The Scott Adams School - 07/07/26 The Home Team joined by BJ Dichter.

Good morning. Good morning.

My gardener's coming.

Marcela's gardener's coming. Owen's car broke down on his way to the studio, but we're here. Like, what else could you want? It is July 7th. Oh, it's 7/7 BJ, as we were just saying. Uh, 7/7/2026. BJ is joining us today. I'm starting you guys up here. Oh, everyone looks so good. Sorry, I couldn't start the stream early. Good morning, Dr. Hines.

How are you?

And Dr. Von Hardy, special shout out to you for making so many fun thumbnails for our shows. Did you guys see the one today? I'm like, all right, so we all are wearing the same pants with the same legs, but I get it. Okay, let's see.

By the way, I noticed Persuasion Club in the chat. I've been listening to more and more of their podcasts. They're getting better and better.

Yes.

So shout out to you guys and keep it up.

Yes, Kevin made me a great thumbnail too. He did the Seinfeld one. Good morning, Persuasion Club. Oh yes, soccer is gay again. It's over and now it's gay again.

I see.

Game fake. Yeah, that was brutal. I'm just giving a little extra time because we didn't start the stream early, so I want to give a chance for everyone to come in before we get to our sip. And, uh, yeah, that game was brutal, you guys.

I thought the Mexico game was brutal and like, there comes the US.

It was amazing. It was so good. The Mexico game. Loved it. It's so exciting.

It's tragic.

You know what?

We should do a soccer stream, a football stream at some point.

Yes. I won't be there.

We can, we can talk about it.

Yeah, we can hash it out.

All right, so I think we're in. Maybe Owen will come sliding in a little bit later. If you guys see him in the chat and he's not coming, let me know.

Just kidding.

Okay, so let's do it.

Now, I'm not saying the rest of your day will be all downhill. I'm just saying this is the best part. It might get the rest of it to a higher average than it would have been, and all you need to participate All you need is a—

what?

Copper mug or glass, tank or chalice or stein, canteen, jug, or flask, a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee. And join me now for the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better. It's called the simultaneous sip, and it happens now.

Go!

Delicious. Uh, good morning to YouTube also, you guys. I see you, Flynn and Annie and Bushman, and all you guys are amazing over there. Uh, so welcome to the Scott Adams School. Uh, my name is Erica. I'm joined today with Marcella, and BJ returns. Um, we have a fun show planned for you. I think it's a little chaotic, but we're going to get through it. And, um, We just want to let you know that all of Scott Adams' livestreams and material are living over there on YouTube and also tons more of content on his Locals page. And that is scottadams.locals.com. And that is a subscriber-based platform.

You—

I think it's $7 a month. But if you buy the year, it's only $70. He gives you 2 months for free. Okay. That's just That's the price. And if you want to join us, we would love it. We would love the support, and we would love to see you there. But that being said, we're just glad you're here. Um, all right, so you guys, I've been wanting to play a couple of clips like the last several days, but I just haven't had a chance to get to it. So for those of you who have been missing my stupid animal clips, I just— you guys, look at this and tell me you wouldn't just die. Ready? Watch this.

No!

Go away! Oh my God, I had that happen to me before.

Dude, that dog is so calm.

What do you mean you had that happen to you before?

So where I lived in Monrovia, California, there's a lot of bears, but they're so used to humans. It's not like this bear.

Yeah, he's approaching them.

I had a mama bear with two bears, and they look so skinny. I thought they were dogs, and you know me, I'm like trying to rescue dogs. I approached them thinking like, oh, I'm gonna rescue these dogs. They looked at me like, what in the world? But they were not like this.

Would you die? He's like running in circles around them. She is beautiful. Brave.

Oh, you guys, I would start grabbing rocks at this point, at this juncture.

At this juncture, I would die.

Is that what you do? You throw rocks at a bear? Is that the way to go?

No, no, find any kind of weapon.

Don't take her advice, you guys.

You have to look bigger. You have to look bigger. You have to make noises. You can't—

yeah, she did a good job.

Wait, wait, wait.

How tall are you, Marcela?

I'm like 5'5", 5'6". Not tall. So is that okay?

All right, well, this woman did exactly what you're supposed to do. Get loud, get big, try to—

don't run.

Yeah, don't. I mean, like, the thing was circling her. I'm like, oh my God, she— I, you know, she was just like dying inside. That is so scary. Um, I don't know that you should follow Marcela's advice and throw rocks at a bear, so just— that's just her opinion. And if you're ever in that situation—

it worked for me.

Please, please, somebody make the meme of Marcela throwing rocks at a bear, scaring the bear away.

But don't forget, the bears were very skinny. She thought they were dogs. This bear was scary.

Yeah, this bear looks like it ate a human, so it's not good.

Oh my goodness. All right, so I had to get that one out of the way. When I saw that, my heart was like, oh. All right, the other quick things, because we didn't really talk too much or show anything about the festivities, but you guys, I live here at the Jersey Shore, which you all know, and we've had the privilege a few times to have all of the tall ships come into Sandy Hook Bay, which is like right near where I live. Um, and so they came in like, you know, sporadically a few days before leading up, and they were just anchored in the bay there, and everybody was taking their boats out and looking at them, um, going around. Like this picture, this is the Italian one. This is from our boat. And some of them are over 300 feet long. So just to give you some perspective, I mean, look at the boats next to them, how tiny they look for perspective. And here, this is the American Coast Guard tall ship. They're just amazing. And you guys, I don't know who took this photo. I will find it later, but this is the most iconic photo I've seen all weekend of any of the anything. This is when they were all coming into the New York Harbor. Does that look like AI? I mean, look at how far back they go, all the way around the corner of the, of the Statue of Liberty. Um, amazing to see them. Beautiful sight. I hope they come again, but, um, just absolutely gorgeous.

Let me guess, no legacy media coverage at all on this because I haven't seen it.

Oh really? Well, it was like, this was the parade that went into New York, and then all— so all day, uh, we had information fighter jets flying over the house and bombers. And yeah, it was just amazing. I don't know if there was really— I don't watch the news, so I don't really know if there was much coverage. But if you could ever find out where they are, amazing, amazing. And the crew, like, there's like— they all stand on the mast poles, like the whole crew. They drop the sails down. I mean, this is not like done electronically. This is all old school, but just So, so beautiful. One, one last shot of this because this was just magnificent. And, um, uh, what a sight. And the birds flying.

President Show Business knows how to put on a show.

Yeah, they— I think the last time they were here was 2012. I forget what that was for. And then in 2020. And then I think obviously 1976 they were here. And I want to say one other time, it might have been like '92 or '93. But anyway, beautiful. I'm so happy when we see things like that. And we are so lucky where I live because New York Harbor's there, and like, this is like where people first came to America and like found land on the East Coast. And just beautiful. It's just beautiful. Okay, that was my little America moment with Erica. Okay, so what do we have? Owen was going to give me this story about a study done in Canada about milk, about whole fat milk being better for you. And I wanted to do it because BJ was here and I thought he could expand on it. But instead of that story— so you guys, whole milk, allegedly. BJ, tell us about 7/7.

Oh, well, today is the 25th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings in London, England. And if I remember correctly, it was something like 50-some-odd people were killed. They bombed a couple of subway stations and a bus. I think it was 3 subway stations and a bus, if I remember correctly. And, you know, many people were perplexed. Oh, homegrown terrorism. How could they be terrorists? Because they were, I think they're all Pakistani descent. But it's what many of us try to communicate. They may be born in the United Kingdom, but their philosophy and their value system is alien to the United Kingdom values. And that's what you're about to see now that Mamdani is in power. And these people who were elected to the state senate, And this is a problem. This is what's been happening in Canada, that people, they become little collectives and they radicalize each other if the government is not involved in integration. And yeah, so it's a very serious concern. And this is also why I think what we do wrong is we think of these incidents, oh, they're so far apart. But the adversaries of Western civilization in America, they take a long-term view of the world that from the World Trade Center bombing number one in the '90s, uh, the Cole, the, the, uh, 2001, 7/7, October 7th— I know a lot of people are so confused about it— and the, the bombings in Holland. Like, there's a whole bunch of them. This is just one era in this global, uh, culture war and, you know, basically civilizational war that is going on with people who have a very long-term view of the world. And we got to get away from Oh, this term, this election, and start looking at the world strategically over a long period of time. Otherwise it'll be to our peril.

Mm-hmm. We're seeing that unfortunately.

Yeah.

All too often. So we wanted to just acknowledge that, you know, and thank you for letting us know. I did not realize. And thank you.

I bring all the good news, right?

Yes, yes, yes. BJ.

Sorry.

No, it's all good, BJ. Um, where is— somebody else mentioned BJ, uh, BJ's Wholesale Club. You guys, is this the right clip? Let me see.

BJ's Warehouse.

Yeah, yeah, there's one. So the one right near me, I think this is it. Let's take a look. We've been having the wackiest weather. I mean, a lot of people have, but we had vicious flash flooding yesterday. So many businesses underwater, like a whole entire Asbury Park is under— so crazy. But I think this is the one, you guys.

Camera has been cut down completely.

Nope, that's coming. This must be it. Here we go.

Good morning, Robin. And they're set to do so again today. More than 1,200 flight cancellations yesterday, nearly 10,000 flight delays nationwide. And unfortunately Today looks to be more of the same. Intense storms dumping massive amounts of rain, leaving communities across the Northeast underwater. In hard-hit New Jersey, cars completely submerged.

No, you don't want to hit reverse!

Several water rescues underway as floodwater lapped at residents' front doors. In Monmouth County, terrifying video showing this roof collapse.

Ocean requesting you mutual aid to BJ's for a structural collapse, multiple injuries, multiple entrapments.

Local officials poring over this video of the roof caving in at a BJ's Wholesale Club.

We have, uh, 20% of the building collapsed.

Police say 2 people were briefly trapped, but no one was hurt. Ken Colada shot this video of the roof leaking just before it collapsed.

I didn't know what it was, to be honest.

I didn't know if it was a tornado.

Who knew? Is it scary?

It was terrifying.

The lobby of this emergency room in New Jersey flooding. The hospital saying patient care was not impacted. Millions still under a flood watch this morning.

Oh my God, buddy!

A 75-year-old sycamore tree crashing on top of this garage.

Buddy, my leg is cooked!

My leg is cooked!

One resident in Westville, New York had to be rescued after her home was completely flooded.

We need help!

It's like a river.

Rescue crews showing up with life vests to get her out safely. The storm's causing major travel trouble across the country, delaying or canceling some 10,000 flights Monday alone. Ryan Fitzgerald says she, her boyfriend, and two young children had been trying to get home to Bangor, Maine for more than 24 hours.

We got to the airport, checked in, they straight canceled the LaGuardia flight at 6 AM due to weather.

After another delay the next day, they made the decision to take the 10-hour drive home. Now the good news here is that things are likely going to improve starting tomorrow, much needed after a brutal start to this week.

You guys, it has been insane, the weather. Like, all— like, a lot of my friends on the Eastern Seaboard, and, um, I mean, tornado, little tornado things. I saw in the chat maybe microbursts. I don't know what it is, but what is with the weather? Don't you find it odd? Did you guys see the pictures from New York with the fireworks where every building top in the city had a lightning bolt attached to it? That was like the night of the fireworks. It's been crazy. I'm not saying anything weird is happening, but it's weird.

But didn't— I remember I was in New Jersey in— when was it? It was 2024 when Hurricane Ernesto hit. I was in, I think, Cranberry, New Jersey. I was picking up a load in the truck and it was like I was in Florida and it took me like 30 hours to get back to Canada for an 8-hour drive. But, um, I don't know, these things just happen. I think what happens is our, our recency bias. We think that when something happens that is abnormal, that hasn't happened in the past year or two, uh, we think it's abnormal. And I think the climate, uh, extremists take advantage of that. I think this is— things always happen. Weird things just happen, and it's, it's exciting. And it's bad, it's very negative in some ways, but I think that's all it is. I don't think it's anything abnormal. And also what I've noticed in traveling the US, the infrastructure in the Northeast is the oldest, especially in places like Rhode Island and stuff. So they're just not, you know, you have flooding every day in Florida. Every day in Florida in the summer it rains, it floods, but 10 minutes later it's gone. I think they're just more predisposed because of their infrastructure to absorb it, whereas in New York, it'll affect it a lot more than other places in the country. That's just how I see it.

Marcela, any manipulation of the weather?

No, it's not MKUltra.

It's not Dubai.

It's MKUltra Plus, like MKUltra weather. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's been known, they, you know, the cloud seeding is an actual thing that, that they use. They used it in Dubai, they use it in— I think they used it in Qatar in last World Cup. They had like these clouds over like the, the games, and it was known, it was a thing known to do. So I don't know.

Yeah, I'm not really suspicious, it's just— I am extra. I mean, I, I have a level of suspicion, especially when you saw what happened in Dubai. Um, but they did that to themselves. Um, it's crazy that you could do that weather manipulation, but I mean, Trump was saying let's like throw a bomb into the hurricane and break it up. I love that. That was so funny.

He thinks outside the box.

I know he does.

I—

he does. So anyway, weather, it's scary. So I told you I own a tree service, so of course the phone is going crazy. Um, you know, it's just interesting. Just be careful, people, be careful. Okay, so let's move along. All right, so you guys, here's the— here's another thing. Have you guys been noticing those flock cameras everywhere? Do you know what I'm talking about? They're like a big— they're a big pole. They have some kind of solar component panel on it, and then they have cameras on it. And, you know, they're like, oh, it's just to get license plates of people doing things, but they're popping up everywhere. And apparently they can do a lot more than just read your plate. Like, they do face recognition, they can hear conversations. My opinion, allegedly, because I'm not a flock expert, um, if you guys know about them in the chat, definitely drop your facts there. But we— so I just noticed a new one in a town near, like, right near me, a small little town, and it is the most ominous looking thing. And it was like that people were complaining about it, and they're like, no, listen, we can hear a gunshot go off in a house before anyone can call 911 and be there before, like— and you're like, wait, what? So you're just gonna like hear a conversation or hear something and just show up based on eavesdropping. It's very bizarre. So we were, you know, talking about this surveillance state, a few of us, and I was just like, what? Yeah, like, what's going on here? So I wanted to listen to what this guy said. And, um, like Scott Adams said, privacy is dead and only being boring saves you. Exactly. Well, it does, it does change human behavior when you know you're being watched. And then do you have freedom? I don't know. So let's, I, I like this guy. I found him interesting. I'm gonna show you this clip real quick.

Imagine a civilization where everyone's hands were shackled to their sides all the time, and they were only given enough slack to move in order to work. No one would call that free or democratic because the behavior of the people would literally not be free. They would be actively compelled to act a certain way by the structures of control placed on them.

Them.

Surveillance changes behaviour. That's the point. So by definition, people are no longer acting freely under surveillance. Their behaviour is shaped by how the watchers want them to act. No matter how subtle this is, it's true. And compulsory behaviour is, by definition, not free. So surveillance is antithetical to freedom. Because surveillance is designed to compel behaviour, this gives a very real power to the watchers. And that violates the core principle of democracy. Rather than a free society of free individuals acting together, surveillance creates a power differential where the people behind the cameras now have far more power than the people in front of the cameras. So surveillance and democracy cannot coexist. It's important to learn the difference between surveillance and being witnessed. To be witnessed is a community act. It is the natural social structure of all primates. We see one another, and that shapes behavior in a pro-social way. But being witnessed is a transparent, mutual act. I see you in community, and you see me. Also, being witnessed is a collective action. We all see one another, and in our witnessing, we create the fabric of a society. You could say that the weave of a healthy society is made of the threads of mutual witnessing. Modern individualistic society breaks these threads and leaves people feeling isolated. We don't feel seen. We don't really see anyone else. I work to act all the time as though I'm being actively watched. Punched by the people I respect most in the world. And that is an effort to return to a healthier model of human society. It's also true. Nothing is secret in community, really. Everything we ever do is part of us, and people around us will see it. So it's good practice to act in ways that you want to be witnessed by your entire community. Past, present, and future. That's integrity. But notice the differences. Surveillance is not a two-way thread of mutual witnessing. It is a one-way watching. From anonymous powers far larger than you. Palantir watching you 24/7/365 is the opposite of healthy co-witnessing in community. Community co-witnessing encourages us to be better people. It is a healthy, natural, democratic, pro-social pressure. It's power together that we collectively wield to shape our communities. Corporate and state surveillance is power over. It is a vast authoritarian demon whose eyes are always on you, but who you can never fully see. Shaping your behavior to align with its will to expand its profits and power. Palantír is aptly named. For anyone who understood Tolkien, it's absolutely wild that Peter Thiel named his evil global surveillance corporation after the most famously corrupt and corrupting tools of mass surveillance in Tolkien's world. Some may argue that surveillance in a democratic system reinforces the democratically decided standard of behavior. I disagree. I believe that blind surveillance is inherently authoritarian for the reasons I laid out above. Above. But more to the point, that's not the world we live in. Statistically, for many decades, the government of the United States has passed the laws that billionaires and corporations want, not what the population wants. So no matter how you cut it, the US is not any kind of democracy. I don't mean that it's a constitutional republic as opposed to a pure democracy. I mean it doesn't abide by the Constitution either. In a technical sense, it is a corporate oligarchy dressing up as a democratic constitutional republic. So even if you believe that under a healthy system of governance, Surveillance could be positive. We don't have that. We have a brutal corporate oligarchy which is well down the path of becoming a full-blown authoritarian state. It is within that context that we're discussing the explosion of state surveillance driven by AI now. So let's keep the conversation in reality and not pretend that the will of corporate techno-fascist AIs behind these cameras is somehow representative of the will of the population. State surveillance is an authoritarian practice. Always. The more surveillance, the less free and democratic, and the more authoritarian. The point of surveillance is for the rich to control the behavior of the poor only and always. So act accordingly.

I enjoyed his little TED Talk when I found it. Um, Marcella, you know, you're our attorney and you know what people's rights are better than most. You know, what do you think about what he's saying? Do you feel like he hits the nail on the head or do we need to be surveilled?

Well, there is room for surveillance. You know, each of us has cameras outside of our house to surveil the outside. So there's public space and there's private space, which is how Fourth Amendment cases are decided. Your right to privacy is only to certain areas. However, there was a case recently that the court, the Supreme Court, went a different way than usual, and it was regarding geolocation. So your cell phone is taking and is figuring out where you are at all times. And basically they said that you have a privacy to this, that if the police is going to search for this, that they need a warrant. And if they don't have a warrant and they use it, then it's wrong. So there has to be probable cause to explain, okay, we need to reach in and find it. In this particular case, they didn't use a warrant and they, I mean, I could get the specifics wrong in the facts, but basically it constituted Fourth Amendment rights to, which is different than what they're used to. They're used to having you, there's been cases where trash left outside Outside of like, if you put your trash can out there, there is no privacy to it. So, so police can go in, look for DNA samples or whatever they want, and take it away because it's a curvature. It's, it's outside your house. So in regards to what he's saying, there's certain areas, you know, pursuant to law, that this can be done. You can surveil people and start in public areas.

Right?

However, if you're going to do what you say they're going to do, if they're going to hear a gun and they're going to go there without— there is, there's, there's, there's different things that they can use, the police can use to indicate like there is this emergency action. So if you, if you, if there's an emergency at your house and they hear lots of scuffle and all that, they can break into your house even if they don't have a warrant from a judge, because to get a warrant from a judge takes like a few, at least a few minutes, if not an hour or more. So what he's saying legally, you can do. Now, there's been cases in regards to this recordings that have, uh, video is not always king in the courtroom. Um, so a video of you being there at a certain place doesn't mean that you caused the crime. However, they could pin the crime on you. They can accuse you of that crime. There was a case recently where a lady was near, um, she was caught on those cameras that you're talking about, and her car was there, and they accused her of stealing a package.

Oh, I saw that. Yeah, insane.

And then they were like 'Oh, she stole it, she was right there.' But they had the actual video of the actual stealing of the package, and it was a different person.

So, and he— and the police officer was like, 'I'm 100% confident it was you,' when he showed up at her house. She was like, 'It has nothing to do with me.' They could say whatever they want, right?

And that's when you were like, 'Not saying anything, I want my lawyer,' right? So, um, so it's, it's tragic in a way that this is happening, but legally speaking, I mean I would think that somebody needs to sue. Um, usually it's the ACLU. I know that a lot of people here don't like them. Um, they sometimes do good, you know, like the, the— or any other entity can sue, uh, to make this, um, an issue in regards to— but most likely it's a lose-lose because it's a public place. Now the sounds that come from your house is that public. So it's—

yeah, so I, I'm hoping this is the right— I, you know what, I, I'm not saying I love this, but I kind of love this. I love how like the hot topic word of the moment is vigilante because I keep seeing like this vigilante justice now. And I'm hoping this is the right clip. Let me just take a quick peek.

Camera has been cut down completely, sprayed over with an American flag on it. And not far away there's another flock camera on the ground as well. HPD says it's investigating this, but so far there are more questions than answers. These cameras meant to help solve crimes now becoming the target of one, both cut in half and covered in spray paint.

Yeah, I didn't realize that the camera were there until you actually pointed that out.

Juan Rodriguez's business, Spar Houston, is located by Washington Avenue and Westcott where this happened. These are flock Flock cameras meant to read license plates and alert police if they're connected to crimes. Rodriguez says he didn't see who did this, but he's left wondering why they did.

That's what it sounds like it would be, somebody just protesting their rights are being violated or something like that.

Flock cameras have been used in the city of Houston since 2021, according to the company. The Houston Police Department tells us they were notified these cameras were damaged on the morning of July forth. As far as the repair costs, HPD says it depends on who is responsible for these specific cameras. While some cameras are installed through city contracts, others are done with neighborhoods or private groups that choose to share footage with police. HPD couldn't confirm who was responsible for these cameras, only saying this is an ongoing investigation. ABC 13 reached out to Flock asking if they were aware of this situation and what the repair process would look like. They didn't answer those questions but did say, quote, damaging public safety equipment is illegal and puts the community at risk, which is why we strongly condemn this type of behavior.

I think, I think one thing that you can add to all this, yeah, is, um, at least in California— I would have to look up New Jersey and even Canada— but is that if you are recording someone, because all of us have a recording device all the time and we can record anyone that's near us, you actually have to inform in California that you're recording them. Even at your house, you should probably put— I should do that too— should put a thing that says it, that you're being recorded. You know, you've seen those signs that say, you know, smile, you're on camera, or something. So What this guy was saying, the business owner, is like he didn't even know they were there. So one of the things is like, how can you use this without notifying people that you're actually surveilling them?

Um, yeah, I'm gonna take a picture when I, uh, go into this town again. It's right, right near me. I'm gonna take a picture of the one that they installed, of several of these, like along this whole stretch. They look so freaky and I think that they're like 1,000 times worse than this flock camera thing. And I'm gonna get the down low on it. I'm gonna get out there and do some investigative journalism because it's like enough of everybody with their cameras, with their phones, with the like, oh my God, leave me alone. And it is so true. Like, you know, you do act differently. I mean, okay, like if it makes, you know, terrible people act a little better, that would be great. But I don't see that stopping anytime soon. But it's like, God, you know, it's like, don't tread on me, get my Gadsden flag. What do you think about all of this, BJ?

I don't know. Look, I'm no fan of government surveillance, as you can imagine, being, uh, what I've gone through with certain things. Um, but maybe I'm going to take the other side for a reason. You know, Scott Adams talked about he wanted to present the best argument on both sides. And I think there's a lot of things at play right now that we're not considering. I think the first thing is, if your filter for the world is everything is malicious, then you're going to be really upset about every little thing that we see, and justifiably so sometimes, of course. But like, what is happening in the world right now related to streets, for example, streets and highways? Well, now for the first time We have cars that you can buy that the average person can afford that have 1,000 horsepower. And what are we seeing? We're seeing an escalation in the number of high-speed chases. You can find them all over YouTube of people actually getting away from the police and people actually killing people in the process. And I think the governments are trying to figure out how to deal with that in a way where they're not constricting what the manufacturers can do. So one of the things we can do is let's figure out a way that we can identify these people in these incidents before they happen or as they're happening sort of thing to give them better intelligence. The other thing is, and this is the, the, it's Hanlon's Razor, never ascribe malice to those things that can be explained by stupidity. Um, the, you know, from having family in law enforcement and friends in law enforcement, we have no concept of how incompetent they are. Like, it's It's not just the electoral system that's incompetent, as we discuss— as Scott Adams discussed many, many times, but so are the inner workings behind the scenes. Agencies not sharing information with each other, but it's even worse, the databases not being able to communicate with each other because they have different technology, and now they can't find— that's why people commit crimes, heinous crimes, and they don't find them because they just can't get the information and the data.. And I saw that, you know, with the, the trucker protest. I saw the intelligence report on all of us. It was hysterical. It was the epitome of a Dilbert cartoon. They didn't know my birth date. They knew basically nothing about me or anybody else. And this is from like the highest levels of intelligence gathering in Canada. So I think the human factor will always show that the Dilbert filter applies to just about everything.. And I think maybe there are people, there are people in government or local governments, state governments that take a reactionary approach to, well, maybe we just need cameras everywhere so we can ID what they are. The next thing is, you know, they're gonna have kill switches on cars and everybody's freaking out.

Oh, well, yeah.

Right? But—

They do already.

Yeah, they do.

But if you see people getting involved in high-speed chases hitting 220 miles an hour on city streets and killing 10 people when they hit something. That wasn't the case 20 years ago. That tech— the technology to make a car go so fast is a relatively new, um, advance in the auto sector. So I think there's just a lot of things, and not everything is malicious. Most things is just incompetence, stupidity, or reactionary thinking. And you know what is the opposite of reactionary thinking? Something that Russell Aikoff gave the world that Scott Adams always talked about. Which is systems thinking. And because you have many people in the world that— a few people that do systems thinking, some of them are in government, by the way, and then a whole bunch of linear thinkers, you just get a whole mishmash of things just don't work nearly as well as we think they are. And Marcela, I'm guessing with your experience in law that you kind of see some—

there's a balance.

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly.

And you know what I was thinking just now? You made me think of other things. You made me think um, follow the money, right? So these companies— what is it? What's the— well, I won't mention names, but the companies that sell the surveillance equipment, um, that's right, beyond the whole scope of whether we should be surveilled or not, um, they need to look into that because there's probably a lot of room for any kind—

well, and also kind of, we, we have that here, and sometimes You know, somebody's elected to office or usually a backroom person in politics. They have a family or a friend member who's involved in a company. They want to become a contractor. So they submit an RFP and they manage to get the contract for the technology, but it doesn't work. And they know it doesn't work, but because their business is failing, but the best way to save a dead business is just get a government contract, put stuff up. You've done, you've abided by all the terms of the invoice and the contract. But it doesn't actually do anything. There's a lot of that that goes on in government as well.

I take— I pretty much am on the opposite side of BJ. I understand what Marcel is saying, that there could be balance. Yes, okay, like sometimes cameras strategically placed can help solve crimes, of course, um, but I am more of the, like, the over-surveillance, you know. I just— it's just too much, and it's like this preemptive surveillance that they're doing, you know. There's not an issue, but you're preemptively preemptively just watching everybody. There's cameras on every fricking corner. Absolutely follow the money because as you can see in politics, we have no reason to trust any of these people. Everybody's on the dole. Everybody's got someone who's lining their pockets for favors and they never take anything away. So once surveillance gets put in, they're never taking it out and it's only going to go, "Oh, we have better surveillance now and this one's even more sensitive and this one can cover further." It's just to me the start of a slippery slope that it's just going to get wider and bigger until you eat the bugs. So I don't like it and I think leave me the fuck alone is how I feel. And I love whoever's cutting down those flock cameras and I hope they do it where I live and I hope they get this big giant nuclear bomb looking thing they put up in these towns near me. I hope they cut those down. I'm not suggesting it. It's just a fantasy and don't blame me if anyone does that. You know, I don't want to be surveilled. Um, I want the police to do their jobs. I want them to— I want our laws to actually work. And if somebody commits a crime, they go to jail and they stay there and they pay a penalty and whatever. I'm fully into shaming and mocking people and, um, making them feel horrible. Like, we need to go back to the basics. So that's where I'm at.

I agree with you. I'm just trying to show— I'm trying to make the best argument on the other side. But my question for you is this: I think for many people, the problem is not the fact that the, you know, law enforcement, let's say, or agencies want to have better tracking so they can preemptively, you know, enforce. I think the problem is— tell me if you agree with this— the problem is the lack of enforcement or choosing when to enforce and when to interpret the law based on somebody's identity, gender, genitals, their identity, their genitals. Like, for example, If you saw radical enforcement of Muslim Brotherhood extremists in the country, that they're all being deported or thrown in jail or Guantanamo or whatever, my guess is you probably have more confidence and faith in the system, and you'd give them a little bit more leeway, because they're putting up a camera and all of a sudden they arrested a bunch of terrorists, right? Would that change your perspective or no? What do you think?

For me, it's— it has to be applied equally. So if it has to be applied equally, so if you're— you can see, you know, everyone's got their own camera phone out there. It's like there's enough, there's enough out there. Every— no one's helping anybody, they're filming things that are happening. So if, you know, if— I don't even want to say radical Islam— if Islam is doing something, there's 8,000 people recording it. We can see it all on the interwebs. There's no shortage of footage. Everybody wants to, you know, get the shot. Um, I want the law distributed equally amongst everybody, and I don't care who you are, you know, like Paul Pelosi, how many DUIs is he going to get and whatever, and they're just like, oh, you know, okay. No, it's got to be equal. And that's why we have no confidence or faith in anything, any kind of authority, because we see that You know, it's picking. And also, we don't want to upset the Muslim people and we don't— oh my God, just apply it equally. That's it. That's all I'm looking for. That's me. So, you know, I don't like it.

But my point is, if you saw equal enforcement of the law, then you probably have a little bit more trust.

Probably.

Not absolute, but a little bit more, right?

Yes, probably.

Exactly.

I mean, I would have to see it to feel it. But yes, I could imagine I would because I'd be like, okay, good. Everybody's, everybody's getting the same treatment. And, and then we have the problem of the judges. So, you know, it's a, it's all a problem. So it's like, stop surveilling me because the judges are going to do what they want based on what political party you're in and who's donating to whom. It's so it's just stop surveilling me because you're going to, you're going to give me worse treatment because I'm allegedly MAGA, whatever that is anymore. And I'm not into it. Just leave me alone. Like, live and let live. Um, that's my TED Talk. Okay, so I wanted to just get to a couple more things if no one minds, and I can't remember what this clip is. I just want to say for the record, Rumble Studio, please, please, Rumble people, I, I, I just don't understand. As this— the person running the show here, you have to let me put little titles under my clips so I know what they are. A picture is not just helping me. Thank you. Okay, so I'm a little agitated. Okay. All right. So I have this clip of Mike Rowe, who we all love. You guys know him from Dirty Jobs. And his message is just always so simple and smart. And so for parents out there, if you've got like a new kid or your kids getting into that age of like, you know, high school into college, please heed his advice. The blue collar jobs A, are where the money's at because there's such a shortage of tradespeople, such a shortage. People that can do just anything with their hands that are working. And also you can just go right from high school right into a trade. You could be an intern, learn, learn a trade as an apprentice, and in like 5 years have your own business and you're a millionaire in no time with no debt. So anyway, let's listen to Mike Rowe and hear what he says.

Dude, Larry Fink, who runs BlackRock, told me that the companies in his portfolio alone needed 300,000 electricians. What's coming is an infrastructure build-out that's being calculated at $9 to $10 trillion over the next 9 years. A lot of its data centers, but it's a lot of other stuff too. And we can get into data centers and AI, it's all fascinating to me, but it's all kind of academic if you can't build them. And if you can't build them because of a shortage of skilled labor, that'll go down in history of one of the greatest unforced errors of all time. And that's what people are beginning to realize. We have to reinvigorate the trades. We must, or we're going to be in a level of trouble that's truly unprecedented. Sorry, I know I'm, I'm rambling, but every 5 tradesmen— for every 5 who retire this year, 2 replace them.

That's what I was going to ask. Do you have any idea how many welders there are in the US right now?

I can tell you But whatever the number is, we need 400,000 more. I can tell you we're underwater. Like, it's worse with electricians right now. I was in Plano, Texas a couple months ago, got a tour of a data center. Been talking about them for a while, but I hadn't really seen one up close. Oh my God. I mean, amazing. Uh, kind of terrifying. But also kind of awesome, uh, enormous. I ran into 3 electricians, all under 30, all making north of $240 grand a year, all debt-free. Now here's the craziest part: all 3 had been poached 3 times in the prior 18 months. Now, does that mean that's going on in Sacramento and Phoenix, Tallahassee and Bangor? I don't know, but it's going on in Plano and it's happening in different areas. The shortages are so acute that the companies don't have time to, to train. They have to poach. And so great news for an electrician, but it's a little weird for the economy.

Over. Okay, so I had mentioned a long time ago, I was listening to Mike Rowe on a podcast and he was saying that, uh, whoever this company is that was contracted to build, I think it was 10 new submarines, okay, for our Navy. And so he got— the man got in touch with Mike Rowe and he said, I need welders, I just got this contract and I have to build 10 submarines and we are very short welders. Do you know where I can find some welders. So Mike is like, well, how many do you need? You know, he's like thinking like, let me see if I can like think of, you know, where you can find some. And he said like 40,000. And he was like, what? And he's like, I need 40,000 welders. So we are at a vicious deficit, you guys. And, you know, I don't know when it started where people were like, oh, a trade. Oh, you're blue collar. You know, oh my God. Like, how do you think this country functions. How do you think we build things and achieve things? Like, these are the people that just give you the very basics to make the country work. So please, if you have any, like, preconceived notion of what a blue-collar job is, these are like a gold mine. They're a gold mine for your kids. For even if you're, like, hitting a retirement age and you're like, you know what, I don't really need to retire, like, why don't I just learn a trade and get out there and do— go do it. Because you're going to be— that is the most tremendous way to be useful if you're not sure what you want to do. So, BJ, blue-collar jobs. I mean, like, we're a blue-collar family here. You know, a man, change a tire, have a little calluses on your fingers. Let's go. What do you think?

Yeah, I think this also pairs nicely to, you know, Scott Adams talked about a talent stack that, you know, real men— I'm going to be sexist here. Real men can fix things and build things, right? So my whole life I've always been like that. I can grade a diamond, I can build a computer, run a business, I can fix a car, can drive a truck and whatever. So all through my life I've always tried to learn things, whether they're white collar or blue collar. The best is to learn a little bit of everything but have one fundamental trade as your ultimate backup. And I think people are now realizing that It was James Burke's series, it was either Connection or The Day the World Never Changed, he talked about that in the late '70s, that we're moving into an era of our civilization where we're overspecialized, and we're so overspecialized that we can't engage in conversations about either the area of our work or just general things because we no longer are this kind of Renaissance man that wants to know and is curious about everything. And I'm glad to see— I think we're seeing this society shift back to that, that men should be men. Women have, you know, there's outliers, we all have careers and we all have ambitions, but we should not shame people who get into the blue-collar trades. We should actually celebrate them, because 100%, that's what's built the Western world, and that's why the Western world is so powerful. In my opinion.

Most of, um, most of my friends are blue collar, living beautiful lives. And, and also, every time we all need to get something done or do something, or for our business or our home or whatever, nobody can find anyone qualified. And all of these people are going to be retiring very soon. So the last, like, fully qualified, quality working generation of blue collar is about to retire. And so it's gonna get exponentially worse. And we do, we need our lawyers and doctors and this and that, like I'm not saying accountants and all that, but not everybody has to try to go work in corporate and like fight their way to get this job that they have no security in.

Did you know the average age of a trucker in America is 59 years old?

What's gonna happen?

I mean, average, the average. So, and that's across sectors right now. So anyways.

Okay, so Marcela, your thoughts on— I mean, you know how much you spent to go to school and everything else. Like, if you, you had to have a passion to do what you were doing. And I think a lot of people put themselves in vicious debt in college and then they don't even do the thing they went to college for. So many of my friends that graduated college are like landscapers and this and that now. They're like, I didn't even need that. Yeah, so go ahead. Sorry.

Yeah, no, I mean, traits have always been needed and it's always um, one of the things that I do like about Germany is that— I don't know Canada, but in Germany you have different schools for different things. Like, immediately— it's too early in a way, but at 12 or something like that, it's decided whether you're gonna go to like Gymnasium, which is like the university level, and then Hauptschule, which is like just high school, and then there's trade school. Um, so it's something like, it's not frowned upon, uh, for you to be a welder or for you to be a plumber or anything like that. So there was a time, and I think it's mostly the liberal elite sort of— I don't even know what it is, but this propaganda that like, oh, if you're a tradesperson, you're like dumb and you're not capable of much and blah blah blah. And people have been taught to think this way, and so they— their parents want them to go to college instead of like trade school or whatever it is. But trades are, you know, you can create your own business, you can do everything, uh, have your clients do everything. It just seems more— and it's more fun, like you get to visit different places, go to different you know. So if you, if you are into it, I think you should do it. Maybe I'll— I was gonna take classes at Home Depot to fix things around the house. I mean, I'm able to do that, you guys.

So my friend's, um, niece, she just graduated high school and she's going— she's so smart, family's already wealthy, the whole thing. And she's like, no, I— she drives like a big Ford F What is it called? 350, like this little blonde girl. She rides a horse and she's like, no, I'm going to this. I don't know what it's called, the school, but she's going for like a welding, like a master's type of thing. So, you know, maybe you become like someone who engineers like the welding issues. I don't know what it is, but I'm like, fricking good for her. You know, there's plenty of jobs for women in the trades too. This is not just a guy thing.

Is it true that welding, like, to be a female welder, is, it's more, um, sought after because of your hands? You have smaller hands and you can, like, focus your—

I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but, um, but I mean, welding, you know, it's like, it's not always like— I have one friend who's a deep deep-sea welder. So he goes down like in the bell thing, like all the way down, like the bottom of oil rigs that need, you know, that is insanity. And then you could be welding for just like a small like electronics company that needs some welding done. I mean, it's like the, the variation is huge, but you can see, like he said, we're at a deficit of like 400,000 or whatever he said of just welding or electricians. And it's like If you want a job and the job market's freaky, that's where the jobs are, and you're not going to be in debt, which is so nice. And you know what, and no one's going to just like fire you. You're in charge of your life. You could, you know, pick your schedule, your vacation, your whatever, how many people you want working for you, or maybe none, maybe just an apprentice. So you have so much more control of your life and your future. I, I just think it's so nice.

Is it me, or, or is trades less stressful? Stressful because you don't have this— you're fixing something, um, you're solving a problem, and you know, so maybe it is stressful, you know.

I mean, I think every job has its level of stress or whatever, um, unless you're like an influencer, but, um, we have enough of those. Thank you.

So stressful.

Oh my gosh. So you guys consider that for your kids, and, um, you know, it's just life is so expensive, and everybody's suffering with this debt, this college debt. And then you're sending your kid to an indoctrination camp to begin with, so you don't even know how they're going to come out of there. And the— is the degree going to matter? I mean, all the businesses I've owned, I never cared about anyone's degree. I care about the person that shows up in front of me and how they present themselves. That's all I ever cared about. And if you have experience out in the real world That means so much more to me than a degree, unless it's something specialized and you need a degree. That's different. But if your kid's like, I don't know what I want to do, but I just have to go do this 4 years of school. No, don't do that. Don't do it. That's just me talking. But what do you think, BJ? You like this?

No, I agree. I also think something to add there for younger people is to travel and not to travel even in the United States, go to other parts of the world.. And I think people appreciate— I think there's a lack of appreciation of how good we have it in the Western world. And Marcel, I'm sure you can expand upon this, that if you go see how the rest of the world lives, you realize how privileged we are in the Western world. And I think that's kind of what's driving a lot of the negative sentiment, which I find weird. I mean, we got Trump in and, you know, nobody's Nothing's perfect, of course, but we should be celebrating how good things are. But there's a lot of people who just get trapped in the negative energy. And I think when you travel around the world, it gives you a better sense of gratitude of, of where you come, where you come from. So go to Africa, go to Africa. And if you survive, you'll see how bad things can be, you know.

And don't forget, you guys, all the people that were here for FIFA, for the World Cup. And they were like, oh my God, I never knew America was this amazing. And now when we pick our vacation between, you know, are we going to Europe? No, we're coming to America. They're like, every state's like a different country. The people are so nice, the food, the ranch dressing. So with that being said, I could not delete this clip, you guys. We just played this guy the other day, but he was so fun. And before he gets deleted from my little cue card over here, Can we just hear that guy talking about America one more time and then I'll delete him? The what?

Is it the German guy?

No, he's an American. He's so good. Just, just one last time. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Here we go.

Hi. You know, all the Europeans are coming over here for the World Cup soccer games and they never come over here, but they're here now and they're finding out that Texas has the best barbecue on the face of the planet. And then they're going home and they're posting all over social media about America being the greatest country there is. Yep, you know what? They're right. And you know what else is so great about America? Bald eagles, Donald Trump, huge F-35, American football, college football, beef, so much beef, burying an F-250 5 feet in mud just because you can, watermelons, every type of hunting and fishing you could ever dream of, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Smith Wesson, the 1990s, Chicago Bulls, Yuengling beer, a guy named Jack Daniels, US Airborne paratroopers, the Second Amendment. We put a man on the moon, you know, and we did it without using the metric system. Air conditioning that'll freeze you out in the middle of August, drive-through everything, Costco, 2-day shipping, Coca-Cola, Waffle House at 3 in the morning, red Solo cups, monster trucks, bottomless chips and salsa. Fireworks that are technically illegal, but nobody's really gonna say nothing about it, cheeseburgers the size of a newborn, John Deere green, 35. Again, we don't use the metric system and we turned out fine. Brisket so good it'd make a Frenchman cry. The bald eagle could actually eat you if he wanted to, he just don't care to. So yeah, y'all come on over and enjoy. Enjoy it all, live it up, baby, live it up, 'cause that's what we do every day. Last thing, America's always been great. Have a good Wednesday. USA, baby!

Bravo to him. Last time we just saw him, so I love that guy. I don't know what your favorite line was, but they're all so good. And Marcela, we need to get you to a Waffle House stat.

Yes, I'll start being a tradesperson and eating Waffle House.

Oh my God, how can I protest one thing that he mentions?

Brilliant video, but I think somebody told me this a while ago, the US government officially is on the metric system. That's why all military hardware is in metric. And as a Canadian, where we use both, we officially use metric, but we have to use imperial because of you guys and so much. It's so much better. The only reason you don't have it is because there was nothing in the budget to change the entire highway system to metric.

Otherwise, it's not in the budget. It's not in the budget, okay? We got other things to do. We are not going—

I know those are fighting words. I love you guys.

Not doing it. So, haha, you have to learn our system, um, metric system. They tried to teach us that when I was like in, I don't know, like a third grade situation, and we were like, you just multiply times 10.

That's it. Everything is so simple.

Whatever you just said, Marcela.

Didn't you grow up with the metric system?

Yes. Well, multiply what times 10? Like, I don't even know what you're saying. It doesn't even make sense. Don't tell me.

Millimeters, centimeters, meters. It's always, it's always a multiple of 10. That's all. It's how simple it is.

I don't even, honestly, I cannot even, I can't even compute what you're saying. I just learned the knuckle thing about the months and who has 31 days. I don't know what's happening. You metric people. Um, all right, you metric lovers in the chat. Uh, so listen, you guys, thank you so, so much, BJ, for joining us today.

Yeah, I'm gonna do a stream now after, uh, at 11. SJV asked about that.

Tell us where your stream is, where they can find you.

Just go to my Locals. Uh, I posted it in— I posted the link in the chat. Just, uh, search for me or type in Honking for Freedom, you'll find it.

Honking for Freedom. Marcella, so good to see you today, and I'll see you tomorrow. Um, you guys, I will stay and do an Akira song, and I'll, um, if you guys need to scooch out, scooch out. And, um, thank you to Scott and Shelley for allowing this stream to continue. And I also want to tell you, Joel Pollack might be joining us tomorrow or Thursday. He has some fun updates. He called me this morning. He has some good info for you guys about the book, um, about Scott's biography. And listen, you guys, get out there, learn a trade, stand up, get your red Solo cups, let's go America! And of course, be useful. Okay guys, a closing sip to Scott.

Scott Adams.

Thanks, BJ.

Gotta run. Love you all.

Love you guys.

Bye.

Okay, let's see, let's do— oh, as BJ mentioned today, what you think about, you tend to see, right? Let's, uh, let's do what you think about.

All right, I saw a story in the South China Morning Post. It asks the question, can you train your mind to be happy? And it says, yes, expert says. Would you like to know how? Would you like me to train you with my hypnosis experience into how to be happier? All right, well, I won't hypnotize you. I'll just tell you how to do it. Number 1: Whatever you think about the most is who you are. Watch. Think about your favorite animal. Could you do it? Of course you could. Yeah, you all had a different favorite animal, but when I said think about your favorite animal, you could do it. So that was when your brain was focusing on a cool thing that you liked. Favorite animal. Probably made you made you a little bit happy. I mean, just a little bit. But during that time you're thinking about your favorite animal, you weren't thinking about some bad thing that could have potentially put you in a bad mood or affect your energy or make you anxious or anything. Whatever you think about the most is who you are. So I just proved to you that if you just remember as a habit to change your thinking from whatever negative stuff to positive stuff It was really that easy. Just think about stuff you like. Everybody likes something. Think about a person you like, experience you had, a walk on the beach if that's your thing. Just think about it and reduce the shelf time that you give to the bad thoughts. Bad thoughts. Bad thoughts. Because how much do The more you think about something is what creates the structure in your brain that becomes semi-permanent. You can usually change it, but something that becomes a little semi-permanent. So the more you think about positive things, the happier you're gonna be.

Good thing.

Good thing.

Good thing.

I love the end of that one. So good, you guys. Thank you so much for another great day. Please say your goodbyes. I don't want to cut you off. And we'll be back tomorrow. Owen should be here tomorrow with us. And then— should I tell you today who's coming on on Friday so you can get to know him if you don't know him already? I'm gonna tell you. It's Jesse Kelly. I'm so excited. Jesse Kelly will be in the house. A perfect way to end a Friday with Jesse Kelly. I cannot wait. Um, was that last video on YouTube? Oh, which one, Flynn, of the American guy? The guy talking about America? I, I'm not sure which one you're talking about. I'll wait to see if I can find it. Um, Mike Burt. Nice, right? Jesse Kelly. He's a good time.

Oh, good.

I'm so glad you guys like him. You're excited. If you don't know him, you're gonna, you're gonna love him. He's, um, amazing. Send me a message. Flynn, are you on X? You could always— my DMs are open. Yeah, check him out, Annie. He's, he's, um, he's just like another person who just like says what he's thinking. He's got great energy. Um, he has a, his own podcast and he's— you, you'll recognize him when you see him, I think, cuz he, he does a lot of hits like on news with people. But anyway, all right guys, I will see you tomorrow. Okay, Flynn, so, um, message me if you can. Thanks, Deb. Thanks, you guys. You guys are all so sweet. And, um, I will be back tomorrow. Have a great day. Think about, you know, what we talked about in the show. Um, no, that's Jesse Waters. Jesse Kelly has probably been on Jesse Waters' show. So that might be, um, okay. Yeah, get your hands dirty. Let's go, people. Let's do it. Let's do it. Merca. Okay, thanks guys. Love you. See you tomorrow.