STAND with Kelly and Niki Tshibaka

Spy Balloons and Viral Videos: Compeau's Comedic Take on International Incidents

• Kelly Tshibaka and Niki Tshibaka

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Ever wondered how a small business owner in Alaska navigates the tumultuous waters of politics, business, and humor? Meet Craig Campo, a third-generation Alaskan and the spirited owner of Campo's in Fairbanks, who shares his captivating journey through the Trump and Biden administrations' impact on his power sports business. Craig's story covers the prosperity he enjoyed during Trump's tenure and the economic challenges he faces under Biden's policies. His innovative marketing strategies, including the hilariously controversial "No Obama Nozzle," offer a refreshing take on engaging customers while addressing government overreach.

Craig's bold marketing in Fairbanks doesn't stop with just witty product names. Tune in to hear about his provocative advertisements supporting law-abiding U.S. citizens and his viral ice sculpture mocking Al Gore amid the climate change debate. Craig's humorous video response to the Chinese spy balloon incident is another testament to his knack for combining business promotion with sharp political commentary. These tactics not only keep his business thriving but also provoke thought and discussion on pressing social and political issues.

Standing up for personal freedoms and state rights is a theme Craig carries beyond his business. Learn how he and a group called the Laundry House Gang have made significant strides in fighting federal overreach, supporting individuals like Jim Wild and John Sturgeon in their legal battles. Craig's dedication to protecting democracy and upholding constitutional rights underscores the moral obligation we all share. This episode is a celebration of everyday American heroes who make a difference, emphasizing the role of humor in political discourse and the importance of standing up for what you believe in.

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Kelly Tshibaka:

Welcome back to Stand, where we help make courage contagious. I'm your host, kelly Tshibaka, former US Senate candidate in Alaska and a government watchdog. I am joined by my co-host, my son Josiah Tshibaka, so happy to have you with me today, and this is going to be another amazing episode of Stand. We're talking to you today from the 49th state, the last frontier of Alaska. You can be one of our standouts by going to wwwstandshoworg. That's where you can find all of our fantastic past episodes or our social media channels. Make sure to hit that subscribe button and become one of our standouts. We'd love to have you join us. Speaking of joining us, we're going to have Alan Dershowitz, trump's former impeachment attorney, in his defense trial, also a Fox News contributor and a bestselling author, in Anchorage, alaska, on June 27th. Get your tickets on our website, stanshoworg. You will not want to miss this amazing event And another amazing event is our interview today with Craig Compeau. He is a third-generation Alaskan, an amazing businessman, the proud owner of Compeau’s in Fairbanks. This is a power sports dealer serving Fairbanks, north Pole and Interior Alaska since 1945. Wasn't that the Hoover administration, truman Truman administration a long time ago? You can check out Compeau services and sales at compeers. com I'm going to spell that for you C-O-M-P-E-A-U-S compeaus. com because you can get their products even if you don't live in Fairbanks. So why do we have Craig on stand today? Here at Stand, we are building a movement of everyday Americans who take a stand boldly for freedom, truth and government by the people, and Craig is one of those everyday American heroes. We've invited him on to share with you what he is doing in Fairbanks at his business and as an everyday American. Craig thanks so much for being with us on stand.

Craig Compeau:

Thank you, Kelly.

Kelly Tshibaka:

We're excited to have you. So you're a lifelong Alaskan. You've descended from Alaskans who have come up to Alaska and started Compeau’s way back in 45. And you've been able to witness evolution of the company all the way, from different aspects and different administrations and different seasons. But I wanted to ask you just to start this out, because we're going to talk a lot about politics and business today what has been different at Compeau’s under the Trump administration, who I love, and the Biden administration, which I don't love. What's been different from your perspective between the Trump and Biden administration as a business owner?

Craig Compeau:

Well, first of all, we have that in common. I love the Trump administration as well, and one thing you know, I tell a lot of people kind of under my breath COVID was the best thing that ever happened to our business.

Craig Compeau:

You know there's a lot of businesses that suffered restaurants, tourism, everything else. The power sports industry exploded everywhere across the country and it's because people were at home, stuck at home, whether they wanted to be or not, and they were stuck home with the kids. Well, what do they need? They need to get outside. What do they need to get outside? They need a toy, a four-wheeler, a snow machine, and it just exploded. People realized how important family time was, how important it was to spend family time, and nobody was flying Alaska Airlines. Nobody was flying.

Craig Compeau:

So all that revenue came in, funneled into the power sports business and for three years it was just insane. It was exceptional, even during the worst of it under Trump, you know, when things were the worst. It did carry over in the biden administration, but I'm not giving him any credit because we have seen now, with interest rates and inflation and people having to choose you know it's I think it's 1261 dollars for a family of four it has gone up. Cost of living has gone up for a family of four, uh, just since the day Biden took office. So we are seeing a slowdown in our big ticket items the boats, the things where interest rates are more sensitive, so we're having to market harder and more creatively. And that's kind of what you asked me to talk about was how do we keep that momentum going, even that COVID's over right?

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, so you have a little bit of a marketing genius that you've tapped into. I just wanna say for everybody listening that I'm really grateful that Compeau's is one of our sponsors so you can see some of their marketing genius in our ads at our break. But what I love about you is how you handle political issues with humor and then you tie that into promoting your brand and your products at Compeau’s. So you've recently released an ad making fun of government approved gas can nozzles that empty in over six minutes, and instead you have an exclusive gas can fast pour nozzle called the no Obama the no Obama nozzle. It empties in only 35 seconds. So we're going to take a second to roll that ad.

Video:

If anyone ever told you the government was here to help, look what they did with the five gallon nozzle.

Craig Compeau:

And these are our fast pour Nobama nozzles they empty in 35 seconds versus over six minutes for those government-approved nozzles that look like some sort of I don't know alien contraceptive device.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, and for all you flaming liberal greenies, relax, it's just a red hat, An Obama nozzle exclusively at Compeau’s all right now, now that we've seen this nobama, nobama, nozzle ad Cra craig, tell us what inspired you to market in this way well, just frustration.

Craig Compeau:

Uh, for example, um, the I've always said, if you know, like it says in the ad, if your government tells you they're here to help, look what they did to the five-gallon jug. They totally screwed it up. It's all about somebody somewhere did something stupid. So the government said no, we've got to protect everybody and that's the overreach and the type of regulation and job-creating bureaucracy that one device can cause and everybody knows it. It's kind of. The shining example of government is the five-gallon jug. In my opinion, you can't pour it. So I said let's make some fun, let's point a little fun at it.

Craig Compeau:

At the same time market something we're selling, and it was our number one selling item on our table at the fair, at the outdoor show this year. People love them and all they do is they look at it. You can just see in their face. Oh yeah, I need one of those. That's great, you know, and it's just an easy fix for an over complex problem. There's still nine states it's illegal to sell those in not alaska, fortunately. But that's how. That's how screwed up the government is is it illegal because they're called nobama?

Craig Compeau:

no, that's our name. We've just rebranded them as nobama nozzles. We have a sticker that says no, I've got people that buy them just to hang them in the man cave because they like to show off the nobama nozzle it's just illegal because of over regulation of government yeah, in certain areas you have to use this government approved device that you know people want to kick in those cans and throwing them and breaking them, because it's just frustrating.

Craig Compeau:

First you can't figure it out and then you can't get fuel to pour out of it and, if you can, your clothes go out of style while you're waiting to fill your lawnmower which is now illegal Right.

Josiah Tshibaka:

You know, mr Compeau, I'm kind of a budding business in myself. I want to go to school and study business and I want to go into entrepreneurship. And I've talked with a lot of business people and, universally, a piece of advice that they almost always give me is don't mix politics with business. But you have kind of thrown that to the wind and just totally mixed politics with your business. What's your? What are your thoughts on that? And have you ever gotten backlash for your political views.

Craig Compeau:

Um, I, we have way more support than we do. Backlash when we run a controversial ad. Um, the people that complain are people that have never we checked their names They've never, ever done business with us, that they with us. They like to complain. Our market is pretty much conservative, outdoor leave-me-alone, independent folks. Those people love our commercials, love our products. They understand.

Craig Compeau:

And when you say backlash, most of the backlash we get like when we ran the Don Young commercial I call it the Don Young but the old-timers commercial around the campfire, the hot dog commercial, um, the the backlash we got again was maybe one out of a hundred negative. We had a hundred people saying when are you going to air that again? I want to see that again? You know so. So I don't care about the one out of a hundred, they're not going to make or break my business, but we get a lot of kudos and congratulations and hey, that was the funniest thing I ever saw. And I think in this environment, in this, in this political environment, we don't laugh enough. Everything is so serious. Everybody's walking on eggshells, they're afraid to say how they really feel and we just thought, you know, let's throw caution to the wind and it's working.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, humor and politics is a good way to mix. And for those who don't know what Craig's talking about, you can catch that old timers ad on our social media pages, because that's where Compeau’s is sponsoring us. That's the ad that we're playing and that's on our Kelly for Alaska pages. You can click the links at stanshoworg to see those ads. We appreciate that. But I think you're onto something, craig. I mean, something I've noticed is that there's a little bit of a reluctance here in the People's Republic of Anchorage, where we have a lot of far left blue leaders and it's kind of like living in a city led by the squad and there's just a lot of reluctance by businessmen and business people and attorneys, doctors et cetera, to let their color show, if they are Republican or lean conservative or support President Trump, because they will be canceled or really persecuted and you know file complaints filed against them or serial complaints filed against them to try and put them out of business, and that they're just afraid it'll make their business suffer. And I was in conversation with one of these people who was trying to mask as moderate or camouflage and just not be at all public and my argument was look, there is a huge market for going public with weird true colors and just saying it's essentially a business cost to take on the complaints and the lawfare that'll come. But you will have so much more business and so much more support because there's nobody out there saying I'm the guy who, like you're doing, I'm going to, in humor, say I'm out there, this is who I am, I'm planting my flag on this side of the line and we need to have a little bit of fun about this. But if you're looking for the conservative power sports dealer, that's me. If you're looking for every other person selling cars, selling services, being an attorney, selling goods, then you can go to every other store. But if you're looking for the Republican, that's me, because we just don't have enough of them. And it reminds me of the Kriner's Diner story, which I know a lot of people in Alaska know. But Kriner's Diner is this average, is what they pride themselves on diner that I love, I know you love and could go there and eat every day. But when they, when they had the extreme lockdowns from the leftists here in Anchorage, they refused to comply. They just stayed open and then then the city of Anchorage came against them with massive fines I think it was $10,000 a day to stay open, and I mean this business was going to shut down, but instead this subset community kept them open, rallied around them and kept them open, and Kriner's Diner is still open today. That's what I'm talking about that there is a subset of support for people doing exactly what you're doing, if they have the courage to take the stand for what they believe. I think that there's a lot of people who want to see business owners having the kind of courage that you have. So, Campos Compeau’s Camposcom Compeauscom we'll be right back after this break to hear more. I want to share with you more of the humorous and ingenious ads that Craig has produced, so we'll catch those ads right after this break. You're on Stan's Stand's show with Kelly and today, josiah Josiah Chebaka Tshibaka All our episodes stanshoworg and catch Craig's ads on our social media sites. Those links are on our website as well. We'll be back right after this.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Stand by s you're Compeau' back on stand with kelly and Josiah joseph Today Today we are interviewing Craig Compeau, fearless businessman up in fairbanks, alaska selling the most extreme power sports equipment you could ever possibly want and he's a conservative doesn't get much better than that. We've been talking with mr Compeau campo about a lot of issues just pertaining to business models and really just people not having enough humor in politics. And speaking of issues, I'd like to turn Mr Compeau's Campo's to a little bit of a heavier matter, not so light on the hearts of many, and that just being the issue at our US border. So we have a lot of immigrants coming over the border, a lot of really desperate people who are in dire situations of need, and then also a lot of really bad people who are coming in and committing crimes increasing the drug cartel, human trafficking, pushing fentanyl to our children, increasing the drug cartel, human trafficking, pushing fentanyl to our children, lacing everything with just horrible substances.

Craig Compeau:

What's your take on the immigration crisis affecting the US? Well, I think it is the number one issue going on currently in this country. I mean, the stat I couldn't wrap my head around was yeah, there's Ca million migrants that have crossed the border since Biden was sworn in. That's more than the population of 36 states. I had to check that out. I couldn't believe that More than the population of 36 states just since he took office. We're not vetting these people and we're taking care of them. I mean, we're taking care of all these people and that cost is just extraordinary, from housing to education, to incarceration, when they do get it. I mean, everything is is just a major cost that our great grandkids are going to be paying for forever. We have to turn it around. That is number one. Nationally, we don't see it as bad in Alaska. Maybe you do in Anchorage, but we don't see it as bad. But it's coming and it's coming fast and we have to stop this.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that. You've also taken a crack at handling this topic with humor and so you made an immigration related ad for Compeau’s that kind of compares and contrasts legal US citizens with those who've entered the US illegally. So we want to share that ad with our audience right now. Let's roll that ad.

Craig Compeau:

Hey, it's Craig from Compeau’s. If you've been listening to the news lately the border, the drug problem it's pretty scary. But we're celebrating here by having a huge Can-Am sale. On all our ATVs and side-by-sides, we're doubling the savings. So if the rebates are $1,000, you save $2,000. If it's $3,000, you save $6,000. But there's a catch this sale is only good for hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens in this country. If that's you, we've got your back. If not, sorry, you're paying full price.

Video:

Compeau's doing business in Fairbanks since Harry Truman was president.

Kelly Tshibaka:

All right, that's such a creative way of taking on this pressing issue of immigration and something that's on everybody's mind, and then using it to promote your sale at Compeau’s. Is this sale still happening or is this kind of a dated ad, craig?

Craig Compeau:

We've just introduced a new ad that's coming out, so this one just ran its course through the end of the outdoor show last week. But the whole whole idea is you know, we are, we are. We are giving a benefit to hard-working, tax-paying legal residents of this country. If you're not in that category, you're paying full boat. Now, granted, I'm not gonna. We don't sell to illegal immigrants as a rule anyway, so I'm not losing any sales, but it makes people feel better about you know what? I do pay my taxes and I don't get a free hotel room. I do bust my butt all year and I don't get a handout. So I'm rewarding those people that are doing it right. And it's that simple. And never had one negative comment on that ad in 30 days. I've run into people at Fred Meyers at Safeway and they go. I love that ad. Law abiding citizen ad. Yeah, so it's kind of got its own legs now up here. It's pretty cool.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's fascinating.

Craig Compeau:

And I thought about it. When I first thought about it, I thought I hadn't heard anybody use that theme anywhere nationally or anything. I said, yeah, we're going to do it here.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, I love that and it's probably one that you'll be able to run again and get just as much positive response. You've even gotten positive response nationally. I saw the interview that you did with Neil Cavuto on Fox, and this one yeah, this one's classic and timeless. So, for those who aren't aware of Mr Craig Compeau’s national profile, you had commissioned an ice sculpture of Al Gore but kind of think of it like the presidential busts that you see in a museum and he, they did it out of ice, but it had Al Gore's mouth opened very wide, and then you ran a was it the gas muffler? The?

Craig Compeau:

truck, 460 Ford, three-quarter ton, with a hose coming out. We drilled a hole in the back of his neck and he's so as he's, as we're playing his Copenhagen speech under green lights, he's, he's belching out exhaust, yeah.

Video:

So it was?

Craig Compeau:

it was Cavuto. It became the number two story on Drudge. It was on Fox News. I got interviewed by Cavuto, but it was also on Hannity. It was on Ingraham. It was all over the place. It went viral.

Kelly Tshibaka:

I mean such a profound way to show demonstrably Al Gore's blowing smoke about the climate change crisis, and you live it daily in Fairbanks, Alaska. So tell us that story.

Craig Compeau:

Well, yeah, and so it was. We're not seeing all the oceans coming up crazy and all this propaganda that Gore had, and so we had invited him up to debate, literally got a hold of his office in Tennessee and they had said that there was a conflict on the Times and went back to my email we had never offered a time. We said we can work around your schedule. So it was a typical response. He didn't want to debate the issue. And I had Bjorn Lomborg Sarah Palin, actually, I think was governor at the time, and I talked to her because we used to support her husband in a snow machine racing and she was willing to debate him one-on-one on the global warming issue up here. And we had Professor Akasofu from the university, who also was engaged. So we were trying to really use a little humor and bring this to the forefront for some real conversation.

Craig Compeau:

You know that was an extremely cold winter. We had 87 days where I didn't get above 20. We had 61 below, you know. So it was great and it was fun to interview with Neil Cabuto, we got. So we got some good airtime and it was. We got a, we got a message out. That's what we're trying to do.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, I think that's really good. You also tackled the issue of international foreign policy with the Chinese spy balloon. For those who don't remember, last year we had a spy balloon from China travel all the way across the United States and just for the longest time our national intelligence community just could not figure out what this unidentified flying object was, and it was over Alaska airspace as it entered the United States, and so you created a video about that and we want to show everybody that video.

Video:

Let's roll that video real quick so my name is Craig Compeau, lifelong resident up here in northern Alaska, probably heard about the item that was shot out of the sky, whatever it was. So we heard a bunch of fighter jets last night and out in the backyard, where there's some debris, that fell down. I've called the authorities but nobody showed up yet. We're going to go check it out. Oh my gosh, it was from China. I'll be down.

Josiah Tshibaka:

That is a phenomenal video, Mr Craig.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah.

Josiah Tshibaka:

What inspired you to make this video about the spy balloons?

Craig Compeau:

It was a Saturday at work and it was kind of slow that day and I walked by my you know, this was all over the news and I walked by my secretary's desk and I saw her laptop sitting there and I went. I said this will be fun, I just made a Hunter Biden sticker for the laptop. Then I thought, oh yeah, yeah, it could have fallen out of the sky, you know. So I just randomly did it in about 15 minutes right in front of our shop and just sent it to my guy that puts stuff on Facebook and it went viral. I mean, it got a lot of hits and I didn't even expect that.

Craig Compeau:

I was just burning time on a Saturday, but it wasn't so much promoting our business, it was just having a little fun with politics, which, again, people need to laugh more. That's what's wrong with this country. We're not laughing enough. We got to. You know it is so contentious these issues, and I don't care if you're a Republican, a Democrat, independent, we all need to laugh more. And so that's. I put that stuff out there on our website, we've got it on our Facebook page and we just about half of everything we put out there is intended to make somebody laugh a little bit.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, just bringing some humor to truthful situations, which is a really great way to take a stand and change culture and change minds. I want to pivot a little bit and just get a little bit more serious, get some wisdom from you as a leader in our Fairbanks community and as a successful businessman. I would just like to hear a story from you about a time that you've had to take a stand and how it impacted you or changed you or prepared you as a leader and as a person.

Craig Compeau:

No, I probably started. Well, federal overreach has always been. You know, I'm part of the Laundry House Gang, a group of about 30 up here that meet, have met 42 years in a row every Wednesday and our big mission is to try and push back on overreach and keep Alaska Alaskan. And so when Jim Wild had that case on the Yukon River where the Park Service tasered him and and you know, guy was just trying to go put meat in the freezer and they thought he was trying to escape to Canada, and it was just, and we got behind that guy in court, we helped him out financially. This was the predecessing case to the Sturgeon case. And so that kind of overreach where I said that could have been me, it could have been me going out hunting with my family and all of a sudden you're being facedown in the mud, handcuffed, tasered. What is wrong here? This is not Alaska, this is the Alaska my dad brought me up in, and so the next case was the Sturgeon case, not alaska, this is the alaska my dad, you know, brought me up in and so and then that and that the next case was the sturgeon case and I, I boat with john. I've seen john sturgeon up on the nation river. For years. We never talked to each other because we're all doing our own thing, not many people. He'd run his hovercraft. I ran my jet boat and that was in 2007. I was up there and that was the year he got pulled over and and and and John's really the one that that carried the heavy load on this one, because nobody else.

Craig Compeau:

I shouldn't say that I probably would have done the same thing. A lot of people would have looked at the legal cost and just said you know, it's not worth it, I'm not going to go boating there anymore, but he's one of us. He's one of us that would say to hell with that, I'm not going to take it anymore. Like the guy in the movie says and you know, john, you know.

Craig Compeau:

I remember the Park Service employees telling John. His quote was you can go ahead and do what you want to do. We've got a room full of attorneys and and he was on the sat phone with his attorney and he said we're going to fight this. Go ahead and let him. He couldn't even drive his boat back to the landing. He had to call another boat to have it lifted into that boat to take it back. How ridiculous is that? And it just that angered him enough where he says I'm not going to let this go and I have so much respect for john sturgeon and so we helped him raise 1.6 million dollars and two unanimous supreme court decisions. So so that kind of has. That gave us some momentum, even though the Park Service is trying to rewrite all the definitions in there and pretend it isn't so. But that was a big win and so we. I was proud to be part of that and that was probably the the the. The big one in in my in my history is the Sturgeon decision.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, that was a huge case for state rights and I appreciate you telling that story. It's just a great example, an inspirational story of how everyday Americans can make an extraordinary difference just by taking a stand for freedom for truth and a government led by us, the people, not by the National Park Service and the federal government. Thanks, craig, we appreciate what you've shared with us. Thanks for being on the show.

Craig Compeau:

All right, thank you, kelly, thank you.

Kelly Tshibaka:

We'll be right back after this Stand by. Welcome back to Stand. You're with Kelly and Josiah Tshibaka. We just finished our interview with Craig Compeau in Fairbanks, who runs Compeau’s Compeau’s C-O-M-P-E-A-U-Scom where you can find all your power sports needs. So, josiah, I was super intrigued about Craig's approach to using humor to address his political positions, and one of the things that I really admired is how Craig is bold in taking a stand for what he believes, because that's what we're here to do. We're here to help make courage contagious.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And first, I think it means taking a stand, actually being vocal about what you believe. Well, I think we have to back up and say before that what do you believe? What does taking a stand mean? And I think maybe there's a little bit of a gap for that. A lot of people, it seems. When I talk with them or even just see stuff on social media, they are happy to be spoon fed and don't know what they believe. They just regurgitate talking points. So I'll give you an example.

Kelly Tshibaka:

I recently saw a video of a young man walking around campuses saying are you interested in signing our petition to free Palestine? And of course, many of the students on campus were saying yes and he said great, I need you to accept these terms and conditions. First, palestine when we say things like from the river to the sea, palestine will be free, that means we believe in the elimination of the Jewish population. Can you check here if you believe that? And all of a sudden these students you know were kind of stepping back saying, well, I actually don't fully support that Genocide's not cool, right, I'm not 100% behind genocide.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Well, and then he said we believe in annihilating anyone in the LGBTQ community because, of course, hamas does not support the LGBTQ community. They think they murder those people.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Right Total self-governance.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Absolutely, and so can you check here. And, of course, well, no, I'm not signing your petition. And he said well, that's what we believe when we say free Palestine, that's what that means. The people who are leading that cause, that's what they mean. So when I say first taking a stand means what do you believe? You have to know what you believe, not the slogan phrase of the moment, the fad of the moment that makes a good PR bit is not actually a belief system. In order to take a stand for something, it has to stand up to the terms and conditions, for example.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Then the second thing I appreciate about Craig is he's willing to pay the price for it. So he knows, by going public, as he said, he's gotten the phone calls or the keyboard warriors who've said you know, I'll never buy from you. It's easy to hate behind a social media avatar. I have a lot of hate botters. When you go in and you actually explore, there's actually no profile and no, they just formed their Facebook account a minute ago. Thank you, hate bot delete. So he's willing to take the hate and he's willing to take maybe some customer attrition because of what he's doing, or you know, things could worse, as he pointed out, it could even result in maybe complaints filed or lawsuits filed, but he's willing to incur the price. But, as he said, which I thought was interesting is he's actually gotten more business and more praise for his stance, and I've noticed that too, when you take a stand, those people, even after they pay the price, the benefit is on the other side.

Kelly Tshibaka:

But what I really appreciate. So, number one, he knows what he believes. Number two, he took a stand for it. Number three, willing to pay the price. Then, number four, something that's unique about him is he's integrated humor. He knows how to reach the heart. So it's a lot different to get up and yell at someone, to berate them. I have a hard time listening to what some people would call the talking heads. I would think of them as the yelling heads on TV. Just the sound, it kind of grates at me. I don't know that anyone ever changed anybody's mind by yelling at them, but if you can get them to laugh, get them through irony, to see something differently go, oh, actually that's a good point.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And something I noticed about his ads is, while he might have a certain political persuasion, his ads are a little bit universally appealing. I think a lot of people have concerns about more people coming in through our border than was, did he say, the population of 36 states at this point? Yeah, just in the last three years. That's what's happened. That's, I think, universally concerning. You don't have to pin the tail on the political spectrum to say I do or don't agree with that, that's just concerning. Or the issue about China spying on us universally concerning. Some of these issues he's making videos about are universally appealing. Or over government regulation it takes you more than a minute a gallon to empty a container, a fuel container, when it could be done in 35 seconds is government regulation. The overregulation of government is universally concerning. So those are some of the things I really admired about the positions he's taking and how he's approaching it.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Yeah, I really respect his courage for just being bold about what he believes and just saying I'm a conservative, this is what I believe and there shouldn't actually be any problem with me saying that. I think he's absolutely right when he touched on. You know, we don't laugh enough in this country. We've taken too much to division.

Kelly Tshibaka:

It's almost like it's offensive. It's offensive. Yeah, you're a little scared to laugh.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Right. Well, it's offensive to just exist for some people.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Me existing of one political persuasion offends half the country and me existing as the counterpart right the other half and I think we really just need to boil it down to it's kind of just like preference, it's kind of vanilla versus chocolate ice cream. You know, some people think government operates better when it's bigger. Those people are liberals. Think government operates better when it's bigger, those people are liberals. That's not an issue. Some people think government operates better when it's smaller. Those people are conservatives. These are really just terms used by political science theorists to define different methods of operating government, which is entirely neutral.

Josiah Tshibaka:

But I just think that as a country, we need to be more supportive and inclusive and congratulating our very, very brave citizens for coming out with their true political identity. I think if you're in the closet red, come on out. If you're in the closet blue, come on out, just be you boo.

Josiah Tshibaka:

I just want to see everybody come out and show their true colors, because what I really don't like is rhinos, and what I really don't like are people who are too afraid to take a stand. But just come on out of the closet. Let's celebrate everybody with their different political beliefs, because, at the end of the day, none of us actually are offended by how we think government best operates. We're really offended about the emotions tied into the social issues which government has the power to determine.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And I think there are some people who benefit from so much division in the country. So you know there's that. But I have a theoretical question that I've never been able to solve. If a person who claims that they are Republican but actually only votes and supports Democrat issues and causes as a rhino, what do we call Democrats?

Josiah Tshibaka:

who are actually.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's what I've wondered Are they rhinos and dinos? Because I don't.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Rhinos and dinos, because both are extinct. One of them is nearing extinction Okay, a lot, because both are extinct. One of them is near extinction Okay, a lot of rhinos are extinct. My other question for you is, some dinosaurs still exist, just like rhinos still exist.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Some dinosaurs A topic for another day. I know I think I stepped on a dinosaur at home the other day. That one is now extinct and also put a big injury in my foot.

Josiah Tshibaka:

But a question. I have no idea what that's supposed to mean.

Kelly Tshibaka:

A dinosaur toy, just like parents step on Legos. That's okay. It wasn't your dinosaur, that's your dinosaurs are long gone. But a serious question for you, because you have these opportunities, you've had these opportunities to talk with these business leaders and you're looking at getting an MBA here soon. I wanted to kind of get your sense of what was a takeaway you had from your talk with Craig. What did you think differently after talking with a businessman who's taking a stand?

Josiah Tshibaka:

I thought that his business strategy is very well put together in that he knows his market.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Ah, good point.

Josiah Tshibaka:

That is absolutely the most anyone who's talking to you about business, especially when you're getting started in business. If they tell you anything other than market research, they're lying. Market research is like the most important thing.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Know your market.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Know your consumer because it's not your product. Product doesn't matter. You're selling like you're not. You're not original, I'm sorry, you're not creative. You're selling something that's already being sold. You're just doing it faster, better or more efficiently, and you need to target people who either want it faster, better or more efficiently, or just rebranded. And he's really got his branding down where he says listen, I know who buys my products. I know who doesn't buy my product. The people sitting here complaining about my ads have never once bought a single thing from me.

Josiah Tshibaka:

They also never will and never will, because they're a keyboard warrior right and dudes who live in their mom's basement as discord mods when they're 30. Don't hop on snow machines.

Kelly Tshibaka:

I sell snow machines right I'm gonna go and give a whole can of kicks and giggles to the guy who does hop on snow machines and shoots guns and is probably wearing a maga hat and probably watches stand yeah, actually a remarkably astute and situationally aware business model yeah, he's talking to people who think and act like him and and has the courage to do it, even though there could be a price to pay which is so much better than just producing your ai generated ad.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's something I was talking to.

Kelly Tshibaka:

I'm working on a website right now for another business that we have, and one of the things I'm working on with our website team is we're crafting this bundle of badness is we don't want a website that you could just pop into chat GPT and say generate for me another business website, Because so many of these sites I go to you know our web developer is saying, hey, can you give me some sites that you like, Because so many of these sites I go to you know our web developer is saying, hey, can you give me some sites that you like?

Kelly Tshibaka:

So many of these sites I go to really look like just any AI generated machine could make this site. I can't distinguish what your company does from any other company, so I want the tone and the flavor of what we do to be different. That's what I hear you saying is something that's so important for businesses who value courage is having the courage to plant your flag in the sand and say this is what makes me different. I'm going to capture the market by capturing the hearts of my customers and clients, even if that means a good segment of the population isn't going to like me.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Right. It's a very American and very Alaskan thing to do to just be genuine and wear your heart on your sleeve.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, just be out there about it. Yeah, be you, boo. All right, this is another segment of stand. We'll be right back after this break. You're with Kelly and Josiah Tshibaka standshoworg. Make sure to hit subscribe during that break. Become one of our standouts. We'd love to have you join our standtastic community. See what I did there. Thanks, I appreciate the giggle. All right, we'll be back. Stand by.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Welcome back to Stand where we proudly step on dinosaurs. We're here with Kelly and Josiah Tshibaka, and today we're going to continue talking about the market, humor and politics. So we just finished our interview with Craig Compeau and talked a little bit about stepping on dinosaurs and one thing that I thought was interesting was that statue, that ice sculpture that he made, because I hadn't heard that story and I'll be honest, when he said that, one of the thing, the only thing that came to my mind was so how did you, how did you, keep the pipe from getting hot and melting the ice?

Kelly Tshibaka:

Yeah, great question. We should get him back on and ask that. I imagine that they used some form of insulation, because they showed it on national news, right?

Josiah Tshibaka:

because it was up for a while.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Super effective yeah.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Yeah.

Kelly Tshibaka:

But you're right. Maybe that was why Al Gore's mouth was so big in the statue Right or in the sculpture.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Maybe it started normal size and just melted from the smoke.

Josiah Tshibaka:

But yeah, really interesting piece of art and just to think about as a political statement, this idea that people are blowing smoke out of their mouths and then, ironic, that he's doing the very thing that they don't want him to do by senselessly pumping gas into the air and emitting carbon emissions. But it's just. For me it's so interesting the interplay of free speech over politics and that that's an expression of speech. That's a constitutionally protected right. But I have a feeling that some of our friends in dc who support climate change agendas would try to restrict that and would absolutely tear him down on social media for daring to commit such a treasonous, useless waste of resources and just harming the environment for no reason.

Josiah Tshibaka:

So what are your thoughts on just what's the responsible limit of free speech, and then also what's the responsible limit of limiting free speech, and why do we see such a disregard and disrespect for the First Amendment when it comes to controversial issues?

Kelly Tshibaka:

It's a really good question. You know, we talked a little bit about that during the interview this encroachment recently by government, and especially by the judicial system, into what used to be widely recognized constitutionally protected, not only free speech rights, but I would even say journalism rights. So you'll remember the interview that we did here on stand with Naomi Wolf For those who didn't catch it, this was a while ago. She's a journalist who said some pretty, I think while the things were controversial, they weren't inflammatory, and she also was canceled. She was dropped by all of her media publications and her career was totally destroyed, totally destroyed by the leftists and progressives who support an agenda rather than support finding the truth. And she was asking a question. She was saying that we need to look into this more. Something's going on. So she was supporting essentially what we would call journalism and so and it was on social media this wasn't something that was published and it goes to your question of where is that? Where is that balance?

Kelly Tshibaka:

We recently ran into this with our family where I engaged in free speech activities and then someone filed a frivolous complaint about it before a government commission and the staff decided that that needed to be fined $27,000. And then they offered well, I could pay the fine, which would have been less than the lawyer fees to challenge it, or we have to fight it all the way. We had to make the tough choice that if we don't fight, the individual doesn't fight against the encroachment by government on free speech rights, then who does? There's not some free speech police that come in and say, oh, did your free speech rights get violated? We're here to rescue you. It was really given to us.

Kelly Tshibaka:

The Constitution was given to us by our founders as our right to defend and protect.

Kelly Tshibaka:

The problem is that our right to defend and protect it comes at a really big cost, which is part of the reason why I think that the Declaration is signed Our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. They were foreshadowing to us, by the way, this is what it's going to cost and they ended up paying that price, and we ended up paying a price to defend too. By the way, we were unanimously vindicated at the end that it was free speech rights. The complaint was completely baseless and thrown out, but it came at a cost and I think that you're right that there shouldn't have been any kind of the government staff that investigated should have just said at the beginning this is baseless and thrown it out and it shouldn't have cost us anything, but it did go all the way, even to the point of us threatening having to take it up to the Alaska Supreme Court in order to get the result that we needed, in order to have this have the outcome that was deserved and just. I think we're seeing this happen all across America right now.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Yeah, there definitely needs to be harsher punishment for parole violators, steve.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And world peace.

Josiah Tshibaka:

And world peace, but it's just. I remember there was something I think it was something that Biden did a couple of years ago. Maybe it was some mandate that he did, and at the time it was extremely controversial. It was probably a COVID mandate and I remember I think a couple months later, maybe even up to a year later, it was overturned and deemed unconstitutional.

Kelly Tshibaka:

That's exactly right. Already affected, done damage, so many things. You're absolutely right.

Josiah Tshibaka:

I remember I was like 14 or 15 at the time and I just sat there stumped just like in the thinking man position, like so. So which genius brainiac founding father designed the system where we write laws before we determine if we're? Even allowed to enforce the laws, so he was some of this it's not just him, it's, it's laws that are proposed by the legislator all the time, where it's like the supreme court literally exists to say oh wait, no, these laws are like why?

Josiah Tshibaka:

do we pass laws and begin enforcing them through the executive branch before we verify that they're actually constitutional through the judicial branch? Shouldn't we have the judicial branch be reviewing these?

Kelly Tshibaka:

laws. We actually have a legal office in the executive branch that acts as an internal court system to vet, and there also is a legal office in Congress that tells them yes or no. And that is part of our problem in the breakdown right now. You're right on. The problem with this is so. Two examples Biden was told it's not like this stuff's hard. I mean, as someone who went to school a quarter of a century ago to study it, you can smell a rotten constitutional law from a country away. So when they pass something in DC and I'm like that's not constitutional, it's not like this is hard. Only the hard stuff is supposed to go to the U S Supreme court. And so he wrote this unconstitutional law and was told that's not constitutional. And the response from the administration was well, we'll, we don't care, we'll write we're going to get as far as we can until the Supreme court can shut it down, knowing that our judicial system works at the speed of a snail.

Josiah Tshibaka:

That's illegal.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And what's our remedy as people? Our remedy is the ballot box, and that also happens every four years. That's also a snail-like process and, to your point, you're here going wait, wasn't there a law he passed? How many people out there remember? Didn't they intentionally impose unconstitutional laws to push their illegal, unconstitutional agenda on Americans? They intentionally violated the constitutional right of every American and got away with it.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Doesn't it break the oath of office?

Kelly Tshibaka:

And what's the consequence? And similarly, us Congress passed an unconstitutional law which was overturned, and there was a question posed to one of the leaders of the bill and in the media and he said yeah, we think that this is probably unconstitutional, but that's for the Supreme Court to decide. No, it's not. You have an oath and obligation as a leader I would say as a servant of the people of the United States, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States above all else. And if you're not going to, then not only have you violated the oath of office, but isn't that somewhere along the line of treason? If you're out there intentionally violating the US Constitution as you fulfill your duties as a representative or US senator, then you need to be kicked out of office. This is what we're supposed to be impeaching people for. Not because they called out an illegal association between the Bidens and the leaders of Ukraine, which is now being absolutely substantiated by the bipartisan House Oversight Committee. These are the things that, to your point.

Kelly Tshibaka:

What is the remedy for the people? You got me on my soapbox. I'm so glad. Where did that soapbox go? I thought we brought it today. You got me on my soapbox, I'm so glad. Where did that soapbox go? I thought we brought it today. I'm so glad that you pointed out the fact that, as people who are supposed to be leading the government of the United States, we really don't have much opportunity to hold the legal counsel in the Department of Justice and the legal counsel for US Congress, the White House Counsel's Office, accountable for giving them the legal advice necessary, enforcing good legal advice and instead waiting for the US Supreme Court who, by the way, right now I think is actually doing a pretty good job of coming out with balanced judicial opinions. Some of our circuit courts are still leaving a little bit to be desired, but on balance, the US Supreme Court seems to be coming out with protecting the constitution.

Josiah Tshibaka:

I thought that. I thought it's been very solid and I think one of the issues that I'll just touch on because I don't care about the future and what people think about me is just january 6th. And everyone gets so touchy whenever anyone brings up january 6th and the quote-unquote riots, and I don't understand that at all because for me it's just like say whatever you want about who was rioting and what groups they were a part of and who dressed up as who. For the large part it was mostly peaceful and also they were all allowed into the Capitol.

Kelly Tshibaka:

By Capitol, police by Capitol.

Josiah Tshibaka:

Police and also, regardless of what you like, there's no such thing as an insurrectionist in America, and I think the remedy for this issue where government moves too slow but also people are wildly frequently abusing the Constitution and destroying the country that has been created and the values we've all agreed upon is when government becomes destructive to these means and ends. It is the right and obligation of the people to establish a more perfect government.

Kelly Tshibaka:

And where do you get that from?

Josiah Tshibaka:

That is from the Declaration of Independence. That is page one, paragraph one. And that's why you say and that's why I say there's no such thing as an insurrectionist, because it's not only your right to not overthrow but replace, modify and improve the government, it's your moral obligation to your fellow humans, because they've become destructive to the means and ends of the natural rights inherited to each and every man by their creator.

Josiah Tshibaka:

so you have a moral obligation to insurrect, and, and I think that that's I think that's the remedy. The remedy is take a stand and hold people accountable and let's not freak out when people do what they are morally obligated. And what we all, have a nation, have decided together is what we do when government becomes destructive to our rights.

Kelly Tshibaka:

You have a moral obligation to take a stand for your country and to improve government and, as you said, it's laid out in the Declaration of Independence of what we have to do when our government is refusing to be held accountable to the people. As we know, here in America, the government only gets its power from the consent of the governed. So when that is no longer happening, then there has to be a means to hold them accountable, otherwise we just slip into another autocracy, another tyranny, another- Britain, monarchy.

Kelly Tshibaka:

Another monarchy, another form of government that's already been tried and failed and we know what that looks like. And we are contending for a form of government that is led and governed by the people, who are inherently powerless, other than by a group of elected leaders who are held accountable by the people. So this is another episode of Stand You're with Kelly and Josiah Tshibaka. You can find us at StandShoworg. Catch us next week and same time, same place. Social media, tv and radio StandShoworg. We'll see you then. Make sure to hit subscribe, become one of our standouts and catch Alan Dershowitz with us June 27th in Anchorage. You can get your tickets online. Thanks so much.

People on this episode

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Kelly Tshibaka

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Contributor

Niki Tshibaka

Host