#2147 - Mike Baker
2024-05-08 02:54:53
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MIKE BAKer It's very important that I ask you about this.
What's that?
Because I know you're an expert on conflict. How do you feel about the Kendrick Lamar and Drake Beef?
Man, I am so glad you asked me about this because my boys, you know, I got three boys. And all three of them have mentioned this in the past few days and they want to talk about it. So Scooter will say, God, did you hear what he said?
And I was like, Honestly, no, I haven't, but they've all brought this up. I am completely unfamiliar with the, although it sounds like the old days east versus west, right?
I think it's a personality thing because one of them is Toronto, so it's actually America versus Canada, there's a real conflict there.
And which one is the little guy?
Kendrick Lamar.
KENDRICK LAMAR That's right. That's what my middle boy, Sluggo, said. I think he's like 5'1 or something.
He's not a big fella. Him and Drake have been going at it now. Four songs apiece, so eight songs dedicated to Beef.
I think that's fantastic. I think we need more of that, right? It's better than the Hamas conflict.
Security guard injured in shooting outside Drake's home in Toronto. Oh, Jesus Christ.
God damn it.
Was it drive-by? Yeah, and the security guard was outside, so he was shot, I think, unconsciously, taken to the hospital. Oh my God, see, it was.
Do not know whether the shooting was related. Well, take a fucking guess.
You think it was or wasn't?
A drive-by might be related. Well, that's when shit gets scary, when people start shooting at each other, yeah.
No, when it was just because I think it was Sluggo who told me that one of them, I think it must have been Drake who was talking about his. He dissed him by talking about his size, 7 feet or something, right? Yeah, and that's fine. I think it's great if everybody would, just like if the Israelis and Hamas would go after each other in song.
Battle raps, Yeah, battle raps, yeah, why not? yeah, dance off.
That's how they should do it. This is, it's hilarious, but everybody's invested in this beef. My oldest daughter and my wife were in the car this morning and they were having a conversation. These two grown-ass women having a conversation about who's the superior rapper. And they felt that Kendrick is a better lyricist, although Drake has more hits.
Drake has more hits.
Started from the bottom, Now we're here. I mean, look, he's got some bangers, they both have bangers. I love Kendrick Lamar, I just wish these two would hug it out.
Yeah, well, now it's moved on to the firefight stage of the battle.
Yeah, well, now they're shooting. What did you say? Jamie? Kendrick's first big point was that it's 20 versus 1. Because Drake has all those ghostwriters helping him make all these hits, so that's an allegation in the rap community, apparently, that Drake hires ghostwriters. I don't know how I feel about that.
So I feel like the same way I feel like if I find out someone there's a banging song, like Beyonce has a song. I don't get upset. If she didn't write it, do you get upset?
It's mostly only in rap that people are like, you didn't write that, like comedy, like comedy, like the same thing with comedy country song. They don't care.
Country they do care. Not really, yeah.
I was going to say.
Guys like Zach Bryan shine through because they write their own shit. But it's very collaborative, their countries are hugely collaborative, sure.
Tennessee whiskey, Right? Yeah, Tennessee whiskey was a song.
Oh, Chris Tableton.
Yeah, but he didn't write it, I thought he did write it. No, it came out.
I think he performed it, someone else wrote it.
It came out years before.
He wrote a lot for other people though, correct? Yeah, I don't even think there's tons of songs like that they write for each other.
Yeah.
Exactly, yeah.
There's a lot of those guys that, like Chris Tableton, met a living for a long time as a writer. Yeah, because people looked at him like, Come on, man, you ain't sexy. Meanwhile, they were wrong.
They were wrong.
And it's a smaller community, right? Yes, the country music community. And it does tend to get more crossover between musicians and writers, right? I mean, a lot of them will start out, like you said, as writers.
There you go.
Tennessee Whiskey, a country song written by Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove. David Alan Coe It was originally recorded by artist David Alan Coe for his album of the same name, peaking at number 77 on the billboard. Hot Country Singles in 1981. Wow, yeah.
George Jones 1983 version of the song was included on his album Shine On and reached number two on the Hot Country Singles chart.
What great artist.
Did you hear that? Randy Travis? Randy Travis is using AI now to make new songs? Because he was paralyzed by a stroke. But because they could take his voice, which is an iconic voice, Randy Travis incredible voice. But because of AI, they can get recordings of him singing, and he could plug it into AI, and he can still make songs.
And you know how much of a recording they need nowadays to actually mimic the entire range of a person's voice. It's 30 seconds less than that now, not that long ago, it was 30 seconds now. You need a snippet, and by a snippet, I mean seconds, and you can then mimic that voice through a range of emotions and scenarios.
It's stunning what they can do.
There was a guy who just got fired because he made a fake AI recording of a guy he worked for saying a bunch of racist things. And the guy, like everybody, was attacking him, he got in trouble. And then they, somehow, or another, did an analysis on it, and the director did it. To, like the principal of the high school, right? Because he was about to get fired, so he was like, all right, instead of me getting fired, watch this.
Right, he thought he was being slick, yeah, but he's a dummy and he didn't know that they can tell.
They can analyze audio recordings and tell whether or not they're real. How do they do that? How can they tell? Well, that one specifically? I think someone else was like, it was a conversation between two people, and they both were like, I didn't hear that and I didn't say that. So they were like, all right, well, what could have happened?
I mean this.
I think they got the guy's computer to find out what he said. So he must have had a secret recording. And then, in that secret recording, he took it and then threw it through AI and had him say a bunch of n-words in there.
Yeah, there's two aspects to this whole thing, right? There's the detection portion of it, right? Can you detect like something like this is fake? Whether it's audio, whether it's video, a combination of both? And then there's the other side of it, which is trying to stay up with the capabilities of those that are trying to do these, you know, identity thefts, or whatever you want to call it.
And that's sort of the proactive effort to lock down recordings, right? And there's some interesting work being done in that space. Where if you film something, say, you go to a campaign rally, and you film that campaign rally. There are a handful of companies out there figuring out that. You can essentially watermark it right, so that it cannot be fucked with right. And that you can determine if it's an actual recording or not. And that's really....
I mean, you think about how much disinformation is roiling around out there now, right? But detection, it's important, but it's not enough anymore. So where the focus has to be is on ensuring that anything that's being recorded. Whether it's a body cam for a police officer, whether it's maybe someone's at a protest, right? and they're a protester, or they're on the other side, whatever.
To be able to film something and then ensure that it's accurate and true going forward, right? And that's a really important part, because you can't. The detection side of it's important. But it can't stay up with the developments. Of all the folks out there, all the criminal gangs, criminal elements, and whether it's state-sponsored or not, that's out there with this disinformation effort. So, I mean, it's a fascinating problem, but people are getting duped constantly.
It's a fascinating problem that is only going to get worse as these new versions of AI get rolled out. It's going to be more and more difficult to detect what's true and what's fake. And people can do it on their computer, so easy now.
This one of Biden, he's walking and he pauses to talk to people and they cgi'd shit like that, he's pooping himself.
I saw that the one where he kind of stops, he's in that weird pause.
He's got a fart, yeah, he's just seeing him poop himself.
And people are out there saying, Look, that's a mid-stage dementia stance, right? That's what they're saying now, they're talking about that. I don't know, I don't know about that.
Well, something's going on.
There are, if you talk about just what do they call it? Face swap, right, so they can take a photo of somebody now, they can take a little snippet of somebody talking now. And there are over 100 apps out there readily available to anybody that can basically do this face swap technology and put somebody else in there.
And criminal elements are doing it all the time. So if I'm a fraudster and I send a note, say to somebody in procurement, I say, Hey, you need to send a check for $100,000 to our vendor. Right here's the details. Well, they might have protocols in place that the company says, Okay, well, first, this is a large transaction.
I better call the finance director, right? Or whomever they've got a way that they can figure out how to spoof all of that, right? So you could be talking to whom you think is the finance director. But they'll actually with the face swap technology that's available out there, right?
It's somebody having a conversation, you think it's the finance director, but they're talking to you.
Completely different person.
Completely different person.
Their voice gets changed, their face gets changed, they look exactly like you. Yep, so I could use face swap technology that exists today.
And with all the recordings that we have of you from this show.
Oh fuck, yeah, yeah.
100 we could have you saying a bunch of shit that you never really said.
And some shit that I probably did say over the years, yeah.
We've said a lot of shit, yeah.
There's some shit.
Let me ask you this when they're doing all this face swap technology and all this different stuff.
What can be done to try to keep ahead of it, to make sure from a national security perspective, how do you know?
Right, there's a couple parts to that.
Netanyahu all of a sudden has some crazy speech right and says some wild shit and like, we're going to war, like, hey.
Yeah, is that real?
Well, again, part of it is there's a handful of companies out there.
And they're able to again record, and instantly, as it does it, it embeds information, it embeds specific time, location, your coordinates.
And it will all be in the recording.
And it's in there, right? And then it's sort of a blockchain system where then on the other side, the person can look and go. Yeah, this is accurate, this is correct, right?
But people have to be able to take that, and that's I guess where I'm going with this. People have to be able to take that step to ensure that what they're watching is accurate. So when people say, Well, how do you prevent this? how do you keep this from happening?
The unsatisfactory answer, to a large degree, is it comes down to individual people. Everybody has a big fucking responsibility now, more so than before, to understand what they're looking at, listening to, watching.
Well, we're fucked.
We're fucked now, we're really fucked. I don't want to sound cynical.
Because there's just too many people that are concerned about Drake and Kendrick Lamar and don't even know what's going on in Gaza. They're much more concerned with them. We have like a lot of 84 IQers out there bouncing around, walking into traffic.
84. What is that average nowadays? I don't even know.
I think it's 15 of the population is 84 and below, right? Is that what it is? Remember when we looked that up? Yeah, but that would also mean 15 is whatever, 100 plus and above.
What's the actual numbers? Let's get a pie chart of IQS. It's a standard deviation thing.
See, already I know that you're above 84 just because you said that.
Yeah, he said, standard deviation, wow, and he googles with one hand.
That's because Carl's being petted.
Almost no matter what thing you're trying to average out, they almost always end up looking this way. And 15 will always be outside of it. What percentage? 0.1 are 55 and below fuck 2 of the population is 70. Jesus.
Between 55 and 70, 2 of the population, and then 14 of the population is 85..
Yeah, but 34 is below 100.
So most people are between 85 and 115.
Between 115 and me, I'm in that sweet zone, between 115 and 130..
Oh yeah, really, that's impressive. I suspect I'm to the left of that somewhere, yeah.
I've never taken an IQ test.
I took one at 2 o'clock in the morning and I wasn't even awake. I said I should probably take some alpha brain, take this bitch again and get fired up, but I didn't. I'm happy with my score, yeah.
I just want to know, was it really stupid?
Well, okay, that's interesting. So a lot of people hanging out in the 85 to 115, I don't think.
The real issue with all this stuff, though, is emotional intelligence and social intelligence. And there's people that are very brilliant, people that I know that suck at those other things and that's held them back in life. So are you smart? are you really smart? If your emotional intelligence sucks so hard? Your ability to read social cues, your ability to form meaningful friendships sucks so hard that you're isolated and nobody likes to be around you, but you have a high IQ.
So I'm supposed to think that's good. That seems dumb.
I mean, it works for some people, I suppose.
It doesn't, though. That's a recipe for an unhappy life. That's stupid, yeah.
Well, I mean, you never know. You get somebody who's a brilliant scientist and they just have very little social life. Maybe they're happy in the science lab. I don't know, that's true.
I agree. Empathy is, I mean, we try to work with our kids all the time on that, right? I mean, you want a well-rounded kid. Our job is to raise, not average children, but you want them to be well-rounded and empathy. Being able to read social cues, read a room, that is super important.
My kids are all very kind and I love that. It makes me very, very happy. They're very kind, They're kind to people, They're kind to their friends.
They're kind to people, they feel bad when someone's not doing well, They're kind. That means a lot. I'm very happy they got that from us.
Did they get that from you or did they get that from –?
Probably more from Mrs Robin. I'm nice, though, and I work real hard at it too. Because I don't have instincts to be nice. My instincts are not to be very nice. My instincts are survival of the fittest.
It's very hard to put that aside and just be kind sometimes, but it always feels better when I do.
It is, you know what, and that's how kids learn to do it right. I mean, people always ask about with parenting, kids are watching from the time.
They're nuggets, right? Yep, and they absorb shit. And if you want your kid to be empathetic, you've got to demonstrate that, you've got to demonstrate kindness.
You've got to demonstrate consideration. Our boys, my daughter's great, my daughter is very good, and our boys are boys, and they're aggressive and competitive and all that. But I think ours probably follow the traditional sort of multi-kid path, right? So, like the oldest boy is empathetic, right and kind and considerate.
The youngest boy is probably a savage.
Youngest boy is. He's like, the fucking mayor of Party town, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah.
Because he's got to deal with the older brothers, exactly, he's got to grow up quicker.
Yeah, and the middle boy –.
He's usually better at things, too.
Yeah, actually, you know what he's, as my wife says, who's the greatest person I know? She calls him the sleeper, right? Because he kind of comes in under the radar, you don't expect him to be great at something, and then he is right.
Because he's been watching and he's pissed off and he wants to be better than his brothers, right? Yes, yes. And then the middle boy is just like, he's just like, Fuck, you get out of my way, you know? He's the basketball player, he's down at IMG.
He's into his own thing and he's a great kid, but he's just like, This is what I'm going to do. I don't know what you're doing or what you're doing, but here's me.
He's got to focus, Yeah, he's got to focus. That's because there's a lot of people around. He realizes he can't concentrate on other people being happy, got to do what he wants to do.
Yeah, that's right, so it is, I mean, it's, and I think that's not –.
Interesting dynamic, right?
It is, and you think about it and you think about. They all grow up and people talk about this all the time, so it's nothing new. But, you know, kids grow up in the same environment, right, yeah?
And then they end up being so uniquely different, in ways so different, yeah.
They're different out of the box, yeah, and boy, genetics plays a factor, my god, it plays a factor. And you realize it when you see your kids grow up and you see traits that like, there is no fucking way this is getting to you.
Any way other than genetics, there's no way, yeah.
Because, I mean, at a certain point, yeah, they start to take some influence from their friends. Yeah, you know, and they, oh, yeah. But by then, hopefully, you've kind of already set their whatever, their moral compass right, and they know what they're supposed to do.
Maybe they stray off that path occasionally, right? mm-hmm, but for the most part, no, they. I think you've got to set the parameters, you've got to set the course.
Kids, little kids, want to know what the hell is expected of them, right?
I'll tell you one thing. Reports from the front lines of kids in high school today that woke shit's out the window. That word retard comes flying out of these kids mouths. They're bringing that back. Strong, yeah.
They are bringing that back strong. Yeah, I'll tell you that woke thing. It got into college and then the high school kids, the ones coming up now, they are rejecting it.
I 100 agree with you. And I know that. Because our youngest muggsy, he's like, what? 12 years old now? And so he's in seventh grade. And he was in the complete blast zone of woke, right? Mm-hmm. And like the oldest one, who's 16, he kind of had some of it. The middle one, again, didn't care.
He was like, You know, fuck you, you don't play ball, so I'm not paying attention to you. And the youngest one was in a complete fire zone of this woke culture. And you'll never meet a more conservative, sexist kid in your life. Because he's just like, he'll come back and he'll tell us some stories from his school, which is a great school, but it's pretty woke. It's pretty liberal, right?
You've got kids walking around as furries, you've got a lot of multicolored hair, you've got all sorts of things going on there. And he'll come back and tell us stories and he'll just say, I just don't understand what the hell's happened.
Because he works harder at sport, yeah, that's what you get from a lot of people that work hard at sports. People that value hard work, people that value hard work tend to be more conservative and less inclined to indulge people on their mental illness. You know, oh, you're a cat.
No, you're not. You have cat ears on, they don't even look like a cat, you don't even have a good costume on. Like, you're not tricking people in the dark, okay?
Shut the fuck up, you're not a cat, you're just 12 and really confused, and I get it.
He came home one day and he said some girl turned around, dressed as a cat, and kicked him.
Because she thought he had pulled her tail, and then apparently she hissed at him and walked away, and he was like, I didn't fucking pull her tail. I don't want anything to do with her.
She hissed at him, Jesus Christ, this is so indulgent, that's so crazy. You know what's interesting?
Tucker Carlson had a very good point when he talked about the difference between different dysphorias, like body dysphoria for anorexia versus gender dysphoria. And he said, when a child has body dysphoria and they think they're fat, you don't tell them, oh, yeah, you are fat. No, you help them, you say no, you're not fat.
This is just a mental disorder. But when someone says, I'm a boy, you say, Oh, you are a boy, you don't say, sweetie, your name is Dorothy.
Shall we go shopping for dresses?
Dorothy Are people still naming the kid Dorothy?
I don't think so. Bring her back, Dorothy, Carol. Nobody names their kids, Carol.
It's a beautiful name, those are beautiful names.
Dot, that was the nickname for Dorothy, was Dot. I know that because I know a Dorothy.
That's right.
She goes by dot.
That's right.
People are like, what the fuck?
How bizarre.
Dot.
God, how bizarre.
That's a weird one, but you're right, it's the indulgence. And again, fine, do what you want to do.
I don't need to go along with it, I don't need to celebrate it, I don't need to, but that's what's expected. It went past.
Maybe I'm a little bit different. I'm going to go through a phase in life now, it's like, I'm going through a phase. And you better fucking well accept it and celebrate it.
There's like a value, a social value to having anxiety, there's a social value to what you will call childhood trauma, or social value to. Like. Everybody has PTSD from like it could be from high school.
It could be like, from minor stuff, but it's looked at as, oh, we have to be considerate of someone's past, everybody's got trauma.
Yeah.
That's a part of life, but the answer is not to overindulge every single aspect of everyone's ideas. So that you do. Let a kid wear a fucking tail and ears and run around the high school and be a freak. Because, like, that's not good either. Yeah, that's not healthy.
Well, it's crazy, it's not healthy, and it's confusing for those kids too, right? I mean, I honestly believe if you address it properly, right? And you deal with it, it's long-term better health for that individual, right? Which is what you want, right? You want, everybody wants that.
Yeah, but we've got, I don't understand.
Once you're a grown adult and you've got your own job and you pay for your own apartment, you want to go to a furry convention. God bless you, God bless you. I just don't think you should be able to wear a fucking tail in school and hiss at people. That just seems silly.
Yeah, it seems silly. Also, my friend's son goes to a school where you can't wear hats, so you can't wear hats in class, but kids can wear. Like fucking duck ears.
Yeah, ducks don't have ears.
Don't they? How do they hear?
They don't stick out. I was coming up with a stupid animal for some reason, duck, that's how, you know, I'm not invested in this idea.
I think a duck with ears would be a good looking duck.
You get fucking dog ears or cat ears, or whatever the fuck you think you are, or raccoons stop.
Our boys school's silly. we can't wear hats either, our boys school's silly.
Yeah, they can't wear hats, but they can wear these stupid fucking ears, is my point. Yeah, it's like a headband, I guess.
This time of year is a great time of year. It's a great time of year because speaking of hats and everything, this time of year is crew cut flat top season. So the youngest one, Muggsy, went ahead the other day and got himself a buzz cut. Nice, it's nice.
We used to go, all my brothers and I. We knew summer was approaching when my dad would say, Okay, here we go. And we had a home clipper kit. And there was something great about that flat top. That crew cut, anyway, he's got his crew cut going on, and I suspect he's the only one in this entire school that's got this and it's a good look for him.
Again, I think there's so much happening in the school in terms of the way kids are. What's the word I'm looking for? Coddled?
I feel proud about Muggsy because he comes walking into school and there's no mistaking it. This kid is not angsty, he's not worried about anything, he's got the crew cut going on.
This is a very unique challenge for these kids to get through this bullshit and come out on the other end, understanding that no one's coming to save you. You're responsible for yourself in life and you've got to get after it, you've got to actually do something. If you want a successful, happy life, you have to be engaged in some sort of a pursuit, something that you enjoy. Whatever the fuck it is, find it, go for it. Hard work is important.
The world really does operate on a meritocracy, except in corrupt situations.
But it's also a battlefield, right for these kids, it's a minefield, is probably a better way to put it. So you've got the kids you want them to do all those things right. Play sports, be involved in hobbies, activities, whatever it is.
Stay busy, focus on your grades, be balanced, be nice to people. But they're walking through this minefield every day. There's a potential for them to upset somebody who's looking to be upset. And I'm talking about 12, 13, 14, 15-year-old kids, right, who are looking to be insulted, right? And very quickly.
Use the system that's been put in place, right? which caters to them. And so it is, you know, and my boys have run afoul of that system a couple of times. For, you know, it's lunacy, maybe speaking their mind.
Maybe not saying calling someone a them, yeah, yeah, addressing someone as a plural.
Yeah.
One of my kids went with a they-them, went to school with a they-them, and this girl wore fucking makeup, she wore makeup and dresses. But she said she was non-binary and she would get upset if someone didn't call her a they or a them.
How old at the time?
11 12.
Oh God. 12. Yeah.
12 I guess, Yeah, what the fuck, man?
Were you worried about that sort of thing when you were 11 years old?
I didn't even know it was a thing. I don't think I realized it was a thing until I was 50. Yeah, I never heard of non-binary. I mean, I would imagine that there are people that are asexual.
They're not interested in physical affection, they're probably on the spectrum. God bless you.
But is that what non-binary means?
No, but that's like, asexual, asexual I get. But when you say you're not a boy or a girl, okay? If you were a puppy and I wanted a boy puppy or a girl puppy, which one would you be? I know you're not a puppy.
Yeah, you know, like this is the thing with the Supreme Court justice. With Katonji Brown-Jackson, who said she's not a biologist, they asked her. What is a woman? She said, I'm not a biologist, yeah.
Right, but you're a woman, so how about take a shot at it?
Yeah.
Like, if I brought you a puppy, how do you know if it's a boy dog or a girl dog? Can we use that same judgment for humans? Is that possible? Isn't it true, in the majority of cases, that a woman has ovaries and a vagina, and they can have babies for the most part?
Yeah, yeah, for the most part. Yeah. Well, just try to watch people just lose their minds, try asking somebody like that, Is there a difference between a man and a woman?
Imagine asking that to a Supreme Court justice 20 years ago. Imagine if Ruth Bader Ginsburg 20 years ago. Somebody asked her she would go shut the fuck up with these stupid questions. I'm here on the goddamn Supreme Court to get shit done. Okay, I'm not here to hear. What did you ask me?
What a woman is? Why don't you ask me what paint is now? ask me what tires are? How about a bunch of other shit? What's a pencil?
Shut the fuck up.
What are we doing? But it's university administrators, it's anybody in a position of leadership who's afraid of getting bullied, right? And so nobody wants to state the obvious.
We went through the whole pandemic with one side screaming, Believe the science, right? And then now they're like, Well, I know, it depends on the context of whether a man and a woman are different. You're thinking, Look, you can again do whatever you want to do.
But if you're a girl, but you identify as a boy, then you're a girl identifying as a boy, and vice versa. That doesn't seem complicated to me.
Also, if you want us to trust the science, you got to make the science trustworthy. You can't leave the science in the hand of corporations that stand to profit if the science reflects one thing or the other. You can't do that because they do it, they've done it forever, they've been fined for it.
You know they do it, you know it's standard practice, you know that. They run multiple tests and multiple studies. And they'll throw out the ones that don't show any positive results. And they finagle the studies to show some kind of fugazi positive thing. And then they'll start prescribing it to people.
And they do it for money, you know, they do it for money, everybody knows they do it for money. So shut the fuck up about this science thing until you can sort the science out, until you know the science.
Unless you have a third-party, non-biased, where there's not a revolving door between the government organization and the pharmaceutical drug companies. Which we know there is, and we know that they know there is, so we know that they know where the fucking bread is buttered, and they know how to get things through. And then looky-do. He works for Moderna now.
Looky-do.
Oh my God, looky-do.
GlaxoSmithKline just hired him, you know? I mean, look, everybody should make money. I'm glad pharmaceutical drug companies exist, they make awesome stuff, right?
But you've got to be honest and don't hit me with that. Trust the science shit if you haven't made the science trustworthy.
Stop, yeah. And it also can't be a moving line, right? either you do or you don't, right, and it can't be based on where you fall politically, right, right?
Which seems to be how it works, right, 100, and so whenever it's, yeah.
Yeah, we trust some science, just not chromosomes. yeah, that chromosome stuff is fascist.
Yeah, it's very subjective, very subjective, it's very fascist.
I wanted to ask you this before I forget, yeah, when you were working for the agency, did you guys? I know that there is a program where they use special effects makeup to change someone's appearance. Have you ever seen that in person?
Oh, yes, yeah.
How does it look?
Yeah, well, it gets better all the time, right?
So can I go to a concert like, can I sneak into a concert with a rubber nose? Yeah, give me a nice blonde wig.
Yeah, that's what we used to do, we'd hand out rubber noses and googly eyes.
Then nobody would see us coming like Clark. Kent. Yeah, no. We have a disguise unit at the agency and I'm super proud of them. And I was the benefit of their expertise on numerous occasions. Because you might guess, I mean, I'd spent almost all my time with the agency overseas in operations. And there's some places where I don't blend, right?
Crazy, I know.
So they blended you, just like on Team America. World Police. Remember? Yes, what a picture of that guy.
One of the greatest.
Hans Briggs, Hans Briggs, How good is that movie?
It's the greatest movie ever, they're the best.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the fucking best.
Oh my god, when they did the puppet sex.
Or Matt Stone and Trey Parker. Did I switch their names? yeah.
The puppet sex scene. When they thought, Okay, a few minutes of this, it's making people uncomfortable, let's keep going with it. Well, you know, the original is far longer, yeah.
The original. She poops on his chest, or he poops on her chest, and she pees on him, or he pees on her.
God, they're brilliant. Look at this guy.
Muhammad Jihad.
Oh.
Shit.
Come on, Gary act, act, you have the power.
Fuck dirk, dirk Allah.
Dirk, Dirk Muhammad Jihad haka sherpa.
Sherpa Bacala.
Man, this takes me back.
He's an actor, bro.
God, it's so good he saved them.
He saved them being an actor.
One of the greatest. That really takes me back to the operational days, too.
Such an amazing movie.
Yeah, the disguise unit is fantastic.
Okay, so here's the video. Oh, it's John Mendez. Yeah, so this is from the disguise unit. Wow, look at the pores.
Yeah, she was there, she was, you know, senior officer there.
Were you ever talking to someone? You know, I think this motherfucker's wearing a disguise.
No, but I've talked to people wearing disguises, I've had the full overhead mask.
Look how good that is with sunglasses on, with sunglasses on, that's crazy.
I never did wear the monkey outfit, dude. Yeah, we didn't do that one.
But look how good that looks.
Yeah.
That's insane.
No, and here's the thing about this, is it? Because what they did was they went to Hollywood? And there's been this liaison for years, years and years, between the agency and Hollywood. When it comes to special effects, when it comes to makeup. And again, and it's horses for courses. So sometimes you need a light disguise, right? I'm not giving away any secrets, this stuff is all out there and so, you know, you get a light disguise.
It's for a brief, you know, cover, for action, you know, there's not going to be engaged in it.
So what would be a light disguise?
You know, like a rubber nose, it could be like a wig. It could be, you know, facial hair, a change of glasses, it could be just a change of hair color. In reality, if you're out on the street, I know I'll probably disappear down a rabbit hole and people will be like, Oh, this is fucking boring.
But if you're out on the street and you're just in a surveillance exercise, say, right, and you're covering a target. Then all you've got to do is you're just talking about switching up your look a little bit. It could be a hat, right? it could be a coat, it could be a backpack, whatever you're doing, so it doesn't have to be much.
And then you got the full other side of the spectrum, which could be a full overhead mask, right? Which is that's a process, right?
You get, I mean, it's, it's just like with Hollywood, I mean, it's no difference.
And the key is when you're out on the street and you're in disguise, nobody is thinking that person's in disguise, right? So it's dependent upon your bearing. I've seen people in disguise who don't pull it off well.
Right because they they're worried like, Oh, I'm in disguise, people are thinking I'm in disguise, nobody gives a shit, everybody's worried about their own little bubble.
So it's your your body movement, it's your body language.
Right, it's your, it's your bearing. How do you? how do you comport yourself? How do you? how do you carry yourself? Are you confident in it?
And also, do you understand that the vast majority of people out there, no matter where you are, right? A fourth world country, U.s wherever they're not thinking about it, right?
And I've had extended conversations with people in disguise, where you know they don't, they don't give a fuck, they don't know. And it's. It is remarkable how good they are at this, but that that unit is fantastic.
Do they give you like a rubber muscle suit ever?
No, I never got a fat suit, no, but I know one of the guys I worked with, he got a fat suit, really. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, changes weight, because that's that's also one of those things where you know you you're looking to, right? I mean, you're just trying to alter your profile. And weight is a big part of it.
And what does the fat suit entail? Is it like a skin one where it looks real?
Well, no, mostly it's under your clothes, right? And so it's like it's padding, basically, but it's quick. You have to be able to do this quickly. Look, I've been on the streets of, you know, capital cities around the world where I'm on a motorcycle.
And you know, I've got, I've got a helmet on, that's a pretty good disguise. But you've got to get off that motorcycle at some point, walk the streets or go somewhere, whatever. And so you've got to be able to do these things quickly, right?
Or you're so again, not not giving away any sources or methods. But I will say the disguise unit and Mrs Mendez there, who they just showed briefly. She ran that operation for a great person and a great, a great part of the agency, and it is, but it is acting, there's no difference.
So did this was going to get to did. They teach you how to walk casual? they teach you what to see in someone that's tense.
Well, yeah, I mean, you spend a lot of time.
Yeah, yeah, you do. That's a good way to put it. I guess. You spend a lot of time observing people, right, and understanding, and part of that is you're trying to get a sense of.
If you're trying to get a sense of whether they're lying, you're watching for certain things, you're watching their body movement and the way they're behaving. And the things that they're saying a lot of times, they're just they're, they're, they're not consistent with what they're saying.
So that's not necessarily watching their movements, but a lot of times if you're trying to get on side with somebody, right? So if I'm, if I'm trying to develop a relationship with the deputy foreign minister of whatever from some country, right?
Because they've got inside information on their nuke program. Then I'll spend a lot of time thinking about and watching and observing that person, and eventually I'm mirroring that person's activities. Right? So, you know, if you're sitting across from somebody and and they lean on the desk.
Right, and they start talking to you, they move in a little bit closer. Well, I might do the same thing, I'm going to come in.
They don't know it, they don't understand it, but it makes them more comfortable, right? So if you start mirroring their, their actions, their activities, that's just one of those things.
It's a it's a small part of it. But my buddy told me that when you see people like leaning against a wall, that we see people in foreign countries leaning against a wall. Nine times out of ten, they're American, like, what? leaning like one shoulder against a wall, he said. It's a very American thing to do.
Like, lean against doorways with one shoulder, or leaning against a wall with one shoulder.
Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't make a lot of book on that. I mean, because, you know, it's a Western thing, more than just an American thing. I've seen. You know, I'd spent a long time in Europe. And you know, Italians lean against the wall, you know, Spaniards lean against the wall, but it is a Western thing.
So, you know, if you're walking the streets of Vladivostok or wherever, then you have to be aware of it. Also, little things like how you eat, how you hold your fork and knife. I mean, it could be, it could be anything that could, you know, show out as a certain cultural handle.
What is the way that different people hold their fork?
Well, you know, if you hold your like, if you hold your knife here and you hold your fork here, right? And you just keep eating with this hand, you don't switch the fork over to your your dominant hand. That's an interesting take.
And I mean, like, if you're over in the UK, you see it all the time, right? People just kind of eating like this, right? Pushing, pushing their food onto their fork.
Fifteen things that stand out. Americans are known for leaning on things while standing still. Aha, aha. This is a habit.
The CIA even trains, aha, aha. CIA trains Americans to unlearn when trained to be a spy. Don't worry, we can still stand out on our own two feet.
Americans are always eating on the go. One person living in Europe was asked if they were American because they were eating a bagel while walking. Hey, we got to fuel up for all that small talk. Americans are known for being loud and friendly, and our accents are a dead giveaway.
Americans love small talk and are super friendly. Americans are known for wanting ice in their water, a habit that might seem as strange in countries where ice is not commonly consumed. Americans often greet people with Hey, how are you? The greeting may be seen as too friendly or even mocking.
In some cultures, Americans are known for leaving tips. Are they okay? Yeah, Americans have a reputation for being confident.
Even if you're walking in the wrong direction. Americans are known for enjoying sweet treats for breakfast, a habit that may be seen as strange in other cultures, where breakfast is typically a savory meal. Americans are often seen as being obsessed with their appearance and constantly checking their appearance in mirrors. It's because we're the shit.
Americans are known for wearing tactical sunglasses.
A style that may be seen as unusual in other countries.
Americans are known for saying y'all, Americans are known for their love of baseball caps, especially when worn backwards. Americans are known for their love of saying the U.s or America when asked if they're from.
Even though these terms refer to the entire country, Americans are known for their friendly grins when making eye contact.
Basically just a leaning against the wall thing that seems odd.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's interesting. I've seen a lot of leaners in my time, but yeah, all those things it's good to be aware of.
You were saying, with the fork and knife thing that Europeans keep a fork in one hand and a knife in the other. And they don't switch hands? Yeah, what, people switch hands?
I've seen that a lot here in the states where people like, they'll eat, you'll cut, you'll put down, you'll eat. And maybe it's just because I hang around with a lot of posh people, I don't know.
Yeah, they seem like bitches, they'll sound like that's a bitch move.
I'm not saying they're not.
Your left hand sucks so hard that you have to swap out when you're going to eat, you're scared of the fork being on your left side.
I think it's considered very etiquette.
Also, you're a bitch for not being able to cut your food with your left hand, too. I know both those things make you a bitch.
And it's just a lot easier if you also if you just kind of push, you're pushing around right there, but then again, you could do it.
If you want to eat quick, you've got a two-hand thing. There's a Gentleman's magazine here that says that's an American style, apparently, to hold the fork in your dominant hand and switch.
That's the bitches of America.
So let's say for a steak, for instance. Oh, look, there's even pictures, there's pictures to explain this to us.
How you cut, too, is a zigzag style, so the fork goes back and forth. Now, let's take a close look at the details. This is ridiculous.
Actually, that guy holding it like a dagger looks like my boy's eating.
That dude's very boring in real life.
Or a serial killer, yeah, or an etiquette teacher.
Yeah, either one.
So, but the disguising is fascinating. Like I said, sometimes it can be very simple. You slap on—I know it sounds silly if you slap on a fake mustache, but you're just changing your profile quickly. And so it doesn't. —I will say there were times when you'd get a disguise kit and it would have a baseball cap in it and you'd go. I don't think so.
I think it's because we're overseas and probably not a baseball cap.
So you have to make—so who's putting together these disguise kits for you?
It's the—I mean the outfit again, it's the disguise unit.
And the disguise unit isn't aware of cultural differences.
Oh, no, they are, but I'm just saying, in the old days, I'm fairly old. But in the old days, they'd throw in a ball cap and you'd think, Okay, well, you're giving it up here, kids. Yeah, so, but yeah, hey, what do I know?
So is there any video of people wearing these disguises where we could see what they look like? I found another video, I want to see what it looks like. Yeah, because I saw one on Instagram, but I don't know if it's real.
Same lady, I think here she transforms, probably like the reporter.
Yeah, just imagine—again, and what are you doing? you're—?
So here's this lady, right? They gave her a mustache, they gave her some wacky hair.
Wow.
That's incredible.
I don't know if she tricked me.
No, no.
What's going on?
That one's not the best one.
Yeah, it's not the best, but that's it. Then. That's also—they brought up the fork and knife in the video, which is interesting.
Boy, they love that fork and knife thing.
Holding a cigarette comes up in the video. How you hold a cigarette. Yeah, it's very quick. Here, they just show like the way you either between the fingers forward, like that.
Is that American pinching it and who pinches it? I don't know. I've seen people here pinch it, so I don't know.
Yeah, then it shows a guy doing a very quick thing like this. People that pinch it here, they're probably like European music. It goes from a suit to just like taking it off, putting on a hat. And now he's in disguise.
See, and it can be that simple, right, right? And particularly if you're in surveillance or if you're doing counter-surveillance, you've got to be aware of these things.
Did you see that? I had a guest on the podcast that came with my friend Josh Dubin, who works with criminal reform and getting innocent people out of jail. So we had this guest that came on and then after he was on the show, wound up killing somebody. Cut some dude's head off. Yes, yes, yes.
And the unfortunate surveillance footage where he tried to wear a blonde wig and walk around. Yeah, but I think he didn't realize, like, how good modern surveillance cameras are. Yeah, it's like, crystal clear that this dude was wearing a fucking wig.
God.
Yeah, yeah.
That's a hell of a story, crazy story.
I was trying to explain that to my daughter last night. This is what happened, God.
Yeah, that's interesting, you know, that video that you just showed? Because there's been some talk about the protests on campus, right? And the fact that all these outside agitators, activists. And then the students, the actual students, the ones that are actually affiliated with the university, most of them are wearing masks, right, right?
And, you know, part of it is, I don't know.
They're mentally ill.
Yeah, they're mentally ill.
I photograph people every time I see them, I photographed one today.
Yeah.
Saw somebody walking outside with a mask on, the dumb kind, too, the surgical blue, stupid one. Yeah, oh yeah.
That doesn't do a goddamn thing.
But this was, I think, was a solidarity thing. They're all wearing masks, and part of it was also I think they were thinking they couldn't be identified. Yeah, there's a lot of talk about retinal scanning, right?
So how much of the face do you need in order to identify people, right? And it's not much.
Not much.
Right, retinal scanning, it's not 100 accurate, so there's other things you have to do.
So would you be able to retinal scan that lady with that crazy outfit on?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's just retinal scanner, yeah, and then none of that shit would work. The mustache.
Which is, and that's, yeah, that's a great point.
Now you got glue on your face for nothing.
And that shit is tough to take off, too. Oh, gross, it's not good. So, yeah, and that's a really good point, because now it's made the life of somebody who's working in operations a lot tougher, right, right?
Because of the ability of, and it's got to be a country where you're operating, where they've got the resources and the technology. But it makes it a shit ton tougher to get away with things, right? And as does the ability for communications, intercepts and tracking of phones and all the other things. So while it's always the same story, right? Technology's got an upside and a downside, but the face recognition, the retinal scanning. It's creating all sorts of problems from an operational perspective. Overseas. And here, of course, the problem is people are talking about civil liberties and invasion of privacy.
And so you've got some students out there and they're covered, and the next thing, you know, they're identified right now, they're suspended and you know, fine.
Not only that, some of them aren't getting to graduate, there's one girl I was watching this video where they just told her she couldn't graduate because she got arrested.
Well, you know what, what do they say? You play stupid games.
Yeah, you win stupid prizes. They all think they're doing something great, they think they're going to fix it. It's, you know, a lot of misplaced energy with tents.
With tents and with matching tents, and that's the part. Look again, you know? Hey, God bless the actual students who are out there, feeling like they're being a part of something. I get that.
They're young people, most of them are gormless, right? They're just saying, whatever, right? This is their moment to shine, so they're excited.
So they don't, and, you know, most of them couldn't find Gaza on a map of Gaza. So I think that, you know, that's one side of it, right? And I can't, you know, whatever. But it's the coordination of it all by the various outside groups and the activists, and the funding of it, right?
And the potential for that funding and the coordination. To tie back to groups like Hamas or Hezbollah, which basically means you're tying back to the Iranian regime, right? Because that's the only reason those groups exist. But nobody seems curious about that, because a lot of the media wanted to portray this as just like kids being kids. Oh, look, this is their moment to shine as student activists, and isn't it wonderful?
And it's their Vietnam protests and bullshit. Some of it, OK, fine, so it's layered, right?
So some of that's true. You got those kids that are just doing that. But there's the incuriosity of the media to say, well, what the hell's behind this, right? And what groups is it?
Is it, you know, Students for Justice in Palestine? is it, you know, U.s campaign for Palestinian rights? Sami Doon right, which has connections back to Hamas?
There's education for whatever, just peace in the Middle East. There's groups that have been actively engaging in this, and that's why you get the coordination of all of this, right? But nobody asks, OK, what's behind?
Just students? No, it's not, it's a coordinated effort. And then you look at those groups who are always active in this, in this realm, right?
And always looking to have organizations disinvest from Israel or to, you know, promote causes that are anti-Israeli. And then you say, OK, well, who's funding it, right? So you look at these groups and you say, OK, where's the money coming from? The money's always coming from the same places.
Right, the tide center right, which is part of the tide's network, which gets significant funding. No surprise from Soros's Open Society Foundation.
You get Westchester People's Action Coalition, so you get these groups and you get the legal support. So all these people, the activists who are getting arrested, they can turn to Palestine Legal, which provides legal support to the activists and the NGOs that are engaged in all this. Again, they're getting their money from charities a lot of times, the charities don't know they're putting money into these groups.
Right, it goes into the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund provides money to these NGOS. You know, like Justice for Palestine or whatever, and then Rockefeller Brothers gets funding from Soros Open Society Foundation as well. That guy.
That guy.
He's a bit of a problem.
Right, well, yeah. And now his kid is even more of an activist than George is, of course.
Kid inherited it.
Kid inherited it.
Make up for the fact that he inherited it by being extra woke.
Yeah, and he is.
And extra guilty, Oh God, for having all those billions, you should feel guilty, you little fuck.
Yeah, exactly. God, how can you live with yourself, young Soros?
What you're talking about, though, is a very important point, that this is not organic. And this is what I was going to get to earlier when I was talking about social media. How much do you think foreign governments have an influence on certain trends and certain things that people are talking and promoting and pushing and being a part of on social media? Because I think it's a big factor, I think it's a big factor with a lot of things.
And I think it's a big factor with all the most insane, woke shit. I think they push it as far as they can. So that the stuff that's not as insane that was insane just a couple of years ago seems less insane now. It seems more palatable. And then they just keep moving the goalposts. I think you can do that through social media with kids.
You can kind of engineer what kids accept.
Oh, 100. And the answer is, How much do they do? They do a tremendous amount. Look, the Iranian regime. nobody's happier with these protests on campuses than the Iranian regime, and they've even come out.
Foreign Minister Khamenei, himself, the ayatollah, came out on his official X page who knew? And praises the protesters? And they talk about the oppression and the violent tactics of the police and suppressing protests. Which is crazy when you think about what the Iranian regime has done to anybody who dares protest inside Iran.
They executed a world champion wrestler over there.
Constantly, constantly, and they're trampling of all rights, not just women's rights, everybody's rights, so it's bullshit. But people, you know, I don't know.
People buy it.
They don't have a peripheral understanding of the workings, the inner workings of all this stuff.
But then the Russians and the Chinese, they're all taking advantage of this as well. Chinese bots have been out there trolling around and promoting the chaos. If you were to switch on television in Moscow, or in Tehran, or in Beijing, you'll get a lot of coverage of these campus protests. This is ideal for them, it's exactly what they want.
And it feeds into their larger narrative of trying to discredit democracy and say, what a losing system it is, capitalism.
But again, people are incurious, they're busy, they're trying to just do their lives, whatever. They're not taking the time to sit and think. Where am I getting my information from?
What's the validity of this information? And if they don't do that, you know, then, to your earlier point, yeah, we're fucked. Yeah, because it comes down to individual responsibility, you got to focus on where your information is coming from.
And you know, right now, you know, you could argue, I mean, that, whether it's the face swapping techniques, whether it's a.
I. That can mimic, whether it's for criminal purposes or whether it's for state-sponsored efforts to try to put the knife in into the American system or the West. You know, we are. It's democratized misinformation, right? It's made it so that everybody can engage in it, not just state sponsors, but everybody. Because all those apps are out there, all the abilities out there, and you've got an incurious public. For the most part, that doesn't take the time.
And an uninformed public, most of them are not even aware that there's foreign elements that have an influence on our culture.
Yeah, which is shocking if you think about it.
It's shocking, but so few people are aware of anything other than what's going on in their own life and what's going on at work.
Well, life is messy and it's tough, and you're trying to raise kids, and you know, you're trying to put food on the table, you don't have time.
I talked to some of my friends about this stuff and their eyes glaze over. Yeah, they don't even want to know I'm busy, bro.
Yeah, but you know what it does? I mean, look at the state of look, how dysfunctional we are right now, right? I mean, this is remarkable, you know? At times and again, everybody wants to think it's always the worst time, right?
It's not the worst time, We've had worse times. Civil war, I think, was pretty bad, you know? So we've had more dysfunction, I suppose, at times. But the technology speeds it along, right? And you know, we just have more people, so the potential for more of a shit show is there.
But that is ultimately when people always talk about, well, how do you? You can't just use detection, you can't be on the defensive all the time trying to identify. Okay, that's fake, that's fake, that's fake, right? You've got to rely on people, right to say, you know what? I'm not going to buy everything I read, right? I'm going to pay attention and I'm going to think about it a little bit and I'm going to chill the fuck out.
But it's not in human nature, apparently, right now. So yeah, we've got a problem. And those nations, particularly Iran, China and Russia, are having a field day right now, right? We are making it very easy for them and think about it. We've got the fucking election coming up in November.
So think about what that means in terms of disinformation, and it's, yeah, it's remarkable. We live in a very interesting time. I think we're going to be fine. It's a very resilient environment, I suppose.
So I try to be positive.
It's fraught with peril. Yeah, well, let me ask you this from a perspective of someone who kind of understands all these different influences and all the things that are happening in these universities. What can be done to, sort of, like, unwind some of this fuckery, if anything, at this point?
I mean, are we just going to operate from here on out with this understanding that our kids get indoctrinated to this preposterous, ridiculous way of thinking? Where they're taught these Marxist, Leninist ideas as if they make any fucking sense, and that they've ever worked anywhere. And if they don't, always lead to totalitarian, authoritative governments that take over and enforce all these socialist policies, which is a fucking nightmare. That happens in every single regime when they go socialism. Yeah, so what can be done to sort of, like, unwind some of this bullshit in colleges and balance it out a little bit? Like there's nothing wrong with having ridiculous ideas?
Yeah, as long as those ridiculous ideas can be challenged. But if you're the only one that gets to talk right? And you just indoctrinate these kids. And no one comes along and says, Hey, you've never even functioned in the fucking real world.
Like, this shit that you're teaching these kids, unless they go into academia, they're fucked. Yeah, or you're going to ruin corporations with this ideology. Because it just it doesn't jive with capitalism, it doesn't jive with, and oh yeah, we're going to tear capitalism down.
Okay, well, then what, you fucking idiots? Then? No one has any incentive to get anything done. Well, that's great for you because you've never done anything, yeah.
So you think all these people that did things, even if you don't agree with them. Even if it's Bill Gates, he still built that fucking company, right? That's his, he did it. Do you want to be that guy?
Then go do what he did. If you don't like what he did, then you can talk about it, you can protest about the idea that you should. Everyone should have to give all their money away, and there should be no billionaires, and there should be no capitalism and all the money goes into. And then who's in charge? And who gets to tell you what you can do and not do, who gets to tell you you can't have your money anymore?
Who gets to take your house away because it's too big? Shut the fuck up. This is so short-sighted and so stupid that it's so hard for me to believe that it's being taught in universities.
Right, or the idea now what they're saying is you got a big house, you got a couple extra rooms, you know what you should do.
Yeah, taking these fucking migrants.
Taking, Yeah, that might be murderers, yeah, that we haven't bothered to vet.
If you see a 14 tattooed on his forehead, bring him in. Yeah, yeah, he's fine. He's a nice guy, he's trying to clean his life up.
That's why he walked here.
Yeah, and the border's fine, don't worry about it, it's all good.
It's fine, it's only like 20 Chinese nationals that are of military age.
No, the staggering number of Chinese have come across the border in the past six months. It's wild. Yeah, it is fascinating, because you think what accounts for that increase?
They want to learn MMA. Yeah, yeah, they do the best gyms, a lot of, even the Chinese champions that come over here to train, really.
Yeah, sure, so maybe that accounts for what 20,000 of these, No 26,000, 30 of them.
Yeah.
30 of those guys are future MMA stars, future UFC stars.
But I mean, you look at the universities and think, yeah, university's supposed to be a place where you exchange ideas, so that's great. You want to talk about it, you want to have classes in marxism or whatever you want to talk.
That's great, but you're right, you need to have that discourse, you need to be, you know. Again, I keep reverting back to the examples of the real world and from my own experience. My daughter went to undergrad and grad school, and she kept her mouth shut for most of that time. Six years. Because she always knew, as she said, there was no upside to her arguing in class.
Right, you know, and she's a centrist, right? But that's not popular either, no?
Right, you can't be a centrist on campus. No, you can't say there's good ideas on both sides.
So I know, what did you just say?
Fuck that day or not, yeah, terrible person. So yeah. So she went through school, and that's a terrible thought, yeah.
Right, particularly when you're paying for it.
But she worked out fine, she's great, and she understood the joke, right. She got the joke.
But it shouldn't be there.
Right, you shouldn't have to decipher that for four years, you shouldn't have to go, oh, let me put this through the bullshit filter, right? Okay, let me just get through this class and figure out what's applicable and what I need for my degree.
Yeah, but I do think there's some bounce back on the corporate side with DEI, for example, right? I think there are a number of companies out there. Just as with sort of the climate change, I've watched oil companies do this. Complete left turn, saying we're going to make over half of our revenues from green energy in the future. Near future, like a couple of years from now.
And you think like, it's not going to happen. But they have to play that game for a while and then they come back and go, it's not going to happen. So you know what we're doing, we're investing in all of this shit, including fossil fuels.
So I think whether it's that or whether it's kind of the pushback on DEI from corporations that are saying, you know, maybe it is a grift, right? Maybe you've got all these DEI grifters out there and they got it. It's a cottage industry, they can make a lot of money off of this bullshit.
Get a lot of government grants and all those things, but I think there's some pushback. Universities, I think, are a tougher issue. Yeah, right.
I don't think, unless parents and kids just say, I'm not going to that bullshit. I mean, look, have you seen some of these kids at these supposedly elite universities talk? How the fuck did they get into these universities? Because they must have passed the application process.
Well, some kids are just really bad at talking, they're good at school work.
So you think that's what it is? Yeah, could be.
Well, I think, you know, you basically have to just memorize what they're teaching you. That doesn't require a lot of critical thinking. Yeah, and then when you have to think on your own and say, what does from the river to the sea mean? yeah?
What river are we talking about?
And what does that mean? Yeah, what happens to the Jews that live there? Yeah, where do they go?
They go back to Germany. Yeah, like, what are you saying?
That's an interesting phrase. I will say that, you know, you talk about Hamas and the Israeli conflict now, and it's, I mean, there's a minefield here, actually. One of my managing directors for my company, Portman Square Group, for all your information and security needs, thank you.
One of the managing directors knew that I was going to sit back down with you and they said, Look, I know you're probably going to want to talk about Hamas. Is there any way you can do it right without pissing off people?
That's cute.
Yeah, that's what I thought, right? So you want me to talk about the Israeli, you know, Palestinian issue without upsetting somebody? yeah.
I don't think, and she's a brilliant person, but I don't think that's going to happen, but I will say it is.
It's obviously it's complex, but it's complex in part because it's not absolute right, and everybody talks in absolutes when it comes to this.
It's Hamas and it's a Palestinian. Hamas is a terrorist organization, so fuck them, but it's a Palestinian problem, or it's the Israeli problem.
You know what, if you look at their history, right? There's problems on both sides, right and no. And and yet we talk about it like it's black and white.
And one or the other, right, and we're never going to get. This problem is never probably going to get solved in our lifetimes anyway, but it is.
It is disturbing when you hear some of the kids, the actual students. I mean, try to explain what this is right and what this problem is. And and talk to me about the river to the sea. Which, again, you can say that phrase, you know, in in. In ten different circumstances, it's going to be ten different things to ten different people, right?
And that's legitimate, you have to understand that that's OK, I get it, but the Israelis view that as like, you're, you're talking for a destruction, genocide of Israelis.
Right, because that's a destruction of a group, right? Not, not a war crime or something, not crime against humanity.
Genocide is your intent is to destroy the group, right? And so they'll see that Palestinians, some Palestinians, not Hamas. Hamas has it in their charter.
They know what river to the sea means, right? It's it's, you know, it's taking over that entire territory, and you know, fuck Israelis.
But Palestinians can say it, and it means something else. It's a yearning for whatever freedom for a homeland for. So there are variances in it, but that never gets discussed sometimes because people are just screaming at each other, like every other fucking subject out there.
Right, that that is the issue, right? Yeah. And and then, of course, when you are on a college campus and all, this is being encouraged by these groups that are funded.
Yes, and then you seem like, if you want to be a good person, you have to be a part of this group. You have to go there and be a part of this protest. And we see a lot of that.
Yeah, yeah.
They're just there because they're. They think they're supposed to be a good person to be there, and they want to make all their friends think they're a good person. They're carrying around signs and yelling out these things.
Got the keffiyeh on and they're like, Hey, look at me, I'm in the encampment, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing here.
But meanwhile, it is a fascinating time. If they allowed debates, because if you could see a pro-Israeli and a pro-Palestinian debate like a real, legitimate, honest intellectual debate. And discussing all the various issues, like from the beginning of the formation of Israel to back in the history of the land. And then what's going on today, all the treaties, all the different things that have happened, all the different peace talks. That would be a fascinating opportunity for people to hear both sides of this conflict and try to get a better understanding of it. Instead of just running out there with signs and camping on the lawn.
Universities and these places of higher education are supposed to be where these difficult conversations get sorted out. Exactly because you're supposed to have the smartest minds and to bring in the smartest minds from either side. There's brilliant people that are pro-Israeli and brilliant people that are pro-Palestine.
They're brilliant and if you can get them together and have them sort out your details. All the people in the audience can get a better, more informed understanding of how complex this conflict is. And that is supposed to be what universities are for. That's what it should be. It should be a place where people can sit down and learn something about something very difficult, which is international conflict.
These crazy moments in history where we get entwined with military conflicts that are happening all over the world and it's nowhere near you. And it's complicated. Shit, man. And to just run out there with a sign because these fuckers are organizing this on campus. It messes everything up, it messes up everybody, and to have only one side's perspective heard messes up everybody.
The whole thing's a mess, man.
Well, I think that the students, for the most part, again, the actual students who have an affiliation with the universities. Look, the pro-Hamas groups, the pro-Palestinian activists, they tend to view the students, I believe, as essentially useful idiots, right? Window dressing. And it gives it a sort of a veneer of, as you pointed out before, sort of this organic grassroots movement that's sweeping the nation. When, in fact, there's this underlying infrastructure that's always out there, trying to take advantage of opportunities like this and the chaos.
And then, aside from that, then you've got this other 30,000 foot problem, where you've got the Iranian regime and others who are promoting this and pushing for it. Look, Hezbollah, Hamas, they've got a lot of money, right? They have again not to disappear out of rabbit hole. But the leaders of Hamas are extremely wealthy, right? You know, Ismail Haniyeh and Marzouk and Mashal and the other cacts, you know, they have billions of dollars, right? Because for years, people say, Well, how could that be possible?
Well, for years and years now, they have been receiving a great deal of money. Conservative estimates from, you know, from Iranian regime, Hamas gets maybe a quarter billion a year, right? Qatar, it appears, gives them even more than that. There have been years when they've given about 400 million dollars to Hamas for a variety of reasons, right, ostensibly.
And part of that money coming from Qatar is by agreement with Israel, right? Because part of it is for over the years, the idea that you're buying quiet, buying peace, right? And so, yes. And so there was a process in place to try to track that money that came in. Just same with the Palestinian Authority from over in the West Bank.
But that's a lot of money, right? Not to mention even the money going to UNRWA.
And this is sort of the same situation with Ukraine, too, right? We don't really know where it all goes, and some of it definitely goes into pockets. There's a guy, Did you see that guy? I forget what his position is in Ukraine, but he's driving around in a Rolls Royce.
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