WEBVTT 00:00:23.619 --> 00:00:28.710 Hey everybody, KMO here, and what I have... here 00:00:28.710 --> 00:00:31.870 for you is a special episode of the KMO show. 00:00:31.969 --> 00:00:35.189 It is actually a six -year -old episode of the 00:00:35.189 --> 00:00:37.750 Sea Realm podcast. It's a conversation with Brent 00:00:37.750 --> 00:00:41.929 Batnarek. I'm uploading it here as a special 00:00:41.929 --> 00:00:46.170 bonus episode. And really the point is to use 00:00:46.170 --> 00:00:50.479 the... automatic transcription functions of this 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:53.920 website, rss .com, to create a transcript of 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.880 the conversation, which I can then either clean 00:00:56.880 --> 00:00:59.920 up for publication or more immediately just share 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:02.899 with ChatGPT or Claude or whatever large language 00:01:02.899 --> 00:01:04.760 model I'm discussing things with at the moment. 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:09.140 But I thought it might be interesting to you 00:01:09.140 --> 00:01:12.040 as well, so I'm going to leave this up even after 00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:14.939 the transcription is done. And what I would just 00:01:14.939 --> 00:01:17.400 draw your attention to is that this is 2020. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:23.079 From around, I would say, 2007 through 2000, 00:01:23.579 --> 00:01:27.560 well, 15, 16, somewhere in there, I was a pretty 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:31.920 devoted adherent and articulator of the peak 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:34.780 oil fast collapse narrative. But I started to 00:01:34.780 --> 00:01:38.299 get... uncomfortable with it. And I endured internal 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:40.400 friction with it as I continued to represent 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:44.980 it publicly for a while. And then in 2019, in 00:01:44.980 --> 00:01:47.560 a Sea Realm Vault conversation with Bob Brown, 00:01:47.739 --> 00:01:51.540 which I've also put up on this feed, I basically 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:55.159 just came out and said it. I'm over it. I see 00:01:55.159 --> 00:01:58.780 peak oil collapse fixation as much more of a 00:01:58.780 --> 00:02:02.420 psychological phenomenon than really a thermodynamic 00:02:02.420 --> 00:02:08.419 phenomenon. And in fact, thermodynamic fatalism 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:11.860 is a particular mental habit of the folks who 00:02:11.860 --> 00:02:15.460 were, and in some cases still are, fixated on 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:19.960 this notion of a rapid cascading failure of critical 00:02:19.960 --> 00:02:23.620 infrastructure due to a shortfall of hydrocarbon 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:26.259 energy. Anyway, this is all in the service of 00:02:26.259 --> 00:02:28.520 a book that I'm not exactly writing just yet, 00:02:28.580 --> 00:02:31.000 more just sort of brainstorming, but it is a 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.939 follow -up to my 2010 book, Conversations on 00:02:33.939 --> 00:02:36.620 Collapse, and this book, the working title is 00:02:36.620 --> 00:02:40.419 Getting Over Collapse. So if you are monitoring 00:02:40.419 --> 00:02:44.400 this RSS feed, you are likely to get occasional, 00:02:44.620 --> 00:02:47.520 at least, updates on the progress of that book 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:50.379 and have some notion as to how my thoughts came 00:02:50.379 --> 00:02:53.979 together. Anyway, here is my 2020 conversation 00:02:53.979 --> 00:03:05.560 with Michael Bednorik. If you speak the truth, 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:32.120 have a foot in the stirrup. Hello, and welcome 00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:34.020 to another installment of the Sea Realm Podcast. 00:03:34.500 --> 00:03:37.240 I am your host, KMO, and this is episode number 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:42.759 555. It's complicated. With guest Brent Bednarik. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:45.139 Prepared for release onto the World Wide Web 00:03:45.139 --> 00:03:51.400 on Thursday, April 9th, 2020. Or 2020. Anyway, 00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:53.300 this conversation that you're about to hear is 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:55.840 not a whole conversation. It's the first half 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:58.919 of a conversation. Maybe a little more. With 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:01.189 Brent Bednarik. Bednarik, who has been a guest 00:04:01.189 --> 00:04:03.810 on the Kunstler cast and who contacted me via 00:04:03.810 --> 00:04:07.050 email after my last podcast, which featured James 00:04:07.050 --> 00:04:10.509 Howard Kunstler. Like me, he's somebody who used 00:04:10.509 --> 00:04:12.729 to really subscribe to the peak oil worldview 00:04:12.729 --> 00:04:16.949 and now hasn't divorced it, but is not so convinced. 00:04:17.670 --> 00:04:20.250 Although he's still more in that camp than I 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:24.120 am. I won't say a whole lot here at the beginning 00:04:24.120 --> 00:04:26.180 of the podcast. I have received a lot of great 00:04:26.180 --> 00:04:28.839 feedback since the last podcast. I can't share 00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:31.180 it all with you in this episode, but Sea Realm 00:04:31.180 --> 00:04:33.720 Vault subscribers will get quite a dose of it 00:04:33.720 --> 00:04:36.959 in the next episode. All right, here is my conversation 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:41.079 with Brent Bednarik. You're listening to the 00:04:41.079 --> 00:04:44.339 Sea Realm Podcast. Sea stands for consciousness. 00:04:45.610 --> 00:04:48.490 All righty. Hey, I'm here with Brent Bednarik, 00:04:48.589 --> 00:04:50.850 and this is the second time we've spoken, although 00:04:50.850 --> 00:04:53.029 the first time was like half an hour ago, and 00:04:53.029 --> 00:04:58.529 it was maybe three minutes. We have James Howard 00:04:58.529 --> 00:05:04.829 Kunstler in common. Yeah, I was on his podcast 00:05:04.829 --> 00:05:08.250 last year. I've been following both him and you 00:05:08.250 --> 00:05:12.310 for a while, and I consider Jim a friend as well. 00:05:12.370 --> 00:05:16.160 So, yeah, some common lineage, I think. Very 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:19.939 good. So you're familiar with the C -Realm podcast 00:05:19.939 --> 00:05:22.660 beyond just the crossover with James Howard Gunsler. 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:26.519 Yes. You know, I really don't know how long I've 00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:30.000 been listening to you. Probably about six or 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:36.430 seven years and kind of. going into what we're 00:05:36.430 --> 00:05:39.850 going to talk about i listened to you and jim 00:05:39.850 --> 00:05:43.350 and chris martinson and just a plethora of all 00:05:43.350 --> 00:05:45.610 the same names that probably everyone's listened 00:05:45.610 --> 00:05:49.550 to uh religiously just whatever i was pissed 00:05:49.550 --> 00:05:51.149 that y 'all wouldn't come out with more content 00:05:51.149 --> 00:05:54.750 right because i'm waiting for it and and then 00:05:54.750 --> 00:05:56.829 about i don't know maybe three years ago four 00:05:56.829 --> 00:06:01.310 years ago uh i just i stopped cold turkey and 00:06:01.310 --> 00:06:03.649 i just for a couple years i didn't do listen 00:06:03.649 --> 00:06:08.040 to anyone go search y 'all out And then I recently 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:10.879 started listening to you again, and I heard how 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:15.000 you've changed your stance. And I was like, okay, 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:17.379 I've had my own journey with a lot of similar 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:23.399 check marks, if that makes any sense. Who was 00:06:23.399 --> 00:06:25.600 it that said, when the facts change, I change 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:29.439 my mind? What do you do, sir? Oh, no, I don't 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:32.800 know who did say that. Somebody can look it up. 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:38.899 Not me, not right now. um yeah yeah i mean do 00:06:38.899 --> 00:06:40.459 you want to just jump into you want to just jump 00:06:40.459 --> 00:06:43.259 into the topic of why don't you uh paraphrase 00:06:43.259 --> 00:06:46.279 the the email that you sent to just get this 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:49.639 this correspondence started sure yeah okay so 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:54.759 i listened to you and jim talk and you and it 00:06:54.759 --> 00:06:58.459 was my interpretation was that you have just 00:06:58.459 --> 00:07:01.439 completely exited the doomers doomer side of 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:04.339 things you just don't think it's possible um 00:07:07.160 --> 00:07:09.019 I'm going to say upset or whatever the word you 00:07:09.019 --> 00:07:11.839 want to use is that the last 10 years of your 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:14.839 life might have been negatively influenced by 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:18.360 this mentality. And Jim is still on the mind 00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:21.259 of the long emergency still going on, especially 00:07:21.259 --> 00:07:24.399 with everything that's going on now. This is 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:28.120 the collapse. And it was just, y 'all are going 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:32.930 to bet to see who won. Is that about right? Check 00:07:32.930 --> 00:07:35.949 in in one year, exactly. He said that the Dow 00:07:35.949 --> 00:07:38.029 Jones would be down around 5 ,000. I said it 00:07:38.029 --> 00:07:42.350 would be above 20. So we'll see. We'll see. Now, 00:07:42.430 --> 00:07:44.310 I don't think that the collapse of industrial 00:07:44.310 --> 00:07:48.589 civilization is impossible. I agree with John 00:07:48.589 --> 00:07:50.970 Michael Greer that it is a process that will 00:07:50.970 --> 00:07:53.610 play out over centuries, and a lot can happen 00:07:53.610 --> 00:07:58.069 between now and the new medieval dark age. I 00:07:58.069 --> 00:08:00.720 don't think we're going back to… you know i don't 00:08:00.720 --> 00:08:03.060 think we're going medieval as as jim likes to 00:08:03.060 --> 00:08:07.980 say just you know we know too much i mean so 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:11.000 much of uh what we think of as you know the medieval 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:15.199 european social structure was a product of the 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:17.660 very limited knowledge that you know folks had 00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:21.779 on a wide swath of topics so i don't think we're 00:08:21.779 --> 00:08:24.519 going back there now what we're going to is going 00:08:24.519 --> 00:08:29.209 to be complicated weird messy scary, and more 00:08:29.209 --> 00:08:33.009 difficult to visualize than simply a return to, 00:08:33.049 --> 00:08:36.090 say, the 1400s. I think that's a major advantage 00:08:36.090 --> 00:08:39.049 that worldview has, is it's very easy to see 00:08:39.049 --> 00:08:42.710 it in your mind's eye. Yeah. See, I'm on the 00:08:42.710 --> 00:08:45.009 same line as you now. It's going to be emergent. 00:08:45.370 --> 00:08:49.149 What that is, I don't know. I just kind of look 00:08:49.149 --> 00:08:53.289 at it as math now. What are the probability that 00:08:53.289 --> 00:08:56.110 we go back to the 14th century? I mean, there's 00:08:56.110 --> 00:08:59.320 a number. What that is is just what we decide. 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:03.340 But it's higher than zero. Yeah. But maybe not 00:09:03.340 --> 00:09:07.620 much higher. Yeah, who knows? Maybe not, right? 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:10.259 But we can all come up with all these different 00:09:10.259 --> 00:09:13.080 ideas of what it's going to be. But let's just 00:09:13.080 --> 00:09:17.419 talk about kind of two things. One, this idea 00:09:17.419 --> 00:09:22.460 of emergency. Well, let's not talk about what 00:09:22.460 --> 00:09:23.779 it's going to be. Let's just talk about what 00:09:23.779 --> 00:09:27.500 it has, the process in history. In history, it 00:09:27.500 --> 00:09:34.159 kind of shows that it's chaotic, painful, right? 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:40.500 Last a long time, can last a long time, right? 00:09:40.700 --> 00:09:46.659 And yeah, do I think that our technology is just 00:09:46.659 --> 00:09:49.299 going to poof and go away and never be used again? 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:55.590 No, I don't. But I think more of in time. I think 00:09:55.590 --> 00:09:58.850 more of in time of like, okay, today we're going 00:09:58.850 --> 00:10:00.970 to go through a trough. Now, how deep is that 00:10:00.970 --> 00:10:04.049 trough and how long does that trough last? And 00:10:04.049 --> 00:10:06.870 that's where, so now let's go to the second thing, 00:10:06.990 --> 00:10:09.490 which is just our mindsets. And I think this 00:10:09.490 --> 00:10:14.330 is for the last 10 years, this mindset of, oh, 00:10:14.389 --> 00:10:16.730 this is going to happen for sure. It's right 00:10:16.730 --> 00:10:20.250 around the corner and whatever, whatever theme 00:10:20.250 --> 00:10:23.100 you particularly enjoy thinking about it. whether 00:10:23.100 --> 00:10:27.240 it was zombies. My particular brand was one, 00:10:27.500 --> 00:10:31.779 a financial collapse or two, an EMP. I thought 00:10:31.779 --> 00:10:35.259 it was not only from the Russians or whoever, 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:39.379 but just from a solar flare. I was like, these 00:10:39.379 --> 00:10:41.100 I think are actually probable. So that's where 00:10:41.100 --> 00:10:44.059 my Doomer mentality came from. And then that 00:10:44.059 --> 00:10:47.159 Doomer mentality, man, what did it do to my life, 00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:50.360 both good and bad? And that's what I emailed 00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:54.399 you the other day where it was. I, my sense of 00:10:54.399 --> 00:10:59.039 you is, well, in my, it's really just my sense, 00:10:59.179 --> 00:11:01.139 you know, cause I'm, I'm just projecting what 00:11:01.139 --> 00:11:05.700 I feel onto you. And that is you lost 10 years, 00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:10.419 you know, the most blunt way to put it, because 00:11:10.419 --> 00:11:12.820 I feel like I, there was, there's definitely 00:11:12.820 --> 00:11:15.600 a time that I felt like I lost 10 years of my 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:18.279 life with the mentality of being a doomer and 00:11:18.279 --> 00:11:22.740 not, Hey, this system's great. puppy dogs and 00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:27.340 ice cream keep that corporate job get that picket 00:11:27.340 --> 00:11:30.120 white fence the 401k and i'm going to have the 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:32.039 same life that my mother and my father and my 00:11:32.039 --> 00:11:35.279 grandparents had and i never i never thought 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:37.720 that that was a possibility so i made a lot of 00:11:37.720 --> 00:11:41.679 decisions in my life that let that where i think 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:43.820 you and i are on the same page of a possible 00:11:43.820 --> 00:11:47.490 wasting of 10 years is that right Well, you know, 00:11:47.490 --> 00:11:50.049 those 10 years happened and experiences accumulated 00:11:50.049 --> 00:11:52.309 and I made contacts and, you know, it wasn't 00:11:52.309 --> 00:11:54.889 entirely wasted. But for me, the tragedy of my 00:11:54.889 --> 00:11:58.009 doomer phase was that it came at exactly the 00:11:58.009 --> 00:12:01.750 wrong time. It made me seem absolutely insane 00:12:01.750 --> 00:12:04.210 to my now ex -wife. And I basically didn't get 00:12:04.210 --> 00:12:05.850 to live with my kids as they were growing up. 00:12:05.889 --> 00:12:09.889 That's what it cost me. That's a big cost. Yeah. 00:12:11.190 --> 00:12:14.570 Yeah. Career and financial stuff, I've always 00:12:14.570 --> 00:12:17.230 been kind of a career suicide guy anyway. You 00:12:17.230 --> 00:12:18.950 know, give me a good corporate job and I will 00:12:18.950 --> 00:12:22.350 burn out very quickly and quit in a huff. Very 00:12:22.350 --> 00:12:24.710 quickly means two years. That's about my usual 00:12:24.710 --> 00:12:28.970 span. Hey, if we're not the same, we rhyme. So, 00:12:28.970 --> 00:12:35.889 yeah. And I wonder if that Doomer mentality magnified 00:12:35.889 --> 00:12:42.429 that. Right? a deep -seated anti -authoritarian 00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:48.470 streak probably genetic and that puts me in a 00:12:48.470 --> 00:12:50.269 bad position you know with regard to employers 00:12:50.269 --> 00:12:53.909 hey all we've all we've revealed about you so 00:12:53.909 --> 00:12:55.750 far is that you know who i am and you know who 00:12:55.750 --> 00:12:57.629 jim kunzler is and you know who chris martinson 00:12:57.629 --> 00:12:59.950 and probably john michael greer and dimitri orlov 00:12:59.950 --> 00:13:03.620 you know all those names but uh love it Who are 00:13:03.620 --> 00:13:05.879 you and what are you about and how did you get 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:09.100 to what you're doing and what are the salient 00:13:09.100 --> 00:13:14.000 details? Sure. I guess trying to figure out the 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:17.159 starting point is always tough for me. But I 00:13:17.159 --> 00:13:21.139 think my best thing is when I got into the military. 00:13:21.440 --> 00:13:25.879 I got in at 26 and I became an officer in the 00:13:25.879 --> 00:13:29.259 Army. And why I say that is because when you 00:13:29.259 --> 00:13:32.809 go through officer candidate school, you're eligible 00:13:32.809 --> 00:13:38.490 for a $25 ,000 loan from USAA for like 0 % or 00:13:38.490 --> 00:13:41.990 something incredibly small. So I had a college 00:13:41.990 --> 00:13:44.370 degree. I thought I was a little bit smarter 00:13:44.370 --> 00:13:46.570 than the average Joe. So I took that 25 and I 00:13:46.570 --> 00:13:50.750 put it, I went to a, who was it? Edward Jones. 00:13:51.029 --> 00:13:53.769 And I put $25 ,000 in the market. I took whatever 00:13:53.769 --> 00:14:01.360 advice she gave me. 2007. Right? So I was like, 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:04.360 man, I'll get a little bit of interest. Everyone 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:06.000 seems to be killing this. Everyone's telling 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.539 me to do it. So even if I make 2%, I'll be up 00:14:09.539 --> 00:14:11.659 2 % because I'm paying zero interest on this 00:14:11.659 --> 00:14:16.419 loan. Like, that's all I knew. And I got deployed 00:14:16.419 --> 00:14:20.980 in all of 08. I went to Afghanistan. And I just 00:14:20.980 --> 00:14:25.889 watched that 25 ,000 do this. And then all the 00:14:25.889 --> 00:14:29.690 way down. And I got back to my next duty station 00:14:29.690 --> 00:14:32.049 in the beginning of 09 and it was in Hawaii. 00:14:32.590 --> 00:14:37.029 And it was just house after house after house 00:14:37.029 --> 00:14:39.929 foreclosed on out there. And it was a big problem 00:14:39.929 --> 00:14:43.769 with the military because people would buy homes, 00:14:43.929 --> 00:14:45.370 they'd get transferred three years and they were 00:14:45.370 --> 00:14:47.090 making money. But these mortgages were huge, 00:14:47.330 --> 00:14:51.389 400 ,000, 500 ,000. And all of a sudden the price 00:14:51.389 --> 00:14:53.210 started dropping that these military guys couldn't 00:14:53.210 --> 00:14:55.549 sell their home. and they're sitting there telling 00:14:55.549 --> 00:14:57.549 the army like i'm going to go bankrupt i can't 00:14:57.549 --> 00:15:00.730 leave so what i'm doing is i'm telling you how 00:15:00.730 --> 00:15:05.129 my doomer mentality started coming up so that's 00:15:05.129 --> 00:15:06.789 where it all started i learned everything about 00:15:06.789 --> 00:15:09.809 gold i started investing in precious metals and 00:15:09.809 --> 00:15:12.529 silvers and guns and bullets and all that kind 00:15:12.529 --> 00:15:15.409 of stuff like i was starting to prep and i was 00:15:15.409 --> 00:15:17.090 a military guy so i was prepping in the way that 00:15:17.090 --> 00:15:20.970 i knew how to prep um spent seven years two deployments 00:15:20.970 --> 00:15:27.710 in the military My last tour was 12 -13. I was 00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:32.509 on an SFAT. You were on what? SFAT, Security 00:15:32.509 --> 00:15:36.429 Forces Advise and Assist Team. And what it was, 00:15:36.429 --> 00:15:40.389 was it was us training the Afghans to be a professional 00:15:40.389 --> 00:15:44.309 military. So we were advisors. So me and three 00:15:44.309 --> 00:15:47.149 other guys went out with 30 Afghans every day, 00:15:47.250 --> 00:15:52.330 advising, being our liaison between... the ana 00:15:52.330 --> 00:15:55.950 the um that's the afghan national army the afghan 00:15:55.950 --> 00:15:59.090 border patrol like all different levels of their 00:15:59.090 --> 00:16:02.029 military and police and we were a coordination 00:16:02.029 --> 00:16:08.129 center so i did that and that's just a rough 00:16:08.129 --> 00:16:13.029 job our battalion and brigade commanders they 00:16:13.029 --> 00:16:15.690 wanted to run missions which hey if i was them 00:16:15.690 --> 00:16:18.230 so would i you know the president had this idea 00:16:18.230 --> 00:16:20.629 that we were just going to be advised teams and 00:16:20.629 --> 00:16:24.360 that's No direct action. But if you're a lieutenant 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:26.100 colonel and you want to be a colonel, if you're 00:16:26.100 --> 00:16:28.159 a colonel, if you want to be a general, you got 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:29.840 to kind of make a name for yourself. You got 00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:34.419 to do something. And after that deployment, I 00:16:34.419 --> 00:16:37.220 got home and I was like, you guys are cool, but 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:40.659 you ain't that cool. And I left. I also had this 00:16:40.659 --> 00:16:43.679 fear of financial collapse because I'm watching 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:45.759 what's going on with the banks. I'm watching 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:51.299 what's going on with QE1, QE2, TARP. Clash of 00:16:51.299 --> 00:16:54.899 Clunkers, all these different things. I had the 00:16:54.899 --> 00:16:57.539 Ron Paul mentality at that point, libertarian. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:05.079 Finances to me is kind of simple. I know there's 00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:07.039 a government accounting and everything, but that 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:11.460 was shenanigans. It was shenanigans. And we should 00:17:11.460 --> 00:17:13.579 just call it what it is, shenanigans. And I was 00:17:13.579 --> 00:17:15.220 just like, oh, they're not going to be able to 00:17:15.220 --> 00:17:17.329 do it. We're in the eye of the storm. And I thought 00:17:17.329 --> 00:17:18.910 that Eye of the Storm was going to be two, three 00:17:18.910 --> 00:17:21.430 years. And now this comes back full circle. It 00:17:21.430 --> 00:17:24.049 turned out to be 10. But after I got out of the 00:17:24.049 --> 00:17:26.549 military, I went to work for Ernst Young in New 00:17:26.549 --> 00:17:29.490 York City. I was working for all the major banks 00:17:29.490 --> 00:17:32.930 doing financial services, you know, JP Morgans, 00:17:32.930 --> 00:17:35.390 Morgan Stanley, all that kind of stuff. Did that 00:17:35.390 --> 00:17:40.470 for two years. Just corporate welfare. And I'm 00:17:40.470 --> 00:17:42.049 kind of like you. I kind of just thought and 00:17:42.049 --> 00:17:47.259 I was like, this isn't me. I love the city, but 00:17:47.259 --> 00:17:49.279 it just burnt me out. So I came back home to 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:52.839 Dallas, Texas, went and got my MBA. I've been 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:55.339 doing business consulting, doing my own thing, 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:59.359 and completely out of it. I got into yoga. I 00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:01.700 was a huge yogi. Got out of the Doomer, sold 00:18:01.700 --> 00:18:05.559 all my ARs, went vegan for a while to try to 00:18:05.559 --> 00:18:08.640 heal my stomach. So then I got into all types 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:12.279 of organisms and soil. I became a huge fan of 00:18:12.279 --> 00:18:14.740 just soil and learning about it. That's what 00:18:14.740 --> 00:18:18.839 I'm kind of doing now. But I was doing business 00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:20.720 consulting at Fort Worth, loving my life, making 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:22.960 a decent amount, doing yoga, had a girlfriend, 00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:26.819 and completely out of the mindset until about 00:18:26.819 --> 00:18:29.539 two years ago when I started watching society 00:18:29.539 --> 00:18:33.299 collapse with what I consider this kind of disease 00:18:33.299 --> 00:18:35.380 of the mind with the social justice warrior. 00:18:38.800 --> 00:18:41.819 It pulled me back into the politic realm and 00:18:41.819 --> 00:18:43.559 then through that I started getting I started 00:18:43.559 --> 00:18:45.200 seeing what was going on And now the last three 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:48.339 months man Right back into the doomer lifestyle. 00:18:48.519 --> 00:18:51.319 So You know, that's kind of me right now I've 00:18:51.319 --> 00:18:53.200 got some plans where I'm at in a small town in 00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:55.680 Oklahoma cuz I left Fort Worth I got out of there 00:18:55.680 --> 00:18:57.700 three weeks ago. I'm not gonna be in a major 00:18:57.700 --> 00:18:59.660 city I'm just not it doesn't seem like a good 00:18:59.660 --> 00:19:03.940 idea to be right now, right? So So I'm in Durant 00:19:04.910 --> 00:19:07.569 Talking to my MBA guys in Fort Worth and my army 00:19:07.569 --> 00:19:09.450 buddies all over the country who are working 00:19:09.450 --> 00:19:13.829 at major corporations and Getting ready for that 00:19:13.829 --> 00:19:19.009 emergency that's coming and You know, I just 00:19:19.009 --> 00:19:22.690 think this one's gonna hurt All right, well you 00:19:22.690 --> 00:19:26.430 um, you are starting to toy around with vlogging 00:19:26.430 --> 00:19:31.960 as well. So I was watching a nearly an hour long 00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:36.279 sort of unscripted ramble. And something that 00:19:36.279 --> 00:19:38.319 you said in it, you know, repeatedly was that 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:41.400 right now everything is in play. Stuff that wasn't 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:44.039 possible a year ago and won't be possible a year 00:19:44.039 --> 00:19:47.180 from now is possible right now. And, you know, 00:19:47.220 --> 00:19:49.180 that's me elaborating on what you said. What 00:19:49.180 --> 00:19:51.200 you said is everything is in play. So let me 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:55.859 let you elaborate on that. Yeah. That kind of 00:19:55.859 --> 00:19:57.839 stream of consciousness video I put out there 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:02.009 for family and friends. Yeah, I just got to the 00:20:02.009 --> 00:20:06.509 conclusion. I fast forwarded, you know, three 00:20:06.509 --> 00:20:08.490 weeks ago when the whole supply chain things 00:20:08.490 --> 00:20:12.250 really started coming out and the disease, you 00:20:12.250 --> 00:20:15.589 started to see what was coming. I extrapolated 00:20:15.589 --> 00:20:21.210 a couple years. And what I see is what I consider 00:20:21.210 --> 00:20:25.049 the world is in play on an economic front, on 00:20:25.049 --> 00:20:29.509 a societal front, on a geopolitical front. And 00:20:29.509 --> 00:20:32.630 what I say is not only has the United States 00:20:32.630 --> 00:20:35.369 never been more vulnerable, the world has never 00:20:35.369 --> 00:20:40.609 been more vulnerable. And why I say that is it 00:20:40.609 --> 00:20:46.690 seems to me in history when debt gets too big 00:20:46.690 --> 00:20:48.869 or really not even debt, let's just say when 00:20:48.869 --> 00:20:51.809 resources start getting restrained from big countries, 00:20:51.930 --> 00:20:57.390 a leader has one of two options. One, they, you 00:20:57.390 --> 00:20:59.539 know, they... take responsibility and they try 00:20:59.539 --> 00:21:05.559 to dig themselves out or two they blame they 00:21:05.559 --> 00:21:10.819 refocus people's anger onto an enemy and they 00:21:10.819 --> 00:21:13.440 go and have a war for resources and into the 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:15.720 victor goes the spoil debts get erased for the 00:21:15.720 --> 00:21:19.700 winner just kind of what happened for us in world 00:21:19.700 --> 00:21:21.900 war ii you know we weren't in a good spot after 00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:24.559 the depression it lasted 15 years and a lot of 00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:28.279 people say that the economics economy of the 00:21:28.279 --> 00:21:29.779 united states got better because of world war 00:21:29.779 --> 00:21:32.980 ii that's partially right the economy of the 00:21:32.980 --> 00:21:35.319 united states got better because of world war 00:21:35.319 --> 00:21:39.720 ii and we won it and we got to remember that 00:21:39.720 --> 00:21:44.619 so what what's in play right now every major 00:21:44.619 --> 00:21:48.259 country with a major military has options and 00:21:48.259 --> 00:21:50.460 they've all got their own versions of henry kissinger's 00:21:50.460 --> 00:21:52.380 they probably have 10 of them and they're looking 00:21:52.380 --> 00:21:55.579 at the chessboard so my girlfriend's from italy 00:21:56.219 --> 00:21:58.599 And her family's in a small town. They're doing 00:21:58.599 --> 00:22:00.579 fine, right? They got their own garden. They 00:22:00.579 --> 00:22:02.519 got a place on the countryside. It's great. Her 00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:04.599 brother's in Rome. Her brother's locked down. 00:22:04.960 --> 00:22:07.500 He can't get to the country. He'd love to be 00:22:07.500 --> 00:22:11.559 able to. He waited too long. All right. The European 00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:14.240 Union is in a lot of trouble, I think. I mean, 00:22:14.259 --> 00:22:16.700 I think we can look at the Thiles and go, they're 00:22:16.700 --> 00:22:18.400 going to have some struggles. They've closed 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:21.640 down the borders between them, each other. Italy 00:22:21.640 --> 00:22:24.559 is remembering this, right? France did the same 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:28.019 thing. Everyone eats for themselves. Well, they 00:22:28.019 --> 00:22:31.539 don't have a unified military. Well, if I'm Russia, 00:22:31.740 --> 00:22:35.160 maybe I've got a neighbor right there that has 00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:38.180 potentially a lot of wealth that I can scoop 00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:40.140 in and get them pretty quickly with not much 00:22:40.140 --> 00:22:43.380 effort. I mean, the Germans don't have a standing 00:22:43.380 --> 00:22:46.299 army. The UK might a little bit. What does the 00:22:46.299 --> 00:22:49.759 EU have? In America, we might be able to go help, 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:52.660 but we got our own problems right now. The world 00:22:52.660 --> 00:22:55.220 has never been more vulnerable. Maybe we do a 00:22:55.220 --> 00:22:58.559 preemptive strike and make Europe a colony of 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:00.920 us just to protect them. That sounds incredibly 00:23:00.920 --> 00:23:03.460 crazy. I told that to my Italian girlfriend. 00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:05.140 She's like, I'd rather be a colony of the United 00:23:05.140 --> 00:23:08.059 States than of Russia. And that's her immediate 00:23:08.059 --> 00:23:13.880 response. And I can hear the warm war drums from 00:23:13.880 --> 00:23:18.039 our side. Go read the comments of people. You're 00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:21.559 starting to hear China over and over again. Whose 00:23:21.559 --> 00:23:25.450 fault is this? China's. Right. You're starting 00:23:25.450 --> 00:23:29.089 to hear the newscasters blaming China a little 00:23:29.089 --> 00:23:32.950 bit more each day. And all that is to me is in 00:23:32.950 --> 00:23:38.369 the background, those war drums. And I mean, 00:23:38.430 --> 00:23:41.769 I'm kind of a follower of Jordan Peterson. Right. 00:23:41.829 --> 00:23:44.410 I kind of like that idea of responsibility. But 00:23:44.410 --> 00:23:46.650 what helped me understand this world was when 00:23:46.650 --> 00:23:51.210 he talked about IQs and there's actually a uniform 00:23:51.210 --> 00:23:53.900 distribution. what that means mathematically 00:23:53.900 --> 00:23:56.339 and you understand what people's cognitive levels 00:23:56.339 --> 00:23:59.099 are and you understand that some of these high 00:23:59.099 --> 00:24:02.559 concepts have to get filtered over and over and 00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:04.660 it's got to be dumbed down but not really and 00:24:04.660 --> 00:24:06.480 i'm not saying that as an insulting way but it 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:09.019 just has to get consumable and when the mass 00:24:09.019 --> 00:24:13.779 of people just the crowd the zombies the herd 00:24:13.779 --> 00:24:17.299 whatever when the mass of people go well this 00:24:17.299 --> 00:24:19.960 is china's fault that i'm hungry that i don't 00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:22.509 get my stuff from walmart that life has become 00:24:22.509 --> 00:24:27.950 more difficult, right? Well, we got 12 carriers. 00:24:30.009 --> 00:24:32.670 We got lots of dudes in uniforms with lots of 00:24:32.670 --> 00:24:35.450 guns. And I'm not even saying we're wrong to 00:24:35.450 --> 00:24:39.049 do it, but that's what I can see happening. And 00:24:39.049 --> 00:24:42.130 anything is possible. You and Jim were talking 00:24:42.130 --> 00:24:45.509 about the Dow being 5 ,000 or 20 ,000 in a year. 00:24:45.609 --> 00:24:49.470 I say, look at a map today and then look at a 00:24:49.470 --> 00:24:52.609 map in a year. I would put a lot of money that 00:24:52.609 --> 00:24:55.730 something's going to change. I was watching the 00:24:55.730 --> 00:24:59.769 news last night in Hungary. He just got that 00:24:59.769 --> 00:25:01.789 he has unlimited power for as long as he wants, 00:25:01.910 --> 00:25:04.970 dictatorship for the coronavirus. I mean, hey, 00:25:05.029 --> 00:25:08.170 maybe he's legit about that, but power corrupts, 00:25:08.170 --> 00:25:12.369 right? And if they get pissed, there's some country, 00:25:12.430 --> 00:25:15.150 I would guess, around him that he can go get 00:25:15.150 --> 00:25:18.890 pretty quick. And now, you hear what I'm saying? 00:25:19.069 --> 00:25:21.779 So much can change. You're talking about the 00:25:21.779 --> 00:25:26.099 Dow. I'm talking about the map. Yeah, my suspicion 00:25:26.099 --> 00:25:28.180 is the map won't change that much in the next 00:25:28.180 --> 00:25:31.579 year. I think over the next 10, 15, 20 years, 00:25:31.700 --> 00:25:34.660 I think there's a more than negligible chance 00:25:34.660 --> 00:25:36.680 that China is going to break up into a few different 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:39.299 regional powers because they don't have the geographical 00:25:39.299 --> 00:25:42.440 advantages that the United States has. They're 00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:44.539 basically a bunch of little island nations inside 00:25:44.539 --> 00:25:47.849 of this. really mountainous area they don't have 00:25:47.849 --> 00:25:50.309 good you know overland transportation between 00:25:50.309 --> 00:25:51.869 the different areas they're really prosperous 00:25:51.869 --> 00:25:54.289 cities are down on their southern coast pretty 00:25:54.289 --> 00:25:57.410 far from you know the capital the political and 00:25:57.410 --> 00:25:59.829 military capital they are dependent on energy 00:25:59.829 --> 00:26:02.329 resources from their far west that is next to 00:26:02.329 --> 00:26:04.910 all the stands you know uzbekistan kazakhstan 00:26:04.910 --> 00:26:08.759 all you know all the afghanistan And they have 00:26:08.759 --> 00:26:11.480 their own internal Muslim population that they 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:13.500 are really brutally repressing. So they're not 00:26:13.500 --> 00:26:15.539 making a lot of friends over in the stands, although 00:26:15.539 --> 00:26:17.839 they do have some sort of pragmatic, you know, 00:26:17.839 --> 00:26:19.799 of the moment business partners. But I think 00:26:19.799 --> 00:26:23.000 China's facing some problems that the United 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.759 States doesn't have. The United States isn't 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:27.859 even close to facing the problems that China 00:26:27.859 --> 00:26:31.099 has. I don't see any reason or advantage for 00:26:31.099 --> 00:26:33.779 the U .S. military to invade China or to attack 00:26:33.779 --> 00:26:37.019 them, bomb them, send nuclear missiles. I think 00:26:37.019 --> 00:26:39.180 the best thing to do is going to pull back to 00:26:39.180 --> 00:26:41.779 our Pacific allies, which are all in this chain 00:26:41.779 --> 00:26:44.440 of islands around outside of China, and just 00:26:44.440 --> 00:26:46.759 sit back and watch China sort of disintegrate 00:26:46.759 --> 00:26:49.099 and flail. And then if they get desperate and 00:26:49.099 --> 00:26:52.400 they try for a military solution, as you say, 00:26:52.460 --> 00:26:56.079 the U .S. Navy is bigger than the rest of the 00:26:56.079 --> 00:26:58.480 world put together. there is no challenging the 00:26:58.480 --> 00:27:01.099 u .s navy even with their supersonic you know 00:27:01.099 --> 00:27:05.079 carrier busting cruise missiles yeah and hey 00:27:05.079 --> 00:27:07.059 i'm with you you know you said i said one year 00:27:07.059 --> 00:27:09.119 you said ten like i don't really mean one year 00:27:09.119 --> 00:27:12.980 this stuff like uh greer talks about it happens 00:27:12.980 --> 00:27:15.799 over a longer period of time right it's not a 00:27:15.799 --> 00:27:18.099 it's not a movie so i'm with you on that and 00:27:18.099 --> 00:27:20.680 you know what you were telling me about china 00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:24.200 and everything you just said i all i hear is 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:27.839 it's complex And what do we know about complexity 00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:29.960 theory? Well, there's just that many more things 00:27:29.960 --> 00:27:32.480 where it can break. And then what's going to 00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:35.799 be, you know, what's going to be the one? Right 00:27:35.799 --> 00:27:39.420 now with the global supply chain as it is, I 00:27:39.420 --> 00:27:45.640 mean, this is how I see it. Okay. When I talk 00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:47.880 to business owners, I go, you know, what is a, 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:50.880 you got a business and it's a circle and half 00:27:50.880 --> 00:27:52.819 of it is whatever your service or product is. 00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:55.589 The other half is running your business. right 00:27:55.589 --> 00:27:59.349 so what is that other side of the coin well it's 00:27:59.349 --> 00:28:02.009 keeping 16 plates all spinning at the same time 00:28:02.009 --> 00:28:05.789 and it's an artful right all right so you get 00:28:05.789 --> 00:28:07.509 that going you got all those plates spinning 00:28:07.509 --> 00:28:10.630 now extrapolate that to all the companies all 00:28:10.630 --> 00:28:12.970 over and how they're all intertwined with the 00:28:12.970 --> 00:28:17.390 oil shock with what that did i think it was just 00:28:17.390 --> 00:28:21.490 it poked that global supply chain and i just 00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:23.799 it's easy for me to say we don't have the resulting 00:28:23.799 --> 00:28:27.579 resiliency built in we just don't have the resiliency 00:28:27.579 --> 00:28:32.099 put in and we've got it to the razor edge of 00:28:32.099 --> 00:28:34.599 profitability just in time all these different 00:28:34.599 --> 00:28:38.519 things even if our economy was good there's no 00:28:38.519 --> 00:28:41.359 escaping this that virus shutting everything 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:45.359 down it just knocked it all over so i mean it's 00:28:45.359 --> 00:28:50.880 just complex we just have complex uh structure 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:52.859 after complex structure after complex structure 00:28:52.859 --> 00:28:56.460 structure and it's just it's a bullwhip and it's 00:28:56.460 --> 00:28:59.140 just going all the way through it and it's just 00:28:59.140 --> 00:29:01.619 going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and 00:29:01.619 --> 00:29:03.279 i think and i mean i and i think that sounds 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:06.299 reasonable and i think we can i think there's 00:29:06.299 --> 00:29:08.200 evidence every night on the news that this is 00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:14.079 what's going to be happening right also and now 00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:15.599 that i think i think i just went on a rant for 00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:17.759 nothing so no that's all right well i was going 00:29:17.759 --> 00:29:22.480 to say um One unfortunate, I mean, even when 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:24.579 I was deep into the peak oil scene, there's good 00:29:24.579 --> 00:29:27.140 information to be gleaned there. You know, there's 00:29:27.140 --> 00:29:30.420 some rock solid thinking that a lot of people, 00:29:30.579 --> 00:29:33.140 you know, the world would be better off if more 00:29:33.140 --> 00:29:35.039 people understood the concept of energy returned 00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:41.160 on energy invested. Yep. But unfortunately, a 00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:44.140 guy named Joseph Tainter made a name in the peak 00:29:44.140 --> 00:29:46.890 oil scene. with his book, The Collapse of Complex 00:29:46.890 --> 00:29:49.609 Societies or Complex Civilizations. And he's 00:29:49.609 --> 00:29:51.710 the one who really introduced the concept into 00:29:51.710 --> 00:29:53.890 the peak oil conversation that the more complexity 00:29:53.890 --> 00:29:57.430 you layer into a system, the more breaking points 00:29:57.430 --> 00:30:00.910 it has and the more expensive it is to maintain 00:30:00.910 --> 00:30:04.089 those higher levels of organization. There's 00:30:04.089 --> 00:30:07.789 some truth to that, but really the thing you 00:30:07.789 --> 00:30:09.970 should understand when it comes to complex systems 00:30:09.970 --> 00:30:12.349 is the more complex and interconnected a system 00:30:12.349 --> 00:30:15.980 is, the more you get. seemingly nonlinear behavior 00:30:15.980 --> 00:30:20.559 and counterintuitive outputs. Complex systems 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:25.220 don't crash catastrophically because they don't 00:30:25.220 --> 00:30:27.539 tend to be brittle. It is simple brittle systems 00:30:27.539 --> 00:30:30.440 that are either working or they're failed. The 00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:32.799 more complex a system is, the more potential 00:30:32.799 --> 00:30:36.250 states it has. And when it does fail, it tends 00:30:36.250 --> 00:30:38.829 to fail in weird ways, but it doesn't crash all 00:30:38.829 --> 00:30:40.890 the way to the bottom level of potential complexity. 00:30:41.130 --> 00:30:44.769 It collapses down to what is sustainable, which 00:30:44.769 --> 00:30:47.670 might not be that much of a drop, which is why 00:30:47.670 --> 00:30:50.829 John Michael Weir is talking about the cascading 00:30:50.829 --> 00:30:53.630 sort of catabolic collapse that takes place over 00:30:53.630 --> 00:30:56.970 these many stair -step episodes over a long period 00:30:56.970 --> 00:30:59.809 of time. That makes sense to me because every 00:30:59.809 --> 00:31:03.079 time there is a new shock, which knocks out some 00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:05.039 of the supports in this structure it is a very 00:31:05.039 --> 00:31:08.019 complex structure it's going to collapse into 00:31:08.019 --> 00:31:11.319 a shape that almost nobody anticipated and it's 00:31:11.319 --> 00:31:12.880 not going to be a total collapse and there is 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:14.500 going to be the opportunity to start to rebuild 00:31:14.500 --> 00:31:16.900 and in some ways you know things really will 00:31:16.900 --> 00:31:18.720 be hitting new highs they'll be working better 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.960 than ever in some ways one thing i really appreciate 00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:25.019 i mean i'm always looking for the silver lining 00:31:25.019 --> 00:31:28.799 in our current situation uh the obvious one is 00:31:28.799 --> 00:31:31.940 we are going to realize You know, that the more 00:31:31.940 --> 00:31:34.400 efficient you make a just -in -time delivery 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:37.980 system, the more, you know, the more sacrifice 00:31:37.980 --> 00:31:40.099 you make in terms of the resiliency of the system. 00:31:40.380 --> 00:31:42.680 So hopefully we're going to try to, you know, 00:31:42.680 --> 00:31:46.240 source more, build more, get our resources locally 00:31:46.240 --> 00:31:48.519 here on the continent. And what a wealth of natural 00:31:48.519 --> 00:31:50.839 resources we have in the North American continent. 00:31:50.920 --> 00:31:53.779 We are better positioned to do that than just 00:31:53.779 --> 00:31:55.640 about anybody. It's just, you know, we're going 00:31:55.640 --> 00:31:59.200 to have to sacrifice some profits from... people 00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:01.859 who can afford to make that sacrifice you know 00:32:01.859 --> 00:32:06.339 point blank the people who are who just got trillions 00:32:06.339 --> 00:32:09.319 of dollars handed to them as the opening gesture 00:32:09.319 --> 00:32:12.059 in hey can we do something to help workers i 00:32:12.059 --> 00:32:13.759 mean they didn't need the money but those are 00:32:13.759 --> 00:32:15.339 the folks that are going to have to take a haircut 00:32:15.339 --> 00:32:19.079 in order to bring manufacturing bring raw resource 00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:22.539 production back to this country and that has 00:32:22.539 --> 00:32:25.640 to be done so that's that's wish number one and 00:32:25.640 --> 00:32:28.579 that's sort of the obvious one But I'm also hoping 00:32:28.579 --> 00:32:31.980 that the longer this lockdown goes on, the more 00:32:31.980 --> 00:32:35.079 obvious it becomes that it isn't really required 00:32:35.079 --> 00:32:37.819 that everybody be doing everything they can to 00:32:37.819 --> 00:32:40.140 generate economic activity so that they can make 00:32:40.140 --> 00:32:42.640 money, so that they can buy food and pay the 00:32:42.640 --> 00:32:46.059 rent. It's pretty clear that it takes a tiny 00:32:46.059 --> 00:32:49.450 fraction. of the total potential working population 00:32:49.450 --> 00:32:52.329 to supply all of us with our basic needs. I mean, 00:32:52.349 --> 00:32:54.650 the more automation progresses, the more we're 00:32:54.650 --> 00:32:56.990 going to have to come to grips with that reality. 00:32:57.309 --> 00:33:00.170 But this virus is showing it to us right now. 00:33:00.329 --> 00:33:02.509 We don't need automated burger flipping robots 00:33:02.509 --> 00:33:06.390 to demonstrate to us that it doesn't take that 00:33:06.390 --> 00:33:09.230 many people to feed all of us. And the fact that 00:33:09.230 --> 00:33:12.190 all of us need money to pay rent and to maintain 00:33:12.190 --> 00:33:14.750 our credit ratings and to buy various things. 00:33:15.650 --> 00:33:18.829 It's just not necessary that we're all be scurrying 00:33:18.829 --> 00:33:22.269 around like hamsters on a wheel all the time 00:33:22.269 --> 00:33:25.309 trying to make as much money as possible. We 00:33:25.309 --> 00:33:28.210 would be better off, a lot of us, putzing around 00:33:28.210 --> 00:33:31.769 in our garden, learning about soil, studying 00:33:31.769 --> 00:33:34.690 things, playing chess. I mean, there's a lot 00:33:34.690 --> 00:33:38.890 better uses for a human mind than being on a 00:33:38.890 --> 00:33:40.930 phone all day harassing people trying to collect 00:33:40.930 --> 00:33:44.299 debts. There's a lot of economic activity that 00:33:44.299 --> 00:33:46.819 we would be better off if it just went away. 00:33:48.099 --> 00:33:53.240 Yeah, I hear you. I don't disagree in theory 00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:56.160 on a lot of that stuff. But also, I've kind of, 00:33:56.180 --> 00:33:58.299 I don't know, I think it's my age. I had some 00:33:58.299 --> 00:34:01.259 health problems a few years ago. I don't know. 00:34:01.319 --> 00:34:03.140 I don't know if there's a right way or a wrong 00:34:03.140 --> 00:34:05.180 way with all this stuff. What you're talking 00:34:05.180 --> 00:34:08.420 about, I agree with you. A lot of it's annoying. 00:34:09.219 --> 00:34:15.699 I don't know. I don't agree that it takes so 00:34:15.699 --> 00:34:18.900 few of us to do this thing. And I think only 00:34:18.900 --> 00:34:21.000 time will tell on that. I think that we're stressing 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:25.059 it out. But on the automation and then on the 00:34:25.059 --> 00:34:29.079 people who didn't need the money were the first 00:34:29.079 --> 00:34:31.659 ones who got a lot of it. Listen, I listened 00:34:31.659 --> 00:34:35.079 to you and Jim, and I'm in complete agreement 00:34:35.079 --> 00:34:37.280 with you. Complete agreement with you. If this 00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:38.840 reset happens, it's not going to make everyone 00:34:38.840 --> 00:34:41.389 swear. the rich are going to get rich and the 00:34:41.389 --> 00:34:43.969 poor are going to suffer it's like to accelerate 00:34:43.969 --> 00:34:46.150 the process that was already underway has been 00:34:46.150 --> 00:34:50.050 for a long time absolutely okay but i take a 00:34:50.050 --> 00:34:52.170 step back from that and i take a step back from 00:34:52.170 --> 00:34:54.010 that and just think i'm a science teacher and 00:34:54.010 --> 00:34:56.949 remember those stories they said where when you 00:34:56.949 --> 00:35:00.030 have a ton of rabbits the hawks eat all the rabbits 00:35:00.030 --> 00:35:02.630 and reproduce until they get to be such a big 00:35:02.630 --> 00:35:04.309 number there's no more rabbits anymore then they 00:35:04.309 --> 00:35:06.090 have to die out and the rabbits come back and 00:35:06.090 --> 00:35:08.869 it's always this kind of balance i just think 00:35:09.150 --> 00:35:14.349 the human colony tip past its keys i just think 00:35:14.349 --> 00:35:18.090 we we worldwide we got too big it was a hell 00:35:18.090 --> 00:35:21.150 of a thing we did i mean going down the highway 00:35:21.150 --> 00:35:24.030 in a honda going 80 miles an hour looking at 00:35:24.030 --> 00:35:28.030 a bmw from germany and some other car from london 00:35:28.030 --> 00:35:31.150 and me and this japanese car just racing down 00:35:31.150 --> 00:35:35.070 that was amazing what we did it's amazing i'm 00:35:35.070 --> 00:35:37.170 like i'm impressed even with all the pollution 00:35:37.170 --> 00:35:39.539 and even with all the just the silliness that 00:35:39.539 --> 00:35:41.760 we as humans are you're right complex systems 00:35:41.760 --> 00:35:46.599 are what we're good at um i just think we we 00:35:46.599 --> 00:35:49.139 just went a little too far and then this thing 00:35:49.139 --> 00:35:53.599 happened right and even if the economy was good 00:35:53.599 --> 00:35:55.280 because the people are blaming the bad economy 00:35:55.280 --> 00:35:58.599 even if like there was no tensions this thing 00:35:58.599 --> 00:36:01.400 where we're at in time of history with what we've 00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:04.210 done And the fact that we just didn't have the 00:36:04.210 --> 00:36:06.349 foresight, because no one's perfect, but we didn't 00:36:06.349 --> 00:36:08.150 have this foresight to put the resiliency in 00:36:08.150 --> 00:36:11.570 there, I don't see this as a conspiracy theory 00:36:11.570 --> 00:36:14.289 doomer thing anymore. I go, okay, this is what 00:36:14.289 --> 00:36:21.670 we did. This is a pretty scientific, I think, 00:36:21.710 --> 00:36:24.769 model of what happened and what's going to happen. 00:36:25.130 --> 00:36:27.070 And yeah, we're going to have all different types 00:36:27.070 --> 00:36:28.989 of personalities doing all different types of 00:36:28.989 --> 00:36:31.610 things. And that's just humanity, and it's a 00:36:31.610 --> 00:36:33.650 show. and we get to watch it and hope for the 00:36:33.650 --> 00:36:36.409 best right and you want to talk about some positive 00:36:36.409 --> 00:36:39.849 things that's going on here okay again i'm kind 00:36:39.849 --> 00:36:42.690 of a jordan peterson fan i am so thankful that 00:36:42.690 --> 00:36:44.550 he came out there and started preaching this 00:36:44.550 --> 00:36:47.030 idea of responsibility to all these young men 00:36:47.030 --> 00:36:50.429 you know they were soaking it up all these 20 00:36:50.429 --> 00:36:54.250 something year old men great maybe they're the 00:36:54.250 --> 00:36:56.730 ones that shoulder the burden of what we're about 00:36:56.730 --> 00:36:59.590 to go through Maybe they're the ones that whatever 00:36:59.590 --> 00:37:02.929 is emergent, they are the next wave. Because 00:37:02.929 --> 00:37:05.429 I look at a lot of the generations out there, 00:37:05.530 --> 00:37:10.030 and I don't see resiliency in their mindset and 00:37:10.030 --> 00:37:12.329 emotional state. I don't see resiliency in strength. 00:37:12.510 --> 00:37:14.909 I see a lot of victimhood stuff out there. I 00:37:14.909 --> 00:37:16.989 see a lot of laziness. I mean, we're the fattest 00:37:16.989 --> 00:37:19.369 country in the world. We're just the most obese. 00:37:19.469 --> 00:37:21.630 We're the richest. We had a little comeuppance 00:37:21.630 --> 00:37:24.469 that we're going to have to come down a little 00:37:24.469 --> 00:37:27.170 bit. And I'm okay with that because there's opportunity. 00:37:28.089 --> 00:37:31.190 Hey, you can do just as well in times of chaos 00:37:31.190 --> 00:37:34.610 as you can in good times. You're smart. You're 00:37:34.610 --> 00:37:36.849 capable. They did kind of hit the reset button. 00:37:37.210 --> 00:37:39.690 People like you and I, a lot of different people, 00:37:39.809 --> 00:37:43.230 hey, we know some things. Maybe it's time we 00:37:43.230 --> 00:37:45.610 start capitalizing on it because plumbers are 00:37:45.610 --> 00:37:47.630 going to start doing very well. We're not going 00:37:47.630 --> 00:37:50.050 to need so many people who are good at Excel 00:37:50.050 --> 00:37:52.809 or programming. I just don't think we are. We're 00:37:52.809 --> 00:37:54.130 going to need some people who know how to do 00:37:54.130 --> 00:37:59.219 things. Hey, take it for what it is. I can tell 00:37:59.219 --> 00:38:01.239 you what I'm planning on or what's going on in 00:38:01.239 --> 00:38:03.619 my mind and some of the things that we're thinking 00:38:03.619 --> 00:38:07.920 about doing. Worm farms. We're two hours north 00:38:07.920 --> 00:38:09.940 of Dallas. All of a sudden, people want to start 00:38:09.940 --> 00:38:11.639 gardening because they need food because the 00:38:11.639 --> 00:38:13.800 supply chain is still interrupted and they're 00:38:13.800 --> 00:38:16.219 not getting the amount they want to. Also, they're 00:38:16.219 --> 00:38:20.420 like, hey, we don't want to depend on some government 00:38:20.420 --> 00:38:22.400 to bring it to us. Let's have a little bit source 00:38:22.400 --> 00:38:24.440 of our own food. Fertilizer. Local fertilizer. 00:38:24.840 --> 00:38:27.880 Get local. And what does that mean? It means 00:38:27.880 --> 00:38:29.780 there is going to be a lot of customers trying 00:38:29.780 --> 00:38:33.360 to figure out what they need to survive. A lot 00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:35.579 of opportunity out there. And I'm encouraged 00:38:35.579 --> 00:38:39.300 by that. Now, how we as a society do it with 00:38:39.300 --> 00:38:42.199 the guns and the obesity and the Prozacs and 00:38:42.199 --> 00:38:45.300 all that kind of stuff and the left versus right, 00:38:45.420 --> 00:38:47.320 there's a lot of people who are pissed off right 00:38:47.320 --> 00:38:51.960 now. Well, we're going to have to see how that 00:38:51.960 --> 00:38:55.880 all plays out. And it's just... i mean i don't 00:38:55.880 --> 00:38:57.719 think it's i don't think it's unreasonable to 00:38:57.719 --> 00:38:59.820 say that it's going to be a bumpy ride now how 00:38:59.820 --> 00:39:03.400 how bumpy it'll be every city will be different 00:39:03.400 --> 00:39:07.719 and who comes out of it well i don't know i think 00:39:07.719 --> 00:39:11.039 every mayor every mayor of any town should be 00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:13.380 going and saying okay where i'm at there's a 00:39:13.380 --> 00:39:17.440 local butcher great he's got not only a butcher 00:39:17.440 --> 00:39:20.099 he's a slaughter so that's a really nice resource 00:39:20.099 --> 00:39:23.900 to have with a lot of cows around well There 00:39:23.900 --> 00:39:26.519 were about four people that worked there. Okay, 00:39:26.800 --> 00:39:29.960 so not insulting them, but who are they? Well, 00:39:29.960 --> 00:39:32.760 that wasn't a very highfalutin job that someone 00:39:32.760 --> 00:39:34.539 with a degree would have, and you don't see a 00:39:34.539 --> 00:39:38.059 lot of kids doing that. Well, I don't want any 00:39:38.059 --> 00:39:40.320 of those four people to work their ass off, run 00:39:40.320 --> 00:39:43.219 themselves down, get sick, and die. They have 00:39:43.219 --> 00:39:46.340 a skill set that we need. We should be identifying 00:39:46.340 --> 00:39:49.320 every skill set we need in a mayor of 15 ,000 00:39:49.320 --> 00:39:52.280 and start putting interns. Go to the senior class. 00:39:52.699 --> 00:39:55.920 which one of these people are capable and then 00:39:55.920 --> 00:39:59.119 subsidizing all these essential businesses. And 00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:03.039 I'm not talking about liquor stores, right? I'm 00:40:03.039 --> 00:40:05.059 talking about, we should double up on people 00:40:05.059 --> 00:40:07.320 who do the water treatment. We should double 00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:10.019 up, right? That's where we need to be sitting 00:40:10.019 --> 00:40:11.800 there going, what's a good insurance policy? 00:40:12.340 --> 00:40:15.079 Well, gardens are a good insurance policy. Doubling 00:40:15.079 --> 00:40:17.940 up on butchers are a good insurance policy. Getting 00:40:17.940 --> 00:40:21.380 local, we got to get local. And if we do that, 00:40:21.420 --> 00:40:24.789 we'll get out of this, If not, we're coming in 00:40:24.789 --> 00:40:26.849 for a rocky road. It's going to be a rough landing. 00:40:28.449 --> 00:40:30.969 You know, I live in rural Vermont and there are 00:40:30.969 --> 00:40:34.289 various farms around and all of the bigger farms 00:40:34.289 --> 00:40:39.289 import seasonal labor from Jamaica because the 00:40:39.289 --> 00:40:41.210 Jamaicans, they know how to work. They know how 00:40:41.210 --> 00:40:43.429 to do agricultural work and they come over and 00:40:43.429 --> 00:40:46.389 they work their asses off for six or eight months 00:40:46.389 --> 00:40:49.449 and then they head back to Jamaica. You know, 00:40:49.449 --> 00:40:51.849 in Vermont, we have a brain drain problem the 00:40:51.849 --> 00:40:53.650 ambitious young people the smart young people 00:40:53.650 --> 00:40:56.010 as soon as they graduate from high school they're 00:40:56.010 --> 00:40:58.389 gone you know or if they go to college and state 00:40:58.389 --> 00:40:59.710 as soon as they're out of college they're gone 00:40:59.710 --> 00:41:04.010 and you know who's left well there's a you know 00:41:04.010 --> 00:41:07.269 a solid cohort of nail bangers around here you 00:41:07.269 --> 00:41:10.130 know guys with solid construction skills you 00:41:10.130 --> 00:41:14.199 know manual labor a good work ethic But we also 00:41:14.199 --> 00:41:16.500 have a lot of people, like we have a lot of heroin 00:41:16.500 --> 00:41:19.559 addicts around, and we have multi -generational 00:41:19.559 --> 00:41:22.039 people living on public assistance, you know, 00:41:22.059 --> 00:41:26.719 people who they've never known a situation where 00:41:26.719 --> 00:41:29.199 mom and dad lived together and dad had a job 00:41:29.199 --> 00:41:31.719 and paid the rent. I mean, that's as alien to 00:41:31.719 --> 00:41:34.360 their experience as going to Afghanistan is to 00:41:34.360 --> 00:41:36.820 mine. Right. I've never served in the military. 00:41:37.780 --> 00:41:42.750 So, yeah. I don't like to harp on this because 00:41:42.750 --> 00:41:44.150 it makes me sound like an arch conservative, 00:41:44.349 --> 00:41:48.530 but there are a lot of people who are absolutely 00:41:48.530 --> 00:41:50.969 unsuited just based on their life's experience 00:41:50.969 --> 00:41:54.389 to do anything for themselves. Anything at all. 00:41:55.349 --> 00:41:58.949 And I agree with you. I mean, I'm not really 00:41:58.949 --> 00:42:01.809 in the Jordan Peterson demographic. I'm a little 00:42:01.809 --> 00:42:04.650 old for that. But I did buy his book for my son. 00:42:06.710 --> 00:42:10.960 I really... appreciate that Jordan Peterson is 00:42:10.960 --> 00:42:14.659 on college campuses. He's in the same arena as 00:42:14.659 --> 00:42:17.199 the social justice warriors who are preaching 00:42:17.199 --> 00:42:19.260 that anything that makes you the slightest bit 00:42:19.260 --> 00:42:21.500 uncomfortable is the equivalent of a war crime 00:42:21.500 --> 00:42:24.440 committed against you by the evil patriarchy. 00:42:24.960 --> 00:42:28.519 And life isn't like that. Life is uncomfortable. 00:42:28.880 --> 00:42:30.519 And if you are actually going to do something 00:42:30.519 --> 00:42:32.440 that you haven't done before, you're going to 00:42:32.440 --> 00:42:36.090 experience a period of you know just cognitive 00:42:36.090 --> 00:42:38.510 discomfort that is a sign that you're working 00:42:38.510 --> 00:42:41.190 that you're doing something if you're comfortable 00:42:41.190 --> 00:42:44.510 all the time you are you know you're degenerating 00:42:44.510 --> 00:42:47.449 yoga's no you don't do it no you don't do any 00:42:47.449 --> 00:42:52.829 shadow work i mean that and yoga is not comfortable 00:42:52.829 --> 00:42:54.309 you're absolutely right that's the whole point 00:42:54.309 --> 00:42:56.710 of it when you get in a uncomfortable situation 00:42:56.710 --> 00:43:00.110 you learn how to breathe yeah right and that's 00:43:00.110 --> 00:43:05.119 what it is life is uncomfortable Okay, so it 00:43:05.119 --> 00:43:07.639 was impressive what we did. It was impressive 00:43:07.639 --> 00:43:12.320 what we did. We allowed, we got to a place that 00:43:12.320 --> 00:43:16.059 was so good that they had to come up with a term 00:43:16.059 --> 00:43:20.480 like microaggression. Because we got rid of all 00:43:20.480 --> 00:43:23.239 the big ones. And then that was the next thing. 00:43:23.460 --> 00:43:26.420 I mean, it was so ridiculous. I watched feminists. 00:43:26.940 --> 00:43:29.440 The people who were fighting the feminists were 00:43:29.440 --> 00:43:31.360 the trans right activists. They had turned on 00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:34.719 their... themselves at that point but where i'm 00:43:34.719 --> 00:43:40.300 at now and why it's why uh i think that nonsense 00:43:40.300 --> 00:43:42.980 is already over is hey man five million people 00:43:42.980 --> 00:43:44.699 have already lost their job another two million 00:43:44.699 --> 00:43:46.139 are right around the corner and then two million 00:43:46.139 --> 00:43:48.900 after that like everyone's about to be a victim 00:43:48.900 --> 00:43:52.119 so no one's going to care about all this silly 00:43:52.119 --> 00:43:55.420 nonsense it's going to go away and this cancel 00:43:55.420 --> 00:43:57.699 culture and all this other thing like these are 00:43:57.699 --> 00:44:00.539 positive of what's just happened because people 00:44:00.539 --> 00:44:02.750 are They're not just going to be on their phone, 00:44:02.829 --> 00:44:04.769 BuzzFeed, wasting time because they got nothing 00:44:04.769 --> 00:44:09.989 to do. It can't happen. So here, you know, you 00:44:09.989 --> 00:44:13.030 said it sounds like a starched Republican. I 00:44:13.030 --> 00:44:17.610 mean, hell, I'll be that guy. I'll be it. Living 00:44:17.610 --> 00:44:20.610 life, you're walking on a tightrope. Survival, 00:44:20.769 --> 00:44:22.989 I mean, get a job, get money, food. I mean, you 00:44:22.989 --> 00:44:24.989 still have to do it. But what was amazing about 00:44:24.989 --> 00:44:26.909 what we did was we had safety net after safety 00:44:26.909 --> 00:44:30.789 net after safety net. Just, we had it. Well, 00:44:30.889 --> 00:44:33.429 what happened? I don't even dislike Trump. I 00:44:33.429 --> 00:44:35.289 don't like him. I don't dislike him. He gave 00:44:35.289 --> 00:44:38.269 all the money to the corporations. He did. That's 00:44:38.269 --> 00:44:40.409 what happened. So now, if he's going to bail 00:44:40.409 --> 00:44:42.409 out everyone, including all these social programs, 00:44:42.769 --> 00:44:44.449 the money is not going to be worth anything, 00:44:44.769 --> 00:44:47.269 right? So that's not going to happen. He already 00:44:47.269 --> 00:44:49.829 chose. So all these people that you've identified 00:44:49.829 --> 00:44:52.429 in your town and that are everywhere, who are 00:44:52.429 --> 00:44:56.349 completely incapable to handle anything, that 00:44:56.349 --> 00:44:58.650 wealth transfer just happened. It already happened. 00:44:59.400 --> 00:45:07.139 So that's coming down the pipe. And I don't see 00:45:07.139 --> 00:45:12.440 us handling that too well. So I'm looking at 00:45:12.440 --> 00:45:14.400 good news of there's opportunity, there's things 00:45:14.400 --> 00:45:18.300 you can do. But at the same time, the day the 00:45:18.300 --> 00:45:22.099 Russians and the Saudis had that oil market share, 00:45:22.199 --> 00:45:24.139 whatever they want to call it, and the oil price 00:45:24.139 --> 00:45:27.320 dropped. It sent that shockwave through the financial 00:45:27.320 --> 00:45:30.860 market because now they can never value the shale 00:45:30.860 --> 00:45:33.039 industry again. They have to price in that risk 00:45:33.039 --> 00:45:36.099 factor of they can have those shocks. It was 00:45:36.099 --> 00:45:37.920 just too big of our economy. It's just sending 00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:39.679 ripples throughout it. This is what happened. 00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:43.900 We literally, that was the day the world changed. 00:45:45.059 --> 00:45:49.300 So I'm no longer a doomer. I am, this is the 00:45:49.300 --> 00:45:53.420 new world and the play out is going to be huge. 00:45:55.599 --> 00:45:58.099 And what do you do? Like, what is your plan? 00:45:58.199 --> 00:46:00.780 Do you have a plan yet? Well, I was just in the 00:46:00.780 --> 00:46:03.460 process of moving to Puerto Rico when this lockdown 00:46:03.460 --> 00:46:08.119 put everything on hold. But my plan is to keep, 00:46:08.119 --> 00:46:10.800 you know, drawing comics and making podcasts 00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:13.820 and shooting videos. I just wanted to do it in 00:46:13.820 --> 00:46:15.440 a place with more people, a place with a bit 00:46:15.440 --> 00:46:18.139 more social dynamism because I am not cut out 00:46:18.139 --> 00:46:22.440 for small town Vermont. It's not, it's not. not 00:46:22.440 --> 00:46:25.320 simpatico with my personality four years was 00:46:25.320 --> 00:46:28.960 enough no good yoga yep well i mean i can still 00:46:28.960 --> 00:46:33.000 do yoga here but uh i can't do it by myself i 00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:35.699 have to go to a studio i'm so lazy that way i 00:46:35.699 --> 00:46:37.860 need someone tell me what to do yeah i agree 00:46:37.860 --> 00:46:40.380 i agree i will not sit down i will not roll out 00:46:40.380 --> 00:46:42.579 the yoga mat and do a solid 90 minutes on my 00:46:42.579 --> 00:46:49.400 own i forget it well i mean where do you let 00:46:49.400 --> 00:46:51.650 me ask you this thing because like to know the 00:46:51.650 --> 00:46:54.110 holes in my argument mm -hmm where do you think 00:46:54.110 --> 00:46:58.449 I was either unreasonable or I went too far or 00:46:58.449 --> 00:47:00.230 anything you think that I'm just I'm kind of 00:47:00.230 --> 00:47:02.469 wrong because I'd love to know combining some 00:47:02.469 --> 00:47:04.590 stuff that you said just now with some things 00:47:04.590 --> 00:47:09.070 that I heard in your your vlog sounds like you're 00:47:09.070 --> 00:47:11.849 holding on to some peak oil talking points that 00:47:11.849 --> 00:47:14.070 the last decade is just demonstrate demonstrated 00:47:14.070 --> 00:47:18.750 never held any water okay Most of the hydrocarbons 00:47:18.750 --> 00:47:21.969 in the ground are in shale seams. You know, what 00:47:21.969 --> 00:47:23.969 we consider to be conventional oil where just 00:47:23.969 --> 00:47:28.010 it's near the surface, it's a pool rather than, 00:47:28.010 --> 00:47:29.809 you know, in the pores of rocks, and it's under 00:47:29.809 --> 00:47:31.510 such pressure that you can just pierce the ground 00:47:31.510 --> 00:47:35.289 and it comes up. That was the icing. I agree 00:47:35.289 --> 00:47:37.510 with this. Yeah, that's not the bulk of the hydrocarbons 00:47:37.510 --> 00:47:41.030 available to us. And, you know, the super majors, 00:47:41.190 --> 00:47:44.510 the big, big multinational oil companies, they 00:47:44.510 --> 00:47:47.260 don't do shale. They don't like it. it doesn't 00:47:47.260 --> 00:47:50.000 produce enough money for them it's it's too technically 00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:52.659 complicated it is there's too much variation 00:47:52.659 --> 00:47:56.019 from you know even in one play there's all kinds 00:47:56.019 --> 00:47:57.599 of different variations you have to use this 00:47:57.599 --> 00:48:00.440 very sophisticated micro seismic technology to 00:48:00.440 --> 00:48:02.219 find out exactly where to you know drill that 00:48:02.219 --> 00:48:04.559 next well or to where to re -drill you know at 00:48:04.559 --> 00:48:07.380 what depth to re -drill an existing well they 00:48:07.380 --> 00:48:10.059 don't they don't go in for it so you've got this 00:48:10.059 --> 00:48:15.280 whole ecosystem of new fracking companies you 00:48:15.280 --> 00:48:17.980 know some going for oil some for gas some doing 00:48:17.980 --> 00:48:20.519 both but mostly not both mostly they're they're 00:48:20.519 --> 00:48:23.780 pretty specialized and they have a dozen executives 00:48:23.780 --> 00:48:28.139 each maybe 25 employees total and they pop up 00:48:28.139 --> 00:48:32.139 out of nowhere they operate until you know something 00:48:32.139 --> 00:48:34.920 goes wrong the company goes broke they file through 00:48:34.920 --> 00:48:37.280 chapter 11 and then the various people who are 00:48:37.280 --> 00:48:39.139 doing that go off and start different companies 00:48:39.139 --> 00:48:42.239 and they get financed again and You know, you 00:48:42.239 --> 00:48:44.880 can say that that's all chicanery, but as long 00:48:44.880 --> 00:48:47.900 as we run on oil, the advantages of having it 00:48:47.900 --> 00:48:50.699 here, you know, getting it from home rather than 00:48:50.699 --> 00:48:53.219 having to have this military apparatus that allows 00:48:53.219 --> 00:48:55.960 us to lay claim to oil on the other side of the 00:48:55.960 --> 00:48:59.199 planet and to get in bed with evil fuckers like 00:48:59.199 --> 00:49:03.280 the Saudis, there's so much advantage to having 00:49:03.280 --> 00:49:07.420 this domestic source that who cares what chicanery 00:49:07.420 --> 00:49:09.460 we get up to? It's cheaper than a global military. 00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:12.679 You know, it's... it's basically just it's a 00:49:12.679 --> 00:49:15.679 nationalized endeavor at this point but we we 00:49:15.679 --> 00:49:18.280 don't acknowledge that it's nationalized we let 00:49:18.280 --> 00:49:20.659 various players you know pop up and make a killing 00:49:20.659 --> 00:49:23.079 at it in a short period just to keep it going 00:49:23.079 --> 00:49:26.159 but if you compare that to the price of a global 00:49:26.159 --> 00:49:30.920 you know military police force it's free it's 00:49:31.440 --> 00:49:33.239 It's not going to collapse tomorrow. It's no 00:49:33.239 --> 00:49:35.500 more going to collapse tomorrow than it was going 00:49:35.500 --> 00:49:38.139 to collapse in 2007 when Jim Kunstler was making 00:49:38.139 --> 00:49:39.719 these exact same arguments, you know, that the 00:49:39.719 --> 00:49:42.460 financing is irrational. It doesn't matter that 00:49:42.460 --> 00:49:44.659 the financing is not irrational. We need that 00:49:44.659 --> 00:49:46.719 oil for reasons other than just making money. 00:49:47.219 --> 00:49:49.739 So, yeah, so I don't disagree with a single thing 00:49:49.739 --> 00:49:53.900 you said, right, at all. And in this new world. 00:49:54.400 --> 00:49:56.760 Yeah, it might not matter how much it costs because 00:49:56.760 --> 00:49:59.159 we do just nationalize and we use it for ourselves. 00:49:59.500 --> 00:50:02.079 I don't think anything you said there was unreasonable. 00:50:02.619 --> 00:50:05.340 And I think, yeah, why couldn't that be a possibility? 00:50:05.840 --> 00:50:11.579 What I'm just saying is because the banks had 00:50:11.579 --> 00:50:15.760 such low interest rates since 08, 09, banks still 00:50:15.760 --> 00:50:18.139 had to make money or they didn't have to make, 00:50:18.159 --> 00:50:19.800 they wanted to make money. The people wanted 00:50:19.800 --> 00:50:23.849 the bonuses. So what they did was. They improperly 00:50:23.849 --> 00:50:27.809 priced the risk of these small ones. They kept 00:50:27.809 --> 00:50:29.829 on getting financed over and over and over again, 00:50:29.889 --> 00:50:32.329 just like you said. Because the banks, that was 00:50:32.329 --> 00:50:34.690 the only yield they could get. I mean, not the 00:50:34.690 --> 00:50:37.630 only one, but those were yields that were making 00:50:37.630 --> 00:50:40.369 the banks money. And these companies just kept 00:50:40.369 --> 00:50:43.849 on rolling over their debt, right? That's what 00:50:43.849 --> 00:50:45.570 I think Jim Kunst was talking about is it's an 00:50:45.570 --> 00:50:49.429 all financial three -card money thing. Because 00:50:49.429 --> 00:50:52.789 the interest rates were so low. on the federal 00:50:52.789 --> 00:50:54.730 level because the Federal Reserve didn't want 00:50:54.730 --> 00:50:58.449 anything to upset the apple cart. Banks had to 00:50:58.449 --> 00:51:00.769 go find yield. They improperly priced it with 00:51:00.769 --> 00:51:02.989 this shale, especially the small to medium -sized 00:51:02.989 --> 00:51:06.090 guys, not the majors. But that made so much money 00:51:06.090 --> 00:51:09.869 for the banks that when that financing part, 00:51:10.070 --> 00:51:11.929 that's what I'm talking about, that financing 00:51:11.929 --> 00:51:14.889 part has to go away now for the banks as a money 00:51:14.889 --> 00:51:18.250 generator. And that alone, not having to do anything 00:51:18.250 --> 00:51:23.179 with the oil in the ground. You know, if the 00:51:23.179 --> 00:51:25.280 banks aren't able to provide the capital necessary 00:51:25.280 --> 00:51:27.480 to continue the production, then the federal 00:51:27.480 --> 00:51:29.199 government might have to step up and do it in 00:51:29.199 --> 00:51:32.860 a more, you know, honest and direct way. Yeah. 00:51:32.960 --> 00:51:35.719 That is nowhere near the top of my list of concerns. 00:51:35.739 --> 00:51:37.900 You know, financing for hydrocarbon extraction. 00:51:38.619 --> 00:51:41.820 That's going to happen. That worrying about that 00:51:41.820 --> 00:51:44.480 is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars. 00:51:44.599 --> 00:51:47.320 You know, it's maybe someday in the distant future. 00:51:47.340 --> 00:51:49.539 That's a problem. But there's much more acute. 00:51:49.980 --> 00:51:51.860 Things we have to deal with in the here and now. 00:51:52.679 --> 00:51:55.280 Well, okay, so that is where I think it's just 00:51:55.280 --> 00:51:57.920 people's experiences and their education and 00:51:57.920 --> 00:51:59.900 what they know, right? You're probably right. 00:52:00.019 --> 00:52:02.099 I mean, what do I know, right? But my experience 00:52:02.099 --> 00:52:05.519 is in finance world, right? My experience is 00:52:05.519 --> 00:52:10.239 going and understanding what happened, why 08 00:52:10.239 --> 00:52:13.679 -09 happened, and why the Federal Reserve did 00:52:13.679 --> 00:52:17.280 what they did. Okay, well, it was because of 00:52:17.280 --> 00:52:20.610 this idea of... you know the banking system is 00:52:20.610 --> 00:52:22.610 like the heart of an economy and cash is like 00:52:22.610 --> 00:52:25.010 the blood and they want to keep this thing all 00:52:25.010 --> 00:52:28.309 going and look this i'm not a keynesian and i'm 00:52:28.309 --> 00:52:30.849 not a you know whoever the other guy what was 00:52:30.849 --> 00:52:33.309 the other guy's name is keynesian or i don't 00:52:33.309 --> 00:52:37.469 know the sound money a strong australian astrologers 00:52:37.469 --> 00:52:42.130 yeah yeah typically uh contrasted with like uh 00:52:42.130 --> 00:52:44.809 austrian economists uh what was that one guy 00:52:44.809 --> 00:52:46.349 there was heinick or something like that it doesn't 00:52:46.349 --> 00:52:49.570 matter he's one so i'm not Yeah, I'm not saying 00:52:49.570 --> 00:52:51.610 I'm on one side of the fence or the other. What 00:52:51.610 --> 00:52:56.570 I'm saying is how our system runs on debt. That's 00:52:56.570 --> 00:53:00.230 why the small shale debt thing is so important. 00:53:00.349 --> 00:53:03.150 And it sends shockwaves through the system. So 00:53:03.150 --> 00:53:05.510 that's just my experience. And that's me reading 00:53:05.510 --> 00:53:08.309 the tea leaves saying, that's a really interesting, 00:53:08.510 --> 00:53:12.090 complex, hard to understand problem that's going 00:53:12.090 --> 00:53:16.360 off right now. Yeah, man, unless you have a finance 00:53:16.360 --> 00:53:19.679 degree or you understand that world, it's like 00:53:19.679 --> 00:53:23.699 overpopulation on Mars. And my understanding 00:53:23.699 --> 00:53:27.219 of it, I believe, is at a certain level why I 00:53:27.219 --> 00:53:29.860 think this is the important thing. And I can 00:53:29.860 --> 00:53:34.400 give examples of the bullwhip in the economy 00:53:34.400 --> 00:53:36.860 right now. You know, just the simple fact that 00:53:36.860 --> 00:53:40.119 the Dow goes up 1 ,000, down 2 ,000, up 1 ,000. 00:53:41.099 --> 00:53:43.280 just that simple fact alone is what you that's 00:53:43.280 --> 00:53:46.739 all you need to know that this thing is unwinding 00:53:46.739 --> 00:53:51.199 um pretty violently and if you know anything 00:53:51.199 --> 00:53:54.000 about the system knowing that that that there's 00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:56.559 a violence in there and knowing how options work 00:53:56.559 --> 00:54:00.079 contracts puts and margin calls and all these 00:54:00.079 --> 00:54:05.059 different terms that's where it's yeah finance 00:54:05.059 --> 00:54:07.860 is a huge problem It's a huge, huge problem. 00:54:08.099 --> 00:54:11.760 That's why the Federal Reserve said, QE to whatever 00:54:11.760 --> 00:54:15.179 you need. And that's why the poor people are 00:54:15.179 --> 00:54:19.619 getting screwed. Now, I hate to say this. I hate 00:54:19.619 --> 00:54:22.420 to bring this up. But, you know, I'm totally 00:54:22.420 --> 00:54:25.300 partisan on the class level. I am against the 00:54:25.300 --> 00:54:28.260 oligarchs. I am for the working people. But when 00:54:28.260 --> 00:54:31.780 you give unlimited money to the ownership class, 00:54:32.139 --> 00:54:35.500 they don't go out and spend it on stuff. They 00:54:35.500 --> 00:54:38.679 try to lock it up and just keep it as, you know, 00:54:38.679 --> 00:54:40.619 wealth. So they put it into the stock market. 00:54:41.320 --> 00:54:45.559 So when the stock market, they put it in the 00:54:45.559 --> 00:54:48.760 stock market or, you know, if they own a company, 00:54:48.840 --> 00:54:51.320 a public company, they buy back their own stock, 00:54:51.340 --> 00:54:53.139 you know, to increase the value of their stock, 00:54:53.260 --> 00:54:55.139 which increases their personal wealth. It's probably 00:54:55.139 --> 00:54:57.579 also going to increase the bonus they get. But 00:54:57.579 --> 00:54:59.840 they have all this money that they're not really 00:54:59.840 --> 00:55:03.380 spending on stuff. And if money... not circulating 00:55:03.380 --> 00:55:05.059 then it's not functioning as the blood of the 00:55:05.059 --> 00:55:07.539 economy and if it's not circulating it's not 00:55:07.539 --> 00:55:10.980 playing that role then you don't really get inflation 00:55:10.980 --> 00:55:13.900 like people worry about hyperinflation that again 00:55:13.900 --> 00:55:16.760 is one of these you know overpopulation on Mars 00:55:16.760 --> 00:55:20.119 scenarios I'm not worried about hyperinflation 00:55:20.119 --> 00:55:23.059 or even regular inflation I think deflation is 00:55:23.059 --> 00:55:25.340 probably gonna get us because the money that 00:55:25.340 --> 00:55:27.260 gets given to the rich people just basically 00:55:27.260 --> 00:55:30.699 disappears it goes away it they want it to grow 00:55:31.400 --> 00:55:33.340 And so they move it around to different growth 00:55:33.340 --> 00:55:36.239 areas. But those are all sort of distinct from 00:55:36.239 --> 00:55:39.420 the actual physical economy of stuff that we 00:55:39.420 --> 00:55:45.860 all depend on. And hydrocarbons and fuel for 00:55:45.860 --> 00:55:49.260 machinery, that is real stuff. But when we're 00:55:49.260 --> 00:55:52.260 talking about 2008, we haven't mentioned mortgage 00:55:52.260 --> 00:55:55.539 -backed securities. That was a huge abstract 00:55:55.539 --> 00:56:00.880 creation that dwarfed the real economy. in terms 00:56:00.880 --> 00:56:02.780 of how much money was at play, how much counter 00:56:02.780 --> 00:56:06.659 risk was set up. Leverage. Right. All of our 00:56:06.659 --> 00:56:10.599 talk of the 2008 financial chicanery and its 00:56:10.599 --> 00:56:14.119 relationship to hydrocarbon production, that 00:56:14.119 --> 00:56:16.920 is such a minuscule little sideshow in terms 00:56:16.920 --> 00:56:19.559 of that whole play. It was mostly just abstract 00:56:19.559 --> 00:56:22.420 bullshit that was falling apart. And if abstract 00:56:22.420 --> 00:56:25.760 bullshit falls apart, it's not a death blow. 00:56:25.940 --> 00:56:29.230 It's a different abstract bullshit system. I 00:56:29.230 --> 00:56:33.030 hear you. And from how we got out of the last 00:56:33.030 --> 00:56:37.110 10 years, I look at it as a gift. They did paper 00:56:37.110 --> 00:56:38.949 over it. They figured out a way to paper over 00:56:38.949 --> 00:56:42.030 it. And smart people figured it out. And that's 00:56:42.030 --> 00:56:46.530 why I got out of it. That's why I kept all my 00:56:46.530 --> 00:56:48.730 precious metals. But there got to a point where 00:56:48.730 --> 00:56:52.269 I just looked at them and hated them. I was resentful 00:56:52.269 --> 00:56:55.039 for them. I'm a military guy and I sold all my 00:56:55.039 --> 00:56:58.320 ARs. I'm like, I am out of this. I put all that 00:56:58.320 --> 00:57:00.199 stuff in storage and I was like, I'm never doing 00:57:00.199 --> 00:57:02.340 it again. They're smarter than me. They figured 00:57:02.340 --> 00:57:05.579 it out. And I did not think the other eye of 00:57:05.579 --> 00:57:08.260 the storm was coming. Okay, but this is what 00:57:08.260 --> 00:57:12.099 propelled me to leave Fort Worth and it wasn't 00:57:12.099 --> 00:57:17.840 the virus. So if this is true, if these photos 00:57:17.840 --> 00:57:22.769 are true and not doctored, NASA had these photos 00:57:22.769 --> 00:57:27.130 of like all of China pollution from January 1 00:57:27.130 --> 00:57:30.449 to January 20th or something like 19th. And then 00:57:30.449 --> 00:57:32.809 there was Chinese New Year, which is that week 00:57:32.809 --> 00:57:35.289 long or however many days, and then a month after. 00:57:35.409 --> 00:57:39.650 And it showed in 2019 how the pollution was before 00:57:39.650 --> 00:57:42.929 New Year, how it decreased during New Year, and 00:57:42.929 --> 00:57:47.230 then how it ramped back up, right? Well, if these 00:57:47.230 --> 00:57:51.820 photos are real. from 2020 same time period there's 00:57:51.820 --> 00:57:54.659 no pollution there's no pollution i mean the 00:57:54.659 --> 00:57:57.320 factories were already shut down and now you're 00:57:57.320 --> 00:57:59.320 starting to hear that they they started shutting 00:57:59.320 --> 00:58:01.219 this down in december they already knew they 00:58:01.219 --> 00:58:04.239 were already clamping down on it so so what i 00:58:04.239 --> 00:58:09.039 hear from that is the factories that refill not 00:58:09.039 --> 00:58:11.780 only all of america's stores because pretty much 00:58:11.780 --> 00:58:15.099 pick the number percentages made in china but 00:58:15.099 --> 00:58:17.730 all the world like China was the manufacturing 00:58:17.730 --> 00:58:20.550 engine for the world. So we weren't the only 00:58:20.550 --> 00:58:23.449 ones who got conned into this. They've been down 00:58:23.449 --> 00:58:27.030 since, let's just say Jan 1, and they haven't 00:58:27.030 --> 00:58:29.889 still come back up yet. Some of them have with 00:58:29.889 --> 00:58:31.849 masks and some other things, and they're still 00:58:31.849 --> 00:58:37.110 producing whatever. But a big, big percentage 00:58:37.110 --> 00:58:39.929 was down, and I don't think it's come back up. 00:58:40.050 --> 00:58:42.409 I don't trust the news that it is coming back 00:58:42.409 --> 00:58:45.929 up. Now, I could be wrong. And I'm more than 00:58:45.929 --> 00:58:50.389 willing to accept that. But from what I hear, 00:58:50.530 --> 00:58:52.630 what I think makes sense, I don't think they're 00:58:52.630 --> 00:58:55.389 back up. And I think that all countries have 00:58:55.389 --> 00:58:57.170 shut down their borders because they realize 00:58:57.170 --> 00:59:01.130 this. They're all hunkering down. Like name the 00:59:01.130 --> 00:59:02.949 countries who've shut down their borders, that 00:59:02.949 --> 00:59:07.210 nothing's going in or out. Germany, Canada, France, 00:59:07.489 --> 00:59:11.050 Spain, Italy, Singapore, they've all shut down. 00:59:11.150 --> 00:59:14.110 Trade stop. You can look at the ports. It's empty. 00:59:15.699 --> 00:59:18.380 Well, we're talking about abstract stuff with 00:59:18.380 --> 00:59:21.739 MBSs and all that. I'm talking about goods. I'm 00:59:21.739 --> 00:59:24.579 talking about real things. And you got to think 00:59:24.579 --> 00:59:26.400 about it too in a way where it's like, okay, 00:59:26.480 --> 00:59:31.079 let's say there's a plant here that has, it does 00:59:31.079 --> 00:59:34.119 beans, it cans beans. And we grow the beans here 00:59:34.119 --> 00:59:38.059 and everything's here. All right. Do we get the 00:59:38.059 --> 00:59:41.480 cans from China? Well, probably because we get 00:59:41.480 --> 00:59:43.860 raw materials from them. And if we don't get 00:59:43.860 --> 00:59:45.599 the cans, we get the raw materials from China. 00:59:46.039 --> 00:59:49.340 Because not only we did offshore our manufacturing 00:59:49.340 --> 00:59:52.320 and our jobs, but we also offshored our pollution. 00:59:52.559 --> 00:59:54.659 So none of that stuff's getting built here or 00:59:54.659 --> 00:59:56.360 mined here or anything. It's all over there. 00:59:57.039 --> 01:00:00.039 Okay, well, what about the machinery? What about 01:00:00.039 --> 01:00:02.699 a machine that washes the beans? There's going 01:00:02.699 --> 01:00:05.219 to be a circuit board that goes out and they've 01:00:05.219 --> 01:00:07.820 got some repair guy. that comes in, diagnoses 01:00:07.820 --> 01:00:10.139 it, and says, okay, let me call and order this 01:00:10.139 --> 01:00:12.460 part. And because we're just in time, that probably 01:00:12.460 --> 01:00:14.139 came from China, because that's where we get 01:00:14.139 --> 01:00:18.679 everything. Or enough where the probability of 01:00:18.679 --> 01:00:22.519 something failing keeps on going up and up. So 01:00:22.519 --> 01:00:25.219 my contention, and I could be wrong, someone 01:00:25.219 --> 01:00:26.260 could prove this, and then I'm going to have 01:00:26.260 --> 01:00:29.400 to rethink everything, is a lot of stuff in China 01:00:29.400 --> 01:00:31.440 is still shut down. So that means it's on month 01:00:31.440 --> 01:00:36.219 three or four. How long does it take to get back 01:00:36.219 --> 01:00:38.619 up? Well, being in the corporate world, I mean, 01:00:38.639 --> 01:00:41.000 I don't know manufacturing. I'm going to guess 01:00:41.000 --> 01:00:44.579 three or four months, maybe longer because up 01:00:44.579 --> 01:00:46.239 and down that supply chain, you don't know what's 01:00:46.239 --> 01:00:48.480 going to open when and you're going to be waiting. 01:00:49.019 --> 01:00:52.840 So now that's a disruption. So not only are their 01:00:52.840 --> 01:00:54.519 goods not going to be in Walmart, but there might 01:00:54.519 --> 01:00:57.579 not be repair parts and the stuff that keeps 01:00:57.579 --> 01:01:00.539 the semis on the road or the chemicals that keep 01:01:00.539 --> 01:01:04.260 all the water companies disinfecting our water. 01:01:04.559 --> 01:01:06.900 Because probably all that stuff comes from China. 01:01:07.059 --> 01:01:09.719 I'd be, I mean, I'd make a bet that it came from 01:01:09.719 --> 01:01:12.719 China. Everything does. And if they're not producing 01:01:12.719 --> 01:01:16.280 any stuff, maybe they're down 30%. Well, in that 01:01:16.280 --> 01:01:18.980 30%, what do we have to have that we are not 01:01:18.980 --> 01:01:22.219 going to get? There's going to be one item. It's 01:01:22.219 --> 01:01:24.320 probably going to be a lot. And I'm just playing 01:01:24.320 --> 01:01:27.199 math. I don't have a social agenda here. I don't 01:01:27.199 --> 01:01:29.420 have a political philosophy. I don't have an 01:01:29.420 --> 01:01:32.400 economic theory. I just go, stuff's not coming. 01:01:33.619 --> 01:01:35.659 You're talking about beans, and here's the thing. 01:01:36.179 --> 01:01:39.320 You don't have to put beans in a can. You can 01:01:39.320 --> 01:01:42.079 ship beans in a bag, dry. They don't need to 01:01:42.079 --> 01:01:45.659 be refrigerated. And then people, instead of 01:01:45.659 --> 01:01:47.099 just opening the can and pouring them in the 01:01:47.099 --> 01:01:51.579 pot, you soak them overnight. Yep. We're going 01:01:51.579 --> 01:01:53.340 to have to get creative. If we have to do that 01:01:53.340 --> 01:01:56.960 because of this, that will be a benefit. I agree. 01:01:57.460 --> 01:02:01.590 I agree. But how many humans do you know that 01:02:01.590 --> 01:02:04.409 can change overnight like that? That's what we 01:02:04.409 --> 01:02:07.289 do, though. I mean, yeah, people get into rigid 01:02:07.289 --> 01:02:11.230 patterns when they can afford to. But when you 01:02:11.230 --> 01:02:14.050 come to the point of, okay, you either have to 01:02:14.050 --> 01:02:15.570 do something different or you don't eat today, 01:02:15.809 --> 01:02:17.750 that's when people decide, you know what, I think 01:02:17.750 --> 01:02:19.949 I'm willing to do something that's outside of 01:02:19.949 --> 01:02:23.590 my comfort zone. My mother started a sentence 01:02:23.590 --> 01:02:26.110 with, if people were smart, and I said stop. 01:02:29.480 --> 01:02:32.559 You're right. But throw it off the table. And 01:02:32.559 --> 01:02:36.420 I don't even hate humans. I heard you say human 01:02:36.420 --> 01:02:39.079 beings suck or humans suck. I don't believe that. 01:02:39.360 --> 01:02:41.760 I don't either. I made a video with that title 01:02:41.760 --> 01:02:44.000 and so many people want that message that that 01:02:44.000 --> 01:02:46.599 video has done very well. It was not my intention 01:02:46.599 --> 01:02:50.400 to feed that beast. Yeah, me either. I am not 01:02:50.400 --> 01:02:55.380 talking down to anyone. I'm not. They did not 01:02:55.380 --> 01:02:58.219 become aware of what I think is important because 01:02:58.219 --> 01:03:00.659 of a ton of different reasons. I'm not talking 01:03:00.659 --> 01:03:05.300 down to them. And hey, this was a line I told 01:03:05.300 --> 01:03:09.360 you in the email where if this isn't the thing 01:03:09.360 --> 01:03:14.039 that brings emergence, then this system is the 01:03:14.039 --> 01:03:15.679 most resilient thing I've ever seen and I will 01:03:15.679 --> 01:03:18.980 never believe that it can ever get destroyed. 01:03:19.099 --> 01:03:21.340 A comet can be coming down and I will believe 01:03:21.340 --> 01:03:25.829 that we will make it through. Because I'm with 01:03:25.829 --> 01:03:29.170 you. If this thing works, if people do what they 01:03:29.170 --> 01:03:31.789 need to do and change and it all becomes a better 01:03:31.789 --> 01:03:36.130 thing, I'm in. Good for us. Well, let me back 01:03:36.130 --> 01:03:39.010 off my position a little bit if this is how it's 01:03:39.010 --> 01:03:42.309 coming across. Because an extinction -level event, 01:03:42.510 --> 01:03:45.070 dinosaur killing, comet, will kill our civilization 01:03:45.070 --> 01:03:49.150 too. We're not surviving that. Right. I was being 01:03:49.150 --> 01:03:51.789 hyperbolic. You talked about a magnetic pulse 01:03:51.789 --> 01:03:55.090 or an EMP. If that was, you know, an attack from 01:03:55.090 --> 01:03:58.110 another country, it's got to be detonated at 01:03:58.110 --> 01:03:59.829 a high altitude, which means it has to come in 01:03:59.829 --> 01:04:02.230 on a missile. Not many countries that are willing 01:04:02.230 --> 01:04:04.630 to get into a war with the U .S. have access 01:04:04.630 --> 01:04:07.170 to that technology. That was just my flavor of 01:04:07.170 --> 01:04:11.710 choice back in the day. But a coronal mass ejection 01:04:11.710 --> 01:04:15.289 that hits the Earth head on, you know, those 01:04:15.289 --> 01:04:17.429 things are directional. That's not an omnidirectional 01:04:17.429 --> 01:04:19.190 pulse that goes out from the sun. It is definitely 01:04:19.190 --> 01:04:21.289 directional. So most of them miss us. But one 01:04:21.289 --> 01:04:24.380 that hits us square. is going to take down the 01:04:24.380 --> 01:04:26.860 electric grid on half the planet, and it will 01:04:26.860 --> 01:04:31.059 be down for years. It won't be the end of our 01:04:31.059 --> 01:04:32.820 species, but it very well could be the end of 01:04:32.820 --> 01:04:34.739 our civilization. It's just that these events, 01:04:34.860 --> 01:04:39.460 while utterly catastrophic, and they're absolutely 01:04:39.460 --> 01:04:42.980 guaranteed to happen eventually, the timescales 01:04:42.980 --> 01:04:44.980 on which you estimate these things are huge. 01:04:45.280 --> 01:04:47.559 So if you're deciding what you're going to major 01:04:47.559 --> 01:04:49.400 in in college, don't think about the coronal 01:04:49.400 --> 01:04:53.710 mass ejection or the extinction level. impact. 01:04:53.710 --> 01:04:56.070 Those are not the problems of an individual human 01:04:56.070 --> 01:04:58.389 lifetime. If they happen when you're alive, well, 01:04:58.409 --> 01:05:01.090 that sucks. I mean, that sucks because you can't 01:05:01.090 --> 01:05:04.630 prepare for that. That's all I think just happened. 01:05:04.949 --> 01:05:09.010 That's all I think just happened. That event 01:05:09.010 --> 01:05:14.309 you talk about was the corona, and it was the 01:05:14.309 --> 01:05:18.090 pin that popped this economy thing. Whatever 01:05:18.090 --> 01:05:22.960 this economy thing is, popped it. It was no one's 01:05:22.960 --> 01:05:25.360 fault. It just happened while at this moment 01:05:25.360 --> 01:05:29.019 in time. So, I mean, I feel like it's doing the 01:05:29.019 --> 01:05:31.119 damage though. I think it's, it's our maladaptive 01:05:31.119 --> 01:05:34.400 response to it and our lack of preparation, you 01:05:34.400 --> 01:05:37.559 know, rational preparation that's really causing 01:05:37.559 --> 01:05:40.159 the damage. But I think this virus is, it's kind 01:05:40.159 --> 01:05:42.260 of, it's got training wheels on it. This is what 01:05:42.260 --> 01:05:44.559 I've been saying. You're listening to the Sea 01:05:44.559 --> 01:05:50.530 Realm podcast with your host KMO. That was Brent 01:05:50.530 --> 01:05:53.429 Bednarik and the conversation with Brent will 01:05:53.429 --> 01:05:55.409 continue in the next episode of the Sea Realm 01:05:55.409 --> 01:05:58.170 Vault podcast. And that will be Sea Realm Vault 01:05:58.170 --> 01:06:03.489 podcast episode number 361. Sunday, April 12th, 01:06:03.489 --> 01:06:08.929 2020. Easter. The light of consciousness shines 01:06:08.929 --> 01:06:12.789 on everyone, but not everyone gains access to 01:06:12.789 --> 01:06:45.519 the vault. Hey, everybody, KMO here. And wow, 01:06:45.860 --> 01:06:50.659 here we are, Easter 2020. This was the time a 01:06:50.659 --> 01:06:54.119 few weeks ago, Donald Trump said we were going 01:06:54.119 --> 01:06:57.260 to come out of our huddle and get back to, you 01:06:57.260 --> 01:07:01.739 know, economic action today. Probably not today, 01:07:01.840 --> 01:07:04.239 you know, tomorrow. And that's not happening. 01:07:05.239 --> 01:07:07.929 And I don't. I don't like to listen to Donald 01:07:07.929 --> 01:07:09.809 Trump, and I'm not familiar with everything he 01:07:09.809 --> 01:07:12.289 said. Surely he said many a very stupid thing 01:07:12.289 --> 01:07:16.730 in the last couple of weeks. As I said in the 01:07:16.730 --> 01:07:19.710 podcast that you heard a few weeks back with 01:07:19.710 --> 01:07:24.190 Jim Kunstler, because I don't go in for the absurd, 01:07:24.550 --> 01:07:28.369 hysterical, ridiculous criticisms that the left 01:07:28.369 --> 01:07:30.489 makes of Donald Trump, I come off as a Trump 01:07:30.489 --> 01:07:32.510 supporter. But I don't like the guy. I don't 01:07:32.510 --> 01:07:36.559 like his policies. And I... I find his personality 01:07:36.559 --> 01:07:39.980 off -putting, to say the least. And I think he 01:07:39.980 --> 01:07:43.980 has absolutely zero intellectual qualification 01:07:43.980 --> 01:07:47.940 to cope with the current situation that he really 01:07:47.940 --> 01:07:52.199 does need to be deferring to technocrats, much 01:07:52.199 --> 01:07:55.320 as I hate to say it. I mean, there is a strong 01:07:55.320 --> 01:07:58.400 argument to be made for a pandemic is no time 01:07:58.400 --> 01:08:01.440 for democracy. And really, when it comes to public 01:08:01.440 --> 01:08:07.829 health, the government takes on behalf of the 01:08:07.829 --> 01:08:10.690 citizenry should never be up for a vote. Some 01:08:10.690 --> 01:08:13.329 people have informed reasons for holding a particular 01:08:13.329 --> 01:08:16.930 opinion on certain topics, and most people don't. 01:08:17.649 --> 01:08:20.090 Most people, myself included, have absolutely 01:08:20.090 --> 01:08:23.850 no basis for putting forth an opinion as to how 01:08:23.850 --> 01:08:26.970 many ventilators the federal government should 01:08:26.970 --> 01:08:29.149 stockpile in a time when there's no sight of 01:08:29.149 --> 01:08:32.210 a specific pandemic on the horizon. In hindsight, 01:08:32.329 --> 01:08:34.760 I think, yes. People like me can certainly hold 01:08:34.760 --> 01:08:37.159 the opinion and be justified in doing so that 01:08:37.159 --> 01:08:41.119 the number that was arrived at was inadequate. 01:08:41.760 --> 01:08:45.739 But I doubt it's because the technocrats and 01:08:45.739 --> 01:08:50.220 the employees of government bodies like the CDC 01:08:50.220 --> 01:08:54.600 underestimated what would be necessary. I think 01:08:54.600 --> 01:08:57.899 we've all heard of... reports brought to light 01:08:57.899 --> 01:09:00.739 saying this is a possibility. And if, you know, 01:09:00.739 --> 01:09:02.739 should a pandemic occur, we are not prepared 01:09:02.739 --> 01:09:06.760 for it. Such messages went unheeded. So I don't 01:09:06.760 --> 01:09:08.680 blame the technocrats. And there's just certain 01:09:08.680 --> 01:09:10.779 things that shouldn't be up for a vote. The methodology 01:09:10.779 --> 01:09:14.640 for municipal wastewater treatment should not 01:09:14.640 --> 01:09:16.859 be up for a vote because most people are not 01:09:16.859 --> 01:09:19.939 qualified to hold an opinion on that. And they're 01:09:19.939 --> 01:09:22.920 even less qualified to impose their opinion on 01:09:22.920 --> 01:09:25.289 people who know better. All right. So what you're 01:09:25.289 --> 01:09:27.770 going to hear in this episode is more conversation 01:09:27.770 --> 01:09:32.510 with Brent Bednarik. And I apologize in the podcast 01:09:32.510 --> 01:09:35.189 that I put out. I think I pronounced his name 01:09:35.189 --> 01:09:37.789 Badnarik. You know, Michael Badnarik was the 01:09:37.789 --> 01:09:42.289 Libertarian Party candidate. Oh, I forget which 01:09:42.289 --> 01:09:45.510 election cycle. One of the, you know, the aughts. 01:09:46.789 --> 01:09:50.409 2004, perhaps. That sounds about right. So I've 01:09:50.409 --> 01:09:54.369 heard and said Michael Badnarik many times. heard 01:09:54.369 --> 01:09:57.850 and said Brent Bednarik far fewer times. And 01:09:57.850 --> 01:10:00.470 I think I pronounced his last name Bednarik in 01:10:00.470 --> 01:10:04.949 the podcast. And before I get into the conversation 01:10:04.949 --> 01:10:08.729 with Brent Bednarik, the remainder of the conversation, 01:10:08.850 --> 01:10:11.270 there's about a half hour left. I want to say 01:10:11.270 --> 01:10:14.289 early on. In the conversation, I oversimplify 01:10:14.289 --> 01:10:16.310 something. I basically say Moore's law has come 01:10:16.310 --> 01:10:17.949 to an end and computers aren't improving anymore. 01:10:18.069 --> 01:10:21.130 And I completely understand, I even understood 01:10:21.130 --> 01:10:22.569 in the moment, I just didn't stop to correct 01:10:22.569 --> 01:10:26.189 myself, that that's not true. The specific process, 01:10:26.289 --> 01:10:29.250 which has maintained a pretty consistent level 01:10:29.250 --> 01:10:32.329 of price performance improvements in computing 01:10:32.329 --> 01:10:36.109 hardware over the past several decades, is coming 01:10:36.109 --> 01:10:39.609 to an end. There's only so, I mean, the process 01:10:39.609 --> 01:10:43.220 has been shrinking. the, you know, the circuit 01:10:43.220 --> 01:10:46.060 patterns that are etched into silicon. And there 01:10:46.060 --> 01:10:48.420 is just, there is a limit as to how far you can 01:10:48.420 --> 01:10:50.340 shrink that before the pathways that you're sending 01:10:50.340 --> 01:10:52.979 electrons down don't really effectively convey 01:10:52.979 --> 01:10:54.779 electrons. You know, they'll start to jump the 01:10:54.779 --> 01:10:57.819 track. That process, while nearing its end, hasn't 01:10:57.819 --> 01:11:00.039 completely reached its end. But more importantly, 01:11:00.279 --> 01:11:02.060 and you don't need to write to me to tell me 01:11:02.060 --> 01:11:06.079 this, I understand, there are other ways to... 01:11:06.569 --> 01:11:08.989 improve computer performance, you know, to improve 01:11:08.989 --> 01:11:10.989 the power of computer hardware, other than just 01:11:10.989 --> 01:11:14.770 relying on Moore's law of, you know, increasingly 01:11:14.770 --> 01:11:19.210 smaller, denser circuits printed into chips. 01:11:20.010 --> 01:11:23.789 And likely, although I don't think it's going 01:11:23.789 --> 01:11:27.729 to happen anytime soon, there will be a new computer 01:11:27.729 --> 01:11:30.590 paradigm which replaces integrated circuits altogether. 01:11:32.120 --> 01:11:34.939 whether it'll be optical computing, quantum computing, 01:11:35.340 --> 01:11:37.979 DNA computing. I mean, there's something that 01:11:37.979 --> 01:11:40.260 none of us have ever heard of. I have no idea. 01:11:41.199 --> 01:11:44.720 Eventually, there will be a new methodology for 01:11:44.720 --> 01:11:46.859 creating computer hardware, which produces improvements 01:11:46.859 --> 01:11:49.859 that are an order of magnitude or more over the 01:11:49.859 --> 01:11:53.739 current paradigm. But I don't have any expectation 01:11:53.739 --> 01:11:55.880 that that's going to happen, that I'll see it. 01:11:56.000 --> 01:11:58.239 It might not happen in my lifetime. It might 01:11:58.239 --> 01:12:00.380 happen five years from now, and I will, you know. 01:12:00.800 --> 01:12:02.739 look silly for having made such a conservative 01:12:02.739 --> 01:12:04.960 statement, but I don't expect, like artificial 01:12:04.960 --> 01:12:06.899 general intelligence, I don't expect to see in 01:12:06.899 --> 01:12:11.380 my lifetime. I know the few, very few singularitarians 01:12:11.380 --> 01:12:13.840 out there in the Sea Realm Vault audience will 01:12:13.840 --> 01:12:16.420 disagree and think that I've just made an absurd 01:12:16.420 --> 01:12:21.619 statement. So it goes. This applies to both conversations 01:12:21.619 --> 01:12:24.039 that you'll hear in this episode. The first one 01:12:24.039 --> 01:12:27.180 is with Brent Bednarik. And the second one is 01:12:27.180 --> 01:12:29.180 some remainder conversation with James Howard 01:12:29.180 --> 01:12:32.319 Kunstler. We're in a time when events are moving 01:12:32.319 --> 01:12:34.800 rapidly, particularly with respect to the pandemic. 01:12:35.279 --> 01:12:40.020 And I think that opinions have a very short shelf 01:12:40.020 --> 01:12:43.020 life in this moment. You know, if somebody makes 01:12:43.020 --> 01:12:46.020 a statement or a prediction, which a couple of 01:12:46.020 --> 01:12:48.180 weeks later seems far weaker than it was in the 01:12:48.180 --> 01:12:50.159 moment they made it, I think that's understandable 01:12:50.159 --> 01:12:55.270 and forgivable. And I hope that I will be forgiven 01:12:55.270 --> 01:12:58.869 for my misstatements in this period. But that 01:12:58.869 --> 01:13:01.710 is the risk when you knowingly talk into a microphone, 01:13:01.770 --> 01:13:04.949 record yourself, and put it out there for the 01:13:04.949 --> 01:13:08.729 public to evaluate, dissect, throw back at you. 01:13:09.449 --> 01:13:12.109 It's the risk you take. It's the risk I take. 01:13:12.550 --> 01:13:14.890 So I am inclined to be more forgiving of people 01:13:14.890 --> 01:13:17.229 who, you know, make bold statements in public, 01:13:17.270 --> 01:13:22.399 which time is not kind to. And maybe as you listen 01:13:22.399 --> 01:13:24.859 to this segment of conversation with Brent Bednarik 01:13:24.859 --> 01:13:28.420 coming up, you'll understand why this thought 01:13:28.420 --> 01:13:32.439 came to mind. It occurred to me in editing the 01:13:32.439 --> 01:13:37.460 conversation with Brent that Barack Obama was 01:13:37.460 --> 01:13:41.579 the Marcus Aurelius of the American empire. What 01:13:41.579 --> 01:13:46.279 am I talking about? Marcus Aurelius was an intellectual, 01:13:46.600 --> 01:13:50.479 you know, sagacious Roman emperor. He wrote, 01:13:50.890 --> 01:13:53.369 philosophy. I think he may have written poetry 01:13:53.369 --> 01:13:57.029 as well. He was the scholar emperor, and yet 01:13:57.029 --> 01:13:59.729 he was the embodiment of a corrupt system. And 01:13:59.729 --> 01:14:04.010 he left the empire, you know, under the care 01:14:04.010 --> 01:14:07.390 of his reckless, irresponsible son, Commodus. 01:14:07.810 --> 01:14:11.170 It seemed like he should have known better, but 01:14:11.170 --> 01:14:13.609 he didn't challenge the system, you know, which 01:14:13.609 --> 01:14:16.329 was the basis of his power. And he didn't reform 01:14:16.329 --> 01:14:19.010 it in any meaningful way before he passed it 01:14:19.010 --> 01:14:22.479 off to somebody else. Okay, and with those disjointed 01:14:22.479 --> 01:14:24.319 comments out of the way, here is the conclusion 01:14:24.319 --> 01:14:27.800 of my recent conversation with Brent Bednarik. 01:14:32.180 --> 01:14:34.140 I don't think it's the virus that's doing the 01:14:34.140 --> 01:14:36.239 damage, though. I think it's our maladaptive 01:14:36.239 --> 01:14:39.500 response to it and our lack of preparation, you 01:14:39.500 --> 01:14:42.699 know, rational preparation that's really causing 01:14:42.699 --> 01:14:45.260 the damage. But I think this virus, it's got 01:14:45.260 --> 01:14:47.579 training wheels on it. This is what I've been 01:14:47.579 --> 01:14:49.460 saying to various people when I talk to them 01:14:49.460 --> 01:14:51.859 about this issue is that, you know, this thing 01:14:51.859 --> 01:14:55.359 is largely sparing of young people and it focuses 01:14:55.359 --> 01:14:57.739 mostly on older people and, you know, like smokers 01:14:57.739 --> 01:15:00.659 and people with compromised immune systems. Imagine 01:15:00.659 --> 01:15:03.039 if it was the reverse. Imagine if this virus 01:15:03.039 --> 01:15:06.539 preferentially killed children and spared the 01:15:06.539 --> 01:15:10.010 elderly. we would be freaking out. I mean, utterly 01:15:10.010 --> 01:15:12.710 freaking out as a society. I would be right there 01:15:12.710 --> 01:15:15.390 with everybody else who had totally abandoned 01:15:15.390 --> 01:15:18.529 all rationality. And if, you know, if it's my 01:15:18.529 --> 01:15:21.850 kids or your life, well, sorry, your life is 01:15:21.850 --> 01:15:25.949 forfeit. And parents are like that. So, you know, 01:15:25.949 --> 01:15:29.170 this, this virus, hopefully we can learn some 01:15:29.170 --> 01:15:32.930 things as, you know, as a sprawling, chaotic, 01:15:33.029 --> 01:15:35.649 overbuilt, too complex system, we can adapt. 01:15:36.239 --> 01:15:39.140 to this event and hopefully respond more adaptively 01:15:39.140 --> 01:15:42.199 to the next one which could be much much worse 01:15:42.199 --> 01:15:44.920 objectively speaking in terms of death rate and 01:15:44.920 --> 01:15:46.680 you know even in terms of transmission rate it 01:15:46.680 --> 01:15:50.460 could be worse see i'm with you like i think 01:15:50.460 --> 01:15:53.800 that's reasonable i think what i think this is 01:15:53.800 --> 01:15:57.420 kind of again what we started off on this you 01:15:57.420 --> 01:16:00.000 have decided that this idea that it's going to 01:16:00.000 --> 01:16:02.739 the to the negative you're just like no it doesn't 01:16:02.739 --> 01:16:06.779 work like For the time I've been in here, here's 01:16:06.779 --> 01:16:08.500 the issues I have, and you're leaning more towards 01:16:08.500 --> 01:16:13.000 the positive. Hey, and we're just doing math 01:16:13.000 --> 01:16:14.399 in our head, and we're coming to a different 01:16:14.399 --> 01:16:17.020 conclusion. And I get that. And that's why I'm 01:16:17.020 --> 01:16:19.680 sympathetic to exactly what you're going through, 01:16:19.840 --> 01:16:24.739 because I want to do it too. I just can't on 01:16:24.739 --> 01:16:27.739 this one. I just can't on this one. I have one 01:16:27.739 --> 01:16:29.720 other item on my wish list for this pandemic. 01:16:30.439 --> 01:16:33.100 Sure. We're pretty much at the end of Moore's 01:16:33.100 --> 01:16:35.609 Law. Like I'm talking to you on a four -year 01:16:35.609 --> 01:16:39.710 -old laptop. And in terms of the processing speed 01:16:39.710 --> 01:16:41.869 and the size of the hard drive and what it can 01:16:41.869 --> 01:16:44.789 do, I have no justification for replacing it. 01:16:44.829 --> 01:16:47.130 Even though, you know, two or three laptops back, 01:16:47.210 --> 01:16:50.369 a four -year -old laptop is a dinosaur. You know, 01:16:50.390 --> 01:16:54.430 so Moore's law has slowed down. I am hoping we 01:16:54.430 --> 01:16:57.750 get to a point where electronics go from being 01:16:57.750 --> 01:17:01.840 disposable consumer goods to durable goods. Like, 01:17:01.840 --> 01:17:04.520 you don't worry about paying $3 ,000 for a good 01:17:04.520 --> 01:17:06.060 laptop computer because you know it's going to 01:17:06.060 --> 01:17:10.560 last 15, 20 years and that it will be as serviceable 01:17:10.560 --> 01:17:13.439 and able to handle new software, you know, 10 01:17:13.439 --> 01:17:15.060 years from now as it is the day that you buy 01:17:15.060 --> 01:17:19.079 it. And that, you know, when we become less price 01:17:19.079 --> 01:17:21.220 sensitive in terms, when it comes to electronics, 01:17:21.539 --> 01:17:23.539 we'll be willing to pay the premium of having 01:17:23.539 --> 01:17:27.340 it built here, you know, by unionized American 01:17:27.340 --> 01:17:32.270 workers making 25 bucks an hour. Because if you 01:17:32.270 --> 01:17:34.890 don't plan to replace it next year, and we have 01:17:34.890 --> 01:17:36.689 a whole cast of people who get a new cell phone 01:17:36.689 --> 01:17:38.609 every single year, even though it cost them $2 01:17:38.609 --> 01:17:42.090 ,000, if you expect it to last 20 years, you 01:17:42.090 --> 01:17:47.329 can pay for American built. And that is an element 01:17:47.329 --> 01:17:49.689 in a prosperous society where everybody has something 01:17:49.689 --> 01:17:52.850 to do and is well taken care of by this economy. 01:17:53.649 --> 01:17:59.319 See, okay, let me say, I would love to say, That's 01:17:59.319 --> 01:18:02.180 a possibility, right? Because I agree with you. 01:18:02.220 --> 01:18:04.859 What's not to like? We're not digging up as many 01:18:04.859 --> 01:18:06.920 rare earth metals, so we're not polluting as 01:18:06.920 --> 01:18:09.000 much to get the stuff you need for the smartphone 01:18:09.000 --> 01:18:11.199 because you have it for 10 years. Yeah, I mean, 01:18:11.260 --> 01:18:14.079 it can't get that much better. It's the same 01:18:14.079 --> 01:18:16.460 thing, right? I'm with you. I'm with you on all 01:18:16.460 --> 01:18:20.140 that. Less pollution, bring some jobs back, 100%. 01:18:22.640 --> 01:18:25.020 But I just go back to kind of what you were talking 01:18:25.020 --> 01:18:27.680 about earlier, where if it gets bad, the rich 01:18:27.680 --> 01:18:30.579 are just going to get richer. They're just going 01:18:30.579 --> 01:18:35.039 to play their same games if it gets better. It's 01:18:35.039 --> 01:18:37.760 got to be the reset. Like these systems, like 01:18:37.760 --> 01:18:40.260 these companies, they can't get away from that 01:18:40.260 --> 01:18:43.680 model. That's just what they know. And the get 01:18:43.680 --> 01:18:47.460 local model, it has to emerge to take the place 01:18:47.460 --> 01:18:50.060 of what we have eventually. It has to grow into 01:18:50.060 --> 01:18:52.020 that because these people aren't going to adapt. 01:18:52.430 --> 01:18:56.449 I mean, I was in the corporate world. It's just 01:18:56.449 --> 01:19:00.130 a mindset. Just like the culture of a country. 01:19:00.729 --> 01:19:02.750 There's no changing it. It's on its path and 01:19:02.750 --> 01:19:05.909 it just continues that. I agree. I think that 01:19:05.909 --> 01:19:07.710 would be a lovely thing for things to get more 01:19:07.710 --> 01:19:12.189 local and things to be more permanent. But I 01:19:12.189 --> 01:19:13.670 just think for that to happen, it's just like 01:19:13.670 --> 01:19:15.810 a forest fire. It's got to burn all the way down 01:19:15.810 --> 01:19:18.229 for something like that to happen. We may need 01:19:18.229 --> 01:19:20.329 a political revolution, like a real revolution 01:19:20.329 --> 01:19:22.789 where... People who have not been elected, but 01:19:22.789 --> 01:19:24.949 who have guns go into the office and say, you're 01:19:24.949 --> 01:19:28.130 not the office holder anymore. And we hope that 01:19:28.130 --> 01:19:31.609 those people are the type of people we want doing 01:19:31.609 --> 01:19:35.390 it, right? Invariably, they're not. Because in 01:19:35.390 --> 01:19:37.689 any chaotic time, the person who picks up a gun 01:19:37.689 --> 01:19:40.310 and seizes power is not morally superior to the 01:19:40.310 --> 01:19:41.829 person who was holding power before. They're 01:19:41.829 --> 01:19:43.869 just more adaptable and they're more resilient. 01:19:44.350 --> 01:19:48.189 You know, they've got grit. Well, I'd say he's 01:19:48.189 --> 01:19:50.840 rich, but he doesn't have grit. Yeah, I mean, 01:19:50.859 --> 01:19:53.319 or I would say that the odds of them having both 01:19:53.319 --> 01:19:56.899 that grit and the moral fiber are pretty low. 01:19:57.359 --> 01:20:00.800 Yeah, very low, right? We can hope for it. Like, 01:20:00.819 --> 01:20:04.640 let's really do it. But the odds just don't work 01:20:04.640 --> 01:20:08.460 out in that favor. Okay. All right. Well, hey, 01:20:08.699 --> 01:20:10.960 man, if people have resources and they're thinking 01:20:10.960 --> 01:20:13.239 about doing things, now might be a good time 01:20:13.239 --> 01:20:15.800 to go, there's some uncertainty in this world. 01:20:16.119 --> 01:20:18.300 The world is in play. There's a lot going on. 01:20:18.880 --> 01:20:22.279 maybe the Republic of Texas comes back and is 01:20:22.279 --> 01:20:24.140 a thing. Well, is that the worst place in the 01:20:24.140 --> 01:20:26.659 world to be? I mean, there's some pros and cons. 01:20:27.300 --> 01:20:30.560 Maybe California tries to do it. Maybe the US 01:20:30.560 --> 01:20:32.359 breaks up into regions, just like you were saying 01:20:32.359 --> 01:20:35.100 China does. I mean, that's where I'm talking 01:20:35.100 --> 01:20:39.899 about. I think that reset happened and you can 01:20:39.899 --> 01:20:42.220 remake yourself into whoever you want right now 01:20:42.220 --> 01:20:45.539 because the chaos is going to allow for just... 01:20:47.310 --> 01:20:50.210 The delta, the change, the delta is going to 01:20:50.210 --> 01:20:54.930 be pretty high. What do you mean by that? There's 01:20:54.930 --> 01:20:57.270 a financial calculation that they call it a delta. 01:20:57.409 --> 01:21:01.869 And it's the change in the volatility and the 01:21:01.869 --> 01:21:03.909 percentage of everything. It's the delta of a 01:21:03.909 --> 01:21:08.770 stock. And it's just another way financial people 01:21:08.770 --> 01:21:11.489 value stocks, right? So they call it the delta, 01:21:11.510 --> 01:21:14.109 the change. I think the delta on this one is 01:21:14.109 --> 01:21:16.529 going to be pretty high. Now, will it all be 01:21:16.529 --> 01:21:18.680 positive? Yeah, it could. Will it all be negative? 01:21:18.800 --> 01:21:22.479 It could. Could it be 50 -50? It could. You just 01:21:22.479 --> 01:21:24.539 got to look at the probabilities. So the delta 01:21:24.539 --> 01:21:29.359 is a measure of volatility? Change, yeah. Change? 01:21:29.659 --> 01:21:32.020 Yeah, there's a volatility in text, but yeah, 01:21:32.060 --> 01:21:34.479 the delta is a change. Mathematicians came up 01:21:34.479 --> 01:21:38.199 with it. I don't really understand it. I just 01:21:38.199 --> 01:21:41.020 know the change, it's the delta. What's going 01:21:41.020 --> 01:21:45.130 to be the spread kind of a thing? So you say 01:21:45.130 --> 01:21:49.789 you got rid of most of your firearms? Well, yeah, 01:21:49.810 --> 01:21:52.609 until this all happened. And then I used the 01:21:52.609 --> 01:21:55.510 old credit card and went back to what I know. 01:21:57.270 --> 01:22:03.449 For decades, I've been voting libertarian, which 01:22:03.449 --> 01:22:07.829 I will not be doing anymore. But I'm strongly 01:22:07.829 --> 01:22:10.609 in favor of the Second Amendment and the right 01:22:10.609 --> 01:22:14.659 to bear arms on an intellectual level. Myself, 01:22:14.659 --> 01:22:17.319 I'm unarmed. I have no weapons here where I live. 01:22:17.460 --> 01:22:24.199 I did get to fire an AR -15 last fall. What an 01:22:24.199 --> 01:22:26.979 anticlimactic experience. It's like this little 01:22:26.979 --> 01:22:30.960 toy. I got to fire a 12 -gauge shotgun in the 01:22:30.960 --> 01:22:32.899 same outing, and that had some kinetic action. 01:22:33.039 --> 01:22:36.239 That was satisfying. A pump -action shotgun, 01:22:36.319 --> 01:22:39.920 that was for real. The AK -47 was like playing 01:22:39.920 --> 01:22:44.640 a video game. it doesn't make much noise. There's 01:22:44.640 --> 01:22:47.460 not much recoil. It's just, and it's a little 01:22:47.460 --> 01:22:51.479 gun. Well, I don't, I don't know exactly what 01:22:51.479 --> 01:22:53.020 you shot. You might've shot like an AR pistol 01:22:53.020 --> 01:22:56.020 or something. It's a rifle, but compared to the 01:22:56.020 --> 01:22:58.359 shotgun, it just, it wasn't like, I'm, I'm a 01:22:58.359 --> 01:23:04.300 large person. An AR 15 looks small. So you're 01:23:04.300 --> 01:23:06.939 saying the, the big black scary rifle wasn't 01:23:06.939 --> 01:23:08.579 as big and black and scary as you thought it 01:23:08.579 --> 01:23:13.060 was black. Okay. I'll grant you that. It was 01:23:13.060 --> 01:23:18.699 painted black. So, okay. For all the gun guys 01:23:18.699 --> 01:23:21.500 and girls who are listening to you, this is one 01:23:21.500 --> 01:23:26.720 of the things that just drives us crazy. There 01:23:26.720 --> 01:23:29.260 was a video that showed this guy and he had, 01:23:29.520 --> 01:23:31.439 I don't even, I think he was just in AR and he 01:23:31.439 --> 01:23:34.319 was given a press conference of why this thing 01:23:34.319 --> 01:23:38.710 was the worst ever. And he couldn't even. identify 01:23:38.710 --> 01:23:42.069 what it was like he would call it a clip he said 01:23:42.069 --> 01:23:44.970 it was a magazine like he didn't know the caliber 01:23:44.970 --> 01:23:50.930 and when gun people a lot of times talk to not 01:23:50.930 --> 01:23:56.050 you know anti -gun people you can ask them you 01:23:56.050 --> 01:23:58.430 know what's the number 90 well have you ever 01:23:58.430 --> 01:24:01.369 fired a gun and the answer is no they know nothing 01:24:01.369 --> 01:24:04.250 about them they know absolutely nothing because 01:24:04.250 --> 01:24:08.350 the truth is guns And how they're built and what 01:24:08.350 --> 01:24:11.989 people can do are not nearly as bad as they think 01:24:11.989 --> 01:24:15.109 they are in one stance. But then kind of on the 01:24:15.109 --> 01:24:17.369 other stance, they can be wicked and they can 01:24:17.369 --> 01:24:20.949 make them even worse. Because it's just a technology. 01:24:21.289 --> 01:24:24.189 It's a very simple technology. It's just metal. 01:24:24.529 --> 01:24:26.930 There's no circuitry in it. It's just all mechanical. 01:24:27.310 --> 01:24:31.789 And we can do a ton of things with it. So any 01:24:31.789 --> 01:24:35.620 of these people who talk about... restrictions 01:24:35.620 --> 01:24:39.460 or this or that or bans or whatever they realize 01:24:39.460 --> 01:24:41.500 they you automatically realize one they don't 01:24:41.500 --> 01:24:43.180 know anything about guns or two they're just 01:24:43.180 --> 01:24:47.319 it's just a slow step to get them all banned 01:24:47.319 --> 01:24:50.619 and most of the people who support that know 01:24:50.619 --> 01:24:53.199 nothing about guns it's actually pretty funny 01:24:53.199 --> 01:24:56.079 and people who know nothing about guns but are 01:24:56.079 --> 01:24:59.079 really bent out of shape over assault rifles 01:25:00.039 --> 01:25:01.939 They just can't seem to process, because I've 01:25:01.939 --> 01:25:04.159 encountered and had conversations with many such 01:25:04.159 --> 01:25:06.819 people, and I point out, look, almost all gun 01:25:06.819 --> 01:25:10.140 crimes are committed with handguns. You know, 01:25:10.159 --> 01:25:12.939 all the gun crimes that involve a rifle is like 01:25:12.939 --> 01:25:17.340 3%, and assault rifle is a subset of that 3%. 01:25:17.340 --> 01:25:21.640 It is a minuscule, you know, it is the outlier, 01:25:21.680 --> 01:25:23.699 and you don't make laws based on the outlier 01:25:23.699 --> 01:25:29.020 cases in a rational society. Right. those you 01:25:29.020 --> 01:25:30.960 know that tiny fraction of that three percent 01:25:30.960 --> 01:25:33.380 some of those incidents were you know really 01:25:33.380 --> 01:25:35.659 telegenic and spectacular and attention grabbing 01:25:35.659 --> 01:25:39.500 and in such moments and we have this media that 01:25:39.500 --> 01:25:43.340 you know they have to fill multiple channels 01:25:43.340 --> 01:25:48.039 of content 24 7 And if it involves violence and 01:25:48.039 --> 01:25:50.359 civil disruption, wow, that's exciting. They're 01:25:50.359 --> 01:25:52.020 going to play it over and over and over again. 01:25:52.279 --> 01:25:55.380 And for people who are just responding with their 01:25:55.380 --> 01:25:57.359 limbic system and not thinking about these things, 01:25:57.439 --> 01:25:59.520 every time they hear the story about the shooting, 01:25:59.640 --> 01:26:02.720 it's like they lived through it again. And so 01:26:02.720 --> 01:26:05.880 we're living at a time of unprecedented personal 01:26:05.880 --> 01:26:08.760 safety. And yet, because of the media and because 01:26:08.760 --> 01:26:11.380 people have opinions about things they don't 01:26:11.380 --> 01:26:15.699 know anything about, really. We live in a psychological 01:26:15.699 --> 01:26:19.100 environment that is steeped in fear. People think 01:26:19.100 --> 01:26:21.579 that they're in great personal danger. Well, 01:26:21.579 --> 01:26:25.359 they are because they drive cars. So if you're 01:26:25.359 --> 01:26:27.159 rational and if you're thinking about what's 01:26:27.159 --> 01:26:30.000 really a danger to you, you should be really 01:26:30.000 --> 01:26:32.180 selective about when you get in a car and drive 01:26:32.180 --> 01:26:35.260 it somewhere. Yeah, I completely agree. 100%, 01:26:35.260 --> 01:26:38.220 right? But I've actually thought about it too 01:26:38.220 --> 01:26:40.319 because when I did sell my ARs and I did get 01:26:40.319 --> 01:26:43.500 into the whole yoga thing. I was kind of looking 01:26:43.500 --> 01:26:45.859 around going, this thing, this thing's pretty 01:26:45.859 --> 01:26:48.119 safe. I'm not heading to Chicago. I'm not heading. 01:26:48.239 --> 01:26:51.260 I know where not to go. And I know where I, where 01:26:51.260 --> 01:26:53.800 myself should be. And I do look around and I'm 01:26:53.800 --> 01:26:57.239 like, it is pretty safe. And I did sell mine. 01:26:57.340 --> 01:26:59.460 And I did realize I'm like, I just really don't 01:26:59.460 --> 01:27:03.239 want to take a human life now. I just like, I'm 01:27:03.239 --> 01:27:06.420 not trying to be a superhero. I'm not like, I 01:27:06.420 --> 01:27:09.239 don't know if I need one anymore. And I did. 01:27:09.279 --> 01:27:12.279 And I sold them all. Well, not all of them. Not 01:27:12.279 --> 01:27:15.359 all of them. But that really was my mindset. 01:27:15.979 --> 01:27:19.000 And with everything that was going on, I got 01:27:19.000 --> 01:27:21.420 to tell you, the far left made me change my mind. 01:27:21.960 --> 01:27:24.460 The far left made me come up with an argument 01:27:24.460 --> 01:27:27.079 that I think kind of should be the end all be 01:27:27.079 --> 01:27:29.239 all. Like, I don't want to have an argument about 01:27:29.239 --> 01:27:32.880 a 30 round magazine. I just, like, I'm not having 01:27:32.880 --> 01:27:37.020 that argument. What I say is, if you take countries 01:27:37.020 --> 01:27:39.539 that are similar to the US, so what does that 01:27:39.539 --> 01:27:43.159 mean? Pretty large, really large, militaristic, 01:27:43.399 --> 01:27:48.840 right? Diverse population. Okay, who can you 01:27:48.840 --> 01:27:51.119 compare those to? Well, I think we can compare 01:27:51.119 --> 01:27:53.680 ourselves a little bit to Russia and I think 01:27:53.680 --> 01:27:57.159 a little bit to China in certain aspects. And 01:27:57.159 --> 01:28:00.020 people want to say, well, gun control works in 01:28:00.020 --> 01:28:02.020 other places like Australia. I don't think we're 01:28:02.020 --> 01:28:03.420 the same as Australia. I think we're the same 01:28:03.420 --> 01:28:05.619 as these kind of big countries. And they have 01:28:05.619 --> 01:28:08.100 gone the left route. They went the left route. 01:28:09.980 --> 01:28:12.800 what it turned out to be was a lot of gulags. 01:28:13.779 --> 01:28:16.439 And I think of myself, I go, are school shootings 01:28:16.439 --> 01:28:19.100 awful? Do I understand why some of these young 01:28:19.100 --> 01:28:21.140 kids in Florida are yelling at us because they 01:28:21.140 --> 01:28:22.800 fear going to school because of the shooting? 01:28:22.960 --> 01:28:24.819 I sit there and I go, I'm sympathetic to them. 01:28:24.840 --> 01:28:27.220 I get that. I never had to deal with that. Yeah, 01:28:27.319 --> 01:28:30.920 you're right. If you have this active shooter 01:28:30.920 --> 01:28:33.539 drills, that will leave an impression on you 01:28:33.539 --> 01:28:37.100 and not in a good way. So, and to the mothers 01:28:37.100 --> 01:28:38.880 out there who are like, I don't want my baby 01:28:38.880 --> 01:28:43.170 shot. I can't argue that. But what I do know 01:28:43.170 --> 01:28:48.470 is, or what I do think is, is the left, for some 01:28:48.470 --> 01:28:53.489 reason, ends in gulags. And I know myself, and 01:28:53.489 --> 01:28:56.550 I know I would rather get shot any day than be 01:28:56.550 --> 01:28:58.869 put on a train and sent up to a re -education 01:28:58.869 --> 01:29:01.630 camp in Wisconsin freezing my balls off. Like, 01:29:01.630 --> 01:29:04.229 I'm lazy. That sounds very uncomfortable to me. 01:29:05.310 --> 01:29:09.930 And if I had to choose between guns or gulags... 01:29:10.329 --> 01:29:12.949 I have decided the gun is the way I want to go 01:29:12.949 --> 01:29:16.210 out. And I don't think that's an unfair statement. 01:29:16.970 --> 01:29:19.510 And what the wokesters have demonstrated, wherever 01:29:19.510 --> 01:29:22.649 they manage to snatch even a little tiny piece 01:29:22.649 --> 01:29:25.029 of power, they immediately use it to coerce people. 01:29:25.229 --> 01:29:28.229 Immediately. With absolutely no self -consciousness 01:29:28.229 --> 01:29:32.050 and no indication whatsoever of any sort of reticence 01:29:32.050 --> 01:29:35.550 to exercise their newly acquired power. It is 01:29:35.550 --> 01:29:38.069 something about the leftist mentality that, yes, 01:29:38.149 --> 01:29:42.880 it leads to... firing squads and public shamings 01:29:42.880 --> 01:29:45.640 and, you know, all manner of really vicious, 01:29:45.680 --> 01:29:47.300 ugly behavior. Now, of course, we've seen the 01:29:47.300 --> 01:29:50.859 right break bad as well, but the left seems to 01:29:50.859 --> 01:29:54.119 do it like on cue. Like there's a very short 01:29:54.119 --> 01:29:58.279 sequence that leads to that. And it all goes 01:29:58.279 --> 01:30:00.520 the same way. And I'm not even against the left. 01:30:01.140 --> 01:30:04.760 I really like Chris Hedges. I really like that 01:30:04.760 --> 01:30:06.939 guy. And he said that the left really shouldn't 01:30:06.939 --> 01:30:09.840 be in power. they should be in power like 40 01:30:09.840 --> 01:30:13.800 like it should be 55 45 republican you know right 01:30:13.800 --> 01:30:16.520 left the rights are good managers that kind that 01:30:16.520 --> 01:30:19.800 keep the trains on the tracks the 45 are good 01:30:19.800 --> 01:30:22.399 ideas and the heart and everything but you got 01:30:22.399 --> 01:30:25.680 to do this balance and we kind of are better 01:30:25.680 --> 01:30:27.760 when we have a little bit more of that conscientious 01:30:28.220 --> 01:30:31.779 That control. Hey, and I'm all for the left coming 01:30:31.779 --> 01:30:35.119 in at the right time. No child labor, like, you 01:30:35.119 --> 01:30:37.300 know, women's suffrage, all that kind of stuff. 01:30:37.699 --> 01:30:42.460 Perfectly for it. Universal health care. Sure. 01:30:42.600 --> 01:30:45.020 Show me a plan. Right. Show me a plan on how 01:30:45.020 --> 01:30:48.199 we get there. And I'm not against it. I mean, 01:30:48.239 --> 01:30:51.520 I do think that there I do think that the more 01:30:51.520 --> 01:30:53.720 control you give, the more you centralize something, 01:30:53.979 --> 01:30:56.199 the worse it goes, which is kind of the left. 01:30:56.680 --> 01:30:59.789 Right. So maybe universal healthcare, we just 01:30:59.789 --> 01:31:01.630 can't get there because it's too much control. 01:31:02.750 --> 01:31:05.250 I don't know. Is it awful right now? Does it 01:31:05.250 --> 01:31:08.090 have a ton of flaws? Yeah. Do I prefer it, man? 01:31:08.130 --> 01:31:10.329 I don't know. I don't know if I want them to 01:31:10.329 --> 01:31:12.609 have that control. I'm in the VA. I've been to 01:31:12.609 --> 01:31:17.829 VA in Las Vegas, in Dallas, in New York. I don't 01:31:17.829 --> 01:31:20.329 think you want the VA. I really don't. I don't 01:31:20.329 --> 01:31:24.250 think anyone wants that. And if I were ill. And, 01:31:24.270 --> 01:31:26.289 you know, I had access to the VA. I would certainly 01:31:26.289 --> 01:31:27.869 take it because I don't have access to anything 01:31:27.869 --> 01:31:31.050 else. I'm 14 years away from Medicare right now. 01:31:31.430 --> 01:31:34.510 That's my health plan. Stay healthy for the next 01:31:34.510 --> 01:31:37.329 14 years. Right. And I don't disparage you for 01:31:37.329 --> 01:31:40.090 that, right? If situation reversed, I'd be the 01:31:40.090 --> 01:31:44.609 exact same way. I just, I still, I don't know 01:31:44.609 --> 01:31:48.069 if I want that power to be in those knuckleheads 01:31:48.069 --> 01:31:50.949 hands because it could be a trouble again. What's 01:31:50.949 --> 01:31:52.510 the alternative? I mean, whose hands is it in 01:31:52.510 --> 01:31:56.329 now? How is it that we have a private interest 01:31:56.329 --> 01:31:58.710 buys up a drug, which should be in the public 01:31:58.710 --> 01:32:00.529 domain, they make a slight tweak to it, and then 01:32:00.529 --> 01:32:04.390 they put two zeros on the end of the price? Don't 01:32:04.390 --> 01:32:06.829 argue with you. I don't argue with you. Where's 01:32:06.829 --> 01:32:09.609 the country in the world whose economy was crashed 01:32:09.609 --> 01:32:12.689 by having universal health care? Not going to 01:32:12.689 --> 01:32:14.869 argue with you. Where's the country where the 01:32:14.869 --> 01:32:17.729 people are clamoring to pay more because they'd 01:32:17.729 --> 01:32:20.510 rather have a private system? Nobody who has 01:32:20.510 --> 01:32:23.649 it wants to get rid of it. And we don't have 01:32:23.649 --> 01:32:25.470 it. And a lot of people here would like to have 01:32:25.470 --> 01:32:29.229 it. Okay. So I hear you. I hear you. But there's 01:32:29.229 --> 01:32:31.869 a cost to these things. And that's what I don't 01:32:31.869 --> 01:32:33.890 see on either side. Like there's a pro and a 01:32:33.890 --> 01:32:36.529 con to both sides. And everyone talks about their 01:32:36.529 --> 01:32:39.189 pros and not their cons. And that's what gets 01:32:39.189 --> 01:32:41.029 us in trouble. Everything you just mentioned, 01:32:41.270 --> 01:32:44.390 I'm agreeable to that to an extent. Yeah. If 01:32:44.390 --> 01:32:45.810 you show me some things, I'm going to believe 01:32:45.810 --> 01:32:50.149 you. Right. But what's the con? Well, people 01:32:50.149 --> 01:32:52.899 are more on the government tip. They have more 01:32:52.899 --> 01:32:56.279 power. We become less resilient. I see in the 01:32:56.279 --> 01:33:00.239 United States, we become fatter. Well, the fatter 01:33:00.239 --> 01:33:03.159 we, I don't want to pay for fat people. I don't. 01:33:03.359 --> 01:33:06.340 Paying $100 ,000 for, you know, an appendectomy 01:33:06.340 --> 01:33:08.659 when it could be done for 10 doesn't make people 01:33:08.659 --> 01:33:13.060 fat. No, no. Predatory for -profit healthcare 01:33:13.060 --> 01:33:15.399 system isn't what's causing us to be unhealthy. 01:33:15.960 --> 01:33:18.399 I'm not arguing that solution either. And I would 01:33:18.399 --> 01:33:20.960 even say the food and the fast food and what 01:33:20.960 --> 01:33:24.380 we do. Completely, yeah. So that's why I'm really 01:33:24.380 --> 01:33:28.279 not upset about this reset. That's why I'm kind 01:33:28.279 --> 01:33:30.319 of hoping this really is a reset. I'd love to 01:33:30.319 --> 01:33:32.939 see the Monsantos of the world go bye -bye. I'd 01:33:32.939 --> 01:33:35.699 love to see JP Morgan not be here anymore. I 01:33:35.699 --> 01:33:39.899 would. I have no affinity for this. I feel like 01:33:39.899 --> 01:33:42.439 some people use this American way of life or 01:33:42.439 --> 01:33:44.460 whatever we are because we're God's greatest 01:33:44.460 --> 01:33:46.760 country. No, we can be better. We can do better. 01:33:47.239 --> 01:33:50.680 And I hope that happens. That's why I'm hopeful. 01:33:51.119 --> 01:33:54.359 You know, I've lived in Australia and Australians 01:33:54.359 --> 01:33:57.340 enjoy a better quality of life. They have a government 01:33:57.340 --> 01:34:00.020 that is more responsive to human needs than the 01:34:00.020 --> 01:34:02.880 United States. I mean, just as a person who has 01:34:02.880 --> 01:34:05.560 lived in both places, I can tell you, Australia 01:34:05.560 --> 01:34:10.180 does it a lot better for people of normal means. 01:34:10.659 --> 01:34:12.560 You know, if you have a lot of money, the U .S. 01:34:12.560 --> 01:34:15.539 is great. It is amazing. The health care system 01:34:15.539 --> 01:34:18.670 is amazing. If you're a millionaire. You wouldn't 01:34:18.670 --> 01:34:21.630 want to subject yourself to somebody else's nationalized, 01:34:21.649 --> 01:34:24.090 everybody gets a piece healthcare system. You 01:34:24.090 --> 01:34:27.369 might have to wait in line. Hey, I hear you. 01:34:27.430 --> 01:34:29.489 This is what I think happened. I think the United 01:34:29.489 --> 01:34:32.229 States has such a good marketing thing that people 01:34:32.229 --> 01:34:35.789 who want to work their ass off to be rich and 01:34:35.789 --> 01:34:37.449 make money, which there's a lot of people who 01:34:37.449 --> 01:34:40.949 that's their goal. They know where to go. I'll 01:34:40.949 --> 01:34:45.010 go to America. They have that destination. what 01:34:45.010 --> 01:34:47.149 you're looking for, like whatever country provides 01:34:47.149 --> 01:34:49.510 that, I mean, it might be Australia. They just 01:34:49.510 --> 01:34:51.010 don't have a good enough marketing program to 01:34:51.010 --> 01:34:54.510 get you there. And I mean, that might sound like 01:34:54.510 --> 01:34:56.529 someone who can, you know, who has a little bit 01:34:56.529 --> 01:34:58.329 of, maybe a little bit of money to be able to 01:34:58.329 --> 01:35:00.949 have that option and not very, very, very, very, 01:35:00.949 --> 01:35:02.970 very, very, very few people have that option. 01:35:03.329 --> 01:35:05.510 But I think that's, I think that's what this 01:35:05.510 --> 01:35:08.909 whole thing of America was. People would scrape 01:35:08.909 --> 01:35:11.250 to get here to make that money. And that's how 01:35:11.250 --> 01:35:13.680 we grew. And that just became. That just became 01:35:13.680 --> 01:35:17.779 the underlying culture of our economy. And then 01:35:17.779 --> 01:35:23.920 people who don't have the genetic emotional tendencies, 01:35:24.020 --> 01:35:26.539 like the five personality traits, and that's 01:35:26.539 --> 01:35:28.600 not where they want to be. That's not what they 01:35:28.600 --> 01:35:31.180 see value in. I could see how they look at America 01:35:31.180 --> 01:35:33.000 and they're like, this thing's completely crazy. 01:35:33.539 --> 01:35:37.140 And I hear you. I am on your side. I agree with 01:35:37.140 --> 01:35:40.539 that. But I also see the other side of why people... 01:35:40.939 --> 01:35:43.640 try to get here and what that mentality does 01:35:43.640 --> 01:35:46.180 bring to the table in some ways. There's a cost, 01:35:46.220 --> 01:35:49.180 but there's also some benefits. So I'm open to 01:35:49.180 --> 01:35:53.600 hear it all. And if it works, hey, let's try 01:35:53.600 --> 01:35:55.800 it. But anything the government gets involved 01:35:55.800 --> 01:35:59.420 in, they never leave. I think about welfare, 01:35:59.659 --> 01:36:02.739 and I just see that as the worst thing we could 01:36:02.739 --> 01:36:06.159 ever do to the human spirit. I mean, especially 01:36:06.159 --> 01:36:08.359 that multi -generational thing. I just think. 01:36:08.699 --> 01:36:11.260 I look at that from behind and I guess I'm judging 01:36:11.260 --> 01:36:14.319 it, but I just think that's got to be the most 01:36:14.319 --> 01:36:19.479 aggravating lifestyle there is. For me. Yeah. 01:36:19.600 --> 01:36:25.060 No, I'm with you. I was an Andrew Yang supporter, 01:36:25.260 --> 01:36:27.979 but universal basic income was not the thing 01:36:27.979 --> 01:36:30.640 that made me like him. I supported Andrew Yang 01:36:30.640 --> 01:36:36.239 in spite of his UBI proposal. Some people can 01:36:36.239 --> 01:36:38.680 take that $1 ,000 a month and put it to really 01:36:38.680 --> 01:36:40.859 good use and live a very effective, satisfying 01:36:40.859 --> 01:36:44.380 life. But a lot of folks will just go with the 01:36:44.380 --> 01:36:47.479 flow and respond to the incentives that are presented 01:36:47.479 --> 01:36:51.000 to them. And we live in an environment defined 01:36:51.000 --> 01:36:55.500 by maladaptive, perverse incentives. We are incentivized 01:36:55.500 --> 01:36:58.359 to do stupid stuff that is bad for us all the 01:36:58.359 --> 01:37:04.159 time. And because it's fun and it feels good. 01:37:04.760 --> 01:37:07.840 What's that? It's fun and it feels good. I'm 01:37:07.840 --> 01:37:09.800 going to make a prediction right now. Everyone 01:37:09.800 --> 01:37:12.119 gets their $1 ,200 or $1 ,300 or whatever the 01:37:12.119 --> 01:37:17.359 amount is. You know, and this is what I consider 01:37:17.359 --> 01:37:21.460 an IQ thing. There is never going to be more 01:37:21.460 --> 01:37:25.819 sneakers bought. Maybe. That's fine. I have no 01:37:25.819 --> 01:37:27.479 problem with people buying sneakers. I mean, 01:37:27.500 --> 01:37:30.500 even if they're overpriced sneakers. With the 01:37:30.500 --> 01:37:33.260 $1 ,200 that's supposed to be for food? I'm just 01:37:33.260 --> 01:37:36.119 saying. Like, I'm not against it. Do with it 01:37:36.119 --> 01:37:40.100 whatever you want. But I think there's going 01:37:40.100 --> 01:37:42.800 to be articles to show what people spent their 01:37:42.800 --> 01:37:45.020 money on. And you're just going to shake your 01:37:45.020 --> 01:37:48.600 head in disbelief. And I think that's just the 01:37:48.600 --> 01:37:51.500 way it is. And I don't judge. If you give money 01:37:51.500 --> 01:37:53.880 to people who are impulsive and who are just 01:37:53.880 --> 01:37:56.319 going to spend it on tangible stuff immediately, 01:37:56.699 --> 01:37:59.180 that's an amazing stimulus for the economy. When 01:37:59.180 --> 01:38:01.180 you give it to banks and say, loan it to people. 01:38:01.720 --> 01:38:03.600 And they say, nah, we're just going to sit on 01:38:03.600 --> 01:38:05.939 it. That's not any sort of stimulus. I'm not 01:38:05.939 --> 01:38:08.340 arguing with you. Yeah. I mean, I have absolutely 01:38:08.340 --> 01:38:10.619 no problem with people getting their money from 01:38:10.619 --> 01:38:14.039 the government and buying computers or TVs or 01:38:14.039 --> 01:38:19.439 shoes or whatever. But it's a real thing that 01:38:19.439 --> 01:38:21.920 somebody made and somebody sold and somebody 01:38:21.920 --> 01:38:24.439 transported and they're generating economic activity 01:38:24.439 --> 01:38:26.920 every step along the way. And somebody at the 01:38:26.920 --> 01:38:28.560 end of the line who wouldn't otherwise have had 01:38:28.560 --> 01:38:32.079 the money to buy it did. Great. Great. I'm going 01:38:32.079 --> 01:38:35.039 to make your argument stronger for you. And that 01:38:35.039 --> 01:38:40.319 is the just punch to the gut that it is watching 01:38:40.319 --> 01:38:43.920 the circus try to get this money to everyone, 01:38:44.000 --> 01:38:46.920 the length of time and the ups and downs. And 01:38:46.920 --> 01:38:48.739 it's going to be three weeks from the, that's 01:38:48.739 --> 01:38:53.659 what Mnuchin said, right? That thing is insane 01:38:53.659 --> 01:38:56.600 compared to the Federal Reserve pushes a button. 01:38:57.020 --> 01:38:59.479 and gives 10 times that amount to the banks. 01:38:59.640 --> 01:39:00.779 And they've been doing it for the last three 01:39:00.779 --> 01:39:05.800 weeks. You're not writing checks. No, they can 01:39:05.800 --> 01:39:08.960 immediately give $700 billion. No one even batted 01:39:08.960 --> 01:39:11.159 an eye. No one questioned it. No one said anything. 01:39:11.979 --> 01:39:14.260 Nobody said, how are we going to pay for it? 01:39:14.680 --> 01:39:17.119 No, it's just foregone conclusion. Talk about 01:39:17.119 --> 01:39:20.220 a moral hazard. So yeah, and then to give each 01:39:20.220 --> 01:39:24.619 one of us $1 ,300 is this act of God to do it. 01:39:24.699 --> 01:39:27.970 I'm completely on your side. in that regard i'm 01:39:27.970 --> 01:39:29.189 not arguing with you i don't think they should 01:39:29.189 --> 01:39:31.710 give it to the banks but it still doesn't make 01:39:31.710 --> 01:39:34.090 me wrong that they're going to buy whatever they're 01:39:34.090 --> 01:39:36.409 going to buy and it's just what they're going 01:39:36.409 --> 01:39:38.449 to do i can't get mad at a big dumb dog being 01:39:38.449 --> 01:39:41.949 a big dumb dog but when i look about all this 01:39:41.949 --> 01:39:44.569 and when people start realizing that they got 01:39:44.569 --> 01:39:48.630 a measly 1300 to shut up because that's what 01:39:48.630 --> 01:39:50.949 it is it's hush money yeah and they realize money 01:39:50.949 --> 01:39:55.399 right and And then finally, when a number comes 01:39:55.399 --> 01:40:00.560 out about how much the Fed has given to our banks 01:40:00.560 --> 01:40:03.260 and other banks and other central banks, and 01:40:03.260 --> 01:40:07.300 that amount of money comes out, I mean, they're 01:40:07.300 --> 01:40:09.479 going to go crazy. They're going to go nuts. 01:40:09.500 --> 01:40:12.560 Here's my fear for the bad effects of handing 01:40:12.560 --> 01:40:15.819 out money to everybody. Around here, it's just 01:40:15.819 --> 01:40:17.279 going to mean an increase in overdose deaths. 01:40:19.539 --> 01:40:22.750 That's my sneakers. Yeah, but it's very different. 01:40:22.810 --> 01:40:24.789 I wish that the people who are hooked on heroin 01:40:24.789 --> 01:40:27.289 and who, you know, were dying and who would only 01:40:27.289 --> 01:40:29.029 take it, you know, with a partner so that one 01:40:29.029 --> 01:40:31.229 can give Narcan to the other if, you know, somebody 01:40:31.229 --> 01:40:33.890 starts to, if they stop breathing. I hear you. 01:40:34.010 --> 01:40:36.010 I wish they were hooked on expensive sneakers. 01:40:36.510 --> 01:40:39.970 That would be such an improvement. I hear you. 01:40:40.130 --> 01:40:43.529 I have Narcan in a drawer over there. I don't 01:40:43.529 --> 01:40:48.090 use heroin, but it is entirely responsible for 01:40:48.090 --> 01:40:51.319 me to have an anti -overdose drug on hand. Even 01:40:51.319 --> 01:40:53.680 though I don't know who, you know, I might need 01:40:53.680 --> 01:40:56.960 to use it on. There's so much addiction around 01:40:56.960 --> 01:40:59.359 here that it is just, you know, it is the responsible 01:40:59.359 --> 01:41:01.159 thing. It's like having a fire extinguisher. 01:41:02.140 --> 01:41:11.239 I agree. So sneakers, man. I get it. I get it. 01:41:11.300 --> 01:41:13.920 But if they buy sneakers and not food, they're 01:41:13.920 --> 01:41:15.960 going to get hungry, hungry that much quicker. 01:41:16.039 --> 01:41:19.479 And then when those parents don't have food for 01:41:19.479 --> 01:41:23.079 their kids, who's. crying at night just like 01:41:23.079 --> 01:41:25.119 you said my kids hunger is more important than 01:41:25.119 --> 01:41:30.079 you and you know we have on this continent the 01:41:30.079 --> 01:41:36.140 largest continuous swath of high value high productivity 01:41:36.140 --> 01:41:40.840 agricultural land in the world interlaced with 01:41:40.840 --> 01:41:46.479 long navigable rivers people starvation is not 01:41:46.479 --> 01:41:48.060 going to be the problem here more people will 01:41:48.060 --> 01:41:51.340 die from you know cold because they can't they 01:41:51.340 --> 01:41:54.579 don't have utilities they don't have heat more 01:41:54.579 --> 01:41:56.779 people will die from adverse drug interactions 01:41:56.779 --> 01:42:00.000 i mean starvation is not it shouldn't be on your 01:42:00.000 --> 01:42:02.500 list of concerns okay well let me let me throw 01:42:02.500 --> 01:42:04.659 out one more scenario for you because i i was 01:42:04.659 --> 01:42:09.300 in vegas for a year vegas is in the desert vegas 01:42:09.300 --> 01:42:12.659 is in the middle of nowhere yeah vegas only has 01:42:12.659 --> 01:42:15.760 one thing that has any power or influence in 01:42:15.760 --> 01:42:18.859 the entire state and that's the casinos they've 01:42:18.859 --> 01:42:21.680 all shut down. And that's going to be a little 01:42:21.680 --> 01:42:24.300 bit for those to get back up and going. Now, 01:42:24.319 --> 01:42:26.239 they do make nice shoes in Vegas, right? There's 01:42:26.239 --> 01:42:29.739 a big shoe company there? Oh, no, that's just 01:42:29.739 --> 01:42:33.699 an internet thing. They're just in between. Oh, 01:42:33.720 --> 01:42:35.739 I was in Vegas a few years ago. I stayed with 01:42:35.739 --> 01:42:37.140 somebody there. I don't remember the name of 01:42:37.140 --> 01:42:39.380 the company, but he pointed out this shoe company 01:42:39.380 --> 01:42:44.279 to me. Zappos. What is it? Zappos .com. Zappos? 01:42:44.819 --> 01:42:48.210 Yeah. Okay, yeah. They're downtown. They don't 01:42:48.210 --> 01:42:52.850 make shoes. They're just the internet provider 01:42:52.850 --> 01:42:55.869 to have as many different shoe options at a cheap 01:42:55.869 --> 01:42:57.569 price, I think. They don't make anything. The 01:42:57.569 --> 01:43:00.069 shoes are made in China? Shoes are made in China. 01:43:02.109 --> 01:43:07.210 Just think about this. You're a logistics manager 01:43:07.210 --> 01:43:11.210 and your supplies are in Los Angeles because 01:43:11.210 --> 01:43:13.390 that's where most likely the goods are going 01:43:13.390 --> 01:43:16.779 to come from, the ports, to get to Vegas. The 01:43:16.779 --> 01:43:18.579 18 -wheelers are going that. Maybe they're coming 01:43:18.579 --> 01:43:20.159 from Arizona. Who knows? But they're probably 01:43:20.159 --> 01:43:24.420 coming from LA. Well, if I am a Smiths, Kroger, 01:43:24.479 --> 01:43:27.979 or whatever your local grocery store is, if I'm 01:43:27.979 --> 01:43:29.920 a manager who's having problems keeping 10 % 01:43:29.920 --> 01:43:33.000 on the shelf within a 300 -mile radius of me, 01:43:33.100 --> 01:43:37.340 why am I going to go out to Vegas? And I might 01:43:37.340 --> 01:43:40.720 not be able to. Like, what if the trucks, it 01:43:40.720 --> 01:43:44.159 gets too hot or the parts? Who knows? But they're 01:43:44.159 --> 01:43:46.840 in the middle of nowhere. My thing right now 01:43:46.840 --> 01:43:49.380 is people need to get to food and water. Get 01:43:49.380 --> 01:43:51.539 closer to the food. Because you don't think starvation 01:43:51.539 --> 01:43:54.000 is a problem. I mean, hell, you might be right. 01:43:54.319 --> 01:43:59.100 But why would I take that risk? Right now, I'm 01:43:59.100 --> 01:44:01.199 looking. I surveyed the battlefield. And I say, 01:44:01.239 --> 01:44:03.680 I need to get next to food and water. That, to 01:44:03.680 --> 01:44:06.859 me, seems like a good idea with all the things 01:44:06.859 --> 01:44:09.939 that are going wrong right now. And I don't think 01:44:09.939 --> 01:44:15.119 that's overreacting. If I was in Vegas right 01:44:15.119 --> 01:44:16.699 now, I would have gotten my car and already left. 01:44:17.000 --> 01:44:19.300 I mean, obviously, I left Fort Worth. But give 01:44:19.300 --> 01:44:21.100 me one good reason to stay in Vegas right now. 01:44:23.399 --> 01:44:26.779 Yeah. There are places where there are more people 01:44:26.779 --> 01:44:29.680 living there than the local environment can support 01:44:29.680 --> 01:44:32.560 in any sort of rational system. California, all 01:44:32.560 --> 01:44:34.539 of Southern California, way too overpopulated. 01:44:34.739 --> 01:44:37.600 Nobody should be moving to California. No water. 01:44:38.029 --> 01:44:40.489 But at the same time, I'm pretty sure that two, 01:44:40.649 --> 01:44:42.550 three, four years from now, you and I will both 01:44:42.550 --> 01:44:45.609 be more concerned with carrying extra weight 01:44:45.609 --> 01:44:49.949 than we are with not getting enough to eat. You 01:44:49.949 --> 01:44:52.850 know what? It's disastrous. Economically, we 01:44:52.850 --> 01:44:55.390 can live through a disastrous three or four years, 01:44:55.430 --> 01:44:57.109 and we'll still be worried about getting fat 01:44:57.109 --> 01:44:59.470 in a few years' time because we are awash in 01:44:59.470 --> 01:45:03.729 cheap calories. I hope you're right. I really 01:45:03.729 --> 01:45:07.229 do. If people on the comments or whatever think 01:45:07.229 --> 01:45:09.989 I'm absolutely out of my mind, man, that would 01:45:09.989 --> 01:45:12.590 be lovely. Most of my audience agrees with you 01:45:12.590 --> 01:45:15.909 more than they agree with me at this point. And 01:45:15.909 --> 01:45:19.210 I get why you're doing what you're doing. I really 01:45:19.210 --> 01:45:21.409 do. And you're fighting the good fight. Good 01:45:21.409 --> 01:45:24.649 for you. Hey, Brent, that's a good note to close 01:45:24.649 --> 01:45:27.949 it on. KMO, you're doing good work. Keep it up. 01:45:29.659 --> 01:45:31.880 Great place to end. We just have to wrap it up 01:45:31.880 --> 01:45:33.800 because I actually have to leave my stronghold 01:45:33.800 --> 01:45:35.899 here and go out and shoot some video for the 01:45:35.899 --> 01:45:38.819 local TV station. And these file sizes, once 01:45:38.819 --> 01:45:40.659 they get over an hour, they get unmanageable 01:45:40.659 --> 01:45:43.920 and we're well over an hour. Okay. All right. 01:45:43.960 --> 01:45:46.140 Well, hey, it was fun. It was great meeting you 01:45:46.140 --> 01:45:48.279 and hope to do it again sometime. We will do 01:45:48.279 --> 01:45:50.340 it again. As Jim likes to say, we will ride again. 01:45:51.079 --> 01:45:58.590 Absolutely. All right. See ya. Take care. Sorry, 01:45:58.649 --> 01:46:01.149 we had some initial trouble connecting. But now, 01:46:01.289 --> 01:46:08.029 see, my iMac had to get wiped because I had some 01:46:08.029 --> 01:46:10.729 kind of a software problem. So a lot of things 01:46:10.729 --> 01:46:14.270 that had been installed became uninstalled. And 01:46:14.270 --> 01:46:16.909 that only happened like two, three days ago. 01:46:17.609 --> 01:46:20.550 I have the reverse problem. You know, you're 01:46:20.550 --> 01:46:23.569 a Mac guy. I'm a PC and Android guy. But I have 01:46:23.569 --> 01:46:26.159 an iPad. that I got because I wanted to draw 01:46:26.159 --> 01:46:28.319 on it because I like the Apple Pencil. It is 01:46:28.319 --> 01:46:32.500 my favorite, you know, digital stylus. But I 01:46:32.500 --> 01:46:35.319 hate everything else about Apple. I hate the 01:46:35.319 --> 01:46:37.479 operating system. I hate the design aesthetic. 01:46:37.600 --> 01:46:39.699 I just hate everything about it. So I go months 01:46:39.699 --> 01:46:43.319 without opening the iPad. But yesterday I opened 01:46:43.319 --> 01:46:47.539 it because I had signed up for an online course 01:46:47.539 --> 01:46:52.090 in graphic narrative, which, you know. Part of 01:46:52.090 --> 01:46:54.310 the course was using a program called Procreate, 01:46:54.350 --> 01:46:56.569 which is only available for the iPad. So I got 01:46:56.569 --> 01:46:59.409 the iPad out, and I just got into this really 01:46:59.409 --> 01:47:01.949 frustrating, you know, password dance with Apple. 01:47:02.810 --> 01:47:06.850 I needed to unzip a file. And apparently to unzip 01:47:06.850 --> 01:47:09.510 a file, I had to download a particular app from 01:47:09.510 --> 01:47:11.430 the App Store. But to do that, I had to log in. 01:47:11.529 --> 01:47:13.409 And I, you know, I don't use the thing, so I 01:47:13.409 --> 01:47:15.510 don't know what my password is. And every time 01:47:15.510 --> 01:47:17.949 I open the iPad, I end up resetting my password. 01:47:19.159 --> 01:47:21.520 Every password that I know and have committed 01:47:21.520 --> 01:47:23.720 to memory, I have used with Apple before and 01:47:23.720 --> 01:47:27.100 they won't let me use them again. So, you know, 01:47:27.119 --> 01:47:31.800 it's just so, so frustrating to me that it's 01:47:31.800 --> 01:47:35.380 this weird sort of boutique approach to computing. 01:47:35.560 --> 01:47:39.539 And I'm just used to, there are programs, there 01:47:39.539 --> 01:47:42.699 are files, files rest in a particular place in 01:47:42.699 --> 01:47:44.739 a nested hierarchy that I can access with the 01:47:44.739 --> 01:47:47.430 computer and I can. you know, given the file 01:47:47.430 --> 01:47:49.189 type, I can open it with any program I want. 01:47:49.270 --> 01:47:51.069 And it just doesn't work that way with the Mac. 01:47:51.550 --> 01:47:54.109 And it drives me insane. Well, I was on the phone. 01:47:54.109 --> 01:47:55.729 It totally knocked me right out of any creative, 01:47:55.789 --> 01:47:58.569 you know, thought process. I was on the phone 01:47:58.569 --> 01:48:02.489 with Apple a lot over the weekend. And because 01:48:02.489 --> 01:48:07.470 I, you know, I wiped the hard drive and I had 01:48:07.470 --> 01:48:13.010 to set up a whole bunch of things. And they changed 01:48:13.010 --> 01:48:16.689 their iTunes apps and programs so that they're, 01:48:16.689 --> 01:48:20.510 to me, they were like incomprehensible. And I 01:48:20.510 --> 01:48:24.729 told the lady on the phone that if Steve Jobs 01:48:24.729 --> 01:48:27.569 was still alive, he would go up to Tim Cook's 01:48:27.569 --> 01:48:33.149 office and pistol whip him for doing that. You 01:48:33.149 --> 01:48:35.489 know, Steve Jobs is the architect of a lot of 01:48:35.489 --> 01:48:37.949 what I hate about Apple. Yeah, well. It doesn't 01:48:37.949 --> 01:48:40.899 play well with any other manufacturer. Everything 01:48:40.899 --> 01:48:43.939 has to be its own thing. It can't be standardized 01:48:43.939 --> 01:48:46.899 and comprehensible to people from the general 01:48:46.899 --> 01:48:49.699 world. It's sort of the hardware equivalent of 01:48:49.699 --> 01:48:55.000 AOL. Well, the thing about Apple products that 01:48:55.000 --> 01:48:57.800 I really, really hate the most is that, and I 01:48:57.800 --> 01:49:00.899 think this came from Steve Jobs, is that in this 01:49:00.899 --> 01:49:05.239 attempt to achieve the ultimate design sleekness, 01:49:05.520 --> 01:49:09.699 they hide everything. So you can't find anything. 01:49:09.800 --> 01:49:12.699 Like, where's the toggle? Oh, it's hiding behind 01:49:12.699 --> 01:49:15.020 these two dots over here in the corner, you know? 01:49:15.100 --> 01:49:16.880 Well, how the fuck am I supposed to know that 01:49:16.880 --> 01:49:19.680 that's where I go to change the volume level? 01:49:19.800 --> 01:49:23.640 You know what I mean? It's just insane. The sleekness 01:49:23.640 --> 01:49:26.199 that they impose on all their products is just 01:49:26.199 --> 01:49:29.500 maddening. I agree. And there's lots of people 01:49:29.500 --> 01:49:32.239 who absolutely don't. And, you know, if anything 01:49:32.239 --> 01:49:34.859 we've said is going to generate hate mail, it 01:49:34.859 --> 01:49:37.560 will be anti -Apple sentiment. Uh -oh. Well, 01:49:37.640 --> 01:49:41.119 I'll gird my loins for that. All right. Hey, 01:49:41.199 --> 01:49:43.300 Jim, before we go, this is in the vault now. 01:49:43.699 --> 01:49:46.579 Okay. What do you think of the response to coronavirus 01:49:46.579 --> 01:49:49.420 in just basically shutting down all economic 01:49:49.420 --> 01:49:51.560 activity, nobody going to work except people 01:49:51.560 --> 01:49:53.659 who are absolutely essential, most of us hiding 01:49:53.659 --> 01:49:56.220 out at home? Do you think that this is the correct 01:49:56.220 --> 01:50:00.420 approach? It's very hard to say, and the arguments 01:50:00.420 --> 01:50:02.319 have been out there, and they're kind of obvious. 01:50:02.460 --> 01:50:05.359 The main one is... You know, you have to flatten 01:50:05.359 --> 01:50:07.460 the curve so you don't overwhelm the medical 01:50:07.460 --> 01:50:11.680 system. And that's an argument. You know, I can't 01:50:11.680 --> 01:50:14.460 argue with that. You know, I've had some correspondence 01:50:14.460 --> 01:50:17.979 with a fan who writes to me regularly, and he 01:50:17.979 --> 01:50:20.720 insists that the whole thing is a hoax and that 01:50:20.720 --> 01:50:23.520 it's, you know, the Democratic Party, the DNC 01:50:23.520 --> 01:50:27.859 in China ganged up on Trump to, you know, put 01:50:27.859 --> 01:50:31.260 this virus into the system to get rid of Trump. 01:50:34.309 --> 01:50:37.989 My basic position about this is that I can't 01:50:37.989 --> 01:50:40.029 see all these other countries doing the same 01:50:40.029 --> 01:50:43.949 thing if there wasn't some pretty good reason 01:50:43.949 --> 01:50:47.250 for it. I mean, why would New Zealand and Argentina...