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Feb. 23, 2022 - Timcast IRL - Tim Pool
02:04:14
Timcast IRL - National Guard To Deploy In DC Over US Freedom Convoy w/Steve Rene
Participants
Main voices
i
ian crossland
14:43
s
steven rene
37:39
t
tim pool
01:05:53
Appearances
c
chris karr
03:15
Clips
l
lydia smith
00:51
| Copy link to current segment

Speaker Time Text
tim pool
D.C.
is preparing for the U.S.
Freedom Convoy and is being reported by Fox that the National Guard will be deployed, so we can expect things to get, well, maybe not so much out of hand, but a bit more serious here in the U.S., though I think things will be particularly different.
Up in Canada, the police there were absolutely brutal, mocking injuring protesters and leaked messages, gloating about trampling a woman with horses, and here's where it gets scary.
As Justin Trudeau is using very serious and extreme emergency powers, having his powers extended by Canadian Parliament, freezing bank accounts of single mothers for donating 50 bucks, a new poll has come out.
Trafalgar Group found that 65% of likely Democrat voters support what Justin Trudeau has done.
Now, I understand it's a different country, but that says a lot about where Democrat voters in this country are.
Now, interestingly, in this poll, In unaffiliated voters, overwhelmingly disapprove 74% Republican voters.
I believe it's 87 overwhelmingly disapprove what is going on in this country that Democrat voters are holding these extreme authoritarian views and and supporting this kind of insanity. So I can only, I can only imagine
what would happen with the Democrat administration as these freedom truckers, these convoy
makes their way to the U S. So we'll get into all of that. We have some news as to why that may be
apparently, according to another poll from Gallup, Democrats don't watch the news right now.
They've just totally tuned out more so than most other groups, so that could explain a lot of it.
Gal Rittenhouse is filing, or says he's going to be launching a project to file defamation suits against people who smeared him, like Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks and Whoopi Goldberg.
And then, of course, there's actually very serious and important news that Biden is sanctioning Russian officials, not over Ukraine, And it looks like the Nord Stream 2 pipeline may be getting shuttered because of all of what's happening.
Look, a lot of people don't think there could be an expansion of conflict over some regional conflict in Europe, but you gotta understand that if the conflict does escalate, and it has, Putin's putting peacekeepers, military, into eastern Ukraine, it's just dominoes falling.
Now, Biden announces sanctions, then Russia says, well, we're gonna do this, that, or otherwise, then one by one, dominoes fall over until something seriously bad happens.
Let's get into all of this.
Once again, talking about just the insane state of affairs in this world.
And joining us today is the COO of Fortitude Ranch, Steve Renee.
steven rene
Hey Tim, good to be back.
tim pool
Thanks for coming.
Do you want to introduce yourself?
steven rene
Sure.
I'm the COO of Fortitude Ranch.
We are a survival and recreational community.
We have six locations across the U.S.
and we're looking to continue to expand.
I'm also the COO of Survival Housing which is a new startup for us and we're looking to get into consulting for those who wouldn't necessarily want to join Fortitude Ranch but need some help In setting up a homestead, a preparation, a bug-out site.
We also have partners that we're partnering up with for housing solutions in such occasion.
tim pool
So you've also got military experience.
I do.
You actually, I think you're saying you lived in Ukraine as well?
steven rene
I lived in Belarus.
tim pool
Belarus, Belarus.
steven rene
Yes, visited Ukraine many times.
tim pool
So do you think you'll be able to give us some insights into what's going on right now?
unidentified
Absolutely.
tim pool
That's gonna be fantastic.
Thanks for coming.
We got Chris Carr hanging out as well.
chris karr
Hey, the one and only executive editor at TimCast.com.
Thanks for having me, guys.
This is gonna be a great conversation.
I'm really looking forward to hearing your insights.
ian crossland
War is no joke.
World War I began for much less than what we're looking at right now.
It's just a bunch of defensive packs triggering, and no one really knew what the hell was going on, and all of a sudden everyone's fighting each other.
Be ever vigilant if you want to prevent this stuff.
lydia smith
And I am also here in the corner.
Steve and his convoy brought me a Sour Patch Kids little bobble head pop thing.
It's amazing.
I love it and I appreciate it.
And I'm really looking forward to Steve because he brings such great depth of wisdom and he has a lot of experience in the world.
So we'll have a great conversation tonight for sure.
tim pool
They also gave Ian a 20-sided die.
ian crossland
Oh my gosh, I gotta show you this.
So cool, yeah.
Ari brought this for me.
Thanks, dude.
unidentified
So cool.
ian crossland
This is a 20-sided die.
It's about as psychedelic as I am.
lydia smith
20s only tonight, Ian.
ian crossland
Look at this beautiful thing.
tim pool
All right, Ian.
Roll those 20s tonight.
unidentified
Yeah, let's do it.
tim pool
Before we get started, everybody.
ian crossland
I rolled a three.
unidentified
Oh, no.
lydia smith
Don't start.
tim pool
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Let's get started domestically.
Because I thought this was a pretty, this is, this is pretty big news.
Fox News reports DC prepares for possible US Freedom Convoy.
Officials request National Guard troops.
Tow trucks spotted near Washington DC's National Mall.
I found this interesting because when I was reading all of this news, all of these news outlets are saying request for National Guard, request for National Guard.
And then Fox News seems to bury the lead, outright saying National Guard troops will reportedly deploy beginning Tuesday and remain in place until the end of March.
The New York Times, I'm sorry, Fox News is saying they have a source telling them this.
That the truckers are requesting a permit for 1,000 to 3,000 people to gather in the capital and the National Guard will reportedly be deploying Tuesday and Remain in place until the end of March.
So I don't know exactly what we're gonna see right now tow trucks are apparently on scene in DC already and they're saying they've been contracted by the city for like 10 days or so and I believe the US Freedom Convoys, they're set to leave in a couple days from Barstow, California.
It's Barstow, right?
Is that where they're coming from?
chris karr
We're getting a lot of conflicting reports.
I was talking with our field reporter about that today and like we're comparing notes and it's really hard to figure out exactly what's going on right now.
tim pool
But they're expecting to be in D.C.
what, March 1st?
chris karr
Yes.
tim pool
State of the Union address?
chris karr
For the State of the Union, yeah.
That's the plan.
tim pool
That's a bold time to come in.
So they're already putting up security perimeter fencing.
I think it's gonna look very, very different to what we saw in Canada.
But I suppose, you know, the truckers are gonna be prepared for that.
And I'm wondering...
I'm wondering how things are going to go.
I mean, the mandates out here in the States, I mean, they're going away.
It's not the same as it is in Canada.
In Canada, it's absolutely brutal.
They're beating people.
They're laughing about it.
Trampled some old woman, you know, on a mobility scooter, and then the cops were posting messages laughing about it.
Messages got leaked.
What do you guys think's going to happen?
You think the U.S.
is going to get rowdy?
steven rene
Yeah, well, I think they're smart to get the permit, first of all, right?
So you don't have a repeat, you don't put yourself in the same situation what happened in Canada.
And then, but how?
That doesn't mean that everybody involved in the convoy are going to act the same way.
tim pool
Yeah.
steven rene
So along the way, I wouldn't be surprised if they stop somewhere and clog something ahead of getting to the permit site, right?
If you're looking to make a statement.
And so it'll be interesting to see how that works.
ian crossland
Or like an FBI agent gets steps up on the back of the truck and throws a brick and is like, hey, the truckers are throwing bricks.
I do not.
This is just red flags, red light flashing warning.
Be careful.
Do not.
They're ready for you.
The fascist organization that is controlling the United States and Canada and all of the Western democracies, this liberal economic order, is ready for you.
They're planning for this.
They're already got the National Guard prepared.
They're going to call people domestic terrorists.
They're going to put people in solitary.
Be prepared.
tim pool
Yeah, you just cranked it all the way up to 11, man.
First, you know, the international cabal that's controlling the Western... Well, I think it's fair to say that, you know, Biden called Trudeau.
They had a conversation about what's happening with the convoy.
Biden urged Trudeau to crack down with federal authority.
Trudeau then started using these insane emergency powers to freeze bank accounts.
So I would maybe turn it to 10, just go down one notch.
I don't know if there's some, if it's a cabal like Biden and Trudeau, you know, go and then hang out at a secret meeting underground or anything like that.
I certainly think these world leaders have trade agreements, have economic ties, and whether or not you can say there's one unified organization, like as if Biden and Trudeau literally work for the World Economic Forum, I don't know about all that.
I know that they're interested in supporting.
I know that they're negotiating with.
I know they attend these similar events.
So, you know, just one notch down, but you know, I'm not completely in complete disagreement.
ian crossland
Yeah, the Bank of International Settlements loans money to the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve of New York, which is where, I don't know if Canada gets their money through England, I don't know where they, where does Canada print its money from its central bank?
tim pool
Everyone's just responding, 20.
unidentified
It's just, it's so true.
ian crossland
When you're up against a machine gun nest, we talked about this yesterday, you do not charge straight at it.
That's what these people have done.
They charge the position with the Canadian ones, The defenders were like unprepared.
They're like, ah, then they set up a machine gun nest to protect the area.
Now, if you're going to go at it, you got to find new methodologies, man.
It is so dangerous to repeat this action.
tim pool
Yeah.
And the other important thing too, is with the Freedom Convoy in Canada, they really underestimated it.
They had no idea.
They tried smearing it.
They tried calling them violent.
None of it works.
None of it sticks.
So then they just say, okay, we're going full fash.
They just go full fascist.
They freeze bank accounts.
They even get socialists like Vosch posting on Twitter like, whoa, this has gone too far.
They even get, you know, more establishment types like Stephen Marsh was on the show saying like, that's martial law.
So they went over the top.
I'd be willing to bet they've learned from those mistakes in the United States.
Very, very different from Canada.
The police are going to be way more brutal.
Tear gas will be deployed.
They're going to be embedded, I guarantee it, in the trucker convoy the moment they leave, following them every step of the way.
And I think they're going to do everything in their power to disrupt it, but also they're going to be spying on everything the truckers say or do.
ian crossland
They need more enemies.
The January 6th thing is becoming old news and those people have been off the radar.
Dude, oh god.
When you have a huge military, you're constantly looking for a place to use it because it's costing you money if you're not.
tim pool
Well, look, we all hear about what's going on in Ukraine and with Russia, and it's remarkable that that's Biden's priority.
I know it's probably a cliche at this point to bring it up.
It's become a trope.
The southern border is wide open, just completely obliterated.
People are pouring through, and the U.S.
government doesn't care.
And so when I see that, you know, my view is it's very obvious the Biden administration has no allegiance to this country.
I just don't believe it.
I really, really don't.
Sending troops to Ukraine?
Why?
To help Ukraine?
To help NATO?
To help Europe?
What about us?
steven rene
We don't have troops in Ukraine.
unidentified
No, we haven't been Belarus or... No, we haven't been Poland.
tim pool
Poland.
steven rene
So the 18th Airborne and 82nd and the 82nd are there.
tim pool
Yeah.
steven rene
Now we do have, from what I've read, we have troops, those who are doing training, which generally in the past, that's always been Green Berets, when they're put into that position, that's who generally do the training.
And they're trying to help the Ukrainian forces, but that's all the way close to the border with Ukraine.
So we have no troops in danger.
They're in Ukraine.
tim pool
I just mean, you know, why is it such a heavy priority for the U.S.
to be involved in training in Poland and doing these things when we're not even taking care of ourselves?
steven rene
Well, it's really kind of a two-sided coin.
I agree, right, that something needs to be done with the border, but that is the plan.
The plan is to keep it open, right?
That is the policy.
And so, obviously, there isn't any other way to stop it other than the states along the border trying to build their own walls, trying to enforce, you know, what is the actual law along the border themselves.
I get the analogy, but the danger of what's going on in Ukraine right now is, one, it is immediate.
I'm not talking about World War III.
This has been a carefully orchestrated plan on the part of Putin, and it's not going to stop.
Even if all he does is what he's done now, he's won.
tim pool
Yep.
I mean, he won with Crimea.
steven rene
No, absolutely.
And then all he has to do is take a break and redo it again.
tim pool
And I tweeted, Putin was afraid of Trump.
And I believe it.
But I got a response.
I got a funny response.
It was Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Concords responded to me.
And he said something like, sure he was.
And it was a picture of Putin standing next to Trump or something.
And I'm like, I don't...
I don't know what that picture is supposed to be.
I genuinely believe, like, dude, Putin can walk up to Trump and take a picture with him and smile and laugh.
Putin wasn't afraid that Donald Trump would physically harm him.
Putin's KGB training, you know, what does he do, jujitsu or whatever?
I don't think he's afraid of Trump on a physical man-to-man level, like he's going to walk up to him and go, oh no, it's Trump.
He's afraid that Trump is insane and that if he did something, Trump would act irrationally and do something irrational that would make it very difficult for him to do exactly what he's doing.
unidentified
Right.
steven rene
But honestly, whoever is in office, and I agree with what you're saying to a certain degree, no one was going to stop him.
I don't care who was in office, because we're not going to put troops in Ukraine because they are not a member of NATO.
Both sides of defense have agreed, right?
There's already resolutions already saying, boots on the ground, no.
Support?
That's going to happen.
So, I do agree with what you're saying, but we're dealing with a different creature in Vladimir Putin.
tim pool
But under, look, so we saw the escalation of this under Obama.
And then under Trump, it kind of just fizzles.
It kind of just goes into stasis.
Biden gets in and all of a sudden it ignites again.
steven rene
No, and true, but that is also part of the cycle.
And this is, I mean, this is kind of what he waits for, right?
Opportunity.
unidentified
Yeah.
steven rene
So when you have your opportunity, you strike.
So as we talk about more civil unrest and civil disobedience here in the United States, listen, China and Russia, who are becoming closer and closer together, we have the military capability to stop either one, not both.
tim pool
Well, I guess the fear is that if the U.S.
becomes distracted, China moves in on Taiwan, or there have been some experts who have argued that China will adopt the Russia strategy on Taiwan and use pressure, control, manipulation, propaganda, and just slowly eat away at it until they can take Taiwan.
ian crossland
I feel like the Americans, a lot of Americans are still in the mindset of the B-52, the age of the B-52, the war of the B-52 bomber.
Like it's not, we're not the dominant force anymore.
There's lasers that can blow up everything from everywhere.
Anyone thinks that we got the biggest balls on the planet are living in 1970.
So you actually saw Trump one time was like, we have the best generals.
We can win any.
And you see the generals like, shut up, dude.
Stop.
Don't make us like, don't put us out there as like this, this militant.
tim pool
But do we really have the best generals?
ian crossland
No, no, no, we don't.
We don't.
And we don't have the best military either.
All these militaries are equally destructive at this point.
Well, at least the Chinese, Russian and American militaries.
If anyone of those wants to wipe the planet clean, they could do it.
steven rene
For the 11 aircraft carriers currently floating around the world, we own all of them but one.
ian crossland
Except how many nuclear submarines are there that we don't see.
To think that we're the best because it looks like we're the best is really disconcerting.
tim pool
That's a good point.
steven rene
I'm a little biased because I served.
I think we are the best.
Not only... And the reason why I think we are the best now is because we... When I was in, having a patch on your left shoulder was very rare.
It came from Vietnam.
Now, if you don't have one, it's an oddity.
We are battle-hardened and tested.
These are not just high school kids just going in and going through just training, but actually going through the rigors of war.
tim pool
And I think it's a good point, Ian.
We don't know.
We can only make assumptions about the capabilities of these other countries because they're not going to tell us.
But the same could be said for the United States.
So for now, what we know is we don't know what China secretly got because it's a secret.
We don't know what Russia secretly has because it's a secret.
We don't know what the U.S.
has because it's a secret as well.
But the U.S.
on top of that has 11 aircraft carriers out there.
And doesn't the U.S.
have like 20 or something like that?
steven rene
Well, so the largest air force in the world is United States Air Force, and then the second largest is United States Navy.
Air power.
tim pool
And I'll just make one more point, sorry.
We can see with satellites when other countries are building weapons.
Because we can see shipping lanes, we can see the movement of resources.
I can't remember who was talking to us about this.
They were saying like, you know, we would know If these other countries were building warships or advanced technology because of the massive amount of manpower and resources to move all this stuff.
When it came to the Manhattan Project, we didn't have spy satellites or anything like that.
So when blasts were going off, sensors were picking things up, but the Russians, they couldn't.
I'm sorry, this is during World War II.
Axis powers were just like, hmm, what's happening?
throughout the Cold War with all the nuclear testing, it was espionage. You'd like physically
go. Now we got satellites up there just watching everybody.
They can read your license plates.
So we can see everything. Plus we have AI tracking all this stuff. And it'll be like,
we've noticed a large deposit of iron being shipped underground for some reason. And then
the US is going to be like, we know something's being built there.
steven rene
Well, and the key is not simply to have the best or the well-trained,
but you have to have them in position to win. Right?
This is why we don't want to.
I mean, I thought Larry Sharp was, you know, that was awesome yesterday.
Great ideas.
But to get out of NATO?
That would be a mistake.
You have to have the force in position or it's basically not going to be able to react.
ian crossland
I think ground forces and now we're in the age of intercontinental ballistic missiles and rods from God, tungsten rods dropping from orbit, like position.
We're all in position now to get destroyed.
steven rene
But that hasn't changed.
I mean, it's been that way for a long time.
ian crossland
Literally since what, the late 90s or something?
tim pool
But we're fighting warfare with sanctions right now.
So Biden's like, I'm going to sanction these rich guys because they want to put pressure on these ultra wealthy individuals who are like, hey man, I like flying on planes and eating, you know, steaks in New York City.
Don't sanction me.
And then they're hoping that influence will trickle down and cause some change.
ian crossland
I think if we if the U.S.
got embroiled, it'd be like the power grid gets blown up and then they cut off all their oil from from Europe and Asia.
And then America's done for like if the power goes.
I don't know.
It feels like so vulnerable.
Everyone acts so tough and like we do have great troops and we have we used to have the best technology.
But now.
steven rene
Well, don't get me wrong.
I'm certainly not advocating for any of it, but I'm going to defend my brothers in arms also.
tim pool
Well, let me ask you guys.
If the president came out and said, we need to build wind farms, solar power, so that we can have sufficient energy in the event of war.
Do you think people would be like, oh, that sounds good to me?
Or do you think they'd be like, no, no war.
Don't do it.
ian crossland
Raytheon would be like, that's a great idea.
Let's start building solar panels.
tim pool
But isn't that the appropriate, you know, you've got the climate change left and you've got the energy independent loving right.
Couldn't they just be like, we're going to be energy independent so that no one can screw with us.
Hey, the climate change left wins on this one.
The right, you know, we see the market energy independence.
We went on this one.
It seems like unity there.
steven rene
No, and there should be because that's the grid.
Our electrical grid is one of the most insecure part of our infrastructure.
You know, we have an investor of ours in Fortitude Ranch.
His name is David Tyson.
He's putting out a documentary on this, and it's really excellent.
I was able to get a sneak peek, and it's griddowndoc.com.
You can actually go and see the trailer, and he's going to be putting this out.
Phenomenal job!
He actually has a booth at the upcoming CPAC this Saturday, and so he's looking to launch that.
And it was so well done to show exactly how vulnerable we are.
We have to, I just heard it too, a couple news outlets picked it up, not about his documentary, but about this fact.
Because of the possibility this thing gets out of hand, that's our weakest point.
And when that happens, I'm sorry, that's going to bring in the most serious crisis of our time and the possible collapse.
tim pool
And it'll be a cyber attack.
steven rene
And it will start with cyber.
ian crossland
Yeah, we talked about, before the show we were talking about this, and I mentioned driving down the street and I saw a big power plant just there.
I was like, that's the most vulnerable.
tim pool
Absolutely.
ian crossland
And then you would mention, well, dad, but that's not even the cyber aspect of it.
That's just the physical blunt trauma you could inflict on the power grid locally.
steven rene
And think about sleeper cells, right?
So if somebody's really looking to destabilize us and things get out of hand there, that is going to be targeted.
ian crossland
It surprises me that it hasn't happened yet.
Do you think that that's because they're planning a big one?
tim pool
Well, you got to hold your horse.
I was about to say something.
That's something you're going to enjoy.
Thanks, Tim.
There was this moment during the Trump presidency where Trump ordered an airstrike on Iranian targets.
Abruptly, Donald Trump ordered the airstrike off.
Told him, turn around, come back home.
And when asked why, he said, I asked how many people were down there.
They said 500.
And I said, it didn't make sense to kill that many people in this strike.
So we called it off.
But one thing I noticed, and it could be totally unrelated, was that from the point where the airstrike was deployed, in that moment, I believe it was some kind of oil refinery in Philadelphia, exploded for some reason.
Now I asked a bunch of my cyber security and white hat hacker buddies and they said they didn't think in any way it was related.
And I said, is that because you don't have evidence or because you think it's impossible?
And they were like, well, I have no reason to believe it.
Sometimes these accidents happen.
But it's certainly possible.
And so I, again, there's no evidence to suggest this is the case, but is it possible that Trump ordered an airstrike and Iran said, blow up a reactor and blow up a refinery in Philadelphia?
Did.
Then they rushed to Trump and they said, they're holding our facilities hostage.
You need to call this off before we get decimated from a cyber attack.
One thing I can tell you is that Industrial control systems in the U.S.
are extremely vulnerable to cyber attacks because a lot of them were built in the 70s.
They use these archaic and ancient operating systems.
They're being updated, obviously, and security is a big issue.
But man, some of the people that I've talked to who work in the security areas of this stuff have just been like, it's like a few lines of basic code can blow up this facility.
ian crossland
Stuxnet.
This is from malicious computer.
You've heard of this stuff.
Malicious computer worm first uncovered in 2010 and thought to have been developed since at least 2005.
It targets supervisory control and data acquisition systems and is believed to be responsible for causing substantial damage to the nuclear program of Iran.
Now, if we did that to Iran, I'm not, I wouldn't be shocked if Iran did that back.
tim pool
And I think it was the US and Israel working together on the weapon.
And then what it did was it caused the nuclear centrifuges to not stop.
So then they eventually overheated and blew up.
ian crossland
There's just one that we've uncovered, Stuxnet.
tim pool
There's probably tons of those.
I think it was because someone found Stuxnet infecting home computers or something.
I could be wrong about that.
steven rene
Well, and so we got the information from the Israelis, the specifics, and that's why we knew exactly how the functioning inner workings were with the pumps and the different things that work the controlling mechanisms.
And so we went to the heart.
ian crossland
I see.
So we figured out how it worked, then we wrote code to disrupt how it worked.
steven rene
It was specifically written to do that one thing.
tim pool
It's crazy.
And so my understanding is that people, their regular computers got infected with Stuxnet, but it didn't matter because it has zero effect on your home computer.
It was just infecting everything until it found those specific, you know, controls, those machines.
ian crossland
For five years until it was all covered.
tim pool
And then it blew them up.
ian crossland
And that was like, wow.
Okay, so.
tim pool
And it's not the only one.
There's been a bunch of weapons that have been developed that have been, I think a couple, I can't remember the names.
steven rene
And that's years ago, right?
unidentified
Right.
tim pool
Yeah, it was like 10 years ago.
steven rene
So imagine, imagine what's there now, what's out there.
tim pool
I went to, there's conventions, there's two of them, DEFCON and Black Hat, the hacker conventions in Las Vegas.
This is 10 years ago, mind you.
But I saw these hackers explain very easily how to blow up pump stations.
They were like, you name it, oil, water, any kind of chemical.
And they did a demonstration where they showed the industrial control system.
They showed it operate.
And then the guy said, I'm not going to enter our code.
And then all of a sudden, they put a pressure release valve, but what they did was they told the system to force pressure in the same direction so the pressure collides and builds up in one spot and causes a pipe to explode.
They put a pressure release valve on it so that it sprays across the room and they catch it in a picture and water sprays everywhere.
They were like, imagine if we didn't have that release valve for the purpose of the demonstration, the pipe would over pressurize and blow up.
Another thing they showed us was that they said for nuclear reactor cooling systems, There's the computer needs to know the temperature of the water.
They said, only a few lines of code and we change the temperature to say it's colder than it is.
Overheats and explodes.
That's or melts down, you know, disrupts the system.
ian crossland
If we're wargaming this worst case scenario or bad case scenario, there's conflict.
Someone wants to invade the country and then they blow out the grid, the electric grid, with a virus.
I don't know, would it take up the entire grid?
Is there like a backup plan?
And I don't even know if you're the guy that knows the answers to this, Steve, but I'm asking you.
steven rene
Well, you know, it's broken down into segments, right?
So there's four basic hubs of where this work and how it would affect it.
All are not so intertwined that you could take it all at once.
But then you have the whole spectrum of an EMP, right?
If we ever get to that day, which would just completely fry multiples.
Because if you'd have to do it at airburst, you wouldn't want it to hit the ground because that wouldn't have the same effect.
But doing it as an airburst, then it would really be a problem.
ian crossland
I think solar flares can cause that too.
steven rene
Yeah, to a degree.
We haven't seen them, you know, the magnitude of them would have to be much more than what we normally see.
tim pool
So let's do this.
Let's start from the beginning of where we are with this war stuff.
unidentified
All right.
tim pool
The story from the Daily Mail.
Biden sanctions Putin's spy chief, his deputy chief of staff and multi-millionaire Russian military bank CEO.
President hits Kremlin inner circle and deploys more troops after slamming Russian leader for thinking he has a right to claim parts of Ukraine.
So I guess today Russia kind of upped the ante and said, you know, we're going to occupy the entirety of these regions, even the parts that are controlled by Ukraine, because they're saying they're independent states.
Biden, of course, comes out and responds.
Putin, I guess, what did he say that he was in a meeting and didn't bother watching what Biden had to say?
Didn't hear it.
This is the first domino.
Sanctions on specific people.
It has to escalate beyond this if we're going to see any of this crazy war stuff we've been talking about.
So I guess right now, if this is what we're seeing, you know, Russia is putting troops in Ukraine.
Do you see a strong possibility, Steve, of it escalating beyond just sanctions?
steven rene
Yes, because they've already been claiming that the Ukrainians were shelling the separatists, which there's no proof of that.
I don't know if you've seen the articles, but the separatists have been shelling into Ukraine.
That we know for sure.
We've seen the sides of kindergarten buildings with, you know, the hole in it.
So again, we have all the propaganda.
Gander going on from both sides, right?
But now you have actual Russian troops that you can say are being shelled.
And if actual Russian troops are killed and they blame it on the Ukrainians, now we've just tipped another domino.
ian crossland
It's amazing.
You can invade a country and then if you get shelled while you're invading, you blame it on the defenders.
steven rene
Right?
No, exactly.
ian crossland
That's crazy.
tim pool
And look, we have people in the chat who are saying things like, oh, but they're independent regions, they have a right to declare independence.
And so the question is, did these regions really declare independence?
steven rene
So here's where it gets a little bit sketchy.
And what I mean is, if you can understand what happened when the Soviet Union took over, they Russified all of the occupation countries that they were in.
And so you had generations and generations that, while they understood their heritage, they sort of felt Russian.
And it wasn't all that bad.
And then as the Soviet Union breaks down, and so they retreat back to the motherland, Russia proper, you get these generations who still have a kindred spirit.
With the Russians.
And so that's what you're finding along the eastern border there with Ukraine.
So the reason they're doing it this way, these are Russian-speaking people.
This is what they speak every day.
As you start getting closer and closer to Kiev, as you keep going more to the west, they stop speaking Russian and they start speaking Ukrainian.
tim pool
Right.
In Kiev, though, a lot of people speak both languages.
steven rene
Yeah, absolutely.
So, like, when I would go to visit Lithuania from Belarus, They so do not like the Russians that it's offensive to talk to them in Russian.
But if they didn't know English, I had to fall back on my Russian in order for us to communicate.
But they'd be like, I hate to do this, but they would speak Russian with me.
And so you get this.
But that's because they were ran over, right?
I mean, the people who are in a bad way now are the Baltic states, because Putin has just annexed Belarus.
I mean, there are articles about this, but nobody realized how important that is.
Troops are never leaving Belarus again.
tim pool
So Russian troops in Belarus?
steven rene
30,000.
That's how they're going to attack from the north, if it would ever happen.
And this is actually what puts Kiev in such a very serious, harmful way.
tim pool
You want to know what really trips out Americans, I find?
Kaliningrad.
Oh yeah.
steven rene
Isn't that unbelievable?
lydia smith
Cool.
tim pool
But now that gives you- Let me show you, let me show you.
Kaliningrad is south of Lithuania and north of Poland.
lydia smith
It's an enclave, right?
tim pool
Yeah, it's Russia.
It's a Russian enclave.
lydia smith
Piece of Russia.
tim pool
Right there in the Baltic Sea.
And so if you're looking, we got Moscow, we got Russia here, we got Belarus, we got Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania.
And then most people don't know this.
You show them a map and you ask them, hey, look at this.
Right?
When it's like, there's no word here.
It's just this little carve out.
What is that?
And the people are like, it's Russia.
Wait, what?
It's Russia.
Kaliningrad.
steven rene
And that's very militarized.
I mean, that's its only real purpose, right?
And now by staying in Belarus, you now give air cover to Kaliningrad.
tim pool
This is a fun little factoid, though, for Americans who don't know their European geography, because I don't expect Americans to, for the most part.
There is a piece of Russia in between the Baltic states.
unidentified
Yeah.
ian crossland
This is kind of what started World War II.
Hitler, part of Germany, was split off and given to Poland.
Was it the Sudetenland, I think?
Or was that Czechoslovakia, part of Czechoslovakia?
steven rene
I couldn't.
ian crossland
There's part of Germany was cut off and given and so he invaded to take it back.
Like if the Russians invaded Lithuania to connect this area to Russia, you would see like similar to what Hitler did.
tim pool
Well, if they're occupying Belarus, I mean, what is this?
Is Belarus very pro-Russia?
steven rene
No, no.
So here's the backstory to this.
Their president, Alexander Lukashenko, has been the thorn in the side of Putin for many, many years.
He used to play this game.
He would go and look towards the West, make him mad, but look for IMF money.
And then when he got what he wanted, he would go back to Putin.
And then he'd give them all kinds of hassle over that pipeline coming through Belarus, right?
And they get such a discount for the fact that that pipeline goes through there.
He literally called him the fly on a cutlet, which is like a piece of meat.
It's a meat patty in Russian.
And he's like, you're just a fly on a piece of meat.
But he was a thorn.
Well, his last election, he could not handle the protests after it was widespread corruption.
Everybody knew it.
They peacefully demonstrated like they'd never done before.
He couldn't squelch it.
He called in Russian security forces.
They helped him to put down that.
And his payment now is they're staying.
unidentified
Wow.
ian crossland
So it's an unofficial annexation.
steven rene
Exactly.
But they are going there is they're going to next month vote to no longer become neutral, which is huge.
They have signed a pact saying they would help the Russians fight the Ukrainians never done that before.
And everything is changing.
And now that puts pressure on the Baltics gives air cover for Kaliningrad.
And then that now gives you a really quick path down to Kiev.
tim pool
But are they?
I can't believe Russia's going to move into Kiev.
steven rene
Oh, no, no.
I honestly don't think so.
tim pool
I saw these reports where they're saying, you know, it's like the U.S.
intelligence agencies are telling journalists, like, we believe Russia will occupy Kiev and start hunting down Zelensky supporters.
He's the president of Ukraine.
I'm like, that's no way.
I don't want to have optimism bias or normalcy bias to say the war can't happen, but that's a bit extreme.
steven rene
No, honestly, yeah.
But of course, you've got to start playing the, if it does happen, we talked about it, right?
So you've got to look good in case it does.
So they're giving all this and interestingly enough, they're preemptively trying to say what he's going to do.
So it makes you put you in a better position.
tim pool
Yo, I feel so bad for Ukraine, man.
Oh, I know.
When the Euromaidan protests broke out, I got sent there.
I went to go report there.
I was working for Vice at the time.
I met a lot of really cool people.
A friend of mine's from Kiev.
And good food, awesome architecture, good people.
I really enjoyed my time there.
And then you see how the history of this country is just being brutalized throughout the Soviet Union, the Holodomor.
And you mentioned the Russification of the East.
It's like, well, yeah, they starved out the Ukrainians.
and stole their food and the breadbasket of Europe.
Yeah, I mean, some of the most fertile farmland.
steven rene
Absolutely.
I think it's crying shame.
I mean, I would imagine if he goes past this, he needs a land bridge to Crimea.
That really helps you.
So if it's going to no matter how he what he's looking to do.
I've heard a different analysis from different experts.
And I agree, I don't remember who it was, but basically taking one third of Ukraine would probably be the smartest thing to do and wouldn't trip it into a full third world war.
You get the Russian speaking, you get your land bridge down to Crimea, and then you're all set for whatever you want to do next.
tim pool
But do you think he'll go as far as Kharkiv?
steven rene
I really don't think so.
But honestly, you can't.
Not a very easy person to predict, other than we've seen the pattern over and over again, right?
Of taking some slowly, and then backing off.
So that when you get to the negotiations, this has to stop.
And we know from the leaked emails through the State Department, they're already willing to tell them, we won't put certain military units in certain areas.
He's already got them on the defensive, right?
So it's working.
ian crossland
I feel like he actually is easy to predict, Putin.
He seems like a stable military leader with Secret Service.
He's not going to take too much too fast.
He knows that he doesn't want to be seen as a warmonger.
I don't think that Putin is going to be the guy that gets us into any kind of world conflict.
It would be a response to that, if anything.
He's too smart.
He doesn't want to destroy stuff.
steven rene
It would take a miscalculation.
I would agree with you with that assessment.
It would take a miscalculation.
Yeah.
And that's really what the fear is here.
ian crossland
A miscalculation.
I love Putin's part.
unidentified
Unfortunately smart and in control of his faculties.
steven rene
A stray missile.
tim pool
I'll tell you what freaks me out with this Ukraine story with Russia.
Ian just mentioned the Sudetenland.
Hitler kept going saying, look, these areas were historically German or the people there are being oppressed and they're German people, so we're going to move in.
And what we got from the UK or from Europe, Neville Chamberlain famously, was appeasement over and over and over again as this psychopath was not only killing tons of people or was planning to, uh... was
convading other countries and then trying to just basically take over
outs out are you asking for the world or you know claim as much land as possible
will it would let me put his done with with uh... cramia and now we're looking at what he's doing with uh... the down
past region if he really does go for a third of the country he's got a
move in further It's not just going to be the Donbass region, it's a small portion, right?
steven rene
No, right.
So you'd go south and you'd go north.
tim pool
He'd cut down.
steven rene
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You want to connect those borders.
So you want to meet up with Belarus there because now you've already annexed it to one degree and then you want to go down and make the connection to Crimea.
tim pool
I mean, that looks like more like half the country.
If he goes from Belarus all the way down to Crimea.
unidentified
No, I'm not.
steven rene
I'm just saying where you have that land bridge.
So you just, you want to have the ability then to move supplies.
It's about supply lines.
tim pool
Right.
steven rene
Right.
tim pool
And so you've... Are we, is Joe Biden, or Neville Chamberlain, is he going to sit back and be like, oh, you know, look, we're going to... What did he say in that speech?
He was like, you know, it depends on if it's a minor incursion, right?
steven rene
Yeah, that seemed like a gaffe.
I don't think that was what he was on the list for him to say.
It's possible it could have been a signal that, you know, this much would be acceptable, right?
tim pool
I think it was a gaffe, but I think he said the quiet part loud.
I think Joe Biden and, you know, the State Department, they said, we can tolerate a minor incursion.
We can't do more than that.
And Biden blurted it out on national TV and Putin went, really?
Right.
unidentified
OK.
steven rene
Because it doesn't change things to too much of a degree because those areas were already occupied.
Right.
They say they don't have Russian troops there, but they have Russian mercenaries, which are just guys straight out of the military going there.
I mean, special forces all in there.
You know, you just don't wear the uniform, right?
Just like they did in Crimea.
Well, it does change things because from what we're talking about, this is literally an invasion because you're breaking away international laws, precedences, and going across sovereign border.
But he already built the case that that's not true.
They asked for independence.
We recognize it.
tim pool
But what's the point?
It's kind of silly that Putin is like, well, they're independent states and they've asked for help.
It's like, who believes you?
The people who already side with you?
steven rene
His people.
ian crossland
Yeah, the Russians believe him.
tim pool
A bunch of them do.
Is that really the issue, though?
He's trying to generate popular support within Russia?
steven rene
No, but you've got to be able to say your boldface lie with a straight face.
unidentified
Yeah.
steven rene
Right?
So you have to have some argument.
tim pool
That's true, I guess if he didn't have that, he'd be telling the people of his own country, we are just trampling over other countries.
steven rene
Yeah, but more importantly, the UN Security Council.
That's where you gotta be able to do it.
tim pool
But do they really believe it?
steven rene
No, but it doesn't matter.
Because he can, and in a way it is justified.
So thinking back to, the one thing he really can truly say is, That NATO is really encroaching on his border, right?
And I mean, he can say that.
There's truth in that.
Now, if you put yourself in Russian shoes, you don't want NATO as any closer to you than possibly they can, right?
And so, granted that, but to go about it in this way, I mean, obviously is The only way he feels he can't accomplish the buffer that he's looking for, and he's looking for a buffer.
tim pool
You think it's really that?
I mean, with Crimea, it's because they have a military base there.
Isn't that what the reason was?
steven rene
Well, yeah.
tim pool
Well, they just... Naval base.
unidentified
Right.
steven rene
So now they have all of what they didn't have as far as naval infrastructure.
And so, and of course, listen, all you have to do is pull up A map of the pipelines leaving Russia, and it makes complete sense of everything that's going on as well.
I mean, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.
ian crossland
Ukraine?
The pipelines running through Ukraine?
steven rene
Oh yeah, one of the biggest.
So you have another one going through Belarus.
And like I told you, Alexander Lukashenko was such a big thorn.
Now that thorn's gone.
And at the end of the day, this is the only way he truly can stay equal with NATO.
It's through the resources that they're all dependent on.
So he has a plan for the Nordstrom deal or else he wouldn't be doing this either.
ian crossland
So Crimea is basically a way to get oil out of Russia.
steven rene
Yeah, well it gives you the ports, but it also gave you now a southern route of attack.
ian crossland
Yeah.
And it's a phenomenal position for a world war.
Crimea and the Baltic, is that the Baltic Sea?
steven rene
The Black Sea.
ian crossland
Oh my gosh, what an amazing position.
tim pool
But that's their only warm water port, right?
ian crossland
Right, yeah.
tim pool
So they, when, with NATO moving in on Ukraine, and this is one of the big issues pertaining to the Euromaidan movement, Yanukovych being ousted.
Oh yeah.
Ukraine trying to join NATO or align with the European Union, whatever it was, Russia's
thinking we'll lose Crimea and we need that access.
So they said we're going to take it now or forever hold our peace.
So then a referendum was held in Crimea and they all voted to join Russia.
Oh yeah.
There you go.
steven rene
Is that simple?
I mean, and that's the thing.
So if Zelensky wasn't there, we wouldn't be going through this because he is clearly pro-West.
He is looking to get into NATO.
NATO's not really that interested because they understand the consequences.
And being realistic, they understand he does need a buffer.
I mean, both sides understand that.
But if, like the former president there in Ukraine, if he would have been Russian-leaning, we wouldn't be looking at him.
tim pool
But wasn't Yanukovych Russian-leaning?
steven rene
Yes.
tim pool
And then he fled to Russia after he got ousted.
So what people got to understand is when we have these conversations, it's always from an American perspective.
The Russian perspective is more that the U.S.
is orchestrating an ousting of Yanukovych to put in pro-Western leaders.
They do the same thing with Syria.
I'd say it's probably half true.
You gotta cut through the propaganda and then figure out what's really going on.
And the view of a lot of these people is that the protests in Ukraine were supported by the West to try and get rid of a guy who was more favorable towards Russia, or at the very least was kind of playing that game where he was like, what are you gonna give me?
What are you gonna give me, you know?
steven rene
Oh, absolutely.
We do it all over the world.
We've been doing it forever.
I mean, every side does this.
tim pool
It is kind of funny, though, that now Russia is playing this game and America, you know, Joe Biden's like, how dare you?
And Putin's probably going like, bro, he's like, you've been playing this game well longer than I have.
You know, now I do it, you get mad about it?
Well, yeah, we do.
I guess.
So it's tough.
You know, what moral pedestal does the United States have to stand on when Russia's playing the same game other than, we are powerful and we can tell you not to do it?
steven rene
No, it's very difficult.
And again, honestly, I'm no fan of this current administration, right?
I mean, as an organization, we're apolitical because we deal with threats.
We don't deal with who's causing the threat, right?
There has to be a realization of that.
But if you're looking to analyze this thing, you can't take the past actions and allow it To warp you to not see something for what it is.
So I agree the whole thing about the border, but it really doesn't have anything to do with the truth of why we shouldn't not, uh, not be in NATO, and why there isn't a reason for us to at least be making sure that this doesn't spread.
tim pool
I think you made a great point, though.
The southern border policy Is to be weak.
steven rene
That is it.
It's by design.
tim pool
So when people are coming out and they're being like, why aren't we defending our own borders?
It's like, well, that's the opposite of what they want.
steven rene
Right.
They absolutely don't want it, right?
That's a proven fact now.
tim pool
Yeah.
Well, that just says to me that I think, you know, Ian's talking about this global, what do you call it?
ian crossland
Liberal economic order?
tim pool
Liberal economic order.
I guess some people call it the Davos Group or the Great Reset of the World Economic Forum.
ian crossland
1946 is when they formed the liberal economic order, right after World War II.
tim pool
When you have an administration that tells Canada, you know, the Biden administration, hey, use emergency powers, crack down to an extreme degree, and they do, when you have an administration that says our policy is for the southern U.S.
border to be just Completely open.
And then we're going to go defend and worry about Russia and Ukraine.
Yeah.
It just sends a hard signal.
I understand why we care.
You know, we don't want this thing spiraling out of control.
But it certainly just seems like Biden's priority is not America.
steven rene
All right.
So it's frustrating.
tim pool
Right.
steven rene
But I guess, you know, I guess I would just say don't become so jaded that you don't, you simply because you don't like what's going on in the border, you don't realize the importance of Ukraine.
That's all I'm saying.
Keep it, keep, keep one separate from the other because they are two separate things.
And while one may really frustrate you and don't underestimate the importance of what's going on.
tim pool
I wonder though, just one last thought on all of this.
What's the probability you think this could spiral into a greater conflict beyond just this region?
steven rene
The possibility definitely exists.
I don't think that would be the plan in the immediate, um, but I don't think it's ever the plan, right?
Well, the plan is, you know, and has been take Crimea, subjugate Belarus, get portions of Ukraine.
He's clearly had this plan, been working on it for a little while.
It's all coming to fruition because there is no, uh, There is really nothing we can do but to try to keep it from spiraling, right?
If he wants it, he can take it.
No one's saying otherwise.
The Ukrainian forces cannot stop the initial assault.
Now, they can become partisans and turn this into a guerrilla-type warfare, true, and that's more probably what he doesn't want than anything.
He wants to topple this government, though.
He wants Zelensky out.
And he'll do that by any means, and the fact is, has he calculated right or hasn't he?
tim pool
I'll say, you know, I see two potentials.
When we look back at what Germany did, as again to reference what Ian said, the Sudetenlands, and the appeasement.
That was only, the war that broke out was one potential of what could have happened.
And we look back on history and we say, look at what Germany did, it led to war, therefore these things lead to war.
It's not necessarily true.
That time it did.
In this instance, we could sit back and just appease and try and placate, come out and say, peace in our time, whatever nonsense, and maybe Vladimir Putin will take the Donbass region and just stop.
There's no guarantee that actually turns into World War III.
But I will add, it is a variable that could lead to that point.
It is a moment in time that could lead to a very similar circumstance.
It's hard to know if it will, though.
And what do you do?
Do we, as Americans, say, we can't allow Russia to... They've used this strategy over and over again.
I guess they used it in what, with Georgia?
They played this game.
They're doing it with Crimea.
If we sit back and it's five, ten years later and now a third of Ukraine is under Russian control as a satellite state, do we just let that keep happening until the Baltic states, you know, are now just under the boot of Russia?
Do we intervene?
What happens if we don't?
What happens if Lithuania, Belarus, or any of these other countries, Poland, loses their mind?
Saying like, we are not going to allow that because they certainly don't like what the Soviet Union was all about.
What happens if that just breaks out into a war in Europe?
We stay out of it, saying we don't want to be involved.
China moves on Taiwan.
Now there's fighting in the Pacific.
There's fighting in Eastern Europe.
The U.S.
begins doing weapons deals with European countries.
And then China says, you are funding our enemies, and then bombs Pearl Harbor.
steven rene
Oh, yeah, we could talk for a long time on how far that could basically be the same play out.
Oh, absolutely.
You know what they would say?
tim pool
We talk about how between World War I and World War II, it was one war with a 20-year armistice or something like that that was just reignited from the same grievances.
You could argue that this is a remnant of the same, of the end of World War II.
ian crossland
The difference would be China wouldn't bomb Pearl Harbor, although they might.
They would bomb San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Fort Worth.
They would bomb Kansas City.
They'd bomb Seattle.
All at once.
It would all happen in a day, in an hour.
So that is why, what we don't want.
tim pool
I use bombing of Pearl Harbor, not in a literal sense, but to make a point about the similarities between World War II and what we're seeing here.
I'm not so sure China... How many nukes do they have?
Like 50?
They don't have that many, do they?
steven rene
No, they got plenty.
tim pool
Plenty?
Plenty enough.
You only need one, right?
steven rene
Well, right.
ian crossland
And nuclear submarines off the west coast.
steven rene
There's the most dangerous part, right?
Russia's got more than they could possibly use.
Same thing with us.
You know, I was in nukes for five years.
We had 12 Russia... I was stationed in Germany.
We had 12 nuclear missiles pointed at Russia 24-7.
unidentified
Wow.
ian crossland
12 that you knew of.
steven rene
Yeah, that.
So what we did was we rotated, we rotated one battalion does it for 30 days because it's around the clock.
We're in the shower and the alarm goes off, you have 30 seconds to make it to the gate and get those missiles launched because our life expectancy was 30 seconds.
tim pool
What, what, Ron, what year was this?
steven rene
So that would have been 89.
These were Pershing 2 missiles.
So they were short range, could hit their, they come within 10 meters of their target.
And you're talking about a nuke.
You don't have to come that close, right?
But, but it was low yield.
tim pool
They'll blow up in the air.
steven rene
No, these were made to hit targets.
tim pool
Interesting.
steven rene
Yeah.
And so now we saw two treaty, we did away with them.
And that was for to everybody to back down, right?
Because we're getting towards the end of the Cold War.
Let's not have so many of these just sitting there active, ready to go.
And so those were done away with.
That's when I so my basically my MOS was no longer and that's when I switched to the military intelligence.
tim pool
Was it was it under Trump to start treaty basically fell apart?
steven rene
Yeah, denuclearization started to Well, and it's because everybody else never follows it, right?
I mean, Russia breaks it all the time.
Iran's broken it all the time.
That's what gets so frustrating.
Although, you have to sit down at the table.
You have to do it.
But it never really solves.
tim pool
I think weapons... Look, with the Manhattan Project, you had this decentralization, compartmentalization.
People didn't know what was being done.
Until after a bunch of bombs fell, and all of a sudden everyone figured out what America had done.
And the decades after that, the nuclear weapons we have today are about 1,000 to 1,250 times
more powerful than the bombs we used in World War II.
unidentified
Yeah.
Isn't that something?
tim pool
Yeah.
One ICBM, a MIRV, a multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle
carrying 10 to 12 warheads, peppers the Eastern seaboard.
You don't need 15 nukes.
steven rene
No, you don't.
tim pool
You need 10 warheads in one ICBM.
And then it goes up into the stratosphere and this goes,
and they all just go, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop,
wipe out cities.
I mean, these things are massively powerful.
Not to mention the latest developments.
And this is, I think this was actually like seven years ago, I was researching this in gravity bomb technology,
which is the bombs we used in World War II were gravity bombs.
We drop them from planes.
We don't launch them or anything.
We've compressed those down really, really small megaton bombs.
So they're very small and comparably as powerful.
The weapons that we know about, scary.
steven rene
I mean, think about nuclear artillery.
Oh, yeah.
ian crossland
I haven't looked into it, but what are the actual artillery pieces that can launch nukes?
unidentified
Load a warhead in a howitzer?
steven rene
There's different versions of what can do what, but just the idea that these types of capabilities exist is why we don't use them, okay?
Because in the end, Nobody wants to really blow up the planet, right?
So it's been, it has worked in deterring.
It's not going to stop everything, but it has worked in deterring.
ian crossland
I guess it's partly makes me think like, why if China invades Taiwan, no one is going to try and stop it.
If Russia takes Crimea or Belarus, no one's going to stop it.
If America takes Mexico, no one's going to stop it because no one wants, well, these conquering empires to fire their nukes.
steven rene
Taiwan is very sensitive because they make 63% of all the chips that we are already short of.
63% if I'm accurate.
That's huge.
ian crossland
Is it the kind of thing where it's better that no one has it than China has it?
steven rene
If they dominate that market, right?
So you see the pictures of, I saw one this week where Ford Broncos are piling up in the parking lot again because the shortage of chips.
And that's because we don't produce them here, which we're trying to rectify, right?
There's a lot of things we're trying to rectify because we've seen our weakness through COVID and how much control China has over these things.
Add in Taiwan to that.
And it just, it would cripple technology.
tim pool
Yeah.
steven rene
So yeah, it's very important.
We would do something about it.
ian crossland
But is it the kind of thing where we would like scorched earth the place and be like, Hey, you can't take this from us.
You can have, you can have nothing and none of us get it.
steven rene
Well, no, we would, I would imagine we would literally actively try to stop them.
Right.
And that's going to have to do with all naval power because you know, we, that's where you, you send the seven fleets, right?
If, Because that's where we're gonna have to start, because China has slowly been building those islands to claim that entire region, but also to give them a place to launch something militarily.
ian crossland
Building islands is a smart move.
steven rene
Very smart.
And so that means, you know, the Marines would have a tough job, but that's what they'd have to clear.
ian crossland
They'd surround Taiwan and blockade the island, I would imagine, the Chinese, so you think there'd be like sea battles?
steven rene
No, there'd be an air foot right in the air, on the sea, because we don't have troops on the ground.
ian crossland
Yeah, if China and the United States ever fight each other, that's like the beginning of total war, I think.
Limited war is when, like, the Taiwanese forces are fighting the Belarusian forces, and they're both funded by one side or the other.
steven rene
The Americans are funding the Taiwanese, and the Chinese are funding... Yeah, so fortunately, right, for us, there's a great distance between us and China, us and Russia other than Alaska, right?
Because all you have there is the Bering Sea.
But, I mean, that's what's kept the peace.
Right?
And that's been our beauty.
We've had Canada and we've had Mexico.
There's no threat there, right?
Militarily.
We have a sweet spot right here.
So it's not easy to get to us.
Therefore, we have to project power.
That's why we make our Navy what it is.
And that helps us to control the situation until you can actually then get the rest of what's needed, boots on the ground, the supplies that go into all that.
And again, that's why not being a part of NATO would not be smart.
tim pool
I want to make another point too, especially as we're talking about nuclear weapons.
America is, the United States, great geography in terms of war, just because we've got both coasts, we've got the interstate highway system, which is designed for this, we've got the mountains, seriously.
And then I was thinking about, you know, but what if, you know, we're talking about nuclear weapons, you know, Ian, you were mentioning China, we just wipe out all these cities.
I tell you this, even if the U.S.
got nuked to kingdom come by, you know, dozens of warheads, they would still not be able, no one would be able to conquer this country for one reason.
The sheer amount of guns that exist here, even after we've been nuked, ain't coming in.
And I'm thinking about that video game Fallout, which I love, Fallout 3.
And I'm imagining like, in this game, in the Fallout series, you're finding guns and bullets everywhere.
And I'm like, actually, it makes sense.
But what if the game took place in China or in Australia, but you'd find none?
So thinking about that, If nuclear war really broke out, you know, there's a quote from Einstein, I know not what World War 3 will be fought with, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.
And I'm like, I don't know, I think World War 4 would just be the United States armed to the teeth with all of the insane amount of guns they have, and then they would just conquer everybody.
ian crossland
It's the disease that I'm concerned, like the Native Americans, 95% of them were wiped out by smallpox when the settlers came over, numbers I've heard.
I could see like nuclear war and then just disease kills all these people with their guns that just starve and run out of water and then get sick and die and then someone comes in to clean it up.
steven rene
So we're strong enough now, right?
But we used to live in the United States of America.
We now live in the divided states of America.
And herein will be our Achilles heel.
Because politically and culturally, there does not seem to be a path back to normalcy where we could get five individuals, six into this room and speak like rational adults, right?
The conversation is no longer happening.
And I don't know how we turn that corner.
Because we've just seen it with Canada.
We never would have guessed, right, that it would have gone to that extreme.
And the problem is, now this is happening at the level of our children because of the foolishness in schools.
And listen, I sort of understand the argument, but let me make one thing personally clear No one on the face of the planet is going to make me feel guilty for being born.
ian crossland
Right.
steven rene
I did not choose where, when, and to whom.
I had nothing to say in that matter.
chris karr
But people on the other side of this, politically and culturally, are not going to understand that language that you're speaking.
You know, the languages are so different, and so you juxtapose at this point, like you really can't communicate.
That's why that's part of the divide.
unidentified
No!
steven rene
And I get that, believe me.
So, I'm not going to go out and try to do no harm to anybody else, but... No one will make me feel guilty for being me.
tim pool
But what happens when they show up to your neighborhood with guns?
What happens when they're marching through your streets, armed, telling you, you can't drive your car through here anymore, and they point rifles at you?
So this is the problem, this is what we're seeing up in Portland.
And it just culminated in a very serious incident over the weekend, where a guy is critically injured, four others, I think, three other, so there's a total of five people were shot, one died.
The guy in conflict with Antifa was critically injured, and three other Antifa were seriously injured, put in the hospital.
I believe they were arrested in the ER.
You know, we had, I know I've been mentioning it quite a bit in the past few episodes, but I think it's important.
We had Stephen Marsh, he wrote this book, we have it up there on the wall, The Next Civil War.
He said this country is a multicultural democracy and a constitutional republic inside at the same time, and they can't coexist.
He said, you know, you mentioned just now, how do we turn that corner?
He said, something to the effect of, when will you realize in this country what's happening?
My view is, you know, what I told him was, as a Canadian, you love your socialized healthcare, okay, you give that up, you abolish that, we go private, we have peace.
And he said, point taken.
Based on what you were saying about people making you feel guilty for being born, if someone comes up to me, these Democrats out of California, they wanted to repeal the civil rights language from their constitution.
The language that says you cannot discriminate on the basis of race, gender, identity, et cetera.
They said, we want that gone, we want that right.
unidentified
I say no, no compromise.
tim pool
So how do we don't?
So anyway, to kind of bring this back to where we were with war and nuclear weapons and all that stuff, I think our Achilles heel is exactly the right point.
When Jesse Kelly today, he's a funny guy.
He tweeted that, I mean it seriously, but he made a good point.
He said we need a national divorce.
Because, um, Democrat voters are polled showing they support what Trudeau was doing with his authoritarianism.
And the scary thing is I don't think he's wrong, but I think if he's right and we do have a national divorce, Russia walks all over Eastern Europe, takes what it wants.
China takes Taiwan.
They both expand exponentially.
And that's it.
We now, as Americans, live under heavy trade restrictions and under the boot of these, mostly China.
It wouldn't be the United States necessarily, because who knows what would happen to this country, but it's not just going to be fighting here.
It's going to be us being subjugated by oppressive forces from China, from the Communist Party, from their allies, from Russia, when it comes to trade especially.
steven rene
No, without a doubt.
And again, that's why our strength, right?
We've lost our strength by not being the United States of America.
I mean, that's why Fortitude Ranch exists.
This is why we're trying to have 12 ranches across the country so that hopefully you wouldn't have to drive any more than one gas tank.
tim pool
But you've played Fallout.
steven rene
Oh yeah.
tim pool
The video game.
How amazing would it be that if in the real world they weren't vaults, they were Fortitude ranches?
unidentified
There you go.
tim pool
And there's 500 of them or whatever.
You guys become this major conglomerate corporation.
Everybody lines up.
You do these spiffy 50s style TV ads for come sign up for Fortitude.
You know, you got to go somewhere when the bombs drop, right?
unidentified
Yeah.
tim pool
Come on down.
steven rene
As funny as that is, that'd be great on that game you're working on, right?
Working Fortitude tokens instead of Caps.
tim pool
Bottle caps.
steven rene
Yeah, instead of bottle caps, right?
tim pool
But you guys should have a bunch of bottle caps.
That'd be funny.
Yeah, that really would be funny.
Just as a bit.
unidentified
I know.
tim pool
When people show up to sign up for the ranch, be like, here's what we use to trade.
See how many of them get the reference.
unidentified
Oh, I know.
tim pool
I wonder if they would.
I mean, considering they're familiar with, you know, survival camps or fortitude, they might understand the joke.
steven rene
Yeah, and you know, our membership has changed over the years.
It used to be more along the hardcore prepper type.
But once COVID hit, things started to change.
But once civil unrest hit, that changed everything.
tim pool
People, man, they take everything for granted.
steven rene
Absolutely.
tim pool
The normalcy bias is what really, really gets me.
The optimism bias and the normalcy bias.
Optimism, meaning that people think bad things won't happen, and normalcy, they think things can't change.
But boy can they change, and they can change fast.
I mean, that's why I point out the first civil war in the United States, nobody thought it was going to happen.
ian crossland
Because everybody just thinks... World War I too, that just happened so fast all of a sudden.
One day the world was at peace, the next day, a guy got assassinated.
steven rene
And we try to be rational about it, right?
Last time I was on, it was about a year ago, you asked me what you thought the percentage was of, you know, seeing some real violence as we turned the corner of the election.
I said 5%, and you were kind of surprised.
That I would say 5% but as you saw see the things weren't in place was because I thought it would be higher or lower higher I thought it'd be higher.
Yeah, and the Especially right because I'm the fortitude ranch guy.
So it would seem like you've got an economic incentive to tell everybody Right, so we don't play the fear game I mean that's not what That's what it's about, right?
And again, so we, as an organization, we stay apolitical so that we could really try to have the right data.
We never activated for COVID.
We did activate, and that's how you actually invited me to the show for the election.
And that was to give the opportunity for all the new members, basically, to come bring their supplies and get to know them, right?
It was basically a, let's sit and watch the elections kind of get together.
We really weren't Thinking that it was going to be and that's another reason why you thought it would probably be higher because we activated for the first time in Existence, but I also add I think you guys got to activate this November.
Oh, well, see now.
Here's the thing, right?
We haven't even gotten into that So there's no path.
It seems like going forward and now things are gonna get lunar You thought Trump 0.1 was something?
Wait for Trump 0.2.
tim pool
Let me pull up this story which can kick off this bigger conversation on the conflict in the U.S.
because this is actually kind of weird.
It's tragic, it's creepy, it's weird.
We have this from OPB.
Alleged killer in Portland's Normandale Park protest shooting has been identified.
They're saying it's a man named Benjamin Jeffrey Smith.
He's been identified as a local furry.
That Antifa claims is a Nazi because furries have a known Nazi problem.
It's very, very strange that this is the story that's coming out.
But just in reference to this, this story, they flat out say Smith's identity was first reported by anti-fascist researchers and the Oregonian Oregon Live News outlet.
The information we're getting about the shooting is coming from extremists.
How can you trust it?
Of course, they're taking quotes from me, and they're screaming that I'm lying and all this stuff, and Andy Ngo is lying.
I don't care what these Twitter Antifa people think, because I think they're psychotic, despotic, fascist extremists.
When they say that about me, I know they're lying.
Because I know they don't really believe that.
We do a show, like, if you look at all the online forums, they refer to me as, like, a libertarian centrist.
You know, I flat out say, leave me alone.
I want to have nothing to do.
Get away from the cities.
There's no way these people who are in Portland, who are going around with guns, pointing at people, threatening people, smashing property, genuinely believe the people running away are the fascists.
There's no way.
They know they're lying.
So I don't care what they think.
But this is the nature of the escalation we've seen.
So we had you on just before the election in 2020 because Fortitude Ranch activated.
And there was a bunch of stories coming out saying like, you know, survival camp activates, warns their members or whatever.
There's a potential for violence.
You said it was around 5%.
When I talk to people, they have such a normalcy or optimism bias.
It can't happen here.
I don't know how, you know, to explain to the people who don't want to believe it.
Maybe there are people who just don't want to hear it.
It's not about, they don't believe it.
They do believe it, but they're just like, please no, please no, go away.
If I close my eyes and shut, you know, cover my ears, close my eyes, it'll just stop.
It'll stop, you know?
But it's coming.
And I think people need to pay attention to this because we're at the point now where there's a group of Antifa marching through the street, armed, telling people where they can and can't drive.
In the past, not even that long ago, A guy was in his truck and they threatened him and he pulled a gun, so they pulled him out of his truck and they beat him.
We've seen Aaron Danielson in Portland.
He was shot twice in the chest and killed.
Then Bill Barr's DOJ hunted down this guy, Michael Reinold, and they say he got into a shit-out with him.
They killed him.
These Antifa people view that as Trump's administration, the MAGA right, the populists engaging in retribution.
To me it does sound a lot like retribution.
It doesn't matter though.
It doesn't matter which side you're on.
It doesn't matter if you think you're right.
It's just at a certain point you need to wake up to realize this stuff is happening.
It's happening with increasing frequency.
And, you know, so to escalate this to where we're going now, the elections are coming up midterms.
The Democrats lose power in the House and in the Senate, then Republicans are going to go off the wall.
I don't believe most Republicans will go off the wall.
I believe the Trump, MAGA, America First types are going to be like revenge and retribution.
And if people go out and vote in the primaries and get in real politicians, not establishment crony, bad idea or no idea Republicans, I guess, rhinos, If actual new incumbents come in, I'm sorry, new candidates push out the incumbents, we might actually see some real action from the Republican Party.
But then you're going to see Antifa losing their minds.
Then you're going to be getting into 2023, which is presidential primary season, with Donald Trump coming out saying, we will win.
Antifa's gonna go crazy, and then you have 2024, an election year, and then Donald Trump wins.
So then what happens?
Trump 2.0.
steven rene
Madness.
So what I'm wondering is, is what level can you take it to next?
Because it was already an existential threat, right?
ian crossland
Aliens.
steven rene
So where else do you go?
unidentified
And I mentioned this before we started going on air, right?
steven rene
Maybe that's when we see the aliens come in and calm all this down.
Because I Honestly, I don't know where you can go other than more of the, I mean, I'm speaking verbiage, right?
Because the way they explained it last time, and interesting enough, Putin even used that word as he explained what was going on, trying existential threat.
tim pool
Existential threat.
steven rene
Yes.
And he used that word.
It's interesting how it always gets picked up and passed around and used in so many circumstances.
It becomes the phrase of the day.
So I just don't know how much more nuttier or how the language can get any more over the top than... They'll find a way, right?
Because They truly believe that it's the worst possible thing that can happen.
I remember, you know, back when he was elected and the girlfriend that I was with at the time and she lost her mind.
I said, listen, You know how many presidents, administrations I've lived through so far in my lifetime?
They come and they go.
They come and they go.
And the world doesn't end.
It's everybody who doesn't come and go in Washington that we're really going to try to do something about.
ian crossland
Yeah, the administrative state, man.
They need term limits.
steven rene
Yes.
And then every...
People, you know, I get it, it's so important to you if you haven't lived through a bunch of these, but when I was in school I was literally taught the next thing coming our way was an ice age.
lydia smith
Yeah.
steven rene
That's what I was taught as a kid.
I believed it.
I thought the next great thing to happen to mankind was a nice age.
unidentified
And I've lived through all the others about this.
tim pool
There's a great video, I don't know if I can pull it up, but I think it's Carl Sagan talking about the global cooling.
And he's like, scientists believe a great ice age could be coming.
And it was like from the 70s, you know, and then science changes, right?
So, you know, people panic for a lot of different reasons.
I think the issue we're facing now is there was a point at which American society hard forked, split into two distinct entities.
For a while they were close enough together where it was an argument saying like, what are you doing over there?
We're talking over here.
Now it's so far divided.
It's just, I think I figured out where you're yelling across the chasm.
ian crossland
I was thinking about a lot about this.
There's, there's multiple ways to think and to problem solve and to come to conclusions.
One of them is the scientific way to do it, which is you acquire evidence over time.
And that once you get enough evidence, you can confidently say, this is what I believe is happening.
Then there's warfare, where you have no information about what the hell is happening.
You know that there's artillery firing from over there and there's a machine gun nest.
Now you have to make a decision.
And people are in the war mind state.
They're afraid, they're terrified, probably by design.
So they're making these split second decisions without information and acting like these are like solid scientific ways to look at things and they're not.
tim pool
You're, you're half, I think you're half right.
I think they're lacking information.
I think they're in a war mind, but I think it's by choice.
We have the story from Axios, Democrats tune out national news during Biden era.
Look at this, Democrats just spike straight down.
This is exactly the problem I've talked about with, you know, the Obama activists, the, I'm sorry, the anti-war activists voting for Obama.
The moment their guy gets in, they turn off.
So now what's happening is Democrats are no longer paying attention to news.
They're now below Republicans, but they're still acting on politics.
They're still engaging in conflicts.
They're still pushing and they're still active.
They're just willfully ignorant now.
ian crossland
I think what, like what you said, man, people feel like this, this is gonna, there's too much emphasis being placed on the political candidate.
It's to be afraid or to have total faith that your candidate's going to solve, save the situation is ridiculous.
We found that out with Obama turning his back on people.
And to think that this candidate's going to destroy the world is also ridiculous.
The system's built around, I mean, I understand an executive can be kind of crazy and can do stupid stuff, but we have plenty of safeguards.
steven rene
No, exactly, and so we're definitely going to see, right, so if everything seems to play out the way it looks because of the overreach and some of the ridiculousness of how COVID has been handled, you probably see, you know, the Democrats getting a good shellacking in the midterms.
Right now the backpedaling is starting.
They understand they're losing the independence.
People are really getting sick and tired of this.
So this is going to unravel to a certain degree.
Then, like Tim said, so that just brings about BLM and Antifa now being in the streets more than what we've seen them over this past time.
It intensifies and intensifies.
And then, who knows, it should come to some kind of crescendo for, you know, 2024 and the presidential elections.
tim pool
Well, you're familiar with Strauss' Generational Theory.
steven rene
Right.
tim pool
Yeah.
So, by 2028 should be the end of the fourth turning.
So don't be surprised if I believe we're in it for around what 20 years or so is when it starts kicking into high gear and surprise surprise that's 2008.
The start of this economic crisis which escalates dramatically causes, look I think the economic crisis really is a big precursor to everything we're seeing.
You get a young generation who can't find jobs.
People my age getting out of college all of a sudden Unable to work as dishwashers.
Something I experienced.
I remember I went to a small, tiny, hole-in-the-wall diner, and there was a guy in a suit applying to be a dishwasher for 10 bucks an hour.
And I'm like some scraggly dude in a beanie, like, yeah, I was just looking for some side cash, man.
This guy needs it more than I do.
You get these young people who then say, why is my life so bad?
And they blame the 1%.
This drives them into this quest for meaning.
Unable to do work.
Unable to pursue their passions.
That escalates over 10 years with them getting into activism, turning news into activism, putting politics in every corner of every aspect of our lives.
And now we're at this point today.
So eight years after the crisis, you get Donald Trump, Donald Trump being a symptom.
People are saying, we're tired of this.
We want something to change.
The other side believing Trump was a fascist and literally Hitler going insane.
All of that has continued to escalate.
I think Occupy Wall Street.
You get the financial crisis, which leads us to Occupy Wall Street, which brings this critical race theory activism into the fray with all the activists in New York, who then engage in violent tactics, black bloc tactics.
It escalates.
I suppose you could even go back further than that and figure out where all this stuff started, when they, you know, was it Glass-Steagall gets repealed or whatever, and then how this all begins.
But I think the big spark, like something broke, 2008.
Then what?
unidentified
2020.
tim pool
The end of this period of strife.
A hard time, which is economic crisis, which is political crisis, which is street violence.
The night is always darkest before the dawn.
But 2024, I think is going to be bad.
I think this year is going to get bad.
Already the activism is getting nuts.
This story is crazy.
I think 2023 is going to get bad.
I think 2024 will be worse because Trump will end up as the Republican nominee.
What are the Democrats going to do?
Biden?
I have no idea.
2025, Donald Trump is inaugurated.
What do you think January 20th, 2025 is going to look like in D.C.?
You think January 6th is bad?
Wait till January 20th, 2025 for the second inauguration of Donald Trump.
ian crossland
I gotta say, I think there's no way Trump is going to even have a chance at being president.
I'll go on record now.
I could be totally wrong.
Maybe I'll eat my words.
I didn't think he was going to win last time either with Hillary Clinton.
I was shocked.
But it's like the same kind of surprise attack thing in military.
You don't do it twice.
They're ready for it now.
It's going to be total media... What do they call it?
What did the Time Magazine article call it?
tim pool
The shadow campaign to save the election.
ian crossland
Yeah, the total media fortification of their candidate.
chris karr
But I think that's a key factor here.
Over the past six years, the corporate press has lost a lot of credibility, right?
Even with Normies?
ian crossland
With me, they have, for sure.
chris karr
Oh yeah, but you've always kind of been dialed into it.
I'm wondering if like the average person, well, it seems like even the Democrats are kind of tuning out.
Are they going to crank up their viewing again when it looks like Trump is going to win a second term?
Or has the corporate press actually lost some of the credibility that it used to have?
I don't know.
It seems to me like it's crumbled quite a bit.
steven rene
It's going to really hinge on who's going to be the candidate also democratically, right?
tim pool
Well, let me... Yeah.
unidentified
That's because if it's Andrew Yang, it's a crazy prospect.
steven rene
So that's going to be huge.
tim pool
I want to pull up this story.
This is from the Daily Wire.
Majority of Democrats back Trudeau's crackdown, freezing bank account of truckers.
There's something really important here.
Ian was just saying that he doesn't think Donald Trump could win the presidency because they're going to be ready for him, right?
unidentified
Yeah.
tim pool
So, using the same strategy twice.
The previous context, for those that may have missed it, we're talking about the Freedom Convoy in Canada, we're talking about how Trudeau cracks down, then the U.S.
is playing this convoy, and Ian, you were saying that they're going to be ready for the U.S.
truckers.
So they can't use the same strategy.
They're going to be ready for Donald Trump.
He can't use the same strategy.
But there's one thing that I think does that you may overlook in this regard.
What if instead of 1,000 or 500 trucks coming to D.C., like in Canada, it was 50,000?
Now it was reported there was 50,000 truckers protesting.
I don't think there was that many trucks.
I think that was probably misreported.
But let's say that D.C.
does plan for this.
And they say, We're gonna handle it.
500 trucks, no problem.
But then 50,000 trucks from every angle come in?
You can't handle that.
There's no planning for that.
ian crossland
That would be a different plan.
tim pool
So let me show you this.
In the story about Democrat support for Trudeau, they say, The poll shows 55% of general election voters disapprove of Trudeau's handling of the protesters.
35% approve.
That is to say, the majority of people don't like the draconian powers.
Take a look at this.
Democrats, 65% approval.
Republicans, 87% disapproval, and Independents, 74% disapproval.
That is to say, Republicans say no to Trudeau.
Unaffiliated voters say no to Trudeau.
It is only the Democrat base that about two-thirds support what Trudeau is doing with his draconian powers.
This, this, these metrics are reflected in basically everything.
When we pull up civics polling data, is the economy good?
Independent voters 2 to 1 say no.
Republicans 10 to 1 say no.
Democrats 2 to 1 say it's great.
Now, how is that possible?
It's an inversion.
The fact is, independent voters and Republicans, the plurality of the majority of people in this country, do not live in the crackpot cult reality that the Democrats live in.
So if Donald Trump does run again, they can plan any shadow campaign or whatever fortification they want.
But when 10 times as many people are storming through the gates, no amount of planning will stop that man.
chris karr
Yeah, the independence there is really important, because that's your proxy, right?
I mean, those are the people that aren't really affiliated.
I mean, if they're siding with the Republicans, I mean, not even siding with them, but if that's the way they're perceiving reality.
But all these represent the chasm, right?
The chasm that we're talking about.
We kind of forked at a certain point, culturally, in this country, and the chasm is just so great.
You might try to holler at somebody way over there, and it's just like, what's the point?
I mean, they're not even going to understand the language that I'm speaking right now.
That's scary, but to your point, I don't know how we're going to remedy that cultural problem that we're experiencing.
The chasm's just too wide.
ian crossland
I think that that's making me think of that mentality, that combat mentality versus the scientific mentality.
So many people are in combat mentality that if you try and speak to them scientifically with facts and evidence, they don't get it.
It's too big of a deal for them to think about.
They've got to act now!
It's like life or death to these people.
So if you can understand that before you start communicating with them, For them, it's a big deal.
Maybe for you, it's not.
I mean, obviously, I'm not freaked out by this stuff.
It's the same thing with talking with a kid, too.
If you understand why something is such a big deal to them, it's a lot easier to communicate with them about it.
tim pool
Yeah.
Rapport building is the first strategy in persuasion.
So, if you approach someone as an enemy or as an other, They are less likely to trust you.
They fear you.
So if you're trying to actively build bridges in the political conflict, you have to approach your political enemies or your political rivals as one of them.
It's a very difficult thing to do.
I gotta throw it to Daryl Davis, though, and say I think we're beyond that, unfortunately.
We can certainly try.
I'm not saying never, you know, give up.
But that story about Daryl Davis, he's the guy who de-radicalized those Klan members.
Black jazz musician, de-radicalizes Klan members.
But when he tried to talk with Antifa outside of the event we booked him for, they wouldn't talk to him.
ian crossland
Yeah, he directly confronted the mob, and that's a hard, that's a big ask.
I've never successfully confronted a mob and come out the winner.
tim pool
But confront maybe is the wrong word.
He said, I want to talk to them.
He walked across the street and they started yelling at him.
And they called him a Nazi and other, you know, white supremacist.
And he was like, I just want to talk guys and they wouldn't do it.
chris karr
Something similar might've happened though if he was trying to address like a Klan rally.
tim pool
No, he's done that.
He's done that.
chris karr
But it started at the individual level, right?
It was just like one guy and then another guy.
tim pool
He showed up to Klan rallies.
He went to Klan rallies and walked up to people and talked to them.
And he posted about how he never experienced what he did with Antifa.
When he went to Klan rallies, they were like, what's this guy doing here?
And he said, you know, he started talking to people and they started talking with him and they told him all of their racist ideas.
And he said, okay, just wondering what you were thinking.
And then after a long enough period of time, they realized they were wrong.
And their racist ideas weren't correct.
With Antifa, he walks up and they scream at him.
They wouldn't even let him talk.
ian crossland
Yeah, they want to fight.
They're there to fight.
chris karr
So it's a more poisonous ideology than racism, even.
tim pool
Oh, I certainly think so.
chris karr
You must be.
tim pool
I think the issue with racism is that it's incorrect and can lead people towards dangerous policy and violence.
The far-left extremism is inherently, on step one of the hopscotch, is be extreme and destroy.
Racism is, you don't like people for stupid reasons.
It escalates from there.
Antifa on the far left starts with violent revolution.
ian crossland
I hate that burn-it-all-down mentality.
It's so stupid.
Why would you ever destroy what we've created before you have a new thing to do?
It's a 12-year-old's mentality.
steven rene
It's so very short-sighted.
Immature, right?
It's extremely immature.
And it's extremely, you know, short-sighted.
And so now, you know, like I said, no one's going to make me feel guilty for being born.
I wouldn't have chose my parents.
tim pool
Love them.
Take a bunch of 10-year-olds.
Take 30 10-year-olds and put them in charge of an office building and see what happens.
This is what's happening right now.
Good times make weak men.
We're in the fourth turning.
We're in the period of weak men who have made hard times.
I mean, not figuratively, because women are involved.
ian crossland
I'm thinking scorched earth now, because that's a military tactic.
So if these people really are in combat mind state, then the scorched earth tactic is on the table.
Like if someone's invading your city and you can't defend it properly, you burn the entire city to the ground and retreat so that when they get there, they don't have a city to pillage.
And so maybe that's what these people are doing.
unidentified
I think, you know, what you see with Antifa— I don't think it's even thought through that far.
tim pool
There is a—it's a rudimentary plan.
It's there.
Antifa in Portland, they—everything they do serves their purpose, their goal, right?
If they go out in the streets with guns and say, do as you're told, and you do, they win.
If you resist them and there's chaos and fighting, you're destroying the system.
They win.
It's what they want from the ashes of the old, they shall build anew.
It's what they said during Occupy Wall Street.
I was told during Occupy, they said, the organizer said, we want to flip the pyramid over.
And I said, how would that make sense?
If you flip the pyramid over, you have one brick on the bottom?
steven rene
No.
tim pool
The pyramid crumbles and forms a crappy or crumbly pyramid.
And they're like, right.
And we're on the bottom now.
And when you flip it over and the bricks tumble down, we'll be the ones on top.
That was their view.
Their view was not to create a better world where the working class were all equal and wealthy.
It was that if you flip the pyramid over, some of the poor people will take control and be in charge.
ian crossland
The rest are going to fall down the side of the pyramid and the avalanche of rocks and get crushed.
steven rene
We're definitely in payback mode, right?
tim pool
Payback for what?
For who?
ian crossland
The Federal Reserve.
steven rene
The idea of how they've been wronged and why we are so systematically racist and this and that.
tim pool
Fascist.
steven rene
Yes.
And so, if you're in payback mode, then you're not being rational and you get these type of ideas and it seems self-fulfilling.
Again, but it's so emotionally based.
ian crossland
Yeah, people that are willing to die for their cause are very dangerous.
chris karr
Yes, but these people also have no sense of history.
They don't know what happened in Cuba, or either that, or they're ignorant about it.
I was just so funny, I was just listening the other day to an interview with Andy Garcia, the actor, and I had no idea he was from Cuba, and his family fled from there when he was five and a half years old.
And the interviewer was asking, he was just like, so what was that like?
You fled from Cuba?
I mean, what was going on?
And the way that he describes Cuba, that he fled from, is just like hair raising.
He was just like, well, you know, we were told there were going to be public schools, and the revolution was going to bring everybody happiness, and the public schools weren't really schools, they were just indoctrination camps, and all the children, you know, there was no God, and they praised Che Guevara, and they praised Fidel, and he's just like, point by point, laying out exactly what happened.
Even when he went back in the 90s, and he was just like, I just wanted to visit my homeland, and they turned it into this propaganda campaign, saying that I, you know, supported the revolution.
And it was just, it was really eye-opening hearing him talk about that when we're living in 2022.
tim pool
There's a clip that the left likes to put around, push out there, where at the end of the Joe Rogan podcast with Twitter, the mic stayed on.
So Joe is like, all right, everybody, that was great.
And he stands up and it shows the Rogan symbol and you can still hear everything.
And Vijaya Gadi of Twitter says, I want to follow up on that Antifa account.
And I said, it's bit.ly slash Antifa tweet or something like that.
And then she says, you know, what was this account or whatever?
And I responded with, I don't want to give you information on specifics that you can go and ban people because I'm here basically saying, I don't think you should be doing anything on my behest.
They cut that part out and claim that Twitter colludes with the far right to ban Antifa and support fascists and everything.
It is insane.
How people fall for this and believe it and it's it's maddening and it's sad because there are people who will hear that clip and be like, wow, it must be true.
ian crossland
That's it.
That's the combat mentality.
tim pool
I was I was talking to a few good friends of the show and they mentioned Dave Rubin.
Saying something stupid.
They were like, oh, but Dave, man, he said that thing.
And I was like, what did he say?
And they're like, he said something about, I can't remember exactly what the quote was.
And then I said, wow, you actually were talking to him and he said this to you?
They were like, no, but we saw it on Twitter.
And I was like, was he quoting someone else?
And they're like, I don't know, it was a short clip some activist posted.
And I was like, so why do you believe it?
So, so Dave Rubin could have been quoting someone else and someone took a clip of this and claimed he said it.
Why would you believe that?
It's crazy that even people who are aware of the tactics of the machine still fall for it too.
ian crossland
Yeah, I had to train myself out of it with the Nick Sandman thing when he got confronted.
I initially got angry and I was about to yell out.
That was the first time I kind of stopped and thought about maybe there's something more to this.
Uh, and then, but it was like, it wasn't like one day I just stopped freaking out about information.
I had to learn.
So I'm still to this day, stuff will appear and I'm like, false flag.
Remember false flag.
Remember, keep your mind open.
steven rene
Yeah.
Again, that's why I have no social platform whatsoever.
I stay as far away from that as I can.
I mean, obviously it wasn't part of my generation.
I haven't a cell phone until I was 30.
Because they weren't around, right?
My first one I had was in Belarus.
And interestingly enough, because it's such a small country, it was awesome because they could put cell towers around everywhere and it was really good.
So I didn't grow up with it, wasn't part of it, but I absolutely detest the fact that you can get so inundated and so caught up in it that it's not profitable.
I try to be profitable.
You know, with my time and my energy.
unidentified
Yeah.
ian crossland
I'll have such a good, I'll be in such a great state of mind.
I'll be thinking about good stuff.
And then sometimes I'll get on Twitter and I'm like, this stuff is so negative.
It's so niche.
It's usually about like Biden or like about politics.
And it's just because I follow a lot of people that come on the show and that's what we talk about, but it's like so niche.
It's not like reality as it is.
It's just a part of like the game.
tim pool
I gotta, I gotta give you some advice, man.
ian crossland
I'm triggering Tim right now.
tim pool
Look at who I follow.
You couldn't go on Twitter and pull up my account and look at who I follow.
And so there's a good amount of activists, there's pundits, there's left-wing and right-wing pundits, and mostly news organizations.
What's happening to a lot of people is that they'll go on Twitter and they'll follow 300 far-left activists, so their whole worldview is filtered by the far-left.
Or they'll go on and follow 300 right-wing pundits, and their whole worldview is filtered through right-wing pundits.
I use my Twitter mostly as a tool.
I post nonsense.
I often just post things that trigger people or whatever.
I tweeted today that Putin was scared of Trump.
Boy, did the left go nuts on that one.
Who I'm following is like news sources.
Left and right.
Some are politically active, some aren't.
A lot of journalists.
You'll see in my following count like some professors and some journalists.
My worldview is not crafted by partisans.
It is, I have a balanced, you know, because I want to see what the left is saying.
steven rene
Sure, no, for what you do it makes total sense.
tim pool
But what we're getting is journalists only follow the left.
Conservatives follow both.
So you'll tend to see conservatives understand the left, the left doesn't understand conservatives.
That's why the Democrats support Trudeau, and independent voters, Republicans, don't.
Probably because Democrats don't watch the news, have no idea what he's done.
But if you went to the average Democrat voter and said, Trudeau seized the bank account of a single mother who works as a waitress because when the convoy was first just driving on the road, she gave 50 bucks, they'd be like, well, that's crazy.
But because they don't pay attention, they support authoritarianism.
steven rene
And therefore wouldn't believe you, right?
unidentified
Right.
tim pool
They'd say, so this is what, you know, my friends are telling me.
They're like, they say, like good friends of mine from back from back home.
They say, when I try telling my parents, they say it's a conspiracy theory.
And then, and they're like, you know, Tim, like you, you've known him.
He used to hang out here.
It's he's the one who's talking about like, ah, he's wrong.
I watch CNN.
ian crossland
When I was in LA, I was such a closet leftist.
I was just blatantly like, socialism, yay, I didn't know.
And there's this mentality of like, leave me alone, let me just live my life, man.
I want the government, social services are nice, because if I need food stamps, I'm with the actress.
And it's so close-minded and oblivious to live like that, to think that what you have in America is the way things are.
This is a result of military conquest.
It's not a joke.
And now there's problems that are arising because of that conquest.
Also not a joke.
So your luxury is tentative at best.
Get your mind in the game.
I need you.
tim pool
Let's go to Super Chats!
If you have not already, you must, I implore you, honk that like button.
Give it a good honk, give it a good smash, a little thumbs up, help support the show.
Subscribe to this channel and share it with your friends if you really do like it.
Go over to TimCast.com, become a member.
We're gonna have a members-only podcast coming up around 11 or so p.m., so you're not gonna wanna miss that, but most importantly, as a member, You're helping support all of our journalists who write news every single day at TimCast.com, not to mention the investigation.
We have investigations into, we have a book coming out, Ghosts of the Civil War and looking for the lost Confederate gold.
We're getting threats apparently.
chris karr
I've heard them.
They're bad.
unidentified
Yeah.
tim pool
They're really bad.
It's not even like political reporting.
I don't want to get too much into it, but let's just say that people who know about the lost Confederate gold are getting upset that we've been digging into it.
After the Civil War, the Confederates shuffled off their gold.
I was thinking it was kind of like a fun adventure.
I didn't think it was going to be so serious, but dude, someone apparently died.
Anyway, support our work over at TimCast.com.
Let's read these superchats.
All right, let's see.
The Master of Violence says, Ian Crossland is every member of the band Blind Melon in the music video for No Rain.
chris karr
I love that song.
unidentified
Yeah.
What's up now?
tim pool
Do they all look like you or something?
ian crossland
I think the lead singer.
Yeah, he definitely does.
unidentified
That's awesome.
chris karr
Awesome.
tim pool
All right, let's see.
Joe Harshbarger says, Steve, please, please start a ranch in Nebraska.
Wide open spaces in the land of the good life.
steven rene
Absolutely.
Listen, we'd love to build 10, 15 more.
Very expensive to do.
And this is why we, you know, we're constantly looking for investors, especially if you have a particular region in mind, because that so speeds up the process to be able to do something like that.
ian crossland
Kind of like franchising?
steven rene
Well, I mean, it'd still be part of Fortitude Ranch, but our Texas one exists because somebody donated the land and had the ability to help financially because, you know, you've seen it out in West Virginia.
I mean, it takes like a million dollars to do it right.
And so it, you know, we're constant.
It's part of what I do as COO.
Reach out looking for investors.
Love to do it.
tim pool
Do you have any plans for like community building exercises and events or anything like that?
steven rene
Yeah, we have training coming up in May, so this will be survival training as we go through and try to help prepare our members.
We do want to do it for non-members as well, for those who would like to do that for a fee.
We certainly want to help our members specifically but we do want to branch out and this is part again like I was mentioning with with survival housing with the counseling and the ability to help with with housing solutions is we know we can't get it not everybody's going to be able to join right but so if you're looking to do something separately that's what we're looking to help with.
tim pool
I'm just thinking how amazing it is going to be like on a nice cool spring night.
You know, you're going throughout the day, you're learning all these important survival skills, but you're hanging out, you're having a good time.
steven rene
Oh, and it really is a great weekend.
We go out to eat, right?
So it starts on a Saturday at eight o'clock.
We have some summer PowerPoint, right, to give you the instruction for the things you're going out to do, like if you're going to train at the ranch.
On the firing range.
tim pool
Yeah, firing range.
steven rene
Right, and then we do land navigation, show you how to read maps.
tim pool
We fired a Barrett M82 over at the ranch.
50 BMG.
steven rene
Yeah, that was fun.
tim pool
It wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be.
steven rene
Well, it was amazing that you guys hit something because you didn't have a scope, right?
tim pool
No, we had iron sights.
steven rene
Right, well, but not a scope.
I mean, that's not easy to do.
That's all I'm saying.
tim pool
Well, so if, you know, for those that are interested, You know, survival training, community building, hanging out with like-minded people and learning some skills.
That sounds pretty fun, man.
So yeah, maybe you guys will get more up and running.
Let's read some more Super Chats.
steven rene
Sure.
tim pool
All right.
Neo Jade says, Tim, you don't believe it's possible that Cabal is running things?
What do you need, a Times article detailing exactly that?
Ian natched it.
All the chat when Ian said that was like 20.
But I'll clarify what I mean is, you know, I don't think that Biden walks into the Great Hall on some island with all these other leaders and then they're like, they've got pictures of Epstein on the wall.
And they're just like, you know, Klaus Schwab walks in and says, now you will all do as you are told.
I think birds of a feather flock together.
I think all of these world leaders meet in Davos.
They meet at the UN or the G7, the G20.
They all think similarly.
They all hang out with each other.
It's like if you go to a skate park, and you see 10 skateboarders, all from different parts of the city, they're gonna be speaking the same language, using the same jargon, and wanting the same things.
It doesn't mean it's organized.
It just means that they've effectively formed... That's what I mean, right?
ian crossland
They all know that if it happens in your country, it could happen in my country, so they're like authoritative.
tim pool
Well, what I mean is like...
You know, there's a skateboarder from the north side, a skateboarder from the south side, a skateboarder from the east and west sides, and they're all at one skate park.
They're saying the same words.
Yo, dude just did a nollie flip crook, big spin out, that was sick.
And they all know what it means.
ian crossland
Yo, build back better, bro!
tim pool
Exactly.
They're all saying the same thing, because when they go drink... So there's something called the journal list.
It was where journalists were on message boards, private message boards, with each other in New York.
So what would happen is one journalist would post a story, they'd all see it, and then all of a sudden every outlet would publish the same story.
It wasn't because there was a cabal intentionally trying to control things, it was because journalists were like, I'd like to hang out with journalists.
Oh, in this situation- And they just naturally emerged.
It was an emergent phenomenon.
ian crossland
I believe there's a cabal that is literally trying to control things, just so everyone's clear.
No, I certainly think that's- I don't know if they're succeeding or not, but it seems like they are trying to.
tim pool
I think the Davos group wants to control things.
ian crossland
I think, but I don't think like... When Biden said build back better, when I heard those words come out of his mouth, I was like, oh, okay, it's been co-opted.
tim pool
But Boris Johnson accused him of stealing it.
unidentified
What the?
tim pool
And Biden's a plagiarist.
ian crossland
Oh, yeah.
So it's... What if he stole it?
He did.
From the World Economic Forum and he's not actually a pawn.
tim pool
Biden's a plagiarist, right?
He apologized for plagiarizing.
ian crossland
He had to drop out of the 1988 presidential election because he got caught plagiarizing.
tim pool
So the simple solution is that Biden is a plagiarist.
ian crossland
He was 88.
tim pool
And in Europe, in the EU, they all use the same.
Look, I absolutely think Klaus Schwab has plans.
I absolutely think he's publicly stated he wants to get people in these cabinets.
I think he is a dangerous, evil individual.
I'm just saying, I don't imagine that Biden calls up Klaus Schwab and says, what's the plan?
You know what I mean?
ian crossland
Yeah.
tim pool
I think they just all hang out and all share the same ideas and then act accordingly.
ian crossland
So it makes more sense.
Oligarchy as opposed to a top down from Klaus.
Yeah.
unidentified
All right.
tim pool
Rob Matt says, do you plan on making a timcast.com app?
I'd like to stop using my browser to watch the after show podcast.
Yes, we are.
It's currently being made.
It's being made right now.
And for those that are wondering, if you use Brave, the Brave browser, you can actually listen to the podcast while your screen is off.
Because I think, I'm pretty sure Brave allows that.
All right, let's get some more of these super chats.
Seriously.
Ukraine's amazing, man.
There was actually a period where I was like, I wonder if I could live there, because it's so cheap for an American to live there.
Inexpensive.
Inexpensive is a better way to put it.
And people who have foreign revenue who live there, they live very, very well.
So they're Ukrainians who get jobs as programmers and make six figures U.S.
in a country where you only need, you know, a thousand bucks a month, you know, to get lunch and to pay for rent and everything like that.
So they live very, very well, relatively.
I hear you.
Yep, absolutely.
I just think, as an American, seeing Joe Biden say these things, it's what the U.S.
is in conflict with.
the entirety of Europe would oppose Russia and Taiwan and Japan and India would oppose China,
right? The world could defend itself without the US. I hear you. Yep, absolutely. I just think as
an American seeing Joe Biden say these things, it's what the US is in conflict with. I certainly
think other countries would have conflict as well, which is why we talk about World War III.
Jason says, I received the go truck yourself shirt.
Love it.
Go Tim and Castle Crew.
unidentified
Honk, honk.
chris karr
Nice.
tim pool
Yeah, we have a shirt over at TimCast.com.
It says Go Truck Yourself.
Go truck yourself to DC.
All right.
The Happy Holistic says, did you hear Putin's speech?
He said they only want that part of Ukraine that was Russia's as a buffer against NATO.
The communists gave it away and he rebuked communism while the West has embraced it.
Wow.
Did he really say that?
That's bold.
unidentified
Wow.
tim pool
Well, I mean, in that capacity, I don't know if he's wrong.
ian crossland
I used to think, like, I was just terrified.
I was like, oh, he's a dictator, he's evil.
But in a way, I think that he's holding on to Russia so that some psycho doesn't take control and then go full woke.
He's like the last vestige of freedom on Earth.
Could that even be possible that it was Putin all along?
Red, white, and blue?
unidentified
Doubt.
tim pool
All right, Captain says, Ian, the US had B1 and B2 aircraft.
China and Russia have been trying to replicate the capabilities of them for decades now. B-52
are for dropping fun police on dudes on horseback that have no anti-air. Iran's got a lot of
anti-air though. But I think people need to realize when it comes to war, we got bombs, we got people,
we got technology, but they've got cyber capabilities, China and Russia, and
they've got propaganda capabilities, the future of warfare.
care.
If you got all the nukes in the world, but your country is crippled by civil conflict, you can't fire them.
They may as well be useless.
You may as well not have them.
steven rene
Yeah, and I mean, Russia has, you know, not the same quantities as far as what we have in the best of the equipment, but they have awesome, you know, air defense.
They got hypersonic missiles now at this point.
I mean, they're no slouch, don't get me wrong.
ian crossland
I looked, I think China has about 500 nuclear warheads and that they're expected to have 1000 of them in 10 years.
tim pool
That's right.
That was big news that China was rapidly building new silos.
Yep.
Well, of course, you know.
All right.
Excited says, Tim gets mad at Ian for talking about mixing household items.
Tim also gives a rundown on taking down power plants.
I didn't say how they were taken down.
I said 10 years ago there was a flaw publicly disclosed.
All right.
Love you guys.
All right.
Michael Adkin says- Thanks for paying attention.
That's right.
Michael Adkin says Kaliningrad was part of Germany where Immanuel Kant was born.
Is that true?
steven rene
Yeah.
tim pool
How did it come to be that this little pocket exists?
steven rene
Because when the end of World War II, when everybody was dividing everything up, they made sure that- Russia.
Yeah.
They were smart enough- Very smart.
tim pool
They wanted access to the Baltic Sea.
steven rene
Absolutely.
tim pool
Man, they planned ahead.
Yeah.
Russia.
Doing Russia stuff, man.
Mr. Physics says, here's the messed up part, guys.
Putin is 100% correct.
All of the Baltics, besides Poland and Lithuania, from like 860 to 1991, the Klevan line was destroyed by the Mongols and gave rise to Muscovy.
All the Baltics, what, were Russia.
I know that Kiev was the capital of Russia, what, in like 1,080 or something like that?
steven rene
How about how far you want to go back?
tim pool
Right, exactly.
steven rene
To the cavemen?
Is that right?
There's the original lines of demarcation.
I mean, you know.
unidentified
Right.
ian crossland
Yeah, the Rus princes took this land from someone else.
steven rene
Right.
unidentified
Yep.
tim pool
Let's see what we got here.
John says, John Hutto says, Odessa is heavily Russian and Moldova is very sympathetic.
Could he create a new Moldova inside Russia?
steven rene
Again, they don't underestimate the effects of the Russification and how people feel a connection in certain parts of what used to be the former Soviet Union.
ian crossland
Speaking of Moldova, I have a piece of Moldovite.
This is a little off topic.
This is volcanic glass.
Or no, this is from an asteroid impact.
And then it creates this green glass found in Moldova.
I think it's found in Moldova.
unidentified
Cool.
tim pool
Soleil Cucumber says, Biden says he can tolerate just the tip.
ian crossland
I don't believe him.
Prove it!
There you go.
tim pool
Micah says, Tim, I think the police in Canada are being controlled by an inhibitor chip like the clones on Star Wars.
Just a thought.
That's the only way to explain it, right?
ian crossland
When they stood there all silent?
tim pool
No, there's leaked messages where they're laughing about trampling a woman with their horses.
Like an old lady was on a mobility scooter and they trampled over her on a horse and they're gloating and laughing about the injuries.
I will say, conservatives are getting a cold splash of water in the face on this one.
With these cops just brutalizing conservatives, they've been doing it now for some time.
The moment conservatives start protesting, like, wait a minute, the cops are beating us.
We're the ones who supported them.
So yeah, they don't care.
ian crossland
The royal police, man.
tim pool
Yeah, that's why, look, I remember when Attila's gym was getting shut down and the cops were there
and the guys at Attila's gym, like, we're going to have him on.
But they were saying, don't blame the cops, they're just doing their job.
And I'm like, what?
Those cops don't gotta come and shut you down.
They could leave.
The first cops from that town did.
They were like, have a nice day.
Then they pulled in cops from other cities who came in and said, we don't live here and we don't care.
And brought the boot to people's necks.
chris karr
There was a counterpoint to what's going on in Canada.
There was this one trucker on the Daily Mail.
He said they were as dumb as a bag of hammers.
They acted like Keystone Cops.
Trucker Guy Mystery 53.
Dumber than a bag of hammers.
ian crossland
What's a Keystone Cop metaphor?
chris karr
What does that mean exactly?
There were these old black and white reels of the cops that were really stupid.
steven rene
Charlie Chaplin days.
I just watched a really interesting documentary which I found out was really worth watching.
ian crossland
Oh, Keystone Film Company, 1912 to 1917.
steven rene
Yeah, Charlie Chaplin.
It was an amazing story, but that's where that comes from.
chris karr
Anyway, point being, this one guy said that the cops are too stupid to be able to do their job right.
At least the ones that arrested him and zip-tied him in five-degree weather for 30 minutes.
unidentified
Wow.
Geez.
Yeah.
tim pool
Alright, Alex Jones Was Right says, Tim, you've said before social media tends to become right-wing, and now the world seems to becoming right-wing, thanks to the internet.
In what some call the Great Awakening, could this be the reason for the Great Reset?
No, I don't think so.
I think The Great Reset is a very specific plan by powerful international elites.
Like Klaus Schwab, he just comes out and says all this stuff, so you know the World Economic Forum, Davos Group, they've got plans there.
But I do think the expansion of the internet has allowed meritocracy to rapidly expand.
If you look at what this show is, When this show started, when I started working on YouTube, even before this show, nobody gave me money.
Nobody came to me and said, here's an investment and here's access to advertisement.
I just started a YouTube channel and started making content.
I did better and better.
People liked it.
They shared it.
Organic growth.
There was zero advertising involved in any of this.
Zero marketing.
It was just organic growth based on what we put together and constantly improving and doing a better job.
And journalists right now though, They'll get out of college, they'll have no skills, they'll apply and be hired by NBC News, which has an existing platform, and be given a megaphone.
There's no meritocracy.
The reason I think the internet makes things more right-wing is because meritocracy ends up flourishing due to it.
Before the internet, if you wanted access, you had to go through a gatekeeper.
ian crossland
But you also had to speak their language.
Like, I was locked out of Hollywood because I wouldn't bow.
And you were locked out of Univision.
I think it was Univision, right?
tim pool
How was it that they hired me?
ian crossland
They golden handcuffed you.
One of those companies.
Disney or something?
tim pool
Yeah, well, the first six months, they were like, you're doing great.
And then as soon as they decided to get woke, I said no.
And they went, okay, well then.
ian crossland
Real merit can't function in weird corporate autocracy where it's all about speak party line.
Like, merit emerges independently.
tim pool
I had a really good idea for a video game that I pitched to Vice and to ABC because they were like, we'd be interested in pursuing, you know, production.
And the idea was to do an online game where once a week an apocalyptic scenario happens.
ian crossland
Oh, I would love to.
I was just playing Seven Days to Die last night.
I would love to use something like this.
tim pool
So here's the idea.
You play the game Monday through Thursday.
You collect items.
You run around.
You do whatever.
Or you don't.
Friday, around 7pm, an apocalyptic scenario happens.
An alien invasion.
A flood.
Volcanic eruption.
Zombie apocalypse.
Military dictatorship.
And then the goal is survive the weekend.
Or, you know, survive the scenario.
Maybe it would only be for like three hours.
And then data would process the next day.
Sunday they would release.
Here's how people responded to the crisis.
So if it was like an alien invasion, it would be like 73% of players hid in the basement.
3% of players went on rampages.
You know, 1% peacefully walked up to the aliens.
If it's a zombie apocalypse, it would like break down.
Here's how we analyzed player behavior when this scenario was presented to them.
So it's like, it would just be an open world game, kind of like a GTA, until the scenario every Friday night.
Or maybe it's Sunday night would be better.
ian crossland
Or Monday morning.
What's good news?
tim pool
No, people are working.
ian crossland
Good for news, yeah.
tim pool
Monday morning we could release the data.
That was the plan.
And they, I mean, they were all like, wow, these are great.
I think if, maybe it's a game we'll make, now that we have the ability to do so.
But in the company, They have no obligation to make a game they have no experience in making.
And a lot of people there were like, it's a good idea, we'll explore this.
But what you were saying about meritocracy not working there, it doesn't work there because they're all following a path.
They're all told, do task A, B, C, D. What I propose deviates from that path.
So they ignore it.
unidentified
Never.
tim pool
And it doesn't happen.
You know what I told Vice and Fusion?
I said to Vice in 2013, All of your personalities should have YouTube channels.
ian crossland
Yes.
tim pool
You should hire producers for them who film them at their desks talking about the news stories and what they're passionate about.
And they were like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we're not going to do that.
And imagine how big it would have been.
ian crossland
It would have been huge, dude.
tim pool
Well, I mean, look at what we're doing.
I told Fusion the same thing.
And Fusion actually said, give it a shot.
See what you can do.
And I said, sure.
And it worked.
I mean, it worked moderately well.
I was producing stuff for my own channel, but it wasn't exactly what I had pitched.
It could have been so big for them.
And now look at all these big YouTubers.
They're not the journalists.
They could have listened to me.
They didn't want to.
ian crossland
That disaster game is awesome, man.
It could be a good analytic learning tool of human psychology if it's like a free... Yeah, you could do COVID.
tim pool
As long as... Like, Friday night, all of a sudden, everyone gets a respiratory disease and starts dropping dead.
unidentified
That's dope.
ian crossland
If it's a proprietary game, that might suck, because then Facebook gets the data.
unidentified
Yeah, yeah.
ian crossland
Make it like a human learning tool.
tim pool
The idea was to create a base game that was open to community modification through some kind of democratic process, and we would need the assistance of the community for planning and preparing scenarios.
So there could be like cool scripted events where like at 7pm all of a sudden in the game sirens go off and then all the TVs and all of the video game storefronts turn on and it's like the president Trump or Biden or whoever and they're like martial law lockdowns happening now and then you see troops being deployed all throughout the cities and how do you play that game?
What do you do?
If the goal is to survive.
And then if you win, you get a bonus or something.
ian crossland
That's crazy, dude.
That'd be a fun game, huh?
I wonder what people would do cannibalism in the video game.
Because it's a video game!
tim pool
Yeah, you'd need food and stuff.
We were like, you'd have to survive.
It'd only be for a few hours.
But the Great Flood would be funny.
Because people who are on the ground running around and driving around would get wiped out instantly.
ian crossland
In their basement.
They're like, my basement is fully stocked.
tim pool
And people would be like, I'm gonna hide in my house, and then all of a sudden it fills with water and you lose.
And the people who were on skyscrapers got lucky.
And it would just be like, 83% of players were on the ground and died.
And you'd be like, aw, come on!
Some people would be in boats.
You know, that's one idea.
Anyway, we should read some more of these.
Patrick C. said, Ian is rolling double 20s all night!
ian crossland
Double deuce.
chris karr
Yeah.
ian crossland
Let me just shout out this awesome 20 sided die again just received today.
chris karr
Very, very amazing.
ian crossland
Would it?
And yes, you are right, sir.
Thank you very much.
tim pool
All right.
We had a good one.
I just missed it.
Where did it go?
Buck rust says, first time super chat resident of Frederick, Maryland.
During the mandate, we never complied.
Grocery store was fine.
No one bothered us, but five below toy store called the police.
unidentified
Wow.
lydia smith
That's weird.
tim pool
Five below called the cops.
The mandate was in effect for like a month.
It was the most weird.
It was the weirdest thing.
They were like, we're doing a mandate.
And then I guess when no one listened, they were like, oh, we're not going to do the mandate anymore.
lydia smith
Yeah, literally on the first day they brought it back, I went to Barnes & Noble and we were like, we're not gonna wear masks, we're gonna see if anyone says anything.
No one said a thing.
The whole time this mandate was back.
That's insane that that store called the police.
That's wild.
tim pool
Frankie Sherat says, Tim, how is the new baby chick?
It was awesome to see that on Cast Castle.
If you go to youtube.com slash Cast Castle, we have a video of one of a baby chick hatching.
In fact, two hatched.
Two.
ian crossland
The other one came out?
tim pool
Yeah.
ian crossland
I was giving it love last night.
tim pool
It came out.
ian crossland
I went down at 2 in the morning sending love and health and I'm here with you.
tim pool
Totally healthy.
Popped out, happy as can be, and now we've got 22 more eggs in the incubator.
lydia smith
Oh my.
tim pool
We are rapidly expanding this year, Chicken City.
ian crossland
Alright.
tim pool
All right, Joe Masinik says, I noticed Tim started building on Ian's comments recently.
It's definitely a plus four to Ian's dice rolling and makes the show better.
Keep up the good work, everyone.
Well, I got to be honest.
It's because Ian is rolling more 20s.
If Ian rolls a one, I'm going to be like, no, no, no.
ian crossland
That's why Tim's in my party.
Because he's honest.
tim pool
No, Ian's been rolling some 20s.
I mean, even people, people were saying I was the one who rolled the one when you said the cabal was controlling the planet.
ian crossland
Oh, the cabal.
Good conversation.
tim pool
They were like, Tim, you're wrong.
There is a cabal.
I'm like, alright, alright.
unidentified
Alright, everybody.
tim pool
Alright, we'll grab some more Super Chats here.
Brian Wisecarver says, I'm at the beginning of the People's Convoy coordinating incoming donations in California.
We're leaving tomorrow.
I've emailed pitches at timcast.com to communicate with you guys.
Send an email to spintheufo at gmail.com if you could.
Can you look for that?
unidentified
I will.
tim pool
And that's Brian Wisecarver.
And then we're trying to coordinate some kind of coverage of the U.S.
Convoy.
lydia smith
Checking right now.
tim pool
Yeah.
Sean Jack says, have you looked into local building codes for constructing earthships and passive housing in the survival housing communities?
steven rene
Yeah, one of the things we actually try to do is build in areas that have less of the bureaucratic part of things as far as, you know, like out in West Virginia, there is no building code.
So I mean, obviously, we stick to standard, you know, measures for safety of everybody involved through the things that we build.
But when you're talking survival, though, you know, it's all about location, location, location.
So you don't have to have This is a good one.
tim pool
Garhent says, How are you going to prevent sectarian violence in the ranch?
It's not impossible for Biden collapsing the world.
And how many members will have Biden bumper stickers?
Might want blue-red ranches.
steven rene
No, actually, so what happens is this kind of happens organically.
I couldn't really choose a better, you know, I don't know every member in all the other locations, but in West Virginia, it's an amazing combination of folks.
Now, we don't vet, we don't ask you what your political affiliation is, anything like that.
But people who tend to gravitate towards wanting to be a member, they tend to be of like-mindedness.
And so we really don't have That is a major situation but one of the key things is I try to spend as much time as I can getting to know the members allow them to get to know me and a key to why some of these who try to do it on their own it falls apart because there is no leadership where there's clear lines of leadership you know at every ranch that's why we only hire former law enforcement or military and by the way we're looking to hire again since we've expanded so
What roles?
As ranch manager, and we have a position for assistant ranch manager, and so if people want to reach out to FortitudeRanch.com and reach out to manager at FortitudeRanch.com, we'll be collecting those resumes and reaching out to folks.
tim pool
Right on, right on.
Cool, man.
Well, how about this, everybody?
Head over to TimCast.com, become a member.
We're gonna have that member segment coming up.
As a member, you're supporting all of our journalists, and we greatly appreciate it.
It's how we fund the operation.
It's our principal source of funding, the memberships from our website.
So we're gonna get to recording that special segment for all of you guys.
So don't forget to smash the like button, subscribe to this channel.
You can follow us on Instagram at TimCast IRL, where we post clips.
You can follow our TimCast Clips channel for shorter, couple-minute segments.
That's on YouTube.
You can follow me at Timcast basically anywhere.
Steve, you want to mention anything more specifically?
steven rene
Yeah, well, I do want to mention about Survival Housing since this is the new startup.
So you can find us at survivalhousing.net and if you have our initial consultation is always free.
We're trying to reach out and help folks since we're not at every location across the country.
There's a lot of things right in the very beginning that you can make mistakes on and we're trying to help folks avoid that.
I'm working with a group, Prepper Broadcasting Network, to bring in some of their consultants as well because there's certain expertise that we could all join forces with.
James Walton's doing an excellent job.
They have 15 podcasts, 11 that are live every day and you can get great Survival type information off them.
So we're we're combining forces because I don't see any way out of this and I'm not a fear monger, but people are gonna need to have need a plan and You really should be reaching out and looking to better your position Absolutely.
tim pool
Come in.
What's the what's the website for for either of them?
Did you mention those?
steven rene
Oh So it's PrepperBroadcastingNetwork.com and then for SurvivalHousing.net.
So if you wanted to get even just a free consult, then you can just fill out the contact form and we'll get back with you.
tim pool
And then there's also Fortitude Ranch dot com.
steven rene
Yep.
So we work hand in hand.
I'm COO of both of them.
So at Fortitude Ranch, then you can reach out there for more information if you want to become a member.
Those who would be looking to want, you know, a ranch built in a different area that we don't have right now, please understand it takes investors in order to crank open a new one.
And so we're definitely looking to do that as well.
tim pool
The best part about Fortitude Ranch is the dog that licks rocks.
steven rene
Yes.
Ringo.
tim pool
I'm not joking.
He grabs a big rock, makes sure you're looking at him, and then just puts his tongue on it and sits there.
unidentified
Yeah.
tim pool
It's the funniest part.
ian crossland
Mineralization.
steven rene
They got into skunks about three days ago.
I gotta wash him.
tim pool
Oh man.
Alright.
chris karr
Awesome.
ChrisCarr17 on Twitter.
Check out TimCast.com anytime you like, but especially tomorrow because we've got a really nice report coming out from Michael Robison, our writer, a potential Supreme Court case that could have some major impacts on First Amendment rights.
ian crossland
Michael Robison also with the monkeys that watch the show.
Shout out to Michael and the monkeys.
chris karr
Those monkeys are awesome.
ian crossland
Got a picture of the monkey like really keyed into what we're talking about on the show.
chris karr
Smart monkeys, man.
ian crossland
Love those monkeys.
I'm Ian Crossland.
Follow me at IanCrossland.net.
Thank you guys so much for coming and I'll see you later.
lydia smith
And before we go, I wanted to say that I do have to agree with Tim.
This is not a cabal.
The definition of a cabal is a secret political clique or faction.
This is not a secret.
So what's going on with the elites is definitely not a cabal.
I'm Sarah Patchlitz.
You can follow me on Twitter and at Mayans.com.
tim pool
We will see all of you over at TimCast.com for that member segment.
Thanks for hanging out.
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