PBD Podcast - Mike Baker On Bud Light Crashing 30% After The Endorsement of Dylan Mulvaney | Ep. 257 | Part 1

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

In this episode, Patrick Bet-David and Mike Baker will discuss: Bud Light Crashes 30% After Endorsement of Dylan Mulvaney Why the LGBT community is growing so fast Biden Using TikTok Influencers To Get Re-elected How Restrict Act Could Be a Threat To Your Digital Freedom ChaosGPT Tweeting Out Plans To Destroy Humanity FaceTime or Ask Patrick any questions on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://minnect.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Want to get clear on your next 5 business moves? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://valuetainment.com/academy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join the channel to get exclusive access to perks:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/3Q9rSQL⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download the podcasts on all your favorite platforms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/3sFAW4N⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Text: PODCAST to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠310.340.1132⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get added to the distribution list --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pbdpodcast/support

Did you ever think you would make it? I feel I'm supposed to take sweet victory. I know this life meant for me. Yeah, why would you plan on galiah when we got bett David? Value came in, giving values, contagious, this world of entrepreneurs. We can't no value that hate is how he run. Homey, look what I've become. I'm the underdog.

You know, as a amateur in the podcasting game, I'm always impressed by our guests, people like him today, who, when there's no stories, and you know you can create stories the day before you come on the podcast, and you fabricated where, as a former CIA agent, Mike Baker, comes in a day before leaked secret Pentagon documents, lift the lid on US Spine on Russia's war in Ukraine. Mike is here to talk about, we's involved in this, as well as why he's considering moving from Boise, Idaho to San Francisco. Mike is great, Adam, the podcast.

Now I mean, I can't get the San Francisco quick enough. Yeah. So I, you know what, I thought to I mean, I can't get the San Francisco quick enough. Yeah. Well, you know what, I thought to myself, we got to have something to talk about. Yeah. So I called up my buddies and said, do you have anything laying around? Any documents at all?

Put them out there, preferably on some place where people play Minecraft. Yes, Minecraft. Yeah. And otherwise, we're all good. So, yeah, I can't claim responsibility for that one though. Uh, is that crazy or what? I mean, it's what.

Yeah, it's what, it's, it's, it's both crazy and what. The question is, when you start to pour through the documents, yeah, it is a legitimate question. Is this just a disinformation campaign, right? Because when you start to look at the themes of the documents and who does it benefit? So while the jury's still out and people are still assessing the credibility

of all of this and whether in fact they are authentic documents, you have to leave open the possibility that this was an FSB or Russian intel operation to put this material out there. Because I mean, they replayed it on one of their, you know, propaganda channels. And so that seemed like it was a fairly orchestrated effort

on their point, not that they wouldn't do it if they saw the advantage, but I'm just saying, there's a chance of that, right? Let me read the story and we're just getting right into it, man, it's phenomenal. And by the way, still, we got a lot of stories to cover. That's one of them. We got XCII Chief Dubs Putin, Deadman Walking.

We'll talk about that. C.I. Future will be defined by US technology race for China. Director says, you guys Gavin Newsom predicts what will happen if the census takes on Trump. China war with US could break out very well before 2025. Meanwhile, Taiwan warrants Chinese. Mi step could lead to uncontrollable world war.

France going around talking shit about America, saying, you know, you're, you realize a little too much in US. We'll talk about that. A guy yesterday, there are many Joe's in America. This is one of, I think it's the seventh most famous Joe in the world. He announced that he may be running for office

for 2024 again, for reelection. I don't know if you know about the Skyrim Joe. We'll talk about him. Clarence Thomas got a little bit of issues going on with these trips that they're talking about. Billionaires paid for. What else we got? Twitter, sub-stack feud with Matt Taibi.

It'll almost be an accused of censorship. We'll talk maybe a little bit of economy of what's going on with inflation. Meet open AICO Sam Altman. I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on this Doomsday conversation that's coming up. And I'm not sure if you're a butt-like drinker, Corona, of course, like,

we're gonna learn a little bit more about that. And if we have any time at the end, maybe we'll give you a shout out for Dalai Lama's apology. Oh my God. What is that? All about. So what a shit show. That's fantastic.

Yeah, I wasn't a Bud Light drinker until I see who's drinking Bud Light now. I'm all in. Oh, you're going against the grain. I'm a contrarian. Right? Everybody's boy conning bud light. You know, Wobbling down. Yeah. So if that's the case, let's just start off with that story. So why don't we do that? So Bud Light silent on social media after Dylan Mulvaney's

controversy Another story comes out talking about Bud Light suffers blood bath as a long-time loyal consumers revolt against transgender campaign a lot of the time. And I think that's a lot of the time. And I think that's a lot of the time. And I think that's a lot of the time.

And I think that's a lot of the time. And I think that's a lot of the time. And I think that's a lot of the time. And I think that's a lot of the Spokesperson according to borrowers and beer industry experts around the country Jeff Federer owner of case and box arrest on and sports bar and barnheart Missouri set in Bud lights Effort to be inclusive they excluded almost everybody else including their traditional audience

Sales of anis or bush bottled products have reportedly dropped 30% That is insane over the week while drought beer plummeted 50% according to bar owners 80% of bud light drinkers ordered something else this week at Brainshree Brewhouse in Massachusetts was sprawling sports bar just outside of Boston one pup in health kitchen a New York City neighborhood's known for large and vocal gay community reported that Bud Light Ref sales dropped fifty. In the gay community while Bud Light bottled sales were down seventy percent. So what do you think about this whole thing that's going to be Bud Light?

Yes, my favorite part of this story is, first of all, I don't give a shit what Dylan Mulvaney does, right? It doesn't matter. Everybody just do your own thing and stay out of my wheelhouse. But the best part of the story is I did watch the VP of marketing for Bud Light. She came on and she said, look, she felt like the brand needed to be more inclusive and they needed to get away from their frat beer image, right? Because those son of a bitch just don't drink beer. No. And so she said, she quoted, she's actually said, female representation is a personal passion point of mine.

Right. So what does she do? She goes out and gets a guy with a penis. And says, I want you to promote my beer. Right. Well, horrible. Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's just bizarre, right? But again, I go back to the same thing. I guess at the end of the day, I don't mind pointing out the stupidity of that. Yeah. But I honestly, on the other side of the coin, I don't give a shit what people do. Yeah. We're also, you know, worked up over, although I will say this, and I asked the other day, I asked someone who's very smart. I said, and I was genuinely confused. I said, is a transgender woman, is that a dude who identifies as a woman, or is a transgender man?

I couldn't figure out which is which. Yeah, I think if it's your transgender male, you want to be a female, correct? Like you identify as a female. Or your woman. No one knows. No one knows. No one knows. We're both on the same bowl. I don't know but but going back to it That this is a classic case of

Get won't go broke or whatever the other thing is and that you were talking about marketing during the Giuliani thing What a horrible decision like have you ever ever like this is the worst demographic to go over? Have you ever been ironic much a bunch of gay guys? And like, hey guys, let's just mojito. And he's like, no, you know what? I'm just gonna do a text stand of a butt like, nobody's dro- No, gay, I've never seen a gay guy holding a can of beer.

That is such a good point. By the way, this is the girl he was talking about. This is the VP of Market. You have to listen to what she says. Watch this here. Yeah, go ahead. I'm- I had a really clear job to do when I took over a Bud Light brand.

Brand is my back. And it was this brand is in decline. It's been in decline for a really long time. And if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light. So I had this super clear man. It's like we need to evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand.

And why would I know? Of course, that's the belief in, okay, what is, what is evolve and elevate mean? It means inclusivity. It means shifting the tone. It means having a campaign that's truly inclusive and feels why you're so prepared to frame yourself. That's what it means.

But watch what she says. She says the whole tradition is it. I'm a beard of friends. That's what it means. But watch what she says. She says the whole frantic. The repetition is it's sort of the heart of evolution. You've got to see people who reflect you in the work. And we had this hangover. I mean, Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty kind of out of touch humor. That major ability.

It was really important. We had another approach. I'm not about to do that. But if he can pause this, here's what's crazy. Can you Google the profile of a beer drinker? Yeah. By the way, her kid, those paintings in the back, horrible. That kid's not gonna be able to do it.

And she did those things. That was 100% her. Like, when you do the profile of a beer drink, you know what you realize? 80% of beer drink are men. Plenty of percent. 20% are women. This is kind of like, you know,

working for Trojan condoms, and you're the VP of marketing, and you say, well, we're not targeting six-year-olds. You know, we have to start targeting all the audiences. We're not being inclusive. We're targeting women. No, but the whole, the stupidity, the fact that the way she sells it, how she's thinking, don't transgender community.

You know when you go online, you tap in what the transgender population is. Do you know how many transgender people live in America? Five of one. Well, the number says one and a half million, right? But what they're saying, one and a half million as identify as transgender, it's not really one and a half million. It's a lot of Gen Zs that are confused. The question becomes how many transgenders in America

are over 21 years old, okay? Do you know how small of an audience that is? And you're trying to target that audience and you go away from your beer drinkers and I you lose 30% in a week? For a billion dollars, she's not gonna be working there. That decision should cost her her job. But you know what I mean, though, the commercials Mike, I want like the hell with the Dylan Mulvaney commercial. I want to see a commercial, like a bunch of gay trans, whatever, just drinking on a mosa and they're like, Hey, Timmy,

you want one? It's like bitch, slams it out. And then chugs a beer. I asked the commercial that they're going to have to try making commercials for now. I disagree with you. I think she's probably gonna get a promotion. Because we're all talking about Bud Light, right? Now I know the sales are going down, but she was put there for a particular reason, right? And this is her job.

Her job is to do this. So she has actually done her, whatever they all, KPIs or key performance indicators. Yeah. You know, that's what she was put in place to do. That's the beauty of, I guess, from her position is she probably really isn't being judged based on the increase in sales.

She just got this narrow swim lane that she has to stay in, which are you being inclusive? Are you performing this mandate that we brought you in for? And she's probably got some additional tack on there, which is VP marketing in inclusivity or something along those lines. I'll tell you what, I'm so glad we actually played that video from the VP of marketing

because there's somebody that we can kind of point a finger to and say, all right, that's the person. Cause picture this, we do this all the time. We have meetings, we say, all right guys, what's on the agenda right guys what's on the agenda we have a marketing issue we got a content issue we got to figure this thing out so you sit down in the boardroom 10 of us and we say all right guys we have a problem but lights been declining in sales how do we increase sales and then one person says we got to go trans bro we got to go right to the trans market, not getting innovative, your next innovative campaign,

not like, okay, cool, identifying who is actually drinking our product. It's going to the woke, inclusive, ESG, bottom line, which go woke, go broke, is a real thing. And then here's another point. You talk about this whole concept of being inclusive. When you're being inclusive to the point of just sort of virtue signaling, just the point of you're being

exclusive, you know here, excluding your whole fucking base of people that basically got you to this point. So it's so ridiculous to me. Like Mike said, I don't have a problem with Dylan Mulvay. I don't give two sheds. Do your thing, buddy. But when you start trying to indoctrinate the rest of us to be like, hey, think this way.

Now, this isn't the first time that we've had a hot water, bud lights the latest. A month ago, for International Women's Day, it was Hershey's. Hershey's, Hershey basically had a transgender woman as the face of Hershey's. A couple of years ago, do you remember the Gillette commercial? How did that?

How did that make the best? Yeah, no more chocolate for you. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Hershey's face backlash over putting trans woman on candy bar rapper, not a woman, not a female. Can you go lower so you can see it? A chick with a dick is the face of Hershey's.

You know, start. Oh God. But then, and then do you remember a few years ago when Gillette had their commercial, the best the man can get? Do you remember that? Yeah. For years, they built our brand on like being a man. Like, I don't know if you know this, most women don't shave their face.

You know, if they do, they'd have a hell of a way for me. But they basically went, woke, went broke and lost billions of dollars by trying to basically curry favor from the Me Too movement feminist agenda and dudes who shaved their face are like, I'm playing this game, buddy. Like, uh-huh. You know? Atma as a single guy,

Bill and Mulvaney is not at all your type. No, no, no. I just did this just in a mix of things. I'm old school. Yeah, I like it. I'm out of this. Let's not forget who started. You know what's responsible for all this?

The Kardashians. They ruined Bruce. I was like, you know what? It was, Bruce used to be Bruce Jenner. He became Caitlin and in six months, six months, they named him Woman of the Year. You know what he said though? You know what I said about this yesterday?

What? Do you hear what he said? She, she, she. Well, he's not supportive of this. Okay, right. He may, he commented yesterday and saying, these are domestic terrorists But she may comment about it. She's like I'm not Caitlin. Yeah, I'm not I'm not doing this. So she's against what's going on today

I mean, you see what that's kid rock did by the way. Oh, you see that video the shooting. Yeah, yeah I try to I try to avoid say what kid rock from day to day but I before I forget because I'm getting to that point where if I don't say something right away, I forget, a buddy of mine is a comic Jimmy Fela. He talks about Caitlin Jenner and he says, look, we all forget, he was the fucking goat, right?

He was, he was, he was, quite, he was an incredible athlete, right? And so when he did come out to your point, yeah, they were all like, oh my God, isn't she brave? She gets the ESPN award, she gets, she's not a year vanity fair or whatever. And then as soon as she started talking to you, to your point, as soon as Caitlyn Jenner came out

and started talking conservative, they were like fuck her. Fuck him, fuck him, they changed it. I never get him out of here. Get him out of here with balls. But you know what that means is, that whole concept is, it's politics over America. They changed it. Get him out of here. Get him out of here with ball. But you know what that means is that whole concept is its politics over America. I agree.

It's ideology over America. And that's what's one of the reasons why we're experiencing what we're experiencing right now. And Pat, enough of Mike's in the decision that the VP and I kind of agree that Mike, that obviously the internal, they're like, yeah, good for you. Doing all this. But Pat, as a CEO, your company gets this backlash and you lose $4 billion of the company's worth.

What do you do as a CEO? What are you doing when that happens when the... But you have to realize there's two different things. This would never happen to start up. That's being ran by a founder. Companies are being ruined after a founder started at years ago and it's no longer around. Those are the companies that are being ruined because the founder would sit there and say, do you even know what was the reason why we started a company?

Do you know who we started it for? Do you know what this product was for? Tell you how you're doing. Who approved you doing this anyways? I want to talk to the CMO that approved your campaign. There's no way VP of marketing can get that approved without a CMO signing off on it or CEO saying this ad is approved ad to do what you're doing. There's no way that approval process is gonna be to,

and if it is, guess what? That tells you there's a lack of accountability there. It just costs them a lot of money, but I'll take the other part, here's the other part. Anytime there's a mishap like this, there's opportunities for others. Anytime. You know the whole thing when made in China,

guess what all these guys started talking about? Our clothes are made into USA. Are this are made into USA? Are that are made into USA? You know how many breweries right now are sitting there going using this as an advertisement, the most creative one is gonna be the one that's gonna get market share

the next three, six, 12, 24 months. You're gonna see. And for us, when he said, she's doing her job, but what is her job? If her job is to increase, because Anis or Bush, if you look at Anis, can you Google Anis or Bush's ESG score? That one the lowest ESG scores in America. Okay.

I think it was like at 13.8% or 8% you'll see it when it comes up right now. What's the number? They have a very, very low ESG score. Wow. There you go. 19.6, which is low, right? Lord and Heineken, super low score, industry rank 18 out of 607. Okay.

So they're not, they're not at the top of the game. They're doing that low. Okay. So what're not, they're not at the top of the game. They're doing that low. Okay. So what do they need to do? If the goal was to increase the ESG score, bingo she wants. That's your point. You're right. That's what I'm saying. She's, she's accomplished whatever it was that was jammed through the boardroom. They had a push and they, you know, they hired a whole, they've got to, I'm sure they've got a whole element there, a unit that is focused on this. And I think she's, you know, I'm sure they've got a whole element there, a unit that is focused on this.

And I think she's cemented her position. Oh, yeah, for sure. So, but anyways, here's one day I just saw. Rob, I'm going to send this to you. I want you to take a look at this from Statista. And it's about, you may have seen this a couple months ago. I want to say, what's his name talked about this. Bill Mark talked about this, but this actually breaks down the data.

Rob, I'm going to send it to your Macbook Pro and as well as your phone. So whichever one you get it, pull it up. Take a look at this. To me, if I'm sitting in the marketing team and we're trying to get our product to a new audience, a new market, you have to pull up data and you have to look at statistics and say what market are we not in to get into? Look at this data here from Statista. This is not a political party. This is not a left. This is not Fox. This is not CNN. This is a statistic. 7 2% of US adults identify as LGBT. Just 40 years ago was less than 1%. Okay.

It's not 7.2%. And then if you go by 2014, word was, okay, yellow is millennials, Gen Zs didn't exist yet. Or green is Gen Xs, then you got boomers and you got seniors, right? Traditionalist. If you go to 2017 millennials go up, 2020 millennials go up, 2022 millennials go, but look at Gen Z right off the bat was 16% now 19.7% of Gen Z's identify as LGBT. That's that's one in five Vinnie, one in five. So now people say, no one's grooming. What do you come up? What do you mean? They're just natural. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're choosing on who they want to be. This is their choice.

No, this statistics tells a story of what's going on. And there's a reason why a lot of parents are worried. Did you see a third congressman just flipped from Democratic Party? Oh, I didn't see that. It was third representatives in the last 30 days that flipped from reput, from Democratic to Republican party, two from Louisiana, okay. Well, there's one in Carolina. Yeah, one in Carolina.

Yeah. And it just said, we can't, we're going to the other side. You're going to see a lot more of these happening because there are Democrats that were Kennedy Democrats that are sitting there just saying, I don't know, man, I just can't be going with this anymore. This kind of stuff has started to become very, very weird right now. Yeah. Well, I just want to validate exactly what you're saying with that. Bill Mard did that about six years ago.

Can you show that the North Carolina person that flipped? So, okay, right there, North Carolina. Yeah, and two more from Louisiana flipped as well. And go back to that statistic, if you don't mind. But here's actually something that I think that we should remember. I actually just saw this on Fox News. I sent you this story. Something that Gen Z does,

that no other generation does is watch TikTok. Of all day. If you don't think that China, who owns bite dance or the CCP owns bite dance, is basically promoting their algorithm to promote this type of information. To Gen Z, you be foolish and you be naive. Here's actually something I saw on Fox News recently,

where this former trans influencer basically saying, hey, I was that guy. I'm that dude. I drink the cool later, the Bud Light. And I'm full on blaming TikTok for the rise of this gender ideology because you know the algorithm on TikTok, basically it's like, once they suck you in, boom, you're going down that rabbit hole.

So if you're young, if you're 16, 18, 20, and you're kind of just figuring it out, you don't really have strong feelings or an ideology. Of course, he's that sounds what you just said. Watch what Biden just did. This is a story from the Washington Examiner. Biden and Liz hundreds of social media influencers for upcoming reelection bid.

Of course. Joe Biden is enlisting help of hundreds of social media influencers for upcoming reelection bit. Of course. Joe Biden is enlisting a help of hundreds of social media influencers and is unnounced reelection bit with an emphasis on mobilizing young voters according to Newport. Influences will be cross-platform such as TikTok, Instagram and Twitter will praise. Biden's accomplishments and agenda to their followers, the influencers are not getting paid. And there are four digital staffers devoted who working with them who are officially employees of the White House, some of the enlistes influencers

include 20-year-old TikTok creator, Harry Sissen, Boston College professor and Twitter users, Heather Cox Richardson's and financial TikTok are Vivian too. What do you think about this, right? Oh, God. You know, who doesn't want TikTok to be banned nationally? The Biden administration.

When you read that story, do you think yourself, okay, are they going to ban TikTok? Probably not, given that we've got the 2024 election coming up. And, you know, I give the Democrats credit because they are much better at messaging. They're much better at understanding the dynamics of communicating, right? And the Republicans, you know, they couldn't organize

panic and a dube summary, right? I mean, they're really, they need to pay attention to what the dams are doing because they are effective. You can agree or disagree with how they go about it. And frankly, the other point, then I'll shut up, is that bite dance in China? Completely different animal. Yeah, yeah.

Right? There is no way in hell that 99% of the crap on TikTok would ever make its way on the bike dance. They won't allow it. And there's a reason for that is because they look at it and go, this shit's degenerative. So anyway, that's. No, I'm not, I agree with you. So I'm like, what do you think and going off Adam's point? What do you think? A, obviously biting them like it because of the reach that it gets to these young people. But what is China? Because I don't trust China at all.

I don't give a sh- every time I talk shit, people like, all your races, no, I'm not racist against the Chinese. I hate the Chinese government how they treat their people. Do you think that China's just trying to make our youth soft just in case, I'm just going for, for militarily, if you have to attack or whatever, as long as the men are soft,

you can take over or like a revolution from the men. Yeah, sure, I think absolutely. They look at this as a, essentially a cold war on many different fronts, right? So they're out there hoovering up economic information, right? They're gathering all, they've been doing that for decades, very aggressively. And they're busy building up their military

and they're also understanding the impact of technology. And they've been looking at this. I mean, it's the same, you know, they've Russian disinformation, whatever it may be. It's the same thing. The Chinese just have more, the regime has more resources. Yeah, I agree with you.

It drives me crazy when people go, well, look at you, you know, you're a huge xenophobic. Yeah. No, I'm talking, look, Chinese culture, history, people, amazing, right? It's an incredible place. The regime sucks, right?

She has cemented himself as president for life. He has put his thumb down. Their internal security service is stronger than it's ever been. There's no rule of law, right? And it's all thanks to Xi'an and his cronies. Look, they believe that they are as close as they've ever been to the top step of the ladder on the food chain, right? They are convinced that they're almost there

and they're acting like it. One more point. You brought up basically what they show on TikTok in the United States, which has all been banned by many government officials. India, I think it's banned and some other companies have banned it, is wildly different of what they show the youth in China.

By the way, Vinnie, do you know what they show the youth in China on American social media apps like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat? Do you know what they show the China? China? No. Yeah, nothing because that's not allowed in their country. Zero. They don't allow any of that's not allowed in their country. Okay. They don't allow any of the American owned apps in their country. Well, they do, they do show the Bud Light commercial.

Oh, that's for sure. Yeah. Yeah. You know, while you're while you're talking about the story came I yesterday about AI, but chaos BT chat, that chaos GBT. I don't know if you heard about this or not. Tweets out plans to destroy humanity after being tasked. Now watch this pretty wild right when you go down but look what it says. So you're like okay this is probably just kind of a bunch of you know some questions are being left unanswered and on AI bot was recently given five horrifying tasks to destroy humanity which led to attempt to recruit other AI agents researching nuclear weapons and sending out ominous tweet about humanity. The bot chaos, GBT is an altered version of open AI auto GBT, the publicly available

open source application that can process human language can respond to tasks given by users in a YouTube video posted on April 5th. The bot was asked to complete five goals, destroy humanity, establish global dominance, cause chaos and destructions, and again, control humanity through manipulation and attain immorality, immorality. Before setting the goals,

the user enabled continuous mode to which a warning appeared telling the user that the commands could run forever or carry out actions you would not usually authorize and should be used at your own risk. And a final message before running chaos Gbt asked the user if they were sure they wanted to run the commands to which they replied why for yes. Pat yesterday of this funny that's created that the story comes out yesterday I was like it's happening with all,

I was like, hey Alexa, turn on Spotify. She's like, you're all gonna die. I was like, what? I was like, turn on Spotify. I was like, what'd you say? She's like, nothing. So I was gonna ask you, Mike, are you more scared of our adversaries teaming up?

Like, China and Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iran, or are you more fearful of the AI situation that every single day it's getting crazier and crazier and these robots are warning us what they're going to do. Yeah, I mean, I'm more worried about AI and how a state not aligned with our own interests and our allies interests can use it, right? So I'm not worried that somehow China and Russia are going to meld together as you know, some best friend for life and and you know, they're always going to kind of come and go

based on what their own personal you know or nation's best interests are. But the AI thing, I mean look, we had a problem before AI with nobody bothering to do any research, right? They'd read whatever they saw on TikTok or on whatever that charm all in. Sure, I believe that shit because nobody takes the time

to critically think about the information that's thrown at them. And, you know, look, I don't think I'm not a backer of the idea that we should take some sort of break on researching AI, I think that's the wrong approach because, in part, because the Chinese regime is not gonna take a break on developing technology, but I do think we need to understand exactly

how dangerous it's going to be. I want to ask this question. So as a guy who's in that world, you were an agent for how long? What was the going on 20 years? You were a CIA agent for 20 years, covert operations officer, right? So you were a, this was your job. This was not like a person's using somebody in media to say, hey, we want you to kind of help us out with some information Right. No, this is what you did for livin' okay and When you were in what year to what you were you and what were the what were the years you served? I was in I got out

Around 2000 or so so 1980 to 2000 give or take yeah, okay, so during those years Facebook comes out in 04. Okay. I think my space is 03. Oh, I don't know the exact year, but it's around the same time. Can you check to see when my space came out? So social media wasn't really fully around from 1980 to 2000. So during that time, when you guys are working on ops and you're worried about China or Russia

or what they're doing. What were some of those threats then that they use to inject their propaganda and their beliefs? We've all seen what that Russian operative, what's his name, Boris, you know when he says, well, this information and they use this and they use that. What were some of the fears and concerns you have when you saw how they attacked us? Yeah, I mean, this has been going on forever. It's a great point that you're raising. The technology has Made it easier right to influence people to to get your ideas out there So if you think about

Go all the way back to World War two right before Hitler invaded Russia Then they were allies, right? So what was Russia busy doing? They were busy for Hitler invaded Russia, then they were allies. So what was Russia busy doing? They were busy trying to influence, and Germany to some degree as well, trying to influence US public opinion.

At the time, it was very sort of isolationist at the point. So the Russian agents were here, they were influencing trade unions. They were buying journalists, right, to print articles. They were buying journalists to print articles. They were setting up fake associations that would push isolationists. So it was a more laborious process in a way. Those things are still done, but the technology has just sped the ability to do that, to influence. So if you're trying to influence the population

of a small country to overthrow it to get rid of some despotic dictator, for instance, in the old days, it was a long-term covert action campaign. And now you've just got so many options, right? And people have, I think something else that's happened is, again, this idea that because every generation wants it to be easier for their own kids, right? Eventually you get to diminishing returns. And by that, I mean, naturally, my father wanted it to be easier for me. His father wanted it to be easier for him.

I wanted it to be easier for my kids. Well, eventually you get to this point where it becomes so soft, right? You can have this shit that goes on around soft, right? You can have this shit that goes on around us, right? Because we're not worried about going out and finding clean water and collecting food and you know, it's, I don't, maybe that theory is completely off,

but that's where I'm going. So they would buy, let's just say, journalists that's working at New York Times or they would buy journalists that working at a major paper. That was one of their ways and then hey write this or influence this and that was their way to getting to the people Yeah, you would look for you would typically it would be a sort of a broader campaign You wouldn't say just one right? I mean and you operate on a lot of different levels

Like this is nothing new. I'm not you know talk. How would they met this is Mike? How would they make sure that they wouldn't whistleblower say anything? Why, how would they make sure the journalists wouldn't come out and say, I just got approached by this and they're paying me this much money. I just want to come out and tell you what I'm in doing. It's the same way you would go out and say, I'm going to, I'm going to, you know, recruit some asset, right?

You have to, you have to ensure that you understand what their motivations are, right? It's the same thing, right? So, you know, that's why you wouldn't go after somebody who would be a leading journalist of their day. Because in today's world, you've got somebody who's got 10 million followers. You're not going to necessarily do that. You're going to do it a more subtle way, which is what the technology allows you to do. It allows you to put it in various ways.

People watch something on TikTok. And their first thought is not, this is probably disinformation, or I wonder if somebody's paying for this campaign. Yeah. Would it be easier to be a CIA agent today or during your time, meaning the tools, the tools are the tools are the tools. They're always going to what, the tools are going to evolve and they're going to change and they're going to be here and they're going to move on.

Is it harder to be an agent today to catch or is it easier to find their fingerprints in different places and kind of work it backwards? Yeah, it's easier today in certain ways, right? You're not walking around in the middle of some shit hole, trying to figure out where the hell you are using the map and the compass, shooting an asthma thing. I mean, you're just like, so you're just like,

looking at your phone, going, oh, we're right here. You know, we're half a click away from the target. And in the old days, you'd be like, I don't know where the hell we are. I don't want to make it sound overly simplistic, but there's some truth to that. And, or you're stopping around, you know, someplace looking for a phone that actually works, right?

Because you're in someplace, it's, you know, difficult a challenging environment. Now you got to figure out where is there a phone? I can actually, this is actually a phone. Payful, yeah. Remember those days. And so, but in other ways,

it hasn't really changed because in other ways, the key to intelligence, whether you're talking about US intelligence community or you're talking about the Brits or anyone out there or our adversaries. The key is the human source, right? I mean the technology has improved in terms of your collection of technical information, right? You know, we get satellites up there floating around, right? I mean there's China has this you know program trying to capture all the data off our satellites. You know, we talk about, you know, space is going to become weaponized.

It already is. I'll just say that. And so, but at the core of intelligence is the human, right? And that really hasn't changed that much, right? Identifying who's got access to something, who's possibly motivated to talk to you and why? You know, that's probably never gonna get what we're the profile of people that could be

a bot like and what I mean by that is when you want to get somebody that Is giving us Intel and is becoming a spy for us? You're getting somebody from Russia that's giving us feedback of what they're doing What profile would you look at to see this guy could be a good asset for us? Yeah, I mean, I would argue that in places like China, in places like Russia, it can be easier because you've got more opportunity, right? They're living in a, you know, it's,

you've got more avenues of attack, right? In a place like the US where, you know, you still have your traders, unfortunately, people like James Nicholson and Edley Hanson and, or sorry, Hanson and Edley Howard and Aldrich Haynes and all these guys. So you still have people like that, but it is a little bit easier, I think,

to target people who are living under the thumb of a regime because you can point out the obvious, you know, to some degree. But typically ideology, and there's been a lot written about all of this and the techniques for recruitment. So I'm not, again, this is not sources and methods, but typically ideology is not the driver.

It's something else. It's something more personal. Maybe it's something as base as money. Maybe it's they don't feel like they've enough hugs, right? A lot of times they feel disrespected, right? And you're saying ideology is not the number one motive? Yeah, typically not. It's not an asset. Yeah, you have to, when you think about the biggest cats, I mean, and that's although that's, you know, some of the best Russian sources we've had over the years. Again, nothing new, this stuff's been out there. Is, you know, they have been based on ideology, but for the most part, it's something else.

Their kid is sick and they need access to healthcare or something, whatever it may be. And it could be very pedestrian as a reason, but you have to look for those things. And again, I guess the point being going back to the original point is the technology helps to speed things along sometimes. But underlying that, you still, you need somebody, you can collect all the information remotely and through intercepts that you want, but you need somebody standing in that tent who can then tell you what

everybody looked like when they made this decision, right? Or what were they actually thinking? Yeah. Because I was in the United States Air Force at a nuclear missile base. What was my first assignment? And to get my clearance, I'll never forget I go home at the mall in my town. And my fifth grade, my, I'm 19 at this point. My fifth grade math teacher, Mr. Bonaparte,

big buff, he was a football player, black guy. He was like, oh, Shana. I'm like, hey, Mr. Bonaparte, big buff, he was a football player, black guy, he was like, oh, Shana, I'm like, hey, Mr. Bonaparte, we have a moment, he's like, what the hell are you doing? And I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, the, someone in the government called me, I'm not even joking,

and they asked me if I thought that you as a child would grow up to do anything to like sabotage or do something against the country, and I'm like, what? He's like, yeah, he's like, good luck with whatever the hell you're doing. He's like, I can't make this up. And I was like, whoa, that's just part of the vetting process.

That's for the airport. That's for the airport. That's for the normal girl. So yeah, it's normal. But going to my point, you're talking about technology. So when you have it's easier, I'm guessing for their digital profile, like a Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook, that must have been the CIA and the government's just like,

oh my God, people have been fighting to keep this information. Now, you're just giving it because it's cool to do that helps. Yeah, well, I mean, look, I run a company that private sector business that does intelligence and investigations and due diligence and the amount of information that's available out there on the average citizen, not just here in the US, but around the world for the most part,

it's astonishing compared to 20 years ago, 30 years ago for sure, but it's, again, it's that uniquely American mindset, which is the government I gotta worry about. No, it's not. It's the private business, or the private sector, that's been hoovering up all this information that you've been gleefully, happily giving them. It's the private business, or the private sector that's been hoovering up all this information that you've been gleefully, happily giving them.

Let me tell you something, Mike. A generation ago, you could literally have a family in the next town over, and your family would not know. Okay? Now, if you look at another girl's story on Instagram, your sleuth CIA girlfriend will find you in less than 24 hours. That's the sign of the time. I'm speaking from experience. I'm 100% not making from experience. I love you baby. No, but it's so true that technology has sped up everything in our lives for good and for bad.

I'm like just really fast not to go up So a lot of people get confused when it comes to agent, CIA agent, which you are, to assets. And my question is, when it comes to like an asset, is there an expiration date on that person? Like let's say you use them on a mission, are they just on standby for a future or is it kind of like good luck, goodbye? Yeah, terminology always trips people up.

You're right. It's not so much agent. You know, it's officer. Don't know why. Got you. Asset, you're right, is the target. Got you. Individual.

Agent is typically law enforcement, got you. For the most part. And there is a difference here. There's a difference between law enforcement recruitment of assets or sources, and intel community, right? And this is kind of goes across the board. It's not just, I don't think it's,

my experience is not just in the US, is that, you know, you tend to, from an Intel perspective, you tend to look at assets for long term. Because you never know where they're gonna end up, right? Law enforcement for good reason, sometimes it's a, you know, it's a project specific or a case specific,

you know, recruitment or development of a source. And then boom, you're gone, right know, recruitment or development of a source. And then boom, you're gone, right? Or you need to burn the source because you're moving towards, you know, the courts. So there is a big difference there. But you know, human nature being what it is, I don't know that motivations have changed that much, right? I think attention spans of short.

But I don't think motivations have changed that much for people. Mike, are you following this restrict act? Have you heard the story about what the restrict act is? Boy, you know, I'd like to say I have them because I would make me sound smarter. Yeah, but I don't have a clue what you're talking about. Okay, so this is something that a lot of... Exactly what a C.I. agent would say. Yeah, you've been studying restrict act for months. You've just been outed, Mike.

Well, and so is your family next town. Oh, yeah. You heard about that. Ma, Boca. So the Restrict Act, it's kind of like the Patreon. Rob, go down. It's a new Patreon Act. It's the new Patreon Act.

Let me read the top, Rob, if you can. Just write the Restrict Act, establishes a risk-based process, tailored to rapidly changing technology and threat environment by directing the Department of Commerce to identify and mitigate establishes a risk-based process, tailor to rapidly changing technology and threat environment by directing the Department of Commerce to identify mitigate foreign threats to information and communications technology products and services. Now the key word this is foreign threats. Very soon they're going

to add an additional word called domestic threats. You know where you're in America, you're creating content on YouTube according to restrict act We got to shut you down because your content is this you're doing what you're doing on you know Instagram or tic-tac or Twitter So you you know we talked about this with Giuliani to see what his thoughts were because for me I asked him a question I said as much as the recoil acted good and you were able to catch all the bad guys That can also set the tone for us to come up with the Patriot Act and the next act,

and the next act, which means more and more and more of big brother or somebody watching over what we're doing. Why should this be something people should be concerned about? Well, because with the exception, I mean, realizing where I came from, but so there is, I think, a need for secrecy on certain things, sources and methods, and there's a reason why there's a need for secrecy on certain things, sources and methods.

And there's a reason why there's a need to know to some degree. But there's also a very important reason why you need as much transparency in government as possible. And so part of that is how curious are the people that you send to Washington to represent you? Are they asking the right questions? Or is it basically just a self interested for that party?

Or actually, well, that's sexist of me, that isn't it. But then what about light though? They would have fun light. It's gonna be alright. That joke is never gonna fail. Never gonna get old. It's always good. So yeah, I think that there's, you know, half the time, look, there's a, there is, again,

I'll speak to what I know, which is the, the agency. There's a well-worn path between, agency headquarters and Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, of briefers going back and forth and back and forth and talking to the Senate and Intel committees and, and, and, and congressional and tele and back and forth and talking to the senate intel committees and and congressional until communities and explaining to them what's going on and then there's this game that gets played in washington where when something breaks and it looks like you know the intel community was engaged in something that people didn't know about our oversight didn't know about

it's a horse yet of course they knew about it right they just but there's a game that gets played where they can go out in front of the cameras and express angst and anger over. I can't believe this is going on. I'm gonna get to the bottom of this. We're gonna start investigation. Of course, no investigation ever results in anything in Washington, D.C.

But it's an important point, which is you need to have that communication. You need to have your intel community, your law enforcement on a particular federal level talking to your representatives and them asking questions and trying to make sure that there is to the degree that it's a possible transparency. Yeah, I'm going to transition to Pentagon stories. The only thing I'm asking is I thought you would know more

about the restrict act because this is a for a lot of content creators amongst content creators a lot of people are talking about this because you know When you get to move the goalpost and you can kind of create guidelines to target whoever you want during any season Just because something was According to allegedly and all these guys nowadays that are getting allegedly and their lives are being ruined by allegedly instead of actually being convicted or charged. It's a very weird, fickle time we're living in.

So some people are sending their send list of men. All these new acts are coming up. We saw what happened last time you came up with this and it backfired on a lot of different people. Here's a guy Giuliani, who his license has been suspended. He doesn't have a way of making money right now as a lawyer. Just because allegedly he was part of something. He hasn't lost it yet. He's not been this part, but his license is not there for him to practice. It's important to just protect those people who are doing podcasts and shows and they're given

their opinions and they're given their thoughts versus saying, this one of the reasons why I love what rumble is doing. We're not a, I don't even know if we put our shows on rumble regularly or not. We're not one that promotes rumble or any of that. But the reason why I love what Musk did, I love what Spotify did, I love what Rumble did. What Musk did with Twitter, scared to crap out of everybody,

because they were always united together with Jack Dorsey and all of them The moment they lost Twitter with Musk. They all had to check themselves The moment Musk brought Twitter back on Facebook and all those guys brought Trump back on right so Spotify the moment Spotify didn't silence Joe Rogan they realized oh shit. There's another place they can go take their podcasts with right so we could take a loss even though all those guys Starts I'm gonna take my songs off. I'm never gonna sell here, I'm gonna talk to you, I'm gonna,

okay, no problem. Spotify said, yeah, we don't care, we're gonna be fine. Yeah, Joe bias. Oh my God, Joe bias is leaving Spotify. That's right, that's right. Hell am I gonna listen? And even rumble, you know what rumble is doing right now. Rumble is kind of getting YouTube to realize

there's a second option. So if you choose to really constantly do this, the pay-trick that concern becomes if they target the guys that are on those platforms. How can we now control people on Twitter, even on its own by Elon Musk? How can we control people on Rumble? This is one of the reasons why some people

are concerned about restrict that. Quick point, don't feel bad because this is very new. I think it came out less than a month ago when the TikTok CEO testified in front of Congress. And essentially the concern with this restrict act is is that they're using, you know, banning TikTok as a Trojan horse to say, we gotta, you know, we gotta get this out of here

but then it's gonna be a slippery slope to like next thing, you know, Instagram's banned or YouTube's banned and it's just more government control. And you know, our friend Reagan once said the most terrifying words that you ever hear is I'm from the government and I'm here to help. And I think that's the biggest concern about this. And then I know we're going to switch gears here, but also speaking of government control, the whole central bank digital currencies, the CBDCs, things, that's another concern to

coincide with this restrict that. Rob, can I read this? Can you zoom in a little bit more to read this? I mean, you're going to have to work with me here because I can't. So yeah, so as I'm going right, you got to go do that with me. Okay. So this is what restricting the emergence of secret theories of information communications technology act or to restrict that.

Okay, fine. Let's see what it says. So this is March 7th, a month ago. This bill requires federal actions to identify, mitigate, we just read this, foreign thrust information communication technology, ICT products and services, penalties for violations under the bill. I wonder what that is specifically. The Department of Commerce must identify, deter, disrupt, prevent prohibit investigation and mitigate transactions involving ICT Products and services in which any foreign adversary such as China, okay, they're starting it off with China But that'll change in a minute has any interest and that pose an undo or unacceptable risk to the US national security or safety of

US persons Additionally commerce must identify and prefer to the present and any covered holdings that poses an undue or unacceptable risk to US national security or the security of safety of US. Keep going, keep going, keep going. Persons, if the president determines that the holding possesses such a risk the president may compel divestment. Okay, so this specifically sounds like it is a TikTok type of a thing they're targeting, right?

It doesn't sound like it's a US company they're targeting, but everything starts off like second amendment, a lot of guys that are worried about any kind of slight regulation because then they're going to say, oh, now we got this, oh, now let's get this, oh, now let's get that, oh, now let's bet, oh, now let's, I mean, this, oh, now let's get this, oh, now let's get that, oh, now let's, oh, now let's, I mean, this, oh, now let's, I mean, that, so anyways, it starts like this and it gets a little bit more to your business. Well, I think it's a, you know, look, it's sort of a sidebar to Cypheus

and some of the other, you know, regulations that are out there about, you know, what companies can come into the US and purchase. So, I, there's a, but you're right in the sense that the government does tend to throw a big net out there on any issue, on any concern, right? And then with the assumption that, well, at some point, maybe we'll tidy it up and we'll restrict the parameters.

We'll get a little bit more specific. But right now, we're going to throw that net out there and see what happens. So I think there's, so you're right to be concerned about the sliding nature of US government actions, and which is again why transparency is probably the best way because once you get this information out there, once people understand, and nobody,

I'm a good case in point, to your point, I don't feel bad not knowing about it if it's a month old. Honestly, if it was a year old, I probably still would Why got us a big tiktok or yourself? Oh, you would sure knew all this stuff. I had one last point. You know the whole foreign adversaries thing So you brought up rumble. Well rumble. We know was I think formed in Canada Yeah, so that should be a concern, because where do they label for an ad in the States?

They've moved their headquarters to Sarasota, though. I think he's in Sarasota, which is a good point. But it's a Toronto based company. I know it is, it still is. So again, to me, Rumble is necessary for the marketplace. Okay, Spotify is necessary for the marketplace. Okay, Twitter is necessary for the marketplace. Because it minimizes bullion.

You can't bully when there's alternative options. Bud Light doing what they did. There's so many different other beer companies that the market's like, yeah, you know what, no problem. Let's find out. Maybe you're right. It may be the transgender. If it takes your stock to the next double sales goes up 60%.

We'll sit there and say, salute, good for you. I don't know where you found a market, but congratulations. But if the market drops 30% like you did last week and they're going to cores, now watch if cores says, well, we also have to follow our ESG score and cores are something stupid like this and they go grab somebody else,

then they're also following the camp. Someone has to come up, who was the guy that did the commercial? Was it Jeep? There's a commercial like 10 years ago or five years ago where the commercial was about here's why America's great And it was a voice like that. Yeah reason why America's great because we build things We're builders. Yeah, and you're listening to this you like I have a builder This is what we do and you're like damn out of Jeep

You know man, he can relate stocks to me I think it was something commercial that was so, I just hit and got, but I keep going. Yeah, it was a very, very much of a pro-American.