Episode Details

Legendary World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler Kane recently sat down with Kurt Wallace for a discussion about California’s wildfires, Trump, Dr. Fauci, and more.

Chances are you’ve heard of Kane, whose real name is Glenn Jacobs and who has also had a successful political career as Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee.

Jacobs Contrasts California’s Liberal Approach to Firefighting With Tennessee’s Approach

Jacobs offered his thoughts on the wildfires ravaging southern California, noting that his Tennessee county handles things a bit differently than Californians.

Knox County isn’t plagued by the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies in effect throughout Southern California. The focus on these hiring practices may have led to incompetence leading to fire hydrants that didn’t have any water.

Empty and under-filled reservoirs left Pacific Palisades residents helpless as fire spread throughout the region.

There wasn’t even sufficient pressure available to get water out of fire hydrants to combat the flames.

Poor resource management brought death, destruction of property, and drastically upended the lives of so many Southern Californians.

“Here in Knox County we don’t have a government fire department. The city of Knoxville does but the rest of the county uses a subscription based private company. They do a very good job for us.” - Mayor Jacobs

In other words, private firefighting forces and everyday people are perfectly capable of putting out fires if need be. In Knox County, the private sector has proven to be more effective than government bureaucrats who put identity politics above basic safety.

Jacobs Understands the Importance of Liberty in Economics

When asked about his favorite economist he said

Favorite economist, obviously, Hayek, Mises, Rothbard, Thomas Sowell, all the Austrians.

He went on to recommend some of his favorite intellectuals and pundits such as:

Ron Paul, Judge Napolitano, John Stossel. So many of these people have been incredibly influential on my thinking.

Jacobs is also an avid reader, particularly of economists like Mises and Rothbard.

Behind my bookshelf, copies of Human Action, Man, Economy, and State. I've been on a kick lately with inflation and spending.

It's great to see politicians like Jacobs taking up an interest in budgets, spending, and their influence on inflation.

So, I've been on extra recommending that every year it reads, What has Government Done to Our Money. It's only about 100 pages, but you read that, you understand inflation.

Jacob's is one of the few in politics who understands that government causes inflation.

It's not a natural phenomenon. It is a monetary policy, which basically Congress shouldn't be spending all this money. Our fiscal policy is only possible because of our monetary policy.

But you understand that inflation is not a natural phenomenon. It is caused by bad policy and frankly it's a hidden tax, which hurts people.

So, I would encourage people to [learn], in your spare time, Austrian economics is not what you think of when you think of conventional economics, but it gives you a much better model of how the world really works and how economics really works than Keynesian economics does or any other sort of mainstream economics.

Jacobs is a Steadfast and Passionate Libertarian Leaning Republican

Jacobs highlighted how his region in Tennessee leans libertarian, and emphasized that it is individual liberty that makes the country great. He juxtaposed our personal freedoms with those of the Chinese and other foreign countries who suppress freedoms and civil liberties.

Jacobs would know. He’s traveled the world with WWE.

So he’s seen a lot.