Who's got the bollocks? Who's got the minerals to get amongst this? Who wants to be a character of mine? Ricky, how are you, brother? Yeah, all good, mate. How are you? Yeah, you've been in the thick of it a bit. Yeah, it has been a bit mental, mate, the last week, yeah. Yeah. Bit crazy. Bit of income in. Yeah, mate, loads, loads. But listen, to be honest with you, there's been more positive than negative, much more positive than negative. Yeah, and that's what all this is about, isn't it? We want a positive outcome for the next generation, otherwise everything, not just us veterans have stood for and our forefathers, and let's be honest, what hundreds of thousands of millions have lost their lives over the previous century for our freedom. But also for all the parents out there, surely they must want the, you know, they've got a vested interest in this. We've got to get this right for our kids. So what I'll say from the start is massive love to everybody at home. Thank you for joining us. Just want to make it clear from the beginning, we're a podcast, we're just a voice. We broadcast on certain platforms. Some have different rules to others, and that's the way of the world. We're not here to promote violence in any way. We're here to promote love, peace, empathy, and the better way. And that's, I think, in line with the ethos of us elite forces guys, it's everything we joined up for. So what I'm saying is we're not, you know, we're not here to stir up any trouble. And we're also not here to talk about like specific stuff that may or may not have gone on in society over, you know, the last few years. We're here to talk about freedom and what it is. Ricky and I came into contact following the recent protest in London. Ricky and his oppo Marco. Rocked up there proudly wearing their parachute regiment berries. Again, I'm going to say on behalf of freedom. Ricky and I got in contact. We've had a few chats. I think our thinking is very much aligned. And we thought we'd just have a chat today, mate, didn't we? Yeah, mate. Yeah, it needed to be done. It did need to be done because I think it's fair to say, look, the media have had their say. Yeah, only right that we get both sides always important, mate, in any story, you know, especially when you kind of get to the truth. Yeah, exactly. And the truth is really obscured. If you only look at mainstream media, isn't it? Oh, yeah, of course, mate, you're only going to get you're only going to get one side. You know, if you're not if you're not willing to open your eyes to the other side of the argument, and there is always two sides, you know, no matter what you're screaming, there's always going to be somebody in opposition. But to to only go down just the one route and to only open your eyes or open your heart to one one person's voice. I mean, that sort of goes against everything that as you say, mate, our forefathers fought for in the first place, you know. Yeah, because I put a little video out, didn't I? And I just gave my, you know, I tried to give some sort of holistic perspective on what was going on, why you guys got featured so heavily in the media that day in the subsequent days. Also that the bias that was involved in the tweets that were going out from certain organizations, can we say and I was also hiding the contradiction. I mean, you know, we're we're veterans where we're I'm not going to say brotherhood because we're a family hood and for one person to be coming out and attacking you during a veteran's mental health and suicide epidemic is is it just highlights how far off the ball. A lot of people are with with not just their thinking but also their their loyalties. You might belong to a certain organization now and you consider yourself a self righteous spokesperson but this isn't about you. This is about the children in the next generation and who's going to stand up for them. You might protect your your job position in the short term. But yeah, am I making sense Ricky? I just try to highlight the, you know, what is essentially a difficult ground to cover, particularly on social media. No, mate, no, 100%. I'm completely with you on that. And, mate, you're right. Look, and we are in the middle of a suicide epidemic, mate, not only amongst veterans, but among among just everybody.  No one is only hurt the little guy, you know, the only people to to have to have benefited from from any of this saga that we've seen in the last 18 months, you know, and the men in suits and funny enough that the people that are advocating that we that we do these things that are not so great for us, you know, they're not so great for us. So no, mate, it's not great that certain people have stepped out of mind, especially when it's so clear to see what is going on.    Because if it weren't like that, then I probably wouldn't have actually been out with Marco on Monday. You know, this would have ended a long time ago. Yes. There's nothing giving us at the moment, Chris, they're all I see is division everywhere, you know, dividing control. That's the one, isn't it? That's the one order out of chaos and chaos out of order and they're doing they're doing a good job of it. You know, where we go forward from here, I don't I really don't know because I mean, we have to be honest, what more can the people do? Chris, I mean, people may not be aware. I mean, there's legal action in progress, you know, across a variety of different things that have been broken.  I mean, I can't even get my words out. There's so much to say on the issue. And what astounds me is that so many people have not got access to this information. And that is primarily what Monday was about. It was about laying out demands to say, look, our voices need to be heard because what we're saying is it's the truth. You know, the truth is the only thing that's ever going to be consistent, you know, and eventually it will come out. Yes. I saw a couple of comments and fortunately it was very limited.   What, what is it that means that people like you and I can see what's going on? But sadly, you know, the vast, I'm just going to say it, the vast majority. I mean, you've only got to go outside now still and see that utter fear that people are living under. And not just that, not just that, but what I would say is a real false sense of reality. But what is it that makes people see it and the reason I bring up the berries thing is my understanding is so far from what they're putting out in the media. Particularly with respect to your, your event. And that's because I see what's going on in the veterans community outside of the media. Yeah.  And we, you know, we, we support this. It's called it just a way of thinking, or, you know, a way of this understanding. But then again, I've also been with veterans. And it's shocking as folks I'm sorry I'm taught I know I'm talking slowly it's because for you guys out there, you don't understand the restrictions that we're under. You know, the restrictions that we are under. And, but, you know, I've been with groups of veterans, and I've just seen that when I'm in a group, I'm literally the only person who understands what's going on. And the way I do it. And I think this is a great peaceful way to do it is, I don't comply. I don't comply with something that I believe, if I believe it's immoral. Particularly if I think it's to place my child in even more slavery than, than, than they're, than they're already in. I'm with you on that. I get so, I get quite, I write my when I'm out, I mean, when the freedom day came along the so called freedom day. I mean, I, I, I thought I'd see a lot. I said a lot less people on the streets now still going along with it. And the way I look at it is, you know, the coverings, everything like that, it's a compliance tool, it's nothing more. And it infuriates me because everyone that puts one on everyone, everyone that goes along with any, anything that they want you to do that's out of the ordinary. It's just, you're allowing them to keep goose stepping us further and further and further into what is going to become a China like system. I mean, like you say, we're under so many restrictions, I don't know if we can say that, right, but it's, it's going to be dystopian. So many people are not aware, you know, you just have to look at the system they're living in. It's no secret social credit system, a network of 100 million CCTV cameras picking up your every move. If you don't want to play ball, maybe you can't book a train ticket, maybe you can't shop in a certain store. Maybe you can't use the internet for a couple of weeks. That's not living, Chris, that's not, that's not life mate. And that is, that is in no way, shape or form, what our forefathers fought for. No way, I know it for sure. If you could go back and ask these guys, look, this is what you're fighting for today. And this is what's coming forward in the future. I mean, I'm pretty sure they would have said, well then you guys are going to have another fight on your hands. Because, but so many people don't see it's a fight, Chris, you know what I mean? This is a, this has been a psychological battle from, from day one.  You turn on the television. Yeah, let's not mention any. We won't do anything. No, but exactly.  And it's hard to forget those things, you know what I mean? It, it does something up here. It changes you. And mate, I'm a bit, I don't know if we've gone too far now. You know, I've read studies that say it only takes three months for something to become a human habit, really. You know, things have been going on longer than three months. Yes. And what I see, Ricky, happening. Is we're constantly bombarded with this new tech under the guise it's going to make our lives easier, happier, better, swifter, smarter. But when you actually speak to people, they're so lost in all of this. They're unhappy. They're the way that people rationalize their lives is so far from what I would call enlightenment. It's so far from waking up in the morning realizing you're in paradise. They're all in paradise. It's just most people have been so shielded from this that they don't understand. I call it living in the matrix after that film called The Matrix. Oh, mate, listen, 100%. I watched that for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I've been saying that exact sentence ever since. It's pretty weird to say that. Yeah. I mean, I spent time with quite a few different people recently and the number of individuals that are still locked into trauma from stuff that was just ages ago. They haven't been allowed to move on from that trauma. So they're living in kind of constant state of anxiety, fear, mix in their bit of depression. It's we never going to find this utopian happiness that we all deserve.  It's worrying.  Yeah, we put them up there on a pedestal and we don't even question them. Yeah, yeah, make people, people do. They're not interested, man. The vast majority of people want to go home at the end of their working day. They want to switch the television on. They want to watch your standards. They care about when the football games on. They care about which actor or actress is just coming in and out of rehab or going on. I'm a celebrity. Get me out of it. Complete detachment, mate. But it's not their fault. Chris, I don't blame them. Like you said, an absolute tech bombardment, you know. This is the age we live in, mate. It's a sad truth. But, you know, I don't know if you've ever seen them, but I find those little artist impressions and stuff of life quite interesting when you see, like, you know, a family sat down on a couch or holding a piece of hand-dead technology. No communication with each other whatsoever. You know, everybody is just so absorbed in this tech. It's unreal. And eventually, you know, but that's always been the plan, Chris, you know what I mean? The totalitarian tiptoes take the television from the corner of the room to then bring it a little bit closer to them, bring it to your hands to then bring it to wearable technology to then possibly bring it to insertable technology. That's where it's going. And, you know, listen, it's, you can talk about theories all we like, but this is ever more becoming a reality. It was only just the other day that I was, I was, I was actually watching for myself a news report on something that's going on in Israel where they're planning to, to microchip young children to allow people to know when, when they, when they're too close to somebody else. You know, this is, this is where it's going, man. This is, this is 100%. As you said, we're not here to advocate violence. Nothing like that. But we're getting to a point now, mate, where it's going to go so far that you won't be able to turn it back without that being the case, possibly, because listen, good, good men and women lost their lives for the very basic fundamental freedoms that we have today. I spilled their blood for it. And I can't stress enough to everybody that if we give those back, you will not get them back until somebody else spills blood for them. That's the truth, mate. Whenever somebody's given away their freedoms in history, that is always actually been the case. Somebody, unfortunately, is at a lose their life for that freedom to come back now. I'll say to all the people that are so willing to give these, these freedoms away, if you are not going to be the person that's going to spill your blood or give your life to get those back, then don't be so steadfast to give them away. That's, that's my message to people like that, mate, because we're getting to that point now, brother, where honestly, it's going to go so far, it's going to be, it's going to be hard to do anything peacefully. It will be, it will be difficult. And as I said earlier, we're trying every means, mate. We are trying to be a, we're trying the legal route. We're trying the outreach route. You know, we're being censored at every level, at every level we've been censored. Why? Chris, if you go back in history, mate, if there's ever been a group of people or organization or a government that have worked to silence someone, they usually always haven't gone on to people. To be known as very good people. In fact, to challenge anybody to find a group that has silent someone that has gone on to be known as a great person or a great organization, there isn't one. Bad things happen, you know? Yeah, God is, I literally don't even know where to begin with what to say. Probably not good, good as a podcast host. Well, the thing is, mate, it's dire, isn't it? You know what I mean? This is the reality of it. And I think this is another reason there's a lot of people that don't want to know, mate, because they don't want to accept this as their reality, because it's horrible. That's the start reality of it. When you start thinking about it, it is quite, it's demoralizing, mate. And it makes me quite sad, actually, of the whole human race that we've got to this. How did we get here, Baba? Well, I can tell you, but there's probably this subject for another chat. Yeah, probably, mate. But it's not right, bro. It's not right, mate. And I need to be in a position in my life where if I'm going to pass away tomorrow, that I know that my kids at least have got a nice world, at least they've got some kind of protection from tyranny. There's not too much to ask, mate. And at the moment, if I died tomorrow, I can't honestly say that I would know that. So I can't leave my world like that, Baba. You know what I mean? And every parent has got to start saying, no, because it's gone past the vulnerable now. We know what's coming next. And I won't say any more, but... Yeah, listen, everyone knows exactly what I'm getting at. And I promise you, mate, honestly, I'm not looking forward to the next few months. I'm not, to be honest with you. No, Ricky. Again, freedom of speech. Why can't I just say, I can't even tell you my own life experiences.  I don't do any of that stuff. I can't even... But I'm literally stuck for a way to say it, but it's all well and good going along with the main narrative until it affects someone you love. I'm not going to go into specifics here, but folks, if you think a little bit laterally, you can understand what I'm trying to say here. Imagine you put your child through a, let's just say, a certain exercise. Imagine it didn't turn out too well, you know?  And now my child has got to live with that for the rest of their life. And this is a reality. This is a reality that's affected many of us. There's videos that are not, they're not Mickey Mouse ones or anything. They're what people are putting on their Instagram, begging for help for what's happened. Again, guys, I'm just going to have to do the thinking here, but they're begging for help for what has happened to their loved one. Well, here's the thing. What if I surprise you and tell you're actually all perfect? You are born perfect into this universe. You'll hear me talking about my majority plant based alkaline diet, which is a fancy word for saying, I eat what I'm supposed to as a human being. I don't eat Western toxic diet. Why? Because I did that for 33 years. And guess what? I was ill all the time. The three colds a year, the flu every year. And when I made some subtle, really subtle changes in my life. No, there's no hardship there. I suddenly found I stopped getting ill. I found that if I ran around the block in the morning, just 0.9 of a mile, it's not command or stuff. Just anybody can do it.  What I found is, my mental health improved hugely. So I didn't constantly face the stresses and strains of anxiety and depression that were induced by the culture that we live in and the lack of support it gives to the individual. And to me, these are good things to promote, you know, but I haven't seen anything mentioned of such things in the mainstream media. No, nothing. All I've seen is the responsibility taken off the individual for their own life and handed to corporate trillionaires who I'm guessing by the fact have a love of money and power really aren't in tune with this beautiful universe in the way that I would love everybody to be. And that makes a question there. So what we're saying is, is looking after us. So that's just not important. Taking care of our mental health. No, that's not important. What we've got to do is go. Go to outside agents and they will take care of it. How are we supposed to proceed if we don't even understand who we are as human beings? Who shuts down the gym and leaves a McDonald's open in a health crisis?  I don't know if it's advocating drugs or if we have to cut this bit out, but to some people they might not mind the donut and the joint though, brother. Yes, but I can tell you by poisoning yourself. No, I completely agree with what you're saying. No, I'm just messing about with you, really. No, on a serious note, this is going to go further than that. I mean, isn't it $500 at the minute, mate, in some states to go to go and get certain medical procedures? Yeah, and also I saw a notice today. And again, you know, it's just a notice put on Instagram. You don't know that the authenticity of it, but doctors now refusing to treat. I'm talking GP surgeries, refusing to treat their don't like to use work patients, but you know, their communities, unless they've done certain things. And if they haven't done the certain thing, they'll only be spoken to over the phone. It's not going to stop there, though, is it? No, of course, we know that. You know, it's not going to stop there. And this this is this is why this is why we're so passionate, mate, about about ending this and how we end it. I don't know. I mean, this agenda goes further than the hands of just politicians, man. Do you know what I mean? People just don't understand that it that those people that they see on the television, you know, your world leaders don't they are not the people pulling the strings here. You know, they're not.  No, most people wouldn't have a clue that big tech meet every year. Meeting in visit in Sun Sun Valley. So people listening will understand the emphasis on the sun. Most people won't even have any idea whatsoever. They, they meet every year, but you know, various organizations meeting behind closed doors every year to decide how they're going to plan your future and how they're going to nail you more into the home cocoon, which we've seen. We've seen people nailed in to to instead of going to work using zoom. And people might say, well, what's wrong with that? Well, I tell you what's wrong with it. Work is work.  That's right. There's many jobs that that that people like myself do my partner does it be not suitable to suitable to be done in front of a child.  Not I do the podcast, you know, I talk about a whole range of just call it adult stuff. But my partner is in, you know, she works with dispossessed children. So you can only imagine some of the stuff that comes out.  But no, no, now that's an extension of the office and guess what, do you get paid for it?  We now no longer speak to our neighbor but we might get an act where we can grasp them up because you know they had a barbecue last week and they had six people come instead of five. So there's no we don't speak to our neighbors anymore let alone the wider community.  Everybody angry as hell with each other, which they can only express through a keyboard so it just gets vile on online. And what for? Is this going to make people's futures happier? Or is it going to lead to a bunch of let's just say for example, 35 year old men that are just mumsies boys or pansies as we used to call them.  It wasn't like going out and smashing it on the farm or building a submarine in a factory or melting steel with the guys.  And when you get to 35, how are you going to feel about yourself? You haven't done the skydiving, the flying, the marathons. I'm not suggesting joining the military is the way but it certainly gave us a bit of experience. It's all going to cave in on itself. Mental health is going to suffer, addiction is going to go even more through the roof than it already has done. And who's speaking out about this? Who's worried that probably let five companies, their shares have just gone through the roof? Absolutely through the roof. And we're talking hundreds of billions. No, we're talking trillions, mate. Yes, trillions. Trillions. And this is the biggest transfer in wealth since probably 1929, right? Well, it's a consistent push. When you control the money system, you control the inflation, you control the debt, you can crash the economy like that. And that's what we've done. We've handed out what used to be a very simple system exchange.  But if I can't do that, I'll say, Ricky, look, is free cockleshells. That represents what you get paid for painting a gate. No profit in it, no interest. No, none of that, just a simple. But then back in ancient Babylon, we're talking 700 years ago, when the psychopaths got together and went, you know what? We can actually turn this into an international monetary system where we keep every single person locked down in slavery from birth. OK, it was a gradual progression to where we've got to now. But that is where we are now. We have a central banking system. It is a system that is allowed to basically print money, lend it to you and then charge interest on it. So, basically, if I gave you that bit of paper and put 10 quid on it and went, hey, I'll make it right. Could you give me back 12 quid, Ricky? You tell me where to get lost. So many people aren't aware of that, mate. No. If you ask... Mate, it's my sound right, by the way. My kids are really kicking off downstairs. I can't hear, mate. Can't hear. Good stuff, mate. Yeah, mate, it is amazing. It's actually bewildering to me how money has got... It controls our life in ways that people just aren't... They aren't aware of. I say to everyone, if you had a billion pounds in a bank, would you be doing what you're doing today? Most people have to honestly say, no, of course I wouldn't be doing this today. I wouldn't be here. So, I say to them, where does money come from? And they never... I say, well, everyone's got different answers. It comes from the government. It comes from the bank. And when I try to explain to them the creation process of money and how it's loaned into existence and comes from a private bank that's then given to the government and spread out. Mate, listen, this goes well beyond what they even want to know. They're not bothered. They're not bothered. And it is bewildering to me how someone can be so unbothered or uncurious about how that money is loaned into existence and exactly how the fractional reserve banking system works. It controls their entire life. It controls the food that they eat. It controls the lifestyle that they live. It controls the level of education that their child can receive. And they're not interested about where this comes from. And it controls every war that we fight. Every war that you fight, it's a fantastic tool. But it only gives them so much power. And it does kind of do my head in a little bit when I see so many people that claim to have a great understanding of what's going on maybe.  Moscanum right now is not about money. They can print money until they're blue in the face. This is what I'm trying to say to people. This goes beyond money and that's why it's dangerous. You know what I mean? Because beyond controlling someone with money, what's beyond that? Yeah, it's almost as if a group of psychopaths got together 400 years ago and decided to create a new world order. Yeah, almost. It is almost like that, isn't it? That would just be weird, wouldn't it? Mate, absolutely crazy. Yeah.  No, but it is the truth, though, brother. I have course, of course. It's kind of funny. I was with a colonel in a military the other day. And I can't remember the scenario, but it was something like, I think we went in to go into a shop and he did a certain thing and then looked to me and went, are you not doing it? And I said, I don't watch the news, mate. Because that's all this has come from. It's come from, you know, I'm not at a single, and again, we're not going to say any of the words, but I am at a single letter through my door from any official government or medical, for example, NHS source to inform me of what has been going on, whether in my country or globally for the last year. Now, all I've seen is the BBC announcing things, right? Yes, since a certain procedure that's been introduced, I think, yeah, one, I might have got a text actually saying, why haven't you done this? Can we help you to do it? But, sorry, I lost my thread there. That's right mate, you're talking about the medical procedures. Yeah, but no, I was talking about the fact that, oh yeah, so I'm going into this shop and I'm like, no, I don't watch the news.  If you don't have the TV on, you don't have Sky News playing in the background 24 seven, like we did when we was, what I'm going to say, kids, right, for that endless endorphin rush, then you'll be amazed, folks, at how much stuff doesn't affect you or your life or your family's life. Yeah. But of course, when you go out the front door into a shop, then it does affect you. And so this gentleman said to me, well, you don't watch the news. And I said, no, I haven't watched the news for 20 years since certain events took place in a certain country.  You know, I'm not buying into things that fall out in the sky for no reason whatsoever. And yet nobody, no one quite, if that's what the news does to you. Yeah. So, so yeah, so this is it. But here's the thing, Ricky, what, what, why, what is it that kick starts you on this road to the truth? Why is it that we can even be having this conversation? And why is it that some people that will be listening are just like, guys, thank you. We get it, you know, and I'm guessing and I mean this, no disrespect because I used to be there. But others are just like, what, you're saying that money? You're saying that, I mean, my, I think my kind of awakening is coming stages. So I think when you've battled chronic addiction in your life, well, certainly the case for me, in order to get out of that, I started to realise everything that I'd ever been taught was a lie. I mean, everything. Yeah, everything. And it does goes, it is literally everything. Yeah, everything from, from birth, certainly this, this pigeonhole in education system that literally teaches you how to sacrifice your whole life working in a call centre every week, solid day in the summer, one week at Christmas, your whole life, as opposed to teaching you kindness, empathy, reaching out to the universe, meditation, understanding yourself on a metaphysical level and on a personal level, tuning into this, you know, beautiful creation that's out there, understanding that Ricky is me and I'm Ricky and we're made of the same shit. We come from the universe. All these atoms, they've always been here, they'll always be here. So why am I nice to Ricky? Well, because he's me in another body. Why don't they teach you that at school? Well, we know, we know why because we've been under this agenda for, let's say, 416, 66, 400 years. And these individuals understand they can keep us in our left brain, which they do very well with this education system that doesn't teach you anything that you really need to know other than free apples and six apples equals, I don't know, about four apples or something, right? But they're very clever at this game. Keep the people in their left brain. Don't let them blossom. Don't let them become fulfilling, achieving happy adults because for God's sake, then they'll turn around and say, shove your big tech. Don't need any of that nonsense, you know? Exactly right, mate. They've done such a good job of it as well. You know why you've got to tip your hat to them? Because they have 90% of people buy into it, mate. They buy into whatever they're told on the box in the corner of the room. Yes, and back to my question, is that because they haven't had a hardship like triggering in their life that's made them have to... I've had this discussion with so many people recently, and I'm kind of of the opinion now, mate, that, yeah, I think it does take something. For me anyway, it took a trauma. I mean, going out to... Not so much a trauma, but I mean, it was quite traumatic in the sense where when I look back at the things I've done out in the Middle East, I realise that those things were done for the wrong reasons. But it was that time going out there and seeing that things just didn't add up. And when I was over there, I was handed some information from an American guy on a certain global event that happened years ago that completely changed the face of history, same event you were probably talking about. And once I'd unraveled that, mate, it kind of took me down every other rabbit hole that there was. So, yeah, I don't think you're born into a certain level of consciousness, mate. I think it comes with a lot of... It comes with a lot of digging, mate, in yourself. I think you really usually, mate, you'll find the people that are most consciously aware of the people that have been absolutely down at rock bottom. And maybe even more than once, you have to be broken down to kind of rebuild yourself. And I think it's when you start rebuilding yourself you kind of see... You do. Once you've got nothing, mate, you see everything for what it is. But I'm going to add a caveat here. I think that's only because we've been indoctrinating to the matrix from birth. And it takes something special, something usually very challenging. In my case, almost dying more times than I care to imagine through chronic addiction and complete loss of my mental health. Whereas if we was an Indigenous Indian tribe, I bet our elders would instill this stuff in us from birth and we'd go out and we'd respect the nature. Of course. When I say universe, they probably call it the Great Spirit. They probably realise that we live in paradise on Earth. We don't need... They only took from the land, didn't they? They didn't take anything that couldn't grow back. Yet with all this technology, it's almost ludicrous to think you can continue. You can't just keep taking from the Earth. We've only got the one Earth. You've got these psychopathic billionaires with all their ridiculous space programmes pretending that they can go into space. Why? Because they want you to believe that we can reach out and get resources from other planets. So it's fine to continue destroying this one. It's a bizarre... But when you think... It's a lot. It's a lot of requirement. That's the thing. But I try my best, mate, with my boy. I try my best when we talk about someone that we know that's died and I ask him somewhere he is. He points out he's his area, he's daddy in the trees, in the sky, in the birds, in the... Everywhere. He's in everything. He understands... I'm trying to get it. That we're universe first. We can't go anywhere. We've got to stop being distraught, made to think we're individuals and then destroyed in that identity so we can be controlled. Yeah. Listen, brother, I think we've done very well. I think we've covered all the bases. Been a pretty safe chat, mate, yeah? Well, I'm going to say not really, Ricky, because I tell you what, I mean, again, I don't mean no disrespect to anyone, but I bloody love to have this chat when I went on the night out or if I went with my mates on a stag do or if I went down to my local co-op to pick up a... You can't go, can you? You know, I love for someone to go, yeah, universe is amazing, isn't it? And I did an hour of meditation this morning. It made me remember the set of carbon molecules flying through the galaxy, you know, and... But what do you get?  That's right, yeah. You completely track that matrix. You get people talking about what's on the box tonight and who's on Strictly and... And it's okay, Ricky, but I'll tell you what, if it wasn't for people like yourself, I would start to question if I was on this planet on my own. With the extension of the med section, you know. I know exactly what you're saying. And so I thank you for it, mate. You know, we're not alone. Thank you, mate. We're not alone and there's people watching now that will be very grateful for your input, mate. And... Thank you. Listen, having me on, yeah, in the first place, mate, I can't tell you how grateful I am because there's not that many people that have reached out to give me a chance to speak or for people to be able to see me for the human being that I am, rather than what they were given by the press. So thank you for that, mate, and thank you for the video that you put up in the first place, mate, because, as I say, when I spoke to you, didn't I?  We've opened ourselves up here for... All right, brilliant, mate. Honestly, it was... It was quite... It was heartwarming, mate, to be honest. And thank you for being you, brother. And it's a shame that more people like you, to be fair. Yeah. Well, it's like this for veterans watching. I know it's confusing because I've done the both of them. I've been serving. I'm now a civilian, a veteran civilian. But I've lived, worked and travelled now in 85 countries across all seven continents. Sorry, folks, if you've heard this before, but I just want to reiterate, I've been in combat. I've been in peace. I've seen Anoppo shot dead. I have been to the depths of mental health and back and had to do all the soul searching that it takes to get yourself from the darkest place you can ever imagine back to full health, which meant getting rid of so many of the lives that had just been told my whole life. I mean, I've done a lot of other stuff. I'm a pilot, qualified pilot, skydiver. I ran the length of the UK without any training whatsoever. Did an ultra marathon a day carrying 15 kilos when all the professionals said, now you're a crucial joker, you'll never do it. I said, I will. Did quadruple iron man to raise money? All of this I do to raise money in the veteran suicide epidemic, to raise awareness, the veteran suicide epidemic, to raise money for our struggling opos. Christmas, I ran 200 miles around a running track and then another 100 miles around Dartmoor, all in, I think it was six or seven days, again to raise awareness of the hand that veterans have been dealt, or not been dealt, I should say, by our government. I'll backpack through every single country in the Americas, from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina. I've written, I think, six books now, one of which was an international bestseller. I studied to master's degree in the social sciences at university and I'm not saying this to Lord Ogier because none of that means anything to me, other than it puts a smile on my face when I have a beer, maybe, right? It means nothing, why? Because I live now in this moment. Moment, that's all I think. All this ego stuff. Yeah, there's probably a bit of that there, but let's just leave all that in the past. But why am I saying it is I wouldn't, I don't think I'm deluded, brothers and sisters, you know. I don't think I'm deluded. I think I've probably seen maybe a bit more of this world. And I've read, I've just read books since I was five years old. I've read history. I read all the kind of war, nonfiction, so Vietnam, Second World War, 1984, Brave New World, all the classics that kind of predicted stuff, where life was going to go.  And what am I doing this for? Because if people think you make money on YouTube, possibly my buddy James English might make a few quid now, but I can tell you I've never made, I have never made a penny off it. So I must be getting something out of it. Other than meeting wonderful people like Ricky, it's just to give back really. Yeah, just to give back and hopefully for our youngsters out there, you can start to see the way of thinking that those of us that live in paradise that we've developed. No matter what these psychopaths are doing, they're not going to stop me living in paradise. As a final thing, because I'm getting a message to lots of Chris, what can we do? I'm going to take it back to basics and say, what I do is I focus on myself. I try to keep my house in order. I eat a plant-based alkaline diet. It doesn't mean I don't eat meat.  I find that puts me on such a high level of functioning in life that my happiness just goes through the roof. Cut out the drugs and the alcohol. Yeah. We've all had experiences on them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But when it becomes a staple in your life, it cuts your body's vibration down. And your body is specifically tuned for a million years of evolution, well, billions of years to vibrate a certain way in tune with this bigger thing. And what alcohol and drugs do is they cut that down. What that does, that makes you then feel unhappy. When we're unhappy, we project that unhappiness out onto other people because we need an outlet for that unhappiness. This is what you see so many people hating on social media is they haven't found a paradise in themselves. And it comes out through bitterness, hatred, which then triggers other people off into a downward spiral and negative spiral and the whole thing sort of snowball. So eat well, jog around the block in the morning. It just feels brilliant for your mental health. Cold shower stimulates the nerves in our body that when we as hunter-gatherers would have been stimulated every time it rained, but now we live indoors. That doesn't happen. So it's important to get a bit of cold water on you. Practice is everything you do based on love, empathy, kindness, understanding.  But I know I'm wrong. I know it's not the way you want to do it. With respect to what might or might not be going on inside. I don't comply. And I'll tell you what, it's made me understand that out of the elite forces, I'm either one or two things. I'm either much more informed than the vast majority of these men and women. Or I'm braver because some of them know what's going on. And yet they still say nothing. They still comply. And when you challenge them on it, they say, yeah, but what is Chris? It just makes it easy. Yes. It makes it easier for you, doesn't it? And what do we do as fighting men and women? We never leave someone behind, do we?  To the narrative. You're scared of that. It's like, come on folks, right? It's not causing violence. It's not pushing and shoving. It's just, I don't comply and I won't. Bandit in your trove, mate. It is, I used to think that things like courage and standing by your morals, they were something that we used to promote. They were fashionable once. You know what I mean? Now we live in this age where everyone's so worried about offending someone. Everyone's lost, mate. I went on holiday recently. I was wandering through Padstow, which is always very packed with tourists in the summer. And I was just watching the men and the way that they were behaving, particularly with respect to, you know, what's been going on. And you could see some of them couldn't wait to spring in. You'd think they were putting on the Superman suit, right?  They've been emasculated by this shredding of all our values and everything that ever, you know, the fact now that you can be a man, but actually you can decide, nah, I just want to be a woman.  Yeah, that's fine, Chris. Instead of having people talk to us realistically, set us off on a good trail, we've got this utter confusion young people have to face about what is actually scientifically what, but this stripping, this... Part of the plan, mate. Yeah, oh, massively part of the plan, but you can see it. You can see it by the clothes that men wear now.   And again, no criticism of the individual. This is about what's going on, folks. It's not about you or me. It's about the children and what's going on with them. That's right. You could see these, you know, we've had damaged pathways into adulthood. People that thought they were going to go out and be James Bond or John Wayne and actually ended up doing this behind a computer, that's architecture or banking or accounts and what, but it's still, you know, it's not fighting tigers and swinging on a jungle vine, which is all I've wanted to do in my life. And unfortunately, well, I haven't done the fighting tigers bit, but I swung on a few vines down there in the Amazon jungle and I feel very fulfilled for it. I want for nothing now in life for a key because I've done everything that I ever wanted. Yeah.  You're just enslaving yourself more. No. So superficial, mate. I used to be just like that though, mate. So like, you know, it's... We all did. At one point. Yeah, as we said, no one was born on this, you know, no one come out the womb at this conscious level of awakenness and just knew everything, you know. And thank God for it though, brother, because, you know, you can really see life where it's true beauty when you're not locked in that matrix anymore. Yes, you can.  For me, my children, mate, and my health, if I've got them, then I'm pretty much all good. But I see both of those things under fire at the minute. Do you know what I mean? And that's why, hence why I'm doing what I'm doing. Because it's those very two things that are important to me that I never thought should have any... I would never have to be worried about whether they're safe. My health and my children. And now I see that both are potentially in a position where they're not safe. Yes, exactly. But if we do the things I just suggested, that's something that everybody can do. Absolutely, mate. I mean, there's a certain license at the moment. I won't say anymore. Hundreds of thousands of people a day are not paying that one anymore. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I don't support people that will do innocent people harm. They use the T word a lot for that in the mainstream media. And I'm not one of them. So I'm not going to fund an organisation that is lying through its teeth. Yeah, it's a crime anyway. It's a crime to fund. Yeah, there's a lot of things we can do, folks, you know. Yeah, there are a lot of things that we can do. The power is with us. Yeah. The power is with us. Start by learning to love yourself. Love other people. Love the universe. And then jobs are good. Ricky, let's chat soon, brother. Stay on the line, mate, but much love to you and massive thank you to you and Marco for your commitment. Much appreciate it. Thank you, Baba. Thank you, mate.


The best kind of doors are the doors you have to explain. Welcome, welcome to Unhinge, where door hardware nerds and security professionals get together and knock and slam on different doorfills. We learn, we laugh and sometimes we even cry because of these poorly installed doors and how hard they are to look at. But thanks for joining us. Today we have a very special guest, Mr. Vinnie. Why don't you hop on and say hello and share a little bit about yourself. Hello everyone, I'm Vinnie Pione. I'm the digital content manager and an installation technician for Eastern Security Services. A fun fact about myself here, I actually sold cars prior to this for a few years. I can't say I was just a used car salesman. There were some new cars in there as well, but you know, quite a few previously enjoyed ones, as we called them. I did that for just shy of three years. You were a salesman? I was a car salesman, just like Danny DeVito and Matilda, but with integrity. That's a great line. Car salesmen get like such a bad rep, but really they are there to help you out. I wouldn't buy a car any other way. I mean, that's why people use salespeople in the first place, bro. Oh yeah, absolute terrible reputation. I mean, I sold in several different industries and there's not any other industry where a customer comes in and right off the bat has a negative expectation. So that was a hurdle to jump over right off the bat. But I toughed it out for a little while. Built a pretty solid book of business, but then just decided to completely 180. And joined the security industry. Like absolutely. No, I actually, after I sold cars, I was a cable technician for Spectrum for a little bit, which that was my big 180 there. And I got used to working with tools and on ladders at dangerous heights and addicts and crawl spaces and then decided to apply that to the security industry. I started with Eastern security here back in 2021 coming up on my two year anniversary pretty soon. I started as an installation technician. So I was out installing security, fire alarm systems, access control, as well as intercom and video solutions. And then a couple months ago now I was promoted to digital content manager as well. So I'm probably the only alarm technician out there who also has an account on Canva. But I've been having a lot of fun with it. We love Canva on DHN, so. Fans, not sponsored Canva. Vinny, I had no idea. Welcome to the show. I'm so glad to have you on here and I'm excited to see your insights. One thing I have to give you props to, like you just started, you said a couple months ago with your new job. Yes.  Like your content has gone. One of your videos I saw had like crazy amounts of views on YouTube, right? Oh yeah. I think that one had a Guardians of the Galaxy reference in it there, which, you know, I did have to put a fair use disclaimer on that one, of course, but yeah, that brought them in. But no, we had that one. We started a recent campaign about work from home alarm monitoring. That one's got some traction. We've got new episodes coming out every Tuesdays at nine AM, of course, the odd time for a show release, I realized. But no, that's on LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, our new platform. And yeah, we've been doing a lot of exciting things on it here. And there's a lot more exciting things to come too. I'm just excited to have another content creator in the little niche that we've got here. Like we're more powerful together, right? Like something. Oh, absolutely. Well, Mia, hello. Hi, do you want to? Hello. Yes. How's it going? Great. Also, this is our December episode. Sorry we're not more dressed up. It's actually September when we're filming.  I need to grow out my Santa beard. Many of you are already good. Marty on it. So fun fact, I can't decide if I want to do first job, job before I joined Asa Abloy, or first car. What do you think? I'm going to go with first car. Yeah, that sounds good. Okay. Like most teenage girls in the early 2000s, I had a Jetta, but it was bright teal. That's today's fun fact. I didn't realize that was a teen girl car. I drove a Jetta at one point myself. It wasn't teal. It was the gold color, but. Oh, the gold color was pretty standard, I think, right? That's what they had. I mean, those Jettas were awesome. Yeah, actually I did a girl that drove a Jetta. So yeah, I guess that makes sense. Yeah, my high school was like the parking lot, like every other car was a Jetta. No, not quite that bad, but yeah, we had a lot of them. I thought they ripped. Mine was turbo, it had sport mode in it. That thing, you know, it's a power to it. Yeah, you might have had a newer model than I had because mine was a 94. Okay, 2015 I think. Yeah. My first car, my fun fact for today's first car has a little bit of a story to it, I guess. But let me first tell you, it was a 90s Lexus sedan.  No, I actually paid $1,000 cash for it. It had been in a previous accident and my uncle sent it off of a FBI auction. So who knows what happened in that car, but let's just say he got a really good deal on it. And so I was able to get it from him for a very good price. Did that price include the drugs that were inside the stitching in the seats, sir? Well, Vinny, thanks again for joining us. Appreciate you hopping on the show with us today. For those who don't know how unhinge work, let me run you down how it works. I'll share my screen with different door hardware installation security fails. We will knock and slam on it and then give it a knocking score. One being not too knocking bad, but then 10 being pretty knocking bad. It's hitting life safety, security issues, AHA. Let's get someone out there to resolve it. Let's get Eastern security systems out there to fix and resolve these issues. Like that's how bad a 10 needs to be. And we'll see what we got today for you, Vinny. But yeah, we'll give it a knocking score and then we'll move on from there. How does that sound? You ready? That sounds great. I'm ready. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Where is this? It's at a Mexican restaurant. Like kind of on brand. Like I almost don't want to knock this. That's tough. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I could appreciate the humor there. They get points. They do get some points for humor on that one. I mean, there's a stop sign on the door. That's a big one. I'm assuming it's, you know, an egress. Is there, unfortunately, that picture cuts off there. I can't see any kind of, you know, exit sign above there. All I see is a big red stop sign, which makes me think not to go that way. A little conduit. It does go up to an exit sign. It does, okay. It is an emergency exit for this restaurant. That could be a little confusing to someone. Is that a pole station right next to it? It is, yeah. That's too high. That's a failed inspection right there. Unless it's a really tiny door, which for that's a whole other issue. Yeah, I don't mean. You have your word document, like sort of in the frame. Oh, how embarrassing. One thing I see on the end of the exit push is a hole. I'm wondering if it's for dogging. I've never seen a dogging hole that far on the edge. I haven't either. I don't recognize this exit device. It has almost like a plastic shine to it. I don't know who manufactures that. If you know, comment below, let us know. It kind of does look like a dogging hole. I don't know what else it would be, I guess. So that's why I assumed. Which would be fine, because I'm assuming this is probably not fire rated. Not a fire door. I mean, if it is an exit door, it's probably not a fire door unless there's hazardous material behind it. And then they would actually from the outside. But yeah, the way it was positioned, it was an emergency exit. I don't know. It could be going out into a hallway or something instead of outside. Potentially that case, you would need it fire rated because then that's creating another partition for whatever the other occupancy load is for that section. I thought it was fuzzy. I would be hard pressed to fail this one. Obviously, I 100% love the humor on it. And I would perhaps find somewhere else there to drop the pun and maybe not an emergency exit door. I'll put that one to lower side. It's probably a two or three. I'm trying to put blinders on for the pole station being too high next to it here. So I'll give that a pass. Yeah, I mean, the alarms guy in you is probably like, what are they doing? What are they doing? What are they doing? Yeah. That's pretty low for me. I think they'd be better served to take the stop sign down and make the incaso emergency only bigger in place of the stop sign because there's nothing wrong with saying that, right? Emergency exit, basically. I love that incaso emergency. I'm definitely going to steal that.  I'll give them a two. I'll knock one off of that there. Oh, Mia, we're sponsoring Nacho Bar. I should have saved this for something. We can use that. Hey, whose bar is it? It's Nacho Bar. Vinny, welcome to the club, right on the bar. Yeah, I would say, again, it's not too knocking bad. People will probably still exit, but like you said, Vinny, that stop sign, that's a no-no in my book. Anytime you're making people hesitate to leave incaso emergency only, that's a red flag for me and definitely gets a couple extra points, but it's not like it's locked or anything. It doesn't look like it's going to sound any alarm or anything like that, but maybe they're just trying to keep people from dying in a dash or something. Right, no, it very much reminds me of one you guys did a while back with the tall glass building where there was a door, I believe into a stairwell, but the angle you were looking at it because it was circular, it looks like you go out the door and you fall, you know, six stories. Does something like that, if it makes you hesitate to use that door in emergency, and you got to probably dinged for that, stop sign is definitely a little off-putting. That would be the big thing for me. Wow, that was a throwback because I think that was our first ever aired episode of Unhinged when we had Chad. I had to review a few, so. On. God, that was a while ago. Good find, Vinny, that was a disaster. I mean, like technically, I don't know if it was even breaking any rules, but if I was looking at that, I would use a different way to exit. Okay, so not too knocking bad. You said two or three. No. I'll give him a two. That's really the big thing right there and it's a pretty easy fix. I would say four. Is a confusion. I'm giving them a little grace because of the pun. So they're going back down. Like there's, because you made an emergency exit funny, I'm letting it slide this time. If you want to be featured on a future episode of Unhinged, or if you have a picture to submit, you can email me at Mia at doorhardwarenerds.com. Thanks for watching.


Our friends from the media being here and everyone else here as well I want to thank our city manager and our county manager for being here with us and other staff from the city and county also You all can see that I'm here today Surrounded by my colleagues Standing together in support of our neighborhoods at McDougal Terrace and letting them know that they have the support of our entire community School board members county commissioners and city council members We are all united in support of our friends and neighbors in McDougal Terrace and we recognize the importance of standing together to do that There are four people who will be speaking today, and then we're happy to take questions from the media I'll start off then County Commission chair Wendy Jacobs will be speaking then Ashley Kennedy on behalf of the McDougal Terrace residents and then we'll ask Jim groves our emergency management director to say a few words also About some of the work that they're doing Our hearts go out to the residents who have been relocated from McDougal Terrace being in a hotel away from home Not knowing when you can return is terrible, and I think we all all of us ignore that and acknowledge it and have Been acknowledging it and understand the depth of the difficulty that people are facing On Saturday and at the meeting at Burton school and at other times I've had the opportunity to talk to a lot of residents one-on-one About the burdens that they are facing and I will tell you that one of the things I have been struck by is the way in which they have weathered this emergency with unity as McDougal Terrace neighbors and with great dignity and patience and I have been amazed and admiring of the residents of McDougal Terrace who have been able to do this very difficult thing together and Have really hung in there under extremely difficult circumstances For 40 years our community has failed these people and the people that lived in these This housing community and others before them and we are here now to tell them that they are not alone That would we do everything in our collective power to make this right? for the last 10 days or so with The Durham Housing Authority with the support of our local governments has been working closely with HUD Greensboro office and our state and national partners to try to bring resources to bear to improve the situation as quickly as we can Yesterday afternoon, thanks to the convening assistance of Congressman David Price's office I let a conference call of many of these partners These included director Anthony Scott of the Housing Authority Commissioner Wendy Jacobs city manager Bonfield county manager Davis members his staff Emergency management director Jim Groves representatives of congressman Price and Butterfield as well as senator Burr We also had on the call for Representatives from the governor's office as well as Mark Benton the assistant secretary of health and human services for North Carolina Who presides over the division of public health? all of those representatives From the national government and the state government as well renewed their offers of assistance to the residents of mcdougal terrace and to the housing authority I and director Scott have been in constant contact with our congressional representatives of these last days particular with congressman Price's office Because congressman Price chairs the house committee that oversees funding for housing the apartment of housing and urban development in Washington Congressman Price's staff is working actively with HUD so that Durham Housing Authority can receive both technical assistance and most important emergency capital funding going forward as Well as what are known as tenant protection vouchers all of those pledges of support by current prices office Were renewed yesterday on the phone call the congressman's office and all of our representatives in washington Will be as well as the governor's office will be working to procure the emergency support that we need from The department of housing and urban development We also discussed on the call yesterday again the assistance that our state public health officials are offering to help dha Educate its residents and the public about carbon monoxide and other potential safety issues Our community is treating lists like the full fledged emergency that it is for 270 displaced families We have fully engaged our emergency management capabilities There are daily calls with Anthony Scott our Durham Housing Authority director with Jim groves Our emergency management director our city and county managers and other agencies as necessary on that call Which could include social services alliance behavioral health and our other organizations There's a communication system with mcdougal terrace residents now and i'm i'm sure that jim grows when he speaks will want to make comments about that That system as well I want you all to know i want everyone to know in this community that Director anthony scott has my full support and i believe the support of this assembled leadership Mr. Scott had led has led this incredibly difficult process With poise with wisdom with humility and with transparency He made a very courageous and difficult decision to relocate those residents that were recently relocated knowing the difficulties that would ensue knowing how difficult it would be And yet he and his staff have worked 24 seven to make this relocation as painless as it can be No one knew that there were high CO readings at mcdougal terrace until they were recently discovered When they were discovered mr. Scott made the decision to relocate because the safety of its residents is his highest priority I fully endorse that and I fully endorse this difficult decision As I said earlier, this is a problem that is 40 years in the making Everyone in Durham who is paying attention has known that mcdougal terrace and other housing authority communities Have been deteriorating for decades and been patched together Mr. Scott is the leader who is doing something about that In the past two years with the support of roughly 15 million dollars in city funding Mr. Scott has led dha's renovation of damar court of marine road of larrell oaks community Hundreds of units and will be renovating jj henderson as well next year With the first significant new housing that the Durham housing authority has built in many years To be built at next to jj henderson as well All of this is Durham housing authority work led by mr. Scott in order to create new housing and to fix up Old housing for our Durham housing authority residents He has made a plan to redevelop the Durham housing authority communities at oldham towers at liberty street And at forest hills heights so that the people there can live in excellent housing in mixed income communities That will end the isolated poverty Which we see afflicting these residents of mcdougal terrace And the residents of these other communities as well And this plan is funded by 60 million dollars of the 95 million dollar affordable housing bond That was just passed by Durham voters 60 million dollars of the bond is allocated to the Durham housing authority to change the lives of its residents I'm proud that our city government and our voters have chosen to support the residents of Durham housing authority in this way The bond money is not money that can be quickly deployed bonds have to be issued and so forth But we know that there money is going to be needed and there are other sources of money that we can deploy The housing bond has had another important effect on Durham housing authority With the passage of the bond mr. Scott has been able to program Durham housing authority scares capital improvement funds For keeping mcdougal and cornwall mcdougal terrace and cornwallis especially in deshitch shape pending full redevelopment That was the plan for this year Now of course these funds are being diminished by the expense of the mcdougal relocations And we will have to support the Durham housing authority and replenishing these funds Our first priority is to get support From the federal government through their emergency expenditures And we also know that there will need to be A considerable local resources devoted to this as well and we need to be ready to do that We also need to be clear at this time that we did not have a full accounting of the repairs Needed in the apartments at mcdougal terrace to make sure they are safe sanitary and decent living conditions We support mr. Scott's assertion that no one will be moving back in until dha can guarantee the safety of their apartment Mr. Scott and his staff are assessing the situation and we will be there to support them In that as well Amidst the terrible difficulties that our residents are facing There are many people who deserve our thanks and praise And I want to just say that one of our speakers in a moment Is one of those people and that is ashley canady ashley is foremost among these these the people who deserve our thanks and praise She has been leading and holding her community together not only through this emergency But she has also been doing so for many years as the president of the residence council And all of us have dealt with her in that context and have seen the extraordinary leadership That she has been able to offer so ashley. Thank you for your incredible And if you've been there on saturday and you saw I said something similar about ashley on saturday The the mcdougal terrace residents pretty much tore the roof off the building when I did so We thank the volunteers who have poured out to help people like nana asante smith Who has helped lead the organizing of volunteers and supplies People like leonardo williams whose restaurants dwellies has become headquarters for donations And has provided so many meals People like businessman wanzara zua who set up his grill at mcdougal terrace last sunday To feed the people there and show the unity of our communities People who have set up go fund me pages to support our residents are friends at the united way who have given each resident A $250 cash card out of their durham one fund and are preparing to do much more We have had in recent days realtor step forward to speak to the housing authority to talk about wanting to help the residents be housed I cannot name nearly everyone who has helped in this effort because there are just too many to name The number of volunteers and donors Is hundreds maybe thousands of people in durham and I want to thank our community for this incredible outpouring But we also know that this voluntary effort is volunteer effort while important can't do nearly the whole job We need government to step up We need our private business partners to step up And we need to make sure that this is a long term effort because this is this problem is not going to be solved this week I want to thank our city departments fire The city county inspections the police department Neighborhood improvement services and others transportation and others who have helped so much I want to particularly uh single out durham public schools for their amazingly quick response on transportation I was just so gratified the way in which our public school system sprung into action to get these kids Transported now from 12 different hotels to their schools. It hasn't been perfect There have been some difficulties, but of course that was going to be the case But our schools have done a wonderful job in transporting these kids And in this case, we know that there's schools when when when when when children are moved to different homes In different these hotels now the schools are providing critically important stability And i'm just very grateful that our public schools have been able to do that So I want to repeat The most important thing is this that our hearts are with the residents of mcdougal terrace the hearts of this whole community We know that over many years that we have not done what we have needed to do as a community to make these communities Make these housing authority communities what they need to be We have now got a plan to do it Through the housing bond and through the through the plan that that mr. Mr. Scott has started But it's going to take a while to do that and now we're in an emergency situation That we have to deal with as an emergency situation and we will do that We will do that. We are looking forward to helping in any way that we can So now i'm going to uh turn the microphone over uh first to commissioner jacob's then to Ashley canady and finally to jim groves and then we'll take questions. So commissioner jacob's Thank you, uh, mr. Mayor My purpose here today is to really stand in solidarity Uh to represent durham county government my fellow commissioners our staff our county manager to say that we stand in solidarity here Also with durham public schools With everyone in our community to say that we support The residents of mcdougal terrace We will do whatever we can to Make the situation right I want to first acknowledge that this is a terrible crisis In our community and there are many many reasons that we have come to this moment And it involves decisions that were made locally at the state level the federal level. It is a very complex situation But this is a defining moment For us as a community And that we all standing together Bringing together the collective resources that we have We are going to do what needs to be done as a community And like all disasters we saw it happen last year with the gas explosion downtown When we have disasters You know, it's a terrible thing and But we also I feel like need to also look at some of the positives of this situation that I have just been amazed at I will say that Every single person I talk to this is what everybody is talking about Everybody in our community cares About what is happening at mcdougal terrace and I want the people Of mcdougal terrace to know that This is what everyone in our community is talking about. What can they do to help? And so I think that is really important People say we're going to do it like Durham do it like Durham and we're going to do it like Durham That's what we're going to do Because we've seen it happening the outpouring as the mayor spoke about people wanting to help And in many different ways and we'll need to sustain that For a very long time and on every different level I also want to just say that This crisis also for me Really is a shining example of what is the strength of our community And again, it is the people of our community and the people of mcdougal terrace I have been blown away By the people of mcdougal terrace And it has really shown me and I think it's shown the whole community What a strong community with dougal terrace is among an important community And the strength and the leadership and the resilience of not just ashley canady, but there are a lot of incredible people In that community that have just Risen up and taken control and so Again, this is to me is the silver lining of this crisis And it brings me back to what The mission of Durham county government is we have a great quote on the outside of our health and human services building by phil freelon Which talks about how The success of Durham county government and our community will be based on Our capacity to enhance the well-being of every person in our community So this is what this is about. It's about the people in our community Investing in the people of our community Our greatest resource And I lastly want to say that the county has been a partner doing what we can on our end the first day When anthony scott started the evacuations that friday We had 20 social workers volunteer For about eight hours. I don't know until late that night. Just ad hoc Going around and trying to go door to door and help With the process We've had a lot of our gss staff helping public health emergency management um and Now alliance health is coming in with support And there are plans for our library Mobile unit to go around and I know jim groves is going to come up and talk More about it. Um some of the more details about what the county has been doing But we will we are prepared to do whatever we can With our resources our human resources To help support the community during This very difficult time But not just now but ongoing We have to make sure that people in our community are connected to the vast Resources that we have so I look forward to new connections and new strengths And a new direction That will come out of this experience and I'm hopeful for the future. Thank you and I'm proud To introduce our hero. I'm one of many heroes, but our hero Ashley kennedy. Thank you. Ashley Good morning everybody. Um before I start. I want to thank my team. I have an excellent team that's sitting over in the corner I want you guys to give my team a hand. They've been really excellent with Helping in this process Um, as you all know, mac doogle is going through a serious crisis right now It's it's very disheartening and it's very sad But we have become a community that stands together And to continue to help us stand together. We need to cut down on a lot of confusion That is going on Um, we have different go fund means we have different different stuff that's going on Everybody wants to help but we in order to make it run smoother. We need everybody to get on one accord Because um, we have a lot of families that are being forgotten about because people want to go to certain hotels There's 12 hotels We are still operating out of 51 b as you see we got our 51 b strong shirts on We're mac the mac united now Um, we're still accepting donations. Um, we're at capacity with clothes So if you guys can please um spread the word that we can't take any more clothes right now We don't have any space for it. Um, and we just appreciate you guys. Um Not just through this crisis. I want you guys to remember us after this after this happens Come back to our community once the cameras are gone Stand with our community because our community we will come home And when they come home A lot of people are being judged. I want anybody to be judged anymore I just want them to be welcome back to the community with open arms And they're going to need a lot of resources because you don't realize the kids have been crammed in hotel rooms for going on 10 days now And it's starting to take us toll on the children The hotels aren't you know, we know there's a business, but they can't really Have the kids running around the hotels and stuff like that. So we need that type of support um For our children and just like I said just continue to stand with us. We're going to get through this Um, just reach out to us, you know, sometimes my day can't get hectic But I have a strong team and we're just going to make sure we continue to move forward And just continue to you know, just hold us in your prayers Come out say hello Don't be afraid of us come to the mac and like I said Everybody's in mac-dougal now. I want to see everybody in mac-dougal when the community comes back And just some people just may need a hug give them a hug play with their kids If they come at you with aggression, don't take it personal Just realize they've been stuck in a hotel for 10 days and it's a lot So once again, I want to thank everybody. Um, you see we 51 be strong. We're the mac united. That's our new thing in mac-dougal I just thank you guys all for your support and I thank my team as well Thank you Thank you so much. Ashley. Um, you can see what an amazing leader that she is She always puts it all in perspective for us I'm going to ask now. Mr. Jim groves our emergency management services director Please come up and and talk to us a little bit as well about some of the things that they're doing Good morning. Jim groves, uh, city county emergency management director Um, I want to recognize Ashley and just the great work you've done. It's uh, it's really wonderful to see Um, how our volunteers can kind of band together and people just kind of take the initiative to volunteer and kind of Lead amazing efforts like this. So thank you for everything that you've done Um, just a quick share of information about what we've been doing for emergency management Um, trying to help coordinate, uh, the mac-dougal effort With everything that's been going on Our job with emergency management is really to Uh, coordinate resources and get them to where the need is So a lot of what we're doing is working with our volunteer organizations Salvation army united way alliance mental health care and making sure that We've got this kind of one united front on how we're going to get the uh, the resources to the people in the hotels And and how we're going to make sure that We don't have any Holes or where we don't have any gaps We need to make sure that we're feeling those so the right resource gets to the right people that have been displaced or Um, I've been relocated from mac-dougal terrace. So we're really really really trying to Work to get the necessary food supplies Um medications diapers wipes And formula anything like that. We want to make sure it's getting from where it's being stored at To the hotels and assist as much as we can in that effort We have developed an incident action plan from Probably the second day that we heard about this and really that helps guide us on roles and responsibilities Of any type of support mechanism that we can offer Our incident action plan includes like the wellness checks Social services folks have been going out and looking at the vulnerable population that have had been relocated We're looking for infants, you know, two years and young to make sure That we've got our public health folks being able to look at them we're also looking at Our community paramedics going out there and looking for people that they used to be working with So we're trying to connect again the resources to the need We've been coordinated conference calls Several times during the day, but A five o'clock meeting is a standing meeting that we've got to make sure that we're sharing information And understanding the need and making sure that we can reallocate resources to the needs. So every day at Five o'clock, we're getting together with the city county management Anthony scott at dha Our public health folks our social services folks just to make sure we're communicating and sharing information as best that we can Lastly at the end of every day, we were putting together a situation report And that kind of breaks down everything that's going on from inspections at dha to the transportation needs to Excuse me for that The transportation piece of it The inspections piece of it And everything that's kind of going on with what's going on the volunteer effort We're going where things are going you heard actually talk about 51 b And and as she runs out of space, we're trying to support it and find other locations for them to be able to Store these supplies and get them to the right direction Lastly is we've already pulled the state in Kind of in support of what may or she was talking about Last Tuesday, we brought in the state recovery folks That the north can on office of recovery and resiliency The HUD folks legal and we started looking at recovery options How can we help the people that have been relocated? How can we help dha and how can we help? City and county government should they need to do Any type of other support so we're looking at Way way way in advance like years down the road on what we might need to do for recovery I think that's Sure and thank you for wanting to be we ask everyone in medougal terrace to sign up for our alert Durham notification system and We're not giving kind of the the the opt-in information publicly But we gave it just to the medougal folks so nightly as we're requested We are pushing out updates to the medougal folks On progress of what's happening that day Meetings that might be scheduled the next day if there's special transportation that's going on so The the Durham housing authority through emergency management would be constantly pushing out this messaging to the folks to keep him Prized of the status of this relocation effort. Thank you very much All right. Thank you I appreciate it all of the folks who have spoken and now I'm going to ask our members of the media if you all have any questions I believe that Tony is going to bring you all a microphone. We're live streaming and so you want to make sure that you're able to be heard Thank you. Good morning. Mayor Sloan Heffernan from WRL news. Thanks for having us WRL's investigation that aired yesterday showed dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide in several units at the Hoover road Housing complex what answers do you have for the people there? What is your reaction to this possible expansion of this problem? Yeah, well, so Thank you for that That's really a question that The housing authority is best posed to the housing authority because they're the people on the ground dealing with it But of course if there's any danger to people At Hoover road or elsewhere That they will have to be relocated to safety I'm sure that that is going to be the first priority of director Scott so That's critically important. No one can be living in unsafe conditions no matter where they live and That's That's an absolute But in terms of the actual situation on the ground at Hoover road in terms of You know individual units and so forth I know that's work that the housing authority is is doing and I think you should When you get I know that director Scott's having daily briefings And you'll be able to ask him that question to get some specifics in light of that report Have you had any conversations about evacuations at that unit and also further? Investigations of other housing complexes. I'm I have not had any discussion about that with Mr. Scott But I'm sure that he and I will talk today. I once that The housing authority is able to make an assessment of the situation and so Any of our older housing authority communities Clearly we need to make sure that in all of them everybody is safe And if that means additional inspections, which I'm sure that it will entail then those need to happen How are you prepared for a possible crisis across Durham with carbon monoxide leaking from appliances at multiple housing complexes? Yeah, well, you can see right now that the situation that just the situation at mcdougal terrace has Certainly stressed our resources and so a lot of Thought and work will have to be given to that So should such a situation arise. I don't anticipate that but it is certainly a possibility and I know that our housing authority folks our emergency emergency management folks Will be thinking and figuring out should that occur But I we don't know enough yet to to know about that. Thank you I'm here, but I agree. That's a super important question I just have a few quick questions. Could you run through real quick how you guys will use that 65 million dollars to help mcdougal terrace and the Other tenants living in affordable housing from the affordable housing bond chris The affordable housing bond is a 95 million dollar affordable housing bond that the voters passed in november so a couple months ago And that includes roughly 60 million dollars for the Durham housing authority to Redevelop some of its housing communities The communities that have been targeted for that for the first phase of that are Liberty and oldham downtown, which are also very old housing communities far as hills heights as well and mcdougal terrace is not in that first group of communities to be renovated through the bond For several reasons one of which is you have to be able to have private capital as part of what? Private capital have to come in bank loans and so forth and The housing authority and its consultants and I agree with them made the Made the assessment that the places that that that capital was most easily Attracted would be downtown to begin with and plus mcdougal is very large and Would take a lot of money to redevelop So mcdougal is not first on that list But what the housing bond has done for mcdougal is and this was mr. Scott's plan for this year as I mentioned earlier Is it freed up capital funds within mcdougal's within the housing authority budget? The housing authority receives very limited capital funds from the federal government As as you know the the housing authority is a creature of the federal government and has been grossly underfunded for ever for decades Set steadily squeezing down the amount of money to maintain and renovate even do basic maintenance on our Durham housing authority communities and so Because of that we as a locality have had to step up because the federal government's not doing its job We supported the Durham housing authority and renovating at damar court marion road now jj henderson and we will be doing Consider continuing to do that But one of the things that the bond has done is it's allowed the housing authority to plan to use its capital funds which are limited for the renovation and this year to keep jj to keep mcdougal terrace and Cornwallis especially in decent shape until they can be fully redeveloped which is going to take some time Now of course that capital money is being Severely called upon to Just house folks in these hotels and so that money is going to have to be replenished To be able to do the job that we need to do so the indirect effect of the bond on mcdougal terrace is freeing up this capital money for Future renovations in the short term and do you know how much of those capital funds will go to mcdougal terrace specifically? I don't I know that The entire capital fund of the housing authority Available was is approximately seven million dollars, but that's being spent down at a Very rapid rate right now and how much are you asking for the federal government's being burst? We don't have an amount yet I mean, I think one of the things we don't know and this speaks to the question of the first reporter also We don't know the the entirety of the need But we also know that the federal government's emergency you know HUD is You know Terribly underfunded by the congress and so even their emergency funds at the federal level are limited But i'm sure we will we'll ask for everything we need We don't know what that needs going to be yet. It'll be in the millions of dollars But exactly what the exact ask will be and whether or not we're going to be able to receive those funds Is something we still don't know yet in my last question I know the city has stated that they don't oversee dha technically that is under the u.s. Government But do you feel like the city has dropped the ball in anywhere? Maybe in terms of naming the uh board members or Ordinances and well, I'll just speak to that in two ways one is In terms of the board members. I think we have a great board I really do and they are the ones that hired director scott. I think they've done a great job of that I'm very You know, I think our board has done a really good job In terms of dropping the ball. Yeah, I think that you know that I would put it as I did earlier in a much uh A much more profound light than that because you know dropping the ball implies, you know, that's sort of a That's not the kind of metaphor I want to use for it What I would say is that we as a community Have failed this community Of mcdougal terrace for 40 years um We have not done what we have needed to do to Have and not just mcdougal terrace, you know are all of our housing authority communities In the last couple of years we've started to change that we've renovated a bunch of our housing authority communities We've passed the bond to be able to fund the redevelopment of more of our housing authority communities But historically have we all dropped the ball? Yes, we have and I think we all have to acknowledge that We have to apologize to our communities Uh for this failure that we as a as a city and as a community have have Been part of for for decades no question And can you tell us how soon those renovations will happen? crystal no because We don't know the situation yet as you know still lots of work being done in order to assess the the level of The need what are the repairs that are needed? Can all the apartments be repaired and if not what should happen, you know There are lots of variables and so we all wish this was going to be known today or All right, you know soon, but i'm afraid it's going to take longer than that to be able to figure this out So we don't know exactly what renovations we're talking about no I mean you you've heard the reports from mr. Scott where he's he's talked about the number of um Of of of stoves the number of uh heaters you've been i've seen you at his press conferences at water heaters and so forth So you know that they're doing their best to assess the need But there also is are also mold issues and so forth They're working very hard to assess that need but It's going to be a while before that's complete Are there any other options that you're considering maybe moving residents to another facility? I mean, what are the other options other than hotels? Yeah So um, you heard ashley say uh, we're going to go back home and I have Everybody is going to be doing everything they can to Get the mcdougal terrace residents who want to go back home back home Um, I think that will there's going to have to be an assessment of are all those units still usable And there there are other options which include vouchers for people As we know it's hard to place vouchers in Durham now But we we've had pretty good success Lately through some of the work that we in the city have funded in helping people place their vouchers. So, um We'll have to see what all the alternatives are We've we've heard from members of our real estate community who have also offered to step up in terms of the vouchers and so We don't know exactly what's going to happen But we know that a lot of people want to move back into mcdougal terrace. We want to make that possible for them But we have to assess I say we the housing authority has to assess Those units with the professional people that they have who are working for them in a perfect world What is the overall vision if everything were to go the way that you would want them to go What do you foresee? Within the next I would say year for mcdougal. Yeah, I would say that that uh That every that the uh, that's a great question if I think actually Kennedy might be better to answer that than me and so I'm gonna see if she wants to do you want to answer that Actually in a perfect world, but what happened for mcdougal over the next year in the perfect world? Go for it There's no such thing as a perfect world But if we had a perfect world For mcdougal terrace, it would be that everybody's living in safe and healthy and Better conditions than what we're living now. No carbon monoxide. No sewage No gun violence just a perfect community, but we ain't perfect, but we're gonna try to get us there Awesome answer That was a lot better answer than I could have given to me Hi mayor, um Virginia You mentioned that you know for 40 years the community has let down the residents of mcdougal terrace But obviously you didn't know and many of the community didn't know about the inspection reports in 2018 and 2019 Which mentioned miss misaligned chimney and ventilation systems with aging gas appliances Shouldn't there be some accountability of individuals who saw those reports and did not ensure that those issues were addressed? Accountability is absolutely important and as uh as we move through this, I'm sure there will be accountability We're right now in the situation where our concern is how do you get mcdougal terraces? How do you move towards The creation of this perfect world that ashley described and that's what we're all working on now We're all looking forward Towards how do you how do we deal with this emergency situation? How do we do deal with the long term not just at mcdougal, but the other derma housing authority communities? Through the work that the housing bond will provide and so forth But of course Accountability is important and I'm sure that You know, there'll be time for that And my next question is for jillian johnson As a member of the housing authority board Did y'all discuss these reports at derma housing authority board meetings and what action did you think was being taken? Sure, so we discussed the reports in the context of the overall score the public housing Assessment system score that the housing authority gets each year My understanding is that any Like-threatening situations are required by HUD to be remedied immediately and then other deficiencies to be addressed over time We were informed that you know all the deficiencies and all the public housing communities were Programmed to be addressed over time, but of course the issue the it consistently comes back to the issue of funding The public housing authority every year gets less and less funding Even less than what HUD says they need to address these conditions And so any um any problem that wasn't immediately life threatening to residents that's uncovered in those inspections Gets placed into a plan to be to be resolved In addition to the long-term plans to redevelop all of the public housing authority properties in Durham Those maintenance requests, um, you know that come out of those inspections Are our program with that funding so I you know my my understanding is that the housing authority Does the most urgent repairs? First and as quickly as possible and then other things, you know for a long time have not been able to be addressed Simply due to lack of capacity And do you think that that that system has been working and it's effective? No, I don't I mean honestly, I think very little about public housing in this country is working or is effective You know, we've we've underfunded public housing for as long as I've been alive, you know more than 40 years and there there's just no There is not a good system. There's not a good Way for any public housing authority in this country the Durham public Durham housing authority included To do the kind of work, um that is needed to maintain Aging properties and that's the reason that our housing authority under the leadership of mr. Scott and many others around the country Are moving to rad are moving to bring in private capital in order to Redevelop these properties because the federal government simply refuses to invest the funding that is that would be necessary For us to maintain public housing to a reasonable standard And it seems like the housing authority has successfully reached out to the city and asked for help with Development projects and development planning. How come this y'all didn't consider reaching out to address these issues that affect people directly Um, well, I would say the redevelopment does in fact affect people directly There are hundreds of families who are going to be living in redeveloped units And their lives will be improved by that in terms of the maintenance issues at other properties The housing authority director has had conversations with me and the mayor regarding city support prior to this incident Regarding city support for repairs in Specifically the three biggest oldest public housing communities in Durham Hoover Road Cornwallis and McDougal Terrace In addition to the seven million dollars that they were hoping to spend this year for those improvements from their capital fund We had had a brief conversation about potential requests from this for the city to supplement that funding So we have had that conversation This crisis I think has delayed That long the long term thinking about how we would do those repairs because a lot of that funding Will be spent right now on remedying this crisis But moving forward the city is very is is prepared to help with funding from whatever sources we have available For repairs to those three housing communities and any housing communities that the housing authority Wants us to support and I will repeat again The city has never in the years that I've been on council The city has never turned down a request from the housing authority for funding We are very committed to supporting the housing authority and its residents and are are putting up An extraordinary amount of funding From local sources to supplement their needs that the federal government has failed to meet Thank you. Thank you Thank you, jillian. Thank you, virginia other questions any other questions from members of the press All right. Thank you all so much for being here. We appreciate it. I want to thank especially all my colleagues on the school board On the county commission and on the Durham city council for being here and I want to say to chair micah lee. Thank you all For the school board folks being here as well and especially to ashley. Thank you again, ashley He's called upon so often to speak on behalf of her community and to mr. Jim groves. Thank you so much jim for being here Thank you everybody