Mike Baker (Ex-CIA Spy): China Is Preparing & We're Not Paying Attention! Here's What Happens If They Takeover! 5 Spy Tricks You Can Use To Get What You Want!

27:06Look, we haven't built a mega corporation, but we built a nice life for a lot of people, right? And what are the most sort of transferable rules that you were able to transfer from your time as a C I working in the C I A to the world of business that you were like, oh my god, this is exactly the same game here, the same technique. I mean, first and foremost, it was, um, we'll start out with the first one that I put down which, which is define the mission, right? So the agency does that very well with the very outset, you spend a lot of time sitting in classrooms, listening to people explain how the agency works, why it works the way it does, where it fits within the government, what its purpose, what it's, what its mission is.

27:46And if you don't know that, right, then whether it's the C I A or whether it's your business, then you got a problem. You probably shouldn't really get started. And then you have to communicate that mission. And that's what they did very, very well. And so I took that away. And I was always very simple minded in terms of a business. I always knew what I wanted to do, which was provide again, the best quality product possible. That's how you get companies to stay with you for 20 years, right? They know you're going to bust your ass and you're going to overproduce. And you're going to do everything within, again, within the balance of what you can do to give them the best information so that they can then win in whatever they're working or operating.

28:27And then we, you know, I think if you if you hire smart people and you explain the mission, you communicate that properly to them, then you know, your battles half one, right? You've really, you know, you you crack that, that, that nut. But then other parts of it are you've got to know your your risk appetite. And the agency spends a lot of time, I guess that was my point from earlier is that a lot of people think the agency just goes out and does shit, right? Let's just go blow that building up. But let's go pick up that high value target or let's go whatever it is we're going to do. And they don't give any thought to it because that's how the movies operate, right?

29:07And they just say, yeah, go do this shit. There's a lot of time spent on risk versus gain. And what's the potential blowback? What do those scenarios look like? So you have to know your risk appetite and you have to communicate that because everybody has to be on the same page as to what's allowable and what's not allowable. And that's true in in in private sector as well. We have to know you can't do this. You can't have a one party conversation and record it in particular jurisdiction or, you know, no, you can't can't do the following because the information you're gathering is going to end up in court.

29:40It's got to be, you know, evidentially proper. So things have to be done in an appropriate way. So if you don't know all those things, then you're going to get yourself, you know, crosswise somehow. Know your operating environment is a key thing. This is a constant surprise sometimes with some companies that we start working with where you realize that they don't necessarily understand the operating environment. They're where they're working. What the market restrictions are, what their competitors are doing, right? What the the government is like in that particular country, what the instability issues are, whatever it may be, you put all that together, you know, you're operating environment, you know, your your risk, you find your mission.

30:24And then at some point you got to make decisions, right? And I think that's again, long winded answer to your question, which is probably the most important thing I took away was what I referred to as getting off the axe and the axe is the ambush site. So in the old days, you don't want to end up on the ambush site. That's a bad place to be. And there are indicators, right? Whether you're talking about being in Mexico and rolling up on a cartel ambush or you're talking about being overseas in a place like Iraq and you're in a convoy movement and you have to understand what the indicators are that something bad is going to happen if you don't make a decision.

31:07You're never going to get all the information you want in business, right? But there are a lot of people who get paralyzed by that. They want all the data, you know, they want to be on a think through and that's you know, that's a good thing if that's your mindset. But something bad's going to happen or you're going to miss an opportunity. It's going to pass you by. And so one of the things that the agency taught was just make a damn decision, right? With the information that you've got, you're always going to want more, but with the information that you've got, whether it's imperfect or not, understand the nature of that information, but then just make a damn decision, right?

31:38How do they get you to do that? Because there's a lot of people listening now that may be paralyzed in their own personal lives with a decision to leave a job, to leave a city, to leave a partner, you know, or a big strategic decision. That's actually really good. It's a good point. Yeah.

31:56The agency teaches you through sort of repetition and understanding that, sorry, you waited too long. This is not good. But in a better sense, I think, what I've learned also is, look, I tell my kids this all the time. I tell my boys and my daughter, there's never that many options on the decision tree, right? Not that life's completely binary, but we tend to overthink everything and we tend to overcomplicate things when we're faced with the decision, whether it's, do I leave my job, do I move, whatever it might be, do I, you know, take a big strategic decision for my company, you tend to, you tend to overcomplicate, right?

32:45Life, I've always found, and maybe I'm simple -minded, but one of the things that I took away from the agency is that life sometimes is just as simple as it seems, right? And again, why I'm not a big conspiracy theorist. But so if you narrow it down and say, look, I'm not faced with an endless array of options here. You know, I may have on any big decision, I may have two or three options, right? I'm going to take this job. Okay, what does that mean? Well, means I'm taking a chance. Okay, people talk about writing your positives and your negatives down. I don't know whether that's really a helpful thing or not, right?

33:23Because then you get lost in this list and then you start imagining positives and negatives and then it's a, so I always try to say, like, you got to, you don't act just for the sake of acting, right? That sometimes has its own negative consequences. But you take the information you've got and then you just, you make a decision, right? Because if you, again, it's the inertia of not acting. If you're, if you're in an unhappy relationship and you say, you know, what do I do? Do I stay in the sun having a relationship? Because maybe it's going to get better. Okay, what are the odds of that happening, right?

33:56It's been going on for 10 years or maybe you're not having to get the hell out, right? Do something different. If you're thinking about changing your job, if you're not happy in your job, which is a, it's a quality of life issue, right? And I tell that to my folks all the time, if you think you would be happier somewhere else, you've got to go give it a try. If you think you'd be happier going out and starting a business, you should do that, right? But you got to, you got to jump in. And I know I'm, I'm, this is probably not as detailed as a, you know, psychiatrist would give, but I really do honestly believe that any, any major decision you can distill it down to very, very limited number of options.

34:35And that makes it easier. But if you just sit there staring at it and people do, I would see this in operations all the time. People would just start imagining all the different scenarios. And I thought, you know what? Honest to God, when the, when the whistle goes, right? And the ambush starts and you see, you shouldn't start an ambush with a whistle. You know, it's going to go, you know, one way and another way. You don't, don't, don't get bogged down in what could happen, what might happen. And that was another thing. I think I did well to see what I didn't ever sit around and stare at my belly button and think, well, I wonder what, what happened if I'd done this?

35:11No. You live with your, mistakes you live with your consequences, you live with the good things. Life is tough enough as it is, right? And we just, we just seem like we want to make it tougher. And I don't, I ever understand that. It's an interesting time in the United States at the moment. Is it? Yeah. I mean, it's an interesting time in the world, to be honest, when you think about everything that's going on, very, very unique times. But Trump has just been elected. He's now president elected the United States. Is that consequential? And if so, how would you believe it to be consequential? Yeah.

35:51What do they say? Don't talk about politics, religion, or taxes. So, yes, I think it is consequential. I think it was something that very few people predicted the, size of the, of the victory. Look, he, he took all the swing states, right? He turned a surprising number of, of districts in favor of the Republicans in states that he didn't win. He outperform and he formed in most categories, right? The demographics were rather shocking, right? And people wanted to talk about how well it's going to be the, it's going to come down to the women voters. Well, it didn't, right? Fewer women voters voted for Kamala Harris and they did previously for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, right?

36:43And so, and he gained in suburban voters, women voters. So, it's consequential in reshaping, at least in, in the short to midterm, people's understanding of the, the electorate, I think. Now, it's probably not consequential in the fact that I don't know that the Democrats, they don't seem to be doing it yet. I don't think they're going to be particularly self -aware or introspective, right? They spent months longer than that, referring to a large portion of the population as, as, as moronic, as unintelligent, as sexist, as racist, as, as, as, as garbage, as fascist, as Nazis, right? They, you, how you do that and then not, understand how you've just gotten kicked in the ass during the election, I'm not quite sure, but they seem incapable right now of any sort of reflection on what they need to do as a party, right?

37:45To maybe turn things around. So, I don't know, consequently, whether it's going to change the Democrat party for the next election. But yeah, it'll be, and then you have to ask yourself, okay, the policies that, you know, that looking at differently here was Trump coming in. Do you think he's going to end some of these wars, like the war in the Ukraine and Russia? Do you think he's going to end that? Because I mean, he's, he's pretty much said in the election cycle that he was going to call Putin and end it on day one or something like that, so. Yeah, that's right, I forgot about that. He's going to end it on day one, and stop this war.

38:32Yeah, with, set Trump over here to the side for a second, and you have to look at what's happening on the ground, right, with Ukraine and Russia, because that will determine whether Trump's going to be successful in any move that he makes. So, the problem that Ukraine is facing right now is, either going into winter and a massive percentage of their energy infrastructure has been destroyed by, by Russia. So it's going to be a very hard winter. You look at the resolve of the Ukrainian people, and an Institute in Kiev does these very interesting surveys of Ukrainian citizens in, throughout Ukraine, not just in Kiev on a regular basis.

39:22And they ask questions like, you know, are you willing to fight indefinitely? Are you willing to stay in the game? Are you willing to give it your all, you know, for however long it takes? And to that question, to that phrasing, at the beginning of the year, 73 % said yes, right, of the citizenry. Last month, it was 63%. It's, and so that's a 10 % trap is significant when we're talking about the fate of your nation.

39:57They, they're losing, they're losing soldiers at an alarming rate, and they have a significant disadvantage to the Russians in terms of manpower. The Russian manpower has, depending on who you talked to, maybe a three to one advantage in terms of available combatants. The Russian military is gaining ground in the eastern part of Ukraine and the nets in particular. It's a, the front, the front line is about 600 miles long, 620 miles long. In overall, right now, if you said, stop the war, stop the fighting. Right now, Russia controls 20 % of Ukraine. And so you can show me what you're doing.

40:57Why, why did Russia start this war? Well, I mean, if you, if you wanted to sort of a theoretical 30 ,000 -foot answer, Putin has repeatedly referred to the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest disaster of the 20th century. And he meant it, right? And so he's been trying, and he hasn't been shy about it ever since he's, he's been in charge, which seems now like about 100 years, to recreate the glory, the strength of the former Soviet Union in some capacity, not, not, you know, entirely. He's not, he's not crazy. But he is completely jonesing for some form of, of a stronger Russia. And in his mind, that means he's got to have a buffer zone between him and NATO.

41:53Right? And so this is, this is part of that. He also considers, if you think about it, right here. He's basically saying, this is mine, right? If you think that, which is the East, this is the eastern part of Ukraine, right? Here is Ukraine. Frontline, this is not, I mean, you know, I'm simplifying this, but frontline stretches about 600 miles. He's also annexed, of course, Crimea, but that's, that's another issue here. And that's, that's the only port for their Black Sea fleet, which Ukrainian military is frankly destroyed almost at this stage of the game. But they own, at this stage, they've got about 20 % of, of, of Ukraine.

42:37If you would say, you know, stopped off shooting now. And then the problem is that at the outset of this, this war, Zelensky and the Ukrainian government said, you know, the only answer here is total victory. We have to get all our territory back. Crimea, Danetsk, Lohansk, Zaperea, we have to get it all back. And that is not, again, it's not satisfying to say this, but it's not possible. Right? So the problem that is being faced right now is when this war got started in the first year, year and a half, everybody was, you know, they were putting their flags, Ukrainian flags on their porch. They were putting a little flag on their, their ex -site, their Twitter site.

43:36Danetsk, you know, we'll go, okay, and there's no doubt the Ukrainian military has been incredibly courageous in the population we create has put up with a great deal. Look, the months of September and October of this year, those two months, there's only been one night when Kiev hasn't been under attack by Russian drones. Right? Which is, if you think about it, it's insane. Right. And that's just Kiev. All their other, their major cities have also been under attack by the Russians. They've destroyed much of their energy infrastructure. Now a bright spot, was for the Ukrainian military, was that they did a surprise offensive into Kursk, which is Russian territory.

44:21And in doing that, now it was the first time there were foreign troops on Russian turf, right? Since World War II. And that really shocked the hell out of Putin and the Russian military. And they acted as if they really didn't know how to respond, didn't have the resources to respond. But this is a game of attrition, right? We're going into our, you know, full third year early this coming year. And what's kept them in the fight is US support and EU or NATO support. And you used unvery good job. I mean, look, they've picked up a great part of the the effort. Without that support, this thing would never have lasted this long, never.

45:10And so I think Putin, in part, has been very surprised. He miscalculated a lot of things, but he miscalculated the sort of support that Ukraine would receive from NATO in particular. And now, and why is NATO giving so much support? Why is this in their interests? Well, think about where Ukraine is. Yeah. Think about where Poland is. Look, Russian missiles have flown erratly into Poland. Their history tells them or informs them that if Putin takes this Ukraine, yeah, it takes Ukraine, then it's not as if he's going to say, okay, I'm done. I'm finished, right? They believe. Now, whether they're right or not.

45:53This is, but this answers the question about why such strong NATO support, they believe that that's not his inclination, right? It's not in his character to say, that's all I want. I'm good. What do you think? I take him at his word when he says he wants to recreate the former Soviet Union in a fashion. Do I think this is enough of a buffer from NATO for him? I don't think so. Do I think he might consider moving a little bit further north, look, he already has this is Belarus. Belarus is a solid ally of Putin. But is there a chance that, you know, he says to himself, well, well, you know, maybe over here, he's already made verbal threats up here.

46:31So, not for you. Latvia, yeah. And so I think I understand what their mindset is. It's like Israel, right? We sometimes, we say, oh my god, why is Israel acting the way they do? Well, because they're surrounded by a ring of terrorist proxy that all are there to serve the purpose of the Iranian regime, which is to destroy Israel. So that's their mindset, right? We don't live there. We don't understand it. So to say, okay, well, that's ridiculous for someone in the US to go, that's ridiculous. That's Putin. Okay, you know, well, fuck off. You don't live here, right? You're not in Poland watching this if he takes over Ukraine.

47:06And so. And World War Two wasn't so long ago. Exactly. It wasn't until I studied World War Two, which actually wasn't very long ago. It was about six months ago that I understood the sort of geopolitical backdrop as to why you need to defend Ukraine because when you see, you can probably explain it better than me, but what Hitler did. And he just took a little bit. Was it like Czechoslovakia? Yeah, just a little bit. And then he took a little bit more and then a little bit more. And by the end of it, he was trying to take the UK, he was trying to take Russia. He was trying to take the lot over here in the States, right?

47:39You had this isolationist feeling. So World War Two is happening. And they don't want any of it, right? They went through World War One. They sent a lot of their boys over. And they're like, no, screw it. You know, look, we got this big ocean here. You know, we don't have to worry about it. And yeah, that's a problem. But you see that now, there's some of this isolationist attitude, which is why do we even care? And that's okay. Fine. That's a great question to ask. People should ask questions like that. But I'm telling you, having worked against Russia for a long period of time, it's a mistake not to take Putin and his word, right?

48:18And we tend to always mirror our values. It's like when we were talking about the cab driver, how do you get him a new conversation? We start to mirror the values, right? And we do that as a nation, sometimes in the US, where we imagine that people are going to react the same way or think the same way about freedom or democracy. And it's not how the world works. So just going back here to the incursion into Russia, that the Ukrainian military did. So they're holding territory up there. Maybe it depends on who you talk to, maybe 500 square miles. It varies. But they've stretched their resources relatively thin.

48:57And that's a problem because it all goes back to war as long as we've known war, which is supply lines, right? If you can't maintain your supply lines, you're lost the plot. And so what we're seeing right now is Putin has amassed about 40 ,000 Russian troops and about 10 ,000 North Korean troops. And that's another story. So North Korea, because Kim Jong -un of North Korea is best buddies now with Putin, he has sent upwards of 12 ,000 troops to Russia. And they are now on the front lines, essentially. They're already in combat. But they're an important part of Putin's effort. And I think what he's trying to do, Trump is one, takes us back to our original point of, okay, what's Trump going to do and what's this going to look like after the inauguration.

49:51Trump's one, I think there's a calculation here. Putin could be saying, I've got to do everything now. I've got to throw everything I can to gain that Russian territory back before sitting down at a negotiating table and coming up with a deal because I don't want to sit at a negotiating table if Zelensky and NATO are saying, well, we have part of your Russian territory. You want to back? Well, we're going to need, we're going to need this back. We're going to need eastern Ukraine back or we're going to need Crimea back. I don't think he's ever given back Crimea, right? But it's likely, I think if you have to make these decisions and without real insight into his mindset, it's true.

50:31It's all speculation. But I wouldn't be surprised if what he's calculated right now, because I got to throw all these troops to regain this Russian territory, the Ukrainian surprise us by taking a head of sitting down and doing an negotiated settlement, which again, it's going to be very unsatisfying to all those people who put Ukrainian flags on their porch. They're going to get all the territory back. No, they're not. They don't have the ability to do that. I hope that what we don't see is if Trump, well, when Trump comes into office, I think he and the people that he will have around him working on this issue will be sufficiently convinced that they have to maintain a level of support that allows Ukraine to sit down at the negotiating table from at least a position of relative strength.

51:22Otherwise, they're just sitting and they're asking for whatever they can get in this deal. That's never going to sell. Zelensky's got to sell this to the Ukrainian population. This is an incredible moment in time. This is an invading force from Russia into another country, an independent country. There's so much complexity or it's hard to explain. Without saying, we're going to take the next five or six days to talk about it. It's an incredible moment in time. Yes, it matters a great deal about, it's consequential. It's consequential if worst case scenario, the next administration says, that's it.

52:07We're cutting off all assistance and all aid. The rest of NATO will definitely stay in the game because they view it differently because they're right here. But US support is critical and it's critical to get a settlement. If what you want is to end war, to stop the killing, and if you're pragmatic, you have to assume this is going to be a settlement that means that Russia is going to keep maybe not all of this. Maybe they'll keep this much and this will be maybe a demilitarized zone, patrol by UN peacekeepers or whatever to act as a buffer. But then you have other issues. Putin going to say, no, part of the steel has got to be that Ukraine never joins NATO.

52:53I'm sure that's going to be a part of his deal. Then how NATO deals with that, I have no idea because they've already made the guarantee. You're going to be in at some point. Anyway, that's how do you think it ends if you had to be if you had to bet? I think, look, part of the reason why part of the reason why the North Korean troops have ended up in Russia, which is again, is an astounding thing, is because Putin desperately doesn't want to do another conscription. He knows that's vastly unpopular with his folks. Which is when you ask your basically round up more people. I'm going to need another 150 ,000 soldiers because he runs what's essentially called a meat grinder operation.

53:43He just throws people in the front as cannon fodder. I mean, the Russian casualty raid has been ridiculous compared to the Ukrainians, but they've came Jong Un. He's making money off of this deal, sending troops up there. He's getting the troops that survive anyway will get combat experience. He doesn't have a military with any combat experience right now. He's also getting weapons technology transfer from Russia. He's getting part of a deal here. What's Putin getting? I think Putin is getting bodies. He can throw out there a head of the next wave, which will be Russian troops. I think those 10 ,000 North Koreans soldiers are fucked.

54:29There's been a rising sentiment in the United States that we should stop sending money to Ukraine and why we bothering and this isn't our problem, etc. What do you say to those people? Because that sentiment is rising. It's rising from my opinion. It's rising on the right side of politics. I hear it more and more on some of the big podcasts. I hear it more and more on X and Twitter. Again, it's only because I researched what happened in Nazi Germany in World War II that I suddenly go, this is much more complicated than you think. You can embolden someone if you don't resist them invading a local country.

55:07Why stop at one? Look, the world is shrinking. The world has been and continues to shrink. Nothing happens in a bubble. What's happening right here is being watched by Xi Jinping in China in terms of Taiwan. He's sitting there saying, OK, here's Taiwan. It's a straight Taiwan. It's no distance whatsoever. He's just conducted Xi Jinping in the Chinese regime. It's just conducted the largest military exercise around Taiwan ever, basically blocking it off, blocking the ports and patrolling the airways. The idea being he just wanted a show that he could do that. He's watching what's happening over here in terms of the US response and NATO response.

55:55He's saying, OK, at what point does it make sense for me to do this? Because at the end of the day, Xi Jinping is tied to his desired legacy, which is the reunification. In his mind, this belongs right here. So let's move on to China. The question was, how do you think it ends if you're a betting man? How do you think the Ukrainian will ends? I think in this coming year, I think, in part, I know I've talked a lot about what the Ukrainians are suffering from, but there are reasons why Putin is going to need to figure this out as well. I think part of it is his economy is suffering.

56:33I think it finishes with a negotiated settlement at some point during 2025. I think that means the lines are going to look, again, I keep using the word unsatisfactory, but that's the way it's going to feel to a lot of people. The lines are going to look a lot like they did before the invasion, maybe some additional territory being held by the Russians. And then I do think that there will be some agreement to have a buffer zone that will be essentially under the auspices of UN peacekeeping troops somehow, no fly zone, whatever you want to call it as well. I think that's how it's going to end up.

57:13I think Kursk, that region in Russia, goes back to the Russians. I think the problem is going to be, I think, in the short order, I think they're going to want to move quickly before we get into the teeth of winter. I think that's going to be a mess. So that's going to be a major. When they start that offensive, and we're talking, again, potentially 50 ,000 troops thrown at a relatively thin line, I think that territory goes back to Russia in the next month. I would suspect, yeah, basically, you don't put troops there with all those resources without intending to use them. I think the longer those North Korean troops sit there, the more trouble they will have in terms of command and control.

57:59So they're going to want to get them into the cannon as quickly as possible. So you mentioned China. China feel like Taiwan is there. Taiwan is this little island off the coast of China. I hear about this plan that they say China has, which is the 2049 plan. What is China's 2049 plan? Well, part of that was based around a timeline for how we want to refer to it. The reunification, the absorption of Taiwan, the taking over of Taiwan.

58:40Nobody really going to be a completely kinetic, is it going to be a military operation? Is it going to be more of a soft takeover? Sort of like, you know, there's a good example right here, Hong Kong. You remember there used to be democracy in Hong Kong. And now there's not. And that happened over a period of time, but they basically just squashed all remnants of democracy, particularly during the pandemic. So what's it going to look like when they do take over Taiwan, that's the big question. But the timeline is shrunk. So there now there's some feeling that the movement on Taiwan will be during the course of Xi Jinping's tenure.

59:22So what are you looking at? Well, that depends on his grip on power, which seems very solid. It seems like it depends on his health, which, you know, again, I'd be speculating. So I don't see him riding off into the sunset willingly without finishing that project that in his mind is so important. He's consolidated power in China, like nobody since Deng Xiaoping or Mao Zedong. So I think I think he's serious. Again, take certain leaders at their words. Some, you know, some bluster, a lot, some make very big pronouncements. Donald Trump would be one of them who tends to just speak off the cuff and throw things out.

1:00:04I think the danger sometimes is the Democrats, for example, take him at his word, right? For everything he says, right? They take everything he says literally. But there are other leaders Putin Xi Jinping, I think you need to pay real close attention to exactly what they're saying. So I think when he talks about the, you know, absorbing Taiwan and making it part of the motherland again, I mean, it's not getting around. Why does he want Taiwan? It looks like such an insignificant part of that part of the map. It's so small in comparison to China. It's a good point. When you look at the map, you go, eh, you really need to bother.

1:00:39You know what? Part of it is the history, right? Ever since the Shanghai Shack and the separatists and the escaping to Taiwan and raising it as a separate nation, it's just, it's hard to explain. It's a very emotive subject, right? Why does the US cast so much about Taiwan? That's a better question too. Okay, part of that is, part of that is, I don't want to say emotional, but it's the idea of look, they're democratic institutions. It's an ally. You know, how could we possibly stand by and watch a communist regime, step on it and destroy it? Part of it is practical. It's like, you know, it's an important chip manufacturing sensor.

1:01:34So, you know, there's a couple of elements to it. Honestly, look, if if all chip manufacturing on Taiwan was reshored over to California somewhere, would we care quite as much? Well, we would still care on that sort of emotional values based side. We could probably, we could probably overlook it in a long run. Now, are we going to send boots on the ground over to defend Taiwan? If there's, if there's a military action, you know, going back to our, your betting person, I would bet no, no matter who's in office. But they will say they're going to defend Taiwan. Everyone, all of the like the US presidents are reshast would you defend Taiwan, a fresher invaded?

1:02:20And you'll probably know some of the quotes better than I do, but they've all said that they would. Yeah, the only slip up at one point was Biden, where he, I don't think he really meant to say what he said, which was sort of ambiguous towards the, the defense of Taiwan, but then he corrected it. So, do I honestly think that we would send troops over? No. Do I think that we would do what we're doing with Ukraine? Sure. Yeah, we would provide resources. But this is a much different situation, right? And so, I think while I get the concept, I just don't know that there's be follow through because that is a very tough cell to explain why we're sending troops over to face down the Chinese military, which is about a stones throw away from Taiwan.

1:03:19And look, this is going to be an interesting situation, right? Because the folks over here, the folks in China, they don't view the folks in Taiwan as Taiwanese. They view them as Chinese, right? So, are you going to have, you know, Chinese military shooting Chinese? I don't know. Maybe it's going to be a softer takeover. Maybe there's going to, there's more influences, a massive disinformation campaigns that go on on Taiwan courtesy of the Chinese regime. There's all sorts of efforts there to just undermine Taiwanese leadership. But this is, again, the point being is this is a crisis. Look, this is already, this is a mess and has been and it's underway in its nuclear and cell issue in Ukraine situation.

1:04:03But over here, this is looming, right? It has a major issue. And if you think about that, there are other activities. This is what's referred to as a South China Sea. Just blur Taiwan. It is, yes. And it's, this is the Philippines here, Vietnam over here. China has always viewed this as their territory, right? This is their backyard. Well, ever since World War II, the US is essentially patrolled and maintained security in the South China Sea, right? In the interest of international free trade and freedom of movement. There are increasing numbers of encounters between the Chinese, navy, and the Philippines, Vietnamese over this sea.

1:04:49Because, again, they view this as theirs. They're constantly in here pushing, they're building artificial islands for ports. There's a major flashpoint here, right? For potential conflict. And China, I've talked to a number of experts that I really value. And their take is, and I think it's not incorrect, is that China is basically on a war footing with the West already, right? We just don't see it or we don't feel it or we don't want to acknowledge it. And I don't mean like they're going to launch missiles. But in their minds, they're at war with the US already. And they're acting in a sense as if that's the case.

1:05:32And we act as if, well, they're just an economic competitor, but it would be nice if we could all get along. So I think we may be misreading the tea leaves. Who's the real enemy of the West in your opinion? If you were the president of the United States, who would you be most concerned about? Well, this is our biggest concern, right? China is the top line concern because of their abilities, their resources. And again, the increasing aggressiveness in this region, they're desire to reshape the global structure. They don't want the West to be in charge. They view this as, you know, how do we realign this so that we get what, you know, the bricks and a different realignment of world order so that the US and its allies are not at the top of the food chain.

1:06:31So in a sense, that doesn't mean that I think that we're going to be in a shooting match, which China eight times soon. I don't actually believe that's going to be the case. But that's where we have to focus a lot of our concerns when you talk about identifying and resolving and, you know, prioritizing threats. In the short term, right here is Iran. And look, the Iranian regime has been engaged in assassination plots to try to kill now the president elect, as well as several other US officials who may believe will responsible for the targeting back in 2020 of Kasem Soleimani, who ran the Quds force and was a very close ally of the Supreme Leader, Hamani in Iran.

1:07:24You think Iran have tried to kill Trump? Oh, they have definitely, yeah, there's no doubt that they've been engaged in, they have a hit list and they've actually been engaged in trying to get plots underway to, you know, to target not just him, but Mike Pompeo, Mark Milley, former head of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Esper, former Secretary of Defense, Brian Hook, and others. So, but I guess, you know, from a setting data side, setting aside the bizarnas of this state with a hit list of US officials, right? And that's just saying that out loud should make people think, well, that is bizarre.

1:08:02But what they've done in terms of establishing and building over the years, this is network of proxies, the Houthis, Islamic jihad, Khazbullah, Hamas, Iran has stated numerous times, they've been very clear about it, their desire, their objective is to wipe Israel from the face of the earth. So they've set up their proxies with the same objective and the idea being, okay, well, what the proxies do the dirty work, we're not going to take accountability, we're not going to be in the direct line of fire. Now that's happened a couple of times, right? They spend this direct, you know, back and forth between Iran and Israel.

1:08:41So this is a very serious problem that will not be resolved as long as the Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, maintain their belief system that Israel needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. As long as they believe that, they will continue to be the primary cause of instability in the Middle East. So we talk about getting cease fires in Gaza, talk about cease fire with Khazbullah and Lebanon, not that there's much left of the Hussainullah leadership, but that's just putting lipstick on a pig, right? Because you're not solving the problem. And, you know, I don't know that you changed the belief structure of the Iranian regime and the IRGC.

1:09:25So in that case, what are you hopeful? What are you hopeful? We're hopeful internally that there will be, at some point, the population will just say, we've had enough, right? I mean, there have been, how many cases do we need where, you know, women go out on the streets to protest, right? The new morality laws and they disappear, right? They're just there. It's brutal. You don't hear any of that. You don't hear people, you know, you don't hear activists in the States going on college campuses and protesting the treatment of women in Iran. No, it's always, you know, God, my God, look what Israel's doing.

1:09:58Those protests in Iran do the United States fuel those protests? Do they cause disinformation in that country to try and destabilize it, to try and get a coup so that they can throw out the leadership? Is that how the world works? You know what? I'm going to say, I think a lot of people who would look at my background and go, well, of course, that's not of a bitch is going to say that. This is what I would say is that what happens is, okay, let me put it this way. In years past, yeah, that's what would have happened. We would have tried to say, okay, how do we get that, that uprising? How do we get that?

1:10:37But now it's more, how do we get information into those people? And then if there is a protest that develops, how do we support it? What do you do to support that? That I would argue has, you know, not worked. The green movement and a few other unsuccessful attempts by people to kind of get out on the streets and protest and been brutally put down. And the US and the UN and others, for the most part, you know, they're going to protest and write a nasty memo. But none of it helps. How do you get information to the people in a country like that? You know, they have access to some degree, most of it's locked down, I guess, but they have access to some degree.

1:11:21So you try to push information out. Look, voice of America is probably the best example over the years. V .O .A. was for years. Its whole purpose was how do we get information about what happens in the world into the Soviet Union? And nowadays, you know, you could argue you've got more possibilities because of technology. That's outside my scope. And we'll start talking about how do you, you know, aside from drop in leaflets, which, which bizarrely enough, in South Korea, North Korea, they still do. South Korea drops leaflets using balloons over North Korean territory to convince people that Kim Jong -un is bad and that life could be better.

1:12:03But yeah, the worst part is with Iran is you just, like, these people are under the thumb of the mullis in the IRGC and they are brutal, right? It's like, it's like Hamas. Hamas is ruled Gaza with an iron fist and they've been brutal against anyone that they disagree with. LGBTQ activists, women, name them. And yet, you know, you never see protests outside the country about Hamas, you know, how they beat, you know, a gay activist. It doesn't happen, right? You know, campus protests are all about Israel. Israel is surrounded by a ring of proxies built by Iran that wants to destroy them. So yes, they're going to think differently than we do.

1:12:45What happened in Israel on that day where, I mean, people rushed into their country and thousands of people died. Yeah, that's a lot of that. Yeah, their estimate was 1200 and then 250 were dragged off into Gaza. I just don't know how that's possible when that that state is so unbelievably paranoid about invasions and attacks and they have the the iron dome. How does that happen? How did it happen? Yeah, it was a long -term project that was very well orchestrated by Hamas with Iran. The IRGC was fully aware of what was going on. The IRGC provided some of the training to some of the Hamas fighters that eventually ended up inside Southern Israel.

1:13:34So probably the best way to put it would be they lulled the Israeli government to sleep and the military to sleep. They made them believe that they really weren't interested in violence anymore. And what that did and that what they really wanted was, okay, we just want to like try to build up our economy, right? And try to make a better life. Well, that was Horshid on Hamas's part. That's what the Palestinians would like, but that was Horshid on Hamas's part. What they were doing was lulling them to sleep in that then they kind of took their eye off the ball. The Israeli government in particular started looking more inward.

1:14:15You had a lot of internal political battles going on. And they were doing that because they viewed that they didn't have the same existential threat on their doorstep that they had been dealing with, right? They sort of took the bait. And it was an intelligence failure. There's no doubt about it. In part because the people running that operation dumbed down their communications, right? They deliberately stopped using communications that they felt could be compromised or had been compromised. And we've seen that over the years. Al Qaeda is a good example. Once Al Qaeda understood the extent to which we could intercept their communications, you know, they went back to the old days, right?

1:14:56Handwritten notes, right? This is my cousin. I want you to take it to that person over there who's his cousin only give him that note, right? And don't talk to anybody. Very hard to intercept, right? And so you know, it's very hard to conduct your operations. It takes a lot more time. But that's the extent to which they went to try to get this thing done. And, unfortunately, they were very successful. How are you thinking about the world's perception, specifically the United States perception of what's going on in Israel and Palestine? You know, we talked about how support seems to be waning for providing support to Ukraine.

1:15:30Is support waning? Do you believe for Israel and the plight of Israel? Because there's been a lot of information around the amount of innocent people that have been killed in Palestine? Yeah. I would be more concerned about Ukrainian support. And I would be losing the level of Israeli support. Why? Because I think it's a little bit of a different dynamic, right? Israel has always kind of had this interesting place within US psyche, I guess. And it's also, look, there's a massive Jewish American community, right? I mean, it's not that about that. So there's a level of support there that Ukraine doesn't have.

1:16:12And also just the length of support, look, we've been close allies of Israel for generations, right? Ever since it all started. You can't say the same thing about Ukraine. So I guess I'm hopeful that moving into the next administration, and I know people say, oh my god, you know, you sound like you're a warm -monger. Well, no, again, I go back to with Ukraine, if you want peace, if that's what you want, if you don't want conflict, then my argument is they've got to be able to sit down at a negotiating table. If Putin feels like he's winning, right? If he feels like the US is backing off, he's not going to negotiate, he's just going to move forward.

1:16:52He doesn't give a shit about his soldiers. He just keeps throwing them into the front lines, right? So if you want peace here, then you need to continue support sufficiently to get them to the table. And I do think we're close because again, I don't, you know, Russia, yes, they're making headway here, but a long term, you know, meaning another two or three years, I don't think I don't think Putin can sustain that with the Russian population. So how does Israel, Palestine's will end? Unfortunately, again, being a cynic, I think it ends the way a lot of these have ended, which means we're just putting Band -Aid on a sucking chest wound, and they'll come up with a ceasefire.

1:17:34I think Hamas, they'll figure out a way to bring in the Palestinian Authority to govern Hamas, or sorry Gaza. I think, I think sort of the linchpin there is if they can get a ceasefire with Gaza with Hamas, that will make it infinitely easier for the Houthis to say, okay, we'll back off. We're not going to keep screwing up the Red Sea firing missiles at international trade and US and allied naval ships. And I think that it also allows for Rezbollah. Look, I think the Israelis look at Rezbollah leadership now. I think we pretty much taken everybody out. And there's more of a structure in Lebanon.

1:18:18I think it's always been problematic, but I think the Lebanese government could deal with the problem if there is an official ceasefire with Rezbollah. So I think it all comes down to, and I guess what I mean by the Band -Aid on a second chest wound is that's all well and good. We'll stop the conflicts, right? I think those will stop relatively soon. I don't think Iran is interested in getting into a bigger shooting match with Israel because I think they understand there's no way they do that without the US entering. The US has already got, you know, carriers forward deployed out here. A big show of force, right?

1:18:59We moved B -52 fortresses out there. Nuclear capable. Not that we've dropped nukes, but it's a show of force that I think Iran understands. And the Mullahs, the Mullahs, the IRGC in particular, which has its fingers in every part of the Iranian economy and has made itself wealthy, much like the Hamas leadership made themselves wealthy by stealing billions. That leadership in Iran, it's very similar to Putin in a sense and very similar over here to Xi Jinping. The one thing they want more than anything else is to retain control. So the Iranian regime is going to look at this and go, can we really afford to get into a shooting match with the US and Israel?

1:19:38And the answer is no, they can't win that. So I think they're not inclined to do this. So we're going to get these ceasefires and then we're just kicking the can down the road. But if they get nuclear weapons, then they can't hold that weight. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And that will completely change the calculus in terms of how do we deal with them and then negotiate. So, and again, this is going to make me sound like a warmonger. But that last retaliatory strike by Israel into Iran, they focused on missile production facilities and air defense systems. Now that's smart in that destroying significant portion of their missile production capabilities impacts their ability to both attack directly Israel, but also then to provide those missiles to their proxies.

1:20:25The air defense, you could argue, is setting the table. If they decide that that breakout window for the Iranian regime to get a nuke is tightening to a point where it's not really acceptable. And if you've basically destroyed their defense systems and they're somewhat naked in that regard, then you're talking about dropping and trying to disrupt their weapons capability. Now, most of that is significantly underground. How do we know they don't have a nuclear weapon? I don't think they could have kept their app shut. They would have told us. Because for what you're saying, which is okay, now what?

1:21:04I don't think they could have kept that secret. Plus, also we rely on our liaison partners. So the Israeli intelligence, Jordanian intelligence, Saudi intelligence, we rely on a sort of an input from a lot of the players. But the Saudis that jared any inch and others, would they be upset if the Iranian regime were to change? No, they would, they would, what do they want? They want, they want stability, right? Because that leads to economic prosperity. That's better for their populations, keeps their folks happy. And so, you know, are they going to come right out and say it? No. But there's a lot of reason.

1:21:39So I think the, the problem with these ceasefires, not again, it's, it's good. You want to end conflict. You don't want people suffering. It would be fantastic if the Palestinians had a much better opportunity for a great life. But you don't get there as long as the Iranian regime and the IRGC are saying we want to destroy Israel. So we're going to keep pushing at it. That's not really a recipe for long term stability. So that's why I say they're kind of key to this whole problem. Why is the US so focused on Iran of all these countries not getting a nuclear weapon? The US seem obsessed with making sure Iran of all people don't get a nuclear weapon.

1:22:18Well, because of the largest state sponsor of terrorism, there's one issue. And, and they've shown it, right? I mean, they've been perfectly willing to look, I mean, the fellow who was killed in 2020, who was the head of the goods force, Kassam Soleimani. And it was his targeting that then created the Supreme Leader's desire and the Iranian regime's desire to target US officials, including the president elect. He had the blood of thousands of US soldiers on his hands, because he was running operations to develop IEDs and get them out in the field, train up Iraqi militias to so I again, the US, they hate the US.

1:23:03Yeah. So I look, it's it. Again, going back to that same thing to be lovely if we all lived in a community of nations. But when I look at a map like this, I don't see a community of nations. I see problems, which again, maybe makes me just a cynical bastard. Problems, you recently said we're in a more sensitive time right now than in recent modern times, then we can recall. And you were referring here to nuclear weapons. People are normalizing the limited use of nukes and that is worrisome. We've got Russia doing tactical nuclear drills on the border alongside Ukraine. How can, how can, how can, son, should we be about nuclear weapons?

1:23:47And why should we be so concerned? I actually didn't realize until recently when I spoke to Annie Jacobson that the president has the sole responsibility and the sole power to launch nuclear weapon. But they don't have to speak to anyone to launch nuclear weapon. They don't have to have a meeting. They don't have to speak to the House for the Senate. Trump could turn around and say launch that nuke. Yeah, so good Biden, so good, you know, Barack Obama, so good George Bush or Ronald Reagan or, you know, let's go back in time. Look, the Russians created what was referred to as the dead hand system, right, which took people completely out of the decision making process.

1:24:22I mean, if you want to talk about something that's even more frightening is let's remove humans from the decisions to launch the nukes. What's the dead hand system? It was what it was referred to as. It was the idea was during the Cold War. The idea was the Kremlin started sitting around thinking a little bit too much and they said, well, what happens if there's a first strike and we're taken out, meaning the Kremlin, meaning their leadership? Well, okay, well, we need some system in place, an automated system that will respond. And so they created this system that would, luckily, obviously, never used, but it was referred to as the dead hand system.

1:25:00It was a non -human decision making process that would assess the damage done in the first strike and would then make a decision on its own as to what to do. So that's a problem. But yes, it's not still there. No, it's not there. Supposedly, they've advised us that it's been disarmed some time ago. But again, who knows? And again, that's another problem with AI and its ability to supplant humans. You talk about drones and taking humans out of drone strikes. You can't do that either. You need to have that element, I think, in any weapon system. But Russia talking about, and Medvedev and Dmitry Peskov and some of the other minions for Putin, rattling the nuclear saber on occasion, doing their tactical drills.

1:26:01Obviously, North Korea. Who has nuclear weapons here? Well, the members of the Nuclear Club, so I've got United States, Russia, France, China, the UK, Pakistan, India, Israel. We don't know. That's a great point. We assume, but we don't know. North Korea. North Korea got nuclear weapons. Well, they don't have a delivery system. So they don't have a missile that can fire. Right. And are they completely there? Is up for grabs? So that program isn't quite as well understood. The Iranian program is a heavy lift in terms of specific intelligence. The breakout window is often discussed, but it's anywhere from, oh, it's a couple of weeks to its months.

1:26:52So that tells you, because of the gap in that and the parameters there, that tells you that maybe the intelligence isn't as good as it should be. Just to give a context on how powerful these weapons are, there was a stat I read that said, the warhead on one US nuclear armed submarine has seven times the destructive power of all the bombs dropped during World War II, including two atomic bombs combined. And the US has 10 of those submarines. Yeah. Are we closer now to nuclear war than we've ever been in the last century? No. I think we were closer in the in the height of the Cold War. I think there really was.

1:27:35I mean, it was a top of mind. People literally thought we were going to get into a shooting match with the Soviet Union. And I think we were close on on occasion. So I wouldn't argue that we're, it's more prevalent, right? And by that, I mean, there's more of them than there were at that point. There's more members of the nuclear club. But I, that was at a point in time when I think we were much closer because also in part, there wasn't the understanding the level of communication that exists. There's still a lot of, you know, there's, there's even when it seems like two nations are at odds. You know, I think sometimes people don't understand how much communication still exists off the radar between militaries, between intel organizations.

1:28:23People understand that the risk, but my point is when you talk about it a lot, when you, when you threaten it, you're, you're normalizing it. And I think that that could lead us down a very bad path. And then if, if the Iranian regime were to get nuclear weapons, are they, are they on the logic train? You know, or do they view this as something that they, they use as leverage to exert to get concessions from Israel, whatever those might be? I, I don't know. I think there, there would be an unknown player in that realm. And I think that causes some of this concern also as to why it's felt they shouldn't have it.

1:29:03And also if they announce, they announced that they have a nuclear weapon, then you can count on the Saudis saying to themselves, me too, right? I'm, I'm going to get them because I'm not going to, you look, it's not as if the Saudis and the Iranians are, are, you know, close friends. That becomes a tipping point here, doesn't that, where, you know, Iran gets the nuclear weapon, Saudi want a nuclear weapon. And then, you know, most of the countries in this region, another part of the world think why we need one now. We need one. And the Israelis, maybe that's the moment when they come out and say and confirm whether they do or don't, and they're not going to confirm that they don't.

1:29:34Yeah, so I think it, there, there's some real problems there. Look, it's bad that anybody has them. Obviously, like everybody wants peace, but you have to deal with the world you got, not the one you hope for. It's interesting. When I think about the biggest risk to the world, and I think about all the potential things that could happen, we can have a solar flare. There could be, I don't know, whatever can happen. There's a meteor of death to, a meteor of that. Yeah, global warming could do it. The thing that seems to be so obvious to me, is if you get more and more nuclear weapons, and you've got more and more of these sometimes crazy egotistical leaders who are aging and they're trying to hang onto their power.

1:30:11And then you throw in AI, which is a kind of sentient being that can think for itself. For me, I go, I don't know, in the next 100 years, there's got to be an incident. There's got to be an incident because, like, probabilistically, this many weapons, this many crazy leaders, this much disruption to technology, you know, people not wanting to let go of their power. Something's going to go wrong. It might be a mistake or something, but all it takes is one missile to fly or one person to think that a missile is flying. Right. You get one broken arrow. You get one missing nuke, right? It gets in the wrong hands.

1:30:46How about the story? I think it was in Hawaii, when Hawaii's missile detection system went off one day and they thought that they're about to be hit by a... Yeah, exactly. Think about what those people went through. And it wasn't like a minute or two. I think I forget what the length of time was before they got the all clear. 30 minutes, I think, roughly. Yeah. I mean, where everyone who I thought that a missile was about to strike them. Yeah. And I heard the stories of people trying to decide which kid to go to and hiding in cupboards and going out into the beach and praying. Yeah. And that was just because...

1:31:14Just so everyone knows, hiding in a cupboard is not going to be... That was just because one person in a office somewhere clicked a wrong button. Yeah. And that's something that nation into panic. So you can imagine in Iran, someone accidentally clicking a wrong button or... We're deliberately clicking wrong button or whatever. I just think it's... You get... Look, there's always this concern, right? I mean, Russia has moved some of its arsenal to Belarus. Well, okay. What happens if one of those goes missing or what happens if a non -state actor organization gets a hold of one of Pakistan? So there's a complete fallout in the Pakistan government.

1:31:53And suddenly you've got a very hostile government that has control. So, yeah, it's an issue. You have to ask yourself, sometimes, why would you want to be a world leader? What is your biggest concern as it relates to the map, but also technology and the future that we're heading towards? What's your biggest concern? I don't know that... It's a really interesting question. And I know I should have like a pat answer right off the top of my head. I tend to look at the next big global conflict. So I'm not so much... Again, don't get me wrong. These are bad, right? These potential flare ups, these problems, this conflict here in the Middle East.

1:32:33These are all bad. People are suffering. But I think about the next actual global conflict. And when that occurs, just like another pandemic is going to happen. It's not like we're not going to get another pandemic. When the next big global conflict occurs, I think what we're going to find is that the pain is brought to the homeland a lot quicker. So what I mean by that is say you're in the US. Well, we know that nations that don't necessarily have US interests at heart, China. Let's focus on China because they are close to the top of the heap and they're motivated to get to the top. Not again, not saying it's going to be a shooting match.

1:33:18But the point being is every day, the critical infrastructure, critical systems in the US are being tested and poked and prodded and looked at and mapped out. And there's a reason why that happens. So they're developing a playbook that says in the event that it should happen and we have a global conflict, we are going to shut down everything we can shut down in the US. Suddenly, all power goes off, your water treatment facilities aren't working. You can't move fuel around, you can't get fuel. Pharmaceuticals aren't being delivered. No food is being delivered. You can't get cash out, whether you want cash or not at that point.

1:33:55The idea being is we're going to bring the pain to the homeland immediately. That's what you want to do. Will there be a kinetic element? Will you actually have a shooting match with troops on ground? Yeah, I'm not sure that ever goes away. But the next global conflict is going to be fought in a way that we have a hard time understanding. And then there'll be up in space as well. The Chinese have spent a great deal of effort on directed energy weapons. And one of the points of that is essentially to knock out satellite systems. You think about it, take away satellites structures, whether it's starlinker or any of the satellite systems up there.

1:34:31You shut down GPS, people can't move, you shut down the internet. My god, people will lose their minds. Can't do TikTok. And so it's not to make light of it because we're talking about a different type of warfare. And so that's kind of the thing that I worry about. If you said, what do people really worry about? Well, yeah, the top concerns are always young China and Russia and Iran. But it's the infrastructure and it's a way that it's going to be brought to the homeland that's going to create, I think, a level of pain that most people aren't going to be willing to put up with very long. When you say they're going to bring pain to the homeland, were you saying the US were going to shut down their infrastructure?

1:35:13No, I'm saying that whoever it's trying again, I'm just as a you it could be any, you know, it could be the EU in a conflict. It could be the US and NATO in a conflict with another. What the point being is that, you know, they don't they don't map out infrastructure for for no reason. Who's mapping the infrastructure? Well, Russia, China, they're our infrastructure. We're doing the same. Yeah, sure. People always say, well, you're doing the same thing. Well, you better hope that whether it's the UK or whether it's Australia, whether it's the US, that we hope that we're engaged in the same activities because that's where this is going to end up going.

1:35:46Having said that, you know, if someone had said we're going to be engaged in a massive land war, we're one style with trenches and very little ground gain and and lots of bombardment over it. People were saying, no, it's never going to happen again. If that's happening in Ukraine right now. It's happening in Ukraine. You can go, you know, the Imperial War Museum in London, which is a wonderful museum. They've got a World War One exhibit and you go through the World War One exhibit and you you look at it and you realize the same thing is taking place. You look at the aerial photographs of the front line and you see the trench lines here in Ukraine.

1:36:20It's stunning. We're just making the same mistakes over again. It's funny how history has a strange way of repeating itself. Yeah, because we don't we like to think that we learn. But we're dealing with the same old humans, with the same old emotions and egos and ideologies and stuff over and over again. So it's how humans haven't changed? You're right. Yeah, that's right. How are you preparing on a personal level? If you're seeing that, some of these... A lot of guns and ammo. Really? No, kidding. No, no, no, I'm not kidding. But that's not how I'm preparing. I just like this, you know, load up.

1:36:50Because you're saying you don't believe Americans and, you know, Westerners really understand how the next big global conflict will look. So is there a way they can prepare for such a conflict? Well, well, on one level, you know, people need to read as much as they can and pay attention, right? I mean, get as many different sources of information. Don't just read one outlet that you happen to agree with. But, you know, try to be as informed as possible. Which, you know, I think sometimes it's difficult to do because we're all busy, right? Well, I'll put in food on the table and try to take care of families and whatever.

1:37:29But, so I think there's an element of folks just trying to be informed. And then, you know, that would be, look, I mean, the pandemic that occurred, the COVID -19 thing. If people were really, really watching what was going on, you know, October 2019, right? There was, you know, there's this weird situation going on in China. A couple of cities were quarantined and that started to bubble up and people were paying attention to it. I was getting notifications about, you know, what the hell's going on in China? Well before, there was any declaration of a problem, right? And so, and the Wuhan lab was mentioned repeatedly.

1:38:15So I think just being informed is one of the best things that people can do. And then, you know, I'm not a prepper. But it's always good just to, you know, be prepared for a natural crisis, right? Power goes out because there's a blackout fine. You know, there's, you know, whatever the reason may be. Just, just be a little aware of and have a plan of some sort that says, if there is a natural disaster, not saying a shooting match, then what do I do? What's my commo plan? I got kids at school. How do I reach them? We're so unprepared because in our lifetimes, we've never had a war. So we, I grew up on what, 32 years old now, I assume what's happened in other places.

1:38:55They don't happen in the UK or in LA or New York. They happen over there. So I'm comfortable and I'm complacent to some degree. And like I could never imagine even an adversarial plane flying over my city. There's a, there's a level of, we've all gotten, I don't want to say soft necessarily. But look, every generation wants it to be easier, right? My parents were older when they had me. They, they were born in 1919 to 1920, right? And they went through the, you know, the tough times, economic times. They went through, you know, a couple of wars. They wanted it better for their kids, right? Now, you know, their parents, my grandparents, wanted it better for them, right?

1:39:44And so on and so forth. That's human nature. You want to be doing the best for your kids. You want it to be better for that generation. I think eventually you reach diminishing returns, right? And I do worry that that's kind of where we're at. I look at my own kids and look, nobody's out there, you know, in here or over here or wherever there's certainly places in the world where that's not true. But, you know, these areas here that we're talking about, we're not out worrying about whether we can collect enough food and clean water necessarily. You know, we're worried about, you know, is my Wi -Fi signal strong enough?

1:40:19But it's interesting. When you were talking about Israel earlier, you said how Israel had got a bit comfortable. So they started in fighting. Right. And what you're seeing over in the United States and other parts of Europe is in fighting. It's like we've got nothing better to do. So we're arguing over our identity politics and things are getting more woke and it's more divided because I don't know, it's like we have nothing better to do. Right. And also, that's being fuel. But you never want to underestimate the impact of the disinformation campaigns run by, I mean, again, I keep going, I sound like I'm just constantly throwing out the same bogeyman, but look, that's the way the world is.

1:40:51China, Russia, in particular, Iran has proven itself to be very adept at this at disinformation campaigns that prey on whether it's in the EU or whether it's in the US or elsewhere, that prey on what they view as vulnerabilities. So it goes back to what we're talking about before about recruiting an asset, right? Or identifying weaknesses and leverage, well, they look at the US and they go, you know what, if we kind of just keep poking at that racist issue, we keep, you know, poking it at the woke issues, right? I mean, that's very divisive and it's, and it does, right? It works. So the next thing you know, they're putting together a bot, they're throwing out some misinformation or disinformation on X.

1:41:28Someone looks at that and goes, yeah, that's, that's right. And then they just forwarded onto their friends and their family and it just keeps building. So the, those campaigns have a real significant impact on the West because we're not inclined for whatever reason, not curious enough or we don't have enough time or whatever to look at a piece of information and go, is that even credible? Would you say to people that think that's just completely impossible? It's a conspiracy theory. There's no way China and Russia are involved in misinformation. There's no way they're trying to tear us apart.

1:42:01Yeah, you know what, all they need to do is, is a little fact -based research, spend a little time. They don't have to look at one side or another, look across the board at a variety of think tanks, research institutes that focus on this sort of thing. And no, there's, look, there's, there is no doubt. There is a concerted effort to influence, whether it's an election, and they're not trying to start getting anybody to win. They're just trying to undermine the concept of democracy. They want to create some chaos. That's from their perspective. That's a win. So, do you not think Russia wanted to jump to win?

1:42:36There's a good question. I don't know if they did. I think they've made a mistake or they've calculated wrong here because I know there's sort of a trope out there that says, well, he's Putin's puppet. Well, we also have to remember that was a very large disinformation campaign or misinformation campaign. And I don't want to make it sound more nefarious, but people swallow that hookline and sinker and then ran with over this idea that, oh my god, look at the dossier. So, I think, there's sort of this narrative that says, okay, well, yeah, Putin definitely wanted Trump to win because Trump's going to completely get out of Ukraine.

1:43:11I don't think that's going to happen. And this already been reporting that he had a call with Putin already. Now, the Kremlin saying, all that call never happened. But according to Western reporting, he had a call and he said, you are not to intensify this war. And then basically setting down a marker. Now again, we won't know until we know until he gets out there and he starts putting more people in place. I'm very curious to see who he puts in at the Pentagon or at sorry, at the defense department. But, because if I was Putin, I know Trump has ran his whole campaign saying he's going to end this war.

1:43:48And if I'm Putin, I go, that means that I don't have to throw more men at the front line. I can get my economy back. Putin also wants to end this war. But Trump, if Trump doesn't end that war in the next four years, the Democrats are going to get in because they're going to say, you said you were going to end the war, we're starting out there fighting. You said you're going to end this. So Trump would think of it. If he does end the war, then they're going to say, well, yeah, that's because, you know, you gave away Putin like each other. And yeah, and you gave away some Ukrainian territory. Well, the reality is, look, Putin, he annexed Crimea during Obama's administration.

1:44:24He invaded during Biden's administration. He knew what he had. He knew what the response was going to be. Now, no, look, people say, well, you know, Biden, you know, to his credit, you know, he kind of rallied and he pushed for more support. And yes, that's absolutely true. But Putin engaged in this during his time, right? Because I think he knew, or he felt he knew, maybe that's more important. He felt he knew what he was going to get. Now, he wasn't anticipating that NATO response was going to be his hard line. And that's a good thing. I'm glad that Biden has done that. Biden has also withheld authorization to use long -range munitions to target Russian military sites that are being used to target Ukraine, right?

1:45:06Now, you could argue that until Putin feels some pain, or Ukraine is in a better offensive position of some sort that you can't get people to the negotiating table. And, again, if you want to end the conflict, you're probably going to want to do that unless you just want Putin to overrun Ukraine. If you want that to happen, then stop support, and that's what's going to happen. But I think, you know, the narrative, I think, is a little bit off. I'm not, because, yeah, you're right, if the war continues, right? I'm not sure the Democrats have as much, you know, to play off of. But I think if the war is ended, then I think what they'll say is, you gave it away.

1:45:43Acting as if somehow Ukraine could have won and gained all their territory back, which is unrealistic. I think it's more more compelling to say we stopped all the wars. And I think for Americans right now, I think they want to look, we saved your money, we stopped sending billions there, we snuck the war, people aren't dying anymore. I think that's much more compelling narrative than I don't think Americans can as much as a guess about giving away a little piece of land. I see what you're saying. Yeah, okay, I was, you're right. I, there was my mistake. I think you're right in the sense that if the war is still ongoing, yeah, the dams have the Democrats.

1:46:14You're right. You said you should have done it day one. Yeah. No, I see what you're saying. From an electoral perspective down the road four years from now, wow, 2028. So if I'm Putin, I'm going, I know Trump, he's incentivized to stop this thing. And, you know, I can, so that puts me in a stronger position, because if Trump doesn't stop it, then maybe Eric Trump's not going to get in next year or whoever, or JD, that's his. Yeah. I mean, I think, Putin also, I think, is smart enough to realize, to remember that it was the Trump administration that authorized lethal aid to Ukraine to begin with.

1:46:47The, back during Obama Biden years, they did not authorize lethal aid into Ukraine. And despite, despite apparently, Crimea annexation was going to be a red line and it wasn't. Q1 is often when businesses start implementing new systems and processes in hopes of creating efficiencies for the year ahead. And over the course of my career, I've learned just how crucial having the right systems in places, one which has helped me across many of my investments is net suite. They're also a sponsor of this podcast. Net suite is the number one cloud financial system through their streamlined platform. You'll find all of your accounting financial management inventory and HR in one place.

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1:48:00I mean, TikTok has ties to China, it has origins to China. Do you think TikTok is... The interesting thing about TikTok, so I worked in Social Media for 10 years, is TikTok as a platform, the algorithm is so unbelievably a -addictive. How would I describe it? I guess the word is the algorithm is so powerful. You notice this, anyone that uses TikTok, you'll notice this because if you post something on your page and you have a million followers, the posts could either get a thousand views or 10 million views. When I think about algorithms, the variance in views you're getting, basically you're an expression of how powerful the algorithm is.

1:48:41So on Instagram, say you have a million followers and you post something, the variance between how many views you're going to get is quite low, but on TikTok it's wide. So what the algorithm is doing is it's saying, take that and show everyone, take this show, no one. And what this means is that the app, so this is why it's so addictive to young people because everything they're seeing is really, really interesting stuff. And they care a lot less about how many followers you have, and it's more about, is this really, really interesting? So as a platform, it's super addictive, it can put you in an echo chamber faster than anything, because if I'm looking at videos about, I don't know, X, it's going to keep showing me the most interesting emotional, fierce, centric videos about that thing, no boring.

1:49:21You're going to see no boring. So do you think there's a chance that TikTok is, is being used by one of our foreign adversaries to divide us? Oh sure. Yeah, I think social media is looking the old days. If you wanted to influence hearts and minds, if you wanted to change, say you were interested in, in turning the population in work, Kenya, Nigeria, then Niger, then it was kind of old school stuff, right? How am I going to get information out there? I'm going to recruit a bunch of journalists, right? And local journalists, and I'm going to get them to publish stories, right? Maybe there's a radio station, I'll recruit somebody who can put stories on the radio.

1:50:01Technology has given the ability to do covert action campaigns, propaganda, this information we're even going to call a real jumpstart, right? So the concept is the same. I'm trying to influence opinion. I'm trying to get viewers, whatever it is. Trying to change hearts and minds, but you can do it much faster, right? And that's the type of thing the US would have done to their adversaries, right? The US would literally send an entrepreneur undercover into these countries to start a perfectly legitimate business with his family. They'd find a way to potentially fund it in some way to make sure it was successful.

1:50:45And he might be starting a social media app in Russia, undercover. Like that's the type of thing the CIA and other, you know, the media MI6, other sources we do. You're looking for ways to, I mean, you wouldn't necessarily want to say, okay, I'm going to go into China. I'm going to go into Russia and start a business, right? Because now that's problematic from an operational perspective, right? But you're going to use the technology for sure to get to as many eyeballs as possible. And so, yes, I mean, you know, TikTok's a great example of that. There's a reason why Chinese citizens can't access TikTok inside China, right?

1:51:23I mean, if you think about that, it's TikTok, you know, is it beneficial to our kids? Well, if it was, TikTok would probably be available inside China. But it's not. It's a tough one. We deal with that on a personal level all the time, trying to figure out how much screen time, you know, and what the kids can access. Now they're getting older. So it's, you know, you kind of fighting a losing battle on that one. Some people think that there's like a back channel where China are harvesting data from the back end of TikTok in some way. And I, you know, much like you, I'm less likely to believe those kinds of conspiracy theories.

1:52:02But one theory that makes logical sense to me is if I was China, and I wanted to sow division in the United States, what I would do is make a, make a, an app, a social media app that has a really, really powerful device of algorithm, which really, really is strong. And I would just make it succeed in the country. I don't need the data because what, as you said, what I'm going to do is I'm going to tap you to pop. I would say, yes, that's, that's a good point. And you see that basically what you're saying, I don't have anywhere near the level of understanding of the app world. But, but you see that when you, you know, just say, okay, oh, I'm interested in that.

1:52:40Look at that. There's a protest over here. Right. Next thing you know, you're getting, you know, 40 protest videos or whatever. But I would say also, they still want data, right? They, they thrive on collecting mass amounts of information. And so, you know, I, again, I don't know that, that tech will well enough to get into a conversation about that. But it is, it is clear based on their economic espionage and efforts over the past that they love nothing better than to collect as much information as possible. And it doesn't even have to be on a target that you think, no, no wonder they're targeting Raytheon or they're targeting a company that that makes sense.

1:53:23They'll go after anybody, really. And it is, yeah. So, but I think for the most part, when you talk about social media, what I worry about the most is this tendency for people not to question, not to be cynical or not to be at least curious and say, where's this come from? If everyone would just do that because there is no other defense at the end of the day. You don't want the government telling you what you can see and what you can't see. I don't think anyway. But there's no, there's no other defense in the front line, which is the individual with their smartphone looking at something and saying, and then stopping for at least a moment to say, where's this information coming from?

1:54:05Is it credible? Let me check elsewhere before I send this on to my family, right? And create more conflict. Just take the time to be quizzical. It's difficult because we all have like confirmation bias, right? So, we're looking for what we want to believe. True. And so, it's right, I was just thinking about that. You just see it, you saw it in the selection cycle. If that is what I wanted to believe and what I think is right, then I think that's true. And I will share that. And you see it in the election cycle, it's someone who is this sort of outside observer. I'm watching disinformation on both sides.

1:54:38I'm watching them lie about Trump and I'm watching them lie about Kamala on both sides and I'm watching happen and going, oh, no, that's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. That's a lie. But both sides are enraged and they think they're the sort of bastion of truth. It's so interesting. The hard edges are equally problematic, right? And the problem we have is much like the conflict in Ukraine on the front lines and the trenches, people are sitting in their trenches throwing hand grenades at each other and there's nobody living in the middle anymore, right? And it's almost become a nasty word to say compromise.

1:55:10But I don't know how you get meaningful things done, you know, without the ability to listen to to both sides and say, okay, well, that idea actually kind of makes sense or that idea doesn't make sense, but at least to work together. But nobody is in the center for the most part. Or if they are, they don't make any noise, right? Random idea. Random thought I just had. Scott Gallo was on my podcast and he said there's a 33 % chance that Trump dies in office based on his age in BMI. Like statistically, he's the age he's at and the BMI he has. There's a 33 % chance he dies while he's in the next four years.

1:55:45I just wonder what that might do to this whole thing because if Trump drops dead one day in the United States, people aren't going to believe that was innocent. The destabilizer, I just, you know, the one of the best results that came out of the selection was the size of the result, right? That was important. Regardless of who won and you know, I don't know how many conversations with a variety of people and they, you know, on both sides of the spectrum of politics and they all kind of fell the same way, which was, well, okay, well, whoever wins, I just hope it's convincing so that we don't then struggle with this over the next four years.

1:56:22But you're right. We... What happens in the next four years? I've got my theory of how it plays out, but... I think, again, part of it depends on how good the Democrat Party is at introspection. Not very good. Not very good. I don't think so. But I don't think it's still the government, right? It's still the US government. And we have to remember, people are, you know, they're very upset about the idea that, oh my god, you know, maybe the Republicans have all three. They have the White House, they have the Congress, they have the Senate. But that's been the case for many going back, I don't know, how many administrations, but several, at least five or six, where the president started out with control of both houses.

1:57:05And so, you know, the lesson from that usually is that not a lot really gets done. It's still a very large machine. And so I know people were, you know, look, they spent... People spent a long time saying if Trump wins, it's the end of life as we know it's the end of democracy. Oh my god, it's... And then, you know, a day and a half later, President Biden, you know, comes out and goes, you know, we're going to be just fine. And then people were like, well, what the fuck was all that talk about the end of the world then, right? It's politics, it's a narrative, but it's gotten so hyper -bolic, there's just like this, you have to take it to the far extreme no matter what you're saying, right?

1:57:45And so then, now people have a hard time absorbing that. Well, when you told me to go out in the street and rent my clothing and cry and mash my teeth and now you're telling me it's going to be okay. What, you know, so I think we're going to be just fine. And we would have been just fine if we had the other result. It's a very resilient nation. It's despite these things that we've been talking about, it's a pretty resilient world, right? So, I think, you know, it's not going to be... We're not going to see 10 million people deported, for instance, right? I don't think that's going to happen. Will we have a tougher border policy?

1:58:17Will there be some deportations? Yes, will they start with folks who are in the country illegally who have committed crimes? Well, yes, is that a problem? I don't know. It's anyone upset if someone who's got criminal convictions and is here illegally as deported? You know, I guess that maybe there's maybe there's some issue there, but, you know, is... So I think we tend to get so over the top on whether or talk about left or right that the reality is usually there's not the big sea change that people anticipate. So I think we're going to be okay. That's why I still, I'm optimistic that this next administration will hold the line realizing that holding the line is the best way to get folks to the table to come up with a settlement.

1:59:09In Ukraine and Russia? In Ukraine and Russia, sorry. Exactly. And, you know, again, I'm more cynical about this region just because I think nobody really wants to deal with the Iranian regime. And so, fine, yes, we get cease fires. Does it mean anything in the long term? No. We'll be dealing with this conflict, you know, our kids will be dealing with this conflict. So I'm a little bit more reluctant to say happy things about that anyway. Kids, just close off. If you were had to give your children advice on how to be successful based on everything you learned at your time in the CIA, on how to climb whatever ladder that they aspire to climb in their life, what would you say to them?

1:59:49Well, I'll tell you what I do say to them, which is my job as a parent is not to raise average kids. There's enough mediocrity out there, right? My job is to raise exceptional children. And that means they have to not give it 150%. I don't know what that is, even people talk about that. You got to give 110%, but you have to work a little bit harder than everyone else, right? And your gain, your result is that much more. It's really shocking. You just have to work a little bit harder. And you can always do a little bit more than you think you can do, right? It's hard to explain that to kids because they think they're bulletproof.

2:00:35They think they've got, you know, 2 ,000 years ahead of them. They don't understand how time passes. But if it's one thing I tell them, I mean aside from the basics, you know, just be honest, be loyal, be kind. It's this idea. You just, you have to put in the effort. And if you do, you can, I don't want to say you can do anything. You probably don't have the genetic build of LeBron James, right? You're probably not doing what he's doing. But that's it. And I always felt it's a simple thing. But if I've learned one thing in whether it was in the 80s or you're out, all you got to do is work a little bit harder.

2:01:17What about people? Advice should give them to, you know, because I spoke to Andrew Bustamante on the podcast and he talks about motivation and manipulation, being two sides of the same coin. When you think about what stands in the way of your life, when you think about the sort of geopolitical issues where we were describing, it's all just people. Your business, at the moment is people, my business is people. Even doing this podcast, it's trying to understand people. One of the things I got from you, which I think is just really unappreciated, is just the remarkable power of just listening and letting someone else talk.

2:01:50So you can understand them. Is there anything else you think about if you're trying to create a good salesperson as well as to people? You can't, I suppose, a psychotic or a good, but you can't fake empathy. You can't fake real interest. You can't fake enjoyment of people. I do think folks, even if they're not trained, they're pretty good at spotting that. This is pretty good at spotting if people are being disingenuous.

2:02:29So it's really that. I mean, you have to, I mean, I don't want to dwell too much on business, but in that world, when I'm talking to my folks, I just know some of them aren't going to enjoy the process of sales, if we're talking about sales. They're not going to enjoy going on doing business development, but they do an amazing job on the other aspects of the work, right? And all that work keeps clients coming back, right? So it's horses for courses. I think people are made up differently and you can't ask everyone to do the same thing. The only things you can control, I keep going back to the same thing with, because I keep thinking about my kids now that we talked about them, is they can't, like the middle boy, you know, he plays basketball.

2:03:16It's all he wants to do. He plays basketball. He goes to an academy down at Florida, IMG, which is an amazing place. And it's a sports academy for the most part. And he can't control how tall he is, right? How, how, I mean, he can work on how fast he is, I suppose, but, you know, those sort of things, but he can control how hard he works. And he can always work harder than the next guy. You think about it. I've been in situations before where I thought I could not take one more step. And then you think, well, yeah, I can take one more step, right? It's not, it's, I know, again, this is not the epiphany, but people forget that, right?

2:03:52People sometimes lose sight in part because they're not pushed or they're not challenged or the circumstances mean that they don't have to be pushed or challenged. And so people get away from understanding exactly what they're capable of accomplishing if they really think about it. So that's all I, all I ask for my folks is, you know, be honest, work hard, keep the clients happy, and, you know, Bob's your uncle, but, you know, people right now are going to like, that's it. That's your advice. Bob your uncle. You said you like, you think life is much more simple than most people portray. And I think hard work is definitely one of those things that is both controllable and it creates such a disproportionate winning advantage.

2:04:34That's exactly right. That's a much more elegant way that, I'm going to steal that. Yeah, I'm going to tell you what it does. Yeah, I mean, it does. And and it's not sexy because he wants fucking hard work. Right. People want tricks and things. There's got to be some go. So what do you do? How do you tell if somebody's like, no, just, you know, I just, you know, I asked the sofa work a little bit harder and you're right. It's not a popular thing to say. But I think people are capable of it and more so than they realize. We have a closing tradition on this podcast with the last guest leaves a question for the next, not knowing who they're leaving it for.

2:05:05And the question that's been left for you is, what do you think is the most important thing that has happened in your life to create your success?

2:05:17Wow. I mean, you obviously have some smart guests on here. I'm not, I'm already jumped to the next point where I'm like, ah, what's your favorite color? You know what, the thing I would have to say, this is going to sound, what's it going to sound like? I don't know. I think I had, I think I had the probably the best parents that you could ask for. My dad was an amazing individual, amazing individual. And they, I think, more than anything, right? If I have to go all the way back, meeting my, my wife, Emily, I mean, she's the smartest person I know, the funniest person. I know. So, but, you know, I met her, you know, going on 20 years ago now.

2:06:13So what happened before the 20 years and what happened leading through it, if I said that, then, you know, the first half of my life, I think, was my parents, right? And no doubt about it. My dad was just such a role model and, and just laid a foundation. But I would say then, the next half would definitely be my wife. I think it's, that's what does it is the people. What was the model that your dad left you? Part of it was the work, I think, my dad worked hard. And he, he never complained, right? He, he didn't, and he, and he loved my mother, just they were married for 50 years. And that was part of it, too, is I was fortunate.

2:06:59I was blessed. And, and I realized it's, it's, you know, a lot of people come from very different circumstance, but I came from one of those families where I was, it was never in question. My father was fiercely loyal to my mother and she was fiercely loyal to him. And, and, and, and loyalty, I think plays an important role in, in what you're doing. I think people, people see that as something that they can count on, right? And that set you up for success, too, I think. So, I would say, that was, that was, that was probably, again, the first half of my life, I would say, that's what, that's what paved the way.

2:07:40And then, meeting Emily, I completely outkicked my coverage, as they say. Did your dad know how much you appreciated the model of what it is to be a man that you, he set you? Yeah, yeah. I feel good about, I remember thinking about that, I remember when he died, I remember thinking that, I remember thinking that I was very happy that I had told him, sorry, that I had told him what I thought of him. Right? And we were very, we were very good with each other in terms of talking about what we felt, and how we appreciated each other. And that's a, that's a really good thing, because I don't think you want someone to go.

2:08:27And you think, well, I should have said that, I should have said, should have said something different. I was lucky, you know, he, we had a really good dialogue. Yeah. Where does that mention come from? You just, you know, it's, I think it's, that's, that's humanity. It's just how you feel, right? And, and your, your experiences, you know, all my experiences with, you know, my dad, we're just solid. I, you know, just going out, just doing things, just getting together, just meeting up as, you know, when, when, you know, I was older, and I'd come back to the states for, you know, a few days, and we'll get together and, and, you know, just like, there was, there was a bond there that was just really solid.

2:09:24And I feel the same way with, I mean, I've, you know, got brothers and they're all older than I am. And, you know, that's, that's, that's a tight relationship, right? So, yeah, I think it's, it's good. I don't, I don't get, I don't get emotional about much, but, but family I do, because at the end of the day, nobody, nobody's going to write on my tombstone that I worked my ass off, right? Or that I was a, I was a real solid, you know, officer or with, you know, my share built a really nice business. It's, it's not going to matter. It's, you know, all I care about is, is family and friends. If you could write something on his tombstone, what would you write?

2:10:08Hmm, thanks. I don't know what else you would say. You know, just thank you. You know, I did write a little, a little note. He was in his uniform when we buried him and I wrote a little note and tucked it in his uniform pocket. But that's between me and him. So, but I appreciate you bringing this up. It's nice. I mean, it is nice to talk. I would, you know, I love talking about the family. But, yeah, that's, that's it. It's, it's not a, you know, it's probably not the, probably not the most dynamic answer you get from that question. I suppose people have more, more interesting answers, but I don't know, you know, one that would be more meaningful.

2:11:00So, I think it's a perfectly, I think it's a wonderful answer because it says so much about your values and where you've come from and what's driving you and the man that you are and your priorities, because it's so clear how much he meant to you and, and it's evident to me how you must be paying that forward as a man to your children as well, in any way that you possibly can. And I think if we understand, especially for men, I think if we understand the role model that our father said as we, we understand what we think is important and what we think is right. Because my, same with my father, my father and my mother didn't get on, but one of the things I'll always remember was even in the heat of their like conflicts, if she needed something, mid -argument, he would do it, he never left because of the kids.

2:11:48And so there was clearly a principle in my father where there was something more important than the argument, and that is the family, the love, and the taking care of your woman. So even now when I'm in a relationship, if I'm in an argument with my girlfriend or we're disagreeing about something, I would always know that there's something more important, which is my responsibility to take care of these people. And that came from my dad. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Yeah, you have to know when to bend your spear, and you just, I think, yeah, I think that's, if you can pass that sense of whatever it is, of loyalty, of appreciation, of duty, of hard work, of honesty, if you can pass that along to your kids, you know, you've done your job.

2:12:39That's why I say it's, and that's what I mean by, I'm not here to raise average kids. I don't mean like I've got a very, you know, multimillionaires. So I've got to, you know, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about their, their character and how they deal with the world. Mike, thank you. Thank you for doing what you do. It's, as I said, before we started recording, I'm someone that's quite naive to these issues. And part of that is because I'm very busy doing my own thing. So I try not to talk about these things that I don't understand. But the way that you deliver the information through your book, through your podcast, even here today, and on all the shows that I've seen you on is incredibly important, because it's so accessible.

2:13:16Thank you. And that means that people like me can gain a better understanding of what's happening in the world and then make better decisions for my life, but why, you know, who I'm voting for and why I'm voting for them, which are consequential to all of us. And that's a very noble, noble cause. Thank you. I know. Thank you. I've enjoyed the hell out of this conversation. I really, really have. And it's gone by very quickly. And I apologize for marking up your map. It's all good. Thank you, Mike.

2:13:45I'm going to let you into a little bit of a secret. You're probably going to think me and my team are a little bit weird. But I can still remember to this day when Jemima from my team posted on Slack that she changed the scent in this studio. And right after she posted it, the entire office clapped in our Slack channel. And this might sound crazy, but at the Diro Vsio, this is the type of 1 % improvement we make on our show. And that is why the show is the way it is. By understanding the power of compounding 1 % you can absolutely change your outcomes in your life. It isn't about drastic transformations or quick wins.

2:14:16It's about the small, consistent actions that have a lasting change on your outcomes. So two years ago, we started the process of creating this beautiful diary. And it's truly beautiful inside. There's lots of pictures, lots of inspiration and motivation as well. Some interact developments. And the purpose of this diary is to help you identify, stay focused on, develop consistency with the 1 % that will ultimately change your life. We're only going to do a limited run of these diaries. So if you want one for yourself or for a friend or for a colleague or for your team, then head to the diary .com right now.

2:14:48I'll link it below.

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