
now. And to get to where like, you know, where we serve food. And like some of the other like churches that serve food, they have to walk right by that middle school, like every day to go pick up their food, and people are like losing their minds over it. They've already spent so much money on and I don't know how to triage that. But I'm open to solutions. I tell people on like the that I talked to him next door that I meet with, I'm 26 years old, I don't have all the answers. But my curiosity is bigger than my ego. Tell me give me answers solutions, and I will put the best libertarian spin on it possible and make it work.

Brian Nichols  11:26  
What are you hearing are some of the main concerns that people have, as it pertains to homelessness? Is it creeping out of you know, the more traditional homeless encampments and into some areas that were traditionally good areas?

Michael Lema  11:38  
Yes. And like that, like catalytic converters getting stolen, people breaking into their backyards, and all of that crime

Brian Nichols  11:48  
that goes yesterday, it goes right to the next topic we're gonna talk about that's crime, and that we've seen that across the country that an uptick in crime, I know Philadelphia, like it went from, it feels gross even say, but like, the shootings used to be more gang related. It wasn't, it wasn't random, like it was always something like that. And then all sudden, it changed with COVID all sudden, it was your outside and just you get caught in the crossfire. And it was it was random acts of violence. And that was where it it really, I think hit me like we gotta get out of here like this, this is gonna get bad fast when when things really do hit the fan. And this is just the this is the beginning. The test phases to see was this. Like, it's not gonna be good. So you know, I definitely see that in the blue cities. Are you seeing that in Alameda County? And in Hayward as

Michael Lema  12:39  
well? Yeah, actually. So without naming names, a friend of ours just got robbed at an ATM is hit over the head and got his money stolen. It was random. He is a good community like Citizen does a lot. I'm not going to dive too much in to what he does. But it was really sad. A lot of crime happens. And then in Hayward, right now kind of the stigma is if you tell someone you live in Hayward, they're kind of like, and I want to move away from that. So

Brian Nichols  13:09  
yeah, it's tough. Well, it's It's tough when it seems that a lot of the policies that are put in place are done so not with the intention of solving the problem, but rather trying to appease a certain ideological base. And, and that is, in frankly, why I'm so appreciative of you and supporting what we do here at The Brian Nichols Show, because what we're trying to do is present real solutions to the problems that we see out there versus the the half hearted, you know, just mealy mouthed politician answer that people will get every now and every two, four years. So let's actually build some real solutions outside of that political infrastructure that are actually going to solve the problems that we see out there and you know, you look at crime. What's one of the top crimes that are out there right now with cybercrime? Michael cybercrime I know in you know what's going to blow you away. The number one cyber crime right now that people were experiencing is ransomware. And how do people get hit with ransomware phishing attacks, you're gonna check this out? You're not gonna believe this. You're not gonna believe this as your attacks have continued to skyrocket. phishing attacks ranked as the second most expensive causes of data breaches. According to IBM phishing attacks caused businesses an average of $4.65 million dollars in business email compromises BCS, which is a type of phishing where attackers hijack or spoof. A legitimate corporate email account ranks at number one costing businesses an average of $5.01 million per breach. But that's not the only way because you can lead to a costly breach attacks using compromised credentials were ranked as the fifth most costly cause of a data breach averaging at $4.37 million. And how do credentials get compromised more often than not even efficient? While your employees can be your company's most valuable asset they can also be the biggest target for cyber criminals had to break Brian Nichols show.com forward slash fishing to hop on a call with me where I'll show how we can use customized targeted phishing campaigns that simulate real world phishing attacks and then take those Sealy threats and use them as training opportunities to help you understand your organization's real life risks. Again, that's Brian Nichols. show.com forward slash phishing, don't let phishing attacks cripple your business one more time. FRANKEL show.com forward slash phishing. All right, Michael, no more phishing attacks, crippling our businesses, because I'll help take care of that. But let's talk about other areas that we need you to help take care of over in Hayward, shall we? And that's let's talk about the schooling issue. We've seen this across the country again, another one of those issues that seems to transcend its specific areas, specifically due to the fact that almost every parent in America got to see right into their kids curriculum over the past two years with the the at home school learning that was brought on by the teachers unions. Man, you want to talk about a policy that ended up having a unintended consequence, there is one but let's talk about what you're going to be bringing to the solution table, if you will, from a libertarian perspective, Michael, as it pertains to education in Hayward. So for

Michael Lema  16:12  
the education thing, unfortunately, as a city councilman, I don't have too much power over that. But I do plan on working with the school boards, and trying to get as many inner city district transfers approved as possible for any kid that wants a better education. Because Hayward Unified School District is kind of lacking to say the least. I went through it I went to Hayward high, I ran into some trouble. There's there's guns on the campus that don't belong to the security guards. And it's a dangerous spot the most time the highest likely time for a person to experience violence in their life is at public schools. So I want to get kids out of Hayward as quickly as possible. If they want to do it. They have the means of transportation, or a public transportation is what I did, to go to a much better district like Castro Valley or even like out in the valley, those schools are so much better, so much more well funded than Hayward schools. So that's my plan for Hayward specifically.

Brian Nichols  17:11  
Now, let's talk about another issue that does, again, kind of transcend a certain region regional issue, and that is the drug the war on drugs. Right. This has been, I think, an issue that I don't know, it doesn't even feel like a real big issue anymore. And I don't I know that's not the case, because we have millions of Americans who sit incarceration right now, but it's all due to drugs, but at the same point in time, like if you were to go talk to your average person, I don't think your average person is super against a lot of the more I would say that the normalized was a recreational drugs like marijuana, for example. And I think that's a definite step in the right direction. But Michael, what are you hearing as you're talking to constituents out there in Hayward?

Michael Lema  17:55  
They want psilocybin legalized and I need to I'm all about that. Being a veteran. I know that there's been a lot of studies done with like micro dosing for veterans with PTSD that helps stimulate brain growth in your memory area. So I'm all about the legalization of psilocybin. We have three dispensaries right now in Hayward, I would love to see them selling psilocybin I would also like to see the decriminalization of all drugs, any victimless crime, to be honest. That way the police officers can focus on burglars ations or break it brutalization spray guns or assault charges. Not not petty little drug charges for somebody wanting to get high.

Brian Nichols  18:35  
minor details, right? Details. No big deal, Michael. We are unfortunately already coming close to time, even though we have already done part of this conversation due to technical difficulties, but we made it through let's um, let's make sure we tie up any loose ends, what's been on your brain? Is there any thing that you want to make sure you leave with the audience or any specific issues that you've been focusing on in Hayward that you want to raise up today?

Michael Lema  18:59  
Yeah, the last one is Hayward wants a drone program. They want to militarize the place, being a libertarian, I'm kind of against that. So what I did is I've talked to these people. So we're we can come to a mutual agreement of what the end goal is, which is a safer community. My solution is to increase funding, reallocating funding to increase the neighborhood watch programs. I want police officers to be assigned to certain neighborhoods where they have community and neighborhood leaders step up and report crime and they have a good working relationship with each other. I also think people don't care about ugly things. We need to beautify the city I want murals, paintings, gardening gardens. What Hayward just started doing right now is called the people's budget of Hayward where they allocated about $350,000 to, I believe six different sectors of Hayward and each sector got 50 to $70,000 depending on population, and the people got to vote on how that funding was spent. Some people use it really good for like a tree planting a mental Health care for teens, a math and science tutoring center. All great. Some of the people decided to have a roller skating event or like a Food Fair. Not not, in my opinion, the best use of money, but I'm all for it. People voting, the money's gonna get taken from you anyways, hey, we're doesn't have its own city tax. So at least we get a choice in what we do with that money. So I'm really happy about that. And I would like to see more beautification, because I feel like people care about things that look nice. So we need to make Hayward look better.

Brian Nichols  20:37  
Yes. And I've noticed a big, big difference in living in Philly. And now living in Indiana with the difference in how people treat the community and how they treat their surroundings in Philadelphia, it was not uncommon to go down name any name given St. And you would find garbage everywhere. I mean, literally everywhere. And you see in Indiana, I mean, I just noticed that consistently people going out of their way to pick up the empty bottles on the street to go and you know, throw away whatever the trash is on the side of the road, whatever it may be. People take that extra step and it's been refreshing. And I think it does require though people to lead I think as libertarians, we can be such a pesky little button sometimes because we sometimes get frightened from leadership. And yet you do need leadership people saying what is considered right and what's considered wrong doesn't mean we actually use government to force certain things but to have people leading by example, that's huge. And I think you know, people on city council have a great opportunity to be those leading by example and setting the tone so Hey, that'd be a great opportunity to help make Hayward beautiful and you know with that, Michael, I think now's a great opportunity because folks have heard your platform they hear what you're focused on and now they're they're itching to to support you my friend. So where can they go ahead and support you for this November election, both in terms of learning more and giving your campaign a boost on social media by sharing your stuff but also of course, given those sweet Dolla dolla bills or Bitcoin question, Mark,

Michael Lema  22:11  
I wish we can't take that Darla. I was hoping but you pay could visit Lima for Hayward dot U S. And please, please help me I've raised over $10,000 already. So far. Our goal is $40,000 It's an at large right so I have to reach the whole city. We have a very targeted audience. I have a great team on my hands. But we do need money. So please visit Lima for hayward.us/donate

Brian Nichols  22:37  
There's your call to action for donate and social media. Where can they find you, Michael?

Michael Lema  22:42  
They can find me at Lima for Hayward on Twitter. They can find me on Instagram at Mikey Lima and Facebook at Michael Lima. Please, like share, repost all of my stuff, it will be greatly appreciated, and the algorithms will reward me.

Brian Nichols  22:58  
Yes, they will. Because the algorithms don't like just good content, the algorithms like content that is manipulated. So let's help them with that. With that being said, Michael is an absolute pleasure. Thank you for all you do not in terms only of bringing liberty to us here at The Brian Nichols Show by supporting us here at The Brian Nichols Show, but also now to the masses out there in Hayward. We cannot thank you enough for all you do. And folks, please do me a favor. If you enjoyed the episode as well, we'll of course go ahead and give it a share. We'll make sure we include all of Michael's social media there in the show notes as well. And for you audio listener, hey, you're missing out on the video version of The Brian Nichols Show. This is all on videos. So yeah, make sure you're heading over to YouTube if you have not had the chance yet. And even for your YouTube watcher right here today. If you have not had the chance to hit that subscribe button and little bell notifications so you're not missing a single time we go live Yes, five days a week here on The Brian Nichols Show. And here. Here's another video for you new listener, new watcher on YouTube. All included right here. It's Kelly Cardin. He's running out there in Kern County. We'll include his link of his episode here below. So make sure you get that a look. But uh, thank you, folks for joining us on today's episode of The Brian Nichols Show. With that being said, it's Brian Nichols signing off for the one and only Michael Lima. He's running for city council out in Hayward. And that being said, as Brian was signing off, we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for listening to The Brian Nichols Show. Find more episodes at the Brian Nichols show.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai