Kitbag Conversations - Kitbag Conversations Episode 21: Alcon S2

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

In this episode Cole from Alcon S2 comes on to talk about what he has going on with his business, New Zealand on the world stage, and what the future holds

Music Here we are, laughing nothing let us sing Everything that all will never be And I've loved it all that I want to only do Everything works out, just like all I should have waited for you baby Where we are when I was needing you And a hundred thousand poems that you were not there You were far from me I love like the novel of love Where is the world the lonely dream ever gone? Like the night between the blue days

It's full of love, love, love, love No secrets. Yeah. You guys are wondering, I'd always say it races things behind that muted microphone. Pro-Russian Zov. That's not there, that's... All right, he's unmuted. He's connected to audio. Can he perform? I'm recording. I want to know if he can get it up. Like that's all I need. Get it, get it.

I just need someone to throw my weight around for a little bit. This is ridiculous. Now there's two of you. All right. Can you hear me? Yeah, now I can hear you. Yep, yep. Oh, nice, nice. I was recording that too so let's go in in the podcast welcome all caught as to hey hey how are you man

it's been a little bit yeah man I'm good I'm good hey is there two instances of me in this yeah but you're fine yeah I could you're only covered in this one all right all right sweet yeah no I'm good good how you guys all right yeah yeah right yeah. Yeah, no, I'm good. Good. How you guys? All right, a little busy. Yeah. Yeah, right. They're shooting nobody's dying. It's all right. It's a low level, but yeah. Did you you like went quiet for a little bit there and then you came back? What happened? Y'all get her? Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah. I'm good. I'm just I had to take a break from the whole social media thing for a while. Yeah, because it just takes a toll. If you're just constantly posting and trying to engage

and then work a day job as well, it just gets a bit too much. It's almost like a second job. Yeah. But I'm in a good way. Yes, for those who have to crawl onto your balcony and like smoke a pack of overrace And you're like the world is falling apart Oh, man, especially on Instagram, and then if you get stuck into the comments, oh Well, I mean you don't you don't have a team over there anything do you like it's just you right now? No, not really every now and then A few of my mates jumping and giving me a hand. So yeah, that's the most part. Yeah, I'm a one man band.

That's tough. Just trying to like spin a lot of plates as well. And I think that was the other problem about I was spinning too many plates, rather than focusing my foot until one or two things. So yeah, but yeah, at the moment, good, everything is swell. Not gonna lie, man, I miss your motivational podcast clips with ships sailing in the ocean. You're like, China's coming for your kids. I wanna keep posting that stuff. It just takes a lot of time to edit.

Yeah, if you wanna do it properly, yeah, like, fuck it now. No, just do what they do on YouTube. Just make a low quality, get fat, and like big glasses. Like is Russia coming for you? Find out today at my podcast, and like, oh, that's awful. One guy, that one guy, the quartering,

who just posts a picture of like Hollywood celebrities, and he's like, this is why she's a demon Just lowering standards call stop being so good be worse. Don't be better Well, that's the thing that's more powerful of the New Zealand military Yeah, I know I know Well, let's try to leverage AI as much as I can now, not to produce my content, but even just to for like start points and just to structure things.

It's just productivity just goes way up. It makes things so much easier. I tried arguing with it actually. I tried trying to convince it that Armenia had a claim on the territory and it was telling me like, no, no, Azerbaijan might be good, but it might be bad and it like the AI I can get I saw it because I do it you do use it to like kind of put together some thoughts and like talk with it because you know you don't have any friends like me

and like but I was like no I want to see if I can get it to commit to like Azerbaijany genocide it wouldn't I was talking to a data programmer the I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that.

I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. I was a bit busy with that. It's like it's plummeting the credibility from Chad GPT from like 96% to like four. Like it was like math and science. It's hilarious. America's turning robots stupid.

Yeah. Yeah. So I had a GPT four subscription and I was using that for a while, but then I just noticed it started getting dumber and then then started getting like way more generic than it already was. So yeah, so like always, if you're asking it to some rise stuff, the final two sentences are always the same, although the same pattern. And you're just like, this is just, you're not adding any value anymore. I jump on the results and I'm like, tell me about why the invasion of Iraq was bad And it's like a 15 point like paragraph like this is why this is why this is why I'm like somebody white nationalism's good

And they're like oh cuz it's bad What are you guys what do you guys do up to? Jack and shit look at us What about you guys? What do you guys do up to? Jack and shit. Look at that. Look at that. Here are a few days. Yeah. We're like you're going to Africa here in a few days. It's going to be pretty sexy.

It was in Somalia last time. That was pretty cool. Dude, the stories from Somalia are hilarious. I watched it back. Boom. Rip it like a little cat and half and flex on Somali soldiers. I was like, he runs this place. And then going back here for a month on Tuesday. and flex on Somali soldiers. I was like, he runs this place. You know what I'm saying? Okay. And then, going back here for a month on Tuesday,

and then I'll be back after that, a free agent. So, nothing too crazy. I moved recently, so no camera, but yeah. Yeah, no. What do you mean, what's up with this? I feel like sometimes people hold you in high regard and your work's really good. And so, but I know that like

There's a like you said behind the Instagram page. There's a lot going on because you also have a family So like every time people talk about you and like here you are like what are you doing? I'm like you know damn well what we're up to because you're like that Squidward meme You're like looking out the window and you just see SpongeBob and Patrick And you just see SpongeBob and Patrick You know what KitBag and CroatTow and her up to he's posting dumb shit on the CroatTow and page My favorite thing recently is just Cool, I haven't talked to him in a little bit Just posting a Zelensky quote in a picture of Aller Shones

He sends people through the roof. I don't say anything What are you up? You know damn well, we ain't up to nothing good. I'm all over. Making fun of trolls. Those are my trolls. It's so good. I love reading the culvert. I love it.

It's like, I borderline get off to it these days. I'm like, they're so fun. It's like, like Jake from AFE hits me up. He's like, dude, you post a quote from Zelensky. And then you post a picture of Alex Jones and people who use you as being pro-Russian. I don't understand. Oh, I mean, the similarities between the two.

Oh, God. Oh, I smell. Well, yeah, so you guys have some explaining to do. The New Zealand Army just came out with a self-report and they said they sucked. I thought like in the American Army, we always just say we're the best at things since they spread what happened. Yeah, yeah. So I've been making my way through those documents and it's been a long time coming, I think. And a lot of it, you know, they put those documents out to public consultation prior to finalising them and

releasing them. So there's a lot of public opinion that probably would have influenced some of it, especially when we talk about what matters to the public in terms of treaching New Zealand, things like that. So the piece around the New Zealand Defence Force is, I think it's accurate, so at the moment, the pandemic, it pretty much fucked everything. Huge attrition, it kind of became very clear that the military was severely underpaid, the conditions weren't great, compared to what they used to be, and people just had better prospects outside the military. Couple that with a very low operational tempo, people just become dissatisfied. And when you lose people, you can only

own a man platforms, platforms stay in docks and in hangars. When there's no platforms, there's no operations. When there's no operations, there's no people. And it's just a vicious cycle. And it keeps just going around and around. So the government's kind of realized that. And they've come up publicly, publicly and stated that and now the big question is, you know, you've got all these

ambitious ideas and things you want to achieve, but who's going to pay for it? So, you know, New Zealand, we've been listed in 2% GDP on our military, which is extremely low for already cash strapped nation. Yeah, so they want to build the, they want to build combat capability, they want to build, you know, their ability to simultaneously deploy on different operations, quite like the, the US does, but at a much smaller scale. But yeah, again, it just comes back to money and who's paying for it. And that's something that I haven't seen in the document so far. And we're coming up to an election year. So that question probably isn't going to get answered anytime soon.

Or not before. I'm looking for like a like an East to more situation where they can mobilize a bunch of ground forces and send to like a combat zone like the South Pacific or humanitarian. Is it just like across the board or is it like a limited operation like East to Moroids, like coupled with the Australians, everyone meets up together and like does a humanitarian situation?

Yeah, so I think it would be an East to more situation as we did in the late 90s, early 2000s, you know, we were able to deploy there, we were then able to deploy to the Solomon Islands, and then we were also able to deploy to Afghanistan as such. We have three different missions going on at the same time while still being able to support Hader. And that ability and that capability has fairly dropped off, you know, at the moment we're probably struggling to do one. At the moment, we are currently only doing one as far as I'm aware,

and that's the support to Ukraine. You know, sending people over to the UK to help train them. And even that for us is a massive commitment. So when, you know, looking forward into the future, it certainly would be rerolling into that self-specific neo-situation or Sasso kind of thing. When you're, you know, trying to stabilize our books. Is the current, I'm not sure I can see this.

Is the current plan to do like, I have enough guys in the rear to defend New Zealand if it gets attacked and as well as and like afford operating, like units to a combat zone. So you could have it to echelon like, but a two front war. Because I know in the American military, our whole thing was two front war because we fought the Japanese and then we fought the Germans and Italians. But now we're only like, we can only forward a one front war with like limited

expeditionary operations. So I'm not sure how New Zealand wants to approach that. Yeah, so this is this is the world according to an ex-seniensia, right? So far removed from the strategic realm of Wellington, our capital. But when we talk about our biggest strategic asset, it's our remoteness away from everything else. So we rely on that to kind of, it's like the first line of defense. Why would anyone want to come in

Venn New Zealand, you know, where in the middle I know where, to strategically, you know, predict force to New Zealand and then invade a country and then hold it, the logistics involved in that is insane. So kind of, you know, doesn't make sense to do that. So when we talk about defending New Zealand with troops, we do have a reserve force. You know, part-time soldiers, I don't think the intent is to build that up in a big way, maybe a little bit. But certainly the main effort is to be able to integrate it with our partners,

namely our only ally Australia and our biggest partner, the US. integrate with our partners, namely our only ally, Australia, and our biggest partner, the US. So do you think you guys are going to come in to ARCUS? Like you fucking should. Like, hold on, at this point it just makes no sense that New Zealand's not even in that. I mean, it like we gave, we're boosting Australia, but we had Dingo on for like a bonus episode and he was talking about how we're delivering Apache's to Australia. I mean, if you haven't looked, we are completely read. We're actually going on to the next generation of our armed forces. Like we are getting rid of the Chinook, we are getting rid of the Black Hawk, we are getting rid of the Apache, we are completely re-hauling the entire US Army. The 2030 for the US Marines, like we are going to have literally stockpiles of stuff

for the Australians, obviously. And so it's like you're talking about a funding issue. And I mean, if you guys were to just hop right into the AUK-US, which I mean, you pretty much just should, maybe you can explain why you guys aren't in it and I may be for political reasons, which I mean, you pretty much just should. Yeah, maybe you can explain why you guys aren't in it, and maybe for political reasons. But I mean, we could solve that issue tomorrow. Like, what are your thoughts on that? Yeah, so the Orcas thing, a lot of it comes down to our nuclear free stance, I think.

So that, you know, that rules out phase one, but there were talks of New Zealand joining phase two, Orcas, which is more the technological side of things. i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, i oaf, agai elikshin iar this year, so that's been put on hold. A now our foreign minister has essentially come out explicitly stated that it doesn't be considered at this stage. So yeah, it's a very nuanced situation for Orcas. You can talk about it for a while, but talk to anyone on the ground. It's everyone would be keen to jump on board with that. It's a no brainer, militarily speaking. Yeah. It's just, you know, you look a bit higher politically, you

know, it's a bit more sensitive, I think. Yeah. It comes to the, um, the non-nuclear standpoint. I mean, I was just informed about this a few years ago, but you could probably explain it better, but from what the usual standpoint is, New Zealand came out there, like there will be no nuclear weapons and no nuclear ships ported in our country and drove like a rift between essentially Australia and America who are like, dude, like, we catch, you're the third piece in this whole thing, we need you to like do your job. And New Zealand's like, no, we don't want it. And so you could probably explain it better,

but looking at like geopolitical terms, where it's like, well, New Zealand doesn't play with nuclear powers, then the economic situation in China could start like seeping in, like one of those things. Yeah, our nuclear free sciences is a big one. It comes, a lot of it comes down to, I think, I'll click our clean green image that we'd like to try and portray,

but it did cause a rift, especially when it was first announced. And it wasn't only until quite recently, you know, last 10, 15 years, we were kind of brought back into the fold with the US under the last government, which is a win. But yeah, we still, you know, we don't allow ships inside our waters that may or may not carry nuclear weapons or be nuclear powered. You know, what does that look like? I guess carriers, not sure if they're nuclear powered. Who knows? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's just, I think it's still a bit of a scary term down in these parts. It's with RQS. We are giving the Brits and the Americans are giving

Australia nuclear submarines, right? Like dust, the agreement? All right, cool, cool. Yeah, it's okay, you know, implications, dear. It's really weird too, because we were just a podcast with two British officers who were in Sierra Leone and everything like that. Same thing. It's so weird to see me and Matt see it's like, when the US or the Marines or the New Zealand or Australia, we all see each other in the military atmosphere. It's like cousins at a birthday party. We're going to eat a bunch of burgers, probably go on a walk, smoke some weed together,

and do whatever. Like in the military, as far as the five I communities concerned, we're like the best of friends. But like you're saying, it's like our politicians, just they can't even seem to get on the same field to play ball together. And it's like, what are you doing? Like these are like our like 20 years we were together in Afghanistan,

Iraq, and we've done all these trading missions. And it's just absolutely brutal. It's like service members to hear this like the stupid thing of like, oh yeah, like nuclear energy is the thing that's keeping us from working together. Like, really? Like, we we blend together. We die together. Like, what do you mean? You can't like, it's painful because it's like, I would gladly, you know, go and help defend New Zealand or Australia. Like that's how bad it is for me,

but it's just fucking crazy to hear that like politicians are just like, well, there's this little thing and I don't, I don't think it's really worth going and working together like really like that. Yeah I think in like the bigger picture if you come to someone like Germany who got rid of their nuclear power plants is like We're cleaning green and then now they're dependent on Russian oil Yeah, I don't know if that's a way to like co-worse New Zealand politicians to be like no actually you might need this because if your source is like fossil fuels

It's probably not going to help you on the long run if they cut you off. So yeah, yeah And I mean it's not even the nuclear-free thing. It's also We try to you know promote this thing called an independent foreign policy so we try to be as independent as we can, but still play with our partners. And being independent also has a lot to do with that, especially when it comes to treaties and partnerships, things called or like Orcas or Orc US. And then you got our relationship with China and all these other things. So there's lots of factors. I try not to, you know, be too hyperbolic about things in that respect, but there's so many

things reason why we don't come to the party there. But again, as I said, the phase two or pillar two, as I should say, of Orcas, I think that's certainly an in for us and where we could come to the party. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when it comes to you said election seasons come enough. How do you see the government swaying? Because didn't your Prime Minister just resign recently?

Yeah, just in our turn, she resigned. She handed over her party to Chris Hipkins and our current Prime Minister. And he's holding the Ford, I suppose, until election time later this year. Uh, mm-hmm. A lot of people are predicting that there's gonna be a change of government. I think it's about that time.

They've already had a couple terms. Everyone's over the pandemic and things like that. And so everyone's taught, everyone's, well not everyone, but a lot of people are kind of looking for a change. So let's just say the new government comes in which would be national and act coalition so that's We'll call that our right wing party, but in New Zealand terms. It's more our right wing is more left compared to American politics Would that be something like so say that does go down.

Like, there's a change of government. Would there be a way to use that as an in to, say, like, AQS, NZ or something like that? Like, in terms of, like, geopolitical terms, is there a way to, like, I guess, sway the government to be like, all right, like, we should probably jump on a bandwagon and like, in this case study, like some like India, their whole thing is not alignment. They just want to be like in the middle, but then it's, everything goes on around them. They're like, we're going to have to pick a side here soon. So yeah, well, I think, you know, with, with a new government coming in, I know at least some of those, if it's a coalition government, so act.

They're libertarian and they also have stated that they'll be boosting the military, like bringing up the GDP towards the military. And that respect, even though no one's talking about it, there is a possibility that we might go the orcas route, but in terms of swaying the government, I think in New Zealand we're still very independent, it's hard, it's hard to sway what we do, and that's been seen in like the last 10, 20 years, you know, look at ISIS and they're not resolving things, even just to get us to deploy there to train Iraqis to go fight ISIS was a big ask. And then we could have added so much value, but politically speaking, there was an massive appetite for that.

And so it's independent foreign policy. If anyone's was seeing, go read about it and you'll kind of see why we do what we do. That's a whole... So, I mean, it makes sense now. I mean, I don't know how you feel about it, but it just, to me, it's just, I think it's probably kind of weird for you to be like, you know, let us go and let us help, but then do like your politicians are like, no, no, no, no, and then you're getting funding cuts and all that stuff. And I mean, China's right there, as you say. It's not far anymore.

The distance as far as the Pacific and the Atlantic used to be such a big deal, but now it's not. That's travel times of change, right? You've got hypersonic aircraft, hypersonic missiles, carriers that can cover vast distances because they're, yeah, they're nuclear, so they don't need to refuel or anything like that. It's wild to think that, I mean, even the US, it's wild to think that, you know, the oceans

can be a defensive wall. So it's, it sucks to see that for you guys, especially like, you know, the strategic digger, digger and like, dingo and all those guys the same. It's like, why aren't we working together and doing these things? And it's, you know, Colonel, there's a podcast, a value-tainment. He had a Colonel on Colonel McGregor

and he talked about how like, you know, when they're talking about Ukraine, they're talking about like, you know, they're talking about Kossaks, they're talking about Nova Rusea, they're talking about Kossaks, they're talking about Nova Roussia, Belorussians, Ukrainians and all these people and he's like, it's absolutely mind blowing to talk about these things in these areas and the politicians who are in charge of making these decisions go, who? What?

Like, what do you mean? What is an S 300 or an S 400? Why do these things matter? Like, what's a TAUS one? What's a thermobarion? And it's like, good God, like we're having to, you know, we're trying to move at 100 miles an hour and these politicians are keeping it back. And like you said, you're not up for hyperbole, I am.

And it just fucking sucks. It's like, it's like something like, if you look at something like Shuri Lanka, who is one of the first states to buy into the Belt and Road Initiative, where they had a revolution in the Chinese-built-the-Port and the Airfield, they're like, we have to secure national interests. I'm like, cool, we now own every single logistical hub in your country, so your ours now. They essentially made a colony in Shurilanka.

And so, in terms of economic means, it's like how does that work? Where if someone like New Zealand is like playing like both sides to like come out on top, but in like in economic terms, you're like the Chinese are pretty good at strong army people. And I'm sure you don't want Chinese soldiers in your country. Like how does that work? Yeah, I think I've talked about the balancing at that New Zealand does. I've talked about it at Norsim, I think. And I'm not sure. Yeah.

I'm not sure what the future is for us. Because we rely so much on China for trade and our economy. But I don't think in the future, I don't think the strong army's gonna go so far as whatever see Chinese troops in New Zealand. They had intelligence assets, which is a given these days. But any more than economic strong-arming, I think it's unlikely, at least for New Zealand, when we talk about military action and actually deploying troops, I think there's a few more stepping stones to go before New Zealanders considered strategically speaking.

Do you think that has something to do with the island chain with the Solomon Islands and popping to beginning and stuff? No, of course, Australia. Do you think that has something to do with it? It's like parking and two parking spots at one striving in the middle. You're like, I got a cushion between me. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So Solomon Islands, Pupinu Guinea, and then the Northern territory of Australia, that whole area, you know, strategically is is key. And you can look back to World Two for those kind of lessons. But then, you know, when you think further, a field, two New Zealand at the bottom of the country, I just can't see the value on it. And so you could go on a tangent and talk about Antarctica

and some of the things that are going on down there. And if anyone wanted to claim that, then sure New Zealand is a key stepping stone to that area of the world. But no one's really thinking about that. No one really knows what goes on down there, even though America's got a crazy mess of essentially like mini town down there, McMurdo.

So who knows? But is many, many dominoes need to fall before you're dealing with this considered? But I mean it, I think that that's a really hard way to get your ass kicked because it's like, if you're, so like the, so Arminia did that, right? Like Arminia sat there and they played the middleman. They tried to get the US and they tried to get Russia to help them. And then Azerbaijan was like, no, screw this, we're Turks and we're going to get Turkey to help us. And so, you know, in 2020, when they had that war, it was like all of a sudden, Azerbaijan had all this shit from Turkey. And they completely, I mean, to this day, Armenia doesn't stand a chance against Azerbaijan. And then it's because they played the middle band. And so this, either

Russia nor the US wants to touch it, and we had an episode with the cognitive high about that. He's an Armenian, and he's a Greek. He's like, this is ridiculous. We should have never done that. And it's like, for New Zealand to have that position of like, you know, hey, like we're kind of insignificant stuff like that, there's many dominoes that need to fall before we get,

before they're at our door. It's one of those things like, okay, yeah, if all the dominoes are gone, and then they're at your door, who's gonna help you? Yeah. If the plan is, hey, they gotta get through everybody before they get to us, and that's like, well, by the time they get to you, you're done.

Like, you have no option left. So get in early, it's one of those things like you got to pick a side. And I think it's New Zealand, I have picked a side. It's like, but I would love, it just, it pains my heart because it's like, I've served with the Kiwis in Canada, and it's like, bro, it's like, let us help you. And I'm sure you guys are the same way. Like, come on, like, let's come hang out. It's like, so it's painful for that to be even a thought. Like, they'd have to kill Australia to get to us, but if they're already killing Australia, it's probably over for us.

So. And that's what I mean about, you know, if we're talking about what the future looks like, is it going to be being able to project or is it more about homeland security or defending New Zealand? It's more about projecting. So building a force, for example, being able to deploy a motorised brigade to go integrate with Australians somewhere further afield, that's where we look. It's not about sitting back and being like, we're strategically insignificant, we're safe.

No, no, no, no. We still want to be integrated with our partners and adding value to the global rules based order. You know, it is frustrating sometimes, especially when you're in the military. Now that I'm out and I'm kind of looking from the sidelines, you know, it can be quite rich for me to have all these kind of opinions and things, but at the same time I think they're valid.

Yeah. Yeah. So what else do you get going on besides that? Yeah, so the same old release, so yeah, looking at all that kind of stuff, keeping what on the Pacific, namely the Solomon Islands at the moment, especially with the lead up to the Pacific Games and then trying to come in with a stronger law enforcement presence and you know that's going to be fun. In terms of things that I'm working on, starting to spin up my own little online agency, which is cool. to spin up my own little online agency, which is cool.

Yeah, so see how that, see how that pans out. So that's nearly, nearly done. It's all because, you know, you spend so much time on this, you want to start making some pocket money, right? It was a hobby, but then I think the bigger, get and the more audience grows, there's more work involved. And when you start putting in more work, then you're kind of like, okay, well, I need to see a return on investment. And that investment being time, you know? Yeah.

Have you been contacted by like DIA or Chatham House or like a ran corporation or anything like that? Like one of the big level think things? No, not yet, but as of last night, I got an influx of people following me on X, which was Twitter, you know, a few journalists, a lot of people who work for think tanks, I think tanks, a lot of academics and things like that. So I think overall on that platform, the possibility is there for those kind of,

I think, Tanks to reach out. And I'm certainly open to it if anyone's listening. Shameless self-clog, but not yet, not officially, no. Oh, you'll get there. Try to trust me, everybody, every now and then, someone not yet, not officially. No. Oh, you'll get there. Trust me, everybody, every now and then, sometimes like, oh, I joined your discord because I found you through all kind as to, I'm like, man, I'm better pay that guy. Cause like, you're plugged everywhere. It's, I think it is.

I think maybe within the next year, you'll get something coming your way because everybody is following all kinds of students. It's just funny to hear you now say like, I should probably be making money off this. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why when I talk about an agency, like I'm kind of thinking of integrating the whole analysis

piece with content. So being able to provide the geopolitical and analytical content for other agencies. So, as we both know, this stuff takes a lot of time. So, I'd love to be able to do what I enjoy for other people, provide that service to them so they can focus time on building business and more important things. So, I know there's a lot of small businesses out there that are in the social media game and I know how much time it takes to have a presence. So why not take that off their hands

and let me do that and still kind of try and add value? You already know what I'm gonna say. You don't, you already know. You already know. Go to the Patreon. It's $10 a month. $10 a month. $10 a month.

And you get to hang out with us in the discord. Shoot the shit, play video games, learn a bunch of stuff about what's going on. Why would you sign up for other news apps that are going to blow up your phone with stupid things and, you know, oh, where Africa is doing this. Ukraine is doing that. Russia did this. Biden did that. No, you don't need that.

What you need is a discord full of friends talking shit about what's going on So you not only learn what's happening, but you also get to laugh at it and you get to play video games with us And you get to annoy the piss out of me. It's awesome. And it's only $10 a month, right? Just one Starbucks drink you got to get rid of a month just hang out with us instead. Oh, my bet He's putt. Oh good with us instead. Oh, my bet. He's put all good. Yeah, it's like a great dynamics, were they like integrate with like the British like intelligence industry? Yeah, so you know, that would be the dream, I suppose, but at the same time,

I think about I think about the time sink for that kind of stuff and that kind of work. And I just don't know if I'm that into it, like doing that kind of thing anymore. Because I enjoy this, you know, I enjoy speaking openly and frankly with people like yourselves, right, people who were in the military or who are still involved in the IC, but are able to still have an opinion about things, I really enjoy that. And I don't know if like plugging back into the national security space like that in New Zealand, which I'd have to do and maintain a clearance and probably have to go anonymous again and to leave my platform just to be able to do that kind of work because we're sort of kind of very touchy about it all that.

So in the short term I don't really see that. I just like the idea of building my own platform in the moment. It's fine and yeah I'm getting a decent reputation. And to get feedback from you Cody about people plugging what I do, I don't actually get a lot of feedback myself, so that's quite encouraging to hear that. Oh, dude, so you're from pretty much majors in the US Army. Like the one guy who is, yeah, he's a major in the US Army who is like, yeah, you guys should all follow him.

So he's got his cadets following you. You've got all the way in Alaska, like entire like group shops. Like I think it's like that, the 11th Airborne Corps, all pretty much up there. They're like the cab unit talks about you and stuff. So like pretty much everybody who's come to our discord

and our Patrons, just like, yeah, about you through all cotton, you guys are like, funny, I was like, man, I look cold like a beer. So I'm just like shit. Like everybody finds us through you. And so I'm like, it's funny because like, I think they'd eat whatever you do, you're going to be good because you put out such high quality content and you're very thorough about what you do. And so it's, it's, I mean, it's like you were a senior in CO and in Tyler or something. My god.'s, I mean, it's like you were a senior in CEO at Intel or something.

My God, like, you know what you're talking about. That's the hardest thing, you know? Well, I mean, like we just, we just got done with another podcast. And I think it's, if that, Croito and got nipped in the butt for its own reasons, but so you, you're kind of like taking the lead, and it's, and I say like taking the lead as far as like, there's real intel guys out here.

There's real intel pages out here, and they're very, very hard to find. A lot of these pages in news sites are ran by kids with college degrees and stuff like that. And there's nothing against them, but it's like the guy who just got off the podcast with us, he's a British army officer and they do real work out in Africa and all over the world and he's like, yeah, you know, he's sat there and he listened to the BBC and then he listened to us and he's like, shit, these guys are way smarter, way more thorough in their work.

So it's, I think whatever you do, your work reflects and like if you go on to do a podcast, if you do a YouTube page, whatever you're going to do, it's going to show whether you know it or not, because I mean you're a professional and it's just going to bleed through. Now is everybody going to want to hear it? No. Because it's hard. It's a hard pill to swallow.

Like you said, that's why you sometimes have to take a break from that stuff because like it's hard to be the guy telling the truth all the time and everybody's in your DMs and your comments like, shut up and then like three weeks later you're right you're like, you know, get a I told you so because by then everybody's forgotten and you've moved on so I yeah. I appreciate it. You know, it's funny yeah like if you think giving a bold assessment is difficult, sorry, to give to like a commander, you know, in the military, you know, and you've got the fear of getting shared on, try doing that same assessment and putting it out publicly. Holy fuck.

Yeah. I did. Um, dude, it's like, I was, I was looking for a, for Putin's so like I did a review of like Putin's essay on like why Ukrainians and the Russians are the same people And I was just looking for it and I came across like a few older posts and I came across my one-on-one Wagner group And I was like I think they're gonna increase our operations in Africa after they're done with Ukraine like one of those things Yeah, and I wrote that like a year and a half ago Like one of those things. Yeah, and I wrote that like a year and a half ago. It's like Jesus Christ. And I was like, you know, like Cody says like there's no validation. It's like There's those memes about like being an intel analyst is like an intelligent drunk. You're just like like well that didn't fix anything I guess I'm gonna get fucking hammered

Yeah, it's a when I was in the Marine Corps, they used to say intelligence was the most underappreciated M.O.S. in the military. It's like no, like if everything goes good, no one talks about you. And if everything goes bad, they're going to blame you. And so it's one of those we're especially in like the private sector, it's like, hey, I think the Chinese are going to start buying uranium deposits in the year through Wagner Group's capitalization of blah, blah, blah. And they're like, that doesn't make any sense. You're like, no, just give me like six weeks. Come on.

And then it's tough. Yeah. It's a tough day. That's a tough day. It's a second time. We've wanted to take a break. I just get ripped to shreds a few times, especially when I start talking about a future conflict with China. A lot of people who don't think it's going to happen, they'll just call you out.

They'll not call you out. They'll just start shitting on you and stuff. You'll say, ah, fuck. But then in my mind, you don't even have to be an intelligence analyst to kind of put to it too together. You just read every single policy document of all, essentially all Western nations, and they all talk about the rise of China, the militarization of the Indo-Pacific, the, you know, increasingly contested space, great power competition. And you know, when I say, there's going to be a conflict, we're trying to, well, my most likely is it'll

come down to a miscalculation to start with, you know, it's not going to, we're just going to have a straight up war. There's going to be something because as the South China Sea gets more contested, mistakes gonna be made eventually, which is gonna likely be a flashpoint to a very isolated conflict. That might spill over into other areas, but still, and then of course the most dangerous is the invasion of Taiwan and things like that.

So yeah, it's hard. It's hard. I would say, you know, I have a different opinion, but the last time we did this on this podcast, you guys guessed Africa, and I said, Moldova, so I'ma go get that crow that I was cooking in the oven, and I'll eat that for you. But yeah, I had a, we had a Polish guy once say, like, we were talking about like going into World War 3 and the Polish guy was like, yeah, no, when you, you mean when you join World War 3,

because he was referring to like Ukraine and how it's already happening. And like, we're just not a part of it. I think, I think we've already just, we're already there. And it's just kind of like, in a weird way, it's like, for the audience, it's like, we're already at war. We're already at information war. We're already at economic war with China. We're already at diplomatic war.

We're just that dime piece. We're not in the military war. It's like Westerners. That is like blue balls to us. Like no, let's have a conventional war. You, me and the parking lot. Now and it's like no, China has bought all the liquor behind the bar.

They have all the women, and they've got everybody in the bar on their side, and they've convinced all of Africa to join. They're convincing the Southeast Asians to join in the Middle East to join Bricks, like Bricks is economic war. And they're basically laughing at us from across the bar, and we're saying,

let's fight in the park and not you and me. Right now, they're basically laughing at us from across the bar and we're saying let's fight the park and not you and me right now they're like why the fuck when I go into the parking lot I've already won like. Talked about if we look in like a parallel situation so there was the Spanish Civil War which you can equate to like the Serians of war which all the nations of the world like tested out like their new tools right they're like the Nazis, the fascists, the communists, the Americans, the British, everyone fought in Spain in like what, 1936? And then the same time the Japanese invaded Manchuria in 1937. That was what four years before they attacked us in Pearl Harbor. We're like well there were two if you want to think of it in big pictures, started with the Spanish Civil War

and or the Japanese invasion of China because all these nations in the West, East, West, Russians, Germans, like the Germans sent military supplies to the nationalist Chinese. The communist sent military supplies to the communist Chinese, the Russian sent military supplies, the communist Chinese, or the Russian sent military supplies to the communist Chinese, and the Americans sent volunteers and fighter pilots and

stuff like that, was it Tiger Squadron? The flagged flagged that. Yeah, yeah, Tiger Squadron. So it's like, if you want to think about it, I can't say it's parallel, history rhymes, it's not the same thing, but you're like, dude, what were two started like four years before anything actually happened? And it was a long process. Yeah, and Cody, you know, you make a great point.

So, you know, when I talk about conflict with China, I'm certainly speaking kinetically, but then, you know, blow it, zooming out, big picture. When we talk about the Greyzone environment, Greyzone warfare, they are absolutely, that stuff is happening. And that's the whole reason why, over on my substack, that's what I write about. I try to... Selfless prog. Yeah. Apologies, but it's just fine.

You know, it's just all the under-reported events that are happening in that grey space that you're not going to read about unless you look for it. And for me personally, I think that's so important for people to know about. Yeah, you're taking a question for you. So Cody and I a few times have talked about how like culture shapes the perception of war and that the 90s as good as it was was the worst thing to happen to the US because it created like a bubble of like Everything's okay And so today everyone just goes back and watches like the office or friends

And they're like the world is very like it's perfect the world's fine I'm just gonna watch the same shows every single day But well You know Africa's getting colonized and the Europeans are getting invaded. And like you said, the Grey Zone is going on in all of the Indo-Pacific. You're like, there's an actual war. It's not kinetic. There's an actual war. And average Americans retreat into what they know and what's comforting.

What's comforting is like, if you want to go psychology-wise, it's like, what did you like as a kid? Was there any problems as a kid in the 90s? No, I'm just going to do that. And I'm not sure if that's a thing outside of the US or if that's like, what did you like as a kid? Was there any problems as a kid in the 90s? No, I'm just going to do that. And I'm not sure if that's a thing outside of the US, or if that's like a strictly US thing. Yeah, so it's really interesting. Here in New Zealand, as part of the recent release documents,

one of those was our first ever national security strategy. So up until this point, we've been operating on what was called a national security system, where if something happens, a whole bunch of agencies come together, come up to the plan and enact the plan. So what they're trying to do with the strategy is if kind of building it from the ground up. So it's not top-down like, this is what's happening, this is what we're going to do. They want to push the national security conversation into the public and increase the awareness of all these issues to the public because, you know,

culturally we just don't talk about them, we just don't care. One, because we're so isolated and we have largely been in a very peacetime environment. And so here in New Zealand, the national security conversation, as part of that, is future conflict or the risk of future conflict. That is going to be pushed more into the forefront in the public. And I don't know if it's going to change things culturally speaking, but at least, you know, those kind of, yeah, that conversation will be more prominent and people will start caring a bit more. Yeah, because at the moment it's very much like the US.

We know bad things are happening, but we're still like, no, we good fan. Yeah, I don't want to think about that. I don't want to think about that. So is that like a two-pronged approach? Because the Christchurch shooting a few years ago was pretty intense. And so it was like, hey, domestic terrorism's a thing. Like you can't get around it,

as well as existential threats. That is also a thing. Is it a two-pronged approach? Or is it just like, we're not gonna talk about the shooting. We're just gonna talk about the Chinese. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, they've come out and there've been more explicit with the threats that New Zealand currently face and what we will likely face in the

very near future. Not name dropping people too much, but, you know, it's certainly talks about the rise of China, talks about domestic terrorism, as we found out with the Christchurch shooting. We've got cyber information warfare that's happening. You know someone hacked one of our district health boards, which was pretty massive. So there's all sorts of things. So yeah, it absolutely is a two-pronged approach, I suppose, but rather than being very, I don't know what's the word, just talking about threats conceptually, we're actually being explicit about them. And those, that information

is being pushed to the public, which is good. And I think it's the first step we've really seen. So there was, I think this was like, I want to say 10 years ago it started or the big one happened. A bunch of guys from the software Elm went to GE on like an exchange program for there for like just two, three weeks and they were like, you guys are completely susceptible. I mean, this was like, oh, five, I want to say. So actually like 18 and Jesus 20 years ago, they said, yeah, you guys are completely susceptible to hacking and like cyber.

And they were like, who what? Who cares? And that was the big one that, I mean, you can Google it, GE hacked by China. And I mean, China took everything, washers, dryers, refrigerators, light bulb technology, all of it. And people were like, oh, it's just a hack. And we're like, no, this is that economic warfare

and information piece. And it's like, it's actually kind of cool to hear New Zealand say that, especially for your job market there. It's like, no, you guys are on the forefront. Yeah, we're not the military can't defend you. You cut these companies, or susceptible to hacking, you need cyber guys, you need analysts, you need these guys to tell you, look, you're the soft underbelly of our country. And they may reply, like, oh, well, we're not at war. Like, they're at war friends, and it's like, they are not. Like, and it's weird to me to, like, as I was sitting here

putting that thought together, it's like, they're whole, all of that in China is coming for you guys. And it's weird to me that not only do we not have a defense plan, or we're not even considering it, but what our plan of attack back? Are we going to start stealing Chinese technologies? Is there anybody in the American, New Zealand, or the Five Eye community? There's nobody going to war with China economically in Africa.

How would you even, because we're not a state-run economy. We would need companies to go in and like Bet offer better deals to Africa or Southeast Asia or bricks like It's kind of like the the state run economy is now being used as a weapon and You're sitting there and it's like you you don't even have an offense plan let alone an offensive plan for that I want to build on that just a little bit where it comes to like Sino talk talks about how the Chinese I can flink race relations

where it's like hey If you're a white guy you say like the inner word or whatever like everyone shuns you like it's a thing like Shouldn't say it, but like they shun you and then they like drive like this divide where like causes disposition between the population. And so what the Chinese can do is if a say an American corporation shows up in like Mozambique, they're like, oh, you know, as a bunch of fucking Europeans here colonizers, whatever. And then the Americans or Europeans might just leave. They might just say like, it's not worth it. And then from there, how do you counterbalance that where it's the West is very, like, conscious about the past, but the Chinese and the Russians don't care.

They just keep going for it. And they exploit it very easily. And I mean, even if you go to something like social media or telegram or something like that, they push the race stuff hard. I'm not going to say that racism is not a thing, it definitely is, but they're just Twitter bots, more, just pushing black on white violence or black on black violence for like the the American conservative is like black on black whatever and then it's one of those where

it's like they know the trigger points on society and they could press it pretty hard. I'm not sure if that's a thing in New Zealand where you could say something like white New Zealanders in like mowries or like the aborigines who are like hey is there a way to like drive a wedge between two? And if they do, or if there is, they might go after that. Yeah. There is space to exploit that at the moment. We, our society, it's still relatively untap, but it is, you are seeing like cracks of division, especially when we talk about the mouldy being the indigenous people and then European New Zealand. And this goes right back to what we have called the treaty, which was between indigenous people and New Zealand back

in the 1800s. But since then, we've got the conversations about colonization or decolonization. And there's people talking about two different systems, going as far as to say, we want another system of government purely for the moldy people and one for everyone else. I don't know if those signs of division is driven by external actors. I'll say that's unlikely, but the space to exploit that is there. It certainly isn't risk. Yeah, I wouldn't go as far to say that that China or Russia is behind that at the moment. But anything, the way we see things in New Zealand, right, anything that happens in America, it'll follow it, it'll find its way here in New Zealand eventually. We're already starting to see it without politics you know, at least first right, even though in a very small scale I'm just like dude we're pretty much the same party just

different colors. Yeah it sucks. You're like guys, that was where those words like it's one of those like, like I said, like Europeans and Americans don't like to talk about it, but it happens. Like there is division in people with communities, like you can go way into the weasest psychology and that whole thing. But if you have someone like the former KGB current FSP or the Chinese intelligence, they're like boom, that's it. That's how you disable as a country. And if their whole thing is, if you're not Han Chinese, you're not a person, like look at all the weegers and like cages, like one of those things where it's, they're not nice

people. The way they treat the local Africans in Africa, they're not very nice when they have their corporations go in Africa. They're not very nice when they have their corporations go to Africa. It's like, I think they know how to drive division when they're pretty good. Like you said, like it's probably not a thing right now, but it can be capitalized on later. So yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So wait and see on that one, but yeah, I'll hope not. Yeah, it's not, but it's like, you know, the U.S. is pretty rough. It's always, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, and it's, it's just funny because they were talking about, or we were talking about one of the podcasts, we were talking about how liberalism has kind of won the culture war over the last 10 years under the Obama administration. It's just, it is what it is. It's not a conservative liberal talking point. I mean, it's cancel culture, all that. The Me Too movement, LGBTQ, all those things. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not that Russia or China influences those. It's,

it's that they turn the dial on that stuff. They're like, oh, you guys are getting pissed off at each other over this. Let's kind of bump that up to a lesson and see how that goes for you. And it's been really, really weird here, because we were talking about this in the last podcast. We were talking about how the youth of today are like, oh yeah, I'm going counterculture. I'm going to church. I'm going to start lifting. I'm going to church. I'm going to start lifting. I'm going to start being a normal member of society.

Watch this, Bob and Dad. It's like, what do you mean that's counterculture now? And so it's, it's a strange topic. Is that happened in New Zealand? Or like, what's your? Yeah. So a joke about a max me and someone makes you know, if you go to the gym, you're a right ring extremist.

So that was like, if you go to the gym, you're a right-wing extremist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so you're behind that line. That was like, if you go to the gym, you have great wing ideologies. You're like, yeah. Yeah, that's what it's like. Yeah, so that found its way to gym. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So there is that counterculture.

And yeah, the liberalized society is certainly a thing. The only thing that I'm like about all this, you know, I'm a pretty all this, you know, I'm a pretty, pretty open dude. But if you have an opinion that goes against the set of narratives, I just don't agree with cancel culture. Yeah. I think that's so bad, you know? And people just, people don't have to agree with you.

That's fine. They don't agree with you. Fuckin' whatever. Yeah, that doesn't matter. You don't have to, you don't have to dox them in all their life, Jesus. Jesus. Yeah. Well, I Yeah, it doesn't matter. You'd have to dox them in real life, Jesus. Well, I mean, you've got your discord and we've got ours. It's just funny because we've got people from all over the world

and Matt was saying, it's normal for Africans to hate Africans. It's like as a race thing. It's even funnier because they don't even stop there. They go to their own people. Like, Camerunians that speak English are being brutally beaten by Camerunians who speak French. And it's like, you know, we've got an African in the Discord. And he's just like, yeah, bro,

it's phenomenally racist in Africa. But it's like, if you ever want to shut an American down, just be like, cancel culture, racist, ear wrong. And then you just have to shut up. And like, it's wild to see like when you actually open the doors away from America and you look out there, you're like, oh, oh, this is in how the world works at all.

Like fucking. I was joking the other day at work because someone was asking, they're like, how did COVID end? Like, how do we get rid of the mask and all the stuff like that? And I was like, we all locked fingers with Alex Jones and walked into the water.

It's like, when Alex Jones makes sense, you're like, there's a problem. Yeah. It's like, like you said, yeah, you can disagree with people and get along and it's fine. It's just fucking crazy how wild it's gotten. Yeah, you can disagree with people and get along and it's fine. It's just fucking crazy how wild it's gotten. Yeah, yeah. So for someone like me, so I've got, I've got a multi heritage and New Zealand

European rights side among both sides of the fence. And it's really hard. So because on both sides, you look at both sides and the things you agree with it, but there's also things you don't agree with. And it's, you almost start feeling torn, especially if you start looking at picking sides, I don't pick sides, but some people do. And they're like, oh, well why don't you agree with us on this thing? You know, everyone else is racist, I'm like, nah, chill, it's all good.

It's not that bad. Yeah, it's not that bad. You look at New New Zealand drink. They're like... Yeah. Yeah, but New Zealand is good, man. We're still a paradise as much as people hate to admit it. Yeah.

They did. Yeah. Got it out. I mean, you guys were like the first to beat COVID because you just said, No, nobody could come here. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, you might as well not come here

because we're not doing anything. Yeah. That's in that zero on like COVID case. It's like, what the fuck, dude? What else do you get? It's pretty crazy. So you got like a whole page going on, what else? Yeah, so we've got the website, subject.

Restarting the podcast hopefully next weekend. All right. Yeah, put that on hiatus. So a good friend of mine who I've had on the podcast, he goes by the alias Xerox. He hooked me up with some podcast gear. So I've got a really good mixer here and I've got a couple road mics.

Yeah, so I'll be going hard with that. Hopefully get you guys on. I'd love to do in person, but you know. Oh, you guys love. We just talked about cats on culture. You can't have a son there. These motherfuckers. But I mean, that, no. I'm just one Instagram targeted community is probably coding I just label it croit

toward and just have Matt just be like yeah I've been fucking with you guys for so long and just like yeah yeah but oh bro like the stuff that we do in the platforms we run it's all about making complex issues accessible to every person, right? Yeah. At least, and that's how I see it. And that's the beauty of it. It's sure you get hate and sure you get people

who are gonna call you out and give you shit. But at the same time, you know, we've got quite strong followings and people who appreciate the work that they like to hear ourselves do and the work that I do. It's not something I do for entertainment. I don't intend to entertain people with my content

and what I do is more educational. I just kind of try and break it down so everyone can understand it and grasp it. Yeah. Rather than putting it into real dry, intelligence, brief style kind of thing. I mean, yeah, you, you can. I mean, I saw your post. You were talking about how like to, to make an intel page and, uh, yeah, I read that. I had a laugh and I was just like, you know,

there's a lot of people who make like, uh, what, what he will remain nameless. Uh, but there's people who just report the news and that's it. They just like, this happened, this happened, and then, I mean, and like you said, you're just putting on that, doing the intel, doing the analysis, letting people know. And I mean, it's a pin, it's an educated guess with some opinion drizzled in there. You can't not have an opinion in there, but it's funny because it's true. Like, anybody can do this, anybody can have this. You just gotta be willing to read up and put in the work and read the history and know these places.

But. Yeah, it's funny when I first wrote that, it was like a three-piece series. Since then, I just saw a massive uptick in these little Instagram pages popping up. So I like to think that people read it and had a credit. Yeah.

I probably do need to update it, but at the same time, I really like people trying to get their head in the game with this kind of stuff, because it's just more insight, it's more news coming my way as well, because I mean, I don't really watch mainstream media anymore, purely because it's just too broad. I like to just tailor what I care about and what I think is the bottom. And that's the beauty of the platforms that we run, right? It's good stuff, man. It's good, and I hope people get value from it. Yeah. This is one guy in our discord that hit us up about how Crowe Tongue got like torpedoed, about essentially as thesis

for his college paper was how social media is a siaop and directs people to a certain like group of thinking and the example essentially he was like well what happened to Kroatown? Like you guys were building for so long and then it died, what happened. And it was like, we started reporting on the Russians instead of the Ukrainians. We got torpedoed pretty quick. And like, there's two examples. The first one is, you probably saw it. There was a Russian tank driving down the road

and like, smoke checked a bunch of Ukrainians. And there was another one. Point blank. You gotta, you can't just say, yeah, tech was driving and it, and it blew these. You posted, the video was the T-72, You can't just say yeah, take was driving in it and it blew these you create you The video was the T-72 coming in within like 10 feet of these Ukrainians having a smoke circle and laughing it up And they look over at this tank and they're like, oh, it's you create in and then it just immediately point like blows these dudes into the air and And just that was it yep, that was it. No, no, I mean you've seen kill TV. Don't you lie to me?

A Russian UAV just like destroying a armored column of Ukrainians and Immediately it was like a 180 where everyone's like I thought you were pro Ukraine. I'm like dog I'm just talking like about the war like with like an analytic perspective And I was like, to me, I was like, hey, a lot of pages do a good job talking about the Ukrainians. I'm going to report on the Russians because, you know, they're also in the war. And that's where it gets messy. And I hope his paper turns out good. Like Cody had him pretty good stuff. That's the whole idea of his paper just to kind of see what you, what you're thinking, because I know he listens to this podcast.

So he'll be interested in from your opinion, uh, basically, like, not just cancel culture, but like subversion, like, how did, like, oh, you didn't play to that narrative? Let's push you aside, type deal. Like, have you seen that? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah. So, yeah, Carlon Port was a classic example

and I think having, you know, what you did, you know, from the Russian side and with an analytical point of view on that kind of stuff, I think it's so important and to get that, did you get, like, cancelled officially through Meta? Or was it yeah, everyone he Yeah, so I got like a series of like Like meta was like say something like you can't share your posts. You can't use our music anymore

Just stuff like that. So it was like limiting in the Interactions if you look like the dashboard it dropped like 35 45% right and it was like by the day So instead of like getting viewed to 25,000 people opposed, it was like sex. And it was just dead. Black, it's just, you know, it's a, they're important perspectives, right? And so imagine if I, with my page,

if I started posting something from like the PLA perspective and the successes that they're having in the Indo-Pacific and what they're doing right. Purely from their perspective, not that I agree with it, but this is how I see it and it's the truth. I feel I might not get canceled through meta because China probably has investment. Yes.

So they're like, yeah, good work. Here's some more growth. But publicly, they'll be like, what the fuck are you doing? Blah, blah, blah. And then I'll start getting the hate and the trio. There was that pro-tank report. The one I wrote back in December, I was like, I want to look in the host amount.

Like the paratroopers that came in, I want to focus on this. And so I met an XVDV officer and I met a volunteer who was at host almost. So I interviewed both guys. And then I started reading about like the BDA coming down. I was like, in reality, the VDV did their job. They did, like, they did what they were told. They just ran out of ammunition. I was like, that's why they failed. And like, their kids were set up with like they got three magazines and like one MRE like they didn't get anything because and doctrinally speaking terms the armoured column was

supposed to show up and like relieve them. Well it never happened. So then they went to Bucca or Buccio however you say it. And I was like hey I'm not endorsing this. However, they just followed the orders. And that's like, they did their job as soldiers. And like Cody and I talk about it, like soldiers respect soldiers, like you don't agree with the party. You, like you relate to the soldier. And that's what I ban into oblivion. Just like, you're nice in Russians.

Can you do that? Who would do such a thing? And I was like, VDV are like, you're saying, nice and russians, can you do that? Who would do such a thing? And I was like, VDV are like, there are special operations for a reason. Well, at this the thing, if you're serious about, you know, caring about what goes on in the world, then it's important to get perspectives from both sides. And from someone like yourself able to put an analytical lens of what's happening, then that's important. The problem isn't someone like you. The problem is the platform. They're the ones with the narrative, because they're just going to cancel you, because you're

going against the Ukraine is the best kind of thing. But it's important to have balance in these kind of situations. Well, I don't agree with Russia. I don't agree with what they're doing. I don't like the war, whatever. But if you're going to, like, especially tactically speaking, if we're talking about the VDV and they're mentioning the operations, even just breaking it down tactically and saying what they did,

you know, they did the right thing, they just ran out of bullets. That's not agreeing with the war. That's not saying go Putin, I Putin. That's just like breaking down a tactical situation and coming like essentially lessons learned. Yeah. It's just like looking down a tactical situation, coming like central lessons learned. Yeah. It's just like looking at like the Normandy beach landings and be like, hey, hey, the reason the Russians are not the Russians, the Americans stormed the beaches is because the Germans ran out of ammunition. Like there was too many Americans for the Germans to shoot. Like, yeah.

It's a fact of light. Yeah. Yeah, you love Germany. It was like never once did I say that. I'm pretty much just like saying pound for pound what happened. But anyways, I just used crow to on us like a troll account now. I'm just going to post a Zelensky quote and just get called an Nazi. So what's the thing in your and your bias like usually vindicated with a 90 days? Yeah.

So good. in your and your bias like usually vindicated with a 90 days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So good. I was actually just scrolling through Kippa because I posted about how Wagner was doing turning burns. They were engaging the Ukrainians outside the perimeter of Bachmute with a China Lake grenade launcher, like the one that cocks. And I was like, I think this is gonna be the, this is what's gonna happen to the next counter offensive,

is that they're just gonna let Ukraine come in and they're just gonna keep killing and backing up and backing up and that's exactly what's happened. And I was like, I should post that. Be like, hey, look, I was right, screw you guys. And then I was like, that's not gonna go well. That's not gonna go the way I think. I should probably...

I was moving on Cody's part where he was like, hey, counter-fence of sailing, kiss-crow-tones-ass, he was the dual-in-the-apology. Matt called this a year and a half ago. It was like Liam Lone. Do you know, have you ever done that? Have you ever done anything like from the Chinese perspective? And like it just go way off.

Like everyone's just like you communist shell. Like, no, no, so I haven't. I probably should. I've done a couple of pieces where, you know, wall gaming, what an infobescent version of Taiwan would look like from the Chinese perspective. I, you know, no one, what an infobescent version of Taiwan would look like from the Chinese perspective, and I won't call me out of game, you should about that, like, okay, that's fair. But I think, yeah, I think that's an important thing to do. Maybe I'll make a few posts.

Yeah. I support the PLA. You get a number. I support the PLA anyways. So you get a name or I support the PLA anyways 100,000 likes 230 million like views Say you like Which is funny because the first post we ever did on kit bag that was a real it was a pro Indian army post And I was like it's gonna get us a ton of followers watch. It got like it's the highest viewed video we have Yeah, it's like if you ever think it's like,

oh man, I want some followers, just post something like pro, Indian and just like watch it just, tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt tt t good. You should do that. You should do some more like PLA, viewpoints and like talking points. Yeah, I think I will. You know, I think I will. I think there's merit in doing it. Not just trying to be a dick about things, but actually like saying, hey, look, this is what the PLA is doing right. This is why you should care about it. Yeah. I'd be cool. Let's go. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, are we doing another? Yeah. I know the times about to run around. I see you, man. I got. I got. I've got. It's nearly lunchtime here. Um, I've still got afternoon to go and use you on. So I'll probably call it. All right. It's been a hour. It's been an hour, man.

Yeah, yeah. But as always guys, it's been a great chat. And I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me. I take time. It's been, I feel like it's been too long between drinks. We need to do this more often. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's what happens. You're down there in New Zealand in your own little corner and they can have an appartee down there. Strategically isolated. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll do fuck you. and they can have an a party down there. Like strategically isolated. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can do it. Fuck you. Yeah.

Well, oh, shit. Well, Cole, thank you for coming on. I mean, one of the best in the community, just not some high school college kids, just like talking about like news headlines from Newsweek, just like actually putting the word, like Cody said, like this time next year, I think there's absolutely

going to be someone to reach it out. Yeah, you'll be too big to talk to us. We'll still be here. And the trenches is talking about you, Craig, and you'll be like, how's it going? I'm making $100,000 at Raytheon. I'm like, fuck it. No, I appreciate it, guys.

Stay once. Never forget them. Yeah. Well, all right. Well, yep. I think we're going to cut it guys. Stay once, never forget them. Yeah. Well, all right. Well, yep. I think we're going to cut it out. Take it easy, man. Really appreciate it. Later, guys.

See ya.