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Jan. 18, 2020 - The Joe Rogan Experience
02:30:23
Joe Rogan Experience #1414 - Mike Baker
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joe rogan
53:03
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mike baker
01:32:27
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jamie vernon
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Speaker Time Text
unidentified
Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
joe rogan
Hello, Mike Baker.
unidentified
Hello.
joe rogan
Good to see you, buddy.
mike baker
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me back on.
joe rogan
My pleasure.
So tell me what's up.
Are we in trouble?
What's going on, man?
mike baker
It's World War III. Haven't you heard?
joe rogan
Is it?
mike baker
No.
No, it's not.
No, I'm here to burst that bubble, I think.
Not that everyone's going to say, okay, I'm writing this down.
Mike said no World War III. But it was amazing how fast the...
I'll put that closer there.
It was amazing how fast the narrative came out.
joe rogan
Yeah.
mike baker
I mean, we barely smoked Soleimani and...
Suddenly, the current president's going to get us into this conflict.
joe rogan
I was nervous.
mike baker
Well, I think everybody stepped back because it was such a shock to the system.
I mean, when was the last time we dealt with Iran in this fashion?
I mean, as opposed to like a harshly worded demarche or a note or maybe an extra sanction here or there.
But it was such a strange development that I think it did – and the natural reaction was to say, oh my god, here we go.
Certainly, everybody's exhausted from 19 years out there.
joe rogan
I was shocked that Trump could make that call.
Because they had a bunch of different options.
Or we could kill him.
He's like, let's kill him.
I was like, whoa, I didn't know you could do that.
mike baker
Well, you know what?
He's been a target before.
I guess I should first say where I stand on this, which is I'm not mourning his passing.
I think he deserved it.
I think it was justice that should have been served up some time ago.
He's responsible, not just for, as people have talked about, the hundreds of U.S. servicemen.
But thousands and thousands of people.
This guy was a completely bloodthirsty douchebag.
I mean there's no way about it.
And we're talking about the second most – structure-wise, the second most important person within the Iranian regime next to the Ayatollah.
But the idea that somehow we took out a foreign leader or a military general like he was some sort of Eisenhower is insane.
The guy was a mob boss.
He was the head terrorist for a state that is the number one sponsor of terrorism around the world.
And so, but he's been on target lists for a long time.
You go back to, I think, 2008, there was an operation to take out a guy named Mugnia, who himself was also a bloodthirsty psychopath, and he was running Hezbollah operations.
So the Israelis had been tracking him, as had we.
And at one point, they had an opportunity to take out Mugnya and also Soleimani.
And they backed off at the time, essentially because the U.S. wouldn't get behind the idea that we're going to take out Soleimani.
At that point, that was a step too far.
So eventually, we got Mugnya.
But Soleimani is just...
I mean, I don't even know where to start with...
The amount of blood that he's responsible for.
People talk about again, okay, he authorized operations and activities in Iraq against U.S. soldiers and against Iraqi soldiers and Iraqi civilians.
But it goes back to the beginning of that.
I mean, you could go back to 2003. And Soleimani was the architect.
He dreamt up this idea as the U.S. was going into Iraq that What he did was insane.
He basically authorized – I mean he's in charge, right?
So he authorizes the release of a bunch of Sunnis that they've been holding on to, Iran being Shiite, arch rivals being the Sunnis essentially, and the Saudis are their arch enemy, a Sunni nation.
But he released all these Sunni extremists that Iran had been holding on to essentially ever since we had gone into Afghanistan right after 9-11.
And he released them into Iraq, including a guy named Zarqawi, who became the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
And within a few months of getting out to Iraq, the Sunnis, basically under Soleimani's tutelage...
He had a series of bombings and started bombing everything from Shiite mosques to UN facilities, a Jordanian embassy, a variety of targets, killing thousands of Shiites.
Now he's a Shiite, right?
So this is how bad this guy is.
He goes into Iraq with this plan that I'm going to push the Shiite In Iraq to Iran.
I'm going to make them come to us for protection, for coverage, essentially.
We can ride in there because what does he want?
He wants to exert their influence within Iraq.
He doesn't want a strong Iraq.
He doesn't want the U.S. in there building a strong, stable Iraq.
I mean, you go back to the Iran-Iraq war where Soleimani started his military career.
And, you know, he's not – there's no way – he's a true believer.
There's no way he's ever going to let Iraq become stable again.
And he's insane enough that he kills thousands of Shiite, his own people, right, in order to push the Shiite population in Iraq to Iran, right?
I don't know if I'm...
joe rogan
I may not be being eloquent enough, but...
So, like, false flag operations?
Who is he blaming these bombings on?
mike baker
Yeah, it's the Sunnis.
The Sunnis are doing it.
joe rogan
The Sunnis extremists.
mike baker
Yeah, but he's authorized and he's pushed them into Iraq.
To do this.
And so he was always very unusually capable at walking a fine line between his own Shiite beliefs, population and everything and at times being able to be sort of a puppet master for Sunni extremists when it suited his cause.
Anyway, it's fascinating stuff.
Whether it was dealing with Hezbollah or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad or whomever, he...
Again, I keep going back to the same thing.
He deserved what he got, no doubt in my mind.
And I'm just surprised it didn't happen sooner, maybe not from us, but from others.
Back in October, the Iranians claimed they foiled an assassination attempt against Soleimani by Israel and some unnamed Arab agents.
So it's not as if we just plucked his name out.
He'd spent two decades engaged in death and mayhem.
joe rogan
Now, the take on him dying has not been like the take on Baghdadi.
One of the most disturbing things that I saw was the Washington Post called him an asture religious scholar.
Did you see that?
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
When that guy died, they called him an asture religious scholar.
People that I talked to that understand who he was and what was going on there were fucking fuming.
They were like, what is this?
Who the fuck wrote this?
You're talking about a goddamn terrorist, a real, legitimate, murderous terrorist, and you're calling him an asture religious scholar.
mike baker
Right.
You're giving him this credibility.
I don't understand that either.
I saw that, and I talked to a handful of people who kind of leaned in that direction.
And also, you get the same thing with Soleimani.
Now, Soleimani, I can understand, he's wrapped in the cloak of a military uniform and, you know, people saw him sitting next to the Ayatollah.
joe rogan
Okay.
mike baker
But I look at it the same way.
This is not assassinating a foreign leader.
This is not assassinating a revered scholar.
This is taking out terrorists, bloodthirsty terrorists who have a long track record Of killing people.
And he was not choosy, right?
With Soleimani, we're talking about, again, Iraqis, Yemenis, Syrians, his own people.
I mean, you know, they talk about maybe some 1,500 or so protesters, you know, being killed in Iran in the past few months as a result of the protests against the Iranian regime, primarily because of corruption, you know, the fact that they've driven that economy into a toilet at the expense of the Iranian people, lack of rights of any sort.
And Soleimani, again, is the head of the Quds Force.
The number two person there, he's responsible.
So I don't understand anybody who doesn't just say, yeah – and I think the left had a hard time with it.
The hard left, you saw them spinning a little bit saying, okay, we don't say he shouldn't have gotten it.
We don't say he didn't deserve it.
But – and then they had to try to figure out some way because it's all got to be about politics now.
So they had to bring it back to the current president, to Trump.
joe rogan
Whenever Trump does anything, even if what he does is fantastic, they can't get behind it.
They almost have to go against things that are great.
Like if the economy is great, they've got to find a reason why it's bad that the economy is great.
And if his decisions lead to something positive, they can't accept it.
It's unfortunate.
mike baker
Well, we've lost our ability to, I think, to look at things just in an objective fashion, in any sense of the word, objective.
Or certainly, we don't have civil conversations anymore, but the idea that we can look at And separate the politics from it.
Look, again, I don't care whether people like Trump or not.
I didn't vote for him.
I don't necessarily care for the individual.
But that doesn't mean I can't like policies.
And whether you're talking about what's going on with Iran, whether you're talking about the way that we've been dealing with China lately, other issues.
Hey, I liked President Obama.
Didn't like his policies.
I don't necessarily like Trump.
I like his policies.
I don't see any conflict there.
Anyway.
joe rogan
No, I don't see any conflict there.
I mean, people are complicated.
And I just didn't know that Trump could make the call.
Like, he could be the guy that goes, take him out.
I thought that was like, there was probably a panel of military leaders and like really important people that understand the ramifications, not a fucking game show host.
unidentified
Yeah, like in America's Got Talent or something, but it's just four people sitting there hitting a buzzer.
joe rogan
I felt like it would be like something that they would discuss, not that Trump would be like, yeah, option three.
mike baker
Well, but they talk about it, and there is a great deal of conversation that goes on, not necessarily with the president.
I have no idea how he processes his information, but there's a great deal of conversation and discussion that goes on in the Pentagon within the intel community and National Security Council.
What happens once they lay out these options in front of the president?
Don't have a clue.
But he does have that authority.
He's got that ability.
And President Obama had that authority.
President Obama took out, remember, U.S. citizens who were overseas in the Middle East.
And there was a hue and cry over sort of the legality of it.
But you didn't see a lot of people saying, you know, and in part, okay, I admit, because it wasn't, again, this, you know, Soleimani's wrapped in the cloak of his military uniform.
joe rogan
Well, it's also, people are very concerned about this possibility of us going to war with Iran, and they think that this might have, like, started that off.
mike baker
Yeah.
Yeah, I think what changed the calculus here is...
Iran is – the regime is brutal and awful.
They're not crazy.
And the one thing they want more than anything else is to retain power.
That's it.
And I think they looked at the idea of a military conflict, a direct military conflict with the U.S.
And this is not to say that their proxies won't strike out at some place around the world at some point.
But the regime looked at that and thought, you know what, we're not going to do this.
In part because the killing of Soleimani is important on a much bigger level than just taking out a terrorist of his stature.
It's important for deterrence purposes.
And so, you know, again, I think they looked and felt like the calculus in dealing with the U.S. has shifted now.
And they don't understand it.
They're not comfortable with it.
And also they can't afford it.
Look, if we got in a military conflict, that was just the idea that somehow we were going to get in World War III. It would be over in an evening.
Literally, it would be over in one night.
We have the ability to take out their entire energy infrastructure, their missile bases, their key military facilities, And I don't want to oversimplify this, but after that first night's activity, that's it.
They're done.
So the idea that somehow there's going to be...
Now, does that mean that we should do that?
Of course not.
Nobody wants a military conflict.
But, you know, and again, there would be knock-on repercussions, etc., etc.
So hopefully we can sort this thing out through, now that we're doing the military deterrence, and they understand that we're serious.
We've got the economic pressures, we've got diplomatic pressure, primarily to keep them isolated.
I think, you know, I think we're on the right track with Iran.
I think we're going to see a different reaction from them.
joe rogan
Well, I was a little bit relieved when they attacked back And just sort of like launched missiles on the outside of bases.
Nobody died.
I was like, okay, so it seems like this is almost like they're making a signal like they're attacking, but they're not really doing anything.
mike baker
Yeah, I think there was an optic to it.
I think you're right, absolutely, that they felt like they had to do something.
The Ayatollahs got a, I don't know whether you call it, saving face or not, but...
And we had a warning.
We had a warning ahead of time.
joe rogan
And didn't they print in their paper, didn't they say that they killed a bunch of people?
mike baker
They did.
joe rogan
In the missile attack?
mike baker
Yeah, they claimed about 80 or so, I think.
joe rogan
Keep saying it.
mike baker
Right, exactly.
Just whatever it takes.
But look at the reaction that we've had.
Of course, the Ukrainian commercial passenger jet went down.
joe rogan
And that was them, right?
mike baker
Oh, that was definitely them.
joe rogan
So do you think that they shot it down because they thought it was a U.S. military plane?
mike baker
Yeah, look, it's not unprecedented.
I mean, we shot down an Iranian passenger jet years and years ago, right?
The Russians shot down, they still won't admit to it, but they shot down a passenger jet over Ukraine just a handful of years ago, which they still won't admit to.
It's human error, and it's human error in a conflict zone, in a situation where there's a lot of moving parts.
And it's never going to be a zero-risk game.
So if the Iranians had done this, as tragic as it is, and come out and said, oh my god, we did this.
Okay.
It would have been horrific, but they did this to themselves because they just couldn't bring themselves to be truthful.
They've got a long track record of not.
And so they engaged in this and shot it down.
When you find missile...
In a field where you're doing an investigation of a plane crash, that's a pretty good indication.
And then there's the video on top of that.
joe rogan
Oh, there is a video of the missile hitting the plane?
mike baker
Yeah, two missiles.
joe rogan
Oh, Jesus Christ.
mike baker
Yeah, 30 seconds apart.
Roughly 30 seconds apart.
joe rogan
It took two missiles to bring down a plane?
mike baker
Yeah, it hit the first one.
The first one hit.
And then about 30 seconds later, not quite 30 seconds later, the second missile hits.
There's another fireball.
And the plane stays up in the air for, you know...
A period of time just because it's not devastated but it was some 20 miles from the airport.
It had actually kind of made it as if it was turning back to the airport probably right after that first missile hit.
But here's the thing.
I mean that was – so that's a tragic disaster right there, right?
But the idea that – nobody is actually saying they did it on purpose.
They didn't do it on purpose.
They did it – it was an accident.
They mistook it for either an incoming missile or a hostile aircraft coming in for a bombing run after they launched their ballistic missile strike.
So nobody is saying it was done on purpose.
But it's – Again, it's indicative of the Revolutionary Guard force and the regime itself that they spent several days denying it and saying it was mechanical failure and pressuring the Ukrainians to come out and say it was mechanical failure, which they then reversed course on that once it became obvious.
Yeah, so it's a tragic situation.
But now the protests out in the streets of Iran, which are a continuation of the past several months, which were targeted at a corrupt regime, have picked up strength in light of that because the people are just – we're tired of this.
And who knows where it's going to go?
I suspect, unfortunately, I'm fairly cynical about all this.
We've been hoping the Iranian population would kind of rise up.
For decades.
And it doesn't happen because it's a pretty brutal regime.
We don't understand that.
We don't understand how difficult they are, right?
And how serious-minded they are about holding on to power.
So every now and then we think, okay, here come the protests.
It's going to topple the regime.
It doesn't happen.
So maybe it's different this time.
I don't think so.
joe rogan
Now, were you concerned at all?
And this is one of the things when you say that we could...
Go in there and level them in a day.
The real issue is their allies, right?
The real issue is China and Russia.
mike baker
Yeah, but they're not going to do anything.
China and Russia aren't going to do anything.
It's not in their best interest.
And if they're consistent about one thing, both those countries, it's that they act in their own best interest.
And they would look at that and go, yeah, I'm sorry.
I mean, look, so what are we dealing with in that immediate area?
Yeah.
Iran's closest ally is Syria.
Soleimani spent billions of Iranian dollars or money that they couldn't afford to and that should have been spent on its population arming, training, equipping and dealing with the Syrian war and keeping his pal Assad in power.
So Iran and Syria are tied together, but is Syria in a position to somehow rise up and engage?
This is not going to be – this wouldn't have been a conflict as we imagine it, right?
It wouldn't be a conflict of occupying space and ground and all the rest of it.
Nobody wants it.
Nobody needs it.
It's not good for anybody.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying that in the scheme of things, we would have overwhelming – Superiority.
Superiority, yeah.
And yeah, I can't imagine a scenario where Russia would come in.
In fact, we would probably, as anybody would, we would say, okay, look, the Russian military is in Syria.
We're going to liaise with you.
We're going to advise you.
Shit's coming down.
Because the last thing we want to do is drag them into it by hitting some of their facilities or personnel or whatever.
So there would be that level of coordination, which there always is no matter who the parties are.
There's always some element of coordination.
But anyway, yeah, I don't see that happening.
I think we've averted that.
I hope we've averted sort of further military conflict.
I think, again, I think the Iranian regime understands that it's a new day, perhaps, that they'll come to the table eventually.
That's what this whole maximum pressure campaign is about.
Is to, again, create sufficient economic pressure, ensure that they understand the idea of deterrence, which I think they do after this strike on Soleimani.
And that goes back a ways.
This wasn't just like something that just – they thought of after an American contractor was killed.
The Iranian regime had been ratcheting up their aggressiveness and their attacks and their various operations on that region for quite a while.
And we had been talking to them about it or getting the signal to them that you've got to stop this.
And back in December, they were told, if you continue this path, we are going to take serious action.
And we did.
joe rogan
How difficult is it to get intelligence on what they're up to and what they're planning, what they're responsible for?
When you're here in America, how do we do it?
Who's over there?
How do they do that?
How do they find out exactly what these guys are up to?
mike baker
Well, a lot of it's old-school human intelligence, right?
So through sources.
And a lot of that sourcing comes from our allies.
So whether it's the Israelis or the Jordanians or the Saudis or whomever.
joe rogan
So they know someone who's on the inside?
Or like, how does it work?
mike baker
They've got a source.
They've got some recruited asset.
You know, Iran's always been a tough target for us, just like North Korea is a tough target.
And so we rely heavily on our liaison partners.
And But oftentimes, no matter how good your signals intelligence is, right, no matter how good you are at gathering SIGINT or photo interpretation of overhead imagery, it's still, to this day, no matter how good technology gets, you can't beat having an asset, having a human who's sitting in a meeting somewhere, and then for whatever their motivation is, whatever their reason for doing it, they're cooperating with you or our liaison partners, and they're saying, well, here's what happens.
Or here's how that person looked, right?
I mean, maybe you get signals intelligence because you're picking up, you know, communications.
And then what do you got?
You got something on a piece of paper and you're reading a transcript of a meeting.
But if you've got somebody who's in that meeting and who can tell you what people looked like or what the actual atmosphere was or the mood or the way that, I mean, that's invaluable.
And so we rely a great deal on that.
But you basically, you hoover up everything you can from all the various different types of Of intelligence capabilities.
But it's a tough target.
I mean there's no doubt about it.
I mean that's why this whole nuclear weapons program with Iran has always been so difficult.
I mean you talk to people and they go, well, they've got about a – They've got about a 12-month breakout time before they'd have a nuclear weapon.
And then other people say, well, I think they've got about a three-month breakout time.
Well, when you're talking about how long it's going to take them to have a nuclear weapon, you'd like to get those parameters a little closer together, right, so that you're not having a complete guess.
But it's tough.
And we spend a lot of time working on that.
But I would say that we have tremendous allies in that region and – I know that people – it's fashionable nowadays to say, well, the Trump administration, we've been pushing away our allies and they don't want to work with us.
You know what?
They do.
And in part because, again, it's the same old story.
It's in their best interest.
joe rogan
Is there any benefit to having someone like Trump who's very difficult to read?
Because he's what – You know, he's the kind of guy like when Baghdadi was killed, he said he died like a dog.
He says crazy shit.
And he talks about, like with Iran, that they might respond back with disproportionate results.
Or with a disproportionate response in comparison to the initial attack.
mike baker
Or the cultural sites.
joe rogan
The 52 cultural sites.
But that was so crazy.
To represent the 52 people that were kidnapped in the fucking Carter administration?
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
What?
mike baker
We don't really need to go with the symbolism, fellas.
We can just pick some targets, but let's not pick the cultural sites.
joe rogan
Yeah, that seems ridiculous.
unidentified
Why would you do that?
joe rogan
Those are historic.
mike baker
Well, you know what?
That's where I say, look, I understand why people...
Oh, my God.
But at the same time, that doesn't mean you can't like policies that are in place.
So I always put that out there.
I get it.
That's ridiculous.
And it's a self-inflicted wound.
And you could argue that most of the problems they deal with out of this White House are self-inflicted wounds because there's a lack of discipline.
It'd be nice if the president was more buttoned up.
Of course, that's not going to be the way it works.
I think, I don't know why I know, but he firmly believes, I think, that this is why he got elected.
joe rogan
I think it is why he got elected.
mike baker
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah, I think a lot of why he got elected is because he's wild.
And people like it.
They like it.
They like something different.
They're tired of these people that sound like politicians.
You know, you hear, you know, pick a person, Elizabeth Warren, you hear them talk, and you feel the bullshit coming out of their mouth while they're talking.
You know that they're playing a role.
With Trump, he might be arrogant, he might be crazy, he might be ridiculous, but that's him.
That's that guy.
I bet if you're around him all day long, he's like that.
I mean, that's one of the things that people like about him.
He's like that all the time.
That's who he is.
He doesn't need to bullshit.
He's Donald Trump.
He's a fucking multi-billionaire who is now the President of the United States.
So it's like he doesn't feel the need to put on an act for anybody.
So when he comes out and says he died like a dog, that's how he would talk.
mike baker
Yeah.
No, I think the consistency – I think you're right.
There is an element of – look, I am tired of the bullshit.
I mean I see what you're saying, but I guess what I think then is – I mean what are the chances that you get to – well, we're in 2020. Look at that.
But we get down to November to the election, and people are just exhausted by it.
So they wanted something different.
Now they've had it.
Are they going to get to this point in November and get ready to vote and think, I can't take another four years of it even though it's entertaining?
I'm exhausted.
Yeah.
joe rogan
People don't like change.
They get scared of change.
And if things are going well economically, and if it turns out that this thing with Iran doesn't turn into anything disastrous by the time November rolls around, I think he's going to win in a landslide.
I don't see...
Unless...
Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard get together, and then everybody goes, you know what, that would work.
This is a real combination of people that I could get behind.
Unless it's something like that, where there's some overwhelming candidate, but I don't see that.
And they seem to be pushing for Elizabeth Warren.
I don't see that.
She was a Republican most of her career, and then she became a Democrat when she was in her late 40s.
mike baker
I find maybe it's just me, but I don't see a consistent policy message there.
I don't see...
I don't see that happening for her, this go-around.
Maybe it'll change, maybe it needs, I don't know.
joe rogan
The problem is I feel like these people just want to be president.
I feel like it's a self-aggrandizement thing.
They just want to be president.
mike baker
I think you could argue that about anybody in politics.
You've met that person, right, who's in politics now, who started out by being head of the Republican or Democrat club in high school.
That's all they want to do.
Then they're a state senator, and then they say, Oh, am I going to run for Congress?
And you think, what the fuck?
I mean, it's got to be something, you know, the wiring's off a little bit.
Yeah, for sure.
joe rogan
That's the problem, right?
Anybody that wants to be president, you wouldn't want to be president.
mike baker
Well, I mean, I think if you look at who they've got on the other side, I mean, I thought for a while that maybe the Republicans are going to primary Trump.
And then I realized that's a crazy ass idea.
No one's ever going to do that.
No one's going to get in there.
joe rogan
Go against him?
mike baker
Stir it up with him for a primary.
Who?
joe rogan
Who?
There's no one that stands out.
You would need someone that already stands out.
I mean, here we are in January.
You would need someone that already stands out.
We're talking about doing something 10 months from now.
You need someone that's already in the public eye.
You can't just jump to the head of the line like that.
Especially from the Republican side.
mike baker
Say he wins again in 2020. He's got four years.
I'll tell you one person I would love to see jump in.
I don't think she'd ever do it, but it would be Condoleezza Rice.
Just super smart, good person, terrific.
I don't know.
But again, I don't think that's going to happen.
I don't know that we've...
joe rogan
Do you think she would run for president?
mike baker
I mean, I would like to think so.
I doubt it.
She hasn't shown any interest in it.
I think she's enjoying private life too much.
joe rogan
Yeah, I mean, all the shit she went through with the Iraq war and everything.
She's probably like, can't take that.
Stick it up your ass.
I'm going to hang out at my ranch or whatever the fuck she's got.
Don't they all have ranches?
I always figured they all go to Wyoming.
mike baker
Anybody who comes out of the Republican administration has got to have a ranch.
joe rogan
You get a ranch somewhere and you lay low.
Like Cheney, he's got a ranch.
mike baker
He's definitely got a ranch.
That's a ranch guy.
joe rogan
Bush has got a ranch.
mike baker
I think he'd be better aimed, but he's got a ranch.
joe rogan
Better aimed.
Well, I think he was a little drunk at the time.
That was one of my favorite times.
He shot his friend in his face and his friend apologized.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That's how gangster Dick Cheney is.
mike baker
Yeah, I'm sorry I got my face in the way, sir.
joe rogan
I shouldn't have done that.
His friend was like, I'm sorry, I look like a quail, sir.
mike baker
I got my oldest boy for Christmas, 12 years old, a great, great, great kid scooter.
I got him an Airsoft, a Glock replica.
And I didn't know much about airsoft, right?
I mean who does?
I mean I've got a walk-in safe full of weapons but none of them are airsoft weapons.
But he really wanted one of his buddies to have them and they go out shooting and they do the old school thing, right?
They put on a couple of layers of clothes and some eye protection and they go shoot each other.
So, how could I say no?
So, we go to the store, this combat supply shop that specializes in airsoft, and I was really impressed.
I mean, the machining on these things is fantastic, right, first of all.
And I was expecting some...
You know, the old school pellet guns and BB guns, the Crossmans, things like that, you know, that are plastic for the most part and everything.
But this is a solid piece of work.
And anyway, so got on this thing.
It's turned out, I don't know where I was going with the story.
Oh, shooting in the shot.
He's actually, I suspect he's a better shot than Cheney, as it turns out.
And he's got his hunting certificate and he's been through that education program and, you know, he's in the scouts and so we go out shooting every now and then.
But it took him almost no time at all, right, in terms of practice to develop.
I'm boasting about my 12-year-old's target shooting ability.
I realize that's not why most viewers tune in.
joe rogan
Sometimes they want to know.
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
Yeah, maybe so.
Anyway, so that's Jay.
But yeah, I think you're right.
Nobody's going to primary this president, and I think we're left with this field of potential candidates on the Dem side.
I tend to agree.
I think it's going to be a landslide unless there's some – if the market tanks for whatever reason because there's some international crisis somewhere and it sends things down through the floor, maybe.
But if the economy stays the way it is and the Dems seem to wander into their primary season as unorganized as they seem to be, yeah, I could see him winning again big.
joe rogan
Well, I think people want to look at him as being all bad.
But if what he's done and the moves that he's made are great for the economy, and things appear to be very good, right?
mike baker
Yeah.
No, I think, again, you can't, but the problem is they can't separate that.
joe rogan
Right, that's what I'm saying.
mike baker
Yeah, you can't find a progressive who's going to stop and go, well, you know, the economy is good.
Or if they say it, it always followed by a, but, you know, it's not good for everybody.
Well, it's never good for everybody.
joe rogan
It's true, too.
Yeah, it isn't.
Yeah, I mean, they want the economy to be the way it is, but they want Bernie Sanders' economic policies.
You know, it's interesting because I think that someone who supports big business the way Trump does, he encourages people to move business forward.
I mean, it encourages the market, encourages people to spend money.
It encourages people to take risks.
The more he makes it easier for these big businesses, also the more people get outraged, but then the economy picks up.
It's like, boy, there's a...
I don't know what the correct way to do this is, but even though I'm not a Trump fan, there are definite benefits to the way he has been running the country.
mike baker
When you talk about some of the basic metrics, you look at the unemployment rate.
I just finished a conversation the other day.
Idaho, not to bring in Idaho, but Idaho's got the second strongest state economy in the nation.
The unemployment rate is almost negligible.
It's crazy how strong it is at this point.
joe rogan
Because there's solid people up there.
mike baker
Solid people.
We all have ranches.
That's the other thing.
joe rogan
We all know how to fly fishing.
mike baker
Exactly.
joe rogan
There's something to that, though, with solid people.
I mean, Idaho is a fucking...
There's real people up there.
You go up there, it's fucking cold as shit.
There's wolves and bears.
Those are real goddamn people.
mike baker
You've got to come back up and do another show.
joe rogan
I would definitely come back up.
I'll schedule something.
mike baker
Yeah, that would be great.
But I think the point with the economy is that it does – and again, I get it.
Not everybody's in the stock market.
Of course not everybody's in the stock market.
As it improves or tax cuts, you know, that whole, it was only for the rich.
You can't tell me that people haven't been benefiting from it.
And yes, there's going to be segments that it takes longer or you've got to work harder or whatever it is to feel that improvement.
But it's there.
And again, I don't see unless there's something that sends it heading south.
And I think the Democrats are in a difficult position.
They can't talk it down.
Michael Bloomberg's trying.
He's not a Democrat, though.
I don't know what he is.
What is he?
unidentified
Are there billionaire Democrats?
mike baker
Tom Steyer.
joe rogan
Yeah?
mike baker
I keep wanting to say Steyer.
I don't know why I keep saying Steyer.
It makes me sound clever.
Tom Steyer, yeah, but...
I think that Bloomberg is trying to say, look, the economy needs to be adjusted, needs to be fixed.
I don't think anybody buys it because there's no supporting data for that.
And so they have a hard time battling against the economy, which is why I think they try to avoid it for the most part.
I mean that debate last night Did you watch that?
joe rogan
No.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
I don't watch them.
I didn't push Tulsi Gabbard out, I stopped watching.
I'm like, you guys are out of your fucking mind.
She's the most interesting candidate out there.
mike baker
Yeah, next to Marianne Williamson.
joe rogan
Oh, well that bitch is crazy.
Sorry, sorry for using that word.
mike baker
Crazy?
joe rogan
No, bitch.
mike baker
I didn't mean it that way.
joe rogan
I say it, you know, it's a term of endearment.
But isn't she like a crystal healer or some shit?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
She was trying to come on the podcast, too.
I'm like, she's doing a tour.
I'm like, that's a boat with a lot of holes in it, and it ain't gonna make it across the harbor.
mike baker
It's like talking to one of your aunts, right?
One of your crazy aunts.
joe rogan
Yeah, it's in the crystals.
mike baker
Comes over for the holidays, you know?
I said, what are you doing?
Well, I made you a dream catcher.
And I'm like, okay, thank you.
joe rogan
A dream catcher.
mike baker
A dream catcher.
joe rogan
I think Bernie Sanders has some interesting thoughts, and talking to him in person, in real life, I like him a lot.
He's not like what he comes off in those goddamn debates, because those debates are ridiculous.
You get five people in front of the camera, you ask them a question, they have 30 seconds to answer it, everybody else is jumping in and yelling things out, they're all trying to get a sound bite.
mike baker
Well, that's all it is.
It's not actually a debate.
I mean, remember the debate club.
And it's not that.
It's exactly what you said.
It's soundbites.
A series of soundbites.
They're all looking to have a moment.
They don't want to screw up, so they want to have kind of a safe moment.
And they go through.
I agree with you.
I like...
I like Bernie because he's been consistent.
You can go back to the 80s.
He's saying the same shit that he's saying now.
And I think there is something to that.
Now, I don't buy his arguments.
But I like the guy.
And I like the fact that he's consistent and he means what he says.
So again, I can separate out liking him from liking his policies.
I don't see a problem there.
But I don't think they're going to let Bernie – there was a moment.
I'll tell you about last night on this debate thing.
I think it was the CNN moderator.
She asked Elizabeth Warren.
Elizabeth Warren had come out the other day and said that she had a private conversation with Bernie.
And during the conversation, yeah, Bernie said, you know, a woman's never going to win.
That's my Bernie.
A woman's never going to win or can't win being president.
He was more eloquent than that, but the voice sounded just like it.
And so he's denied it.
So the moderator last night during this debate asked Bernie Sanders, let me just be clear, she said, are you saying that you've never said this to Elizabeth Warren?
And Bernie said, absolutely not.
Very next words out of the moderator's mouth was she turned to Elizabeth Warren and said, so, Senator Warren, when Bernie said to you that he never, or no, when Bernie said to you that a woman couldn't be president, how did you feel?
joe rogan
Jesus Christ.
mike baker
That was it.
And so I think they're not even trying now to hide the fact that they want to marginalize Sanders.
Yeah.
joe rogan
Why did they want to marginalize him?
mike baker
Because I think they feel like there's no way he can win.
joe rogan
Is that what it is?
mike baker
Yeah, I think on a national level.
joe rogan
But they think Elizabeth Warren can win after lying about being Native American for her whole life?
mike baker
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
That's a fucking big one to me.
mike baker
Oh, by the way.
By the way, one of my boys was home sick the other day from school, the middle boy, Sluggo.
So we were sitting on the sofa and I said, you know, you're not feeling it?
You want to watch a movie?
God bless him.
He's 10 years old.
He considers himself a baller.
All he wants to do is play basketball.
That's all he wants to do with his life.
He knows he's going to get recruited by Duke.
He knows he's going to end up in the NBA. But we're sitting there and it was really kind of sweet because he's got all this hard side to him and I'm just playing ball.
And then he says, well, yeah, let's watch a Disney movie.
So we kind of dialed up Disney Plus because we're sheep and we bought the Disney Plus thing.
And Peter Pan.
The original Peter Pan, right?
The original Disney Peter Pan.
So we turned it on.
And I'd forgotten what that movie was like in terms of its treatment of Native Americans.
joe rogan
Oh, it's horrible.
mike baker
Oh, my God.
We're watching it, and we get to that part where they're singing that song, and the Lost Boys are tied up with Wendy and Michael and all of that, and the chief comes in, and he wants to find Tiger Lily, the princess, because Hook is...
The viewers are like, what the hell's going on here?
So anyway, I'm sitting there, and even Sluggo looks at me, and he goes, wow, this is kind of racist.
LAUGHTER Really?
joe rogan
What a 10-year-old says that.
mike baker
Yeah, a 10-year-old says it.
I thought, okay.
joe rogan
Everything was racist back then.
mike baker
Everything was racist.
Well, that's what we had.
We had a conversation.
I said, yeah, pretty much what I told them.
But anyway.
joe rogan
Well, particularly about Native Americans.
I mean, they were able to get away with it.
Nobody protested it.
I'm reading this book now, or I'm listening to it on tape, called Black Elk Speaks.
It's about this Oglala Sioux medicine man who was, while he was still alive, In the 1930s, they wrote this book.
He told the story of Custer, and he was there.
He was a young boy when Custer was killed, and he told the story of life on the plains and Crazy Horse.
It's fucking fascinating.
mike baker
When was it written?
joe rogan
It was written in the 1930s.
mike baker
Okay, it's called what?
Black Elk Speaks?
joe rogan
Black Elk Speaks, yeah.
I've listened to on tape, this is like the fourth or fifth one that I've listened to on Native Americans over the last couple of months, but this is the best one.
This is the best one because, not that the other ones weren't great, they were great, but what's interesting about this is the actual words of a man who lived that life.
It's not just a historical book about the time and describes the events of the time.
This is a guy describing what he saw And he was talking in particular about war, about the way it was when they killed Custer.
He was there when they killed Custer.
And just the battles between the American soldiers and the Native Americans.
It's like...
It's crazy.
It's crazy to think that it happened just a short time ago.
And it's also crazy to think that if no one came to America, like if the world just stayed in Europe and Asia and the way it had been before Columbus and before the pilgrims and all that shit, these people would probably still be living like that because that's not that long ago.
mike baker
Well, I mean, you think about it.
What was it?
It was a warring tribal culture.
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
I mean, where else do we have – I'm probably going to make a botch of this point, but yeah, warring tribal cultures in the Middle East, right?
I mean, it's a difficult environment, right, in which to say, okay, we're going to have some sort of federal system.
We're going to come together.
We're going to work for the greater good.
But I mean, I think it's – I will say this.
The most depressing – Scenes I've ever seen have been on Native American Indian reservations in this country.
joe rogan
I've never been.
mike baker
Oh my God.
joe rogan
I've never been other than casinos.
mike baker
It's just, you go and I'd spent most of my adult life overseas, right?
In some pretty grim places.
And I remember the first time I was on a reservation here in the U.S. I thought, how can this possibly be here?
And I know that's a naive thought and people think, well, how could you not know that it was here?
But...
It's, you know, A, it's not a good history, but B, it's not a good follow-up either.
I mean, right?
We haven't, we just, to this day, we don't do a very good job at all.
And the reservation systems, not all of them, of course, it's like every, you know, not every urban center is, you know, crime rate.
I mean, that's ridiculous, but I'm just saying in general.
Some of the most difficult places I've ever seen have been right here on our borders, right, on Indian reservations, and good God.
joe rogan
Yeah, I want to get someone to come in here who's a Native American, who's a historian, who really understands the history of the I just had a sort of a peripheral understanding of it up until about five or six months ago.
I really, you know, I had seen movies and I had read books and I'd kind of understood, but I didn't really, really get into it until I started reading these books and it's just...
It's just incredible to think that there was millions and millions of tribes or millions and millions of members of different tribes living in this country, like basically like Stone Age people, just 150 years ago.
mike baker
And oftentimes, you know, in constant conflict with each other.
joe rogan
Yes.
Oh, that's a big thing that I didn't really understand.
The horrific things they did to each other, kidnapped each other, tortured each other.
mike baker
And we came along and they're like, what the fuck?
Come on, lighten up.
unidentified
I mean, jeez.
mike baker
We brought them a whole new level.
joe rogan
Well, as soon as we figured out repeating guns, as soon as they figured out revolvers with more than one bullet, because they were fighting the Comanches originally, they were fighting them with muskets.
And the Comanches could shoot like six arrows in ten seconds.
So they would just lighten these fucking soldiers up because they couldn't reload.
So they'd wait for the initial volley and then they'd charge in.
And they also could...
They were such great horsemen, they could actually shoot underneath the horse's neck.
So they'd hold on to the reins somehow where they were under the horse's neck.
And they were protected, and they were shooting at the soldiers.
And they were shooting from horses.
Nobody knew how to do that before.
Everybody got off the horse to shoot.
And they were shooting while they were riding.
mike baker
I mean, I feel bad for the horse, but he's covering concealment.
joe rogan
That's how the Comanches apparently dominated, is that they had so many horses.
They were rich in horses.
They were the ones that figured out how to master the horse the best.
They also used small horses.
They didn't use these big horses that the Americans used.
And they were small people.
Comanches were fairly small people.
mike baker
Yeah.
No, it is absolutely – it's a fascinating history.
I've spent more time reading sort of the military aspects of the Indian Wars, right, from the U.S. military side of things.
And occasionally a book will stray into sort of, okay, well, let's look from a perspective of whichever tribe they were in battle with, but not usually very good.
So I'll pick up this book because it – It's an amazing history, and you're right, it's not that long ago.
joe rogan
There's another great book, well, there's quite a few of them, Blood and Thunder.
It's about Kit Carson.
mike baker
I read that.
That is good.
joe rogan
Fuck, man.
mike baker
That dude.
joe rogan
He was a beast.
mike baker
Get him on the show.
My God.
He was tremendous, right?
And from nothing, right?
Came from nothing.
joe rogan
And was a small guy, had a soft voice.
mike baker
Yeah, there was a show...
Men Who Made America, I think.
Or it was a follow-on from that.
But they had a handful of episodes about Kit Carson, but they kind of went through – they picked out some of the – sort of the individuals you would imagine, right?
I mean Daniel Boone and some of the other characters as the frontier.
I think Men Who Built a Frontier, I think is what it was called.
It was a follow-on to that series that they did.
But the men who built America, okay, which seems misogynistic, but … Trevor Burrus, Jr.: The women probably helped.
They – behind every great titan of industry, there was a woman and several of his mistresses.
But I think that this thing about building the frontiers was interesting.
They tried – Yeah, I think most of us are pretty ignorant to what goes on on the reservations today.
joe rogan
And me included.
You hear these horrible stories of alcoholism and poverty.
It's just they live in these nations inside of a nation.
That's what's very strange.
And the only thing that really is natural resources that can help them, but really gambling.
Gambling becomes a big revenue source for a lot of them.
mike baker
And then people are trying to game the system.
No pun intended, but people are gaming the system and saying, oh, I'm going to create this non-existent tribe.
You get that in Washington, D.C.
You can't swing a dead cat without hitting some lobbyist who's trying to push for designation of some obscure element as a tribe.
So they can simply apply for a gaming license.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I'm not sure how you turn that around.
There's the Native American Indian Museum in D.C. that opened several years back.
It's very good.
It's a little tough to follow.
I will say this much in terms of just the way they've laid the museum out, right?
But it's just absolutely full to the ceiling of incredible stories and artifacts and history bits.
It's definitely worth people going to D.C. If they're saying, okay, I'm going to go to the Smithsonian, they should put that one on the list because it's really fascinating.
It's really good.
unidentified
Anyway, what else?
mike baker
Oh, I know what I was going to bring up because I can't come on the show without talking about Huawei.
unidentified
Oh, so something going on with Huawei again?
mike baker
Only on the periphery today, the Trump administration signed this first portion of a deal with China.
And so it's a trade pact, right?
There's been this trade battle, obviously.
And I just thought I was flying out here and I was thinking about it.
It's interesting dynamic, right?
Because, you know, people talk about this current administration as not having any strategy.
And sometimes it does seem, frankly, that way.
But I was thinking the other day that it is – there is actually an interesting split in terms of how they're dealing with China.
So on the one hand, we've got this softening of the trade war.
They're going to – as a result of signing what they signed today with China as sort of a first-stage trade agreement, it mostly involves increased purchases by China of U.S. goods.
There's some talk about them scaling back their theft of intellectual property.
joe rogan
Scaling back?
mike baker
Scaling back.
joe rogan
That's a hilarious one.
unidentified
Maybe we won't steal so much.
mike baker
We're not going to stop stealing.
But there's that element to it.
But at the same time as they're doing this, and as a result of that, we're going to cut in half our tariffs on taxes.
Quite a bit of – a large amount of goods and I think we're going to drop the idea of imposing more tariffs on some other goods.
But even while we're doing that – so that's happening, right?
But as we're doing that, we're also ratcheting up pressure and some sanctions and some legislation against the technology side of things.
So we're still coming down on Huawei.
Congress is trying to push through something that's going to make it even more difficult for US companies to do business with them overseas.
But I think it's interesting, right?
Because we're – there's some people I think in Washington who go, well, we can't do both.
Well, of course you can do both, right?
You can talk to the Chinese in real terms and say, yeah, let's focus on the trade.
We're going to do this.
We're going to make it a little bit easier.
Let's create a trade environment where it's good for both of us.
At the same time, you know what?
You're still stealing our shit and Huawei is still a national security threat.
So we're still going to focus on this.
And, you know, this is not saying I'm singing praises of this current administration.
I'm just saying that any administration should be able to operate on different levels, right, when it comes to the same – but we don't – we haven't seemed to do that.
It's like with Iran.
Well, okay, we're – in the past, If they just gave some indication that they were going to play ball with us, we'd ease up on the sanctions even though they hadn't done anything about their pursuit of terrorism and other things that they were doing because we felt like in Washington I think sometimes DC is like, oh, you can't do two things at one time that seem to be conflicting.
Well, the real world says I think that you can't.
So I think China gets it.
I don't think they're going to stop stealing.
joe rogan
It seems to be how they operate.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Especially when you consider the fact that the government is so inexorably connected to Huawei.
Like when you were explaining how big business and the government are hand in hand, they're not two separate entities.
They work completely together.
And so with Huawei, since they have been busted, Having third-party access to data and stealing packets and stuff with routers.
Because they have done that, you've got to think, well, that's probably a part of the way they do business.
mike baker
Well, it is.
It's in their system.
I mean, they made a decision decades ago, right?
This is how we're going to achieve...
Superiority in the world.
We're going to get to the top of the food chain by skipping all the cost and pain of research and development.
We're just going to hoover up everything we can from not just the U.S., but everybody.
So, you know, part of this, all this pushback against China has been specifically trying to say, look, you got to stop that.
We understand it.
We're calling you out on it.
Now, we've tried doing that a handful of times in the past in a half-hearted manner.
This time, you know, I think the Chinese understand we're more serious about it.
And we are trying to implement certain measures that will prevent some of that theft.
But at the same time, I think, as you said, it's part of how they do business, right?
So I think we have to be pragmatic in all of this and think, yeah, it's good that we're pushing them on it.
It's good that we're telling them.
It's good that we're trying to rebalance the trade environment.
That we're calling out Huawei, that we're talking to our allies about not doing business with them because all they really want is they want an access point, right?
So if they do business with the UK, suddenly in this seamless world of communications, now they've got an entry point into the US. So we're working to try to get our allies to stay on board with us about that.
But yeah, the Chinese, they subsidize Huawei, and the government does in a big way.
And we just have to be realistic.
We're not going to change their behavior in a major way.
They're just going to become more sophisticated or more obtuse about how they do it.
joe rogan
Well, the best evidence to me that there's really something going on is that Google's even stepped in.
Right?
Google's even say, we won't even give you our access to Google Store anymore.
If you want to have a Huawei phone, even if you buy it from overseas, it will not work on the Google ecosystem.
So what Huawei's done is they've started their own little weird app store.
And they've started creating their own apps.
They're essentially frozen out of the ecosystem that Google provides and the Google Play Store provides.
But you can sideload some apps by going to the website.
You can download some of them and put them on a phone.
But they're essentially relegated to these weird Chinese versions of a lot of the popular applications.
And it's a very limited selection.
And when it comes to...
High-end cell phones.
Like, what is the new Huawei phone?
I think it's called the Mate 30 Pro.
unidentified
They announced another one.
joe rogan
They announced another one.
This is the other thing.
mike baker
Just now?
joe rogan
Yeah.
Right.
Oh, Mike Baker.
Fuck him.
unidentified
They literally had announcements today in London.
mike baker
Teach that son of a bitch.
unidentified
Son of a bitch.
joe rogan
So their phones, they come out with new ones all the time.
Like an iPhone, which is the top of the food chain in America, right?
They come out once a year.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
Once a year they bang out a new phone.
Huawei's cranking these fucking bad boys out every couple of months and every couple months they have a giant leap in improvement.
More megapixels, better night vision, more storage, more battery life, more this more that, higher pixel density in the screens.
So their phones literally are the top of the food chain phones.
It's really kind of fascinating because a lot of American phones, like look at that bad boy, P40 design gets leaked, showing triple Leica camera.
Yeah, so they're using these fucking incredible cameras.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
Yeah, sort of.
unidentified
Similar.
mike baker
Sort of similar to the iPhone.
Similar.
Interesting.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, we copy them a lot.
mike baker
Yeah, no, that's true.
I mean, that's a design element of it.
Yeah.
I mean, look at Huawei.
We've been banging on about them for some time.
Congress has been trying to take actions.
And at the end of this past year, end of what, 2019, Huawei reported some 20% increase in their revenues.
joe rogan
Yeah, of course.
Some people are talking about it.
Well, I know a lot of people that before this Google thing...
mike baker
That's what I'm actually doing.
I'm actually, you know, I got a contract with Huawei, so that's why I keep banging on it.
joe rogan
The Google thing really fucked them up, because before that, a lot of the tech guys in America were buying them from Amazon or buying them from websites and then just putting their SIM cards in it and using it, even though AT&T won't sell them and Verizon won't sell them.
But now that won't even work anymore, because now you don't have access to the Google Play Store.
If they could figure out a way to sweet-talk their way back to the Google Play Store, they would be the biggest fucking cell phone company in the world.
They offered developer $26 million to build apps for his flagship phones after being banned from using Google's App Store.
Yeah, but the thing is, like, building the apps is not good enough.
You have to have apps that everybody's using.
If you make your own Instagram, nobody gives a fuck.
You're not on Instagram.
Are you on Instagram?
It says there are major apps available through Hallways, app galleries such as Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, and Fortnite.
But most popular apps are still missing.
That's interesting.
Amazon's like, fuck you.
We want some money.
We want some money.
Jeff Bezos going through a divorce.
unidentified
That's what it's all about.
joe rogan
Come get some money.
I got a new hot chick and she likes money.
mike baker
Is it his new wife now or just his girlfriend?
joe rogan
I think it's just his girlfriend.
She used to be married to the former owner of the UFC. She used to be married to one of the current owners of the UFC. Oh, okay.
mike baker
Alright, so she's stepped up.
She's stepped up.
joe rogan
The owner of the UFC is a very wealthy man too.
mike baker
Not Bezos wealthy.
joe rogan
No, he's on next level wealthy.
That's like if you get divorced, for sure you're getting a billion.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
He's got 150. He can give you a billion just to shut you up.
Just like, just give her a billion.
Let's get this over with.
Let's get this over with, Marty.
Sign the paperwork.
mike baker
But I can see.
He's a handsome man.
I can see him attracting a really hot man.
joe rogan
I don't think you're right.
mike baker
I think you're being sarcastic.
joe rogan
Look at that face.
mike baker
Wow.
joe rogan
He looks like a guy in a movie.
mike baker
He looks a little like Paul Schaefer in that picture.
You remember the old David Letterman's old band leader?
joe rogan
Look at this.
Yeah, you're right.
He does.
Yes, Dave.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
Jeff Bezos reportedly threw a star-studded birthday bash for his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez.
Look at her.
She's like, cha-ching!
Wow.
Someone should Photoshop dollar bills on her glasses.
mike baker
But that's not a really good picture of her.
She doesn't look...
She's got a weird face.
joe rogan
She's hot as fuck, dude.
mike baker
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah, but she's hot as fuck and almost 50. 50th birthday?
Women today at 50, they keep it together.
It's a different 50. When I was a kid, when a lady was 50, that was a dead lady.
She's barely alive.
But now, 50-year-olds are in the gym doing squats.
They look hot.
It's different.
They exercise.
mike baker
People now imagine you cruising gyms looking for girls doing squats.
joe rogan
No, I'm just saying.
I've seen 50-year-olds that are in very good...
What's that girl?
Elizabeth Hurley.
mike baker
Oh, yeah.
joe rogan
She's a fucking movie star.
Her Instagram is all pictures of her in her underwear.
You know why?
Because she's like 53. She looks good in her underwear.
Yes.
And she's 54?
She's 54, and she knows the fucking sand is thin on that hourglass.
There ain't a lot at the top.
The top chamber, there ain't a lot left.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
So she's showing them goods.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That Instagram was all her in her underwear.
mike baker
That name, who was she with?
She was with...
Oh, there she is.
joe rogan
Hugh Grant.
mike baker
Hugh Grant, that's right.
joe rogan
Dude, look how hot she is.
54. Like, if you saw her...
Give me another one of those, Jamie.
What do you got here?
Give me another one of them.
Bikini.
There's a bunch of bikini pictures.
That there.
Like, if you saw her somewhere, you would go, oh, that's a 35-year-old beautiful woman.
unidentified
54. It's different these days.
mike baker
I will say this, though.
There are a lot of filters out there.
joe rogan
That's true.
I know.
I could look 12. But look at that one in the middle.
That doesn't look filtered, the one right there.
mike baker
No, that looks like a party picture.
joe rogan
That looks like her part.
She's hot.
mike baker
She definitely looks right like she just came off the set from Austin Powers.
joe rogan
Yeah, she's fucking hot, man.
She's still hot.
Legitimately hot.
People go, yeah, but she's 54. You go, shut the fuck up.
What's wrong with you, man?
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
Look at that one, the right with the boobs.
unidentified
Woo!
Yeah.
Take it!
mike baker
No, but when was that taken, though?
joe rogan
Last week.
mike baker
Last week.
unidentified
Shut your mouth.
joe rogan
Stop ruining my dreams.
mike baker
That was just on Monday.
unidentified
Don't ruin dreams, Mike Baker.
mike baker
No, you're right.
You're right.
unidentified
She's hot as fuck.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
She's putting in the work.
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
That middle picture, I'm not sure about the middle picture with the two soldiers there.
I'm not sure.
Was that taken in Liechtenstein?
unidentified
Yeah, what is up with them?
mike baker
Where are these soldiers from?
joe rogan
What's up with their fake mustaches?
Do they have painted-on mustaches?
mike baker
Do you think they've got a whole army of guys like that that come out on the battlefield dressed like that?
joe rogan
London Coliseum?
Do they make them put rosy cheeks on?
mike baker
No, those are natural.
It comes like that.
That's the British weather.
Cold and damp.
Gives you cheeks like that.
joe rogan
How weird.
They have fake mustaches, though, right?
unidentified
It's for the ballet.
It's for the Nutcracker.
joe rogan
Oh, for the ballet.
unidentified
Right here.
joe rogan
English National Ballet.
unidentified
Oh, the ballet.
joe rogan
A couple of Marines.
The ballet.
mike baker
A couple of commandos.
joe rogan
Just make that picture bigger and cut those dummies out.
She looks hot.
And look at the one right next to it.
Go to the one picture right next to that one, Jamie.
That one.
unidentified
Oh, yeah.
Come on, son.
joe rogan
She's hot as fuck.
Okay.
She's hot as fuck.
mike baker
It's quite the piece of jewelry she's got there, hanging between those things there.
joe rogan
It's just amazing that women can do this now.
You couldn't do that before.
It's like you hit a wall, and that's welcome to the wall.
mike baker
But here's what I would say.
I think those same hot women would argue that for dudes, it's different.
You can be a schlub at 54, right?
You can just walk out there.
You don't give a shit.
You're just kind of like...
joe rogan
Like Jack Nicholson.
mike baker
Yeah, like Jack Nicholson.
joe rogan
Jack Nicholson's a thousand years old, and he's still banging 20-year-olds.
mike baker
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know how he does that.
I see him sidelines at a Lakers game, and you think, oh my God.
joe rogan
I know.
You know what it is?
It's like most women find him repulsive, but you don't want most women.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
You want the women that don't find you repulsive.
And when you're really, really famous, that's a considerable number.
That's what's crazy.
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
No, that's true.
joe rogan
So there's 300 million plus people in this country that's probably of dating age.
Let's just say there's 70 million women that could be dating Jack Nicholson.
Look at them there.
Let's just, I mean, it's probably, I'm probably off, but let's say out of those...
mike baker
So 70 million that he could choose from.
joe rogan
Yeah, let's say it's 100 million.
Let's get crazy.
Let's say it's 100 million.
mike baker
That's quite the picture.
joe rogan
Out of those 100, look at that one.
mike baker
Let's leave that one up.
That's perfect.
joe rogan
Leave that one up.
Out of those 100 million, 90 million of them would think he's disgusting.
90 million.
So 90 million women would be like, what the fuck?
Out of those 10 million, and those 10 million that are left, 5 million would be like, eh, he's not that bad.
And then 1 million would be like, I'd fuck him right now.
That's what you want.
mike baker
I think 1 million?
1 million would fuck that right now?
unidentified
Yes.
joe rogan
1 million.
mike baker
I'll live here.
unidentified
Wow.
mike baker
They're all in Southern California.
unidentified
He's so right!
joe rogan
Well, there's some from North Dakota that just want to come to LA. Jack's going to make me famous.
He blew up my Instagram.
mike baker
Yeah, I can see that.
I can see getting in your Kia and driving across country to fuck that.
joe rogan
Look at his glasses.
mike baker
Man.
joe rogan
Everything about him.
Cheeseburger, fries, doesn't give a fuck.
unidentified
Oh, there you go.
mike baker
He's back in his heyday.
joe rogan
That was when he was young.
mike baker
That dude, man.
joe rogan
He looked like shit back then.
Look at that picture.
mike baker
Look at that collar, though.
That was back when a collar meant something.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It is amazing.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
And, you know, he keeps on rocking in the free world.
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
Yeah.
But that's the thing.
That's what women would say.
How come we have to...
I mean, you hear that all the time.
Society requires us to do a thousand squats a week.
joe rogan
They're right.
mike baker
This mook over here, he doesn't have to do anything, and he's still pulling.
joe rogan
But the response to that would be, you don't even have to be rich.
If you're hot and you're a woman, you just have to be nice.
A guy who's hot, good luck.
What are you going to get out of that?
You ain't getting shit out of that, stupid.
Go get a goddamn job.
mike baker
I read some study somewhere and I've put it out of my mind, but I do remember there was an aspect of it that did say, what do women see as an attractive element of a man?
And to this day, it's still the ability to provide.
Jeff Bezos!
joe rogan
Look at that smile she has on her face.
She's not bummed out to be with him.
mike baker
Now, it would have been a different story if we were cavemen and you had to rely on Jeff Bezos to provide.
joe rogan
Right.
mike baker
That's not happening.
joe rogan
Right, yeah.
mike baker
But, yeah, I mean, it's...
Anyway, so, yeah, so Amazon's doing business with...
With the new app store.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's kind of sneaky.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
And TikTok's a Chinese company already.
mike baker
Right.
And there's some talk.
I mean, they've been making efforts to limit the ability for TikTok to do business.
Really?
I think the U.S. military has instructed all personnel to stay off of TikTok or not to use TikTok.
Really?
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
Again, because of the same concern.
The whole idea is this platform because these companies can argue all they want to that they're independent from the Chinese authorities.
But ultimately, if the Chinese authorities knock on their door and say, we would like access to your database because we want to hoover up all the information about every U.S. military person that's stationed wherever, they're going to do it.
joe rogan
They're trying to get one of the top TikTok executives in here.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
Yeah.
mike baker
Interesting.
Not really.
joe rogan
Not really interesting at all.
mike baker
Not interesting to me.
So it's not happening.
joe rogan
No.
mike baker
No.
joe rogan
Fuck you.
mike baker
No.
I don't even understand TikTok.
I mean, I know the kids use it.
Kids like it, I guess.
unidentified
Look at this.
mike baker
Make TikTok videos.
joe rogan
It's considered a cyber threat.
Lieutenant Colonel Robin Ochia, an army spokeswoman, told Military.com, we do not allow it on government phones.
mike baker
There you go.
unidentified
Whoa.
mike baker
Look at that.
joe rogan
A cyber threat.
mike baker
An effective tool for reaching young people of generation...
How old is Generation Z? They're 12. What is that?
joe rogan
My daughter, who's 11, is fucking all about TikTok.
She's teaching me TikTok dances.
I'm learning TikTok dances.
mike baker
That looked good, actually.
That was a good move.
unidentified
You'd be blow up if you did some TikTok dances.
joe rogan
I'm not trying to blow up.
I'm not trying.
But my daughter, literally, she thinks it's hilarious.
She's teaching me TikTok dances, and we practiced for like fucking half an hour.
mike baker
But what the hell is it?
Is it just another version of...
joe rogan
It's like little videos.
mike baker
Okay.
joe rogan
Little videos.
But my 11-year-old's really into it.
Her friends all think it's hilarious.
mike baker
I was going to say, I drive Sluggo to his basketball practices, and occasionally there's two or three other knuckleheads in the car, and that's all they're doing is they're comparing TikTok videos.
How weird.
Yeah.
joe rogan
I can't.
I can't.
I'm too busy.
I'm not interested.
unidentified
That's what YouTube started.
joe rogan
It was just like cat videos.
unidentified
Then it was 15 minute videos and now it's whatever it is.
joe rogan
So you think I should jump on board, Jamie?
unidentified
I was just saying.
joe rogan
You do think I should jump on board?
unidentified
You shouldn't not jump on board.
joe rogan
Let me ask you this.
Isn't OnePlus, isn't that a Chinese company as well?
Find out what that is.
Because OnePlus is accepted, right?
I mean, OnePlus sponsors a lot of things.
They make really high-end phones as well.
How come they don't get the same kind of scrutiny?
mike baker
I suspect they do.
It just hasn't hit the press.
I mean, TikTok blew up, I guess, as an app that, well, kids like, and so it became...
I didn't realize...
Again, how old is Generation Z? Is that like a 20...
joe rogan
I don't even know what that is.
unidentified
It's below Millennials.
mike baker
It's like the next thing, whatever.
So it's below Millennials.
Okay.
joe rogan
That's when we're really fucked.
That's when we really get to see the fruits of our labor.
How fucked up have we turned this culture?
Well, let's check out the ten-year-olds.
unidentified
Let's see how ridiculous these kids are.
mike baker
Not to disappear down a rabbit hole, but I agree.
I think we have no idea what technology How it's going to impact in the long run.
We don't have enough of a test case yet.
And I can look at my kids and just within my little microcosm of my three little dudes, sort of their attention span and their ability to...
And you can see it impacting it.
You can see it impact the way that they study, the way that they learn, the way – and I don't think we're – again, I'm not a Luddite, but I don't know that we're doing ourselves any favors, right?
joe rogan
I don't think we're doing ourselves favors either, and I don't think there's any way of pulling back from it.
You could tell your kids to pull back.
You could maybe get your friends' kids to pull back.
But culturally, no one's pulling back from this stuff.
They're getting more and more immersed in their phones, more and more immersed in apps and internet.
The big thing is apps to me.
They all get on these little social media apps, whether it's TikTok or whatever it is.
Yeah.
and looking at each other's stuff and it becomes a giant part of your life.
You know, these kids, like you look at their, like my daughter has friends that don't have any restrictions on their phones.
My daughter has like a time limit on her phone.
She's got one hour in the whole day.
unidentified
Right.
joe rogan
Other than that, you're not.
You have to do that.
But she's got a little friend that doesn't have any time.
And this little friend, you would think this girl, her fucking skin is growing onto this phone.
She never goes anywhere without this phone in her hand, and she's always looking at it.
She can't talk to anybody for five seconds without looking at her phone, checking TikTok.
mike baker
But she's getting that from her parents.
Look at adults.
How many times have you sat in a restaurant and everybody at the table staring at their phone?
I got on the car rental bus today and I dropped my bag on the thing and I stood there and I looked down at the bus and everybody was staring at their phone.
joe rogan
At least that's dead time.
You're just sitting on a bus waiting to get to those, let's check my email real quick.
That's not a bad time to use your phone.
mike baker
In the old days, you'd start up a conversation with the guy next to you.
So, where are you from?
Omaha, huh?
No, you wouldn't.
Never mind.
I don't know where I was going with that.
joe rogan
You could, but then you'd want to...
I want to call Homeland Security.
Do you see anything suspicious?
Yeah, this fucking guy talked to me on the bus.
mike baker
Yeah, I don't know what that's all about.
Something he referred to as a conversation.
joe rogan
That's my favorite.
If you see anything suspicious, call this number.
Everything's suspicious.
mike baker
See something, say something.
What do you think about this?
Have you seen this latest dispute between Apple and the government?
joe rogan
What's the latest?
mike baker
Well, you know, we had this shooting down in Pensacola.
And so it was a Saudi soldier who was down there for flight instruction and killed three people in the classroom there, finally taken out by deputies because we don't allow our soldiers to carry weapons on the base.
And anyway, point being is that when this happened, He had two phones, Apple.
I think one was a 5, one was a 7. And so the FBI got the phones.
They went to Apple, but asked for assistance with the first one.
I don't know which phone they were asking for.
And Apple claims that, yeah, we provided assistance.
We gave them access to iCloud data backup and some transactional records and what they were asking for.
And then they went to Apple, I think, just a week ago or so with a request for assistance with a second one.
And they subpoenaed Apple a couple days later and said, you know, we need assistance in getting into these phones.
It's still the same problem that they had, you know, three or four years ago.
The San Bernardino show.
Yes.
And so we had that big...
You know, kerfuffle where they're saying, look, Apple's not assisting.
They're not helping us get into this.
Government had to go to, as it turns out, to an Israeli forensics group.
Spent a lot of money to get cracked into these phones.
Anyway, so Bill Barr, the Attorney General, came out just yesterday, past couple of days, and he's been lambasting Apple, saying, you know, you're hampering this investigation.
You're not helping us in terms of dealing with this terrorist incident.
And Apple's saying, you know, what the fuck?
We are providing some assistance.
So we're back in that same thing that we were in four years ago, where you got this battle over access and pushing an investigation forward and a concern over privacy.
joe rogan
What do they want that Apple's not willing to provide?
mike baker
Well, they want access to the phones.
The idea was initially they were trying to get a back door that could be used by law enforcement to get into the iPhone.
joe rogan
So you see it here.
Trump wants Apple to unlock the Pensacola shooter's iPhones.
Here's why it won't.
First of all, this is CNN, which is fake news!
unidentified
Oh, fake!
mike baker
It's all faux.
joe rogan
Fake news.
It says, we have always maintained there's no such thing as a backdoor just for the good guys.
Backdoors can be exploited by those who threaten our national security and the data security of our customers, Apple added.
Today, law enforcement has access to more data than ever before in history, so Americans do not have to choose between weakening encryption and solving investigations.
We feel strongly encryption is vital to protecting our country and our users' data.
unidentified
Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
Yeah, but I don't understand, like, what are they looking for that they won't let these guys find?
It's one thing that, like, back doors, but I'm not talking about a back door.
I'm talking about, like, there should be a way that they can get into the phone, right?
There should be a way that you can, not just the iCloud backup, but you could open up the phone And do it with, like, Apple should have some skeleton key or something like that.
mike baker
Well, that's what they're saying they're not going to provide.
They're not going to provide a software solution to allow them access to get into these phones.
joe rogan
But what else could he have on his phone if it's iCloud backed up?
Like, an iCloud backup is essentially your phone, but it's in the cloud.
mike baker
Right, but you can also turn that off.
joe rogan
But have they turned it off?
Has he turned it off?
mike baker
I don't know the details of that, but I would suspect so.
But there's other data that you can access from that phone that would be relevant to this.
In this situation, I tend to side with Apple.
I understand the Attorney General, his responsibility is whatever, protecting American citizens.
So okay, he's going to have this position.
But Apple is basically saying, look, we're not going to break the terms of our contract with all the people that have iPhones where we're providing them with privacy.
And they're also, I think, saying to some degree, look, yeah, we understand that criminals can use encryption, right?
I mean they do, right?
They take advantage of the encryption that's available and the lack of access.
But so do millions of citizens, right, who use the iPhones just to keep their bank records or whatever they have on there, right?
And so the encryption benefits everybody in a sense.
Obviously, it benefits the criminals.
I also kind of side with Apple at this point because, frankly, I think technology has kind of made some of these arguments moot, meaning that there are ways to get into these phones now.
So the bureau or the government doesn't have to just go to Apple and say, please let us in.
joe rogan
There was boxes that the police were buying that would allow you to hack in the phones, right?
mike baker
There's several companies.
The companies that are allowing or the developing access or ability to access these phones, the competition's been increasing.
And what happens?
People get better at it, right?
And so they develop new techniques.
joe rogan
But then the problem is bad guys can buy them.
So they can get a hold of your phone, steal your phone from you, and then open it up and then use your phone to text people or get weird with you.
mike baker
Yeah, and so then what are you saying?
Are you saying, okay, well, a company that's got that access point, like the Israeli company or several others out there...
Grayshift and a few others that provide this.
So then you're relying on them to control who they're selling to.
And some of these companies sell only to the government and to whoever is DEA or – and so I guess the point being is that I don't think the old arguments of even a few years ago that says we can't get in so we need Apple's assistance, I think that's kind of going by the wayside.
And, you know, the government does have the ability to get in there at this point.
So I'm not quite sure why they're picking a fight.
Again, I don't know all the details, but I don't know why they're picking a fight.
joe rogan
Is it possible that they can't get in the phone?
Is that possible?
Because they're saying back doors can be exploited.
Okay, but if you give Apple a phone and say, hey, I don't know the password of this, can you get in there?
mike baker
Apple can.
joe rogan
They can get in there.
mike baker
Yeah, Apple can.
They don't want to hand over that ability or that software because, again, it's a commercial issue, right, for them.
joe rogan
Right, but shouldn't it be possible if they don't want to hand over that software that they could just open it for the government and the government doesn't have to get the software?
mike baker
Yeah, the government's made that argument to them before for whatever reason because I think in part it's the optic that says, okay, well, apparently Apple's willing to do this.
I think they just want to hold the line and say absolutely not because I think they're – You know, they're looking at this from, again, from almost a pure commercial perspective.
joe rogan
I kind of understand that, but then I kind of say, this guy's a fucking terrorist and a mass shooter.
mike baker
Yeah, okay.
I mean, yeah, you've got a contract with all these people that says, okay, I'll protect your privacy.
But you think that would be, you know, you're abdicating your ability to hold them to that contract if you go out and shoot a few people.
joe rogan
Is the guy still alive?
The shooter?
No.
Okay, so what's the fucking problem?
He doesn't have any privacy.
unidentified
He's dead.
mike baker
It's a good point.
I just find it interesting we're back having that same argument that we had a few years ago, right?
And I think, like I said, I'm not sure why Barr is pushing this argument necessarily the way he is.
I mean, I get what his position has to be given his job as Attorney General, but I think we're past that point.
I think there's...
There's hacking solutions that are legitimately available through forensics groups that have been developing these things that can assist the government to do this.
I just found it interesting.
joe rogan
It is interesting.
I understand that Apple does not want to open up too much to the government's demands.
And if they do, look, we don't have a tyrannical government, but what if we did?
What's going on with China and Huawei?
It's very similar.
if Apple sort of opens up the door of the government and they slide right in and start really using Apple's software to in their phones to manipulate people and access data that they really shouldn't have access to people that are under investigation and just like it opens up the door to all sorts of other weird possibilities.
Yeah.
mike baker
Yeah.
Well, it's it's it goes back and starts to feed that belief that, you know, the government spying on everybody.
The reality is they neither have the resources or the interest, frankly, or the ability to spy on everybody.
joe rogan
This is what I always say to people.
Who's spying on you?
There's another person?
So there's one person that just spies on you all day.
So imagine.
mike baker
You're assigned one person.
joe rogan
There's 300 million people in this country.
There's 300 million spies spying on those 300 million people.
Is that what's going on?
mike baker
You got one target.
That's all you do all day long is watch one person.
joe rogan
But then there's the thing about them collecting data, like the NSA collecting data and collecting all your phone calls, collecting all your text messages.
mike baker
You know what's a bigger threat is Amazon or Google.
You know what?
You turn on your Samsung TV. You know what it's doing?
It's watching you.
joe rogan
Don't watch me.
mike baker
Yeah, TV's got the ability to watch it.
It's called Smart Interactivity.
So it's got a camera and the whole idea was, well, we'll do this so that we can figure out what you're watching and what you think of it.
So not only is it watching, but it could listen.
So it's the commercial side that's collecting information, not necessarily for nefarious purposes, they're collecting it for marketing purposes and to make more money, which is what they're in business to do.
But they're the ones that are hoovering up data, right?
That then leaks out because somebody hacks, grabs all that information, and then they use it for something nefarious.
joe rogan
Well, I get nervous when I hear about companies like Facebook that are thinking about starting their own cryptocurrency.
unidentified
And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
joe rogan
Are you going to have your own money now?
mike baker
hard.
joe rogan
I'm not a not-believer, but I'm not invested in it.
I had a guy on several times, Andreas Antonopoulos, who's a Bitcoin expert.
A very, very bright and interesting guy, and I really enjoyed talking to him about it, but he's all in.
He does all his banking with Bitcoins, pays his rent with Bitcoin, gets paid with Bitcoin.
Everything is Bitcoin with him.
And, you know, he's loved by the Bitcoin community and all this different stuff.
But at the end of the day, I just don't totally understand how you can have so many of them.
Like, how many cryptocurrencies are there?
And then if you don't have so many of them, well, who's to say when you could stop making them?
mike baker
Right, right.
Who's the arbiter to say, no, that's legitimate, or that is not?
I don't know.
I fall in the category of I don't understand it.
To be fair, I haven't taken the time to understand it.
joe rogan
You can't think about everything.
This is my take on it.
You can't.
You don't have enough time to think about everything.
So I'm letting that one play out on its own.
I'm going to just sit back, and when it's 100% all, and when everybody's like, look, Bitcoin is just like money.
Okay?
But until then, and they kind of predicted it was going to be just like money quite a few years ago, and it never really did hit that.
But you can buy some things with Bitcoin.
There's some companies that let you buy computers with Bitcoin.
mike baker
I'm sure there's a fair amount of transaction that goes on, from what I understand.
But again, I don't understand.
I don't understand how it's backed, necessarily.
I'm sure I'll probably get all sorts of comments now, like, you know, you're a fucking idiot.
You should be heavily involved in Bitcoin.
In Bitcoin, but I buy gold bars.
joe rogan
Gold's real.
mike baker
Plant them out in the backyard.
joe rogan
They've been killing people for gold forever.
mike baker
Exactly.
joe rogan
That's legit shit.
mike baker
Yeah, that's the way I feel about it.
Gold and catheters.
I'm stocking up on both.
joe rogan
Those are both going to be really important in the future.
But gold is a weird one, right?
It's like, why are we still so invested in this soft, shiny metal?
Like, you know, and all the shit that people need.
Why gold?
I don't even like it as jewelry.
I think it's kind of tacky.
mike baker
Yeah.
When I met my wife, I was still wearing a gold chain from my old Miami Vice days.
Yeah, she still doesn't let me forget that.
It was pretty sweet.
It wasn't like Flava Fave or anything.
It wasn't big and chunky, but I thought it was understated.
joe rogan
Was it like a herringbone?
mike baker
It was like a Greek key thing.
unidentified
I lived out in that part of the world for a while.
mike baker
Anyway, it was explained to me that it wasn't as hip as I thought it was at the time, so I put it away with all my other gold jewelry.
My boys will fight over for it when I'm dead.
joe rogan
Yeah, women will let you know.
They'll clean you up.
They'll go, hey, hey, hey, you've got to stop with that stupid shit.
I thought I'm looking fly.
mike baker
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
I walked out the other day.
We were getting ready to go to some function, and I come walking down the steps.
It was a casual thing, right?
And I thought, okay, so...
And I'm not a really...
I'm not a naturally social person in the sense that I don't like to go to big gatherings of people.
I mean, I like going out to a dinner just to hang out for drinks with, you know, like small, six, eight people that I know, right?
And I know I'm going to...
This is where we're going.
I don't have to walk into a crowd...
And go from little group to little group having, you know, some small conversation.
I'm not good at it.
But we're going to one of these things.
So I think in my mind, I thought, I just...
So I come walking down the steps.
I'm wearing a cardigan.
And my wife is walking up the steps to get something that she forgot upstairs.
And she stops on the stairs and she looks.
And so as I'm coming down the side, I see her stop down there and she's staring at me.
I'm thinking, what?
And now I thought, I liked this cardigan.
I bought it in the shop.
I thought, this looks pretty good.
I thought it had like a Matthew McConaughey vibe to it.
And she's staring at me like, what the fuck is that?
joe rogan
What color is it?
unidentified
It's gray.
mike baker
It's a nice gray.
joe rogan
Can you pull up a picture of a gray cardigan, please?
I want to get an image in my mind of what you look like.
mike baker
A picture of Matthew McConaughey in a cardigan.
Somebody must have Googled that.
joe rogan
Is he a cardigan wearer?
Is he a big cardigan wearer?
mike baker
That was the word.
Because I thought, okay, I'm being pretty chill here.
That was another word I got from my kids.
And I just thought that it was presenting the right vibe.
I'm going to a party.
I'm casual.
I'm relaxed.
I'm going to be...
I don't know what I was thinking.
Anyways, she made me go upstairs and change it.
joe rogan
Damn, she made you.
mike baker
Well, yeah.
I mean, I... You know, this is my second go-around, and I've learned that I'm not as smart as I used to be.
joe rogan
Look at that.
mike baker
Look, see, that's what I'm talking about.
joe rogan
But that's when he was in Dallas Buyers Club.
jamie vernon
Hey, well, you wanted a cardigan.
mike baker
Yeah, no, that's what I'm talking about.
joe rogan
Jesus Christ, look at that.
That was when he was, like, really sick.
That fucking guy has never looked the same again since he lost all that weight for that movie.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
He's been drawn out since then.
That's got to be so devastating for your system.
To put yourself through that kind of shit?
mike baker
Yeah, I think it must be worse than gaining weight.
Oh, it's way worse.
joe rogan
Look at his face, man.
I mean, he looks like a dead man.
Goddamn, he knocked out of the park in that movie, though.
mike baker
Yeah, he did.
It was a great movie.
I hope he got paid well enough for it.
joe rogan
You can't.
There's not enough money in the world to make you lose that much weight.
You know, the worst one, though, was The Mechanic.
Not The Mechanic.
The Machinist.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
With...
What the fuck's his name?
Christian Bale, yeah.
Christian Bale, he did the most horrific weight cut.
I've never seen anybody that skinny in a movie.
I mean, he was legitimately days before death.
mike baker
Oh, God.
joe rogan
Yeah, look at that.
Look at what he looked like.
unidentified
That was a toy.
That was a toy.
That's a computer rendering.
joe rogan
Yeah.
And then he was Batman like six months later, and he got on the fucking Mexican supplements.
mike baker
It's that back and forth.
It's that back and forth that'll do your body in.
joe rogan
Terrible.
Terrible for you.
mike baker
If you can maintain a kind of a consistent weight.
joe rogan
Look at that, though.
Jesus Christ.
mike baker
There's got to be some shopping in there, photoshopping.
joe rogan
No!
No, no, no.
If you see the movie, man, he was eating an apple and a can of tuna a day.
That's it.
That was all he was eating.
And what happens then is your body starts eating itself.
And so look how he looked in Dick Cheney.
mike baker
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
He got real fat to play Dick Cheney.
Damn, that's like Bert Kreischer fat.
That's fat as fuck.
mike baker
Look at that.
That's a lot of fat right there.
joe rogan
Goddamn.
Well, yeah, he's dedicated to his craft.
But here's the thing.
The movie sucked.
So it's like you almost killed yourself for a movie that sucked.
mike baker
Did you see The Joker?
joe rogan
Yes.
mike baker
What did you think?
joe rogan
Fantastic.
mike baker
Yeah?
Yeah.
It's a great movie.
It's really drawn out both sides.
Nobody's sort of agnostic about it.
Either it sucks or it's great.
That's what I keep getting, those same responses.
joe rogan
It's a great movie, but it's disturbing as shit.
But there's a lot of weird stuff to it, right?
It's like...
It's almost celebrating the idea that the system is broke.
We're just gonna fucking shoot everybody who's rich and light everything on fire and let these fucking mentally ill people not take their medication and just run things.
He was a...
Joaquin Phoenix, first of all, he's on another level.
He's always been an amazing actor.
But that movie, boy, they created a work of art with that character.
You bought into it hook, line, and sinker that he was this crazy fuck.
Spoiler alert, when he shoots Robert De Niro...
There's scenes in that movie that make you just go, wow.
mike baker
I will say this, though.
My favorite Joker has always been Cesar Romero.
Right there.
There he was.
joe rogan
Oh, in the Batman TV show?
mike baker
Yeah, from the TV show.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Hands down.
unidentified
Really?
mike baker
Oh, well, yeah.
I mean, I'm fairly old school.
joe rogan
That's terrible.
He does look pretty goddamn crazy there.
mike baker
You know, he...
joe rogan
Goddamn, he looks pretty good there.
I'm taking it back.
mike baker
Yeah.
He did.
joe rogan
Not bad.
mike baker
Heath Ledger's my favorite.
Yeah, Heath Ledger was good.
joe rogan
He was great, too.
Jared Leto couldn't.
mike baker
Nah.
joe rogan
He can go pound sand with that character.
mike baker
But the Joker's got Oscar nominations, right?
I think.
Oh, yeah.
He's not the best actor.
joe rogan
I watched that Suicide Squad, the Jared Leto one.
It was like, oh, it's just a little too stupid.
unidentified
Did you see the new one he's in?
jamie vernon
He's playing Morbius, who's a vampire, and he's in the Marvel movies now.
joe rogan
No, give me a picture.
Let me see what you got here.
unidentified
Does it look good?
mike baker
Every movie's a Marvel or a DC Comics movie nowadays.
joe rogan
Are you getting upset?
mike baker
Yeah, I don't know.
I wish I had a piece of the action, but still.
joe rogan
I remember Morbius.
Oh, this is Jared Leto playing Morbius.
Wow.
jamie vernon
He gets superpowers.
joe rogan
So he becomes a vampire?
jamie vernon
Yeah, he's like a guy who was dying, had a blood disease, and he goes, like, one last thing to figure it out, and I guess the bats helped him.
joe rogan
Whoa, this is crazy.
And comes back jacked?
jamie vernon
Yeah, and he starts fucking people up.
joe rogan
Ooh, I like it.
When does this come out?
mike baker
I think the summer?
unidentified
Come on.
jamie vernon
I just put the trailer out the other day, so I don't remember the exact points they hear.
mike baker
I had no idea that bats had that ability, but okay.
joe rogan
They don't, bro.
It's a movie.
mike baker
Oh, it's a movie.
Oh, I can't.
unidentified
I can't.
joe rogan
In theaters this summer.
mike baker
All right, fine.
joe rogan
I'm in.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
I'm all in, Jared.
I take it back.
mike baker
We had bats in our attic, believe it or not.
We had bats in our attic in Idaho.
joe rogan
Really?
mike baker
I'm sitting outside on the porch one day.
Again, sorry about this, but I'm sitting out on the porch and I look up and it's the sun setting.
And this thing flies out from the top of the roof.
We've got this four-story brick place and out comes this thing.
And then another one, then another one.
We've got bats flying out because it's getting dark and they're coming out of our attic.
So I'm thinking, you've got to be kidding me.
So, we went to a wildlife specialist who came over, and he kind of staked out the place a couple of nights, figured out what the story was with him, and we eventually got rid of the bats.
joe rogan
You didn't hire a wildlife specialist?
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Why didn't you just get a tennis racket?
mike baker
No.
There's baby bats.
The kids didn't want to hurt the baby bats.
And so we had to wait for the baby bats to grow a little bit.
And then whack them?
No, then whack them.
Then you shoot them with your airsoft pistol.
But the interesting thing about bats, they fly out.
They drop down and fly out.
But if you stop their ability to go straight back into the hole...
They can't get back home.
So you create a situation because they can't dip down and then fly up and then go in.
They have to come straight in, straight at that.
This is fascinating, bad stuff.
But if I had known that they could create that sort of superpower ability, I would have kept a couple of them around.
joe rogan
But then you stay alive forever.
You don't want that.
mike baker
No.
No.
joe rogan
There's a crazy story about a guy who was, I don't remember where he was, but a bat flew by and hit his hand.
Just hit his hand.
And apparently the bat had rabies, and he died of rabies like two weeks later.
mike baker
Seriously.
joe rogan
Yeah, apparently rabies is one of those things where if you get bit by something that has rabies, they've got to get you in right away.
They've got to get you in right away, and once it takes hold, you're fucking dead.
It's 100% lethal.
But they can get you if you get in right away, but he didn't even know anything was wrong.
He didn't have a visible sign on his hand.
Bat flew into the hand of a British Columbia man who died of rabies infection.
unidentified
Ugh.
joe rogan
Yeah, so this thing, it just flew into his hand and left a small cut.
He was a 21-year-old kid on Vancouver Island.
mike baker
Good God.
joe rogan
Health authorities confirmed that the patient was outdoors in broad daylight when the nocturnal creature struck his hand and flew away.
He wasn't doing anything risky.
They would put him in a position that would do encounter bats.
Dr. Boone, Bonnie Henry of BC's Chief Provincial Health Provider.
It was an incredibly unfortunate, strange circumstance for this young man and his family.
mike baker
Okay, so...
joe rogan
No visible puncture.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
Or scratch marks.
mike baker
Because apparently they can be microscopic.
joe rogan
Yeah.
mike baker
The cuts.
joe rogan
So he developed the symptoms of rabies six weeks after the exposure.
mike baker
So it's just as, well, I didn't send the kids up to take care of the bats, is what you're saying.
Exactly.
joe rogan
All right.
mike baker
I get it.
joe rogan
He'd been driving and he pulled over the side of the road...
When a bat flew into him.
That's like a horror movie.
It really is.
unidentified
He got a final destination.
joe rogan
He got missed.
mike baker
To be fair, it's not a very interesting horror movie, but it's the idea behind it.
joe rogan
It would only be interesting if it was like World War Z type shit.
But that's kind of what rabies is to animals.
Rabies turns animals into these sick, really aggressive creatures that want to infect you with whatever they're infected with.
They want to bite you.
mike baker
Yeah, raccoons.
You remember, as a kid, though, the rabies thing was always, you don't want to get rabies because you've got to go in for these series of shots in your stomach.
I always remember that.
That was always the story.
joe rogan
Why the stomach?
mike baker
I don't know.
It was like, don't accept apples on Halloween because there'll be a razor blade.
It was just sort of like this thing that you always heard as a kid.
You're going to get these shots in your stomach, so stay away from raccoons.
Yeah, whatever.
joe rogan
Worldwide, only five or six people have survived a rabies infection.
Holy shit.
mike baker
Those are the people you've got to go to when the zombies come, right?
You've got to find those people and harness their blood.
joe rogan
BC is home to 17 species of bats with 10 species found in Metro Vancouver.
unidentified
Wow.
joe rogan
Risk from rabies and bats is everywhere in BC. Jesus Christ.
13% of bats tested positive for rabies.
13%?!
mike baker
I always thought of British Columbia as a really nice place to be.
joe rogan
But that's in the province.
Amongst bats in the wild, the rate is about 1%.
Well, you got a fucking horrible infestation up there, BC. Get your shit together.
mike baker
Yeah, what are they doing up there?
I'm coming up there at 420. Isn't Prince Harry and Meghan, aren't they going to Vancouver?
We should tell them about the bat thing.
joe rogan
We should.
mike baker
It won't go.
They're not going.
joe rogan
I forgot to post that my shows are for sale.
I did, but not today.
They're for sale right now.
I'm doing Vancouver on 420. I hope I don't get rabies.
mike baker
Nice.
You know when you pass through to get to Vancouver?
You kind of pass through sort of Boise, maybe?
joe rogan
Do you?
mike baker
Well, not really.
Not from here.
No, you don't.
joe rogan
I'm flying.
I'm not driving.
Shit would take days.
What are we, on a wagon train?
mike baker
Don't you travel in an RV to your shows?
joe rogan
Always, yes.
Like fucking Chevy Chase.
Family vacation.
mike baker
The truckster.
The family truckster.
joe rogan
Bert takes a goddamn tour bus everywhere.
Bert has a tour bus with his face all over it.
Crazy, crazy asshole.
mike baker
Have you ever driven across the country?
joe rogan
Yes, when I was a little kid, but it's a long, long time ago.
I don't enjoy that kind of waste of time.
mike baker
Not even with the kids getting an RV and driving?
joe rogan
No, they would go crazy.
My kids would beat me to death.
mike baker
Shut up, kids!
I'm driving!
unidentified
They would go, we're not going any further!
joe rogan
I think it would be interesting if you had an agenda, like if you were going to go to Grand Canyon, then you were going to go to Zion National Park, you had a bunch of different things to do, and you had months of time, and you could make your way across the country, but just the drive for fucking five days straight across the country, that can eat a bag of dicks.
I'm not interested in that.
That's boring.
mike baker
I think you're right.
Going to a national park in Yellowstone, for example.
Anybody who hasn't been to Yellowstone, go to Yellowstone.
It's incredible.
Don't go into summertime, but go.
But I've tried to convince my wife that it's a good idea to get an RV, drive, and spend a couple of weeks with the kids.
And she looks at me like I'm wearing a cardigan.
It's that same look I get.
joe rogan
Well, it seems like a good idea, but if it was a really good idea, I think more people would be doing it.
I think once you actually start doing it, you're like, what am I doing here?
I'm just sitting down all day.
My back's killing me.
mike baker
The kids are on screens the whole time.
joe rogan
When are we going to be there?
When are we going to be there?
Are we there?
How much more time?
mike baker
That's the whole, yeah.
Stop touching me.
Stop hitting me.
Oh, they get mad at each other.
joe rogan
Well, if you're watching screens, too, that's not good for a kid to be watching screens eight hours a day, all day, just driving across the country while they're playing with their iPads.
mike baker
Yeah.
Well, you've got to take that away from going back to that other thing we were talking about.
joe rogan
Yeah, but then what are they doing, though?
Staring out the window?
mike baker
Then they want to talk to you.
unidentified
Oh, Jesus.
mike baker
Yeah, I know, right?
joe rogan
Talk to me about TikTok dances.
unidentified
That's what I'm doing.
mike baker
You know you're heading that direction.
I know a couple weeks from now, somebody's going to send me a TikTok of you dancing.
joe rogan
Trust me.
Trust me.
That's not happening.
There's a lot of guys who swear by that tour bus life, though.
They like it.
Like my friend Sturgill, Sturgill Simpson, he travels with a tour bus.
He said he would rather spend the whole day in a tour bus than an hour on a plane.
Like, if he's gonna go from one place to the other, he goes, it's like a living room.
Like, you just sit down and relax.
And so him and his band, they just chill.
They just hang out in this tour bus and smoke a little devil's cabbage and kick back and relax.
mike baker
And it's, yeah, I can see that.
I haven't spent most of my life in airports.
I get the idea behind it.
You're right.
It is a time suck, you know, getting from point A to point B. But this country is pretty amazing, and there's a lot to see.
There's so much to see, and we tend to overlook that fact.
The Europeans always want to make fun of us because 90% of Americans don't have passports.
You point out, well, have you driven across Texas?
Have you been out west?
Have you done these things?
joe rogan
Is it that many don't have passports?
mike baker
I think it's a high number.
joe rogan
90%?
mike baker
Yeah.
Really?
The percentage of U.S. citizens that do not own a passport or do not have a passport, I have a feeling it's coming up soon.
joe rogan
Well, it's interesting.
You didn't even used to need one to get to Canada or Mexico.
You used to be able to just have a driver's license, get right across.
We had a nice, friendly agreement with everybody.
mike baker
Yeah, you just jump across the river.
joe rogan
Yeah, not anymore.
mike baker
Now, what is that whole wall thing going up?
Apparently not.
I don't know where the wall stands.
joe rogan
Well, what the wall is, it's a great little parkour...
Set up for these Mexican dudes who know how to climb them.
They're excellent at it.
Percentage of the Americans with passports.
Oh, it's rising.
mike baker
Oh, okay.
Alright, I take it back then.
joe rogan
Wow, it's more than 40%.
unidentified
Hmm.
Wow.
mike baker
Okay.
joe rogan
That's interesting.
I mean, it used to be true.
Yeah, look at the 1989. It was fucking nobody.
mike baker
What was happening in 89?
joe rogan
Look in 1989. It's like literally less than 5%.
mike baker
Maybe that's what I was thinking.
Maybe I'm stuck in 89. Yeah.
joe rogan
I thought that's...
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
I could see that.
mike baker
Because the music was great back then.
So maybe that's why I'm reliving my 80s.
joe rogan
Is that the Reagan days?
89?
I think that's Reagan.
Wasn't Reagan president back then?
Bush?
Bush?
unidentified
Yeah.
Is that 88?
joe rogan
Maybe, right?
Maybe no one wanted to travel because they were worried about the Russians!
88 was when I was 20, so I was 22. What is that?
unidentified
I don't know.
joe rogan
76% of people in England and Wales have a UK passport.
Okay.
mike baker
I've got a UK passport.
joe rogan
Do you?
mike baker
Yeah, I'm a dual citizen, so...
joe rogan
Look at you.
mike baker
Yeah, I know, right?
joe rogan
How does that work?
mike baker
Well, I'm a little upset with Prince Harry, but other than that, it's working out really well.
joe rogan
Are you mad that he left the throne or whatever the fuck he did?
Doesn't it make sense?
mike baker
Well, it probably makes sense because I don't know that he's the sharpest tool in the box, and he's probably thinking we can make a lot more money.
But they're not supposed to make any money off of being a member of the royal family, and yet they've trademarked, apparently, their brand, Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
They're not allowed to make any money off of the royal family.
So they're given allotments, allowances, living expenses.
How much?
It's a significant amount.
Look, they've got a house on the grounds of Windsor Castle they're going to continue to live in.
So I guess, here's my point.
They can do whatever the fuck they want, but it would have been nice if they told their grandmother so that she didn't have to find out about it on the news.
I thought that was kind of a...
joe rogan
The Queen?
mike baker
Spotted dick move, but yeah.
joe rogan
Spotted dick move.
unidentified
The Queen!
mike baker
The Queen!
unidentified
She found out on Twitter!
Has Prince Harry left the throne?
mike baker
That is a remarkably accurate...
Thank you!
unidentified
I've worked hard at it.
mike baker
So she found out on TV, but they want to be financially independent.
They trademarked Duke and Duchess of Sussex in a variety of different ways, apparently, and she's going to go back to doing whatever she did.
unidentified
It's that little American hussies he's hooked up with.
She's come to turn him into a Kardashian.
mike baker
That's exactly what's going to happen.
joe rogan
Yeah, well listen, they're already so popular, all they need to do is start endorsing fucking makeup lines and sneakers and watches and shit.
Next thing you know, Jed's a millionaire.
mike baker
Yeah, well she's got a massive following on Instagram, which I suspect she wants to start to monetize that thing.
joe rogan
Well, how much do you think they make?
Find out how much they make.
How much do they make from the royal family?
Might not be public.
Not public?
You think they hide that shit?
unidentified
He would know better than me.
mike baker
I don't think they're hiding it.
joe rogan
You think they make a million a year?
mike baker
Oh yeah, more than that.
I mean, look, he got, I think, from his mother, I think as an inheritance, he got some nine million dollars.
Prince Harry!
She's probably worth about six million on her own for her acting career.
I didn't know what she was acting in, but...
unidentified
That little American hussy has ruined my prince!
mike baker
He's off to Vancouver, and the guy doesn't even know there's a rabies issue there.
joe rogan
There's a fucking 13% bat rabies problem there, buddy.
mike baker
Right.
joe rogan
Is that where he's going to go?
He's going to go to Vancouver?
mike baker
They're moving to Canada?
Apparently they're looking to move part-time to Canada.
joe rogan
They're going to start a reality show.
I guarantee you some creepy producer got a hold of them and go, guys, listen, you're wasting your time over here in England.
It rains too much.
Yeah.
What are you going to do over here?
mike baker
Look, you're pissing away the money she's worth.
Yeah.
And he's probably thinking, yeah, I want to get out of this.
But then he came out and said, well, we're not going to move to the States.
Supposedly, he came out and said, this is all.
I can't believe we sound like page six or something.
But he came out and said, you know, we're not moving to the States until Trump is not president.
unidentified
Trump is out of office!
mike baker
Exactly.
unidentified
Thank you, Prince Harry, at least for that!
jamie vernon
This is what the Queen gets, but her grandchildren's money isn't public.
unidentified
Oh my god!
joe rogan
The Queen received $58 million free of tax from the Sovereign Grant in the 2016-2017 fiscal year.
mike baker
Damn.
joe rogan
What kind of goofy shit is that?
mike baker
Wow.
joe rogan
They give them...
unidentified
More the next year.
$58 million.
mike baker
$103 million.
joe rogan
$103 million in the next year.
mike baker
It's good to be Queen.
unidentified
To help finance the extensive renovation of Buckingham Palace!
We need more money!
mike baker
The palace is pretty impressive.
joe rogan
But imagine being a poor person and you find out that the queen, who literally does nothing, is making a hundred million dollars in a year.
mike baker
Yeah.
See, this is why I don't think I could ever say anything negative about the queen.
I think I got a tremendous amount of...
I feel like she's, you know, grandma.
You love her?
I do.
joe rogan
Because you have a dual citizenship.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
Everybody's brainwashed over that.
mike baker
Yeah, but she has been a remarkably consistent...
She's got a shit show of a family.
Thank you, Michael!
Thank you for standing up to me!
unidentified
That hooligan Joe Rogan and his terrible internet show would be illegal in my country!
I deserve that hundred million dollars, you little fuck!
mike baker
Think about all the public service she does.
joe rogan
Oh, she's amazing.
mike baker
It's incredible.
joe rogan
Just this alone should be worth a lot of money.
mike baker
Think about it.
Each wave is now apparently $103 million.
That's a significant amount.
Anyway, I don't know how we got down this one.
joe rogan
Prince Harry.
They left.
mike baker
Oh, that's right.
They left to go to rabies town.
joe rogan
So if she is making $100 million a year, he's probably making $10 million, right?
mike baker
It's a significant amount.
I get it.
Okay, they want to go.
Again, who cares?
joe rogan
But they can't make money off the royal family.
mike baker
They can't make money off the royal family, off the royal brand.
joe rogan
So it's like the idea is you're getting paid enough.
What a goofy system.
They just give them money for free to be a royal.
mike baker
And the British taxpayers are saying, like, what the fuck?
We're going to keep subsidizing them, and they're going to go to Canada, and we're going to keep paying them, and they're going to live part-time here, and they're not going to do any of the representational work or whatever.
What does that even entail?
I don't know.
You've got to show up at events.
Well, how about the other prints?
joe rogan
How about the other prints?
The one that's Epstein's friend.
mike baker
Oh, Andrew.
Yeah, that was...
joe rogan
First of all, how odd is that guy when they're interviewing him and talking to him?
It's like, what?
mike baker
McQueen kicked him to the curb very quickly.
joe rogan
Yeah, well, it's very strange.
What is your take on this whole Epstein thing?
First of all, can we just...
Look at that.
So, you're sure she's 18?
mike baker
Positive.
You're telling me that...
unidentified
She does not look 18. Mm-hmm.
joe rogan
She looks 16. Are you sure?
You sure?
mike baker
What a shit show that is.
joe rogan
Yeah, what a shit show.
So let me ask you this right off the bat.
Well, I don't know anything to ask you.
He didn't kill himself, right?
mike baker
I don't believe so.
joe rogan
Thank you.
mike baker
No, no.
And you know me, I'm not a conspiracy guy, right?
I don't disappear down to rabbit holes very often, but no, I don't think there's any way in hell he killed himself.
joe rogan
Michael Shermer, who's the head of Skeptics Magazine, who doesn't believe anything...
Found out that the tapes were missing and that the fucking, the cameras didn't work and that the tapes were deleted from the first, accidentally deleted from the first time he attempted suicide.
And Shermer's like, oh, this is a conspiracy.
Like, it was enough evidence that one of the biggest skeptic, a professional skeptic, professional, he doesn't believe anything.
unidentified
No.
mike baker
There's no way I could be convinced that he offed himself.
No way.
joe rogan
He knew too much.
mike baker
It's astounding, but yeah, what a shit show.
But nobody's going to get to the bottom of anything.
joe rogan
But that's a crazy one.
They got him in the jail.
The guards are somehow or another getting in trouble, so who knows what the guards are going to say.
They might get suicided.
My favorite part was the guy they chose for his cellmate.
Do you see the fucking gorilla they chose for his cellmate?
mike baker
Yeah.
It reminded me of that Richard Pryor, that old Richard Pryor movie.
I don't know if you remember that one.
joe rogan
The guy, look at this fucking guy.
This giant goomba, this huge Italian ex-cop who's a murderer and a drug runner.
I mean, this guy is built like a brick shithouse.
And this is Epstein's cellmate.
It's like, what?
Like, you can't even make this stuff up.
mike baker
Says he never touched him.
joe rogan
Of course.
Why would I touch him?
mike baker
Nicholas Tardaglioni.
joe rogan
Yeah.
What does it say?
Timeline of events and quadruple homicide?
Is that what it says?
unidentified
Yeah, I think so.
joe rogan
Yeah.
So this fucking guy, this giant...
mike baker
He likes dogs, though.
joe rogan
Yeah, he loves dogs.
They keep them from all the people that he killed.
They bark when they're coming around.
You can grab your gun.
It's a good move.
It's just crazy.
There's so many pieces to the puzzle that are so ridiculously obvious.
And then when you find out that Clinton flew with him at least 26 times...
Yeah.
26 times.
mike baker
Yeah, I had no idea.
joe rogan
Jeff was a good guy.
mike baker
No, it's just one of those things.
And again, I'm not a buyer on these sort of things, but you look at the facts around and you think there's no way in hell.
And that guy must have known you.
You would have thought that Epstein would have said to himself, I'm going to get killed here if I'm not careful.
joe rogan
Well, he probably didn't think it was ever going to get to the point where they were actually jailing him.
Remember he had that deal where he was on work release so he could just do whatever he wanted and fuck off for 16 hours a day and then he had to check into the jail at night.
And who even knows what that means?
He might have checked in and just went home again.
It seems like they had set something up for him to make it very easy for him to be incarcerated for what should be a pretty heinous crime.
I mean, he was...
mike baker
You would think.
joe rogan
Sex with underage girls and...
mike baker
Sex trafficking.
Yeah, sex trafficking.
I mean, not just him doing it.
joe rogan
Yes.
mike baker
I mean, it's just the extent to which...
And so, yeah, but then you look at...
I forget what her name is.
Sort of the...
joe rogan
Giselle?
mike baker
His assistant, Giselle.
joe rogan
What was his name?
Giselle?
mike baker
Giselle.
joe rogan
How do you say it?
What did he say?
jamie vernon
It has an S in it, but I've heard it pronounced with the S or without.
So Ghislaine or Ghislaine.
unidentified
Okay.
I don't know.
joe rogan
Ghislaine or Ghislaine.
Whatever.
G. It's called a G-Rocker.
So G-Rocker's out there hiding in the bushes in Columbia or something, right?
unidentified
Where is she?
mike baker
Where is she?
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
I mean, she must be a...
You would assume they've deposed her at this point.
joe rogan
She must have something.
She must have some fucking kill switch where if the shit goes down, all the Clinton tapes come piling out onto the fucking floor of Glenn Greenwald's house.
mike baker
You would think...
I'm like, yeah, you brought it around to Glenn Greenwald.
joe rogan
Hey, Glenn, it's Bill.
Can we talk?
mike baker
Yeah.
You know what?
Maybe I should convince...
Oh, there she is.
joe rogan
That's when she was at In-N-Out reading a book on ex-CIA agents who have been murdered.
That's literally what she was reading a book on, right?
Wasn't that...
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Yeah.
It was about CIA operatives and the murder.
So the idea was that what they said, what people believe, and there's many different versions of what people believe, but look how many pictures she posed for it.
It's so strange.
But what many people believe was that...
What he was doing was compromising a lot of these wealthy, powerful people by getting videotapes of them hooking up with young girls, including Prince Andrew, right?
mike baker
Yeah.
And for whatever reason.
joe rogan
Have you heard of anything like this before?
Is this something that's been done in the past?
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
Not that I've heard of.
I mean, I'm sure it's, you know, anytime you see some freak show, it's never the first time it's happened, right?
So you have to assume it's happened, but to the degree that it's got this level of celebrities and big-time names, I mean...
joe rogan
It works so well.
And I'm going to tell you something after the show's over.
I'll tell you something after the show's over.
You can just tell me.
mike baker
It's just you and me talking.
joe rogan
I hear you in my ears.
mike baker
The North Koreans used to do that.
That was their phone security.
They would get on the phone and when they had something really classified to talk about, they would whisper.
unidentified
Okay.
joe rogan
That's hilarious.
mike baker
We'll never figure that out.
joe rogan
That's really funny.
unidentified
Really?
joe rogan
That's how they did it?
mike baker
Yeah.
Well, part of it was years ago, I think they just never believed any Westerner could understand Korean.
I think that was kind of part of it was that they just we were all too stupid or just so complicated that we'd never be able to figure out what they were saying in their own language.
joe rogan
That's the price you pay for being so insulated.
You don't really understand what's really going on in the outside world because they don't really have the Internet.
mike baker
When was the last time we talked about North Korea?
joe rogan
It's been quite a while.
mike baker
We just pushed that right off the front.
joe rogan
But to get back – we can talk about North Korea.
But to get back to this Epstein thing, is that a common strategy that intelligence agencies would use where they would try to compromise people in order to get – like what would be the benefit?
If the Mossad was doing that and they were doing that and using – that's the – Right, right.
mike baker
Yeah, it's a good point.
I'd say from an Intel services perspective, I mean, one thing I will say is the U.S., and people are never going to believe this because I'm saying it.
They'll say, oh, that's bullshit.
But the U.S., the agency doesn't do that.
We don't use honey traps.
We don't do that sort of thing because that sort of leverage, it's always going to head south on you.
And so we don't try to coerce somebody in sort of a relationship that then we can take advantage of.
And yet other services do, Russians being one of them, they do that all the time.
Israelis, yeah, they've had some very successful efforts to do that.
And if you get somebody in that position, It doesn't matter how they're compromising themselves, whether you're putting themselves in with like an Epstein situation where suddenly you've got video of them with an underage person, or whether they've provided a document that they shouldn't provide.
The concept is always the same.
It doesn't matter what that action is.
You're getting them on the hook.
You're getting something that's leverageable over them.
If they don't just go forward immediately, say, and turn around to their boss and say, I'm guilty.
I did this.
Sorry.
Then they're compromised.
And then you've got them.
As an intel service, you've got them.
You can start reeling the hook in because now you know that not only did they do something that provided you with a document, even if it was an unclassified document.
If I go to somebody, if I'm developing a relationship with somebody, some target overseas or whatever, and I'm thinking – All right.
Now I'm exploring.
This person's got access.
They're in an interesting position.
They're in an interesting job.
And they've got access to information that we want to know that's priority target.
And then I want to say, okay, now I want to develop the relationship a little bit.
Maybe I bump into the person at a few parties.
Maybe we're in the same parent-teacher organization, whatever the shit is, right?
And our kids play on the same soccer team.
So then I go and I think, okay, what do I want to do?
I want to test the waters a little bit.
I'm not going to say, hey, listen, I understand you work in the foreign ministry here in whatever country you happen to be in.
How about you give me some documents?
But instead, maybe it's something different.
Maybe they work at the foreign ministry.
Maybe they work at an aerospace business.
That's a target.
But you've developed a bit of a relationship, and then you say, yeah, my kid's doing this school project, and it's all about...
Whatever, hypersonic flight.
And you know that they work at some aerospace company and say, do you have anything just on hypersonics?
And you're not looking for anything classified.
You're just looking for a research paper or a study or something.
And if they come back and say, yeah, you know what?
Here, this is an interesting study.
Now that act alone, they're not giving you something classified, but that act alone means something big, right?
It means they were taskable in a sense, right?
They responded to your request for information.
joe rogan
They're suckers.
mike baker
Not suckers necessarily.
It could be an enormously smart person, but, you know, and smart people get, yeah, they get suckered into it.
I guess you could put it that way, but...
So anyway, then you go from there.
Then you ratchet it up slowly, you know, bit by bit if you've got the time frame to do it.
Maybe sometimes, you know, you've got to shorten time frame because there's a requirement to get something and you've got to accelerate the whole process.
Anyway, so the point being is it's all leverageable.
And Epstein was obviously getting leverage on all these different people for whatever his purpose was.
joe rogan
What do you think?
That's what the question is.
What could he possibly...
A lot of them were scientists.
He went with a lot of celebrities.
There was heads of state.
mike baker
I don't think he needed money.
joe rogan
Right.
Well, what was he...
mike baker
I don't know.
I mean, maybe he just...
Who knows?
Maybe he got off on sort of being the kingpin in this whole thing.
It's a good question.
joe rogan
It had to be funded, right?
So, I mean, there had to be something valuable that they were getting from it.
I'm guessing.
mike baker
I don't know.
joe rogan
It hasn't been spelled out to me.
mike baker
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
Like, I've tried to figure out the angle, but I mean, I get the idea of you would have leverage over these people, you'd have them in compromising situations, and then they would do things for you.
But what would they do for you?
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
Like, what is he getting Bill Clinton to do for him?
mike baker
It's a good question.
Providing him with access, maybe he liked being close to, you know, the seat of power, or maybe, you know, he liked being close to what he thought was, like, a royal family member, you know, maybe...
Who knows?
Because it sounds like he had all the money he needed.
So maybe it was that sort of access that blew his skirt up.
I don't know.
But it is – yeah, it is interesting.
But I don't think – I mean, look, it's been kicked to the curb.
Obviously, they're doing the trial, I guess, to some degree, but I don't think...
I don't know where they stand in that trial.
joe rogan
Nothing's going to happen.
mike baker
Yeah, nothing's going to happen.
joe rogan
We've already swept it under the rug, and there's already news stories out that have got our attention.
We forget about things so quickly today.
The news cycle is so fast.
When something happens, even something as ridiculous as the Epstein case, where it's so obvious that he was murdered, and then Michael Baden goes on 60 Minutes and says, this is...
I'm consistent with someone who is strangled.
I've never, in all my years of seeing people hanged.
I've never seen them with these kind of fractures.
These fractures are indicative of strangulation.
mike baker
And that is one serious-minded dude, too, right?
unidentified
Michael Badden?
Yeah.
mike baker
Tremendous amount of experience.
And, you know, he doesn't blow smoke up anybody's ass, right?
joe rogan
No.
mike baker
He's very measured.
And, you know, now obviously he was there on behalf of...
Epstein's brother, I guess.
But, you know, anyway, it's one of those things where you think, maybe I'm going to put that down as something we should explore.
joe rogan
I want to go visit that cop in jail.
He's probably got a fur-lined cell now.
mike baker
Taglioni?
joe rogan
Yeah, he's got a giant 72-inch TV. All the dogs with him.
Yeah, all the dogs are there.
What's happening here?
This is the best gig I've ever had.
Wire marks in his hands.
Fucking tighten up.
I mean, if you're going to get someone to strangle your cellmate, that's the guy, too.
I mean, he'd fucking do it in three seconds.
He's so big.
mike baker
Yeah, you don't want somebody who's got to take their time because they can't exert enough pressure.
joe rogan
You want some Kevin Spacey dude strangling.
mike baker
It's going to take forever.
It's old still.
joe rogan
You want some big gorilla dude.
mike baker
Yeah.
Oh, God.
Well, I tell you what, if this new series I'm doing gets picked up for a second season, I'm going to recommend to the producers they put the Epstein case on there.
Even though it's not quite in line with what we do.
joe rogan
Yeah, you sent me a...
I'll forward it to Jamie.
Did you get it, Jamie?
So let's look at the trailer for this.
What is it called?
mike baker
It's called Black Files Declassified.
joe rogan
And what is it based on?
mike baker
It's on the Science Channel, Discovery Science Channel.
And essentially, it's a series looking at something called the Black Budget, right?
joe rogan
Let's play the trail.
Let's do that.
mike baker
Let's go to the clip.
joe rogan
And then we'll talk about it.
Let's go to the clip.
unidentified
Ladies and gentlemen, Black Files Declassified.
Wow.
mike baker
Listen to that.
unidentified
A top-secret aviation program.
They will neither confirm nor deny the existence of records.
mike baker
Funded by a mysterious money trail.
There was a lot of thought into how we're going to hide the various pots of money.
Could revolutionize flight.
Do you think that you'll see manned hypersonic flight in your lifetime?
joe rogan
Oh, yeah.
mike baker
And unleash a new lethal technology.
unidentified
extremely high speeds, Mach 5, 6, that would make these cruise missiles almost impossible to defend against.
mike baker
Every year, more than $90 billion is allocated to clandestine government programs, collectively called the Black Budget.
unidentified
Each individual operation is a black file.
mike baker
I'm Mike Baker.
As a covert CIA operations officer for over a decade and a half, I supervised missions around the globe.
My security clearances gave me access to many classified projects.
Now I'm following the money trail to the secrets hidden inside the black files Damn.
I'd watch that.
joe rogan
I'd watch that.
mike baker
I'd watch that thing over and over again.
joe rogan
Well, all that kind of shit's fascinating to me.
Manned hypersonic flight?
Does that mean like single?
mike baker
That's one of our first episodes, yeah.
joe rogan
When you say manned hypersonic, like they used to have the Concorde.
That was hypersonic, right?
mike baker
No.
joe rogan
It wasn't?
mike baker
No.
No, hypersonic is...
Essentially anything over Mach 5 is hypersonic.
And so we don't have, there's no manned hypersonic flight yet.
joe rogan
So the Concorde was the speed of sound.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
And this is faster than the speed of sound.
mike baker
Yeah, five times faster.
I mean, you're talking about a mile a second or so.
For a missile, a missile traveling.
So that's what, Russia just came out and announced a deployment of a new hypersonic missile.
Or a weapon.
And that's where the war in space is going, basically, is into hypersonic, mostly unmanned.
There's some effort to try to figure out, can we create a manned vehicle?
It's really problematic because you think about traveling that fast and you think about what that means for punching through the air and the heat and the materials that are needed.
But as far as unmanned glide vehicles or whatever, I mean, that's where a tremendous amount of resources are being put right now by the Russians, the Chinese, the U.S. But it's pretty frightening because we don't have any way to defend against it.
Like the one fellow mentioned in that clip is that if you think about a sort of a ballistic missile, it's got a trajectory, right?
It goes up and it comes down, just like the Cold War days.
We had all the defenses set up to intercept Russian missiles coming towards us.
Well, we knew what the path was going to be.
And so we were able to deploy a defense system against this.
The idea with hypersonic weapons is you have no idea, right?
You've got almost no warning and you can't – you have no idea what that trajectory is for those weapons.
It's going so fast.
It's going so fast and it's adjustable, right?
So it's not just depending on – a missile, ballistic missile goes up and it's going to come down and you know exactly what that path is going to look like.
joe rogan
So they can adjust it like they can slow it down?
mike baker
You can slow it down.
You can change direction.
unidentified
What?
mike baker
Yeah.
So you think about it.
It's a big deal.
So one of our – I think it may be our first episode is going to be focused on hypersonics.
But there's a variety of other episodes in this thing.
But it's all looking at this idea that the black budget exists.
It does exist.
And there's each project, whether it is a project to develop hypersonic flight, which the U.S. government had that, whether it's advanced aviation threat identification program, whether it's the Space Force, which has been actually around for a long time.
There's budgets that account for these programs, and they have to be hidden somewhere.
I mean the government has got to spend the money, right?
So the idea being what started this thing off was the idea that, well, what if you just literally just did follow the money and try to figure out from the money trails how they were developing these projects?
And could you identify the various projects that these pots of money go to it?
It turned out to be really – it's very interesting.
I'm subjective of course but it's pretty good and it's – we don't have a specific air date yet.
They're being very mum about it but it will be on Sunday nights.
Coming to a science channel near you soon.
joe rogan
So with these hypersonic missiles, they can, like, you can't judge from the path that it's gone so far where it's going.
mike baker
Right, exactly.
joe rogan
Because they can steer them in real time?
mike baker
Yeah.
Yeah, the idea being is it's not following a It's not following a known trajectory.
It's not following a ballistic trajectory.
The effort to try to develop manned hypersonic flight has got a really fascinating history, and particularly here in the US. But we're not there.
We're not there yet.
It may not happen in our lifetimes just because of the difficulties.
I mean I interviewed some terrific people during the course of that, which is the best part of this.
Sirius being, from my perspective, you travel around, you see all these interesting things, you talk to these fantastic folks, right?
I mean, some incredible people, a former pilot for the old Blackbird program, right?
This guy, you know, strap into this thing and get up to altitude, you know, on the edge of the atmosphere, doing these overflights of Russia and, you know, gathering or wherever and gathering intelligence.
And just the dangers involved in these aircraft, these experimental aircraft that were being designed and the whole goal being eventually trying to work your way towards this hypersonic manned flight.
These people are amazing.
You start talking to some of them and you realize what people are capable of if they can...
If they can set aside their fear and they have that risk appetite.
joe rogan
That's a funny way of putting it.
Risk appetite?
mike baker
Yeah.
Well, I mean, they just don't think.
I mean, a test pilot doesn't think the way that you are.
Well, maybe he thinks the way you do, but not the way I do.
I mean, you talk to some of these folks.
joe rogan
Yeah, I know what you're saying.
mike baker
But anyway, so...
joe rogan
The first person, like the first person who goes up in one of those things.
Forget about all the testing and all the structural rigidity documents and all the data and everything that's showing you this is absolutely safe.
Like, it's not.
mike baker
It's not.
No, there's nothing safe about it.
And like that one fellow that I... There was a little bit in the clip where I asked this old guy, looks like somebody's granddad, right?
You know, do you believe there'll be manned hypersonic flight in your lifetime?
He says, just...
This guy's – the story of this guy testing experimental aircraft to try to get to that point and some of the things that he did and it's astounding.
You look at him and you think you're not normal and I talked to his wife and she said, yeah, it's interesting.
She's been married to him forever but she says one of the interesting things you learn about being married to somebody like this.
A test pilot or somebody else in a position like that is, you know, they don't process things the same way.
They don't necessarily have a lot of empathy because they're just focused on this thing, right?
And they're not necessarily thinking, well, I don't want to go up there and die because I'd be leaving my family behind and all, you know.
It's not in the thought process.
Anyway, so there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.
joe rogan
What do you think about all this...
The New York Times had articles about it.
Air Force test pilots have come out talking about encountering flying saucers or unidentified flying objects, particularly Commander Fravor who had that tip-tack thing.
What do you think about all that?
mike baker
I'm a shameless marketer.
We do an episode on that, on AATIP, on the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program.
And look, again, I always say the same thing.
I'm not a conspiracy guy.
I tend to be very cynical about everything.
But after talking to some of these folks, including Fravor and a handful of others, who were both pilots and also were involved in the AATIP program for the U.S. government, for the military, There's things out there that we haven't been able to identify.
I'm not jumping on the alien train necessarily, but what I'm saying is that there are things that extremely experienced pilots, military pilots with significant amounts of experience couldn't figure out, couldn't identify.
So I'm certainly not going to be smart enough to say, okay, this is what it was.
Was it a foreign government's experimental aircraft?
Was it something – I don't know.
But what I do know is that the US government took it seriously enough that they developed their own internal program within the Pentagon to try to sort out the wheat from the chaff, right, and say, okay, what do we actually have to worry about in part because it's a national security issue, right?
If there is an aircraft or if there's something up there that a pilot – a military pilot sees, for instance, that can't identify – All right.
We have an obligation to figure out what that is because if it's a hostile foreign government's efforts to develop craft that we don't know about or propulsion systems we don't know about, then yes, we should be working on that issue.
The problem has always been that once you talk about that, then people immediately go, oh, aliens, huh?
Area 51. And it kind of gets dismissed.
joe rogan
Yeah.
mike baker
But there was a much more serious effort than I knew about before I started working on this thing.
And so I don't know.
I think – I've got an open mind about that.
It's like that old thing about how – can we really be the only people out here or life forms out here?
I don't know.
That seems a little – It seems unrealistic.
Yeah, yeah.
joe rogan
When a guy like Fravor, that's the thing.
When someone who's that rock solid comes out and tells the story, and he's not deviating from his story, he's not a guy who's trying to make money, he doesn't have a history of telling fantastic stories.
mike baker
And he knew what it meant when he was going to come forward and talk about this.
And you've got the gun cameras, and you've got the radar operators who also saw the same thing.
joe rogan
They saw it, and they said it was actively jamming their radar.
Which they said, what the fuck?
And then the way it moved from 60,000 feet down to 200 feet in less than a second.
mike baker
And no signs of any propulsion system.
No, there's several things about that that...
Yeah, it'll leave you scratching your head.
Again, I'm not making a case one way or the other.
The point of this is to, again, is to kind of use the money trail as a way to get inside some of these programs and then to the degree that you can talk about things that are declassified.
You know, not necessarily trying to make a case.
We're not trying to say it is this or it is that, you know, but I think we're presenting a lot of interesting information that, you know, again, with this situation with Fravor as an example, you know, you come away from it and you think, okay, I'm not dismissing anything at this point.
Just, you know, it would be, I think, foolish to or...
Anyway, so interesting stuff, but...
joe rogan
Was that ever anything that came up during your career?
mike baker
No.
I was pretty much straightforward.
Pound the ground through some counterinsurgency operations, counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism operations.
We never did any counter-alien things.
That was a different operation.
That was on a floor we weren't allowed to go onto at the headquarters.
joe rogan
It seems like if we had to admit it was real, if it was something that was real, and we were being contacted on a regular basis, or at least a semi-regular basis, that would change the way everybody feels about everything.
mike baker
Yes.
joe rogan
Remember when Reagan gave that speech?
I think it was the United Nations.
He said, imagine how easily we would come together if we were faced with a threat from an alien world.
Right.
And everybody was like, oh my god, he knows something!
mike baker
The aliens!
He's about to spill the beans.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's what we were hoping.
All the UFO dorks like myself.
mike baker
Well, but think about it.
I mean, think if that did come out, which is part of the allure, right, is the idea that the government's been keeping this from us for all these years.
And you think about what that would mean.
Not just obviously, oh my god, really, there's something going on out there.
But then sort of that breakdown in trust.
Not that it's not happening already in terms of the government and its ability to...
I mean, look, Area 51. Area 51 was scouted out for use as an experimental, you know, test site for aircraft.
And, you know, it made perfect sense.
Well, then you get all these experimental aircraft being developed out there and flown some successfully, some not.
And, you know, locals, you know, see this shit, you know, locals being a fairly good-sized region because of the distance on these.
And, you know, it's understandable how you start getting some of these stories.
But, you know, having said that, you know, I sat down with Fravor, right?
We talked about this a lot for this one episode, and I talked to several others.
Yeah, again, I come away and I'm not sure what to think, but again, I'm not closing the book on anything at this point.
joe rogan
See, the way I looked at it is if these were unique expeditions from another planet, or whatever it is, that comes here, some alien spacecraft, all they'd have to do is come here once.
Or twice.
mike baker
Get fed up?
joe rogan
Well, not even that, but I used to have a bit about how Earth is the Tijuana of outer space.
They only come down here when they're fucked up and they want to see a show.
That's why they don't stay.
They just come down and go, what the fuck?
Like, no one's doing any science expeditions to Tijuana.
mike baker
I'm not going back there.
No way.
Not unless I'm drunk again.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Well, I was just thinking that if they were going to come down here and examine us, I mean, they could just do it a couple of times, and people have these stories, and everybody else dismisses it, like, where are they?
Where are they?
I don't see any aliens.
Because you really wouldn't, and you probably don't.
If they're capable of moving at the speed that Fravor described, where it was just impossible to track with the human eye...
mike baker
They're not going to view us as a threat.
joe rogan
No.
I don't think they think we're a threat.
I think they're just, I don't know.
mike baker
They're not going to look at us and say we want to steal their technology.
joe rogan
It's the most fascinating thing to me.
Out of all the weird what-ifs and who could do this and how could that be true, the alien one is the most fascinating.
Because if that was real, and if we somehow or another one day get some undeniable proof, like the Fravor film, the film footage, the gunner footage, the radar footage, that's pretty goddamn compelling.
But man, if there was something like off the charts...
mike baker
Well, and that's the problem always, and people will point to that and say, you know, even the gun camera footage is, you know, look at this.
It's hard to follow a little bit.
It's not clear necessarily what it is I'm looking at.
But it is more compelling than a lot of the other crap that's been out there.
So I think it was surprising.
But yeah, the hypersonics is the – of all the episodes we did, I think the hypersonics is the one that's – It really makes you stand up and think this is pretty fucked up if we get beat to this.
You don't want to be in an arms race, but you essentially are.
joe rogan
Who are we in the biggest race with?
Is it Russia?
mike baker
China.
joe rogan
China.
mike baker
Because China is more resources.
Russia would say it's theirs.
It's them.
They're claiming that they've got abilities.
But Putin is always getting out ahead of his skis.
And they've got the GDP of a small European country, right?
So particularly when oil is down where it is.
And so China's got the resources, the motivation.
They view themselves as they want to be at the top of the heap.
joe rogan
They also have technological innovation at a very, very, very high level.
mike baker
Some of it's stolen.
joe rogan
Yeah.
mike baker
Did I say that?
Yeah.
A lot of it's stolen.
Okay, fine.
Some of it's stolen.
All right.
A lot of it.
joe rogan
But still, I mean, they're kind of clever.
Like, hey, we didn't figure it out, but it's already been figured out.
Let's just steal it and then improve upon it.
mike baker
Oh, no, they can reverse engineer the shit out of anything, right?
And then they do learn from that.
Yeah.
But, yeah, it's...
China would be the number one.
Look, if you go to Washington, the interesting thing about threats, if you look and say, okay, what are the top threats in the face of the U.S.? The top three have never really changed in decades, right?
Russia, China, Iran.
And then what fills out the top two after – if you go for the top five, critical infrastructure here in the U.S., which is actually probably at the top.
I mean if you say to people in D.C. what worries you the most, they'll say attacks on our critical infrastructure.
But Russia, China, Iran, they may switch places occasionally, but they're always up there in that top five.
Terrorism ranks somewhere down lower.
But it's – so China is always going to be an issue and they've been very aggressive both in terms of acquiring information, economic espionage, their military build out and their desire to kind of take back the Pacific from us.
And so yeah, it's our primary competitor.
But Russia punches above its weight.
And the narrative about Russia collusion has captured the imagination for three years now and still seems to hold some interest for some Dems in Washington DC no matter what happens.
But – and then Iran kind of plays that role because of its nuclear pursuits.
North Korea is up there to some degree but kind of bounces in and out of the top.
Anyway, for what that's worth.
But yeah, if you – suddenly we find that Fravor is right or that there's this contact.
Suddenly, guess what?
That's it.
That's the top concern at that point.
joe rogan
That's number one.
Right, right.
I mean, the hope is always that if we're about to nuke ourselves into another dimension, that the aliens will come down and go hit dummies.
mike baker
Just like a 1950s movie.
joe rogan
Yeah.
Hey, fucking idiots.
Stop doing that.
mike baker
The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Yeah, remember that one?
Yeah.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
Klaatu Barada Niktu.
mike baker
Wow.
joe rogan
Remember that?
mike baker
Look at you.
joe rogan
Yeah.
mike baker
That's pretty impressive, actually.
joe rogan
The Day the Earth Stood Still is a great fucking movie.
mike baker
It was a great movie.
It's weird.
joe rogan
It's like a time capsule, right?
Because of what they thought it would look like.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
The robot, it's just...
mike baker
Yeah, no, I love the movie.
I tried to get my boys to sit and watch it not too long ago, and they were like, really, Dad?
This is what you spend your time watching?
joe rogan
You know what was interesting?
It was like a normal thing that the family took the alien in their house.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
Come on in.
Stay with us, strange person from another land.
mike baker
Why wouldn't you?
joe rogan
Yeah, why wouldn't you?
He's talking to the kid.
Like, you're not even a little suspicious?
You don't think this guy might be a creep?
mike baker
What's your favorite movie, sort of alien space genre movie?
joe rogan
Well, I like the best one is Alien, the Sigourney Weaver movie.
The first one.
Yeah.
That's most likely what alien life is going to be like, some horrific parasitic Fucking creature that eats everything it finds.
unidentified
Yeah.
joe rogan
That, to me, seems likely.
mike baker
Yeah.
joe rogan
That seems more likely.
mike baker
I remember sitting in the theater when that movie came out, watching it, and when it popped out of that guy's chest, the entire theater jumped.
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
It was just crazy, but...
joe rogan
It's hard because you watch that movie today and you're watching it having seen all the other movies that it's affected and all the other science fiction genre movies and special effects movies, but that movie was special.
In 1979 when that movie came out, that was a special movie.
That was a fucking horrifically scary movie and it was realistic.
There was no cut the shit scenes.
Everything seemed legitimate.
The creature was completely unique.
mike baker
Weaver was hot.
joe rogan
Hot as fuck.
mike baker
Yeah.
I mean, honestly, we're looking at pictures of Liz Hurley.
We should be looking at Sigourney Weaver.
joe rogan
And that's a great movie where a woman is the hero and you're not flinching.
There's no part where you're going, what?
What is she doing?
She's kicking everybody's ass?
Get the fuck out of here.
That's a movie where we're like, that's a real hero.
That's a real hero who rises to the occasion in this horrific situation where this ship has been overtaken by an alien.
I think that there's things out there.
I don't know if I believe, I want to believe that we've been visited, but I don't know if I believe.
mike baker
I think there's things out there.
Yeah, I'm on board with the second part of that as well.
I don't know.
I find it hard to believe it would be such a secret.
But, you know, and also knowing the U.S. government, look, I mean, you know, it's harder to find out from the network when they're going to start this show than getting secrets out of Washington, D.C., right?
So I'm thinking, you know, we would have known for now if it had happened.
But I do believe there's other secrets.
I can't believe we're it.
joe rogan
I don't think we're it.
mike baker
Maybe we're being hopeful.
I can't believe we're it.
joe rogan
But I'm also fascinated to think that if they did know that something was here, that they would visit it occasionally, drop in on it occasionally for a scientific expedition to see what the fuck we're up to.
mike baker
Yeah.
Unless they just got so disgusted the last time.
They just thought, that's it.
I'm done.
joe rogan
I don't think so.
We don't get disgusted when we go visit baboons.
When we study baboons, scientists return.
Robert Sapolsky, he spent many years going back and forth to Africa studying baboons.
And baboons are boring as fuck compared to people.
If you weren't a person, if you weren't a person, if you were from some enlightened race a million years advanced from us, you would be so fascinated to come by and look at people.
mike baker
Yeah, although they probably look at us like we're a bunch of shit-flinging monkeys, so I think you're probably right.
joe rogan
I mean, if we had a time machine, tell me it wouldn't be amazing if there was a time machine but it could only go back 500,000 years ago to the beginning of man.
Like the early, you know, whatever ancient hominid that was that was alive back then.
God damn, that would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall and watch these primitive humanoids try to figure out fire and try to figure out hunting and become what we are today.
mike baker
Yeah.
Yeah.
There would probably be moments, right?
I wouldn't want to sit and watch the whole thing because I think that would be boring as shit.
I mean, come on, just get on with it.
Chip that rock into a circle.
Do something with it.
Come on.
But I think that, yeah, you're right.
I mean, if there's higher life forms out there, and you'd have to assume they are higher life forms if they're traveling these distances, and again, looking at the issues of propulsion systems for hypersonic flight, etc., Would they look at this bunch of folks down here and think, just not interested?
I don't know.
joe rogan
I think at a certain point in time it would be unnecessary to physically visit.
I feel like maybe...
mike baker
They're watching us through the Samsung TVs.
unidentified
Yeah.
mike baker
See, that's the thing about it.
It all comes back around full circle.
joe rogan
Yeah, you've got to put a tape over that camera.
mike baker
You do.
joe rogan
I think there's probably...
You do, right?
You should.
mike baker
You should.
I mean, people should check their...
Again, smart TVs.
If you've got one that's of recent vintage, check and you'll see there's a little hole along the frame.
That's the camera.
There's a microphone set up on an audio system.
Yeah, just put a piece of tape over it.
That's your low-cost solution.
You can go in there and adjust and turn it off, but...
You know, you try figuring that out, right?
That's like trying to program your VCR, right?
Trying to figure out how to get into your TV, into the settings to change the smart interactivity.
And then do you also want to trust that that's what's going to happen if you turn it off?
So, yeah, just put a piece of duct tape over it.
joe rogan
Well, they've showed that with Facebook, that even if you turn off location, they're still tracking you.
mike baker
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's why I say, again, going back to that same old thing, which is like, oh, the government's trying to screw us over.
They're spying on us.
You know what?
Unless you're involved in criminal activity or terrorism, They honestly don't have any interest, but they also don't have the resources and the time available.
Commercial side of things, though, is different because it drives what they're all about, which is making money.
joe rogan
Especially when you sign those terms of agreements, the terms of use agreements.
Most people just accept it.
You don't look through it.
mike baker
Well, there's a regulation.
There's a piece of legislation that outlaws secretly videoing...
I forget what it was.
It was years and years ago.
It was decades ago.
But you give up that right by clicking on agree on those user agreements.
joe rogan
Yeah.
mike baker
But I don't know anybody who's ever read a user agreement.
joe rogan
What is this, Jamie?
New law passed in California this year.
California's Consumer Privacy Act allows anyone who resides in a state to access and obtain copies of the data that companies store on them and the right to delete that data and opt out of companies selling or monetizing their data.
mike baker
California leading the way again.
jamie vernon
Only for residents of California, though.
unidentified
If you live somewhere else, you can check, but you can't have it.
mike baker
I'm moving from Idaho to California.
joe rogan
There's some good spots in California.
This isn't one of them.
It's a good spot.
Just too many people found out about it.
My worry is more of social media companies now than anything, even in a lot of ways more than the government spying on us.
I worry about the power that something like Facebook has.
The insane amount of influence that they have on people and how through the use of their algorithms they actually instigate arguments and try to get people – because that's how people respond and that's what makes people want to click on things and that's what generates revenue.
So their algorithms encourage – the idea is that they encourage outrage, but they don't really.
But people like outrage.
So they encourage you to go seek out, like Ari Shafir did an experiment where he used YouTube and he only searched for puppies.
That's all he searched for, just puppies on YouTube.
And that's all YouTube would recognize.
So all they were recommending to him was puppies.
And he's like, oh, okay.
So it's really not nefarious.
It's based entirely on what your needs are or what your interests are.
But so many people are interested in things that outrage them that it becomes a very profitable thing for them when their algorithm shows these people what they want.
But the problem is the people itself.
It's not necessarily the algorithm.
It's not like the algorithm is some nefarious algorithm that's designed to instigate strife.
mike baker
No, it's taking advantage of human nature to some degree, but it's also, I mean, you've raised a really important point because coming up on this election, people are talking about, oh my god, they're going to hack in, they're going to influence the vote.
Part of the danger is in the social engineering, and it's very clever.
So if you look at something that just happened, this actually is really interesting, and it's still being investigated, but A report came out from a group, Area 1, which is looking at hackers and looking at cybersecurity issues.
It's not a particularly well-known group.
It's not like Kaspersky or some of these others that are out there.
But they just came out with a report a couple days ago basically saying that the Russians, a Russian entity, likely the former GRU, the military intelligence group of the Russian intelligence service, hacked into Burisma.
Now, Burisma is that company in the Ukraine that Hunter Biden was sat on the board of, right?
And now you think, oh, Russians hacked into it.
And so what happens almost immediately when this report comes out saying a Russian intel operation hacked into Burisma recently as it was sort of becoming an issue and Trump was banging on about it and Hunter Biden and there was talk about holding up Ukrainian aid if you don't investigate the Biden situation.
So you'd look at this, and if you just looked at it on a very simple level, you go, wow.
And I've already seen some of that narrative saying, well, look, the Russians are working on behalf of Trump again.
See?
That's what they're doing.
They're working on behalf of Trump.
They're hacking into Burisma, and that's what he was complaining about.
If you step back and you think about what are the Russians trying to do with all of their hacking efforts, all their social media engineering, they're trying to create dissent.
So now what have you got?
Now you're ramping up this story again.
To what degree Area 1's story or report is correct, I mean there's some discussion as to whether it's accurate or not, but to that degree that you have to look at everything now with a very skeptical eye and you have to say, okay, what is the purpose of it?
Is this a timed leak of information?
In other words, the Russian intel service, they don't do anything haphazardly, right?
Do they do this with the idea that we're going to leak this out now?
Because now it looks like we're still – we're pushing this whole thing.
We're trying to help Trump.
We're going to get that narrative going again because now we're getting into an election cycle.
It's interesting stuff.
It's like after Soleimani was smoked, almost immediately after, social media posts sort of pro – Very subtly, but pro-Iranian regime, pro-Suleimani, again, very subtle, but in that vein, they spiked over the course of the next 48 hours.
Massive numbers compared to what had been in the past of sympathetic enough to turn people's thoughts, right?
To get that narrative going of like, well, oh my god, they assassinated a foreign leader, right?
That's all they're looking to do is create that.
And the Iranian cybersecurity force is increasingly sophisticated.
Ten years ago, they probably wouldn't have been able to orchestrate sort of that sort of social media work.
I guess my point being is that we look at things very simplistically, right?
We look at – because we tend to look at it through this political spectrum saying I'm right, I'm left, whatever.
But you have to step back and think what are they doing?
What's the purpose of this?
And maybe it's more complex or layered than just simply accepting what it is that's being said, which happens – that's the danger of social media is everyone takes at face value shit that they see on Twitter or whatever.
And rather than stepping back and going, I wonder if this story is even accurate.
But somebody will post some bullshit.
Half the time, it's just – whether it's for the left or right doesn't matter or whether it's from a foreign entity, the state-sponsored effort.
You take it and you run with it.
Next thing you know, it's got 10,000 likes and people are talking about it like it's correct.
joe rogan
Yeah, that's a real problem with today's social media, is that these agencies, like the Internet Research Agency in Russia did before the 2016 election, they really can stir up dissent.
With these thousands and thousands of social media accounts that they have, and they can get people thinking in a certain way.
They can get people to argue things in a certain way.
And you hear those talking points at these bots and these companies that are designed just to stir people up.
You see those talking points repeated.
So it is effective.
mike baker
Oh, no, absolutely.
And look, the Russians have been doing this.
You know, years and years ago, decades ago, they were buying off journalists to write favorable articles or articles that they wanted to get the narrative out there for, right?
So they would pay off journalists, whether it was overseas or here, wherever it may be.
And that was old school, right?
The reasoning behind it is still the same.
You're trying to affect a narrative.
You're trying to affect a certain opinion.
Or you're trying to foment dissent.
You're trying to create some chaos.
And you're right.
Here, now with a lot of the social media that What foreign entities are doing.
They're trying to take advantage and trying to drive wedges in.
So you get these things that try to drive and create more of a racial divide as an example.
Whatever it is that they can do.
And sometimes they're doing it just simply to create the chaos.
Sometimes they're doing it for a more specific focused reason.
But we're not sophisticated.
I think we're more aware of it now because it's been in the news and we've been talking about it to some degree.
As a population, we're not very sophisticated.
And so they're still going to take advantage of it.
And it's not just the Russians.
It's any nation that's got the resource or the ability and somewhat motivation and sees it in their own best interest, they're going to be engaged in this.
So I have a cyber unit that's doing this sort of thing.
So I don't know where it's going to go, but you worry about sort of the impact that it has.
It's not the...
It's not – the idea that they're going in there to voting machines and switching up data.
I mean frankly we should be going to a paper-based system.
I would – if I was in charge, I would say that's it.
No more paperless voting systems.
Get that shit out of here.
We're not going to rely on the internet.
You know what they're doing in Iowa for the caucuses?
It's all going to be internet-based voting reporting for the caucuses in Iowa.
But again, you think that whether it's independent hackers or state-sponsored from China, Russia, wherever, of course they're targeting this.
And they're putting a great deal of resource into it.
And they've already probably mapped out the infrastructure.
So, hey, get back to the old days.
If you're targeting a terrorist organization and you start having success picking up comms and communications and gathering signals intelligence on them, first thing they do is throw their phones away and go back to the old system of, look, I'm going to handwrite some message.
I'm going to hand it to my cousin.
He's going to hand it to his cousin.
And that's all.
That's our communication system from now on.
So we should dumb down and go back to the old days and just do a paper system, which takes longer and is a pain in the ass, but...
Yeah.
joe rogan
You can't hack it.
mike baker
Can't hack it.
Yeah.
Anyway, that's just me.
I went back to my Bernie Sanders voice there.
joe rogan
It's always great having you in here, man.
Tell people again when your show...
Well, you don't have an air date.
mike baker
I don't know.
They're keeping it mum.
joe rogan
When you tell me, we'll tell everybody.
mike baker
That sounds good, man.
joe rogan
Let everybody know.
They can get a hold of you on Twitter and Instagram at MBCompanyMan is the Twitter thing.
mike baker
And yeah, thank you.
I'm always amazed at how fast the time goes.
unidentified
I'm sure you're not, but I'm amazed.
joe rogan
I am still amazed.
mike baker
Get out to Boise, right?
Everybody's waiting.
joe rogan
I'll do it.
mike baker
All right, man.
joe rogan
Take care.
unidentified
Thanks, man.
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