The Joe Rogan Experience - #1414 - Mike Baker

Episode Date: January 18, 2020

Mike Baker is a former CIA covert operations officer. Currently he is the president of Diligence LLC, a global intelligence and security firm.

Hello, Mike Baker. Hello. Good to see you, buddy. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me back on. My pleasure. So tell me what's up. Are we in trouble?

What's going on, man? It's World War III. Haven't you heard? Is it? No. No, it's not. No, I'm here to burst that bubble, I think. Not that anyone's going to say, okay, I'm writing this down.

Mike said, no, World War III. But it was amazing how fast the – I'll put that closer there. It was amazing how fast the narrative came out. Yeah. I mean, we barely smoked Soleimani, and suddenly the current president is going to get us into this conflict. I was nervous. Well, I think everybody stepped back because it was such a shock to the system. I mean, when was the last time we dealt with Iran in this fashion? I mean, as opposed to like a harshly worded Dimash or a note or maybe an extra sanction here or there.

But it was such a strange development that I think it did. And the natural reaction was to say, oh, my God, here we go. You know, and certainly everybody's exhausted from 19 years out there. So but, you know, I was shocked that Trump could make that call. And certainly everybody's exhausted from 19 years out there. I was shocked that Trump could make that call because they had a bunch of different options. They had like, or we could kill him. He's like, let's kill him. I was like, whoa, I didn't know you could do that.

Well, you know what? He's been a target before. Soleimani is, I mean, I guess I should first say where I stand on all this, which is I'm not mourning his passing. I mean I think he deserved it. I think it's justice that should have been served up some time ago. He's responsible, not just for – as people have talked about, the hundreds of U.S. servicemen, but thousands and thousands of people. This guy was a completely bloodthirsty douchebag. I mean, there's no way about it. And we're talking about the second most – structure-wise, the second most important person within the Iranian regime next to the Ayatollah. But the idea that somehow we took out a foreign leader or a military general like he was some sort of Eisenhower is insane. The guy was a mob boss. He was the head terrorist for a state that is the number one sponsor of terrorism around the world. And so – but he's been on target lists for a long time.

You go back to 2008, there was an operation to take out a guy named Mugnia, who himself was also a bloodthirsty psychopath. And he was running Hezbollah operations. So the Israelis had been tracking him, as had we. And at one point, they had an opportunity to take out Mugnia and also Soleimani. And they backed off at the time essentially because the U.S. wouldn't get behind the idea that we're going to take out Soleimani. That was – at that point, that was a step too far. So eventually, we got Mugna. But Soleimani is just – I mean I don't even know where to start with the amount of blood that he's responsible for. People talk about, again, okay, he authorized operations and activities in Iraq against U.S. soldiers and against Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

But it goes back to the beginning of that. I mean, you could go back to 2003. So Suomani was the architect. He dreamt up this idea as the US was going into Iraq that he was going to – I mean what he did was insane. He basically authorized – I mean he's in charge, right? So he authorizes the release of a bunch of Sunnis that they've been holding on to, Iran being Shiite, arch rivals being the Sunnis essentially, and the Saudis are their arch enemy, a Sunni nation. But he released all these Sunni extremists that Iran had been holding on to, essentially ever since we had gone into Afghanistan right after 9-11. And he released them into Iraq, including a guy named Zarqawi, who became the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq. who became the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq. And within a few months of our getting out to Iraq, the Sunnis, basically under Soleimani's tutelage,

had a series of bombings and started bombing everything from Shiite mosques to UN facilities, Jordanian embassy, a variety of targets, killing thousands of Shiites. Now, he's a Shiite, right? So this is how bad this guy is. He goes into Iraq with this plan that I'm going to push the Shiites in Iraq to Iran. I'm going to make them come to us for protection, for coverage, essentially. We can ride in there because what does he want? He wants to exert their influence within Iraq.

He doesn't want a strong Iraq. He doesn't want the U.S. in there building a what does he want he wants to exert their influence within iraq he doesn't want a strong iraq he doesn't want the u.s in there building a strong stable iraq i mean you go back to the iran-iraq war where sulamani started his military career and you know he's not there's no way he's a true believer there's no way he's ever going to let iraq become stable again and he's insane enough that he kills thousands of Shiite, his own people, right, in order to push the Shiite population in Iraq to Iran. I don't know if I'm being eloquent enough. False flag operations? Who is he blaming?

Yeah, it's the Sunnis. It's the Sunnis who are doing it. He's blaming the Sunnis. Yeah, but he's authorized and he's pushed them into Iraq to do this. And so he was always very unusually capable at walking a fine line between his own Shiite beliefs, population, everything, and at times being able to be sort of a puppet master for Sunni extremists when it suited his cause. times being able to be sort of a puppet master for Sunni extremists when it suited his cause. And it's – I mean it's – anyway, it's fascinating stuff.

Whether it was dealing with Hezbollah or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad or whomever, he – again, I keep going back to the same thing. He deserved what he got, no doubt in my mind. And I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner, maybe not from us, but from others. Back in October, the Iranians claimed that they foiled an assassination attempt against Soleimani by Israel and some unnamed Arab agents. So it's not as if we just plucked his name out you know he'd spent two decades you know engaged in in uh death and mayhem now the take on him dying has not been like the take on bag daddy and bag daddy one of the most disturbing things that i saw was the washington post called him an asture religious scholar did you did you see that yeah when that guy died they called him an asture religious scholar and people that that i talked

to that understand who he was and what was going on there were fucking fuming they were like what is this not who the fuck wrote this right like you're talking about a goddamn terrorist a real legitimate murderous terrorist and you're calling him an astute religious scholar right you're giving him this credibility that so I don't understand that either. I saw that and I talked to a handful of people who kind of leaned in that direction. And also you get the same thing with Soleimani. Now, Soleimani, I can understand. He's wrapped in the cloak of a military uniform and people saw him sitting next to the Ayatollah.

But I look at it the same way. This is not assassinating a foreign leader. This is not assassinating a revered scholar. This is taking out terrorists, bloodthirsty terrorists who have a long track record of killing people. And it's not, he was not, you know, he was not choosy, right? With Soleimani, we're talking about, again, Iraqis, Yemenis, Syrians, his own people. They talk about maybe some 1,500 or so protesters being killed in Iran in the past few months as a result of the protests against the Iranian regime, primarily because of corruption, the fact that they've driven that economy into a toilet at the expense of the Iranian people, lack of rights of any sort. And Soleimani, again, as the head of the Quds Force, the number two person there, he's responsible.

So I don't understand anybody who doesn't just say, yeah, and I think the left had a hard time with it. The hard left, you saw them spinning a little bit saying, okay, we don't say he shouldn't have gotten it. We don't say he didn't deserve it. But, and then they had to try to figure out some way to, because it's all got to be about politics now. So they bring it back to the current president, to Trump. Whenever Trump does anything, even if what he does is fantastic, they can't get behind it. They almost have to go against things that are great. Like if the economy is great, they've got to find a reason why it's bad that the economy

is great. And if his decisions lead to something positive, they can't accept it. It's unfortunate. Well, we've lost our ability to I think, to look at things just in an objective fashion, in any sense of the word objective. or certainly

we don't have civil conversations anymore, but the idea that we can look at and separate the politics from it. Look, again, I don't care whether people like Trump or not. I don't – I didn't vote for him. I don't necessarily care for the individual, but that doesn't mean I can't like policies. And whether you're talking about what's going on with Iran, whether you're talking about the way that we've been dealing with China lately, other issues. Hey, I liked President Obama.

Didn't like his policies. I don't necessarily like Trump. I like his policies. I don't see any conflict there. Yeah. Anyway. No, I don't see any conflict there either. I mean, people are complicated.

And I just didn't know that Trump could make the call. he could be the guy that goes take him out like when when when i thought that was like there was probably a panel of military leaders and like really important people that understand the ramifications not a fucking game show host like an america's got talent or something yeah this is four people sitting there hitting a buzzer you know i felt like that it would be like something that they would discuss. Not that Trump would be like, yeah, option three. Fuck them. Well, but they talk about it, and there is a great deal of conversation that goes on, not necessarily

with the president. I have no idea how he processes his information, but there's a great deal of conversation and discussion that goes on in the Pentagon within the intel community and National Security Council. What happens once they lay out these options in front of the president, you know, I don't have a clue.

But he does have that authority. He's got that ability. And President Obama had that authority. President Obama took out, remember, you know, U.S. citizens, you know, who were overseas in the Middle East. And, you know, there was a hue and cry over sort of the legality of it, but you didn't see a lot of people saying, you know, and in part, okay,

I admit, because it wasn't, again, this, you know, Soleimani's wrapped in a cloak of his military uniform, and it's different. Well, it's also, people are very concerned about this possibility of us going to war with Iran, and they think that this might have, like, started that off. Yeah, yeah, I think what changed the calculus here

is iran is you know the regime is brutal and and awful they're not crazy and the one thing they want more than anything else is to retain power that's it and i think they looked at the idea of a military conflict a direct military conflict with the u.s and this is not to say that their proxies won't you know strike out at some place around the world at some point. But the regime looked at that and thought, nah, you know what, we're not going to do this. In part because, you know, the killing of Soleimani is important on a much bigger level than just taking out, you know, a terrorist of his stature. It's important for deterrence purposes. And so, you know, again, I think they looked and felt like the calculus in dealing with the U.S. has shifted now.

And they don't understand it. They're not comfortable with it. And also they can't afford it. Look, if we got in a military conflict, that was just the idea that, you know, somehow we were going to get in World War III. It would be over in an evening. Literally, it would be over in one night. We have the ability to take out their entire energy infrastructure, their missile bases, their key military facilities. And I don't want to oversimplify this, but after that first night's activity, that's it.

They're done. So the idea that somehow there's going to be – now, does that mean that we should do that? Of course not. Nobody wants a military conflict. But – and again, there would be knock-on repercussions, et cetera, et cetera. So hopefully we can sort this thing out through now that we're doing the military deterrence and they understand that we're serious. We've got the economic pressures. We've got diplomatic pressure primarily to keep them isolated.

I think we're on the right track with Iranan i think we're going to see a different reaction from them well i was a little bit relieved when they attacked back and just sort of like launched missiles on the outside of bases nobody died i was like okay so it seems like this is almost like they're they're making a signal like they're attacking, but they're not really doing anything. Yeah. I think there was an optic to it. I think you're right, absolutely, that they felt like they had to do something. Yeah.

The Ayatollah's got a, I don't know what he called it, saving face or not. But, you know, and we had a warning. We had a warning ahead of time. And didn't they print in their paper, didn't they say that they killed a bunch of people? They did. In the missile attack? Yeah, they claimed about 80 or so, I think saying it right exactly just whatever it takes but then i mean you know and but look at the reaction that we've had you know of course the ukrainian uh

commercial passenger jet uh went down yeah um and that was them right oh that was that was definitely them uh when do you think that they shot it down because they thought it was a U.S. military plane? Yeah. Look, this is – it's not unprecedented. I mean we shot down an Iranian passenger jet years and years ago, right? The Russians shot down – they still won't admit to it, but they shot down a passenger jet over Ukraine just a handful of years ago, which they still won't admit to. what, just a handful of years ago, which they still won't admit to. It's human error, and it's human error in a conflict zone, in a situation where there's a lot of moving parts,

and it's never going to be a zero-risk game. So if the Iranians had done this, as tragic as it is, and come out and said, oh my God, we did this, okay. It would have been horrific, but they did this to themselves because they just couldn't bring themselves to be truthful. They've got a long track record of not. And so they engaged in this and shot it down. When you find missile debris in a field where you're doing an investigation of a plane crash, that's a pretty good indication. And then there's the video on top of that. Oh, there is a video of the missile hitting the plane? Yeah, two missiles.

Oh, Jesus Christ. Yeah, roughly 30 seconds apart. It took two missiles to bring down a plane? Yeah, it hit the first one. The first one hit. And then about 30 seconds later, not quite 30 seconds later, the second missile hits. There's another fireball.

And the plane stays up in the air for a period of time just because it's not devastated. But it was some 20 miles from the airport. It had actually kind of made it as if it was turning back to the airport probably right after that first missile hit. But here's the thing. I mean that was – so that's a tragic disaster right there, right? But the idea that somehow – nobody is actually saying they did it on purpose. They didn't do it on purpose. They did it – it was an accident.

They mistook it for either an incoming missile or a hostile aircraft coming in for a bombing run after they launched their ballistic missile strike. So nobody's saying it was done on purpose. But it's, again, it's indicative of the Revolutionary Guard force and the regime itself that they spent several days denying it and saying it was mechanical failure and pressuring the Ukrainians to come out and say it was mechanical failure, which they then reversed course on that once it became obvious. Yeah, so it's a tragic situation. But now the protests out in the streets of Iran, which are a continuation of the past several months, which were targeted at a corrupt regime, have picked up strength in light of that because the people are just – we're tired of this.

And who knows where it's going to go. I suspect, unfortunately, I'm fairly cynical about all this. We've been hoping the Iranian population would kind of rise up for decades and it doesn't happen because it's a pretty brutal regime. We don't understand that. We don't understand how difficult they are, right, and how serious-minded they are about holding on to power. So every now and then we think, okay, here come the protests. It's going to topple the regime. It doesn't happen. So maybe it's different this time. I don't think so.

Now, were you concerned at all – and this is one of the things when you say that we could go in there and level them in a day. The real issue is their allies, right? The real issue is China and Russia. Yeah, but they're not going to do anything. China and Russia aren't going to do anything. It's not in their best interest. And if they're consistent about one thing, both those countries, it's that they act in their own best interest. And they would look at that and go, yeah, I'm sorry.

I mean, look, so what are we dealing with in that immediate area? Iran's closest ally is Syria, right? Soleimani spent billions of Iranian dollars or money that they couldn't afford to and that should have been spent on its population. that they couldn't afford to and that should have been spent on its population, arming, training, equipping, and dealing with the Syrian war and keeping his pal Assad in power. So Iran and Syria are tied together, but is Syria in a position to somehow rise up and engage? This is not going to be – this wouldn't have been a conflict as we imagine it. It wouldn't be a conflict of occupying space and ground and all the rest of it.

Nobody wants it. Nobody needs it. It's not good for anybody. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that in the scheme of things, we would have overwhelming superiority. And yeah, I can't imagine a scenario where Russia would come in. In fact, we would probably, as anybody would, we would say, okay, look, the Russian military is in Syria. We're going to liaise with you.

We're going to advise you. Shit's coming down. Because the last thing we want to do is drag them into it by hitting some of their facilities or personnel or whatever. So there would be that level of coordination, which there always is no matter who the parties are. There's always some element of coordination. But anyway, yeah, I don't see that happening.

I think we've averted that. I hope we've averted sort of further military, you know, conflict. I think, again, I think the Iranian regime understands that it's a new day. Perhaps they'll come to the table eventually. That's what this whole maximum pressure campaign is about is to, again, create sufficient economic pressure, ensure that they understand the idea of deterrence, which I think they do after this strike on Soleimani. And that goes back a ways.

This wasn't just like something that just they thought of after an American contractor was killed. The Iranian regime had been ratcheting up their aggressiveness and their attacks and their various operations out in that region for quite a while. And we had been talking to them about it or getting the signal to them that you've got to stop this and back in december they were told if you continue this path we are going to take serious action and we did how difficult is it to get intelligence on what they're up to and and what what they're planning what their response before like when when you're here in america i mean how do we do it like yeah who's over there like how do they do planning, what they're responsible for. Like when you're here in America, I mean, how do we do it?

Like who's over there? Like how do they do that? How do they find out exactly what these guys are up to? Well, a lot of it's old school human intelligence, right? So through sources. And a lot of that sourcing comes from our allies. So whether it's the Israelis or the Jordanians or the Saudis or whomever. So they know someone who's on the inside or like how does it work?

They've got a source. They've got some recruited asset. Iran has always been a tough target for us just like North Korea is a tough target. And so we rely heavily on our liaison partners. But oftentimes, no matter how good your signals intelligence is, no matter how good you are at gathering SIGINT or photo interpretation of overhead imagery, it's still – to this day, no matter how good technology gets, you can't beat having an asset, having a human who's sitting in a meeting somewhere. And then for whatever their motivation is, whatever their reason for doing it, they're cooperating with you or our liaison partners. And they're saying, well, here's what happened. Or here's how that person looked, right?

I mean maybe you get signals intelligence because you're picking up communications. And then what do you got? You got something on a piece of paper and you're reading a transcript of a meeting. But if you've got somebody who's in that meeting and who can tell you what people looked like or what the actual atmosphere was or the mood or the way that – I mean that's invaluable. So we rely a great deal on that. But you basically – you hoover up everything you can from all the various different types of intelligence capabilities. But it's a tough target. I mean there's no doubt about it.

I mean that's why this whole nuclear weapons program with Iran has always been so difficult. I mean – and you talk to people and they go, well, they've got about a 12-month breakout time before they'd have a nuclear weapon. And then other people say, well, I think they've got about a three-month breakout time. Well, when you're talking about how long it's going to take them to have a nuclear weapon, you'd like to get that – those parameters a little closer together, right? So that you're not having a complete guess. But it's tough. And, you know, we spend a lot of time working on that. But I would say that we have tremendous allies in that region.

And, you know, I know that people, it's fashionable nowadays to say, well, the Trump administration, we've been, you know, pushing away our allies and they don't want to work with us. And you know what? They do. they do and in part because again it's the same old story it's in their best interest right so is there any benefit to having uh someone like trump who's very difficult to to read because he's what you know he's he's the kind of guy like when when baghdad he was killed he said he died like a dog like he says crazy shit and he and he talks about like with iran that he was that they might respond back with disproportionate results or with a disproportionate response in comparison to the the initial attack yeah the cultural sites according to that, or the cultural sites. Yeah. The 52 cultural sites.

But that was so crazy, like, to represent the 52 people that were kidnapped in the fucking Carter administration. Yeah. What? Yeah, I mean, we don't really need to go with the symbolism, fellas. We could just pick some targets, but let's not pick the cultural sites. Yeah, that seems ridiculous. Why would you do that? Those are historic.

Yeah, well, you know what? That's where I say, look, I understand why people go, oh, my God. But at the same time, that doesn't mean you can't like policies that are in place. So I always put that out there. I always say, yeah, I get it. That's ridiculous, right? And it's a self-inflicted wound, and you could argue that most of the problems they deal with out of this White House are self-inflicted wounds because there's a lack of discipline. And so it would be nice if the president was more buttoned up. Of course, that's not going to be the way it works.

He, I think, I don't know why I know, but he firmly believes, I think, that this is why he got elected. I think it is why he got elected. Really? Yeah, I think a lot of why he got elected is because he's wild. And people like it. They like it. They like something different.

They're tired of these people that sound like politicians. You know, you hear, you know, pick a person, Elizabeth Warren. You hear them talk and you feel the bullshit coming out of their mouth while they're talking. You know that they're playing a role. You know that they're, with Trump, he might be arrogant. He might be crazy. He might be ridiculous. But that's him.

That's that guy. I bet if you're around him all day long, he's like that. I mean, that's the thing that people, one of the things that people like about him. he's like that i mean that's that's the thing that people one of the things that people like about him he's like that all the time that's that's who he is yeah like he's not bull he doesn't need to bullshit he's donald trump he's a fucking multi-billionaire who is now the president of the united states so it's like he doesn't feel the need to put on an act for anybody so when he comes out and says he he died like a dog, like that's how he would talk. Yeah.

No, I think the consistency, I think you're right. There is an element of, look, I am tired of the bullshit. I mean, I see what you're saying, but I guess what I think then is, I mean, what are the chances that you get to 20? Well, we're in 2020. Look at that. But we get down to November to the election, and people are just exhausted by it.

So they wanted something different. Now they've had it. Are they going to get to this point in November and get down to November of the election, and people are just exhausted by it. So they wanted something different. Now they've had it. Are they going to get to this point in November and get ready to vote and think, I can't take another four years of it, even though it's entertaining? I'm exhausted. People don't like change. They get scared of change. And if things are going well economically, and if it turns out that this thing with Iran doesn't turn into anything disastrous by the time November rolls around, I think he's going to win in a landslide.

I really, I don't see unless Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard get together and then everybody goes, you know what? That would work. Like this is a, this is a real combination of people that I could, I could get behind unless it's something like that where there's like some

overwhelming candidate, but I don't see that. I did. And they seem to be pushing for Elizabeth Warren. Iren i don't see that yeah she was a republican most of her career and then she became a democrat like when she was in her late 40s i find maybe it's just me but but you know i i don't see a consistent policy message there i don't see um i i don't see that happening for uh for for her this go around maybe maybe it'll change maybe you need i don't see um i i don't see that happening for uh for for her this go around maybe maybe it'll change maybe you need i don't know but the problem is i feel like these people

just want to be president i feel like it's a self-aggrandizement thing they just want to be president i think you could argue that about anybody in politics so you could you could say i mean you know you've met that person right who's in politics now who started out by being head of the republican or Democratic club in high school. That's all they want to do. Then they're a state senator. And then they say, oh, am I going to run for Congress? And you think, what the fuck?

I mean, it's got to be something. The wiring is off a little bit. Yeah, for sure. That's the problem, right? Anybody that wants to be president, you wouldn't want to be president. anybody that wants to be president you wouldn't want to be president well i mean i think if you if you look at if you look at who they've got on the other side right i mean i i thought for a while that well maybe the republicans are going to primary trump right and then i realized that's that's crazy ass idea no one's ever going to do that no one's going to get in there

and go against stir it up with him for a primary yeah it's yeah who yeah so there's no one that stands out like you would need no one that stands out. You would need someone that already stands out. I mean, here we are in January. You would need someone that already stands out. We're talking about doing something 10 months from now. You need someone that's already in the public eye. You can't just jump to the head of the line like that, especially from the Republican side.

Say he wins again in 2020. He's got four years. I'll tell you one person I would love to see jump in. I don't think she'd ever do it, but it would be Condoleezza Rice. And just super smart, good person, terrific. I don't know. But, again, I don't think that's going to happen. I don't know that we've – Do you think she would run for president?

I mean, I would like to think so. I doubt it. She hasn't shown any interest in it. I think she's enjoying private life too much. Yeah. I mean, all the shit she went I doubt it she hasn't shown any interest in it I think she's enjoying private life too much yeah all the shit she went through

yeah the Iraq war and everything she's probably like can't take that stick it up your ass I'm gonna hang out in my ranch or whatever the fuck she's got

don't they all have ranches don't they I always figure they all go to Wyoming anybody who comes out of the Republican administration has gotta have a ranch you get a ranch somewhere

and you lay low like Cheney he's got a ranch he's administration has got to have a ranch. You get a ranch somewhere and you lay low. Like Cheney, he's got a ranch. He's definitely got a ranch. Got a ranch. That's a ranch guy. Bush has got a ranch. He could be better aim, but he's got a ranch. Better aim.

Man. Well, I think he was a little drunk at the time. That was one of my favorite times. He shot his friend in the face and his friend apologized. Yeah. That's how gangster Dick Cheney is. Yeah. I'm sorry I got my face in the way, sir.

Shouldn't have done that. His friend was like, I'm sorry I got my face in the way, sir. I shouldn't have done that. I was like, I'm sorry. I look like a quail, sir. I got my oldest boy for Christmas, 12 years old, a great, great, great kid, Scooter. I got him an Airsoft Glock replica. And I didn't know much about Airsoft, right? I mean, who does? I mean, I've got a walk-in safe full of weapons, but none of them are airsoft weapons.

But he really wanted one. His buddies have them. They go out shooting, and they do the old-school thing, right? They put on a couple of layers of clothes and some eye protection, and they go shoot each other. So how could I say no? So we go to the store, to this combat supply shop that specializes in airsoft. And I was really impressed. I mean, the machining on these things is fantastic, right, first of all. And I was expecting some, you know, the old school pellet guns and BB guns, the Crossmans,

things like that, you know, that are plastic for the most part and everything. But this is a solid piece of work. And anyway, so I got on this thing. It turned out, I don't know where I was going with this. Oh, shooting in a shot. He's actually, I suspect he's a better shot than Chaney, as it turns out. And he's got his hunting certificate, and he's been through that education program. And, you know, he's in the scouts and go out shooting every now and then.

But it took him almost no time at all, right, in terms of practice to develop. I'm boasting about my 12-year-old's target shooting ability. I realize that's not why most viewers tune in. Sometimes they want to know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe so. Anyway, so that's Jay. But yeah, I think you're right. Nobody's going to primary this president. And I think we're left with this field of potential candidates on the Dem side. And I tend to agree. I think it's going to be a landslide unless there's some – if the market tanks for whatever reason because there's somes seem to wander into their primary season as unorganized as they seem to be, I could see them winning again big. Well, I think people want to look at him as being all bad. But if what he's done and the moves that he's made are great for the economy and things thing and things appear to be very good right yeah no i think

again you can't but the problem is they can't separate that right that's what i'm saying yeah you can't find a progressive who's going to stop and go well you know the economy is good or if they say it it always followed by a but you know it's not good for everybody well it's never good for everybody it's true too yeah it isn't no yeah mean, they want the economy to be the way it is, but they want Bernie Sanders' economic policies. It's interesting because I think that someone who supports big business the way Trump does, he encourages people to move business forward. I mean, it encourages the market. It encourages people to spend money. It encourages people to take risks.

The more he makes it easier for these big businesses, also the more people get outraged, but then the economy picks up. It's like, boy, I don't know what the correct way to do this is, but even though I'm not a Trump fan, there are definite benefits to the way he has been running the country. Yeah. Well, when you talk about just sort just sort of the sum of the basic metrics, you look at the unemployment rate, right? I mean, and I just finished a conversation the other day. I mean, Idaho, not to bring in Idaho, but Idaho's got the second strongest state economy in the nation, right?

The unemployment rate is almost negligible. It's crazy how strong it is at this point. Because there's solid people up there. Solid people. We all have ranches. That's the other thing. You all know how to fly fish. Exactly.

There's something to that, though, the solid people. I mean, Idaho is a fucking, there's real people up there. You go up there, it's fucking cold as shit. There's wolves and bears. Those are real goddamn people. You've got to come back up and do another show. I would definitely come back up. I would definitely come back up. I'll schedule something.

Yeah, that would be great. But I think the point with the economy is that it does – and again, I get it. Not everybody's in the stock market. Of course not everybody's in the stock market. But as it improves or tax cuts, that whole, it was only for the rich. You can't tell me that people haven't been benefiting from it. And yes, there's going to be segments that it takes longer or you got to work harder or whatever it is to feel that improvement. But it's there.

And again, I don't see unless there's something that sends it heading south. And I think the Democrats are in a difficult position. They can't talk it down. Michael Bloomberg's trying. He's not a Democrat, though. I They can't talk it down. Michael Bloomberg's trying. He's not a Democrat, though. I don't know what he is. But he's not – What is he?

Yeah. He was a Republican. Are there billionaire Democrats? Tom Steyer. Yeah? Yeah. I keep wanting to say Steyer. I don't know why I keep saying Steyer.

It makes me sound clever. But Tom Steyer, yeah. But I think Bloomberg is trying to say, look, the economy needs to be adjusted, needs to be fixed. I don't think anybody buys it because there's no supporting data for that. And so they have a hard time battling against the economy, which is why I think they try to avoid it for the most part. I mean, that debate last night, did you watch that? No. Yeah.

I don't watch them. They didn't push Tulsi Gabbard out. I stopped watching them. You guys are out of your fucking mind She's the most interesting candidate out there Yeah Next to Marianne Williamson Oh well that bitch is crazy

Sorry Sorry for using that word Crazy? No Bitch I didn't mean it that way I say it You know

It's a term of endearment But isn't she like a crystal healer or some shit? Yeah She was trying to come on the podcast too I was like She's doing a tour Yeah I'm like that is

That's a boat with a lot of holes in it And it ain't gonna make it across the harbor It was like talking to It's like talking to one of your aunts right? One of your crazy aunts Yeah It's in the crystals Comes over for the holidays you know

And you say what are you doing? Well I made you a dream catcher And I think Okay thank you so A dream catcher A dream catcher I think Bernie Sanders has some interesting thoughts And talking to him in person In real life a dream catcher or anything. Thank you. A dream catcher. I think Bernie Sanders has some interesting thoughts.

And talking to him in person, in real life, I like him a lot. He's not like what he comes off in those goddamn debates because those debates are ridiculous. You get five people in front of the camera. You ask them a question. They have 30 seconds to answer it. Everybody else is jumping in and yelling things out. They're all trying to get a sound bite.

Well, that's all it is. It's not actually a debate. I mean, remember, you know, debate club. And it's not that. It's exactly what you said. It's sound bites. A series of sound bites. They're all looking to have a moment. They don't want to screw up, so they want to have a kind of a safe moment. And

they go through. I agree with you. I like Bernie because he's been consistent. You can go back to the 80s. He's saying the same shit that he's saying now. And I think there is something to that. Now, I don't buy his arguments. But I like the guy and I like the fact that he's consistent and he means what he says. And so, again, I can separate out liking him from liking his policies.

I don't see a problem there. But I don't think they're going to let Bernie – there was a moment, I'll tell you about last night on this debate thing, where I think it was the CNN moderator. She asked Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren had come out the other day and said that she had a private conversation with Bernie. And during the conversation, yeah, Bernie said, you know, a woman's never going to win. That's my Bernie. A woman's never going to win, can't win being president. He was more eloquent than that, but the voice sounded just like it.

And so he's denied it. So the moderator last night during this debate asked Bernie Sanders, let me just be clear, she said. Are you saying that you've never said this to Elizabeth Warren? And Bernie said, absolutely not. Very next words out of the moderator's mouth was she turned to Elizabeth Warren and said, so, Senator Warren, when Bernie said to you that he never, or no, when Bernie said to you that a woman couldn't be president, how did you feel? Jesus Christ. That was it.

And so I think they're not even trying now to hide the fact that they want to marginalize Sanders. Yeah. Why did they want to marginalize him? Because I think they feel like there's no way he can win. Is that what it is? Yeah. I think on a national level. They think Elizabeth Warren can win after lying about being Native American for her whole life?

Yeah. Yeah. That's a fucking big one to me. Oh, by the way. They think Elizabeth Warren can win after lying about being Native American for her whole life? Yeah, yeah. That's a fucking big one to me. Oh, by the way, by the way, one of my boys was home sick the other day from school, the middle boy, Sluggo. And so we were sitting on the sofa, and I said, you know, you're not feeling it? You want to watch a movie? Now, God bless him. He's 10 years old.

He considers himself a baller. All he wants to do is play basketball. That's all he wants to do with his life. He knows he's going to get recruited by Dukeke he knows he's going to end up in the nba and but we're sitting there and it was really kind of sweet because he's you know he's got all this hard side to him and i'm just playing ball and then he says well yeah let's watch a disney movie so we kind of dialed up disney plus because we like we're sheep and we bought the disney plus thing and and uh peter pan and the original peter pan right the

original disney peter pan so we turned it on and i'd forgotten what that movie was like in terms of its treatment of native americans oh it's horrible oh my god so we're watching it and we get to that part where you know they're they're singing that song and that the boys the lost boys are tied up with wendy and michael and all and and the chief comes in and he wants to find Tiger Lily, the princess, you know, because Hook is – the viewers are like, what the hell is going on here? So anyway, I'm sitting there and even Sluggo looks at me and he goes, wow, this is kind of racist. Really? What a 10-year-old says that.

Yeah, a 10-year-old says it. I thought, well, okay. Everything was racist back then. Everything was racist. Well, that's what we had. We had a citizen. I thought, well, okay. Everything was racist back then. Everything was racist. Well, that's what we had. We had a conversation. I said, yeah, pretty much what I told them. But anyway.

Well, particularly about Native Americans. I mean, they were able to get away with it. Nobody protested it. I'm reading this book now. I'm listening to it on tape called Black Elk Speaks. It's about this Oglala Sioux medicine man who was, while he was still alive in the 1930s, they wrote this book. He told the story of Custer and he was there.

He was a young boy when Custer was killed and he told the story of life on the plains and crazy horse. It's fucking fascinating. When was it written? It was written in the 1930s. Okay. It's called what? Black Elk Speaks?

Black Elk Speaks. Okay. I've listened to on tape. fascinating when was it written it's written in 1930s okay it's called what black elk black elk speaks yeah i've read i've listened to on tape uh this is like the fourth or fifth one that i've listened to on native americans over the last couple of months but this is the best one this is the best one because not that the other ones weren't great they were great but what's interesting about this is the actual words of a man who lived that life it's not just a historical um a book about the time and describes the events of the time this is a guy describing what he saw and he was talking particularly about war about the way it was when you know they killed custer and he was there when they killed custer and just the the battles between the American soldiers and the Native Americans, it's like, it's crazy.

It's crazy to think that it happened just a short time ago. And it's also crazy to think that if no one came to America, like if the world just stayed in Europe and Asia and the way it had been before Columbus and before the pilgrims and all that shit, these people would probably still be living like that because that's not that long ago. Well, I mean, you think about it. What was it? It was a warring tribal culture. Yeah. I mean, where else do we have – I'm probably going to make a botch at this point. But, yeah, warring tribal cultures in the Middle East, right?

I mean, it's a difficult environment, right, in which to say, okay, we're going to have some sort of federal system. We're going to come together. We're going to work for the greater good. But I mean I think it's – I will say this. The most depressing scenes I've ever seen have been on Native American Indian reservations in this country. I've never been. Oh, my god. I've never been other than casinos.

It's just you go and – and look, I'd spent most of my adult life overseas, right, in some pretty grim places. And I remember the first time I was on a reservation here in the U.S. I thought, how can this possibly be here? And I know that's a naive thought and people think, well, how could you not know that it was here? But it's, you know, A, it's not a good history, but B, it's not a good follow-up either. I mean, right? We haven't, we just, to this day, we don't do a very good job at all.

And the reservation systems, not all of them, of course. It's like every, you know, not every urban center is, you know, crime-ridden. I mean, that's ridiculous. But I'm just saying, in general, you know, some of the most difficult places I've ever seen have been right here in our borders, right, on Indian reservations. And good God. Yeah, I want to get someone to come in here who's a Native American, who's a historian, who really understands the history of their tribe. Someone to come in here and talk to me about it. Because I just had a sort of a peripheral understanding of it up until about five or six months ago.

I had seen movies and I had read books and I had kind of understood, but I didn't really, really get into it until I started reading these books. And it's just incredible to think that there was millions and millions of tribes or millions and millions of members of different tribes living in this country, like basically like Stone Age people just 150 years ago. And oftentimes, you know, in constant conflict with each other. Yes. Oh, that's a big thing that I didn't really understand. Yeah. The horrific things they did to each other, kidnapped each other, tortured each other.

And we came along and they're like, what the fuck? Come on, lighten up. I mean, geez. We brought them a whole new level um well as soon as we figured out repeating guns as soon as they figured out revolvers with more than one bullet this because they were fighting the comanches originally they were fighting them with muskets and the comanches could shoot like six arrows in 10 seconds so they were just lighting these fucking soldiers up because they couldn't reload right so they'd wait for the initial volley and then they'd charge in and they also could they were such great horsemen they could actually shoot underneath the horse's neck so they'd hold on to the reins

somehow where they were under the horse's neck and they were protected and they were shooting at the soldiers yeah and they were shooting from horses nobody knew how to do that before everybody got off the horse to shoot yeah and they were shooting while they were riding. I mean, I feel bad for the horse, but he's covering concealment. That's how the Comanches apparently dominated is that they had so many horses. They were rich in horses. They were the ones that figured out how to master the horse the best. They also used small horses.

They didn't use like these big horses that the Americans used. And they were small people. Comanches were fairly small people. Yeah. No, it is absolutely – it's a fascinating history. I've spent more time reading sort of the military aspects of the Indian Wars, right, from the U.S. military side of things. And occasionally a book will stray into sort of, okay, well, let's look from a perspective of whichever tribe they were in battle with, but not usually very good.

So I'll pick up this book because it's an amazing history, and you're right, it's not that long ago. There's another great book. Well, there's quite a few of them, Blood and Thunder. It's about Kit Carson. I read that. That is good. Ooh, fuck, man.

That dude. Ooh, he was a beast. Get him on the show. My God. Yeah. No, he was tremendous,. He was a beast. Get him on the show. My God. Yeah. No, he was tremendous, right? Yeah. And from nothing, right?

Came from nothing. Right. And was a small guy. Wasn't, you know, had a soft voice. Yeah. There was a show, Men Who Made America, I think. Or it was a follow-on from that. But they had a handful of episodes about Kit Carson, but they kind of went through.

They picked out some of the individuals you would imagine, right? I mean, Daniel Boone and some of the other characters as the frontier. I think the men who built the frontier, I think, is what it was called. It was a follow-on to that series that they did about the men who built America. Okay, which seems misogynistic. The women probably helped. They, you know, behind every great titan of industry, there was a woman and several of his mistresses. But I think that this thing about building the frontiers was interesting.

They tried to provide a perspective from the Native American Indians' point of view. I don't think they necessarily did a very good job because I think they just had so much room to cover. But it was still worth watching. So it was a good series. Yeah, I think most of us are pretty ignorant to what goes on on the reservations today, and me included. You hear these horrible stories of alcoholism and poverty. It's just they live in these horrible stories of alcoholism and poverty and you know it's just they're they live in these nations inside of a nation that's what it's what's very strange and

the only thing that really you know there's natural resources that can help them but really gambling gambling becomes a big revenue source for a lot of them and then and then people are trying to game the system no pun intended but people are gaming the system and saying oh i'm going to create this non-existent tribe. You get that in Washington, D.C. is you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some lobbyist who's trying to push for designation of some obscure element as a tribe so that they can simply apply for a gaming license. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not sure how you turn that around.

There's the Native American Indian Museum in D.C. that opened several years back. It's very good. It's a little tough to follow. I will say this much in terms of just the way they've laid the museum out. But it's just absolutely full to the ceiling of incredible stories and artifacts and history bits. But it's definitely worth people going to D.C. if they're saying, okay, I'm going to go to the Smithsonian, so they should put that one on the list, because it's really fascinating. It's really good. Anyway.

But, what else? Oh, I know what I was going to bring up, because I can't come on the show without talking about Huawei. Oh, so something going on with Huawei again? Only on the periphery. Today, the Trump administration signed this first portion of a deal with China.

And so it's a trade pact, right? There's been this trade battle, obviously. And I just thought I was flying out here and I was thinking about it. It's interesting dynamic, right? Because people talk about this current administration is not having any strategy. And sometimes it does seem, frankly, that way. But I was seeing the other day that it is, there is actually this, an interesting split in terms of how they're dealing with China. So on the one hand, we've got this softening of the trade war, they're going to as a result of signing what they signed today with China sort of a a first stage trade agreement, it mostly involves increased purchases by

China of U.S. goods. There's some talk about them scaling back their theft of intellectual property. Scaling back? Scaling back. That's a hilarious way. Yeah. We're going to do it. Maybe we won't steal so much.

Yeah. We'll take a, you know, we're not going to stop stealing. But there's that element to it. But at the same time as they're doing this, and as a result of that, we're going to have – we're going to cut in half our tariffs on quite a bit of – a large amount of goods. And I think we're going to drop the idea of imposing more tariffs on some other goods. But even while we're doing that, so that's happening, right? But as we're doing that, we're also ratcheting up pressure and some sanctions and some legislation against the technology side of things. So we're still coming down on Huawei.

Congress is trying to push through something that's going to make it even more difficult for U.S. companies to do business with them overseas. But I think it's interesting, right? Because there's some people, I think, in Washington who go, well, we can't do both. Well, of course you can do both, right? You can talk to the Chinese in real terms and say, yeah, let's focus on the trade war. We're going to do this. We're going to make it a little bit easier. Let's create a trade environment where it's good for both of us.

At the same time, you know what? You're still stealing our shit, and Huawei is still a national security threat. So we're still going to focus on this. And, you know, this is not saying I'm singing praises of this current administration. I'm just saying that any administration should be able to operate on different levels, right, when it comes to the same. But we don't, we haven't seemed to do that. It's like with Iran, you know, well, okay you know in the in the past if they just gave some indication that they were going to play ball with us we'd ease up on the sanctions right even though they hadn't done anything about their their pursuit of terrorism and and other things that

they were doing because we felt like in washington i think sometimes dc is like oh you can't do two things at one time that seem to be conflicting well Well, the real world says, I think that you can. So I think China gets it. Now, I don't think they're going to stop stealing. It seems to be how they operate. Yeah. Especially when you consider the fact that the government is so inexorably connected to Huawei. When you were explaining how big business and the government are hand in hand, they're

not two separate entities. They work completely together. business and the government are hand in hand they're not two separate entities they work completely together and so with huawei since they have been busted having third-party access to data and stealing packets and stuff with routers because they have done that you got to think well that's probably a part of the way they do business they well it's it is it's it's it's in their system i I mean, they made a decision decades ago, right? This is how we're going to achieve superiority in the world, right? We're going to get to the top of the food chain by skipping all the cost and pain

of research and development. We're just going to hoover up everything we can from not just the US, but everybody. So, you know, part of this, this this pushback against china has been specifically trying to say look you you got to stop that right we understand it we're calling you out on it we're doing now we've tried doing that a handful of times in the past in a half-hearted manner this time you know i think the chinese understand we're more serious about it and we are trying to to implement certain um measures that will um prevent some of that theft. But at the same time, I think, as you said, it's part of how they do business, right? We're not going to – so I think we have to be pragmatic in all of this and think, yeah, it's good that we're pushing them on it.

It's good that we're telling them. It's good that we're trying to rebalance the trade environment, that we're calling out Huawei, that we're talking to our allies about not doing business with them because all they really want is they want an access point, right? So if they do business with the UK, suddenly in this seamless world of communications, now they've got an entry point into the US. So, you know, we're working to try to get our allies to stay on board with us about that. But yeah, the Chinese, they subsidize Huawei, and the government does in a big way.

And we just have to be realistic, right? We're not going to change their behavior in a major way. They're just going to become more sophisticated or more obtuse about how they do it. Well, the best evidence to me that there's really something going on is that Google's even stepped in, right? Google's even said, we won't even give you our access to Google Store anymore if you want to have a Huawei phone. Even if you buy it from overseas, it will not work in the Google ecosystem.

So what Huawei's done is they've started their own little weird app store, and they've started creating their own apps. They're essentially frozen out of the ecosystem that Google provides and the ecosystem that google provides and the google play store provides but you can sideload some apps by going to the website like you can sideload you can download some of them and put them on a phone but they're they're

essentially relegated to these weird chinese versions of a lot of the popular applications and it's a very limited selection and when it comes to high-end cell phones like what is the new huawei phone i think it's called the mate 30 pro they announced another one this is the other just now yeah right well oh mike picker fuck him they literally had announcements today in london teach that son of a bitch son of a bitch so Son of a bitch. So their phones, they come out with new ones all the time. Like an iPhone, which is the top of the food chain in America, right? They come out once a year. Once a year, they bang out a new phone.

Huawei's cranking these fucking bad boys out every couple of months. And every couple of months, they have a giant leap in improvement. More megapixels, better night vision, more storage, more battery life, more this, more that, higher pixel density in the screens. So their phones literally are the top of the food chain phones. It's really kind of fascinating because a lot of American phones, like look at that bad boy. P40 design gets leaked showing triple Leica camera. Yeah, so they're using like these fucking incredible cameras. Yeah, sort of similar.

Sort of similar to the iphone similar interesting yeah yeah uh well we copy them a lot yeah no that's true i mean that's a design element of it yeah and but i think i mean look at look at huawei you know we here we've been banging on about them for for some time congress has been trying to take actions and at the end of this past year end of what 2019 uh hua 2019, Huawei reported some 20% increase in their revenues. Yeah, of course. People are talking about them. Well, I know a lot of people that before this Google thing.

I'm actually, you know, I got a contract with Huawei, so that's why I keep banging on it. The Google thing really fucked them up because before that, a lot of the tech guys in america were buying them from amazon or buying them from websites and then just putting their sim cards in it and using it even though at&t won't sell them and verizon won't sell them but now uh that won't even work anymore because now you don't have access to the google play store if they could figure out a way to sweet talk their way back to the google play store they would be the biggest fucking cell phone company in

the world they offer developer 26 million dollars to build apps for his flagship phones after being banned from using google's app store yeah but the thing is like building the apps is not good enough you have to have apps that everybody's using right right if you make your own instagram nobody gives a fuck you're not on instagram are you on instagram it says there are major apps available through halloween's uh app gals such as amazon snap Snapchat, TikTok, and Fortnite. But most popular apps are still missing. That's interesting. Amazon's like, fuck you.

We want some money. Oh, yeah. I mean. We want some money. Jeff Bezos going through a divorce. That's what it's all about. Come get some money. I got a new hot chick and she likes money.

Have you seen his new, is it his new wife now or just his girlfriend? I think it's just his girlfriend. She used to be married to the former owner of the UFC or the, one of the, she used to be married to one of the current owners

of the UFC. Oh, okay. All right. So she's, she's stepped up. Paper. Stepped up. Man.

The owner of the UFC is a very wealthy man too, but these. Not Bezos wealthy. No. He's, he's on next level wealthy. That's like if you get

divorced for sure you're getting a billion yeah he's got 150 he can give you a billion just to shut you up just like just give her a billion let's get this over with yeah let's get this over with marty let's sign the paperwork but i can see he's a handsome man i can see him attracting a really hot i don't think you're right i think you're being sarcastic look at that face wow he looks like a guy in a movie he looks a little like paul schaefer in that picture you remember the old uh david lederman's old band leader look at this yeah you're right he does yes dave yeah jeff bezos reportedly threw a star-studded birthday bash for his girlfriend lauren sanchez look at her she She's like, cha-ching!

Someone should Photoshop dollar bills on her glasses. But you know what? That's not a really good picture of her. She's got a weird... She's hot as fuck, dude. Really? She's hot as fuck and almost 50. 50th birthday? Just had it?

Women today at 50... You buy her whatever the fuck she wants. Jeff Be her. Women today at 50, you buy her whatever the fuck she wants. Jeff Bezos. I got you a card. Women today at 50, they keep it together. It's a different 50. Yeah. When I was a kid, when a lady was 50, that was a dead lady.

She's barely alive. But now, 50-year-olds, they're in the gym doing squats. They look hot. It's just, it's different. They exercise. People now imagine you cruising gyms looking for girls doing squats no i'm just saying i've seen 50 year olds that are in very good like who's that what's that girl elizabeth hurley oh yeah oh she she's a fucking movie star her instagram is all

pictures of her in her underwear you know why Yeah. And she's 54? She's 54, and she knows the fucking sand is thin on that hourglass. There ain't a lot at the top. The top chamber, there ain't a lot left. Yeah. So she's like, she's showing them goods. That Instagram is all her in her underwear. Who was she with? That name.

Who was she with? She was with, oh, there she is. Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant. That's right. Dude, look how hot she is. Yeah. 54. Like, if you saw her, give me another one of those Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant, that's right. Dude, look how hot she is. Yeah. 54.

Like, if you saw her, give me another one of those, Jamie. What do you got here? Give me another one of them bikini. There's a bunch of bikini pictures. That there. Like, if you saw her somewhere, you would go, that's a 35-year-old beautiful woman. Yeah, that's not 54. 54.

It's different these days. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of, I will say this, though. There are a lot of filters out there now. That's true. Yeah. I know. I could look 12. But look at that one in the middle. That doesn't are a lot of filters out there. That's true. I know. I could look 12.

But look at that one in the middle. That doesn't look filtered, the one right there. No, that looks like a party picture. That looks like her part. She's hot. She definitely looks hot. She looks right like she just came off the set from Austin Powers. Yeah, she's fucking hot, man.

She's still hot. Like, legitimately hot. Like, people go, yeah, but she's 54. You go, shut the fuck up. What are you? What's wrong with you, man? Yeah. yeah look at that one the right with the boobs oh yeah take it no but when was that taken though last week last week shut your mouth stop ruining my dreams that was just on monday don't ruin dreams mike you're right you're right as fuck yeah just

putting in the work. That middle picture, I'm not sure about the middle picture with the two soldiers there. I'm not sure. Was that taken in Liechtenstein? Where are these soldiers from? What's up with their fake mustaches? Do they have painted on mustaches? Do you think they've got a whole army of guys like that that come out on the battlefield dressed like that?

London Coliseum. Do they make them put rosy cheeks on? No, those are natural. It comes like that. That's the British weather. Cold and damp gives you cheeks like that. How weird. Yeah.

They have fake mustaches, though, right? Yeah, it's for the ballet. It's for the Nutcracker. Oh, for the ballet. Right here. English National Ballet. Oh, the ballet. I thought there were a couple of Marines. The ballet.

A couple of commandos. Just make that picture bigger and cut those dummies out. She looks hot. And look at the one right next to it. Go to the one picture right next to that one, Jamie. That one. Oh, yeah. Come on, son.

Whoa. She's hot as fuck. She's hot as fuck. It's quite the piece of jewelry she's got there. Yeah. Hanging between those things there. Yeah. It's just amazing that women can do this now.

You couldn't do that before. It's like you hit a wall, and that's welcome to the wall. But here's what I would say. I think those same hot women would argue that for dudes it's different. You can be a schlub at 54, right? You can just walk out there. You don't give a shit. You're just kind of like whatever.

Like Jack Nicholson. Yeah, like Jack Nicholson. Jack Nicholson's 1,000 years old, and he's still banging 20-year-olds. Yeah, yeah. I don't know how he does that. He's Jack Nicholson. I see whatever. Like Jack Nicholson. Jack Nicholson's 1,000 years old, and he's still banging 20-year-olds. Yeah, yeah. I don't know how he does that. He's Jack Nicholson. I see sidelines at a Lakers game, you think, oh, my God. I know.

You know what it is? It's like most women find him repulsive, but you don't want most women. Yeah. You want the women that don't find you repulsive. And when you're really, really famous, that's a considerable number. That's what's crazy. Yeah. No, that's a considerable number that's what's crazy yeah no that's true so like there's

300 million plus people in this country that's probably uh of dating age let's just let's just say there's 70 million women that are that could be dating jack nicholson look at them there let's just i mean it's probably i'm probably off but let's say out of those so 70 million that he could choose from yeah let's say it's 100 million let's get crazy let's say out of those so 70 million that he could choose from yeah let's say it's 100 million let's get crazy let's say it's 100 million that's quite the picture out of those 100 look at that one let's leave that one out that's my favorite leave that one out of those 100 million 90 million of them would think he's disgusting 90 million so 90 million women would be like what the fuck out of those 10 million and those 10 million that are left five million

would be like he's not that bad and then one million would be like i'd fuck him right now yeah that's what you want i think one million one million would fuck that right now yes one million i'll live here they're all in southern cal You're so right A lot of Well there's some From North Dakota They just want to come to LA Jack's gonna make me famous

He blew He blew up my Instagram Yeah You know I tell you I can see that I can see getting in your In your Kia And driving across the country

To fuck that Yeah Look at his glasses Man Just look Everything about him Cheeseburger Fries

Doesn't give a fuck Oh there you go There he's back in his heyday That was when he was young That dude, man. He looked like shit back then. Look at that picture. Look at that collar, though.

That was back when a collar meant something. Yeah. It is amazing. Yeah. And, you know, he keeps on rocking in the free world. Yeah. No, yeah. But that's the thing.

That's what women would say. How come we have to – I mean, you hear that all the time. How come, you know, society requires us to, requires us to do 1,000 squats a week and... They're right. This mook over here, he doesn't have to do anything and he's still pulling. But the response to that would be, you don't even have to be rich. If you're hot and you're a woman, you just have to be nice. Yes.

A guy who's hot, good luck. What are you going to get out of that? You ain't getting shit out of that, stupid. Go get a goddamn job. Yeah. No are you going to get out of that? You ain't getting shit out of that, stupid. Go get a goddamn job. Yeah. No, you got to. I think that's, I read some study somewhere and I've put it out of my mind, but I do remember there was an aspect of it that did say, what do women see as an attractive element of a

man? And to this day, it's still the ability to provide. Yeah. Right? Just like you said a million years ago. Jeff Bezos. Look at that smile she has on her face. She's not bummed out to be with him. Now, it would have been a different story if we were cavemen and you had to rely on Jeff Bezos A million years ago Jeff Bezos Look at that smile She has on her face She's not bummed out To be with him

Now it would have been A different story If we were cavemen And you had to rely On Jeff Bezos To provide Right It's not happening

Right But yeah I mean it's Anyway So yeah So Amazon's doing business With the new app store Huawei

Yeah That's kind of sneaky Yeah And TikTok's a Chinese company already right and now and there's some talk i mean they've been making efforts you know to limit the ability for tiktok to do business you know like really i think the u.s military has instructed all personnel to stay off of tiktok you know or not to use tiktok yeah really yeah again because of the same concern the whole idea is this platform because you know these these companies can argue all they want to that they're independent from the Chinese authorities.

But ultimately, if the Chinese authorities knock on their door and say, we would like access to your database because we want to hoover up all the information about every U.S. military person that's stationed wherever or – they're going to do it. They're trying to get one of the top TikTok executives in here. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Not really. Not really one of the top TikTok executives in here. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Not really. Not really interesting at all. Not interesting to me.

So it's not happening. No. No. Fuck you. No. I don't even understand TikTok. I mean, I know the kids use it. Kids like it, I guess.

Look at this. Make TikTok videos. It's considered a cyber threat. Lieutenant Colonel Robin Ocha, an Army spokeswomanwoman told Military.com, we do not allow it on government phones. There you go. Look at that. A cyber threat. An effective tool for reaching young people of generation, how old is generation Z?

They're 12. My daughter who's 11 is fucking all about TikTok. She's teaching me TikTok dances. I'm learning TikTok dances. That looked good. That was a good move. You'd blow up if you did some. TikTok dances. I'm learning TikTok dances. That looked good, actually. That was a good move. You'd blow up if you did some. Yeah.

TikTok dances. I'm not trying to blow up. No. I'm not trying. But my daughter, literally, she thinks it's hilarious. She's teaching me TikTok dances. And we practice for like fucking half an hour. But what the hell is it?

Is it just another version of- It's like little videos. Okay. Little videos. But my 11-year year old Is really into it Her friends All think it's hilarious Yeah I was gonna say

I drive Sluggo to his Basketball practices And occasionally There's you know Two or three other Knuckleheads in the car And that's all they're doing

Is they're talking Comparing TikTok videos Or anything How weird Yeah I can't I can't I'm too busy

I'm not interested That's where YouTube started I was just like Cat videos Until it was Then it was 15 minute videos And now it's whatever it is. So you think I should jump on board, Jamie? I was just saying it's a-

You do think I should jump on board. You shouldn't not jump on board. Let me ask you this. Isn't OnePlus, isn't that a Chinese company as well? I don't- Find out what that is. OnePlus. Because OnePlus is accepted, right?

I mean, OnePlus sponsors a lot of things. They make really high-end phones as well how come they don't get the same kind of scrutiny i suspect they they do it just hasn't hit the press i mean tiktok blew up i guess as a app that well kids you know like and so it became but i didn't realize generate how again how old is generation z is that a like a 20 i don't even know what that is it's below millennials it It's like the next thing, whatever. So it's below millennials. Okay.

That's when we're really fucked. That's when we really get to see the fruits of our labor. How fucked up have we turned this culture? Well, let's check out the 10-year-olds. Let's see how ridiculous these kids are. And not to disappear down a rabbit hole, but I agree. I think we have no idea. We have no idea what technology is, how it's going to impact in the long run. We don't have enough of a test case yet. And I can look at my kids and just within my little microcosm of my three little dudes,

sort of their attention span, right, and their ability to – and you can see it impacting it. You can see it impact the way that they study, the way that they learn. I don't think we're – again, I'm not a Luddite, but I don't know that we're doing ourselves any favors. I don't think we're doing ourselves favors either, and I don't think there's any way of pulling back from it. There's no – like you could tell your kids to pull back. You could maybe get your friends' kids to pull back,

but culturally, no one's pulling back from this stuff. They're getting more and more immersed in their phones, more and more immersed in apps and internet. The big thing is apps to me. They all get on these little social media apps, whether it's TikTok or whatever it is, and they're all direct messaging and looking at each other's stuff, and it becomes a giant part of your life you know these kids like you look at their like my daughter has friends that don't

have any restrictions on their phones my daughter has like a time limit on her phone she's one hour in the whole day right other than that you're not you have to do yeah you have to do that but she's got a little friend that doesn't have any time and this little friend like you would think this girl like her fucking skin is growing onto this little friend like you would think this girl like her fucking skin is growing onto this phone she never goes anywhere without this phone in her hand and she's always looking at it like yeah she can't talk to anybody for five seconds without looking at her phone checking tiktok checking that but that's she's getting that from her parents or people see i mean look at that look at adults i mean how many times have you sat in a restaurant

and everybody at the table staring at their phone yeah? I got on the car rental bus today, and I dropped my bag on the thing, and I stood there, and I looked down at the bus, and everybody was staring at their phone. At least that's dead time. You're just sitting on a bus waiting to get to those, let's check my email real quick. That's not a bad time to use your phone. In the old days, you'd start up a conversation with the guy next to you. So, where are you from? Omaha. No, you wouldn't. Never mind. I don't know where I was going with that. You could old days, you'd start up a conversation with the guy next to you. So, where are you from? Omaha. No, you wouldn't.

Never mind. I don't know where I was going with that. You could, but then you'd want to call Homeland Security. Do you see anything suspicious? Yeah, this fucking guy talked to me on the bus. Yeah, I don't know what that's all about. He wanted something he referred to as a conversation. That's my favorite.

If you see anything suspicious, call this number. Everything's suspicious. Yeah. The whole world's suspicious to me this number. Everything's suspicious. Yeah. The whole world's suspicious to me. See something, say something. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What do you think about this?

Have you seen this latest dispute between Apple and the government? What's the latest? Well, you know, we had this shooting down in Pensacola. And so it was a Saudi soldier who was down there for flight instruction and killed three people in the classroom there and finally taken out by deputies because we don't allow our soldiers to carry weapons on a base. And anyway, point being is that when this happened, he had two phones, Apple. I think one was a five, one was a 7. And so the FBI got the phones. They went to Apple but asked for assistance with the first one.

I don't know which phone they were asking for. And Apple claims that, yeah, yeah, we provided assistance. We gave them access to iCloud data backup and some transactional records and what they were asking for. And then they went to Apple, I think, just a week ago or so with a request for assistance with a second one. And they subpoenaed Apple a couple days later and said, you know, we need assistance in getting into these phones. It's still the same problem that they had three or four years ago. The San Bernardino shooting. Yes. And so we had that big kerfuffle where they were you know saying look apple's

not assisting they're not helping us get into this government had to go to as it turns out to an israeli uh forensics group um spent a lot of money to get cracked into these phones um anyway so bill barr the attorney general came out just you know yesterday past couple of days and he's been lambasting apple saying you know you, you're hampering this investigation. You're not helping us in terms of dealing with this terrorist incident. And Apple's saying, you know, what the fuck? We are providing some assistance. So we're back in that same thing that we were in four years ago where you've got this battle over access and, you know, pushing an investigation forward and the concern over privacy.

What do they want that apple's not willing to provide well they want access to the phones you know the idea was initially they were trying to get um uh backup or sorry a uh a back door in that could be used by law enforcement to get into the the iphone so see it here trump wants apple to unlock the pensacola shooters iphones here's why it won't what is the well first of, this is CNN, which is fake news! Oh, fake! It's all fake news. Oh, foe. It says, we have always maintained there's no such thing as a backdoor

just for the good guys. Backdoors can be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers, Apple added. Today, law enforcement has access to more data than ever before in history, so Americans do not have to choose between weakening encryption and solving investigations we feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our country and our users data yeah but i don't understand like what are

they looking for that they won't let these guys find it's one thing that like back doors but i'm not talking about a back door i'm talking about like there should be a way that they can get into the phone right there should be a way that they can get into the phone, right? There should be a way that you can not just the iCloud backup, but you could open up the phone and do it with, like, Apple should have, like, some skeleton key or something like that. Well, and that's what they're saying they're not going to provide. They're not going to provide a software solution to allow them access to get into these phones. But what else could he have on his phone if it's iCloud backed up? Like an iCloud backup is essentially your phone, but it's in the cloud.

Right, but you can also turn that off. But have they turned it off? Has he turned it off? I don't know the details of that, but I would suspect so. But there's other data that you can access from that phone that would be relevant to this. Now, I tend to, in this situation, I tend to side with Apple. I understand the Attorney General, his responsibility is whatever, protecting American citizens. So, okay, he's going to have this position. But Apple's basically saying,

look, we're not going to break the terms of our contract with all the people that have iPhones where we're providing them with privacy. And they're also, I think, saying to some degree, look, yeah, we understand that criminals can use encryption, right? I mean, they do, right? They take advantage of the encryption that's available and the lack of access. But so do millions of citizens, right, who use the iPhones just to keep their bank records or whatever they have on there, right? And so the encryption benefits everybody in a sense.

Obviously, it benefits the criminals. Now, I think I also kind of side with Apple at this point because, frankly, I think technology has kind of made some of these arguments moot, meaning that there are ways to get into these phones now. So the bureau or the government doesn't have to just go to Apple and say, please let us in. There was boxes that the police were buying that would allow you to hack into phones. There's several companies. The companies that are allowing or developing access or ability to access these phones, the competition has been increasing.

And what happens? People get better at it. And so they develop new techniques. But then the problem is like bad guys can buy them. they can get a hold of your phone they steal your phone from you and then open it up and then use your phone to text people or get weird with you yeah and and so then you what are you saying we're saying okay well the company that's got that access point like like the israeli company or some others some several others out there uh gray shift and a few others that that provide this so then you're relying on them to control who they're selling to.

And some of these companies sell only to the government and to whoever is DEA or – and so I guess the point being is that I don't think the old arguments of even a few years ago that says we can't get in, so we need Apple's assistance, I think that's kind of going by the wayside. And the government does have the ability to get in there at this point. So I'm not quite sure why they've they're picking a fight again i don't know all the details that you know but i don't know is it possible that they can't get in the phone is that possible because they're saying back doors can be exploited okay but if you give apple a phone and say i don't know the password of this can you get in there apple can they can get in there? Apple can. They can get in there.

Yeah, Apple can. They don't want to hand over that ability of that software because, again, it's a commercial issue, right, for them. Right, but shouldn't it be possible if they don't want to hand over that software that they could just open it for the government and the government doesn't have to get the software? Yeah, the government's made that argument to them before, for whatever reason, because I think it part is the optic that says, okay, well, apparently Apple is willing to do this.

I think they just want to hold the line and say absolutely not because I think they're looking at this from, again, from almost a pure commercial perspective. I kind of understand that, but then I kind of say, well, this guy is a fucking terrorist and a mass shooter. Yeah, okay. I mean, yeah, you've got a contract with all these people that says, okay, I'll protect your privacy. But you think that would be, you know, you're abdicating your ability to hold them to that contract if you go out and shoot a few people. Is the guy still alive? No. The shooter?

No. Okay, so what's the fucking problem? He doesn't have any privacy. He's dead. It's a good point. Open up the phone. I just find it interesting. We're back having that same argument that we had a few years ago, right?

And we haven't. I just find it interesting. We're back having that same argument that we had a few years ago. And I think, like I said, I'm not sure why Barr is pushing this argument necessarily the way he is. I mean I get what his position has to be given his job as attorney general. But I think we're past that point. I think there's hacking solutions that are legitimately available through forensics groups that have been developing these things that can assist the government to do this. So I just found it interesting. It is interesting because it's like I understand that Apple does not want to open up too much to the government's demands. And if they do, look, we don't have a tyrannical government. But what if we did?

I mean, like what's going on with China and Huawei? It's like very similar if apple sort of opens up the door of the government and they slide right in and start really using apple's software to in their phones to manipulate people and access data that they really shouldn't have access to people that are under investigation and just like it opens up the door to all sorts of other weird possibilities yeah yeah. Well, it goes back and it starts to feed that belief that the government's spying on everybody. The reality is they neither have the resources or the interest, frankly, or the ability to spy on everybody. Well, this is what I always say to people. Who's spying on you?

There's another person? So there's one person that just spies on you all day. So imagine. You're assigned one person. There's 300 person that just spies on you all day so imagine you're assigned one person there's 300 million people in this country there's 300 million spies spying on those 300 million people is that what's going on you got one one target that's all you do all day long is watch one person um but then there's the thing about them collecting data like the nsa collecting data and and collecting all your phone calls collecting all your text messages and stories. You know what's a bigger threat is Amazon or Google or, you know what? You turn on your Samsung TV, you know what it's doing?

It's watching you. Don't watch me. Your TV's got the ability to watch you. It's called smart interactivity. Yeah. So it's got a camera, and the whole idea was, well, we'll do this so that we can figure out what you're watching and what you think of it. So not only is it watching, but it could listen. Yeah. So it's got a camera, and the whole idea was, well, we'll do this so that we can figure out what you're watching and what you think of it. So not only is it watching, but it could listen.

Yeah. So it's the commercial side that's collecting information, not necessarily for nefarious purposes. They're collecting it for marketing purposes and to make more money, which is what they're in business to do. But they're the ones that are hoovering up data, right? That then leaks out because somebody hacks, grabs all that information, and then they use it for something nefarious. Well, I get nervous when I hear about companies like Facebook that are thinking about starting their own cryptocurrency. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Are you a believer in Bitcoin now? I'm not a not believer, but I don't, I'm not like invested in it. It's not like something I'm not a not believer, but I don't – I'm not like invested in it. It's not like something I'm – I had a guy on several times, Andreas Antonopoulos, who's a Bitcoin expert. Very, very bright and interesting guy. And I really enjoyed talking to him about it, but he's all in. Like he does all his banking with Bitcoins, pays his rent with Bitcoin, gets paid with Bitcoin. Everything is Bitcoin with him.

And he's loved by the Bitcoin. Everything is Bitcoin with him. And he's loved by the Bitcoin community and all this different stuff. But at the end of the day, I just don't totally understand how you can have so many of them. Like how many cryptocurrencies are there? And then if you don't have so many of them, well, who's to say when you could stop making them? Right, right. Who's the arbiter to say, no, that's legitimate or that is not? I don't know. I fall in the category of I don't understand it.

To be fair, I haven't taken the time to understand it. You can't think about everything. This is my take on it. You can't. You don't have enough time to think about everything. So I'm letting that one play out on its own. I'm going to just sit back. And when it's 100% all in, when everybody's like, look, Bitcoin is just like money.

Yeah. Okay. But until then. And they kind of predicted it was going to be just like money quite a few years ago. And it never really did hit that. But you can buy some things with Bitcoin. There's some companies that let you buy computers with Bitcoin. I'm sure there's a fair amount of transaction that goes on from what I understand. But again,

I don't understand. I don't understand how it's backed necessarily. I'm sure I'll probably get all sorts of comments now like, you're a fucking idiot. You should be heavily involved in Bitcoin. But I buy gold bars. Gold's real. They've been killing people for gold forever. That's legit shit.

That's the way I feel about it. Gold and catheters. I'm stocking up on both. Those are both going to be really important in the future. But gold is a weird one, right? Why are we still so invested in this soft, shiny metal? And all the shit that people need. Why gold? I don't even like it as jewelry.

I think it's kind of tacky. When I met my wife, I was still wearing a gold chain from my old Miami Vice days. Yeah, she still doesn't let me forget that. Yeah, it was pretty sweet. It wasn't like flavor favor or anything. It wasn't big and chunky, but I thought it was understated. Was it like a herringbone sort of one? It was like a Greek key thing.

Oh, Greek key thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I lived out in that part of the world for a while. yeah yeah yeah i lived out in that part of the world for a while and you know yeah so anyway as i was explained to me that it wasn't as hip as i thought it was at the time and so i damn i put it away uh with all my other gold jewelry and my boys will fight over for it when i'm dead um yeah women will let you know they'll clean you up they'll go hey hey hey you gotta stop with that stupid shit like i thought that was a i thought I'm looking fly. Yeah. Oh, my God.

Yeah. I walked out the other day. We were getting ready to go to some function. And I come walking down the steps. It was a casual thing, right? And I thought, okay. And I'm not a really – I'm not a naturally social person in the sense that I don't like to go to big gatherings of people. I mean, I like going out to a dinner or just to hang out for drinks with, you know, like small, six, eight

people that I know, right? And I know I'm going to get, this is where we're going. I don't have to walk into a crowd and go from little group to little group having, you know, some small conversation. I'm not good at it. But we were going to one of these things. So I think in my mind, I thought, I just, oh, fuck. So I come walking down the steps. I'm wearing a

cardigan. And my wife is walking up the steps to get something that cardigan And my wife is walking up the steps To get something she forgot upstairs And she stops on the stairs And she looks And so as I'm coming down the stairs I see her stop down there And she's staring at me

I'm thinking What? And now I thought I like this cardigan I bought it in a shop I thought this looks pretty good You know I thought it had like

A Matthew McConaughey vibe to it And she's staring at me like What the fuck is that? What color is it? What color is it? What color is it? It's a nice gray. Can you pull up a picture of a gray cardigan, please? I want to get an image in my mind of what you look like.

A picture of Matthew McConaughey in a cardigan. Somebody must have Googled that. Does he have cardigan wear? Is he a big cardigan wearer? That was the word. Because I thought, okay, I'm being pretty chill here. That was another word I got from my kids. And I just thought that it was presenting the right vibe. I'm going pretty chill here. That was another word I got from my kids. And I just thought that it was presenting the right vibe.

I'm going to a party. I'm casual. I'm relaxed. I'm going to be – I don't know what I was thinking. Anyways, she made me go upstairs and change it. Damn, she made you. Yeah. Well, yeah.

I mean, this is my second go around, and I've learned that I'm not as smart as I used to be. Look at that. Look, see, that's what I'm talking about. That's when he was in Dallas Buyers Club. Hey, well, you wanted a cardigan. Yeah, no, that's what I'm talking about. Jesus Christ, look at that. That was when he was really sick.

That fucking guy has never looked the same again since he lost all that weight for that movie. He's been drawn out since then. since he lost all that weight for that movie. Yeah. He's been drawn out since then. That's got to be so devastating for your system to put yourself through that kind of shit. I think it must be worse than gaining weight. Oh, it's way worse.

Look at his face, man. I mean, he looks like a dead man. God damn, he knocked out of the park in that movie, though. He did. It was a great movie. I hope he got paid well enough for it. You can't. There's not enough money in the world

to make you lose that much weight. You know, the worst one, though, was the mechanic. Not the mechanic. The machinist. Yeah. With, what the fuck's his name? Christian Bale. Christian Bale.

Yeah. Christian Bale, he did the most horrific weight cut. I've never seen anybody that skinny in a movie. I mean, he was, like, legitimately days before death. Oh, God. Yeah, look at that. Look at what he looked like. That's a toy. That was a toy. That's a computer rendering. Oh, God. Yeah, look at that. Look at what he looked like. That was a toy.

That's a computer rendering. There you go. Yeah. And then he was Batman like six months later, and he got on the fucking Mexican supplements. It's that back and forth. It's that back and forth that'll do your body in. Terrible.

Terrible for you. If you can maintain a kind of a consistent weight. Look at that, though. Jesus Christ. That's got to be some shopping in there. Photoshopping. No. No, no, no. If you see the movie, man, he was eating an apple and a can of tuna a day.

That's it. That was all he was eating. And what happens then is your body starts eating itself. And so look how he looked in Dick Cheney. Yeah, yeah. Real fat to play Dick Cheney. Yeah, yeah. He got real fat to play Dick Cheney. Damn, that's like Bert Kreischer fat. That's fat as fuck. Look at that.

That's a lot of fat right there. God damn. Well, yeah, he's dedicated to his craft. But here's the thing. The movie sucked. So it's like you almost killed yourself for a movie that sucked. Did you see The Joker? Yes.

What did you think? Fantastic. Yeah? Yeah. It's a great movie. it's weird how it's really drawn out both sides nobody's sort of like agnostic about it yeah it sucks or it's great right that's what i keep getting those same responses it's a great movie but it's disturbing as shit but it's there's a lot of weird stuff to it right it's like it's almost celebrating the idea that the system is broke. We're just going to fucking shoot everybody who's rich and light everything on fire and let these fucking mentally ill people not take their medication and just run things. And he was, Joaquin Phoenix, first of all, he's on another level.

Like his portrayal, he's always been an amazing actor. But that movie boy he they created a work of art with that character yeah yeah i mean it's just you bought into it hook line and sinker that he was this crazy fuck and when spoiler alert when uh when he shoots robert de niro like there's there's scenes in that movie that make you just go, wow. I will say this, though. My favorite Joker has always been Cesar Romero right there. There he was. Oh, in the Batman TV show? Yeah.

Really? In the TV show. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Hands down. Really? Oh, well, yeah. I mean, I'm fairly old school.

That's terrible. He does look pretty goddamn crazy there, doesn't he? He, you know, he... Goddamn, he looks pretty good there. I'm taking it back. Yeah. Yeah. Not bad. Not bad. He kind of, you know, he... Damn, he was pretty good there. I'm taking it back. Yeah. Yeah. Not bad.

He kind of, you know, he sort of, that was it. Heath Ledger's my favorite. Yeah. Yeah, Heath Ledger was good. He was great, too. Jared Leto couldn't... Nah.

Yeah. He can go pound sand with that character. But the Joker's got Oscar nominations, right? I think. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's got a bunch.

Yeah, he's not the best actor. I watched that Suicide Squad that Jared Leto won. It was like, oh, it's just a little too stylish. Did you see the new one he's in? No. He's not the best actor. I watched that Suicide Squad, the Jared Leto one. It was like, oh, it's just a little too stylish. Did you see the new one he's in? He's playing Morbius, who's a vampire in the Marvel movies now. No, give me a picture. Let me see what you got here.

Does it look good? It looks good. Every movie's a Marvel or DC Comics movie nowadays. Are you getting upset? Yeah. I don't know. I wish I had a piece of the action. I remember Morbius. Oh, this is Jared Leto playing Morbius? Yeah, I don't know. I wish I had a piece of the action, but still. I remember Morbius.

Oh, this is Jared Leto playing Morbius? Yeah, he's kind of skipped through. Wow. Gets superpowers. So he becomes a vampire? Yeah, yeah. He's like a guy who's dying, had a blood disease, and he goes, like, one last thing to figure it out.

And I guess the vampire, the bats helped him. Whoa. Got some sort of power from the bats. This is crazy. And comes back jacked? Yeah, and he starts fucking people crazy. And comes back jacked. Yeah, and he starts fucking people up. Ooh, I like it.

When does this come out? I think the summer? Come on. They just put the trailer out the other day, so I don't remember the exact Wednesday here. I had no idea the bats had that ability. They don't, bro. It's a movie. Oh, it's a movie. Oh, I can't.

In theaters this summer. All right, fine. I'm in. I'm all in, Jared. I take it back. We had bats in our attic, believe it or not. We had bats fine. I'm in. I'm all in, Jared. I take it back. We had bats in our attic, believe it or not. We had bats in our attic in Idaho. Really?

Well, I'm sitting outside on the porch one day. Again, I'm sorry about this, but I'm sitting out on the porch, and I look up, and it's the sun setting. And the stink flies out from the top of the roof. We've got this four-story brick place, and out comes this thing. And then another one, and another one. We've got bats flying out because it's getting dark, they're coming out of our attic so i think you gotta be kidding me so we went to a a wildlife specialist who came over and he kind of staked out the place a couple of nights figured out what the story was with him and um we got eventually got rid of the

bats but you gotta you gotta hire a wildlife specialist yeah to get rid of the bats. You had to hire a wildlife specialist? Yeah, to get rid of them. Why didn't you just get a tennis racket? No, well, you know, it's baby bats, you know, and the kids didn't want to hurt the baby bats, and so we had to wait for the baby bats to grow a little bit. And then whack them? Yeah, no, then whack them.

Then you shoot them with your airsoft pistol. But the interesting thing about bats, they fly out, they drop down and fly out. But if you stop their ability, right, to go straight back into the hole, they can't get back home. So you create a situation because they can't dip down and fly up and then go in. They have to come straight in, straight at that. This is fascinating bat stuff. But if I had known that they could create that sort of Superpower ability I would have kept a couple of them around

But then you stay alive forever You don't want that There's a crazy story about a guy Who was I don't remember where he was But a bat flew by And hit his hand Just hit his hand

And apparently the bat had rabies and he died of rabies like two weeks later seriously yeah apparently rabies is one of those things where if you get bit by something that has rabies they got to get you in right away and they got to get you in right away and it's once it takes hold you're fucking dead it's 100 lethal but they can get you if you get in right away but he didn't even know anything was wrong he didn't have a visible sign on his hand bat flew into the hand of british columbia man who died of rabies infection yeah so this thing it just flew into his hand and left a small cut he was a 21 year old kid on vancouver island good

god health authorities confirmed that the patient was outdoors in broad daylight when the nocturnal creature struck his hand and flew away. He wasn't doing anything risky that would put him in a position that would do encounter bats. Dr. Boone, Bonnie Henry, of BC's chief provincial health provider,

this is an incredibly unfortunate, strange circumstance for this young man and his family. Okay, so... No visible puncture. Yeah. Or scratch marks. Because apparently they can be microscopic.

Yeah. The cuts. So he developed the symptoms of rabies six weeks after the exposure. So it's just as well I didn't send the kids up to take care of the bats, is what you're saying. Exactly. Exactly. All right.

I get it. He'd been driving and he pulled over to the side of the road when a bat flew into him. What the- That's like a horror movie. Yeah. You know? It really is. Out of Final Destination.

Like, he got missed and- Right. Like, if-'s like a horror movie. Yeah. You know? It really is. Out of Final Destination, like he got missed and the bat came back. I mean, to be fair, it's not a very interesting horror movie, but it's the idea behind it. Right. Yeah. It would only be interesting if it was like World War Z type shit. Yeah. But that's kind of like what rabies is to animals. Rabies

turns animals into these sick, really aggressive creatures that want to infect you with whatever they're infected with. They want to bite you. Yeah. Raccoons. Yeah.

Right. You remember as a kid, though, it was always, the rabies thing was always, you don't want to get rabies because you got to go in for these series of shots in your stomach. Yeah. I always remember that. That was always the story. You know, you're going to get- Why the stomach?

Yeah. I don't know. It was like, you know, don't accept apples on Halloween because they'll be a razor blade. It was just sort of like this thing that you always heard as a kid. You're going to get these shots in your stomach, so stay away from raccoons. Yeah, whatever. Worldwide, only five or six people have survived a rabies infection. Holy shit.

Those are the people you've got to go to when the zombies come, right? You've got to find those people and harness their blood. You got to find those people and harness their blood. BC is home to 17 species of bats with 10 species found in Metro Vancouver. Wow. Risk from rabies and bats is everywhere in BC. Jesus Christ. 13% of bats tested positive for rabies.

13%! I always thought of British Columbia as a really nice place to be. But that's in the province. Amongst bats in the wild, the rate is about 1%. You got a fucking horrible infestation up there, BC. Get your shit together. Yeah, what are they doing up there? I'm coming up there at 420. Isn't Prince Harry and Meghan, aren't they going to Vancouver?

We should tell them about the bat thing. We should. They won't go. They're not going. I forgot to post that my shows are for sale. I did, but not today. They're for sale right now. I'm doing Vancouver on 420.

I hope I don't get rabies. Nice. You know what you pass through? You get to Vancouver, you kind of pass through sort of Boise, maybe. Do you? Well, not really. Not from here. No, you don't.

I'm flying. I'm not driving. Shit would take days. What are we, on a wagon train? Don't you travel in an RV to your shows? Always, yes. Like fucking Chevy Chase and Family Vacation. The truckster.

Family truckster. Bert takes a goddamn tour bus everywhere. Bert has a tour bus with his face all over it. Crazy, crazy asshole. Have you ever driven across the country? Yes, when I was a little kid. That's a long time ago. Long, long time ago.

I don't enjoy that kind of wasted time Yeah I would like to go Not even with the kids Getting in an RV and driving No, they would go crazy My kids would beat me to death Shut up kids

I'm driving They would go We're not going any further I think it would be interesting If you had like an agenda Like if you're going to go to you know grand canyon then you were going to go to zion national park you had a bunch of different things to do and you had months of time and you can make your way across the country but

just the drive for fucking five days straight across the country that that can eat a bag of dicks yeah i'm not interested in that that's boring I think you're right Going to a national park You know In Yellowstone For example If anybody hasn't been to Yellowstone Go to Yellowstone It's incredible

Don't go in the summertime But go But I've always I've tried to convince My wife That it's a good idea To get an RV Drive

You know And spend a couple of weeks With the kids And she looks at me Like I'm wearing a cardigan It's the same It's that same look I get. Well, it seems like a good idea. But if it was a really good idea, I think more people would be doing it.

I think once you actually start doing it, you're like, what am I doing here? I'm just sitting down all day. My back's killing me. The kids are on screens the whole time. When are we going to be there? When are we going to be there? Are we there? How much more time?

That's the whole, yeah. Stop touching me. Stop hitting me. Stop hitting me. Oh, they get mad at each other. Oh, yeah. Well, if you're watching screens, too, that's not good for a kid to be watching screens eight hours a day, all day, just driving across the country while they're playing with their

iPads. Yeah. Well, you got to take that away from them. Going back to that other thing we were talking about. Yeah, but then what are they doing? They're staring out the window? Then're playing with their iPads. Yeah. Well, you got to take that away from going back to that other thing we're talking about. Yeah, but then what are they doing? They're staring out the window? Then they want to talk to you.

Oh, Jesus. Yeah, I know, right? Talk to me about TikTok dances. That's what I'm going to do. You know you're heading that direction. I know a couple weeks from now I'm going to,

somebody's going to send me a TikTok of you dancing. Trust me. Okay. Trust me. That's not happening. I don't, there's a lot of guys who swear by that tour bus life, though. They like it.. Trust me. That's not happening. There's a lot of guys who swear by that tour bus life, though.

They like it. Like my friend Sturgill. Sturgill Simpson, he travels with a tour bus. He said he would rather spend the whole day in a tour bus than an hour on a plane. Like if he's going to go from one place to the other. He goes, it's like a living room. Like you just sit down and relax. So him and his band, they just chill. They just hang out in this tour bus and smoke a little devil's cabbage and sure yeah i mean kick back and relax

and it's yeah i i can see that i haven't spent most of my life in airports i get i get the idea yeah behind it um you're right it is a time suck you know getting from point a to point b um but this country is pretty amazing and it and there's a lot to see, right? Yeah. There's so much to see, and we tend to overlook that fact. And, you know, the Europeans always want to make fun of us because, you know, what, 90% of Americans don't have passports. Then, you know, you point out, well, have you driven across Texas?

You know, have you been out west? Have you done these things? Is it that many don't have passports? I think it's a high number. 90%? Really? The percentage of U.S. citizens that do not own a passport or do not have a passport, I have a feeling it's coming up soon.

Well, it's interesting. You didn't even used to need one to get to Canada or Mexico. You used to be able to just have a driver's license, get right across. We had a nice, friendly agreement with everybody. Yeah, you just jump across the river. Yeah, not anymore. You didn't bother your uncle. No, what is We had a nice, friendly agreement with everybody. Yeah, you just jump across the river. Yep. Not anymore. And you pop your uncle.

Now, what is that whole wall thing going up? Apparently not. I don't know where the wall stands. Well, what the wall is, it's a great little parkour setup for these Mexican dudes who know how to climb them. Excellent. Percentage of the Americans with passports.

Oh, it's rising. Oh, okay. All right, I take it back then. Wow, it's more than 40%. Hmm. Wow. Okay. That's interesting. I'm wrong about that. Oh, it's rising. Oh, okay. All right, I take it back then. Wow, it's more than 40%. Hmm. Wow. Okay. That's interesting.

I'm not used to be true. Yeah, look at the 1989. It was fucking nobody. What was happening in 89? Look in 1989. It's like literally less than 5%. Maybe that's what I was thinking. Maybe I'm stuck in 89.

Yeah. I thought that's, yeah. I could see that because the music was great back then, so maybe that's why I'm reliving my I'm stuck in 89. Yeah. I thought that's, yeah. I could see that. Because the music was great back then. So maybe that's why I'm reliving my 80s. Is that the Reagan days? 89? I think that's Reagan.

Wasn't Reagan president back then? Bush? Bush. Cold War? Is that 88? Maybe, right? Maybe no one wanted to travel because they were worried about the Russians. I don't know.

88 was when I was 20. So I was 22. What is up with that lady? 76% of people in England and Wales have a UK passport. Okay. I've got a UK passport. Do you? Yeah, I'm a dual citizen, so.

Look at you. Yeah, I know, right? How's that work? Well, I'm a little upset with Prince Harry, but other than that, it's working out really well. Are you mad that he left the throne or whatever the fuck he did? No, I mean, you know. Doesn't it make sense? Well, it probably makes sense because, you know, I don't know that he's the sharpest tool in the box.

And he's probably thinking we can make a lot more money. But they're not supposed to make any money off of being a member of the royal family. And yet they've trademarked apparently sort of their brand. Duke and Duchess of Sussex. And they're not allowed to make any money off of the royal family. So they're given allotments, allowances, living expenses. How much? It's a significant amount. Look, they've got a house on the grounds of Windsor Castle

they're going to continue to live in. So I guess here's my point. They can do whatever the fuck they want, but it would have been nice if they told their grandmother so that she didn't have to find out about it on the news. I thought that was kind of a spotted dick move. The queen. The queen.

She found out on Twitter as Prince Harry left the throne. That is a remarkably accurate voice. I've worked hard at it. So she found out on TV, but they want to be financially independent.

They trademarked the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a variety of different ways, apparently, and she's going to go back to doing whatever she did. It's that little American hussies he's hooked up with. She's come to turn him into a Kardashian. That's exactly what's going to happen. Yeah, well, listen, they're already so popular, all they need to do is start endorsing fucking makeup lines and sneakers and watches and shit. Next thing you know, Jed's a millionaire.

Yeah. Well, she's got a massive following on Instagram, which I suspect she wants to monetize that thing. Well, how much do you think they make? Find out how much they make. How much do they make from the royal family? Not public. Not public. You think they hide that shit out how much they make. How much do they make from the royal family? Might not be public. Not public.

You think they hide that shit? He would know better than me. I don't think they're hiding it. You think they make a million a year? Oh, yeah, more than that. Really? He got, I think, from his mother, I think as an inheritance, he got some $9 million. Prince Harry.

She's probably worth about $6 million on her own for her acting career. I didn't know what she was acting in. That little American hussy has ruined my prince. But he's off to Vancouver. And the guy doesn't even know there's a rabies issue there. There's a fucking 13% bat rabies problem there, buddy. Right. Is that where he's going to go?

He's going to go to Vancouver? They're moving to Canada? Apparently they're looking to move part-time to Canada. They're going to start a reality show. I guarantee you some creepy producer got a hold of them and go, guys, listen, you're wasting your time over here in England. It rains too much. Yeah.

People are annoying. Look, you're pissing away the money she's worth. Yeah. And he's probably thinking, yeah, I want to get out of this. But then he came out and said, well, we're not going to move to the States. Supposedly, he came out and said, this is all. I can't believe we sound like page six or something. But he came out and said, you know, we're not moving to the States until Trump is not president.

Trump is out of office. Exactly. Thank you, Prince Harry, at least for that. This is what the queen gets, but her grandchildren's money isn't public. Oh, my God. The queen received $58 million free of tax from the sovereign grant in the 2016-2017 fiscal year. What kind of goofy

shit is that? They give them $58 million $103 million in the next year. It's good to be queen. To help finance the extensive renovation of Buckingham Palace. We need more money. The palace is pretty impressive.

But imagine being a poor person and you find out that the queen, who literally does nothing, is making $100 million in a year. Yeah. See, this is why I don't think I could ever say anything negative about the queen. I think I got a tremendous amount of it. I feel like she's grandma. But I do. Because you have a dual citizenship. Yeah. I feel like she's grandma. But I do. Because you have a dual citizenship.

Yeah. Everybody's brainwashed over there. Yeah. But she has been a remarkably consistent. She's got a shishio of a family. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for standing up to me. Exactly.

That hooligan Joe Rogan and his terrible internet show would be illegal in my country. I deserve that $100 million, you little fuck. Think about all the public service she does. Oh, she's amazing. It's incredible. Just this alone must be worth a lot of money. Think about it. Each wave is now apparently $103 million.

That's a significant amount. No, anyway, I don't know how we got down this one. Prince Harry, they left. Yeah. Oh, that's right. They know how we got down this one. Prince Harry, they left. Yeah. Oh, that's right. They left to go to fucking Rabiestown. So if she is making $100 million a year, he's probably making $10, right? It's a significant amount.

So I get it. Okay, they want to go. Again, who cares? But they can't make money off the royal family. They can't make money off the royal family, off the royal brand. So it's like the idea is you're getting paid enough. Yeah.

Just what a goofy system. They just give them money for free. Yeah. To be a royal. And the British taxpayers are saying, like, what the fuck?

We're going to keep subsidizing them? Yeah. And they're going to go to Canada, and we're going to keep paying them, and they're going to

live part-time here, and they're not going to do any of the representational work or whatever. Why does that even entail? It's real.

I don't know. You got to show up at events. Well, how about the other prince? So you got to go to, again. How about the other prince? The one that's Epstein's friend?

Oh, Andrew. Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was, what, what, first of all,

how odd is that guy when they're interviewing him and talking to him? Yeah. It's like, what? McQueen kicked him to the curb

very quickly. Yeah. Well, it's very strange. Yeah. That whole, what what? McQueen kicked him to the curb very quickly. Yeah. Well, it's very strange. Yeah. What is your take on this whole Epstein thing? First of all, can we just, look at that. So you're sure she's 18? Positive.

You're telling me that, yeah. She does not look 18. She looks 16. Are you sure? You sure? Yeah. What a shit show that is. Yeah, what a shit show.

So let me ask you this right off the bat. Well, I don't know what I'm going to ask you. He didn't kill himself, right? I don't believe so. Thank you. No, no. And you know me. I'm not a conspiracy guy, right?

I don't disappear down rabbit holes very often. But no, I don't think there's any way in hell he killed himself. Michael Shermer, who's the head of Skeptics Magazine, who doesn't believe anything, found out that the tapes were missing and that the fucking cameras didn't work and that the tapes were accidentally deleted from the first time he attempted suicide. And Shermer's like, oh, this is a conspiracy. It was enough evidence that one of the biggest skeptics, a professional skeptic. Skeptic, yeah, yeah, yeah. Professionals, he doesn't believe anything.

There's just no way I could be convinced that he offed himself. No way. He knew too much. And, you know, it's astounding. But, yeah, what a shit show. But, you know, nobody's going to get to the bottom of anything. But that's a crazy one. They got him in the jail. The guards are somehow or another getting in trouble.

So who knows what the guards are going to say. They might get suicided. My favorite part was the guy they chose for his cellmate. Do you see the fucking gorilla they chose for his cellmate? Yeah, it reminded me of that Richard Pryor, that old Richard Pryor movie. I don't know if you remember that one. Look at this fucking guy. This giant goomba, this huge Italian ex-cop who's a murderer and a drug runner.

I mean, this guy has built a brick shithouse, and this is Epstein's cellmate. It's like, what? You can't even make this stuff up. Says he never touched him. Of course. Why would I touch him? Nicholas Tartaglione. Yeah. What does it say? Timeline of events and quadruple

homicide? Is that what it says? Yeah. So this fucking guy, this giant... He likes dogs, though. Yeah, he loves dogs. They keep them from all the people that he killed. They bark when they're coming around you can grab your gun it's a good move it's it's just crazy there's so many pieces to the puzzle that are so ridiculously obvious and then when you find out that clinton flew with

them at least 26 times yeah 26 times yeah i had no idea yeah jeff was a good guy yeah no i it. No, it's just one of those things. And again, I'm not a buyer on these sort of things, but you look at the facts around you and you think there's no way in hell. And that guy must have thought that Epstein would have said to himself, I'm going to get killed here if I'm not careful. Well, he probably didn't think it was ever going to get to the point where they were actually jailing him. Because remember he had that deal think it was ever going to get to the point where they were actually jailing him. You know, when they actually got,

because remember he had that deal where he was on work release so he could just do whatever he wanted and fuck off for 16 hours a day and then he had to check into the jail at night. Yeah. And who even knows what that means? He might have checked in

and just went home again. And it seems like they had set something up for him to make it very easy for him to be incarcerated for what should be a pretty heinous crime. I mean, he was... You would think. Sex with underage girls. Sex trafficking. Not just him doing it.

The extent to which... But then you look at, I forget what her name is, sort of the... Giselle? His assistant, Giselle. What is his name? Ghislaine? Ghislaine Maxwell. How do you say it? It has an S in it, but I've heard it pronounced with the S or without. So Ghislaine or Ghislaine. Okay.

I don't know. Ghislaine or Ghislaine. Whatever. G. Let's call her G-Rocker. So G-Rocker's out there hiding in the bushes in Columbia or something, right? Where is she? Where is she?

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I don't know. I mean, she must be a... You would assume they've deposed her at this point. She must have something. She must have some fucking kill switch where if the shit goes down, all the Clinton tapes come piling out onto the fucking floor of Glenn Greenwald's house. You would think.

Yeah, you brought it around to Glenn Greenwald. Hey, Glenn, it's Bill. Can we talk? Yeah. You know what? Maybe I should convince. Oh, there she is. That's when she was at In-N-Out reading a book on ex-CIA agents who have been murdered.

That's literally what she was reading a book on, right? Wasn't that – yeah. It was about CIA operatives that have been murdered. So the idea was that what they said, what people believe, and there's many different versions of what people believe, but look how many pictures she posed for. It's so strange. picture she posed for it's so strange but what many people believe was that what he was doing was compromising a lot of these wealthy powerful people by getting videotapes of them hooking up with young girls including prince andrew right yeah yeah yeah and uh for whatever

reason you know have you heard of anything like this before is this something that's been done in the past not that i've heard of i mean not i, I'm sure it's, you know, anytime you see some freak show, it's never the first time it's happened, right? So you have to assume it's happened. But to the degree that it's got this level of celebrities and big-time names, I mean. It works so well. And I'm going to tell you something after the show's over. I'll tell you something after the show's over. You can just tell me.

It's just you and me talking. Shh. If you whisper. I hear you in my ears. The North Koreans used to do that. Sorry about that. The North Koreans used to – that was their phone security is they would get on the phone and when they had something really classified to talk about –

They would whisper? They would whisper. Yeah. So you're going to think, oh, okay. That's hilarious. We'll never figure that out. That's really funny. Really?

That's how they did it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, part of it was years ago, I think they just never believed any Westerner could understand Korean. I think that was kind of part of it, was that they just believed we were all too stupid or we were just so complicated that we'd never be able to figure out what they were saying in their own language that's the price you pay for being so insulated yeah you never you don't really understand what the what's really

going on the outside world because they don't really have the internet when was the last time we talked about north korea it's been quite a while we just pushed that right off the front but but but but to get to get back we can talk about north korea but to get back to this epstein thing is that a common strategy that intelligence agencies would use where they would try to compromise people in order to get – like what would be the benefit? If the Mossad was doing that and they were doing that and using – that's the theory. Right, right, right. Yeah, it's a good point. I'd say from an Intel services perspective, I mean, one thing I will say is the U.S. And people are never going to believe this because I'm saying it.

They'll say, oh, that's bullshit. But the U.S., the agency doesn't do that. We don't use honey traps. We don't do that sort of thing because that sort of leverage, it's always going to head south on you. And so we don't try to coerce somebody in sort of a relationship that then we can take advantage of. And yet other services do, Russians being one of them, they do that all the time. Israelis, yeah, they've had some very successful efforts to do that. And if you get somebody in that position, it doesn't matter how they're compromising themselves, whether you're putting themselves in with like an Epstein situation,

where suddenly you've got video of them with an underage person, or whether they've provided a document that they shouldn't provide. The concept is always the same. It doesn't matter what that action is. You're getting them on the hook. You're getting something that's leverageable over them. And if they don't just go forward immediately and turn around to their boss and say, I'm guilty, did this, sorry, then they're compromised. And then you've got them. As an intel service then you've got them as an intel service you've got them you can start reeling the hook in because now you know you know that not only did they do something that provided you with a document even if it was an unclassified if i go to somebody if i'm

developing a relationship with somebody some target overseas or whatever and i'm thinking all right i'm trying now i'm exploring this person's got access they're in an interesting position they're interesting job and they've got access to information that we want to know that's priority target. And then I want to say, okay, now I want to develop a relationship a little bit. Maybe I bump into the person at a few parties. Maybe we're in the same parent-teacher organization, whatever the shit is, right? And our kids play on the same soccer team. So then I go and I think, okay, what do I want to do? I want to test the waters a little bit. I'm not going to say, hey, listen, you know, I understand you work at the foreign ministry here in, you know, whatever country you happen to be in. How about you give me some documents?

But instead, you know, maybe it's something different. Maybe they work at the foreign ministry. Maybe they work at an aerospace business, you know, that's a target. And you say, but you've developed a bit of a relationship. And then you say, yeah, my kid's doing this school project and it's all about whatever, hypersonic flight. And you know that they work at some aerospace company and say, do you have anything just on hypersonics? And you're not looking for anything classified. You're just looking for a research paper or a study or something.

And if they come back and say study or something you know and if they come back and say yeah you know what here this is an interesting you know study you know and they they now that act alone they're not giving you something classified but that act alone means something big right it means they were taskable in a sense right they responded to your request for information they're suckers not suckers necessarily it could be an enormously smart person but you know and and and and smart people get, yeah, they get suckered into it. I guess you could put it that way. So anyway, then you go from there. Then you ratchet it up slowly, bit by bit, if you've got the timeframe to do it. Maybe sometimes you've got a shortened timeframe

because there's a requirement to get something and you've got to accelerate the whole process. Anyway, but the point being is it's all leverageable and epstein was obviously getting leverage on all these different people for whatever his purpose was what do you think that's what the question was like what could he possibly a lot of them were scientists he went with a lot of like celebrities there was texas state i don't think he needed money right well what was i mean maybe maybe he just – who knows? Maybe he got off on sort of being the kingpin in this whole thing. And it's a good question. It had to be funded, right?

So, I mean, there had to be something valuable that they were getting from it. I'm guessing. I don't know. It hasn't been spelled out to me. Yeah, yeah. Like, I've tried to figure out the angle. But, I mean, I get the idea of you would have leverage over these people. You'd have them in compromising situations, and then they would do things for you. But what would they do for you?

Yeah. Like, what is he getting Bill Clinton to do for him? It's a good question. Providing him with access, maybe he liked being close to, you know, the seat of power. Maybe, you know, he liked being close to what he thought was like a royal family member you know maybe who knows because he had it sounds like he had all the money he needed right so maybe it was it was that sort of access that that uh blew his skirt up i don't know but um it is yeah it is interesting but um i don't think i mean look it's it's like been kicked to the curb obviously they're doing the trial i guess to some degree but i don't think... I mean, look, it's just been kicked to the curb. Obviously, they're doing the trial, I guess, to some degree,

but I don't think... I don't know where they stand in that trial. Nothing's going to happen. Yeah, nothing's going to happen. We've already swept it under the rug, and there's already news stories out that have got our attention. We forget about things so quickly today. The news cycle is so fast. When something happens, even something as ridiculous as the Epstein case, where it's so obvious that he was

murdered, and then Michael Baden goes on 60 Minutes and says, this is consistent with someone who was strangled. I've never in all my years of seeing people hanged. I've never seen them with these kind of fractures. This is fractures are indicative of strangulation. And that is one serious-minded dude too, right? Michael Badden? Yeah, tremendous amount of experience.

And, you know, he doesn't blow smoke up anybody's ass, right? No. He's very measured. And, you know, now obviously he was there on behalf of of uh epstein's brother yes um but you know i yeah anyway it's just it is it's one of those things where you think maybe i'm going to put that down as something we should explore i want to go visit the cop in jail see what he's probably got a fur linelined cell. Tagliatelle? Yeah, he's got a giant 72-inch TV. Hey, all the dogs with him. Yeah, all the dogs are there.

What's happening here? This is the best gig I've ever had. Wire marks at his hands. He's fucking tightened up. I mean, if you're going to get someone to strangle your cellmate, that's the guy, too. I mean, he'd fucking do it in three seconds. He's so big. Yeah, you don't want somebody who's got to take their time because they can't exert enough pressure.

You want some Kevin Spacey dude strangling. It's going to take forever. He's old still. You want some big gorilla dude. Yeah. Oh, God. Well, I tell you what. If this new series I'm doing gets picked up for a second season, well, I'm going to recommend to the producers they put the Epstein case on there.

Oh, they have to. Even though it's not quite in line with what we do. Yeah, you sent me a – I'll forward it to Jamie. Did you get it, Jamie? So let's look at the trailer for this. What is it called? It's called Black Files Declassified. And what is it based on?

It's on the Science Channel, Discovery Science Channel. And essentially it's a series looking at something called the black budget, right? Let's play the trailer. Okay, yeah, let's do that. Let's go to the clip. And then we'll talk budget, right? Let's play the trail. Let's do that. Let's go to the clip. And then we'll talk about it. Let's go to the clip.

Ladies and gentlemen, Black Files Declassified. Wow. Listen to that. A top secret aviation program. They will neither confirm nor deny the existence of records. Funded by a mysterious money trail. There was a lot of thought into how we're going to hide the various existence of records. Funded by a mysterious money trail... There was a lot of thought into how we're going to hide the various pots of money. ...could revolutionize flight...

Do you think that you'll see manned hypersonic flight in your lifetime? Oh, yeah. ...and unleash a new lethal technology? Extremely high speeds, Mach 5, 6, that would make these cruise missiles almost impossible to defend against. 09A perm, we have a splash. Stand by for PDA.

Every year, more than 90 billion dollars is allocated to clandestine government programs, collectively called the Black Budget. Each individual operation is a black file. I'm Mike Baker. As a covert CIA operations officer for over a decade and a half, I supervised missions around the globe. My security clearances gave me access to many classified projects. Now, I'm following the money trail to the secrets hidden inside the Black Files.

Damn. I'd watch that. I'd watch that. I'd watch that thing over and over again. Well, all that kind of shit's fascinating to me. Manned hypersonic flight? Does that mean like single? That's one of our first episodes, yeah.

When you say manned hypersonic, like they used to have the Concorde. That was hypersonic, right? No. It wasn't? No. No, hypersonic is essentially anything over Mach 5 is hypersonic. So what is it? And so we don't have, there's no manned hypersonic flight yet.

So the Concorde was the speed of sound. Yeah. And this is faster than the speed of sound. Yeah. And this is faster than the speed of sound. Yeah, five times faster. I mean, you're talking about a mile a second or so for a missile traveling. So that's what – Russia just came out and announced the deployment of a new hypersonic missile or a weapon. missile or a weapon and that's where the the the war in space or the you know uh is going basically is into hypersonic uh mostly unmanned there's some effort to try to figure out can we create a a manned vehicle it's really problematic because you think about traveling that fast you think

about what that means for punching through the air and the heat and the and the and the the uh the materials that are needed but as far far as unmanned glide vehicles or whatever, I mean, that's where a tremendous amount of resources are being put right now by the Russians, the Chinese, the U.S. And it's pretty frightening because we don't have any way to defend against it. Like the one fellow mentioned in that clip is that if you think about a sort of a ballistic missile, it's got a trajectory, right? It goes up and it comes down. You know, just like the Cold War days, we had all the defenses set up, you know, to intercept Russian missiles coming towards us. Well, we knew what the path was going to be, right? And so we

were able to deploy a defense system against this. The idea with hypersonic weapons is you have no idea. You've got almost no warning, and you can't – you have no idea what that trajectory is for those weapons. It's going so fast. And it's adjustable. So it's not just depending on – a missile, ballistic missile goes up, and it's going to come down, and you know exactly what that path is going to look like. So they can adjust it like they can slow it down? You can slow it down. You can change direction. What? Yeah. So they can adjust it, like they can slow it down? You can slow it down. You can change direction.

What? Yeah. Yeah. So you think about it. It's a big deal. So one of our, I think it may be our first episode, is going to be focused on hypersonics. But there's a variety of other episodes in this thing. But it's all looking at this idea that the black budget exists.

It does exist. And there's each project, whether it is a project to develop hypersonic flight in which the US government had that, whether it's advanced aviation threat identification program, whether it's the Space Force, which has been actually around for a long time. There's budgets that account for these programs, and they have to be hidden somewhere. I mean the government's got to spend the money, right? So the idea being what started this thing off was the idea that, well, what if you just literally just did follow the money and try to figure out from the money trails how they were developing these projects? And could you identify the various projects that these pots of money go to? And it turned out to be really – it's very interesting. I'm subjective, of course.

But it's pretty good. And it's – we don't have a specific air date yet. They're being very mum about it. But it will be on Sunday nights coming to a science channel near you soon. So with these hypersonic missiles, they can – like you can't judge from the path that it's gone so far where it's going right because they can steer them in real time yeah yeah the idea being is it not it's not following a a known trajectory it's not following a ballistic trajectory um so it is it you know and it's uh it is uh the the development the effort to try to develop manned hypersonic flight has got a really fascinating history.

I mean, and particularly here in the U.S., but we're not there. We're not there yet. That may not happen in our lifetimes just because of the difficulties. You talk about – I mean, I interviewed some terrific people during the course of that, which is the best part of this series is being out. From my perspective, you travel around. You see all these interesting things, you talk to these fantastic folks, right? I mean, some incredible people, a former pilot for the old Blackbird program, right? This guy, you know, strap into this thing and get up to altitude, you know, on the edge of the atmosphere, doing these overflights of Russia and gathering or wherever and gathering

intelligence, and just the dangers involved in these aircraft, these experimental aircraft that were being designed, and the whole goal being eventually trying to work your way towards this hypersonic manned flight. These people are amazing, right? And you start talking to some of them, and you realize what people are capable of, if they can set aside their fear and they have that risk appetite. That's a funny way of putting it, risk appetite. Yeah. Well, I mean, they just don't think.

I mean, a test pilot doesn't think the way that you are. Well, maybe he thinks the way you do, but not the way I do. I mean, you talk to some of these folks. Yeah, I know what you're saying. But anyway, so yeah. The first person, like the first person, you talk to some of these folks. Yeah, I know what you're saying. But anyway, so that's what – The first person, like the first person who goes up in one of those things. Forget about all the testing and all the structural rigidity documents and all the data and everything that's showing you this is absolutely safe. Like it's not.

It's not. No, there's nothing safe about it. And like that one fellow that I – there was a little bit in the clip where I asked this old guy. It looks like somebody's granddad, right? You know, do you believe there will be manned hypersonic flight in your lifetime? He says, this guy's – the story of this guy testing experimental aircraft to try to get to that point and some of the things that he did. And it's astounding. And you look at him and you think you're not normal.

And I talked to his wife and she said, yeah, it was interesting. She's been married to him forever. But she says, you know, one of the interesting things you learn about being married to somebody like this, a test pilot or somebody else in a position like that is, you know, they don't process things the same way. They don't necessarily have a lot of empathy because they're just focused on this thing, right? And they're not necessarily thinking, well, I don't want to go up there and die because I'd be leaving my family behind and all. It's not in the thought process. Anyway, so that's – there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. What do you think about all this stuff about – I mean, the New York Times had articles about it.

Air Force test pilots have come out talking about encountering flying saucers or unidentified flying objects, particularly Commander Fravor who had that Tic Tac thing. What do you think about all that? Yeah. We do – I'm a shameless marketer. We do an episode on that, on AATIP, on the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program. And look, again, I always say the same thing. I'm not a conspiracy guy. I tend to be very cynical about everything.

who were both pilots and also were involved in the AATIP program for the U.S. government, for the military, there's things out there that we haven't been able to identify. And I'm not jumping on the alien train, right? But what I'm saying is that there are things that extremely experienced pilots, military pilots, that extremely experienced pilots, military pilots with significant amounts of experience couldn't figure out, couldn't identify. And so I'm certainly not going to be smart enough to say, okay, this is what it was. Was it a foreign government's experimental aircraft? Was it something – I don't know. But what I do know is that the U.S. government took it seriously enough that they developed their own internal program within the Pentagon to try to sort out the wheat from the chaff and say, OK, what do we actually have to worry about? In part because it's a hostile foreign government's efforts to develop craft that we don't know about or propulsion systems we don't know about, then, yes, we should be working on that issue.

The problem has always been that once you talk about that, then people immediately go, oh, aliens, huh? Area 51. And it kind of gets dismissed. Yeah. And people immediately go, oh, aliens, huh? Area 51. And it kind of gets dismissed. But there was a much more serious effort than I knew about before I started working on this thing. And so I don't know. I think I've got an open mind about that.

It's like that old thing about how can we really be the only people out here, right? Or life forms out here. I don't know. That seems, you know, seems a little obscure for me to believe. It seems unrealistic. Yeah, yeah. But I kind of like Fravor. That's the thing. When someone who's that rock solid comes out and tells the story, and he's not deviating from his story.

He's not a guy who's trying to make money. He's just, he doesn't have a history of telling fantastic stories. And he knew what it meant when he was going to come forward and talk about this. And you've got the gun cameras. And you've got the radar operators who also saw the same thing. They saw it and they said it was actively jamming their radar. Which they said, what the fuck? And then the way it moved from 60,000 feet down to like 200 feet in less than a second.

And there was no signs of any propulsion system. Yeah. No, there's several things about that that, yeah, leave you scratching your head. Again, I'm not making a case one way or the other. You know, the point of this is to, again, is to kind of use the money trail as a way to get inside some of these programs. And then to the degree that you can talk about things that are declassified, not necessarily try to make a case. We're not trying to say it is this or it is that,

but I think we're presenting a lot of interesting information that, again, with this situation with Fravor as an example, you come away from it and you think, okay, I'm not dismissing anything at this point. It would be, I think, foolish to her. Anyway, so interesting stuff. Was that ever anything that came up during your career? No, no. No, I was pretty much straightforward, pound the ground through some counterinsurgency operations, counter-narcotics, counterterrorism operations.

We never did any counter-alien things. That must have been a different operation. That was on a floor we weren't allowed to go on to at the headquarters. It seems like if we had to admit it was real, if it was something that was real and we were being contacted on a regular basis or at least a semi-regular basis, that

would change the way everybody feels about everything. Yes. Remember when Reagan gave that speech? I think it was the United Nations. He said, imagine how easily we would come together if we were faced with a threat from an alien world. Right. And everybody's like, oh my God, he knows something.

The aliens. He's about to spill the beans. Yeah. That's what we were hoping. All the UFO dorks like myself. Well, but think about it. I mean, think if that did come out, which is part of the allure, right, is the idea that the government's been keeping this from us for all these years. And you think about what that would mean, not just obviously, oh, my God, really?

There's something going on out there. But then sort of that breakdown in trust, not that it's not happening already in terms of the government and its ability to you know play square but uh yeah i mean look area 51 area 51 was was scouted out uh for uh use as an experimental you know test site for aircraft and you know made perfect sense well then you get all these experimental aircraft being developed out there and flown, some successfully, some not. And locals see this shit, locals being a fairly good-sized region because of the distance on these. And it's understandable how you start getting some of these stories. But having said that, I sat down with Fravor. We talked about this a lot for this one episode,

and I talked to several others. Yeah, again, I come away, and I'm not sure what to think, but again, I'm not closing the book on anything at this point. See, the way I looked at it is if these were unique expeditions from another planet or whatever it is that comes here some alien spacecraft all they'd have to do is come here once or twice get fed up well not even that but i i used to have a bit about how earth is the tijuana of outer space they only come down here when they're fucked up and they want to see a show that's why they don't stay they just

come down there what the fuck like no one's doing any science expeditions to tijuana i'm not going back there no way not unless i'm drunk again yeah well i was just thinking that if they were going to come down here and examine us i mean they could just do it a couple of times and people have these stories and everybody else dismisses it like where are they where are they i don't see any aliens yeah because you really wouldn't and you probably don't and if they're capable of moving at the speed that fravor described where it was just impossible to track with the human eye like they're not going to view us as a threat no yeah they're not going to think they think we're a threat i think they're just i don't know then i can look at us and say we want to steal their

technology it's the most fascinating thing to me at all the weird what-ifs and who could do this and how could that be true, the alien one is the most fascinating. Because if that was real, and if we somehow or another one day get some undeniable proof, like the Fravor film, the film footage, the gunner footage, the radar footage, that's pretty goddamn compelling. But man, if there was something like off the charts.

Well, and that's the problem always is – and people will point to that and say, you know, even the gun camera footage is, you know, look at this. It's not – it's hard to follow a little bit. It's not clear necessarily what it is I'm looking at. But it is more compelling than a lot of the other, you know, crap that's been out there. And so I think, you I think it was surprising. But yeah, the hypersonics is the – of all the episodes we did, I think the hypersonics is the one that really makes you stand up and think this is pretty fucked up. If we get beat to this, you don't want to be in an arms race, but you essentially are. Who are we in

the biggest race with is it russia china china yeah because china russia would say it's theirs it's them they're claiming that they've got you know abilities and and but putin is always getting out ahead of his skis and and you know they they've got the gdp of a small european country right so particularly when oil is down where it is. And so, China's got the resources, the motivation. They view themselves as, you know, they want to be at the top of the heap. They also have technological innovation at a very, very, very high level. Some of it's stolen. Yeah.

Did I say that? Yeah. I guess I did say that. A lot of it's stolen. Yeah. Okay, fine. Some of it's stolen. All right.

A lot of it. But still, I mean, they're kind of clever. Like, hey, we didn't figure it out, but it's already been figured out. Let's just steal it and then improve upon it. Oh, no, they can reverse engineer the shit out of anything. And they do learn from that. But, yeah, China would be the number one. Look, if you go to Washington, the interesting thing about threats, if you look and say, okay, what are the top threats to face the U.S.?

The top three have never really changed in decades, right? Russia, China, Iran. And then what fills out the top two after – if you go for the top five, critical infrastructure here in the U.S., which is actually probably at the top. I mean if you say to people in D.C. what worries you the most, I'll say attacks on our critical infrastructure. But Russia, China, Iran, they may switch places occasionally, but they're always up there in that top five. You know, terrorism ranks somewhere down lower. But it's, so China's always going to be an issue. And, you know, they've been very aggressive, both in terms of acquiring information, economic espionage, their military build-out, and their desire to kind of take back the Pacific from us.

And so, yeah, it's our primary competitor. But Russia punches above its weight. And the narrative about Russia collusion has captured the imagination for three years now and still seems to hold some interest for some Dems in Washington, D.C., no matter what happens. And then Iran kind of plays that role because of its nuclear pursuits. North Korea is up there to some degree, but kind of bounces in and out of the top.

Anyway, for what that's worth. But, yeah, suddenly we find that Fravor's right or that there's this contact. Suddenly, guess what? That's it. That's the top concern at that point. That's number one. Right, right.

I mean, the hope is always that if we're about to nuke ourselves into another dimension, that the aliens will come down and go, hey, dummies. Just like a 1950s movie. Yeah. Like, hey, fucking idiots, stop doing that. The Day the Earth Stood Still. Yeah, remember that one? Yeah. Klaada nick two wow remember that look at you yeah that's pretty impressive actually the day the earth stood still was a great fucking movie it was a great movie it's weird it's

like a time capsule right because what they what they thought it would look like and yeah the robot it's just yeah no it is it's i i love the. I tried to get my boys to sit and watch it not too long ago, and they were like, really, Dad? This is what you spend your time watching? You know what was interesting? It was like a normal thing that the family took the alien in their house. Yeah. Come on in.

Stay with us, strange person from another land. Why wouldn't you? Yeah, why wouldn't you? He was talking to the kid. You're not even a little suspicious? You don't think this guy might be a creep? What's your favorite movie? Sort of alien space genre movie.

Well, I like the best one is Alien. The Sigourney Weaver movie. The first one. Yeah. That's most likely what alien life is going to be like. Some horrific parasitic fucking creature that eats everything it finds. Yeah. That to me seems likely. Yeah. That, to me, seems likely.

Yeah. That seems more likely. I remember sitting in the theater when that movie came out, watching it. And when it popped out of that guy's chest, the entire theater jumped. It was just crazy. People, it's hard because you watch that movie today and you're watching it, having seen all the other movies that it's affected and all the other science fiction genre movies and special effects movies, but that movie was special.

In 1979, when that movie came out, that was a special movie. That was a fucking horrifically scary movie, and it was realistic. There was no cut-the-shit scenes. Everything seemed legitimate. The creature was completely unique. Weaver was realistic. Like, there was no cut the shit scenes. Everything seemed legitimate. The creature was completely unique. Weaver was hot. Hot as fuck. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, honestly. We're looking at pictures of Liz Hurley. We should be looking at Sigourney Weaver. And that's a great movie where a woman is the hero and you're not flinching. There's no part where you're going what what is she doing she's kicking everybody's ass get the fuck out of here that's that's a movie like like that's a real hero that's a real hero who rises to the occasion in this horrific

situation where this ship has been overtaken by an alien i think that there's i think that there's things out there i don't know if i believe i want to believe that we've been visited but i don't know if i believe i think there's things out there yeah i i'm i'm on board with what the second part of that as well i i i don't know i i find it hard to believe it would be such a secret but you know and also knowing the u.s government look i mean you know you know it's it's harder to find find out from the network when they're going to start this show than this getting secrets out of Washington, D.C., right? So I'm thinking we would have known for now if it had happened, but I do believe there's other shit out there, right? I just can't believe we're it.

No, I don't think we're it. Maybe we're being hopeful. I can't believe we're it. Maybe we're being hopeful. I can't believe we're it. I mean, but, you know. But I'm also fascinated to think that if they did know that something was here, that they would visit it occasionally. You know, drop in on it occasionally for a scientific expedition to see what the fuck we're up to. Yeah, unless they just got so disgusted the last time they just thought, that's it. I'm done.

I don't think so. We don't get disgusted. We don't get disgusted when we go visit baboons, when we study baboons. You know, people, scientists return, you know. Robert Sapolsky, he spent many years going back and forth to Africa studying baboons. And baboons are boring as fuck compared to people. If you weren't a person, if you weren't a person if you weren't a person if you were for some from some enlightened race a million years advanced from us you would be so fascinated

to come by and look at people yeah although they probably look at us like we're a bunch of shit flinging monkeys so i think you're probably right yeah i mean wouldn't if we had a time machine tell me it wouldn't be amazing if there was a time machine but it could only go back 500 000 years ago to the beginning of man like the early you know whatever ancient hominid that was that was alive back then god damn that would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall and watch these primitive humanoids try to figure out fire and try to figure out hunting and and become what we are today yeah yeah oh there would probably be moments, right? I wouldn't want to sit and watch the whole thing

because I think that would be boring as shit. I mean, come on, just get on with it. Chip that rock into a circle. Do something with it. Come on. But I think that, yeah, you're right. I mean, if there's higher life forms out there, you'd have to assume they are higher life forms

if they're traveling these distances. And again, looking at the issues of propulsion systems for hypersonic flight, et cetera, would they look at this bunch of folks down here and think, just not interested? I don't know. I think at a certain point in time, it would be unnecessary to physically visit. I feel like maybe- They're watching us through the Samsung TVs. Yeah.

See, it all comes... That's the thing about it. It all comes back around full circle. Yeah, you got to put a tape over that camera. You do. I think there's probably... You do, right? How much...

You should. You should. I mean, people should check their... This is, again, smart TVs. If you've got one that's of recent vintage, check and you'll see there's a little hole along the frame. That's the camera. There's a microphone set up on an audio system.

Yeah, just put a piece of tape over it. That's your whatever, your low-cost solution. You can go in there and adjust and turn it off, but you try figuring that out. That's like trying to program your VCR, trying to figure out how to get into your TV, into the settings to change the smart interactivity, and then do you also want to trust that that's what's going to happen if you turn it off? Well, they've showed that with Facebook, that even if

you turn off location, they're still tracking you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I say, again, going back to that same old thing, which is like, the government's trying to screw us over, they're spying on us. You know what? Unless you're involved in criminal activity or terrorism, they honestly don't have any interest, but they also don't have the resources and the time available. Commercial side of things, though, is different because it drives what they're all about, which is making money.

Especially when you sign those terms of agreements, the terms of use agreements. Like most people just accept it you don't look through it right well there's a there's a regulation there's a there's actually there's a there's a piece of legislation whatever that outlaws you know uh secretly videoing you know i forget what it was it was years and years ago it was decades ago um but you you uh give up that right by clicking on agree on those user agreements. But, you know, I don't know anybody who's ever read a user agreement. What is this, Jamie? New law passed in California this year.

Consumer Privacy Act allows anyone who resides in a state to access and obtain copies of the data that companies store on them and the right to delete that data and opt out of companies selling or monetizing their data. California leading the way again. Only for residents of California, though. If you live somewhere else, you can check, but you can't have them delete. I'm moving from Idaho to California. There's some good spots in California. This isn't one of them. It's a good spot. It's just too many people found out about it my worry is more of social media companies now than than anything um even in a lot of ways more than the government's buying on us i i worry about the power that

something like facebook has the insane amount of influence that they have on people and how through the use of their algorithms they actually instigate arguments and try to get people, because that's how people respond and that's what makes people want to click on things and that's what generates revenue. So their algorithms encourage, and the idea is that they encourage outrage, but they don't really.

But people like outrage. So they encourage you to go seek out really but people like outrage so they encourage you to go seek out like ari shafir did an experiment where he used youtube and he only searched for puppies that's all he searched for just puppies on youtube and that's all youtube would recognize that so all they were recommending to him was puppies and he's like oh okay so it's really not nefarious it's based entirely on what your needs are or what your interests are. But so many people are interested in things that outrage them that it becomes a very profitable thing for them when their algorithm shows these people what they want. But it's the problem is the people itself.

It's not necessarily the algorithm. It's not like the algorithm is some nefarious algorithm that's designed to instigate strife. No, it's taking advantage of human nature to some degree. It's not like the algorithm is some nefarious algorithm that's designed to instigate strife. No, it's taking advantage of human nature to some degree. But it's also – I mean you've raised a really important point because coming up on this election, people are talking about, oh, my God, they're going to hack in. They're going to influence the vote. Now, part of the danger is in the social engineering and the way – and it's very clever. So if you look at like a recent – something that just happened. This actually is really interesting and it's still being investigated.

But a report came out from a group, Area 1, which is looking at hackers and looking at cybersecurity issues. And it's not a particularly well-known group. It's not like Kaspersky or some of these others that are out there. But they just came out with a report a couple days ago basically saying that the Russians, a Russian entity, likely the former GRU, the military intelligence group of the Russian intelligence service, hacked into Burisma. Now, Burisma is that company in the Ukraine that Hunter Biden was sat on the board of. And now you think, oh, Russians hacked into it. And so what happens?

Almost immediately when this report comes out saying a Russian intel operation hacked into Burisma recently, as it was sort of becoming an issue and Trump was banging on about it and Hunter Biden and there was talk about holding up Ukrainian aid if you don't investigate the Biden situation. So you'd look at this and if you just looked at it on a very simple level, you go, wow. And I've already seen some of that narrative saying, well, look, the Russians are working on behalf of Trump again. See, that's what they're doing. They're working on behalf of Trump. They're hacking into Burisma, and that's what he was complaining about. If you step back and you think about what are the Russians trying to do with all of their hacking efforts, all their social media engineering, they're trying to create dissent.

So now what have you got? Now you're ramping up this story again. Now, to what degree Area 1's story or report is correct? I mean there's some discussion as to whether it's accurate or not. But to that degree that you have to look at everything now with a very skeptical eye and you have to say, okay, what is the purpose of it? Is this a timed leak of information? timed leak of information, right? Did they intend to, in other words, did the Russian intel service, they don't do anything haphazardly, right? Did they do this with the idea that we're going to leak this out now? Because now it looks like we're still, you know, we're pushing this whole thing. We're trying to help Trump. We're going to get that narrative going again, right? Because now we're getting into an election cycle. It's interesting stuff. It's like after we,

interesting stuff. It's like after we, after Soleimani was smoked, almost immediately after, social media posts, you know, sort of pro, very subtly, but pro-Iranian regime, pro, you know, Soleimani, again, very subtle, but in that vein, they spiked over the course of the next 48 hours, massive numbers compared to what had been in the past of sympathetic, enough to turn people's thoughts, right? To get that narrative going of like, well, oh my God, they assassinated a foreign leader, right? That's all they're looking to do is create that. And the Iranian cybersecurity force is increasingly sophisticated.

10 years ago, they probably wouldn't have been able to orchestrate sort of that sort of social media work. I guess my point being is that we look at things very simplistically, right? We look at it because we tend to look at it through this political spectrum saying, I'm right, I'm left, whatever. But you have to step back and think, you know, what are they doing? What's the purpose of this? And maybe it's more complex or layered than just simply accepting what it is that's being

said, which happens. That's the danger of social media is everyone takes at face value shit that they see on Twitter or whatever. And rather than stepping back and going, I wonder if this story is even accurate. But somebody will post some bullshit. Half the time, it's whether it's for the left or right doesn't matter or whether it's from a foreign entity, the state-sponsored effort, you take it and you run with it. Next thing you know, it's got 10,000 likes and people are talking about it like it's correct. Yeah, that's a real problem with today's social media is that these agencies, like the Internet Research Agency in Russia did before the 2016 election, they really can stir up dissent with these thousands and

thousands of social media accounts that they have, and they can get people thinking in a certain way. They can get people to argue things in a certain way, and you hear those talking points that these bots and these companies that are designed just to stir people up, you see those talking points repeated. So it is effective. Oh, no, absolutely. And look, the Russians have been doing this.

Years and years ago, decades ago, they were buying off journalists to write favorable articles or articles that they wanted to get the narrative out there for, right? So they would pay off journalists, whether it was overseas or here, wherever it may be. And that was old school, right? But the point of it, right, the reasoning behind it is still the same, right? You're trying to affect the narrative. You're trying to affect a certain opinion. Or you're trying to foment dissent.

You're trying to create some chaos. And you're right. Here now with a lot of the social media that foreign entities are doing, they're trying to take advantage and trying to drive wedges in. So you get these things that try to drive and create more of a racial divide, as an example, whatever it is that they can do. And sometimes they're doing it just simply to create the chaos. Sometimes they're doing it for a more specific focused reason. But we're not sophisticated. I think we're more aware of it now because it's been in the news and we've been talking about it to some degree,

but as a population, we're not very sophisticated. And so they're still going to take advantage of it. And it's not just the Russians. It's any nation that's got the resource or the ability and somewhat motivation and sees it in their own best interest, they're going to be engaged in this. They'll have a cyber unit that's doing this sort of thing. So I don't know where it's going to go, but you worry about sort of the impact that it has.

It's not the idea that they're going in there to voting machines and switching up data. I mean, frankly, we should be going to a paper-based system. I would – if I was in charge, I would say, that's it. No more paperless voting systems. Get that shit out of here. We're not going to rely on the internet. You know what they're doing in Iowa for the caucuses?

It's all going to be internet-based voting, reporting for the caucuses in Iowa. Right. Interesting. reporting for the caucuses in Iowa. Right. You think – yeah. I mean – but again, you think that whether it's independent hackers or state-sponsored from China or Russia or wherever, of course they're targeting this. And they're putting a great deal of resource into it and they've already probably mapped out the infrastructure. So hey, get back to the old system of, look, I'm going to handwrite some message. I'm going to hand it to my cousin. He's going to hand it to his cousin. And that's all.

That's our communication system from now on. So we should dumb down and go back to the old days and just do a paper system, which takes longer and is a pain in the ass. You can't hack it. Can't hack it. Yeah. Anyway, that's just me. I went back to my Bernie Sanders voice there. It's always great having you in here, man.

Tell people again when your show – well, you don't have an air date. I don't know. They're keeping it mum. When you tell me, we'll tell everybody. That sounds good, man. Let everybody know. They can get a hold of you On Twitter and Instagram

At MB Company man Is the Twitter thing And yeah Thank you I'm always amazed At how fast the time goes I'm sure you're not

But I'm I'm amazed I am still amazed Thanks Get out to Boise right Okay Everybody's waiting I'll do it

Alright man Alright Take care Thank you Bye everybody