The Ben and Emil Show - BAES 171: Why the price of diesel is getting scary

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

WTF going on with the price of diesel and why is it way, wayyyy more important than the price of regular gas? Why should you care? We'll tell you, you little freak. BEN & EMIL ON SMOKING OUT NOW: https://youtu.be/t2wWZaE3JTw For bonus episodes, discord access, fan Q&A, merch, Ben's monthly playlist, and to support the show: https://benandemilshow.com/ Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it! And please leave us a comment! It helps us! Edited by - https://www.instagram.com/conrad_roussrad/ Thumbnail by - https://www.instagram.com/cheyedewolf/ For all you audio freaks: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7M0vN85aGO0zdh62hyg03I Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-and-emil-show/id1693270208 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/51280f1b-2fbd-4ea9-bdde-e96f70b5b1ae/the-ben-and-emil-show iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-ben-and-emil-show-117763570/ Follow us! TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@thebenandemilshow Instagram - https://instagram.com/benandemilshow Twitter - https://x.com/benandemilshow Ben - https://instagram.com/bencahn Emil - https://instagram.com/emilderosa https://www.youtube.com/emilderosa https://substack.com/@emilderosa Our newest acid video is out now so check it out! https://youtu.be/7vkFY3f5kkw Some other videos of ours you may enjoy: https://youtu.be/qX4pks0ASq8 https://youtu.be/_VOVxt3ZtIE https://youtu.be/5wsoc5pieuA https://youtu.be/dTbEk0pVh2w https://youtu.be/yGSs56bFzRU https://youtu.be/cIHWkY35cuc https://youtu.be/zBvVGHZBpMw https://youtu.be/1ZUWTkWV_MM https://youtu.be/_cM1XqA9n2U Chapters: 00:00: Intro, Ben's Mercedes 06:55: JP Morgan is lost 11:54: Russia is a problem 15:31: Freshbooks ad 17:02: Pipelines are getting hit 25:40: Trump at the UN 31:00: Quince ad 32:54: Trump's options 39:40: Sewers 44:11: Will these prices affect you? 50:30 Questions and what to do 1:00:03: Paramount merger news __ FRESHBOOKS: Get FreshBooks for less than $3 a month for your first four months—90% off—at https://www.freshbooks.com/podcast?utm_campaign=podcast_benandemilshow&utm_medium=podcast QUINCE: Find your next fall favorites at Quince—download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or visit https://quince.com/BAES for free shipping and 365-day returns, now available in Canada and the UK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. What is Diesel? I know, I, for my... And it's not just the jeans company that foreign exchange students would wear in high school. And it's not the third track off of the 1997 album, The Fat of the Land by the English Electronic Group Prodigy.

So this, this East-West pipeline getting hit in Saudi Arabia is bad because it was the main... Well, it's only bad if you use diesel, oil, gas, or anything. Which we all do in a roundabout way. National highs of... $6.52, which is up 69% from a year ago. We've never

hit this in American history. And I like breaking records. It's nice to be here for history. Hell yes. Donald Trump, you did it again. That thing's just begging a B-shot out with the ticket. I want to attack. I just, I want to stop doing the podcast right now.

I just want to shoot it with a drum. Spain is doing a diesel discount until end of month. Wacky diesel discount. Come on down. the wacky diesel discount. Come on down to Diego's diesel for a pipeline, got you feeling down, wacky diesel discount. Hungary's doing a thing. Only Hungarians are getting a discount.

Are you hungry for diesel? Then come on down because Hungarians only are getting diesel discounts. Come on down to Heinrich's hungry diesel. What's going on to you? What's going on you? What's going on? Everyone else stop listening. just you. I want to talk to you.

Yeah. We want to tell you what's going on. Welcome to the show, ladies and gentlemen. You're here because you want to know what's going on. And I'm Ben. I'm a bill. Yeah. And this week we are talking about, man, what the heck is going on with the price of diesel? And gasoline. What? And gasoline. And gasoline. And jet fuel. But we're going to tell you all about why this matters as hell. And what's happening so badly that not even J.P. Morgan, you know, the credit card bank. not even they know what's going on. They have thrown their hands up. They said, we don't even know.

You're on your own. We don't even know. We're going to be talking about all this, why the price of diesel is so important. And normally you just see it on the gas thing. You're like, damn, I'm glad I don't drive a freaking truck. But why it's important for you, it could affect your holiday travel and everything else, the economy and all that stuff.

So it's a pretty big deal. We're going to talk about what the administration plans to do about it. You are about to be so informed. baby. So why don't you just relax? Kick back. You're a little baby, but you're also informed.

Yeah, you're a little informed baby. Goo Goo Gaga, not you. Not you. You're going to be going, ooh, ha, ha. I know. I know.

Yeah. So by the end of this episode, you're going to be a veritable expert on diesel and what's going on with all that mess. But before we do that, hey, Q&A time is right around the corner.

So Ben andamilshar.com, sign up there. and support the show, please. And also, you can leave a voicemail for us and we will answer it. Our smoking video is up. Ben and Emile on smoking is on the YouTube. And there's another one coming.

Yeah, there's another one coming right around the corner next week. And we're going to have an extended cut for subscribers at Ben andemielshare.com. So be be be, beep, beep, beep. Extended is a generous term. This is a bunch of footage. How long is it?

38 minutes. Some people are saying, 38 hours. It's crazy. Yeah. So nobody really knows how long it is. Nobody. Nobody knows. Okay. We're also going to get into some

Paramount Merger. Oh yeah. Got to talk about that. Dude, that thing is a mess. Sit tight. Talk about a mess. All right. It's a mess. The goddamn Hollywood.

Folks, it's all a mess. But we're navigating it, right? So, hey, what is Diesel, in fact? I, for my... And it's not just the genes. company that foreign exchange students would wear in high school.

And it's not the third track off of the 1997 album The Fat of the Land by the English Electronic Group Prodigy. Exactly. Diesel power. I was listening to that at the gym today doing my hack squats and I was like GUR.

Was it getting you fired up? It was getting me fired. I shouldn't have done that. Fuck. Did that hurt? No, but it just, it's not good for your aneurysm. It's not good for anything. Yeah, yeah. Everyone, say a prayer for Ben's aneurism. Say a prayer. I used to drive at 1981 Mercedes diesel

four door, and that thing was a tank. Oh, sure. Those things would run forever. Dude, it died on the freeway on me on my birthday. The eve of my birthday, at 315,000 miles. Most of which were not put on by me or my family, but by a family friend. Did it make that classic noise when it was running? Yeah, it would

Just like a boat A boat pulling into... Oh, dude. Yeah, that was it, a 300D. This thing, you know how normally in a gas, in a car, you accelerate and the RPMs go up in kind. This thing, you floored it or you gave it just a little bit, didn't make a difference.

It was the same speed. It was just... It took no joke about a minute to get up to freeway speeds. And it also idled incredibly rough. And when you turn the steering wheel while you were parked, it would shake violently, sometimes to the point where it would just die. That always was a joy. A real classic car.

Ah, such a great car. I still remember how it smelled. That was back when Mercedes. It is great that they built that car and they were like, yep, let's sell us to people. Yeah. It was a tank. It was a boat. It was built to last.

And now Mercedes are just hot garbage. Anyway, diesel is the thing, is the type of gas that powers everything other than your car. Unless you're European, in which case. you probably have a diesel car in stick shift. Oh, electricity as well. Electricity, um, some people have actually, uh, don't they have natural gas cars? I've seen that before.

Got fart powered cars now. I'm almost positive. I've seen, no, you're right. There are some natty gas ones, yeah. I've seen the, uh, gas pumps that have it, LNG or whatever. L MNOP, I don't know, LNG, QRS. Man, I don't even know.

Diesel is at all-time highs. I just checked today because they update them. They update the prices. National highs of $6.52, which is up 69% from a year ago. We've never, we've never hit this in American history. And I like breaking records. It's nice to be here for history. Hell yes. Donald Trump, you did it again. Dude, that's a, that's a heck of a perspective. Here in California, we're breaking even more records because it's $7.70. Oklahoma is $5.38 roughly. Also, this is in actually, so kind of, it's in nominal terms and not adjusted for inflation. The record was actually set in 2008, $7.20.

There have been a lot of people talking about how the period between, you know, 2010 to 2016 when gas prices were very high, adjusted for inflation, especially when you're looking at barrels of oil and everything. how we're actually not doing so bad. Okay, that's a nice... All things considered. If you need to calm down, go look how bad it was adjusted for inflation.

Oh, man. There's all sorts of... All right, so... Number of the first question, why diesel rising? Why diesel high? Well, gas is high... Can we start with this J.P. Morgan thing?

Because it is very funny. They've basically just thrown their hands up. So, J.B. Morgan, as Ben was alluding to in the beginning of the episode, has basically admitted that they'd no longer longer have a baseline for oil. They just don't know what the hell to do. We simply don't know how to model the endgame, they said on September 17th. When the war started, they were like, all right, we, this is not good, but we can at least give you some estimates about

where we're going to be because we know that certain things won't happen, right? They basically said, we have a set of economic breaking points that, like, that Trump won't do. He'll either It would cause him to broker a deal. If any of these things happened and they were crude crossing a hundred dollars a hundred dollars a barrel, pump prices hitting $5 a barrel. And then the 10-year treasury yield topping 5%. And oil topping $100 a barrel? Yeah, I said that. Oh, I thought, oh, whoops.

And now all of these things have happened. And they were like, we don't know anymore. We didn't think, we thought this would stop him. It doesn't. He doesn't seem, he doesn't seem to care at all. They said all lines have been crossed. The exit strategy is less clear, not more. And we're still in this quagmire for much longer than anybody had anticipated,

including and especially them. And I want to be, you know, I want to be honest. I was, I was a panicking in the beginning. I truly thought, I thought it was. I thought it was going to be much worse. Yeah. Like, there was,

it was probably in like, March or April. I had a viral tweet that was like, I don't think you're going to Europe this summer, babe. Because I truly was like, it truly seemed like there's no way. I mean, they were panicking about,

they were panning about everything. You know, we're talking about 20% of the oil going offline because of the straight of Hormuz. A lot of that didn't come to pass. Yeah. Because they had figured out some workarounds, right. China was a big one. They basically

decreased their demand big time by a massive amount, anywhere from like 3 to 5 million barrels a day or something. Because they, China was actually one of the smart ones and that should have been our first like clue that this is going to last way, way longer. Well, because they did it. Yeah, but they halted like all of their exports. And then countries all around the world released from strategic reserves.

Yeah. A big one that we're going to get to, East-West pipeline. Saudi Arabia was able to reroute a lot of their oil that they were exporting through straight-of-Hormuz. Yeah. And things weren't great. Gas was high. Already.

Yeah. Gas was very high. But some things have happened that have... We're running out of runway. We're running out of runway. Well, so that brings us to why diesel is rising. and there are two supply shocks that are hitting at the same time.

Number one is your mama. Is what? Your mama? Oh, your mama. Your mama? Because she's so big or something? Because she's so big and she's so big and she'd block it. No, she's blocking it.

Damn. She's blocking it. No, I'm just kidding around. Number one is Russia. You know that thing going on over there between them in Ukraine? It is easy to forget because what are we at year four now?

Yeah, starting in 2022. Yeah. 10% of the world's diesel I learned so much about diesel researching this. 10% of the world's diesel comes from Russia, and Russia's shit is currently getting rocked very, very hard. If you haven't heard about Ukraine hit them with a thousand drones. Yeah, it's not good.

So their shit's getting rocked, and Russia is the second largest... Like I said, 10% of the world's diesel comes from Russia, and they are the second largest exporter after the U.S. We're number one, because, of course, we are. and they currently have a diesel export ban that has been pushed to September 30th after these Ukrainian strikes on refineries in August and their deputy prime minister,

this guy named Alexander Novak, signaled that it could actually go until Halloween, which is not going to make for... Not the kind of spooky want. No, that's going to be extra spooky. So we're already getting like, hey, 10% of the world's diesel is going to... is probably going to go even further out to October.

Fun fact, 50% of Russia's total diesel output comes from just six plants. One of them, one of the six, is fully down, so that's not good. And two are running at reduced capacity, so that is also not good. Within that, diesel is a seasonally, it's seasonally in higher demand. it's the opposite of gasoline because gasoline, it's in high demand in the summer months because people do be driving. And for diesel, their higher demand comes in fall in winter because of harvest season. Yeah, agriculture is a big... Yeah. And heating oil and freight.

So you got the prices already coming up that are going to be higher because of increased demand, coinciding with Russia's exports completely halted right now and they're at reduced capacity. But what's actually good is that our inventories are at the lowest seasonal level ever. And Europe is starting to import some from Mexico for the first time in seven years. That's actually, I'm joking. That's not good. I'm being sarcastic, you see. It's also not so much a supply problem, but also the refining process.

And we have not put any refineries online in a very long time, I believe, since the 70s. And it's not even like we could turn on more capacity. I think we're at like. 98% capacity right now. Though it's not just Russia. We've also gotten lucky. So I saw someone pointing out that for some reason, you know how every year the Gulf states are getting absolutely rocked with hurricanes?

Yeah, famously, that does tend to happen. Basically every year. Somehow, for the first time, the Gulf states are not modeled to get rocked by a hurricane this year. You guys have no idea how lucky you are. which would mean our capacity would have to go down for a little bit. So it's... Yeah.

It's confluence. We keep knocking wood that we're not going to get very many... Have God, pray to God, that they send them to the West Coast instead for these hurricanes. Which it does seem like is going to happen, but we'll deal with that. Russia being number one is just one issue. Issue number two, pipeline. And no, not the reef break in hope. Hawaii, you fucking Ha'oli.

Raja. Yeah, so... Like the... You know, the Banzai pipeline. Yeah, sure. Yeah, pipeline. Hey, game, we got to take a quick break to talk to all the business owners out there.

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That's 90% off under $3 a month for four months at freshbooks.com slash podcast. No, I'm talking about that other pipeline, multiple pipelines, the ones that are carrying oil across vast distances in the Middle East. The other reason diesel is high is because of the Strait of Hormuz. Yeah, all that sweet-ass brats. But that's been closed. And so, you know, maybe we can pull up a picture of the East-West pipeline here to show Saudi Arabia luckily had the East-West pipeline, which meant they were able to move somewhere between like four to seven million barrels per day over land that used to go through the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Yanboo. Forgive my pronunciation.

Yeah, there it is. Because it goes from east to west, hence the name. It's pretty great. Yeah. Whoever came up with this name, brilliant stuff. Now, the only problem, on September 12th, drones launched from Iraq. It's not exactly clear who it was. People are saying it's Iran-backed militias in Iraq.

Some people were saying it was the Houthis. But either way, the pipeline has been directly struck. And they shut the entire 745 miles. mile pipelines down. You said September 12th, but there's, there's a, it's a, it's a weird thing. Reuters has it on September 11th. Um, and they them, the, the, the, the Saudis themselves said September 10th. I don't know why, but that's just a weird discrepancy. Um, it could be a time zone thing. Yeah. Oh, right. Reporting it. I don't, I don't know. Yeah. It seems like, uh, yeah, September 11th celebration's got a little out of hand this year. Um, and yeah,

they had some, they had some, uh, explosions. Who was celebrating? Who was celebrated? I don't know. Saudis. I'm kidding again. I'm kidding again. We're doing that. But yeah, this is the, the international energy agency says that this is the largest supply disruption in history of the global oil market. And yeah, the hits just keep on coming. And you get to live through it. Isn't that interesting and fun? So this, this east-west pipeline getting hit in Saudi Arabia is bad because, uh, it's, It was the main... Well, it's only bad if you use diesel, oil, gas, or anything.

Which we all do in a roundabout way. It's bad because it was the main export route that avoids the Strait of Hormuz. And it's 1,200 kilometers long. Like you said, we don't know who did it. But it begs the question, these things need protection, these pipes. We need to put, like, a giant... I don't know. A fucking metal condom over these things.

I mean, if it was me, I would have put it underground. I think they already are a little underground, right? Some of them. I mean, maybe. But think about it, man, a condom, a big old condom. You got a little reservoir? A little rubber condom. Not a little, a massive one.

A massive rubber condom. On a massive scale, we need like a brown new deal. Brown for the oil. Got reservoir, reservoir tips for when the oil accidentally gushes out. You know? Contain it. It's got to be better than rubber, though, no? It's got to be rubber.

I don't know. It's better than nothing, right? Oh, yeah, look at that, dude. Yeah, bury that shit on the ground, plop it under ground. That thing's just begging a B shot out with the town. I want to attack it. Look at it. I know.

It's just, I want to fucking hit that thing. I mean, yeah, it's, like he's... Oh, I just, I want to stop doing the podcast right now. I just want to shoot it with a drone. Yeah, I want to head over there. It is funny. So Iraq confirmed that it came from their territory. And it was nice to see that they actually fired a couple military guys over it

because apparently they were asleep at the wheel and didn't, you know, I don't know if they could have prevented it. You're finding comfort that some poor guy lost his job over this. Some poor, a couple of smucks, yeah, lost their jobs. They, I don't know. I think more people might be losing their jobs because around the same time, the Houthis completed a takeover of the Red Sea, of Yemen's Red Sea coastline. Yeah.

which we talked about it a little bit. They had declared the Red Sea Straits, the Bob Elmandab straight, closed as well to... Bob Elmandab. To Saudi tankers. And yeah, they've seized the coastline and they seized an island called Perim,

which is apparently a really strategic... It's a luxury island. Location. I just want to say, real fast. Not ideal if you like getting oil out. These Iranian proxies that are causing a ruckus over there,

I just want to say like you know, you're droning, your drone bombing of the pipeline. How would you like it? Huh? If America did a drone attack on your what's that?

Oh, we have? Got it. Because we have. That's the joke. America's done quite a bit of it. Droney? I don't know what you're talking about. We're moving on from that.

You know what's wild, though, is Reuters. I took a guess that they've got, because they're like, we've done our satellite analysis. They have a deal with Planet Labs. Reuters? Yeah. Okay. And Planet Labs provides them with like up-to-the-minute

accurate satellite imagery, which doesn't seem like that should be allowed, right? Why? I don't know. Just like... You want only governments to be able to access the... No, no, that's a good point. But, I mean, it is interesting

because Reuters has come out and said that three pumping stations were damaged. And yeah, just real fast. So in terms of how long is it going to take for that oil, that pipeline to be restored, Aramco is trying to bypass the damage section and restore half capacity within days and full capacity within six weeks. And European refiners sucks to be you because they are told that they will not be receiving any

any crude oil at all. So I would do if I was in Iraqi militia right now. What? Shoot another drone at that thing. That's the thing. That's the thing. Dude. So now that they know that these are their vulnerable, at first it was a straight of Hormuz, now it's

these pipelines. The United Arab Emirates has this ad cop pipeline that runs from the Hobshan oil fields to Fujairaport just below the Strait of Hormuz. So that's a way for them

to bypass the strait is because it can go just below it from west to east. That's been a target since the war started. But also that one's only a crude oil pipeline and not for diesel. And, yeah, Yeah, like you said, the Bob Almondeb straight is where the Houthis are tightening control.

And it's just like... They're basically running out of options here. Yeah. I mean, you try to go this way. Someone else comes in, blows up your pipe down. You try to go this way. They cut off this straight. It's very via...

It's very via cone, if you think about it. Because it's very low, it requires very little to cause massive disruption. Oh, I mean, this whole thing is... the asymmetric warfare. Yeah. Well, not fun to live through. Fascinating to watch the... Yeah.

The way just like a couple of Shah Head drones can absolutely disrupt the world. It's insane. Yeah, it is wild. And not just in the Middle East. Ukraine, the same thing with their drone warfare. It's absolutely... Oh, things are terrifying. It's miserable.

Yeah. Okay. So that brings us to what's everybody... doing about this? Trump is on it. Trump is on it. And in fact, today, well, I'll get...

Did you see what he said at the UN General Assembly? I saw some of it. Okay, well, so he had already been talking about... He's always talking shit. He's always talking about how... He was talking about on social media, on true social,

about how he was going to make a decision about the war very soon. But today he was at the UN General Assembly in New York. Honestly, it's probably just worth it to read these quick three paragraphs from the New York Times talking about. So President Trump told the United Nations General Assembly in New York

that he had a decision to make on Iran to strike a deal with Tehran or, and this is in quotes, annihilate the Islamic Republic. Jesus. His threat amid a defense of the war he launched alongside Israel in February, came as allies have begun to openly question whether the United States remains a credible partner.

Mr. Trump, the second world leader to speak at the gathering, also celebrated his military operation in Venezuela this year when the United States expanded access and control over that country's vast oil reserves. But he saved the strongest words for Iran, declaring its reign as the bully of the Middle East over, even as he raised the prospect of driving that nation, and again, in quotes, into hell with no chance of survival.

So he said, I have a big decision to make. He said, will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before, maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East, or even the world? Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people in countries again.

Decisions, decisions. Hmm. What to do? At this point, he's fully just talking about, should I nuke these fuckers? I mean, yeah, what else is he talking about? But the decision I was going to say is that he said that he was going to stop diesel exports from the United States, which was a big... Yeah, Chuck Grassley is... Yeah.

He's been pushing... this. I don't think this is a great idea. It's not a good idea. It's also funny, you know, the guys like this will come out and be like, I've got it. But they'll never be like, should we stop the war? Yeah. Should we stop? Do you fuck with the war? Although at this point, I don't even know how you stop it. Like, he's in a position where... He doesn't know either. I mean, there were so many moments where he could have quit while he was ahead. I mean, not ahead, but, you know, save some grace a little bit.

And we would have all forgotten about it by now. If a couple weeks into it, realistically, he'd have been like, all right, we're done, we're out. We wouldn't be talking about it right now. Maybe not, but I do think, I think from the very beginning, the global order fundamentally changed. I mean, very quickly, it seems like within weeks, American military bases were destroyed. Rocked. in a way that I don't think anyone thought was possible or was ever going to happen. Things were going to be reordered.

But now I don't know how the hell you get off this path. I mean, if anything, I mean, he's right. I think his options are literally nuke them or Iran is going to become a much more powerful nation. They're going to be charging access for the Strait of Hormuz. they've completely changed the balance of power in the Middle East. And that's all because he's a fucking moron. And a psychopath and a narcissist. I mean, you name it.

But he was also saying that it's likely that we're going to get a deal after the midterms. We'll fucking see about that. But as it pertains to this increasingly dire situation with the price of diesel, Yeah, Jeff Landry, the governor of Louisiana, was urging for a 90-day ban on diesel exports while others are just calling for embargoes and certain kind of controls. And the Interior Secretary actually pushed back on that. Like the administration was pushing back on that idea saying it wouldn't do anything to lower prices. And because when I was thinking about this. It's very short term.

Yes. That's the only thing. Right. And so maybe the, yeah. And so I'm like, okay, why that doesn't seem to make sense? If we're the number one exporter of diesel, just fucking stop exporting it and keep it all here. The prices would plummet. Apparently not the case because thanks to just supply and demand, refiner's would apparently slow down refining because demand wouldn't be as high because they get more bang for their bucks selling it internationally.

And yeah, we're... Then not only that. I mean, look. Plus it would hurt Europe as the number one exporter. Not just Europe. It goes, this goes everywhere. It's a global market. The economy is globalized, whether you like it or not.

Yeah. Okay, fine. Withhold it from other places. See how much, see how much that helps. It would fuck them, which would then in turn fuck us. So it's just not that. And apparently we tried it in the 1970s and it just didn't work. Yeah.

And so Chuck Grassley is like, well, let's just do it for a little bit. Come on. Let me do it for a little. Just a little bit, dude. Come on, brother. Just a little bit. So we'll do it for the harvest season so that the temporary effects will only be positive. And then we'll go right back to exporting.

And that'll be that. The only way Trump would want to do that is if it was much closer to the midterms than it is right now. So he could have a quick win and go, look at how smart I am. Yeah. I just said, I just said, don't sell it to anybody else. We'll keep it for ourselves. I'm the smartest guy in the world. Hey gang, we got to take one more quick break to talk about your favorite clothes.

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He has no options Okay, get embroiled And now Getting more involved With Saudi Arabia fighting the Houthis Yeah Or get the fuck out of this horrific situation You created

It is interesting Because yeah, it's quite the quagmire But if you do get out You've just ceded that territory I mean Yeah He's He uh

Because just over the What was it? Just on Sunday We were about to like the planes were loaded up, the coordinates were set, we were about to bomb the Houthis. And Trump changed his mind at the last minute. He said we have direct communication with the Houthis.

They've agreed to not engage us, and we're not going to engage them, because that would just further complicate things. And yeah, we... Because the Houthis struck Riyadh on Saturday. They also attempted to hit Mecca, which is like, I feel like that would make the world explode. if you fucking hit Mecca,

who the hell would, in their right mind, would do that? I didn't hear about the Mecca thing. Riyadh was they hit the airport, right? I believe so. They, I believe the Saudis intercepted a drone that was intended, they think, to hit Mecca. I don't believe the Saudis.

And yeah, they're... I don't believe him for a second. They're trying to take control of the Red Sea with the Saudis need for the pipeline when it reopens. and it's really delicate for Trump, but it makes sense because he doesn't want to escalate things going into the midterms and fighting the Houthis would definitely escalate things.

It's just Falkta, man, all around, dude. Nothing worse than being in a situation where you now can't even take an L. Oh, I know. I wish I could just take it out. It's a sunken cost fallacy, dude. It's a stock that is dropping and dropping and dropping and dropping, and you know in your gut that you're wrong. You just need to cut the loss,

but you can't. I could have taken the L back when J.P. Morgan was able to model this. Yeah, that would have been the time. J.P. Morgan can't even model it anymore. That's how bad I mucked it up. Internationally, over 400 million barrels have been released from emergency stockpiles, but they still have a deficit of 900 million barrels. So what are these countries doing about it?

Germany just cut their fuel tax. That'll do it. We're going to cut the fuel tax. So there's less fuel going to suppliers. But it's up to the suppliers to pass on the savings to the consumer. Because apparently that's just the way they want to do it. That's going to fix it. That's going to fix it.

And I'm sure the companies will pass on the savings to the consumer. Really smart moves, Germany. Yeah. Spain is doing a diesel discount until end of month. Wacky diesel discount. Come on down for the wacky diesel discount. Come on down to Diego's diesel for a month. Peaceless pipeline got you feeling down. Waggy diesel discount.

Hungary's doing a thing. Only Hungarians are getting a discount. Are you hungry for diesel? Then come on down because Hungarians only are getting diesel discounts. Come on down to Heinrich's Hungry Diesel. And foreigners, dirty, dirty foreigners have to pay full price. Italy and Slovenia are doing similar things. So Trump proposed a $5 billion.

Trump proposed $5 billion to kickstart a fund to rebuild these Gulf energy sites which does acknowledge that the war has fucked a lot of the infrastructure and fucking roiled the entire global energy market it would seek to match investment from eight countries Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain fucking guy, I hope that fuckers

enjoying himself out there. Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, and Jordan and I love when they do this. They're calling it the partnership for allied trust and construction or pact. Really good. It should be construction and trust. The intern who came up with that

and pat himself on the back. And there are, so Goldman Sachs came out and was like, hey, whoa, everybody chill out. Everybody just calm the fuck down. All right? There are seven new pipelines being built. Okay? And it's going to fix everything.

Everything's going to be fine. That's not fine. fucking true, Goldman Sachs. That is not true. There are two new pipelines being built. That is partly true. The United Arab Emirates... Tell me they're about to go online, right? They're so close. Well, because... We're fine, huh? It's going to be fine. There are 20 million barrels of oil that pass through before, in the before times. 20 million barrels of oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz every single day. So that's a lot to make up for. They're doing a second pipeline running along that ad cop that goes from west to below the straight-of-hormuz.

It only costs $3 billion. It's 300 kilometers long. It's expected to be online early to mid-next year. And it would take bypass capacity up to 3.6 million barrels from the current 1.8 million. So that's good. That's a little dent. If I'm an Iraqi militia, I'm just watching, waiting for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. And I'm gone, do it now.

Yeah, waiting until the last moment. They didn't even bother putting it underground. Do it. And there's a bunch of other ones. There's another one in Iraq. And then the ones that are being proposed still are in various countries. But if all of those were to be completed, Goldman says that 60% of exports would be rerouted effectively by 2028. But that's if...

Just hang on until 2028. Yeah, just hang on, you guys. Just hold on. Can you just chill out until 2028? Which is, I mean, that's rerouting around the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea side would definitely weaken Iran's position. But it just takes so fucking long. And nobody can wait that long. Yeah, what?

Exactly. Oh, you just wait around. 18 months? What are you talking about? You stupid bitch. And that's if they don't attack. those sites. How do you keep...

How do you keep 1,200 kilometers of oil pipelines safe? Truly. Put it under the ground. Yeah, I don't get that. Which does make me think sometimes, like,

how the fuck did they make sewers? Here. They dug? Yeah, but like, they literally just like, all right, we're going to dig a mile, plop it under, and then another mile.

People used to be interested in public works. Yeah. that's not the case anymore in this country like imagine people used to be dedicated dude like go read about how

like they built the Brooklyn Bridge and it's insane yeah no one has any uh no he's got any dude they just want to eat hot chip and lie it's true yeah

it's really unfortunate but just like the pipes that go into houses on hills what they got just got a pipe like they just had to dig a long snakey ass hole, just one big long hole?

You know what I mean? It doesn't make sense. That's my conspiracy theory. Pipes aren't real. Pipes aren't real. It's not where does the fire This is a nice in real time example of how conspiracies start. Local man doesn't understand how thing happens.

How pipes work. Now has a internet megaphone to be like something's up. You're telling me the pipe goes from there to there and it's just like sneaking around on the ground. How did they build that? Hit like Patriots, if you agree that something's fishy. Patriots.

I don't get it, man. Because you don't have any understanding of that? Of course. Well, I mean, I do fundamentally. But I'm like, so they really had to. So like when they replaced pipes in the city of L.A., for example, they got to dig up the entire length of the pipe? Or do they like dig up one part and then they slide it out like a splinter being taken out of someone's foot?

and then they slide it back in, you know? I don't get it. You can watch any number of... If you're an engineer, please. Just go on YouTube there. I don't want to look. I don't want to learn. You know the don't tread on me thing?

Don't read to me. Yours is like I don't want to learn. But I do want to learn. It's just, you know, anyway. No, you don't. You just want to ask the questions to go. Isn't that weird? Isn't that wild to think about...

The tricky... Speaking of the Patriots. What? What? Have you been seeing the truckers who have... That's a rumor. No, no, no. What's a rumor?

I thought you were going to say the trucker's going on strike. No, no. No, no. Oh, okay, sorry. But there's plenty of truckers who have been interviewed by news sites and talking about how we're in pain here. We're getting absolutely fucked. They're talking about how their 200-gallon tank is now being full at, filled at 650 a gallon. They just can't make it work anymore.

more. But yes, there are the guys who are like Maga Patriot 1776 like Donald Trump, we've had enough. We are going on strike October. I'll fucking believe it when I see it. But to be honest, like there's numerous times

where I'm like, oh wow, this is probably the moment they've pushed people too far. And it never does happen. I am... People vote with their world. When this first happened, February March, I was like, this can't go on that? Like, I don't know how California, Los Angeles especially, has not just ground to a halt.

I really don't get it. When you're talking about how much of, it's just a complete driving culture. It is so, the gas in California is so expensive. I live near a gas station that is consistently the cheapest gas I will see in the city. Sinclair? Is it a Sinclair? No, it's like, ARCO? Quick something.

Oh, so it's garbage. It's like, yeah. It's do-do. one of those stations, people will be like, don't fill up there. Yeah. Literally passed today when I came to the studio, 619. Wow. And that's like the lowest I'll see in the city.

And I just don't even understand on a city that, I mean, everyone is ordering, so many people drive Uber here. Yeah. I don't understand how you even make it. I don't understand how you make it work as an Uber if you're paying $6.650 a gallon of gas. I agree with you. People are ordering DoorDash, Post.

Postmates, whatever. I don't understand how the... The economics work? Yeah. I genuinely don't. Because it takes time. It takes time to work through the system. I actually have that as one of my questions to answer for people. It takes time. Where do I have it? I know, but we've been, like, yes, this recent spike has just happened, but we're talking... This is a prolonged episode.

You know, this launched in, what, February 28th, I think it was. I think it was the last day of February. I've been astounded by the resilience. I mean, not only that, the stock market is like... All-time highs. If you're not bullish on this... Well, the stock market's forward-looking. We've already had time to digest all of this information. I feel like a crazy person.

I really do. Flights... Pause this and go look at a flight that you normally take and look at what it is right now. L.A. to Orange County. No jokes Who's gonna fucking fly? But like, you know, I fly to New York a lot

And it's It's probably hard to find a flight For under High Sixes Six dollars Six hundreds It's a lot That is a lot

Yeah Well, it's so real fast Just to answer What Emil was just saying We can handle brief spikes Brief spikes Brief spikes in prices But depending on how long

prices stay up like this, it could take a few weeks. Starting from a few weeks for the costs start hitting shipping, then one to three months for costs to affect consumer goods and food, and then a few months for it to then hit the consumer price index. And so I was wondering, like, all right, how long do we think these spikes are going to last, especially in diesel? And the energy secretary actually said, I think it'll just last a few days. Oh, good. Just like the war was supposed to last two weeks. He's talking about the pipelines coming back.

He says, I think these pipelines are only going to be offline for a few days. And who knows, but the Saudis and Aramco haven't said anything. A few days. It's been offline for like 10 days at this point. He still thinks it'll only be measured in days and not weeks or months. Real fast, I wanted a caveat, or not caveat, but just toss in there that Qatar, however you're supposed to say it, uh,

is probably the most fucked out of all of this because their main export is liquid natural gas. And there is nothing, there is no alternative to the straight horn moose. They have nothing because it requires highly specialized, um, shipping, uh,

uh, ships with, because it's got to be, shipping ships. It's got to be, it's got to be kept at like super freezing temperatures. It's incredibly, the logistics and the,

technology required to transport liquid natural gas is so prohibitive and so specific that you can't just stick it in a pipeline and launch it across the desert. So, sucks for them. But so... Sucks for us, really. Sucks for everybody. Sucks for people who like heating their homes in the winter. Sucks for people who, uh... I mean, the diesel thing is truly the lifeblood. When we're talking like heavy machinery trucking, everything in this country is

moved through trucking. Diesel power. Trucks love diesel. They can't get enough of it. Glob, goop, go, go, go, go, go. But again, I was wrong before.

I am genuinely astounded by the resilience of uh, dude, Americans fucking love eating shit. I swear to God. They, like,

it doesn't matter how much whichever party, it's just fucking, they keep feeling that bowl of shit. Americans are like, oh my God. Have you tasted? It's unbelievable. Speaking of diesel real fast,

I remember when I looked it up because I remember when my friend texted the group chat on January 6th, 2021. The day of the thing. And was like, protesters are storming the Capitol. And I responded, wait,

good ones or bad ones? Because in my mind, I was like, people have had enough. It's only a matter of time. I've been like forever. I don't know how Americans are like, hey, we're sick of your shit. Yeah. And they wrote back like, now a bad one.

It's moron MAGA people being like we want Trump's election was stolen. So I'm always surprised that they'll just keep eating that shit. It doesn't matter. I remember driving that diesel. Hey, I'm one of them. I love it. I'll eat as much shit as I can. I'll eat as much as I can too.

I'll drink the diarrhea. scarfing that shit down. I remember the days when diesel was actually cheaper than regular gas and it rocked. Yeah. Especially in that old diesel, dude, that thing got like 60 miles to the gallon, which I just was like for a 1982, that's insane. I didn't think that that was possible. But real fast, I was going to say, the last one of the one of the places that I worked at years and years ago, after I got fired, there was a, there was an intern there who was instructed by one of the, creative directors to fill up his, he got one of those, um, the cool Mercedes box SUVs. Oh, the G-wagon? The G-wagon, yeah.

He had just bought it. We're talking like less than 500 miles. Aren't those things like $200,000? Yes. And this guy bought one and he, he was, it was one of those situations where it's like, okay, who's fucking wrong here? And he just had the intern, hey, will you go fill up my car with gas? Which is not part of the intern's job description.

Intern goes, put diesel in it. Didn't know. Didn't know the difference, apparently. And it fucking cooked. The engine was fucked. Beautiful. Starts driving away and then it's, you know. I don't know what you do with that.

Like, how do you even, it's just, anyway. Okay. Back to the Mercedes dealership and you did something to this. Yeah. I put gas in it. It's not going right. It's not drinking it right. So you might have questions.

And I came up with a list of quick questions. Number one, you ask, Ben, Emil, how high might diesel go? Nobody really knows for sure. Let's see, honestly. I say rocket this thing up. The assumption is that it could go as high as $8 a gallon nationally, which means in California, it'll hit like 10 plus. Oh, yeah, we're already at 8. I think we had hit 842. Yeah, it's psycho.

Question number two, what can you do? Nothing. You can't do shit. Start digging holes to put the freaking pipelines in. You could go out there and help. Go to Saudi Arabia. And help. And help dig that. Grab a shovel, dude. Actually, what you could do is buy

staples that you, not the little metal guys, but whatever staples you normally rely on because you could see higher grocery prices, higher transportation prices, and that shit does get past down to us. So buy shit that you use that doesn't go bad, like rice and beans and canned shit and stuff. I would never encourage people to do that, though. It's good to have a stockpile anyway.

Sure. A little bit? Then people... Your nest egg? Are going to stockpile shit. Then there's shortages. Or the paper shortage? It just makes everyone, everything worse.

I've definitely seen that, the like Maga Patriot 1776. Like, look, I warned you, partner. You didn't listen last time. Yeah. It's only so much time left before everything hits the... fan stock up. It's like, brother, fuck off. Yeah, guns and ammo.

Could regular gas go even higher? Not likely because we've got oil, oil, well, diesel, diesel has a problem because it's diesel and oil that's getting, you know, tossed around.

That's a refining problem. And it's a refining problem. And gasoline closely tracks oil. $10 a gallon gas would mean $300 a for oil. It's just probably not going to happen. Oh, we're not going to hit $10, but I don't think, depending on how this goes, I don't think we've seen the last of gas going up. Yeah. And I just thought you would enjoy these fun facts. In the 1970s, there was gas rationing, and I was looking up what that was like. That is a fun fact. And why it happened. The Arab members of

of OPEC embargoed us and other nations for supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War, sound familiar, in 1973, and that caused oil prices to quadruple. And then just a few years later, you had the 1979 Iranian Revolution. And what did that look like here? I'm sure it was, I'm just sharing this because just when you think it's bad, it could get worse. They did rationing.

They did oil or gas rationing. if your license plate ended in an odd number, you got to fill up your tank on odd calendar days. And similarly, even, you got to fill up on even days. You also had purchase limits, so you couldn't just go and like fill up a thousand gallon drum. It was like, all right, your people are stuck to half gallon or half tank, whatever. There were long lines.

Fun fact. Don't point that at me. Fun fact. that's where we got the national 55 mile per hour speed limit. Stop going so fast. We don't need freaking oil. And that's how we got to Sammy Hagar. I can't drive 55, man.

He was like, I don't care how much oil costs. I can't drive 55. Because he's drunk. Because he's fucking drunk, dude. But yeah, so... The state of the country is not prepared for something like that. Can you imagine them instituting... instituting

limits like that these oil controls these gas controls we couldn't even get people to wear a fucking paper mask oh I would I mean that's I think post COVID

if we ever have to do anything similar where it's going to be a collective effort never in a million years going to happen again people have you I'm going to get mine exactly

fuck you I'm going to get my shit I want my shit I want to eat my shit come down and tell me I can't fill this big oil drum full of gas.

Yeah. I'll shoot you. Come try to take the poop out of my mouth. I will shoot you dead. Yeah. You want to try to take the poop out of my mouth? My kid's mouths? You want to try to take the poop out of their mouths?

Never going to happen. I got mouse to feed. I got poop to put in there. Try to take my poop. And yeah, flight, we're going to, the CEO of United Airlines, you familiar? You ever heard of United 175?

Huh? It's one of the planes in September 11th. jet fuel closely tracks diesel prices, so that's not good. And the United CEO has already said that if prices stay high, then we're going to see some cancellations come December. They've already canceled some of their less popular routes. And that's it's American Airlines. American Airlines United Southwest.

Fares are already up 25% on some routes? I'm not sure. Go look. It's not a fun. Yeah, we're not kidding. It's not a fun thing looking. for a flight. I'm curious, if this lasts for much longer, I don't know how you're going to go see your family for the holidays. Yeah, you might, you might just be stuck, you might just be stuck

eating poop alone. You might be eating your holiday poop loaf. Poop dinners canceled. Dude, holiday poop dinners canceled. You're going to have to buy frozen poop from the grocery store. And you're going to heat it up in your microwave and just eat your little poop dinner alone. Oh, God, I know. I keep thinking of that guy on TikTok. I can't remember his name. There was some white guy who's like, hmm, my name. name is John something and I'm going to eat my poop and he's like a fetish guy. I don't know. It was a weird thing. Uh, anyway. Anyway. What addition? Was that, was that everything? Was that everything? Did we get everything?

I think that's about the state of it. I mean, we'll see how this all shakes out. I really, uh, I hope you guys all learned something. I'm optimistic in, in Americans' abilities to eat shit. I think we can handle it. Keep plugging away somehow. But I genuinely, don't know how it works. I don't know how I don't know how everyone is affording to live. He's gonna, well, credit cards. People are cutting back. Again, how much runway do you have with your credit card? I guess a lot. And it's, it's, it's just, what would you do if you were Donald Trump?

And you can't just say, I would kill myself. I would kill myself. Yeah. I would choke on the poop, on the poop meal. You're doing a photo op with, you know, a middle-class family? Look, Americans are all eating poop. It's only right that I eat poop, too. And he sits down, that's good-looking poop. See, the prize of poop is still... The poop Biden was offering was disgusting.

Yeah, the poop Biden was offering was full of corn. My poop is beautiful. My poop is beautiful. I offer the Americans beautiful poop. A perfect brown hue, they're saying it's a perfect brown hue and a perfect smell. It's not that wet, sticky stuff that Biden was offering. No, no, no. It comes out dry.

They're saying it's... No, I... poop. No wipe poop. Nice beautiful logs. Yeah, nice beautiful, perfect logs. You can cut you can cut it with a plastic knife. You can cut it. That's how firm these logs. Talk about going on to your family. Nice Christmas loaf I'm giving

you. Yeah, yeah. You can grate it. You can grate some poop over the poop that you eat. Disgusting. Yeah, it's pretty gross. But you guys are eating it. You guys are eating it. We're all eating. Yeah, yeah. Not like those fat cats down in Washington.

they're eating the Primo stuff, the premium poop that comes from like Chinese virgins. I'd like to get my hands on some of that. Some of that Chinese virgin. Because you know their diets are pure. Oh my God. I can smell it now.

We hope you guys learn something about before we get into Paramount. We hope you learn something about diesel and why it's so important. It makes the world work. And why, yeah, we got to, Russia's got to get their act together. We got to get our act together.

We got to solve this problem. problem and get the diesel prices down. We got to get these diesel prices lower so that people can afford to eat better poop. Generic Democratic politician of Russia's got to get their act together. Can you imagine the balls? I'm going to go out on TV and say Russia's got to get their act together. Russia's got to get their freaking act together. Iran has to get their act together. Iran's got to get their act together. The rookies have to get their act together.

The police have to get their act together. Come on, you guys. Come on. Come on. We're all in this together. The Red Sea. The Red Sea. Can you believe this?

But we're trying to build alternative pipelines. The Ukrainians have to get their act together, too. They got to get to you. Hey, stop with the drones. Drones used to be something of a source of joy. Now, there are a source of terror and fear. Christ. Oh, my God.

Anyway, a vote for me is a vote for good poop. And these Iraqi militias got to get that out together. Cut it out. Cut it out. Cut the crap. I know they're sitting there. They're just begging to be bombed. But leave the pipelines alone.

Like you said with their binoculars. Cut the crap. Cut the crap over there so we can cut the crap over here with our families for the holidays. Thank you very much. Tell us what's going on with Paramount. Speaking of eating crap. You guys remember the Paramount Merger Warner? I said it backwards.

Paramount Warner merger. Yeah. Paramount Merger Warner. 100-something billion dollar merger. It was a nightmare. There was a real. who's it going to be? Paramount toward Netflix.

A real, a veritable lose-lose situation. But I have to think we would lose less if it was Netflix, as much as I hate to say it. But Paramount was going forward with the merger. And

luckily, it seemed like something nice was going to happen. The federal government was never going to do it, but states were like, hey, why don't we could govern? Isn't that? a novel idea. So 12 states led by California and their attorney general, General Rob Bonta, and, you know, this includes states Nevada, Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon. And they were basically saying that, hey, we're enforcing antitrust law here.

This is a clear violation of the Clayton Act, which is a century-old antitrust law preventing mergers that weaken competition and raise consumer costs. And they're saying combining two legacy movie studios clearly gives Paramount Warner too much market share in wide release movies and blockbusters. And Paramount was pissed. This is bad for them. A pithes of!

They were on a ticking clock. Starting October 1st, they were going to have to start paying Warner shareholders. this like ticking fee. It would basically cost them $7 million per day once October first hit. And the trial was scheduled for March 2027. So... It's a long time to be

paying a lot of money. Yeah, there was something like $1.7 billion. Yeah. And they were doing all kinds of things. They were saying that they were saying that they were going to leave California.

They were talking about how we're going to Tennessee. People were panicking in California. Because that would be a big deal. If Paramount chose to just pack up and leave... Go to Tennessee. That's what they were saying. I think they were also talking about some... People in Tennessee were fucking pumped for a minute.

Hell years. And apparently it wasn't even... It was never going to happen. They just, like, released some statements and... Outlets were reporting on it. Gavin Newsom got involved. They caved. they cut a deal

five year deal they cut a settlement settlement deal and it's paramount's coming out in a huge way people are extremely pissed this feels like a real

death knell in Hollywood and they got basically nothing you know Matt Stoller and Alvaro Badoia are great follows for if you want to learn about antitrust stuff

they're like they're always commenting on this stuff online they kind of picked through the settlement and just even if you just take it on its face, it's just not, not great. So they're talking about

a minimum investment of one and a half billion dollars in domestic TV and film production. That's $300 million annually over five years. And they're required to still produce 30 films per year in the deal's first two years. Releasing theaters.

Well, I'm going to get to it. I'm just, I'm just, and then rising to, that rises to 32 films per year in the following three years. And now, yeah, they pointed out, it's kind of bullshit. Why? Well, number one. So the enforcement mechanisms, that's the other thing.

You know, like we talked about with the meta-settlement, you can write down, oh, you have to do this. What's the enforcement mechanism? What's going to happen, right? So they talk about how if they don't, if they fall short of these movies they were supposed to produce, they owe $30 million for every movie they don't produce. To who? Exactly. It goes to some weird government fund that then's going to take a while to get like dispersed to everyone

and which the whole point of those still being produced was that they were going to, instead of going to some government fund, it was going to go directly to production, people who work in production, actors, directors, writers, people who work in the movie business, right? it was going to create jobs and pay people. And now, even if it's going to get routed to them, it's going to be, it's going to take so long for it to get to them. And you got to pay your rent. You know what I mean?

And then the other thing is that they don't actually have to produce 30 movies. They have to release 30 movies. So they can take existing properties and just release them. It counts re-releases. Oh, my God. So they're not, they don't have. to make 30 films a year. They have to distribute that amount.

How does Rob Bonta screw that up? Did he just not have a fucking good consult? Well, that's the other thing, too. This thing is so silly. When he came out with the settlement, he was like, I think this is

a good deal, but I want to go on record and I want to say I don't believe that these two companies should merge. Then don't fucking let them. Yeah, keep blocking it, dude. What is wrong with you?

So, yeah, and then Matt Stoller pointed out that all of these concessions are void. There's a little clause that says if there's a non-economic, if there's a recession, they can void these terms to be able to ride out

the recession. At least four films per year must be independent films. It's also a complete joke. someone pointed out what that actually means, what the definition of independent film is in the settlement. Ready? These are real Indies.

You're going to like this. This means a film that is either based on an original screenplay or originated from film producers outside of the combined entity, entity, Disney, Universal, or Sony. So there's no like, so it could be an $80 million budget just if it came from outside of them. And is an original screenplay. Oh, my God.

Oh, it has to be that and. No, no, sorry, it's ore. So yeah, and a commitment to keeping operations in California, but apparently that's even a little tenuous. I think they're allowed to move their headquarters. They're just not allowed to move the studios at this point. And then, of course, because people are worried when all this was going on, now the Ellison's are going to own not just these film production companies, but these TV stations. They're going to be basically in charge of like every major news network. Yeah, because they don't have to spin off the cable networks.

Yeah, and so they're going to, but don't worry. They're going to have an editorial independence board. For CBS and CNN. Yeah, which is, again, Matt Sloer pointed out, it's bullshit. The editorial board will be appointed by David Ellison. It's just like... Well, Shirley, he's not going to pick favorites or anything like that. I don't think you would do that.

So, come on. It's, uh... It's not good. It seems like the layoffs are going to come. Less movies are going to be made. It's just a... It's a very... It's very sad living here and watching...

The town's being hollowed out. I mean, this was... It was a one industry town. The industry was doing very well for a long time. They were interviewing people in the... who were protesting today on the radio. And there were only like 30 people who showed up to protest, but a few of them were actors.

And yeah, they were talking about how it used to be a viable. profession, at least if you made it onto a show, but now it's like even people who are on shows, you're not necessarily making life-changing money. The amount of people I've talked to who have booked the big gig

and then, I mean, even anecdotally I've heard from you, like, that come to mind where I'm like, oh shit, dude, like, you fucking made it. And they're like, no, I fucking have not. And you're like, what? Yeah. You don't get... You can...

you can make a Hollywood movie and have a very high role in it and you're not making a ton of money? And they're like, no. No. And then they say that your agents say, oh, you'll make money on the next one. Yeah. And then the next one comes. Or it doesn't come. Yeah.

The next one comes and it's like, no, no, no, the next one. Yeah. But good Lord, it's very sad to watch. It's the opportunities are just. shriveling up. Well, everybody, let us know what you think in the comments. Do you like diesel? Do you like eating poop?

What's your favorite brand? What's your brand of poop? What's your favorite style of eating it? How do you like it prepared? We would also like to say Russians cut it out. Yeah, chill out. Iranians. Cut it out.

Yeah. Ukrainians, cut it out. And Donald Trump. Donald Trump, freaking come on. Fucking come on, dude. God. mighty. All right,

join us in the bubub, bubub, bonus. I'm going to be talking about some shit. Globular

Spring Tales. Iceed coffee, the iced coffee thing with you Jen's ears and the fucking you guys heard you just don't learn. What does that mean?

I'll tell you in the bonus. Ben and Emilsaw.com. Thanks for tuning in, you little freak. Coming up on this week's episode of Ben and Meal Show.com. Accidental choking.

He choked on an egg? Oh, contributing factors. He was hospitalized for complications related to a severe flare-up of sickle cell o'hemia. Why'd you say he killed himself? No, the guy from the prodigy killed himself. Oh, oh, God. Okay.

So two of the exact same prospective employees come. Yeah. They're the same exact... What race are they? Like same exact, whatever, it doesn't matter. They're both the... Basically the same person. Okay.

They come in in the same clothes. They're identical twins. Yeah, yeah. They talk exactly the same. They give the same answers. One brings an ice coffee. I'm hiring them both. Half wages to complete to make one person.

One brings an ice coffee. The other one doesn't... You're saying you're just... You're like, that's a strike. I'm not hiring the ice coffee. Yeah, actually. All things being equal, one... All things being equal.

I'm going to go with the guy. who didn't bring the ice coffee. Or a gal or woman. Person who didn't bring the ice coffee. All right. Perfect. Okay. Okay.

Great. Okay. See, they're doing... Now, for the right way. That's how I did. Okay. You... Didn't seem that difficult.

I swear to go. When I go to Japan in December, if I can't get it, I'm causing a ruckus and I'm getting arrested. I would love for you to get arrested in Japan.