This is Mises Weekends with your host Jeff Deist. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back once again to Mises Weekends. This weekend our show features an interview really with me by our friend, a great friend of the Mises Institute, David Gornoski. You might know his name, he is a Christian libertarian writer whose work is frequently featured at the American Conservative and also at FI. David takes inspiration from the work of the late Rene Girard, a Stanford professor who was a huge influence on a young Peter Thiel. So David likes the idea of using Girard's work to ground libertarianism in cultural anthropology, in particular Girard's idea of scapegoat theory. In other words, there's a human tendency to want to seek out a scapegoat or scapegoat, so why not let the bad guy in the story be the state? And to this end, David urges us as libertarians to use culture, like progressives do, art, music, movies, drama, literature, to tell a better story. And in that story make the state the villain as opposed to capitalism or rich people, or all the things that our friends on the left do so well. So with that, I think you'll enjoy this conversation with David. And on behalf of everyone at the Mises Institute, we of course wish you a very Merry Christmas this week. So stay tuned. How long have you been now with the Mises Institute? And, you know, assume a lot of our audiences are relatively familiar with Mises Institute, but you could just do a little background quickly to summarize what your specific mission is with the group. Well, it's interesting. I guess I've been here three or four years now, and our founder, Lou Rockwell, created the Mises Institute way back in the 80s. And the idea was that the Austrian School of Economics in particular, which is a loose term. I don't define it rigidly. There are people who sort of straddle various economic outlooks. That the Austrian school really needed a home base and a promotional mechanism, especially for Ludwig von Mises, especially for Murray Rothbard, who was still alive at the time. And so that was our mission to help put and keep Austrian economics on the map. And it's kind of strange in a sense because, again, this loose term, what we might today call the Austrian School of Economics was basically mainstream economics from the late 1800s right up to the 30s, right, to the Great Depression. When John Maynard Keynes wrote his famous book, and communism and socialism were on the rise, especially among academics, then things shifted dramatically. But really, up until less than 100 years ago, lots of things that people knew to be true about economics would have been considered Austrian viewpoints. Today, we're in a very, very different world. We consider the mainstream somewhat Keynesian, even though a lot of working economists today don't really read Keynes and don't necessarily interpret him accurately. But nonetheless, we find ourselves in an environment today where both government and central banks think that there's this need to create demand. That if we just make humans want to buy enough stuff, that they'll magically also have the means to buy enough stuff. And as a result, we'll all be prosperous. So what most modern economics deals with today is on some level how to create demand. And we've convinced ourselves, David, that prosperity comes through consumption. And for many, many millennia in human history, people thought that prosperity comes through consuming less than you make and saving the difference and building that up, which we would call capital accumulation, and giving that to your next generation, either individually as a mom or dad or collectively as a family or even more broadly as a society. Prosperous societies accumulate capital. Poor societies deplete capital and don't accumulate. And somehow in the last hundred years, we've gotten very, very far away from this. And that's one of the reasons the Mises Institute exists, to plant the flag and to say, no, Austrians understand money and capital and interest and productivity and human preferences and subjectivity. And we can explain some of these errors of modern economics. And from a civilizational standpoint, I don't want to be too grandiose here, but economics is not just some dry study for a few people who have PhDs to engage in. It's something for all of us and it affects the arc of civilization. So as far as I'm concerned, our mission is to provide an alternative and to give the intelligent layperson the ability to access economics and understand it because it's not something that ought to be just left to academia. It's interesting you mentioned a comment about this Austrian school is about teaching people that it's not all about just consume, consume. And yet it's a popular conception of capitalism and libertarianism that it's totally wedded to the notion of greed and consumerism and materialism. And yet what you suggested there is that perhaps not. Perhaps it actually would be much more anti-consumerist way of doing things if it actually was, if you know, Austrian economics was actually followed in our culture. Well, I wish greed was a concept that people applied to politicians. Nobody ever talks about greedy politicians who want more power and more money, I noticed. But yeah, absolutely. The idea of consuming less than you make is really at the core of human development, human history. Touches on, as we were talking about off mic earlier, anthropology and development and culture. There's always been sort of a cultural bequest handed down to the next generation and that wasn't just information or traditions or attitudes. It was also material. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with materialism. That's why we have roofs over our heads and hot and cold running water at our fingertips and electricity at our fingertips and things that previous generations couldn't dream of. And we ought not to be ashamed or apologize for those things. But we also need to understand that how they came to be was that people engage in acts of forbearance. They didn't just hedonistically spend every last penny they earned. So it worries me. I have kids and maybe someday I'll have grandkids. It worries me very much that really for the first time in human history and I'm going to have to throw a little shade on baby boomers here. For the first time in human history, we have a whole generation that won't focus on leaving something to the next generation. There's lots of people in this country in their 60s and 70s and 80s who have debt, which was unknown 100 years ago. People in their 60s, 70s and 80s moving to Florida and getting a 30 year mortgage. David, imagine that. And I would suggest that in a sense they're responding to incentives. The Federal Reserve from my perspective has made the cost of borrowing money artificially low and that this has an effect that sort of cascades throughout the economy and makes people make bad choices and turn savers into chumps. Because again, in my view, I think inflation is much higher than reported. So this is really not just some dry technical issue about central banks and the Fed and academic economists fighting over some technical changes to what Janet Yellen's proposing or Ben Bernanke proposed a few years ago. I would say that this is actually a civilizational question and anyone who cares about America and our future in the West ought to be informed about it. So this is ultimately a moral question that you guys are tackling at Mises, would you say? Well, I suppose it is. Again, that sounds grandiose, but economics is about choice. Choice is about human action. And on some level, I think we all agree that humans ought to deal with one another peacefully and voluntarily. And yet you could certainly make an argument. Libertarians make this argument that what central banks do and what the U.S. Treasury Department does in tandem is a form of violence that we are forcing people to pay taxes to a system. We are forcing people to use the U.S. dollar as a currency even when we feel it's manipulated by the Fed and that this isn't a peaceful, voluntary way to organize an economy because an economy is not just the goods and services that people buy. The other half of the economy is the money that people use to buy those goods and services. And that money is basically being centrally planned by a Politburo of a few dozen people. It's every bit as Soviet as when some grain commissar sat around under Khrushchev and said, well, how many bushels of wheat are we going to produce next year? And how many workers are the farms that produce wheat going to hire? And what's the price per bushel going to be? A typical Wall Street Journal capitalist in America would say, gee, that's central planning. But when we sit around and do that with money, somehow that escapes people's view. We just assume that governments and central banks have to control money. And most people in the Austrian school strongly disagree with that and think that the marketplace can produce money just fine. And more importantly, that when the marketplace doesn't produce money and government does, that there's a violence to that and an inefficiency to that. So, you know, most people who are Austrian or libertarian really focus and talk about money more than conservatives and liberals do. Yeah, that's interesting. So how would you define the state, the government itself? What do you have a definition you like to use? I would define the state as an organization that calls itself the state. A group of human beings, by the way, not omniscient experts or technocratic gods but a group of deeply fallible human beings who organize together and say, well, we have a monopoly on who controls this turf. First and foremost, even in the digital age, states are defined by the physical geographical borders over which they claim to assert jurisdiction. So states are defined by two things. One, the physical geography over which they exert dominion and two, the human beings within those physical confines or borders over which they assert jurisdiction. And it's interesting that our conception of the state hasn't changed much in that sense, even in the digital age. It still involves borders and humans, which are both flesh and blood and tangible and physical. So I don't view states as magic creations that somehow the people involved in governing it are imbued with some kind of metaphysical wisdom when we send them to Washington, D.C. or to our state capitals. But not to sound like a public choice theorist, but I view states as just a bunch of people who have an undue monopoly power over violence and force and jails and cops and guns, who are every bit as fallible and who respond to incentives just like people in the private sector respond to incentives. So they want to get re-elected and they want to have power and they want to have name ID and they want to have money and they want to have influence and status in society. So I view the state as a very, very dangerous thing. Where do you think the first state came from? What was the origin of the state in history or what was that first proto-state, so to speak? How did that come about that someone said, yeah, let's go with this? Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? And it's a very tough question for libertarians. We shouldn't shy away from it. When we don't have great answers for things, we ought to admit it. And let's face it, there's an argument that can be made coherently that says, well, gee whiz, Jeff and David, there's kind of a market for government, isn't there? Because it keeps cropping up in human history and in cross-human societies. I would respond to that by saying, well, look, criminality keeps cropping up across time and across human societies. So maybe it's sort of an inherent bug or feature in the human psyche, but that doesn't mean we ought not to oppose it.  It's just part of who we are as humans. So we ought to just let it go. But there's something special about the state. For example, murder, yes, we've always had murderers and we've always had thieves. And I know, I think, Hoppe has a theory about the history of the origins of the state from an Austrian perspective where he suggests that it's expropriators joining together as a gang and figuring out how to steal and expropriate other people's property. But there's something sacred about the state, if you think about it, the way people treat it. The flag, standing, goosebumps, the language we use, the sacred honor of the sacrifices made for the state in the war, the sacred dignity of the presidential office. Everywhere we go, when we look at the state, we have holy days for the state. We have rituals. We have these rights of passage that people who want to become leaders of the state have to engage in. Where do you think that came from? Do you have any idea? Well, humans have a desire to be part of something bigger than themselves. We're pack animals. We like collective organizations, at least when they're voluntary. We like being part of a religion, some people. We like being part of, you know, a particular sports team's fan base. You know, we like being part of a family. There's all kinds of many nations within human societies. So I suppose it is hardwired to an extent. But what changes with the state is, as you mentioned, there's this religiosity to it. And there's also this respect. The state isn't just the biggest, baddest, most successful gang. Nobody thanks the Crips or the Bloods when they pay them their 10% in return for allowing them to operate a crack corner somewhere. They mutter under their breath and they pay the 10%. I don't know what the Crips and Bloods are charging these days, but they pay the money because something very bad will happen to them if they don't. But it's so fascinating how governments have made this leap in people's minds where they actually sort of say thank you. Thank you for providing roads. Thank you for providing military protection. Thank you for providing police protection. Thank you for providing courts and dispute resolution when you and I might know or at least argue that these are all illusions. The state doesn't provide any of these things. So it's look, it's a thorny question. And maybe, you know, maybe Doug Casey, the great investment advisor and guru has the best answer. He says, you know, maybe this is just maybe libertarianism is a DNA thing. Maybe 10% of people are wired with this gene to question all of this and maybe 90% aren't. In other words, he's arguing for the nature over nurture case. So I don't know. I think this is getting above my pay grade, but it's part of human nature. And sometimes we have to appeal to our better angels and fight certain tendencies in human nature just like we have to fight our ability maybe to get out of our car really angry when someone cuts us off and take a baseball bat to their window, you know, maybe on a bigger scale, we have to fight this impulse to form states.  The marriage of culture and state and religion was pretty much one. There was, there were like synonyms and there was no sense of distinction between the sacred and the role of politics. And, you know, later on, it became the divine right of kings as we became to modernize a little bit, but it was still a totally church function. So I would say that the state is just a vestige of sacrificial religion. That's all it is. It's just a, it's just a holdover from the way ancient societies and even before that archaic communities made their, their ritual, you know, kind of remembrance of who they were and who they are as a people. And so maybe it's just a bad habit that was picked up along the way and something we need to grow out of from, you know, maybe we as a species need to evolve out of this kind of antiquated framework of having community. Well, that would explain the religiosity that surrounds the state. We all see this in progressives and conservatives today. They, they view the state with religious fervor and they react to criticisms of the state with religious hostility. So I think there's, there's a lot of parallels and I think for in secular cultures in the West, the state has replaced religion. And as you mentioned, state and religion were one in the same.  The Church of England, for example, held those records, marriage and birth certificates, death records. You know, maybe it's just part of a long tortured process of human evolution. So we'll, we'll see what comes. But, but here and now in our lifetimes, I think we have to deal with these stubborn creatures known as humans the way they are. And the way they are is they do a lot better when they're less governed. So at least less governed externally. So that, that's our challenge. Right. And I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I just think that the way we deal with moving people away from the state has more to do with aesthetic and art and symbolism and those deeper gut things than it does with, you know, changing people's minds. Ultimately, we can, you're right. Maybe there is 10% of the population that is hardwired to, to receive deep, rational, beautiful principle and to master economics and so forth. But for the vast majority of the population, I wonder if we're never going to get anywhere with them. If we always appeal to reason and facts about, hey, you know, the facts are this about the state. It's more that we have to tell a story that makes the state ugly and shows the state for what it really is that the emperor has no clothes, so to speak. You know, for example, why, why do we send people into cages, human cages where they have a high likelihood of receiving violence or even sexual assault, you know, for doing a nonviolent thing like getting high or not paying a minimum wage. You know, that comes with actually go to prison if you don't pay the minimum wage. They find you first and if you keep going, you know, they'll put you in jail. So you can go to jail for not paying your wages properly that the collective deems are appropriate. You go to jail for, you know, having a broken tail light. That's what killed that one guy. The cop came to him and, you know, drew a gun because he had a broken tail light and he ended up dead.  We put them in cages. And if you just think about that, how barbaric it sounds like something from thousands of years ago, doesn't it? The idea that you put someone in a rape cage because they got high is crazy. Yeah, it is crazy. And we're not very good storytellers. I think you're right. We need more people who are. I freely admit this. You know who told the story was Donald Trump. Donald Trump told a story and it went off on a lot of tangents and it wasn't necessarily that easy to follow and it seems crazy in some ways. But he told a story that was better than Hillary's story and he was a better storyteller than Hillary was a more confident storyteller. So the idea that Libertarians needed to tell stories is very, very interesting. And of course, I ran Atlas shrugged in the fountainhead that are two examples of stories that gripped a lot more people and won a lot more people over than, you know, here we are on the other side, the non-storytelling side, the fact side, the reason side.  We're still having to explain how minimum wage hurts the poorest people the most and creates unemployment among low skilled people. We're still having to explain rent control. We're still having to explain the same old tired, tired, tired arguments that have been absolutely eviscerated 100 times over by far better people like Hayek and Mises and Milton Friedman. It just goes to show you that what you're saying is so important. We have a hindbrain that oftentimes is a lot more powerful in terms of our motivations than our fully conscious rational brain. I think if we're going to really take a stab at the heart of the state, we've got to really look at what makes the state so attractive at such a guttural level and take that apart and really tell a better story. And it's really easy to do, really. All we have to do is tell the victim's story. If we tell the victims of the state's story, it loses its mystification. It loses its mysterious power. It's aura. Look at, for example, Erwin Schiff, you know, Peter Schiff's father. Erwin Schiff was a tax protester. Now, I personally disagree with the, you know, the ideas, the method he was trying to use to get people to know, hey, you have to pay income tax. I think you should pay the income tax for the same reason that Jesus says when they come for your cloak, give them your tunic too. Just don't let the mafia beat you up any more than they have to, you know. So I believe that. But yeah, Erwin Schiff had a different opinion, you know. And what they ended up doing is they, they caged this elderly man and he died of cancer chained to a hospital bed away from his family. You have to think to yourself, what is the great taboo? This human being, you know, made in the image of God. What in the hell do you have to be to cage an elderly man dying of cancer, not allowing him to get fresh air, not allowing him to see his family because the greed of what he was promoting people.   You don't think you can figure out a way to pick up trash other than a state mechanism like putting people in cages if they don't pay. You don't think there's a way to solve building roads other than to sacrifice an elderly man like me. You see, once we tell the story of the victims, the emotional power that we connect with them, if you tell that story long enough of people like Irwin and there are thousands and millions more drug users, whatever, tell their stories, tell what it was like in the hidden confines of the state, they can't survive that. That's what I'm going to get out of this. If we tell the victim story, if we take the camera away, the camera is run right now by the population and their ignorance, we take that camera and let's say this is an ongoing movie of history and we take that camera, we put it in the hands of the victims that the state chews up quietly and we don't see the story and if we tell that story and I'm talking literally tell it in a article and just push it, push it, push it, push it every day. Just like this me too thing. If we're really going to deal for example, just as a little tangent to the same point I'm making, if we're really going to deal honestly with sexual assault then the state won't exist because the state's very existence is predicated on the threat of sexual assault. I mean if everybody knew that if you didn't have to pay taxes, you'd go to a hotel Hilton where you're taking care of breakfast, lunch and dinner and they're really peaceful nice people. I don't think anybody would pay taxes. It's the threat of physical violence that makes people obey and pay some ridiculous tax so the CIA can protect poppy fields in Afghanistan. The only way we do this stuff is that we have these dirty little secrets about what makes the state function and if we just stop making them secrets and start telling them from a human interest perspective, I think is the state's evil in such a powerful and profound way that we'd be amazed that we're not doing it already every day. Isn't it interesting Erwin Schiff shares a lot in common with the younger guy Ross Albrecht who's currently in prison for his involvement with the Silk Road dark website. What's so interesting is that both Ross Albrecht and Erwin Schiff not only do they engage in these opting out activities but they made the fatal mistake from the state's perspective of talking about it. In other words Erwin Schiff published books and Ross Albrecht spoke or wrote too freely on emails some of which ended up in the hands of the FBI and of course the whole notion, the whole charge potential charge that Ross Albrecht had solicited murder for hire was completely false and it was just used as a tactic in his negotiations with the federal government and that charge was never actually levied nor brought and he certainly wasn't convicted on it so both of these men languished or now languish in jail exactly as you suggest and the question becomes how do you tell stories in the face of a bigger, more powerful apparatus of the state in its own storytelling because you said we'll put it in a documentary well if we made a documentary about Ross Albrecht imagine the pushback there would be people saying oh well that's great David but that site was used to buy drugs or that site was used to launder money or it could have been used for human trafficking what about the children don't get to tell our stories in a vacuum or without pushback there's a lot of people on every side these days but here's the good news the good news is that the ability to tell the story is so much cheaper and easier than it was 30 years ago and all we had we had to sit there and listen to Walter Cronkite on the evening news for 20 minutes just lay down how things are and there was no pushback today it's unbelievable how cheap it has become to produce podcasts to produce books to produce videos to produce feature length films it's been a great equalizer and maybe we need to well I like the idea of our own campaign and me too campaign something that powerful but maybe we need to have a movement or workshops under the auspices of organizations like the Mises Institute that promote libertarian filmmakers and you know because some of the old libertarian movies are kind of schlocky and they need to be better so that's a really fascinating thing and I love the idea of documentaries yeah I think it's all about telling the story if you show the story see that's the thing libertarians get too left brain they're talking about the facts right just tell the story put a camera you know what I've been doing is I've been going around finding people who've been imprisoned right and I filmed them sharing what happened to them in prison you know just tell me what happened what the smells were like tell me what the sites were like tell me what happened in your first time in prison and it's fascinating that the human interest stories that are told and when you tell that and you just show the victims family show the person who's thrown away in a cage for getting high show the children that are crying when they see their parent is gone just show that story and then keep teaching the principle all along no violence for nonviolence well there's no question that the US prison system is probably well maybe apart from public schools the most shameful thing about America today and I would love to see prison crime statistics we almost think prisons are outside of of you know our crime stats because these people are sort of off the record but I would love to see criminality that occurs in prison I'd love to see those stats glommed on to whatever state or community so that the governor had to own up to the true stats of rape assault murder illicit drug use etc in his or her state let's say as a governor because I suspect very strongly that we don't include what happens in prison in our crime stats it's just one of those things we tend to think about and care about what's closest to us and what's right in front of us and that can be on social media or whatever it is and when you take people out of the game and put them in jail we warehouse them stack them on top of each other we forget about them so that's the very lifeblood of the state the state depends on that right to do that you know they are the only institution that can richly sacrifice nonviolent peaceful people bar none nobody else cared you know now marxist will try to tell people that the market is a sacrificial machine because you know if you want a Lamborghini and you're poor you don't get to have one therefore you're a sacrifice stupid stuff like that but the real violence actual physical violence against nonviolent peaceful people is the prerogative only of the state the state is the only one allowed to do that and all we have to do is just challenge that assumption by telling stories to undermine their ability to obfuscate our violence against people because if you ask someone like if you take anybody who's like an average status-deferring normal person you're on a jury panel you say you know do you really want to you know this person got high okay or this person was driving with a suspended license do you really want to walk that person to the cell you know do you want to put the cuffs on them yourself do you want to be the guy that says no you can't hug your child tonight you're going to be stuck in this cage do you want to be the person that guards them and they go to the common areas where there's violent gangs and they have to decide oh crap I'm not used to this I don't know which gang to join and I guess I got a threatened violence or else I'm going to be physically assaulted you know I've asked people I've asked John Bayser he was a former corrections officer I asked him you know I was like what's the percentage chance that you're going to have to engage in violence he says pretty close to a hundred percent you know if you want to survive a prison even if you were in there a nonviolent victim was crime so it's basically a hundred percent chance you're going to have to engage in some kind of violence or else violence is going to visit upon you I mean look how barbaric that system is even if you for example were to say well it's not guaranteed that someone's going to be sexually assaulted well even if it's a twenty percent increase in the probability that someone will be assaulted sexually if they're in a prison cage versus not in a prison cage you're still immorally you know you're it's still an attack for you to have done that you know that's so insane the idea that we can exonerate our more responsibility if we sat on a jury panel that sent someone into a cage where they can't leave with violent social paths that's what a sick barbaric concept that is right you know it's like all you have to do is just think about it and just talk about it and it's so dumb and evil that it kind of kills itself just by being talked about honestly you know well juries ought to be told about that they ought to be told about the extra sentencing realities of prison life but yeah it is pretty amazing when we think about it that apparently more men than women in the US are raped when we include prison statistics for one but you know getting back to your point about storytelling and explaining to people of violence it's interesting a lot of people in this country really don't see the state as a form of violence I mean they would push back on what you just said they would say look you know we have laws and some guy chooses not to pay his taxes or not to comply with some law or regulation and the police issue a warrant for his arrest he doesn't come in and submit to that arrest and so the cops go look him up at his house and he won't come to the door and so you and I would say well you know he hasn't done violent but yet they're going to bang his door down and they're going to physically grab him and handcuff him and haul him off to a very dangerous place it's interesting how a lot of people don't see that as unjustified violence I mean they understand that there's a physically violent element to what the cop does they get that but they don't see that more broadly as the state is inherently violence and they think that the cop is entirely justified in his actions there's no question that I would argue the majority of Americans view things that way so that that's a very tough hurdle when we start talking about the state as violence as much as that appeals to me as a rhetorical device and also as an objective reality I also have to be honest and say that really rings false with a lot of people including our progressive friends they don't like the way that sounds they don't want to engage that line of argument they want to dismiss it and they want to dismiss the people who use it as cranks or you know people who just use hyperbole that you know gee whiz if the cop pulls you over and you don't comply yeah he's going to have to drag you out of your car and this is just this is just part of the game but that doesn't mean government is violent I mean what would be your response to that well there's a couple of things there one I would say if you talk to the average person who's mildly politically involved or what have you every one of you can find someone with a few scapegoats that they'll admit the state wrongfully scapegoats people about so if you go to a progressive you'll get them with the drug war right they'll go with you on that real big a lot of progressives that you'll talk to they'll say yeah it's violent for a state to calm and arrest poor people for doing drugs they'll tell you that at least they'll give you lip service it's not the top thing on their agenda but they'll tell you that right so you start where you can find an entry point with everyone so with your average conservative they'll tell you it's violence for the state to force you at the barrel of a gun to buy health care they'll say yeah that's Obama that's unjust immoral violent law you know if you say yeah that's violent they'll say yeah that is or you know certain conservatives will go with you on other economic regulations violence it's coercion to force someone to use minimum wage you know whatever the minimum wage is so you can get each faction will agree with you that the state uses violence against scapegoats they only have their own pet scapegoats so the one thing we have to do is tell stories in a way that unites the principle across the board that's all we gotta do so you take their entry point scapegoat for the left it may be sex workers it may be prostitutes I mean it may be drug users drug dealers for the right it may be economic regulation violators people who you know I know that a lot of conservatives don't like the fact that the EPA throws people in jail for messing with their water you know the river area access or something or changing their backyard so the nanny state people there's a lot of conservatives mainstream conservatives that hate the nanny state and they see it as violent and wicked government but you just gotta unite the principle you gotta say no violence for non violence if there's no victim there's no crime victimless crime there is no crime just keep repeating that mantra either rhetorically or symbolically in the imagery that you show and just keep tying it to the unifying principle if you make a law progressive if you make a law to criminalize heroin you have given you have ceded the principle for criminalizing every other nonviolent behavior once you say that a state has the power to draw guns on someone who's done nothing he's not hurt anybody he's not stolen from anybody he's not assaulted anybody once you say the state has the right to draw deadly force on anybody for a singular issue you see that moral principle to the state and they can expand it to every area you hate so conservatives you know you tell that to conservatives just say hey look I know you don't like drugs but here's the deal you know how you're worried about the state having the privilege to you know you put you in jail if you don't make a cake for someone you don't agree with well guess what that principle exists because you let it exist for things like drugs once the state has the power to criminalize any nonviolent behavior you've given them a moral paradigm that they can just push and pool and adjust accordingly as popular opinion sways you see and so that's the thing that we have to unite left and right on and say hey we each have our own scapegoats that we think yeah give it to them put them in a cage but if we really think about it we wouldn't do it ourselves you know if you ask a leftist who loves big government would you put caged would you put cuffs on Erwin Schiff yourself well no that's I wouldn't do that you know would you put him in the back of a car and kidnap him yourself no I guess I wouldn't do that you just walk them through when you walk them through you see the humanness opens up right and so it's all about telling the stories of specific cases and just walking people through well I think that's a great application to domestic policy of what we try to apply to foreign policy I know sometimes even at libertarian gatherings I will be challenged on the principle of non-divisionism and people say well Jeff what would it take for you to authorize US troops to invade how bad would a dictator have to be you wouldn't have gone into World War 2 you know that sort of argument and having just finished Michael Malice's book on North Korea you know there is an example of society so horrific that you can imagine even the most pacifist libertarian saying oh my gosh maybe we ought to do something about that but I always offer a very simple test and it's similar to what you're saying would you put the handcuffs on everyone's shift and most people would say no but this relates to foreign policy I say you know I cannot in good conscience ask the government using a proxy of some probably less affluent kid who signed up for the Marine Corps of the Army I cannot ask government to use that kid as a proxy for something I wouldn't do myself or I wouldn't send my own kid to do so if you ask me right here right now Jeff will you give up your job potentially no job to return to will you leave your marriage and your house and your mortgage payments for an unknown term of years for much lower military pay leave my wife and kids to go don a uniform and fight to overthrow the regime physically fight to overthrow the regime in North Korea as bad as it is my answer is no I wouldn't and nor would I send my son who's not old enough but if he was so in less until the answer is yes I don't think I have the right to send anybody else now I happen to live in Auburn Alabama if a foreign power sent a bunch of ships into the Gulf 120 miles away from me and they started lobbing cruise missiles into Mobile or Pensacola or something well yeah I'd probably go down there and help try to fight off those ships that would be a conflict that I would fight in without any need for the government to have a draft or anything else I would fight in it out of self-protection and self-interest so I like the application of that idea to domestic policy would I personally go do something for a lot of people the answer is probably going to be no right they wouldn't do it they wouldn't be the guy that keeps the cell locked as someone beats a man up for being greedy right I mean if you're in jail for a victimless crime you're being put in a cage where you cannot escape there's no way you can get out if someone says hey we're a gang we don't like the way you looked at us we're going to beat you we're going to beat the hell out of you or we're going to do whatever else we want to do to you we're going to make you so script of your humanity you won't know how to think straight for the rest of your life and we do that with such a flippant carelessness that the only way we're able to do that is because someone just doesn't tell the story I know that sounds weird you're like whoa I mean people are thinking and I think well is it that simple yeah it really is I'm not saying you make a movie and then you're done I'm saying you keep telling you make it a contagion where other people are using art they're interviewing a guy with a webcam you know they're interviewing they go down there's people all around our cities who are thrown away by society because of victimless crime laws and just tell their stories and then link it back to the principle no victim no crime no violence for a non violence no violence just keep reiterating that mantra that's the only way the mainstream will get on to stuff that's how they get into that cone that remember that whole thing they got into the Coney 2012 and everybody got into that so you just what we have to do I am convinced 100% is we have to move libertarianism away from the book club set which is they'll always keep them there there keep developing that but if we really want to make a crack at the mainstream we have to we have to go into the heart strings we have to tell the emotions and we have to we have to tell a better story and and that's the way that it'll become we had to basically make libertarianism a humanitarian crisis not like oh well there's Marxism and there's libertarianism and there's conservatism and just pick which tribe no no no no screw that we don't have time for that there's people right now that don't have the luxury of being able to flee an attacker we can if someone comes to our house you know you can get a weapon you can leave you can run you can do stuff but if you're in a prison cell you can't you're confined to be inflicted upon violence you don't have any way to defend yourself or anything and we're okay with that as a society as long as we're not making we should be screaming about this every day that this is a humanitarian crisis and that it's it rests at the very heart of the state's existence see what I have found the culture see we really are in a great place if we just reach out and grab it see in terms of our cultural power watch you know think about it right now it's extremely popular to talk about criminal justice reform it's bipartisan it's like one of the few feel good bipartisan things that left and right says like Rand Paul and all that because he does that you'll see you know you'll hear liberals talk about that and so what you do is you take that starting point it's already become a humanitarian crisis issue it's already got leftist churches and Christian progressive groups and conservative groups like Chuck Colson's group of justice fellowship and prison fellowship they do a lot of stuff with this and they're very arch you know conservative evangelical friendly so you take that and then you take the left groups because they won't listen to us about anything else but you take the criminal justice thing and you use it as a bulwark to say hey if we're really honest about this we don't need to just trim around the hedges we need to make a new reform that there if there is no victim there is no crime and just and just let that principle through storytelling you tell stories of the raw milk farmer the alternative medicine seller there's real stories of people in cages for this tell their story show their children crying on camera show I mean not that an exploitative way show the natural emotion show what it's really happening just tell their story let their tears speak for themselves let the pain and the immorality of the whole thing just unveil itself and if we do that you create a snowballing trend where now it's unfortunately the hate to use his word but it's now trendy for people to talk about me too when it comes to the very existence of victimless crime loss and now we can talk about man we should never put human beings in a cage why are we putting poor black people and brown people and white people and every people women because it's not just men being assaulted in prison it's women too they're being assaulted why are we doing this you make it a humanitarian crisis that's where I think libertarianism needs to go I think in some ways this is kind of paradoxical we need to die in order to become alive right and what I mean by that is we need to die as this like I said a camp that you choose from and we need to become more transcendent where it's like no what liberty is about is a humanitarian crisis in our own backyard where people are being assaulted and the children the moms I mean kids are begging for their parents to come home at night and they're not coming home and they're being left fatherless and motherless on the streets and the cycle of evil continues and it's all because of us because we refuse to withdraw our consent from victimless crime laws and guess what victimless crime laws includes ultimately laws for taxation as well so the very heart of the state is gutted if we take criminal justice reform the cultural appetite for it and we just keep using it as a wedge to open the whole Pandora's box yeah I agree completely it's tough it's tough sledding because we are so tribal you mentioned Rand Paul even people who really like what Rand Paul has to say on a couple of things you know you start talking to him deeper and they'll oftentimes say oh he's crazy though or he's a libertarian or he's this and that because we have this not only do we have tribalism but we have two big tribes and as opposed to what I would much prefer 50 or 100 or 300 tribes in America coexisting peacefully as opposed to democrat and republican so it's a challenge but you know something has to be done differently than we've been doing it for the last 30 years because I think while libertarianism is growing and the libertarian mindset there's no question it's growing there's no question there's a lot of success stories at the individual level you see people's lives being changed but the population is growing too that's the question are we any bigger than we were 30 years ago per capita and so I hope the answer is yes but it's not so clear right and yet still people 70% of the country still says they're Christian so we have this unifying tribe so to speak that supersedes some of the other things I am a Christian and Jesus says do not resist evil with violence and turn the other cheek so I guess I have to think about does that include turning the other cheek when it comes to dealing with the drug user does do not resist evil with violence as Jesus commands his followers does that include people who sell raw milk and I'm afraid raw milk is going to poison people do I resist that with violence if the state says I can't well maybe not if it's people that are in juries you can not guilty because you find the law to be immoral maybe that's another area where we can infect the culture by saying hey when you go into your jury duty you know hashtag me too say not guilty not guilty if it's a victimless crime let your neighbors go if they haven't had a victim so there's a lot of interesting angles that we can explore and I think the Christian identity that you don't even have to be a Christian to understand if 70% of your neighbors believe in this thing make them accountable to it you know what I mean it's like if you really believe in Jesus here man this is the way you would live that out it says right here do not resist evil with violence where's the asterisk what does it say unless you're on a jury panel you can then throw away a guy for selling milk from a cow's udder and throw him into a cage you can't do that and the only way people are going to understand that is if you just show that's actually what's happening you just got to tell them well all I can say in response to that is if you're going to a church that has a bunch of American flags up behind the pulpit and the minister or pastor or priest is giving homilies to the state you know you need to speak up that's something you can do right here right now locally you know are you a Christian or are you a subject of US FedGov very important question well very good and I just I wanted to tell you thanks for coming on I've really enjoyed our discussion and throwing back and forth ideas it's been fun thank you David


Top 10 richest musicians in Ghana. Ghana is the second most populous country in West Africa, with a population of approximately 31 million people. It has one of Africa's fastest growing music industries. The music industry has risen over time to become one of the highest paying professions. Some musicians are successful even in Ghana. Do you want to know who Ghana's top 10 wealthiest musicians are? Ghana has a number of talented musicians who now rank highly when compared to musicians from other African countries, such as Nigeria and South Africa. Musicians have a reputation for making extravagant purchases and forting their wealth. Of course, they're all skilled and hardworking, and each has a distinct performance style. We'll show you how much money these wealthy musicians are worth and how they got it. If you're new to this channel, please like and subscribe as the countdown begins. 10. Stoneboy 1.5 million dollars Bernatan Stoneboy was born in Livingstone. Issi Satecla is a Volta region-based Ghanaian Afro pop, dancehall and reggae artist. On March 5, 1988, he was born. He began performing as Stoneboy as an underground rapper in high school. He has gained popularity all over the world. He received numerous awards and nominations in 2015, ranging from Artist of the Year to Album of the Year. His efforts appear to be paying off. In 2018, he was a Samsung ambassador, and in September 2019, he signed an endorsement deal with Voltaic Natural Mineral Water. Among his vehicles are a customized Hyundai Sonata, a Range Rover Sport and many others. He is the 10th and final richest musician in Ghana. He debuted his newly established clothing line in Ashayman at The Bidham Shop, where he sells branded BHIM outfits. 9. D. Black 1.6 million dollars Desmond Quacy Blackmore, also known as D. Black, is the amongst the richest musician in Ghana, ranking Ninth. He was born on January 12, 1986. D. Black is an award-winning musician and a notable entrepreneur who has received numerous awards, including entrepreneurial awards, which have inspired him to keep pushing. D. Black has been nominated for over 59 awards worldwide and has won 23 of them, including the 2011 BT Awards during his musical career. He also introduced Black Avenue Clothing, which aims to be an international design company, marketer, and importer of men's and women's clothing. In his mansion, D. Black has shared a fleet of expensive cars. 8. Samini 2 million dollars, Emmanuel Andrew Samini, also known as Samini, is a Ghanaian reggae and dancehall recording artist. He was born on December 22, 1981 in Akra, Ghana. Samini's success and recognition began with the release of his first single, Linda, and continued with appearances on other artists' successful singles. Samini was end-skinned as a chief in his hometown on December 13, 2018. He has been nominated for numerous awards and has won some of them. He has received numerous awards, including African Artist of the Year in 2008 and Best African Act in 2006. Samini is one of Ghana's wealthiest musicians, with a plethora of extravagant assets. 7. Tinney 2.3 million dollars, Nai Ado Quena, better known as Tinney, is a Ghanaian rapper who was born on January 19, 1982. He began his career in music at a young age, singing and rapping at parties and fun fairs. He began performing at Fun World an entertainment program held every Sunday at the National Theatre in 1994. Since his debut, he has released several studio albums. Considering his lavish lifestyle, Tinney owns numerous mansions throughout the country, as well as a feat of cars worth millions of dollars. He has recorded with several Ghanaian superstars, including Shatter Whale, Trigmatic, Quabina, and many others. 6. Fuse O.D.G. 4 million dollars, Nanna Richard Abiona was born on December 2, 1988, in the United Kingdom, but spent his childhood in Ghana. The British Ghanian musicians' two famous songs, Azonto and Antenna, brought him worldwide recognition and money. Among the musicians, he has collaborated with a White Wolf Jean, Elephant Man, Shatter Whale, Wand Cole, It's Tiffany, Sean Paul, Sardoki, and Major Lazer. This celebrity owns homes both inside and outside of the country, all of which are mansions. He has worked tirelessly to promote Ghanian artists in the UK and to change the narrative of Africa through his music. 5. R2Bs 4.6 million dollars, Faisal Hekim and Rashid Mujiz, two cousins from Timah, make up the Ghanian hip-hop and hip-life duo R2Bs. They were nominated for a B.E.T award in 2013. Site 15, the Jew's 3rd studio album, was released in March 2019. The R2B stars, like many other Ghanian stars, have collaborated with a variety of artists, both within and outside of Ghana. Sarkaday, Tavido, Wanday Cole, Whiskyd, Chris Waddle, Asumadu Kilbeats, and Tinche Strider are among the artists with whom they have worked. 6. Beka 5 million dollars, Beka Kousua Achimpoma Achimpon is a Ghanian singer, songwriter, and actress. Beka is unquestionably one of Ghana's wealthiest musicians. Furthermore, she was born in 1984 and has consistently ranked among Ghana's top 10 richest musicians. She rose to prominence after competing in the second season of TV3's annual Singing Competition Mentor. Her outstanding performance all over the world has earned her numerous awards and nominations. Beka has agreed to be an endorser for the EKB record label. She has amassed a lot of wealth on her own through her music career. 3. Okieme Korme 6 million dollars, Okieme Korme, also known as the rap doctor, is the third richest musician in Ghana in 2022, with a net worth of 7 million dollars. Korme, who is also an entrepreneur, is one of the country's most influential musicians. Korme began his music career at a young age, when he became interested in rap music. He wrote his own songs and performed them at local high school shows. In 1997, he rose to prominence as a member of the Okieme hip life duo, performing under the stage name Okieme Kofi with fellow Ghanaian Daniel Kofia Moteng. They collaborated on four albums before splitting up in 2004. He began performing solo under his own record label, One Mic Entertainment, which featured renowned Ghanaian high life and hip hop artists like Daddy Lumber, Kojo Antwi, and Ophori Amponsa. 2. Shata Wolle 6.5 million dollars, Shata Wolle was born in 1984 as Charles Mee Arma Mensa Junior. He previously went by the stage name Bandana, but now goes by Shata Wolle as God would have it. He is well known for his musical contributions as a regga dance hall artist and song producer. Shata Wolle's decision to pursue music was undoubtedly wise as it catapulted him into the spotlight. His biggest hit, Dancehall King, catapulted him to fame. He has received numerous awards for his performances on both domestic and international stages. He owns a Range Rover, the G-Wagon, a Toyota Camry, and a Chevrolet Camaro as well as multi-million dollar homes. Sakade 7.2 million dollars Sakade is a Temma native who is well known both in and outside of Ghana. He is a talented rapper and record producer. He primarily performs hip life and hip hop music styles. Sakade is one of Ghana's wealthiest musicians, and he has collaborated musically with many other renowned hip hop stars from Ghana and beyond. Among the many musicians, he has collaborated with our Shata Wolle, Aka, Kour Kesse, Bol J, Hammer of the Lost 2, Taylor Savage, DJ Mensa, Jazzy, R2B's Ice Prince, Fuse ODG, Castro, E-Flyer, Il, Ace Hood, and others. He represents a wide range of companies, including Samsung Mobile, Fan Milk, and many more. He has a magnificent home as well as a fleet of automobiles. As of 2022, he is Ghana's richest musician. Ghana's music industry's contribution to the growth of African music on the international stage is an act that deserves to be recognized. Let us know what you think. Do you think we missed anyone? Mention them in the comments section. Please like, share, comment, subscribe, and enable notifications to be notified of new videos.


The last episode of Wheel of 2K was a heater. We got two straight wins, we blew both our opponents out and we added some demons to the squad. I think I finally hit the perfect groove that I can as far as my skill in 2K goes and there isn't a better time because we only have four games left of Wheel of 2K. I hope you guys have enjoyed it as much as I have. I'm getting really excited for Madden, obviously. But let's hop into this episode. Our current record is six and two and I'm giving away $250 for every single win. We'll donate all the money in the finale episode. So right now we've got $1,500 to give away.  We've got Invincible Kate Cunningham. We've got Invincible Kobe Bryant, Alex Apokachevsky. Who is crazy good? Season eight Pokachevsky. Got, of course, our team captain, end game Dirk Davidsky and end game Yalmin. Good at literally everything. We've got Point Guard Jokic, Invincible Mello, Marc Gasol and Sean Bradley along with Joss and Petrovich on our bench. Now, technically, if I drop 10 with this Kobe, I can upgrade him to end game, but this Kobe, I'm not messing with it. Invincible Kobe's been amazing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. We're on a four game winning streak. The very first wheel spin. Honestly, I think one of the weakest links on this team might be Carmelo Anthony. It feels so weird saying that. Team Neil Jackpot. Maybe we can replace him. So I can get any single player in the game. It could be an end game. It could be an invincible. It could be whatever. But they must come from the Milwaukee Bucks. I'm sorry, Mello, you're getting tossed. I'm pretty sure end game Yannis is a shooting guard. End game Yannis is small forward, Point Guard. I'm not gonna complicate this. End game Yannis is the move. And I'm pulling out mommy's credit card because I really do not feel like waiting. End game Yannis on Tena Koopa moves to our Point Guard. So I guess off the bench, it'll be Jokic, Cade, Jonathan Bender, Marc Gasol, Sean Bradley, low key, low key. Karim Abdul-Jabbar would not have been a bad pick, but how do I pass on end game Yannis at Point Guard? I'm really excited he uses. Have never used end game Yannis. This will be my very first time.  We got the challenge. The challenge wheel got me Jonathan Bender last episode. So this could continue to be really, really good. But let's see first. Yes! Oh my God. I have gotten this challenge more than any other challenge and it's my absolute favorite. So I couldn't ask for anything more. And last episode, I hit a buzzer. Let's see that squad, baby. T-Mac, Titans, Ben Simmons, Bulbul, Yao, Porzingis. He's got a crazy tall budget squad. That's what he's got. Yannis gonna walk us out the gates here. Nobody appears to be on Dirk Nervitsky. He's gonna leave. Who did I say I wanna do three's win? I said if I get a choice, it better be Kobe. Cookin'. Oh, right back. One more, one more, one more. Yannis end game.  All right, well, he's run into zones. I'm gonna get a lot more opportunities to shoot some threes. Ooh. Indy Yao, one more pass. Pocoszewski! Not shooting great to start out right now, but honestly, if he stays in the zone, we're gonna start hitting these shots. Great defense. Oh my God, I boxed him for 20 straight seconds. And we've got ourselves a transition pig. There we go. No, there was so much latency on that. What was that? All right, Pocoszewski.  These are shots that I hit all the time, but we've got so much latency right now. I can't do a damn thing about it. Did I get latency there? I did, once again.  Ooh, great defensive play from Yao. I just gotta lock in. I'm just getting frustrated. I gotta not get frustrated. Look at that lag. Okay, at least you guys saw the lag. I don't feel as bad anymore.   Because unless you have perfect connection, you're just fucked.  Okay, cutting him wide open. Is that one gonna go?  Can I please? Can I please? How am I supposed to make an open three if I'm lagging? Is that the game plan here? Run zone when you know it's lagging, and then I'm just fucked?  I'm gonna pull Kobe for Petrovich. See, that should be such an easy shot, but it's not right now.  Oh, this is so crazy. I gotta release these things. Yeah, look, he's lagging too. I gotta release these things crazy early. Was that crazy early enough? Slightly, it was too early that time. Seven points to the first quarter. He's running a two, two, three zone.  Please. Great move, great move. All the way in for Dirk Nowitzki. 17 to 14. He's not in the zone anymore, so we can actually take twos now. Great defense. Got a hand up in his face. He drilled that great shot. Great move, Dirk. I got him jumping twice. Kobe, good defense. Another tough contest, three. That one won't go, but he gets the board on Yao. Yao's off to a slow start. Another tough three from Kevin Love. That one goes in. Bring it in the bench. Dude, this is how many points I was scoring in the first quarter of our other games. I really like this matchup for Yokich, though. That's where we get Yokich's point guard. He's got Damian Lillard on him. Bring that double. I knew he was going to do that. Oh, no, I hit ball first. Yo, isn't it if you hit ball first? I know. I'm thinking of a different rule.  Nice close out, though. Still going to win this game. I don't care what's going to happen here. Petrovic's the boy! Of course.   I'm just going to have to win in the paint. If I can't shoot threes, I'm winning in the paint. I might have to let Sean Bradley go to work on. Dwight Howard? Great defense. Look at Petrovic. Look at Petrovic! Great defense so far. Most of this possession has been great defense. Get that out of here! Down to Sean Bradley. Ooh, that's Marcus Hall. Not sure why he was unguarded over there, but he gets a nice three from Kevin Love. Okay. Jonathan Bender. Look at that. Yolkic on Kobe. Shooting foul, going to the line. Yolkic? Free throw? That was super ugly. Got that one. 34-27. That is okay. Dwight Howard 3, we will live with. Nice shot. Dude, what's going on right now? This game is not going our way. But we only need it to go our way for like a second. We just need one big run. That's all you need. Great defense here from Sean Bradley.  Are you shitting me? Yolkic can take this all the way in and get. All right. My time for complaining just ended right there. Every ounce of complaints that I had in me are now done. Because that was horseshit that I scored that. Great. Dude, draws in Petrovic. Ooh. Great work. And we got team takeover. 41-35. Get out there. 44-35. Oh, Yannis, go all the way. What are we doing? What animation is that? God damn, man.     I got to erase a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter here. A 10-point handicap for our opponent. Let's see how that goes.  Pogoshevsky, deep, three. Ooh, is that a two? That 10-point lead is five all of a sudden. Good defense. Get big. Get fucking, no way. Get up, Yannis.  Dirk Ripsim. Out to Dirk. Midi, rip. Bensim is with a nice move on Yannis. Dirk down to Yao. What a pass. Out to Kobe.   But my Yao's going to get a turn. Ooh. Stay in it, boys.  We got to stay locked in bad. I can't lose sight. Not right now. Let's go. We're playing lights how he brings in the bench. I am shocked about that. Bad. Bad shot by him. Our first opportunity to take the lead. All game. He's going to leave. Yeah. Oh, guys. It worked out. I'm no longer mad. Dirk's done it. He hits a monster three. Let him jump. Yao puts one in. 56-55. 48 seconds in the ball game. No way. Hand up. Let's go. Opportunity to take the lead. Six to 57. If we ever needed one, boys, it's right now. Oh, he's going to look for that three. Yes. No way. With Kobe in his face. I have to score, but no time left here. What's up, a horrible shot. 1.2 on the clock. Wait a minute. Oh, my God.  I'm not entirely sure what you try for here. That wasn't a bad shot. I'm bringing the starters back in. He's got his starters in.  What was that? Are you kidding me? And his Yao was somehow- Kobe! Back to him getting honest. I need you right now, Poku. Big lag right there, too. I'm bringing in Kade. I'm bringing in Yohkichi. I do not. Let's be honest. I don't even know why. Don't let him do it again. Poku shots Kade. Oh, no. Oh, no. Risky pass. Actually, no, it's not. I can't let him have a three. Oh, no foul. Take your time. A three. You know he does. Damn. He spaces and hits. Inbounds pass. The dirt goes just fine. I'm finally to the line. Dude, he's so good with Kevin Love. Beautiful. Wow.   You better take your loss like a champion, buddy. Trying to pause, glitch my free throw. That's Nevitsky. Come on. I know what you're doing.   I did not mean to leave him like that. Time out.  Nevitsky.  Let's just leave no doubt. Leave no doubt in double OT, boys. Put this game away. Go up, yeah. Ooh, 59%.  He wants the three. After an offensive fall apart, we make an amazing defensive stop to be leading. I think there's something he can't stop down here. He wants the three. That's fine. You go in there. Let's go. Finally sniffed that out. Pokhyshevsky set the screen. What? No, I don't want that shot. Pokhyshevsky. Caleb wants a three.  Come on, yeah. He puts up. Dude, this guy hits three pointers. I need a bucket here. But we can burn almost the entire clock. Yao, tired. Three point game. Foul, foul. I don't actually know if that was a good foul. He needs a three. I can never top that. I can never top that. That's the only issue. I can never top that game right there. That was maybe the hardest fought battle of my life. Talk about this lineup though. So we keep end game Yanis, but guess what? End game Yanis isn't good. I don't care how many Hall of Fame badges he is. If I can't consistently hit jumpers with him, he isn't good. I'm putting Kate Cunningham back up at point. I'm gonna move Yanis to my back up three. I've got Jonathan Bender in my back up two and Yoko just my back up point guard. So it's gonna be Kate, Kobe, Pokhyshevsky, Dirk. Yeah, that's my favorite lineup.  But I just won a double overtime game.  You know, I've never pulled an end game. We got an end game. No, not an end game. We have a dark matter. I don't know if it's an end game. Don't listen to this.  So if right now I want it to be the time. Come on. Who is that? Who is that? Bald? Oh, that looked like Michael Jordan. He doesn't have an end game, does he? I thought it might be invincible Jordan. Elemental Jordan's actually really good, but I just don't think he really has a spot. I guess he has a spot on my bench. I guess I like him better than Petrovich and Mellow even though they're both invincible. Dude, our team is stacked. We are stacked. That moves us to seven and two. Honestly, I lost my voice. So I almost hope that this next game isn't as ridiculous as that last one. All right, boys. Here is our real spin. I'm literally am fully shot. This better be a blowout. One way or the other, here's our real spin. Google picks an NBA team and then I get one player from that team. Hey, Alexa, can you name me a random NBA team? The Lakers are considered to be one of the most successful teams in the NBA. Hey, Alexa. Hey, Alexa. Alexa. Hey, Alexa. Can you name a random NBA team? Here is an NBA sports team, the Boston Celtics. Boston Celtics. Hey, Alexa. Hey, Alexa. Off. Stop listening.  Dude, the Celtics have three different end games. Taco Fall, Larry Bird, Jason Tatum. See, like, Taco Fall is the best pick, but I'm not doing Taco Fall, I ain't doing that. I'm going Larry Legend. I'm going Endgame Larry Bird, baby. I'd straight up, I do not care if you call me a casual.  I'm going with Invincible Larry Bird. That's my pick. Look, if we need Endgame Giannis, Endgame Giannis will come back in. Ah, no, fine. I have to let him. I have to give Endgame Giannis another chance. I can't give up on him that quick. A challenge wheel and game pen of the final season. By the way, if you're wondering, I definitely plan on doing a grand finale for Wheel of 2K. Ah, I'm gonna kill myself.  Our challenge is point guard plus shooting guard plus small forward is 35 points. I really like this challenge because it excludes power forward center and obviously I use a lot of my power forward center. So, Kobe Lonzo, Lebranche, you're fucked.  Good, that's exactly what I need. I don't have any voice. My point guard, shooting guard, and small forward must combine for 35 points. So, that's Kobe Giannis. So, that's Kobe Giannis and Pocoshevsky. And here's Giannis. That was my fault though. I shot that shot leaning when I had absolutely no reason to do so. Giannis to the line, put us on the board here. Yeah, every Endgame has the same free throw. Why not give him their own free throw? All right, Giannis, I'm glad I'm giving you another look. I feel bad for Kobe though. I'm cold with Kobe after bricking so many shots. Man, he's gonna strap it. After winning the double OT game, I'm now fuckin' over a bazillion. You know what I'm gonna do here? I'm gonna score every single point this game with Giannis. Sometimes you play your heart out in double OT and sometimes you score nine points in the first quarter but I am going to score, I'm gonna score 60 points with Giannis today. I'm gonna start like that. Look at Larry with that defense. And one, he pauses. Not sure what's going on here but he might lose off the pause. I'm not sure what he's going for here. All right, I'm gonna take the W but if we wanna keep Larry Bird, I gotta win this clutch time game. I feel like it's the only fair way we can make this work here. Ooh, oh, he's got Endgame everybody except for Jonathan Bender. Good, this'll be a good, the double, had a double take on that. That's embarrassing. Ooh, look at Dirk. Dirk's going to work here. God, bull, bull, bull, turn around.  Oh, I should have had that. Actually, no, I got this. Smooth. Ooh, this, I don't know. Pocaszewski, you have that then, sir. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to line right now but I will take all the points that I can get. I'm gonna get him. I'm gonna get him. Oh, this guy has great defense. Ugh. Heal me! Ah! I know Yaw was on fraud alert, but apparently he is. Bull Bull is also on fraud alert because he just bricked that easy one splash. Benjamin bailed out Simmons once again. Benjamin, ball don't lie, Simmons apparently actually got fouled.  Yeah, no, he didn't. Told you. Ooh, Pocaszewski slams it right on tackle, falls nuts.  Ah, Benjamin, Benjamin bailed out Simmons. Getting greasy with this.  Got him. Oh, no. You're clamped.  Damn it. Oh, he fakes the three, goes for the two, the six. Let him jump one more time. There we go. Thank you. Good defense. That's fine, that's fine. The map two. Oh, good lead. Ah! What do we go for here? Good defense. Oh, that was a scary transition but it worked out for us. I'm gonna go Kobe. Ah! Ah! Oh, he's doubling. Good. Good. Giannis.  Giannis! No!    Hey, I'm happy about it. All right, let's stay up. Stay up, I'm Ben Simmons. No big threes here. A big three here is how we lose the ball game. Great defense. Great defense, I own you. Oh, good baller. No, no. Good defense! What a pass. Ball game! 18-14, we had some serious comp that time. All right?  Dude, not to mention, I got robbed of another challenge wheel. My challenge wheel was 35 points between point guard, shooting guard, small forward and I had 28 with Giannis. I'm opening a pack, you can't stop me. Once again, you can't stop me. Dark matter? No saw sounded anyway. I got Zion Williams in there.  That's pretty cool. I have that in common.  All right, boys.  But we are eight and two. I think my literal favorite card in this game, that's not named Yao Ming or Victor Wembenyama is probably Alexei Pokashevsky. This guy's a dog. All right, boys. Listen, I love you all. Thanks for watching.  I love you guys. I will see you in the final episode of the final season. Let's have a great time. Love you, boys. Peace.


Well, back to the ice. It's a series that dates back to 1970. BSU and North Dakota men's hockey will play a home and home series this weekend. And despite the wind loss differential, favoring the fighting Hawks in the series in the last 12 meetings have been decided by a goal or less. The Beaver is also red hot coming in, winning sixth straight and unbeaten in their last nine. Get ready for an exciting two days. It's fun to play these types of games in our building. There's no question about it. And it's an easy trip for North Dakota. It's an easy trip for us on Saturday to go there. Everyone in there is excited to play them at home and then go to the Ralph. It's always a great experience. And they're such a great team. And we have so much respect for them and the way they play the game. And yeah, it's just going to be awesome. First up tomorrow night at the Sanford Center puck set to drop around 7 0 7. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Businesses are essential to the economy, yet some managers of these businesses, companies or corporations, forget that the employees are the driving force behind all operations. Standing behind a corporation, it's easy to unjustly abuse the little worker. Yet, the little worker can do great damage, when fueled with rage. In this first episode of Evil Businesses, a bad employer screws over employees but his dirty laundry catches up with him. Unjustly fired employee finds her new closest friend, Pure Revenge. A dream team of terrible lawyers and a corrupt management who lose all in their own game. And last, Immoral Boss refuses to give work compensation and receives compensation from Karma herself. Naturally, viewer discretion is advised. These revenge acts might be disturbing to snowflakes. So I need to keep this somewhat vague to maintain anonymity. And I wasn't there for all of it. This mostly happened to my friend, who was one of the employees screwed over. But I did what I could to help my friend get revenge. Friend of mine was employed as a barista for a coffee shop with a couple of locations. Well, the owner turned out to be a great A scumbag. Started paying the employees with bad checks, not giving them their tips if they were paid on a credit card, things along those lines. He was, of course, stealing from the business to fund his own lavish lifestyle. My friend was pissed, and quit shortly after this nonsense started, and of course the business shortly went under. But if that's all that happened, this wouldn't be in a Royal AI episode. Now, my friend was out a few thousand dollars. I'm not sure exactly how much, but enough that it was a serious hit to their budget. And they weren't the only one. This creep was the classic con man, writing checks to cover the bad checks, all the delay tactics you ever see. Oh, the bank must have messed up, just redeposited and of course it comes back as a bad check a week or two later. Lots of shady stuff. But he was a good con man. All told, eight people were getting screwed over to an excess of twenty thousand dollars. So one afternoon, my friend is telling me this story. How he's so sick and tired of being conned by this creep, as well as everyone else. And here is where the revenge part begins to come into effect. I start digging into the business owner. All public record stuff, and some of it I learned from my friend, were their coworkers. But started to learn a lot about this scumbag. He's got multiple felonies in his past. I'm all forgiving people a second chance, but this guy wasn't that old, and had racked up easily a half dozen felonies, why he wasn't still in jail is what really amazed me. One of his convictions was for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was currently on probation for the above conviction. This is where things start getting interesting. A little more light digging and I come up with the name of his probation officer. When I sat and talked to my friend about what I had found out about his prior bad employer, he happened to mention that he had seen firearms in his apartment, when he visited him one time before. He'd used his girlfriend to purchase firearms since he was a prohibited person, straw purchase, yet another felony. So now his things get really interesting. I put my friend in contact with scumbags probation officer. Turns out when you are out on probation, there's a lot of things you're not allowed to do. One of them is commit more felonies.  Oh, and knowingly passing bad checks and our state for the amount he was writing them for, is a felony in and of itself. Eight employees, three payroll cycles, this resulted in 23 felony counts of passing a bad check, since my buddy bailed at two cycles. Repeat offense of being a felon in possession of a firearm. As if that's not bad enough, when his probation officer came a knock into check on these allegations, he also found drug paraphernalia and drugs sufficient to get him for possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute. Multiple different drugs, so multiple counts of that too. For those keeping score at home, if he was convicted of all of these counts, he would be looking at roughly an additional 30 felonies. Easily enough to keep him in jail for a very long time. Now, if this were a channel for snowflakes, that's where things would have stopped most definitely. But no. You see, this state has this fund that all employers pay a tax into. It's a fund for those situation where the company goes out of business, writes bad checks for their employees, etc. And it's administered by the state labor board. So they pay out to cover the lost wages, but not the lost tips of the employees. The state is not benevolent in this. You see, in order to attempt to recoup their losses, they can seize company assets. And in the case of a poorly set up company with no separation of assets between the company and the owner, they can also seize personal assets. Oh yes, that shiny new company truck? That you're towing your shiny new boat with? Guess what scumbag, they now belong to the state. Your bank accounts? Yeah, those belong to the state now too. Now surely, you must be thinking, surely this is now enough right? No, this scumbag messed with my friend. And I don't take kindly to that kind of nonsense. My friend learned throughout this process that on top of all this, his former employer was committing tax fraud slash evasion. As far as the employees were concerned, they were all straight up W4 employees, meaning he was withholding the correct taxes, payroll taxes, Medicare taxes, etc. Except he was reporting to the IRS that all of his employees were independent contractors and wasn't actually withholding any taxes at all. Taxes for the company? He was fudging those so badly they should have been sold as brownies. Unfortunately for scumbag, a friend of a friend happened to work for the local IRS office. And after sitting with him over drinks one evening, found out that the IRS has a tip line for reporting tax evasion. And depending on how it's reported, it turns out that the person reporting the tax evasion may actually get a small percentage as a reward for turning in the tax cheat. So on top of facing 30 some odd felony charges. On top of having all his personal and company assets seized. Scumbag now has the IRS chasing after him. Now that's nuclear revenge worthy. I will update this as more developments come in. I can say that because this scumbag is such a scumbag, he is currently sitting in jail awaiting trial for domestic assault on his girlfriend. My friend and his co-workers have been interviewed by local police and the probation officer, as well as the IRS and the ATF, for the straw purchases of the firearms through his girlfriend. My understanding is she's made a deal with the ATF to avoid charges for the straw purchases in exchange for her testimony against him. The DA and probation officer are waiting for him to be sentenced on the domestic violence charges before they go after him for all the other stuff, that way he has to serve the sentences consecutively. As far as the federal charges, who knows when those will be filed. But my understanding is that no matter when he's charged, he'll have to serve the federal time after his state prison time, and won't get any credit for time served in the state pen. This happened a few years ago, and still makes me giggle with glee to this day. I'm a 34 years old female, who has always been a bit of a tomboy. I like cars, sports and reptiles. When I was 25 I wanted a career change, and finally follow my dream of working in an auto repair shop, as a painter, like my father always did. To start my education I needed to already have a job at an auto repair shop as an intern. So I searched and called a lot of companies to see if they had spots. There were literally several companies that laughed at me because, there's no place for a woman on the work floor. Disheartened I tried one final company, who said he'd take a chance with me. I was thrilled. I was promised lots of opportunities to learn and a steady job after graduation. I started a week later, and the first two weeks were awesome. I learned a lot, and was promised even more opportunities, he promised I would have two to three hours a week of private time with a resident painter for practice. Soon after though it went downhill. The owner had bid on a contract with a large city in our country to restore underground containers. I had to sand them down, put sealant on the edges and prepare them for painting. Tidious work, but I did it diligently. The promised practice time never happened. After a while, all I did, day in day out, eight hours a day was sand down underground containers. By then end of the day my hands and wrists were numb from the vibrations. This is illegal by the way, you're not allowed to sand with a pneumatic sanding machine for more than four hours a day in my country, as it causes severe wrist and hand issues. After several months the contract with the city ended, and I hoped my promised practice time would come. But no it didn't. I was given jobs that had nothing to do with my education. I was told to do jobs that a contractor should do. Like put rebar in front of the windows, repair the sliding doors, repair walls and other small things. Basically nothing to do with my desire to become a painter. He let me and my co-workers work in an unsafe environment, which he knew was unsafe. He also asked his employees to work for free as he had financial issues which were later proven to be untrue, at that point at least. After six months of doing literally nothing that I could count to my education, my boss called me into his office. He told me he was fed up with my attitude, he made a mistake hiring me. I was fired, on the spot. I was heartbroken and cried the whole way home. I didn't get it, I put 110% into my job, working hard, always on time, staying late if needed and never complained. I didn't understand what happened, and was pretty down for a while. However, several days later I found out I was pregnant, which helped me get over my downers. When the time came that my final paycheck should come in, nothing happened? A week after it normally came in, I called, but was told to not complain and it would be transferred shortly. Two weeks later, still nothing. Called again and got a very irritated boss on the line, cussing at me and calling me things I will not repeat. I was fed up, and contacted my lawyer. Here comes the revenge. In my country, there's apparently a few laws that my boss broke, without me even knowing about them. First, you're not allowed to fire somebody without reasonable cause, you need to document bad behavior, and give the employee a write up. After two write ups you're allowed to terminate. My boss never did this. Unlawful termination can end in a fine, and the employee has a right to get as many monthly pays as the employment contract would have continued, when the employee wasn't terminated. Which would mean I had a right to another six months of pay. Second, you must pay the final paycheck within a week of termination. We were now going on week four. After the first week, an employee is entitled to compensation of up to $100 per day of not receiving their paycheck. Meaning I was now entitled to at least $2,100 extra pay. My lawyer wrote up a letter to my boss, stating we would be pursuing my legal rights. He didn't respond. A week later we send another letter, increasing the compensation for late payment as we went. After a month of my lawyer not getting any response. Suddenly I received my pay. No compensation nothing, just basic pay. My lawyer recommended to go to small claims court, and so we did. Mind you, it takes about three months before you can appear before court. He didn't even show up in court. But send a statement through his lawyer, saying how I was a horrible employee blah blah blah. However he had no proof whatsoever, but I did. I had my performance reports from one month into employment and four months into employment. And they were stellar.  Six months of pay, which is $12,000, four months of late payment compensation. This is because he didn't pay the full amount my lawyer requested, as was my legal right, which is also about $12,000. And added the legal fees, now about $3,000. I was paid the same week. He was then also charged with a fine for violating employment laws. He had to pay 50K. This resulted in the employment bureau investigating the company. They discovered the building I worked at was unsafe. The foundation was unstable, walls were crumbling and tilting, he was told to make repairs or they would close him down within a month. By accident they discovered he was also cheating on his taxes. So the tax agency got involved. He got charged with embezzlement and tax evasion for both his companies. He had to pay back all taxes he evaded, plus a 100% fine. According to a staggering 250K over several years. He didn't have that kind of money, and after struggling for about two months, which resulted in him not paying his other employees, he went belly up. Both businesses shut down, and the building I worked at even got demolished. Seven years later it's still an empty plot, and if I ever feel put down by somebody, I take a short drive to that place. And it reminds me, people will sometimes get what they deserve. This happened to me back in 2012 when I had my first real grown up job in university. I was a clerical assistant for a firm in my city. The firm was a small one of nine employees that also had clerks who would in turn from time to time. I worked there part time during my junior and senior year then full time after I graduated. I made it about four months after before I was told to resign. This was my first ever business formal job as we had lots of client face to face, I should add that the clients were big. Fire department, police department etc. I was brought on by work study from my university and at first really enjoyed working for the firm. I had an amazing mentor that taught me all there is to know about this side of the business. He pretty much kept the firm running and put in so much effort that when he interviewed me I thought he was the owner of the firm and not just the staff member above me. Anyways, as this was my first job, I wasn't keen on office politics or good at recognizing my surroundings with peers. After I started working full time, I began to catch on and see what was going on behind the scenes. The two partners of the firm were scumbags, they treated all of the staff like monkeys and showed no appreciation. They were both male and constantly harassed the female staff and inners. So often that the turnover rate was so high that there were new interns every few weeks. There were clicks inside of the firm. The attorneys banded together with the office manager and HR manager, the interns stuck together and I was with my mentor. For the most part we were able to stick together and get our work done and turn out good work product. But, it was hard to watch the harassment of the interns, the social gossip circles of the clicks and blatant disregard for the staff.  The HR manager, attorneys and office manager gaslighted this poor intern so bad that she was an emotional wreck when she just walked out and quit. That was the point my mentor and I had enough. After seeing this we started to take pictures, notes and gather statements of everything we could see that was going on inside the firm that was illegal. After a huge firm event that involved many hours of overtime, close quarters and pressure, a breaking point was hit and the staff was exploded upon by the attorneys and managers. After the event, all of the employees went out to a local club to relax and throw back a few drinks and cool off. This was not something that you would think people in this field would do, especially when the average age of the employees in the firm was over 45. After the attorneys started getting shitty drunk, the interns and my mentor took off to go home for the night. I stayed but went to party with my friend group that was also out for the night at the same club. I bounced back a few times between groups and dancing, but near the end of the night I came back to check on my coworkers and what I saw was shocking. They rented out a VIP stage and had bottle service all night, when I walked up to the stage I saw the two partners grinding on associate attorneys, fondling them and taking turns making out with them. You need to understand this is not only a conflict of interest in my state and type of law, but both partners were married with kids and so were three out of the four other female attorneys slash staff. I was disgusted and started to hatch my plan. I got one of the promoters that was my roommate at the time to get the club rep to take photos of them doing this, but to also send them to me. I snapped a few on my phone and left the club. Before we went out we all stopped at a hotel room close by, that was rented out by the partners of the firm. I went back after I left the club and since I was an employee of the firm I was able to convince the front desk to let me back into the room, as I was there a few hours earlier and was working with them to drop things off for the event. After I was let in I started to take pictures of everything that I could find. I emptied drawers, bags and closets and was able to take pictures of many drugs, sex toys and things like IDs that were left behind earlier. The following Monday I go into the HR office and tell the manager that I was uncomfortable with what I saw the partners doing, what they have done in the office, and especially how unacceptable it was that they were unjustly exploding on me and my mentor at the event. Immediately after I left the HR office, the manager ran into the partners' offices and closed the door. I could hear screaming coming through the door and booked it over to my mentor's office to fill him in. After I blurred out what happened and what kind of pictures I got, the partners and HR manager run into my mentor's office and overhear us talking about what happened nights before. They immediately tell us to resign and to pack our things as they were, worried about our hostile work environment and what it's doing to the firm. I am on the verge of tears and don't know what to do next. My mentor quietly asks for our termination letters, all of our paystubs, all of our billable hour entries from when we started in my university work study paperwork. The HR manager was shocked by this but legally had to produce all of these things for us upon request. After two hours of data compiling my mentor and I walked out with all of our things, we ended up going to a bar with all of the paperwork we just got and started to plan our revenge. We compiled all of our time sheets, billed hours and all my work study paperwork. Not only did I upload all the pictures to separate email accounts to send to the respective spouses of the attorneys, but we found out that the partners slash managers muddled with our billable hours to change them to a higher rate to bill our clients more, even though a clerical assistant and paralegal were drafting and filing pleadings. Through my work study, they reported that they were paying the $18 an hour total while they were paying me $6 an hour from their pockets, and my school was fronting the other $12 as reimbursement. Not only on my paystubs was my hourly rate $12, I know the firm was being taxed for the other $6, instead it was being pocketed straight by the firm. After a complete and thorough compilation of documents, my mentor and I set out the next day to complain to the state bar association to show that the attorneys at the firm committed malpractice, misrepresentation of funds, harassment and conflicts of interests. Their spouses were emailed all of the photos of the night out clubbing and what was found in the hotel rooms. My university was informed of the misuse of funds. I applied for unemployment based on their false misconduct firings. After two weeks of job searching my mentor and I got picked up at another firm as a package deal. We became close after and we constantly see each other every other week on a personal basis. Months into working the new job, did we decide to snoop on the old firm that we set out to destroy. Not only did four of the attorneys lose their legal license, they were sued by the bar association and Ellen Eye for fraud. Their spouses were all involved with divorce proceedings and the manager's reputations were ruined by what was brought to light and what they covered up. My mentor and I ended up pulling all of the superior court submissions to read over what documents were submitted in court, and they were caught lying in declarations they submitted. It felt real nice to be vindicated by ruining their relationships, jobs and business. I was reminded of an act of revenge from several years ago. It was a bad year for me and the economy was not in great shape. Unemployment was fairly high. I had been working at a hardware store, but things went bad and the owner sold everything and moved to Florida. I finally landed a job at factory. It was shitty work involving putting zinc plating on metal parts. The owner was all about profit and had little regard for worker safety. Somehow he'd get a heads up whenever an inspector was coming.  Once the inspector left, the safety equipment was put back in storage so there would be no wear and tear on it. I suffered through it all, as did my coworkers, because we were young, had no skills or experience, and jobs were scarce. One day a piece of machinery I used broke while I was loading it with the parts. The drum fell, hitting the bucket I was holding. The bucket was full of metal parts and weighed somewhere around 80 pounds when it was full. This caused me to lose my balance and ultimately injured my back. I tried to tough it out, but I was in a lot of pain. I went to tell the foreman. She leaves the floor and finds the owner. She comes back about 10 minutes later and tells me to clock out and go home. I'm young and naive. I know nothing about workers' compensation. I spent a few hundred of my own money going to a chiropractor, and finally to a doctor. When I go back to work a couple of days later, I am informed that I have been demoted due to my injury. I am relegated to being a custodian, and my hourly pay had been cut. I held on for a few months before quitting and moving on. Here's the revenge. It's a few years later. I have graduated college, got a good job, and am a little older and wiser. I come home from work and am watching the evening news. The state I live in has an office similar to the EPA. The news station did one of those human interest stories and interviewed the man who investigated the illegal environmental stuff. The story was about how he had dropped the bomb on a corporation that had been illegally dumping zinc waste. My ears perked up. You see, that company I used to work for used zinc to plate their little metal parts, lots of zinc. Remember my workstation with that drum? My job was to fill it with the metal parts and then fill the drum with a zinc water acid slurry. Once the parts were plated, guess what the next part of my job was? I dumped the slurry into a box which led to a hole in the wall of the factory, which led to a ditch, which led to a creek. The factory had been illegally dumping zinc waste into a ditch. I immediately got in my car and drove there. The factory was still in business and they were still dumping the zinc waste into a creek. I took pictures. I took video. And then I turned it all in, along with a notarized affidavit to that state inspector. The original fine was in excess of 100 grand. They appealed and I don't know what the settlement entailed. The business closed shortly after. Sweet revenge. Thank you for enjoying this episode, which was made with artificial love. Subscribe or give me some sugar by smashing the like button. Royal AI would love to hear your experience or what you think of these stories in the comment section.


Scientists analyzed electrical activity of ghost fungi, enoki fungi, and split gill fungi. They assumed that the spikes were used to communicate in a mycelial network and grouped the spikes into words for linguistic analysis. The split gill fungi had the most complex sentences. Oh man, the split gill fungi vocabulary is just ridiculous, right?  Using your six dollar words. We get it. You have an MBA. I totally prefer a conversation with a ghost fungi because of that. It's just more straightforward. Yeah, if you can. I mean, we've mentioned before the show and I'm going to bring it up now. So Star Trek people beware. But I'm now starting to think that Star Trek Discovery was onto something with this whole we're going to travel through space much faster because turns out space mushrooms have all kinds of cool ways to make things happen in space is I kind of thought it was real dumb before. And now I'm not sure I was right. Maybe. Yeah, cool. I mean, some of this was already known before this particular paper. And that's what they were riffing on in Discovery. But it is really cool to see like, oh, no, we didn't disprove it. We just took it a little bit farther into understanding the mycelial network, whether we can use it to traverse space and time. I used to be a big peep aficionado, but how can you be aficionado? They all taste the same. It's all marshmallow unless you're telling them that's what a non aficionado would say. Hold on with texture. Yeah, texture, the texture of the food equivalent of Styrofoam. Exactly. It one, if you've taken the time to choose Styrofoam, you would know. It's not to like. There are there are many different textures. OK, if you get that stuff, they pack a TV and yeah, that's not great. OK, but if you get some nice packing peanuts, let me tell you. I love I love the marshmallows. I love marshmallows. Say, umami, but I'm going to say I like I like now. When did they notice you weren't under and what what did they do? Oh, so OK, so so beforehand, like before I even went to the room, they gave me something where they're like designed to basically give you temporary amnesia so that you don't remember like the trauma, you know, of everything. So they're like, OK, for set, it's called for said. And and they wheeled me in and they were like, you're not going to remember any of this. And I was like, try me. You know, I'm pretty good at this, you know. And so one of the surgeons was like, OK, all right, let's try it. Popsicle. Can you remember that word? And I was like, you still remember it? Yep, yep, yep. And she was like, you remember. And they all laughed like she's not. She's out of she's out to lunch. And I was like, no, no, no, I will. And the first thing I did when I woke up like eight hours later, I was like, Popsicle. Gotcha. I had it. Don't you ever underestimate me again? And that is a wow. My desire to spite you is greater than any medical science known to man.