Greetings, everyone. This is James P. Madonna of Megalife 21 and Progressive Discussions. And before I go on to do my next video talk show, I am stopping by from my immediate area off Route 17 south in Hasbrook Heights, New Jersey, the one and only, the famous Bendick Steiner as seen on the Jerry Seinfeld Netflix series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. That's right. It is in my close area and I love it here. Outstanding food, outstanding coffee and I will go in soon before I go on to do my next show. You look keep going on. That's because you look at meditating. I can't hear that. It sounds like a juice hot. It's not. You can't be quiet here. What's the point of leaving the house? What's the point of going to a concert? What's the point of going to a movie? You don't have to always be talking. You have a point there. You go to watch things, hear things, talk. That's all. OK. Her pattern of behavior is very bizarre. That's even worse. No, I mean sometimes she comes like every day. I love her so much. I remember that. That's why I bought the CD. Popular science magazines. You used to bring it to the table. I remember that. That's why I bought the CD. Popular science magazines. You used to bring it to the table. I remember that. You used to bring popular science and read it. I know you like popular science. I know you like popular science. Now you see how huge a child's ice-cream cone is compared to an iota one? Well, they cuddle kids so much in this country. I will. No, I'll say it. You know, girl. Okay, I'm entering the how they end, Bananas Comedy Club, and Gabriel's... All right, now entering Gabriel's bar. There we go. Grill and Bar is the place. Okay, here's Gabriel's, the bar, and there are the ports. USB ports. All right, I am now going to plug my USB port into the bar, the bar's connections, so keep my phone charged. See?  What do you got there? Oh, was that Chipotle's? Problemo? I gotta bring you some of my... You like Serrano? I got them growing right now. They're getting red now, believe it or not. The green... See, the Serrano is not too hot. You know where I got... You know where I got the Serrano chili? The seeds from the Dollar Tree in Loday. I saw them, I go, eh, what the hell? I threw them in the ground. They grew. Salsa, yeah. I want to order the volcanic pilon that they use in Mexico from the Aztecs. Mocajete. Well, I'm just trying to tell them it's called mocajete. He don't care. He got mad at me because I was talking about recipes with somebody. He says, recipes are boring. Well, I use... I'm retired. I cut fish for 10 years, Mariscos, for 10 years. And then I did other things, personal trainer, nutritional consultant, and computer networking technician. But I'm retired now. Now I work for Seymour Doolittle. Now, now I'm on... Now I give reviews and do all kinds of stuff on the internet. As a hobby, but I, you know, I have like big groups on Facebook, on Twitter. I'm all over the place. YouTube. I know Billy. No, Billy likes science, but he likes football and I don't like small talk, you know. I don't like small. Well, recipes, cooking is not small. You know how I get annoyed with people taking stories. Recipes are not really... I don't work to where I'm like, stop, stop. My other friend Matt, my other friend Matt used to... It looks like everybody used to get on... A porno movie over here. Everybody used to get on Matt, they'd say, would you stop it? And you know how many times I said, so what you saying is blah, blah, blah? Yeah, I said, then why did you just say it? Yeah, but not, not with food, not with recipes. How do you ever go with 10 different whole paragraphs? You can say it. The Mocha, the Mocha Headday is called beat succinct. The Mocha Headday comes from the Aztecs. It's a pilon. It's made of volcanic material. Am I right?  It's fascinating. Oh, you think? Yeah. Oh, God. It's okay. No, I've, I've, I've met people in, in, in Mexico, they converse.  A lot of people do, can't tolerate it. I had a little friend did that.  And she goes, well, I'm very detailed. I said, what you're saying is being nice about being long winded. And she could know what to say.  I said, stop it. Talks so much. That talks a lot, too. Yeah.  He took 11 steps and tripped on. Yeah, how did he, how did he know how to cook the thing? That's, you're right. But the Mocha, you said salsa and I thought of the Mocha Headday. And it comes from, it comes from the Aztecs. Yes. Bar genders have to listen. Even when they, yeah, yes. Yeah. Yeah, but what, what kind of life, you know, I used to have a job where you, you do the same thing every week. And if you don't talk to people, it gets very, it gets very boring. Your day is longer. It could be a, how do you call it? The radio, the radio, you might be good.  And so if you don't interact, it's like the job becomes, it's not glamorous. It's like, How many jobs are glamorous? It's like, it's like boring. You know, they all get kind of boring. I'm sure the guys that go on a roof and do construction, I'm sure they're telling stories, you know, instead of going.  This is why they drink, guest to you. Well, if it's 90 degrees, take the edge off, let no one kid you. Just imagine if it's like a heat wave and they got to do construction, those poor guys. I'm happy. I don't think, I do think like a party at home, but like that. But I see bartenders, they get nuts and they need a couple drinks before they start. I got to bring it, I got to bring a cup. Well, in a way, a bartender is like a psychologist, a psychiatrist. They hear everybody's problems. You imagine a psychiatrist have to hear that. Now that's why they get paid. Why do you think psychiatrists among the professions have the highest suicide rate? Hearing nothing, but problems every day. They get into you. That's how you end up too. Did they ever say to a patient, well, aren't you going to ask me how I'm doing? Well, I did. I went to my parents. They sent me to a, my dad was a very high up with IVM. He sent me to IVM. They thought I was too violent in football. I said, you're all good. I went to Dr. Rothwell, sat down. He goes, I think he spoke to me for a while. He goes, this guy was brilliant. I'm going to be an IVM. You've got to be good. You don't need a psychiatrist. It's not going to be no good. God, stop taking a minute. It tastes like you've passed me to death. They should have a superhero called Captain. That'll be a good name for a luchador. All right, I'm ready.  Oh, so, uh, he says, you don't need a shrink. I said, oh, I know that, but I keep coming. And he goes, well, yeah, but why?  So I went for a number of months. He finally called my parents in. Remember the boat sitting over there? He chewed them out. He said, he smells out here and squirreled my parasol. I have never learned so much about life and living than I have from this young man. I should be paying him. Wow. He said, you know what? He's taught me about living and life. I just have to write. I just knew. I said, I know I don't need a shrink. I stopped it. I'm getting psyched up for every game. You yell, you let them down. You get ready, you get hot top. You have the adrenaline. More than the adrenaline, the more the people. I'm not hurting anybody. It's exciting. Type A personality, type A. I don't want to feel. I don't want to hurt you. I just hopefully make more points for you. I love playing the game. I'm not going out with the intent to hurt. I want to score more than you. It's like MMA. It's like MMA fights. If I did lose, I'm the first to shake your hand. Referees and everybody. Now, why would I play ball when I ran in the field, but the other teams, she's black. And even the referees did. They went, hey, Billy, Billy, you're spent.  You see, it's how you treat people. Remember one rule.  Everybody has that talent.  So to earn respect out of the show over here, if you need to, it's a dollar. No, I don't want to pay for air. I got a good air pump like you do in the backseat of my car. Well, but you have a mind blows the fuse every time. That's $40 some dollars to redo. So a dollar compared to $40 is a big difference. What a racket that is. Paying for air at a gas station. You know. You mean the one that you showed me with the dials and everything is the one that blows the fuse? Yep. Oh, for God's sakes. And of course, the warranty is expired.  Yeah. That's the only one I know of that has a free air pump. You know, not that I'm an Exxon fan. I mean, I rather. Well, I guess it should be a dollar. But I rather pay less for gas. But they have to a dollar with it. But I honor them because I want to be able to use that free air pump without, you know, out of respect for that. I was wondering if they fixed it. You know, it's been out of the roof. When you put a buck in, I hope that you at least can fill like a couple of tires.  Car vacuuming.  Too much for this one. Yeah.  So they, they like to, you know, they're more personable.  A woman, a female, a female professional.  They're moody. Well, women are moody if you date them, you know. Oh, by the way, that guy that ordered the chicken franchise when FU left, that was, that looked really good. And it was tender. He said, chicken breast. But didn't that, didn't that look good? Remember that? They, that the old guy ordered yesterday. Yeah. Especially we got pork chops. Bowls or bone? Bone, bone. Oh, or scented, scented cuts. Onions, remember? No, grill. Huh? Grill. Oh, grill. That's it. Really pork chops. But it was, but center cuts are thick. Yeah, but we kind of. My buddy's going to, he's having his group get together over at the, oh, what's the name of the place? One in Little Ferry, one down here. He lives in Segovia. Oh, great, great. They're great.  Steak, right? The what? Don't know about the restaurant? Yeah, he said they have a three pounder, which is phenomenal. They opened up a new one. Oh, you've been there, Mike? Okay, yeah, it was very. The original? He's going to the one in Little Ferry. I think they have three or four now, right? A little third one, yeah. That's where he's going with his group, so. Yeah, that was amazing. Then Moonock is the original, I think. I've never heard bad about them. Yeah, they're good. Moonock, yeah. Yeah, they're very good. Right, it's worth it though. Where are you from? I don't know if you ever went, the other place they love used to be at this go, but it's on Piramis Road and Piramis. El Cid? Highly rated. You ever heard of El Cid? I've heard of them. They rave about it. They say it's phenomenal.  They rave about it. Try El Cid. I heard they moved the Argyles in the Thistles until Inherce. I heard rumors. The fishing chip place? The Argyles? I know I never eat in Inherce. I hear that hotel at the very end. Well, they're incredible. I hear it's great. Harrels or something? Harrels, yeah. They're the people. Some of the guys that used to work there. Is that really good? Yeah, the fishing chip place. I've heard that they claim to be the world's largest selection of pickles. Oh, do they give you like cats as deli? A real high percentage? But is everything good? That's all they thought about. I've never been there. Yeah. Corn beef. Where's me gold? Me lucky charms. For sure it's not as good as cats. In the city? Yeah.  You had the big three. You had cats, carnage, and stage. Which one closed? Stage? You got the carnage and cats around. Yeah.  They give you a lot. That's not a sandwich.  Come on.  Come on. That thing is huge. The rye bread probably breaks apart as you're trying to bite it. It's like the Callaghan's hot dog, remember? The gigantic cat. The damn bun used to fall apart. Callaghan's. Do you remember you're too young maybe to remember?  Oh, I remember Fat Mike's. This is the hot dogs. But everybody went there. In fact, the guy that checked me out at the register once, this was the 80s, was Don Ives. Yeah? I didn't know who it was. They told me, did you know who that was? No. Now, ruts hot. They deep fry everything. It's so greasy. But I'm not, hey, I didn't like it. The onion rings weren't bad. You like onion rings? Oh, I love onion rings. And a tempura, light tempura batter, like real crispy? Well, it's really true. He had the other guys. And shrimp scampi? Shrimp scampi, delicious. It wasn't scampi. The scampi, the scampi wasn't scampi. Shrimp scampi. It's like he's looking for the first in Calamari's character. Yeah, totally different. You don't have the tentacles, only the rings, right? I'm not going around ringing. I like the, like SpongeBob, Squidward. I like the tentacles. You should do a Maryland crab cake dinner with two cakes and all the trimmings. Like a whole, you know. Yeah, I think four or five cakes. Oh, wow. Who doesn't cakes? So, wow. Get Mr. Krabby out with an eating show. I thought I was born in Baltimore. You know, Maryland. Congreho, Congreho. I can't say too much. I don't want to say too much. They have a clam. You need to charge them a flick or something. You know who they say one of the best steak houses in the country is? In the, uh, former football coach for my Colton and Leonard Dolphins. Don Shula, Don Shula's steak house is incredible. That is age black Angus. You know where to hang them up at certain perfect temperature. That's the bottom. Huh? Where did that play? Don Shula. He was the head coach for my Colton Baltimore and then the Dolphins for quite a long time too. So they say it's incredible. They also said one out of Chicago, Michael Jordan's steak house is very good. But that's real good. You know what I had recently that I wanted to hate but it was amazing was the Jordan Ramsey steak house? Where? In, uh, New York City. Where did that hit you? It's in Paris.  Oh wow. Wow. I think it was amazing. What did that do? It was really good. It was all ready to be like, oh, hey, this guy, he was making fun of me with the phone. It was one of the best steak houses. I always end up going to the Irish pub and off the boardwalk in New York City. Oh yeah. This is called the Irish pub. They have a gift shop. The chili was, was it Ventnor or Brigantine? It's like the towns before and after. Epsilon, Epsilon, yeah. I love that place. It's a nice place. No, it's a nice place. It's a great local bar. Yeah. It's almost like Ashbury Park with the, what is Springston's place? Stonepunk? Stonepunk. It's a dive. But everybody loves it. I heard the Borgata's got a great buffet. Yeah, Borgata. They don't skimp, that's for sure. See you then. It's a cozy, I like Irish pubs because it's dark, dark wood. Wow, really? Yeah. The chili was awesome. The Fred Kressel. What are you charging us today? $1.75 from here? For you. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. Whoops. My finger hit the wrong button. Oh, my God, it works. You know where I had, you know where I had good calamari? My friend runs the Platinum Dolls Gentleman's Club in Passaic. Yeah, well, it's Passaic where he meets Clifton. No, platinum. Platinum Dolls. Not Bartobains, no. And he gets a cut when the girl does lap dances and other things in the room. He gets a percentage. Everybody gets a commission. When they go in the private room. Then he's got the security cameras and he shows me, James, come here. Watch them in action. Oh, my God, you got hidden cameras in the rooms. Monja. Yeah, everything going. You know, Main Avenue in Passaic and you make a right on, I think it's Van Houten Avenue where Passaic, before it become Clifton. Platinum Dolls with a Z. Well, that's, they spelled it wrong. I know they did. Jimmy Leguari. He's the guy that runs it. And there's a big Russian guy, Alex, who is a Soviet Special Forces. How are you? My one buddy that ran one, I was calling Mike with Rambo in shirt clothes in the city. This is over 10 years ago. And we're talking with Suburban Diner about the martinis and the prices. I said, I said, Keith, what are you charged? This is 10 years ago. Right. $18 of martinis. Oh, Keith, come on. 18 dollars. He goes, oh, well, we give you a good martini. I said, if you give a standard martini, it's all the same martini glass. And you gave me the recipe a long time ago. I said, $18. I said, that is crazy. Two parts vodka, one part driver mousse. Two to one. Two to one. That's why I was telling them, no, ice, ice on the side for three hours. Three hours. Olive. But $18. $18. Why? Because it's the city. Yeah, that's the reason. Tourist trap. That's what I mean. Yeah. Let's be honest. Most of the vodka isn't everything. They really aren't so close in taste. You don't really notice that much. I never had a bad one. At least I don't. I never really had a bad one. No. Give me one of this. No, I don't care. Give me a house vodka. You know, when you shake it in the metal thing, the steel thing, it gets colder as you're shaking the ice in it. But then when it goes down, you're throwing your gun or whatever. Come on. When you shake it or stir it, it cares. That's just being picky. Like these wine drinkers, they've got a sniffing. They shake it around. They put it in a mountain. And they swish it. Like Levoire.  Like Listerine. They just drink it. Well, that's all an act just so they can... It's like they're being little prises. You know? Like the beer critic, the beer critics would say, this one guy says, oh, I taste a crackery, bread-y flavor. I like when it has a hint of something. A hint? How can you tell a hint? You can tell a hint. I says, what you're saying is, you taste the malt, right? You taste the malt? Crackery? I don't know. I don't have a clue what you're talking about. I'm just drinking myself. He's saying crackery, bread-y, bread-y, cracker.  You mean yeast? You mean... It's like overkill. You're just... Yeah. You're just... It's like talking too much. You're just going dissecting all these stuff. He's making up... He's making up words. I know hops is bitter. That I know. And there's the malt... The malt flavoring. Who cares? But it's like... The bottom line is, can I have a little sample? If I like it, yeah. Pour me one. I like that. Well, they're trying to get... They're trying to get sophisticated. Oh, please. So people look up to them. That's what it is. Oh, yeah. You're really cool. I want to date you because you know what wine... No, in this case, it's craft beer. Like when I sip this yinling lager... I think it's uncured. Just drink the cracker. You know what? This tastes great to me. I don't know about crackery, bread-y, yeasty, this, that, and the other thing. I just know it's a great beer. I wouldn't know. I've got a cold and I can't taste anything. So I'm still drinking it.  Lousy. Mister, we have a pork chop today. It's waking up, you know. Knows what and couldn't breathe properly. Oh, God. Oh, you may have to get a theraflu express or something or a Nyquil. Oh, dear. 18 dollars and more teeny. Come on. That was a kingdom, really. And then what about those wussy martinis, like apple martinis? Those aren't real. Those aren't real martinis. That's another drink. There's only one martini. A traditional martini. Yeah. These are other drinks. Either gin or vodka. That's it. The original is gin. Yeah. What's slow gin mean? That means you pour it very slowly? No, no, it's sweet. Oh, it's sweet. I thought you were going slow motion. No, it's sped, it's spelled S-L-O. Spelled S-L-O. Oh, okay. Like a slow gin fist, right? What? Slow gin fist? Oh, that's what it is? Yeah, slow gin. Slow gin. Look at that. Herring walker. Oh, blueberry flavored. Yeah, red, red, red, red. Look at that, slow gin. When you pour red, it's red costume. Clopsing. Yeah, like blackberry brand. Look at the bag, girl. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of scene. All right. Monkey or the day. Why just like the smacking sound? I think an Alabama slam it with that. That southern coconut. You ever hear of a plantar's punch, Jamaican drink? Yes, Jamaican punch. With Meyer's dark rum, I think. All right, well, how are you? And I think originally Bacardi came from Santiago. Yeah, Manga. Manga and rum out there. Santiago Cuba. Oz, please. Who can use this? Yes, sir. It's just beer, Oz. Yes, sir. Oh, oh. Hey, uh, hey, uh, hey. Oh, oh. Thank you. How much are these confounded pork chops? Pork chops is for you, $17.90. Oh, jeez. You got two pork chops. You can share. It better be wild boar for $17. Wild boar. Kind of like you when you talk to him. That was a good one. Talk about wild boar. That was a good one. No, not boar, education. Oh, yes, yes, of course. Speaking of cages and go-go dances, there's a lot of room on that corner bar for a cage, for a cage, you know, a dancing cage. When you think about it, you're like in the 60s when the girls used to dance in cages. They're a little over ground. Oh, OK. Yeah, was that laughing they did then? Yeah. But it's a big corner of a bar, to be honest with you. I mean, look at that. It's huge. Nice. Players play that in Iceland. Well, a place where I've had a huge bar. Sure. The only thing that annoyed me was that DJ Bobby was with him. He played too much like Michael Jackson. He was like overkill. I didn't go in there back in the disco area much. You were in the front bar. Up the bar, the restaurant area. Yeah, where people talked. Yeah, yeah. They were smart the way they did. It was separate, so you can get blasted out.  And there was a wall separating the two rooms. And then there was a dining area, too. You know, I never ate. They had a restaurant there, right? I don't think I've ever had their food. I didn't eat it either. I heard it was great though. But when they closed down abruptly, they were still on top of the game, as far as customers go. Nobody knows why it happened so bad. Yeah, it was the guys named George Pappas, the owner. Kenny's something. Well, my buddy John, the manager, he's the owner of the River Paul Steakhouse.  Remember Nick Stefano? He was like the head bouncer. Nick, he was at one of Verne's little get-together parties. You know, he lives in Sussex County, all the way up in the corner. Oh, like the Florida? Yeah, a way up there. Going towards poor Jervis. Are you married kids or what? Yeah, married kids. I told you where I am. He's still into meteorology. Amateur weather forecasting. He always loved that. You were in Hollywood? But he was a power lifter in New Jersey State Champion, power lifter. And I think he was good friends with Jimmy Powers that became a pro wrestler who was at the bar that used to be, that is now sat in dollars.  No, no, no, no, no. Were you getting calamari? No, no, I'm trying to think of the other club. Tarot? Yeah, I haven't seen yours. Would you go to the other night or something? Or I'd suggest the biggies. Oh, I ended up going to Mount Fuji. And you still went there? Yeah. I was going to go to somewhere else and then I was just closer by it. It was good? It was a little bit overpriced. Mount Fuji, are the acrobatics? Yeah, although they were flipping shrimp salad in the house and... It's what in salad book, too, on Market Street? The fake shrimp. Yeah. It should be good. I had shrimp shrimp. Ouch. I'm really cutting off the shrimp's brain and it'll flip it.  I'm doing a little exercise today. Hello. Was that a good time, though? Yeah, it was a really cool experience. I've never seen that kind of cooking before. You love this buffet, royal hibachi and salad book? Yeah. It's all fresh seafood on Route 46 West by the Walmart. Yeah, it's not that far at all. It's like maybe 10 minutes, if the most... Yeah. Royal hibachi. Royal hibachi? Yeah. You know her, Oz? Oh, God. I don't think we should ask for ID or what. Was it, yeah? You have to sit with strangers, right? Oh, that's good. Yeah. I don't like sitting with strangers that just stare at them saying anything.  It's not in the hill. It's very awkward. Sometimes they'll stick you... Oh, oh, Manado, I love. You know, they don't have lunch buffet anymore, only dinner. Or I think they might have closed it. Uh, it was Manado and the one in Wayne that I used to go to. That was better than Manado. Hokkaido, 23. Was that Route 23 that's there? Wayne. Yeah, Wayne. They abruptly closed down mysteriously. Lord, I... Yeah, I'm not too far. When you live here, you go home? Yeah, I take the back... The back roads. I go home, yeah. Well, I go home because, you know, I'm still recovering from the...  Oh, how cute. The dollar store by the buffet has the... sells the bamboos. Oh, boy. Shouldn't have come, but you've closed and never seen it. Whoa, what happened? Is that, is that a common, uh, uh, garnish? It'd be funny if you put weeds in there, you know, like dandelion flowers? A cucumber. Yeah. It's no, no comment. You know what kind of clam I had? I had a very strange clam in, uh, in Baja on the Pacific coast. Black mula. It was called mula clam. It's black. Like this. The whole clam is black. And then you put it on the stone. No, I had a roar that what happened was this California couple ordered two dozen in, uh, in Sonata.  The woman says, I don't want this. Oh, by the way, you want this? I go, is it fresh? She goes, I just ordered it. Give it to me because it's free food. So gave me two dozen mula clams. It looked like terrible. It was like this color. I put a little hot sauce on it. Oh, it was very good. Mula clam. And La, and La Paz has a different, a brown clam. Yeah. Raisins. Oh, so, so I guess prunes, prunes are out of the question for you. Dry fruit. You know, goji berries are good. And dates, dried dates. I love dates. I've had broiled lamb said, uh, Mediterranean. So, uh, yeah. In Italian they call it cappuccela. In the Greek city, yeah, I put, you know, it was good. It's kind of gross, but I ate it. Alert the media. Now I hear South Florida has so many green iguanas. They're not, they're not naturally from Florida, but they're all over the place. My friend in Boca Raton was saying they're on the side of the highway. They're eating everybody's flowers. You think? No, they don't. The iguanas don't bother me. They're harmless. I know Central America eat them. They kill them. I've seen the brown iguana. The brown iguana, the brown iguana likes to stay by the, the coast, on the rocks. The spiny Mexico has the spiny iguana. Oh yeah, especially Central Americans. They, they, oh, they call it chicken of the sea. People taste like chicken. I'm sorry, chicken of the tree. Everything tastes like chicken. They taste like chicken. Well, they, they make chicken chow meow and chicken chow bao wow. Chicken chow bao wow. Only a certain section of town, which I think is horrible. You know, like the Japanese with the dolphins every year. I just, I said, how can you, how can you even think of hurting an intelligent animal that gives you, shows love? I said, I told one of them. I said, I don't want to hear about you, you're, you're crazy. Yeah, but the tuna don't, don't bond with you.  Like a goldfish bonds with you a little bit. But they look for food, actually. They all, they eat. Is that why the ducks run, run up to me? And not that they're, not because they're friendly, because they're looking for some meat. Those selfish bastards. They're probably fine, though. Those selfish bastards. I, I knew there was some, there was an ulterior motive. Oh. A horseshoe crab? Oh, a horse. A lot of animals are friendly because they want food. Now I had a tortoise. I had a Salkata tortoise named Chester. No, this one was friendly. This is what I did. From, this is what I did. Well, let me tell you, let me tell you this, what happened? I, I used to, I used to bring the tortoise. I used to have a graze from Memorial Day when it got warm until before it got cold. It would graze on the lawn, eat the weeds. As soon as the tortoise started walking towards the street, I go, Chester, no, I screamed at it. It come, turn around, it come right back and go on my feet and look up at me. Oh, yeah. How long does it take? You can train cats, you can train like animals, you can train a lot of them.  Tortuga, Tierra, right?  They sell potbelly pigs at New Jersey exotic pets in Lodi. They have, they have piglets, potbelly miniature piglets all the time. No, they lie. A full-size barn pig and they're like, what are they going to take to a barn after that? We already attacked. They don't, they don't go in a litter box like they told me. I found out they lied. They were lying. The pig goes in a litter box.  Well, the pig reminded me of baby-back ribs and, you know. He loves food. He loves food. Oh, he talks about food. He loves food. He's a chef. I'm a chef of the future. I'm going to the honeymoon. What's that? Oh, bacon is wonderful.  I would enjoy watching him freak out. It'd be like Red Fox on San Francisco. Yeah, they won't just do it. But I'm just saying in a macabre, I like that word macabre. Macabre. You know, it'd be cool that the owner of the New Jersey exotics wants to get fruit bats in cages and sell them, but New Jersey law prohibits that. You know, like the bats that get really big. Yeah, like a fruit bat that hangs upside down, but they're big. But she's a gothic girl. Yeah, they are. Oh, she's got tattoos absolutely everywhere. Megan. Yeah, I gave her a whole bunch of. Yeah, I gave her a whole bunch of gargoyle statues that I had. I had too many because I like to collect them.  Thanks to that.  I still can't get over that. My other one, these types of spikes. Crazy stuff like that. You said you were cool. You were cool. You were cool. A little bit.  I mean, should I grab it? You want me to dress more like you? Yeah, you're okay. I'll grab one now. I'd like to stop listening to music. Now, the capital of Canada is Ottawa. It's Ottawa. Okay, which is in Ontario also. Oh, it's not in Ontario. Oh, Ottawa is not in its own province. Yes, it is. The province. But Ottawa is not Ontario. My friend lives in New Brunswick. My friend from Boston moved to Maritime Provinces. I said, man, you must get great seafood of Nova Scotia. I'll eat like a sea lion, pickled herrings and everything. Anything, smoked herring? No, no. I mean like I would eat like oily baitfish or... Yeah, but not if I'm dating somebody. I would do it on my own time. It's like... I mean, unless the couple is eating the sardines together and they don't care. Well, American girls, they would complain. If I opened up a can of sardines in front of... No, anchovies, anchovies. It's salty. It's just a... It's a salty cured... They're close. My ex called them slugs, because they're narrow. Escargo. Escargo. Well, yeah, they're actually... They're lance, actually, yeah. They're lance-lail slugs, lance-nails.  You have beer. They slugs and lance-nails that are attacking your garden. They love beer and they'll go inside and drown. You should see the slugs, the beautiful slugs in Australia and in Northern Europe. They have ones that are bright red, orange. Oh, yeah, the brown snakes they have there. Forget it, the Summit of Spiders. That's why the British had the Botany Bay Penal County. They say, yeah, no prison. We'll just let you loose in Australia, yeah. Grab a phone. The aboriginal people are like... I didn't realize it was over 15,000 years old. Culture. The aboriginal. Pretty old, right? Let's do it. Oh! He killed a radio.  April? Uh-oh.  For what? They've told me. What's that? All of that. We're the only local people here, I guess. Oh, him too. A lot of locals come here, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, I hear it's highly rated. The food's good. I don't live far. He lives even closer. We do serve a function. I mean, we could give tips on where to go, where not to go. For those that want to leave the hotel. You could have wanted to leave your work. There's a real hop in place in Garfield called Blackjack Mulligans. If you like, like Irish pubs that are really... Would you be out here later, all right? I'll talk to you. I hope you feel better. And next time, when you see that jerk...  Say, do you have a cold?  I'm going to say, huh, you go. I'll get this for the win. Or Hall's mental elliptus, honey lemon eucalyptus drops.  What's going on here? Very next day, I have some guy caught in his face that he knows where we're not covering his mouth. I haven't had the cold in over 15 years.  Oh, really?  It's totally avoidable. Yeah, yeah. I think we should work them over. What do you think?  He goes over to the bed. He felt so bad. Oh, wait a minute. I might catch some of we. This is why his son with the golfers won't call cold. Oh, his son's disowned him. They won't have a thing to do with them. Well, Danny passed away. Oh, boy. Well, you got enough to deal with. One day of peace.  Oh, God. Oh, God. People just don't want to touch up. Throw it out outside. I'll see you later. Okay. I'll see you. All right. I'll see you tomorrow. I'll see you. I'll see you. I normally don't bring my wire, my charger, but then I see the wonderful Jimmy Jimmy. The ports. This is the first time I ever did this at a bar. So I saw the ports. I was going to say, I've seen them actually in the umbrellas. Yeah. Really? I never, never on the bar, never on the bar here. And some guy from Virginia, his iPhone was dead almost. And I lend him mine because I was charged up.  And he was grateful for it because he was up to 80% when I left. The first time I came down to you, my phone was at me. We 10% and it died and they realized there was a USB plug. And I was like, well, next time, like, now you have to carry a charger wherever you go. I should be carrying this. Yeah. Well, in the car, I have the, you know, the cigarette lighter thing. Yeah, I don't know. You know, that's that. I remember a very good smoke. Welcome back and see you five or four times. Yeah. We were renting, but now they put it away and we take it off.


Some miracles live one day at a time one moment at a time we're going through the happy lessons of forgiveness the Holy Spirit needs happy learners and you're a happy learner if you are leaping in joy for the application of the lesson of the day every single lesson a sparkling gem uh something to embrace something that that carries us something that unfolds us it's something that when you read the lesson of the day and you take it in to practice it there should be like a hallelujah in your in your heart hallelujah the end of sadness and depression hallelujah the end of worry and anxiety the golden key lesson of the day is to be embraced with all your heart and with all your soul and and and it's something that illuminates the mind and and likes everything up so everything just sparkles so today we are going into the lessons again with Jesus one day at a time and we are on lesson 68 love holds no grievances and hallelujah for that you who were created by love like itself can hold no grievances and know your christ self to hold a grievance is to forget who you are to hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body to hold a grievance is to let the ego rule your mind and to condemn the body to death perhaps you do not fully realize just what holding grievances does to your mind it seems to split you off from your source and make you unlike him it makes you believe that he is like what you think you have become for no one can conceive of his creator as unlike himself shut off from your christ self which remains aware of its likeness to its creator your christ self seems to sleep while the part of your mind that weaves illusions in its sleep appears to be awake can all this arise from holding grievances oh yes for he who holds grievances denies he was created by love and his creator has become fearful to him in his dream of hate who can dream of hatred and not fear god it is assured that those who hold grievances will redefine god in their own image as it is certain that god created them like himself and defined them as part of him it is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt as it is certain that those who forgive will find peace it is as sure that those who hold grievances will forget who they are as it is certain that those who forgive will remember would you not be willing to relinquish your grievances if you believed all this or so perhaps you do not think you can let your grievances go that however is simply a matter of motivation today we will try to find out how you would feel without them if you succeed even by ever so little there will never be a problem in motivation ever again begin today's extended practice period by searching your mind for those against whom you hold what you regard as major grievances some of these will be quite easy to find then think of the seemingly minor grievances you hold against those you like and even think you love it will quickly become apparent that there is no one against whom you do not cherish grievances of some sort this has left you alone in all the universe in your perception of yourself determine now to see all these people as friends say to them all thinking of each one in turn as you do so I would see you as my friend that I may remember you are part of me and come to know myself spend the remainder of the practice period trying to think of yourself as completely at peace with everyone and everything safe in a world that protects you and loves you and that you love in return try to feel safety surrounding you hovering over you and holding you up try to believe however briefly that nothing can harm you in any way at the end of the practice period tell yourself love holds no grievances and I let all my grievances go I will know I am perfectly safe the short practice period should include a quick application of today's idea in this form whenever any thought of grievance arises against anyone physically present or not love holds no grievances let me not betray my Christ self in addition repeat the idea several times an hour in this form love holds no grievances I would wake to myself my Christ self by laying all my grievances aside and wakening in him as I read that last section that last last two sentences then I reminded of I can hear the voice of Shanti Oman and Shanti's singing in my mind because that was on one of their albums love holds no grievances I would wake to myself by laying all my grievances aside and wakening in him I just feel like what a what a beautiful experience I've had on earth because I've had so many witnesses of the lessons sung to me in songs it's like a it's like a wake-up call to have these beautiful voices I used to listen to the these albums and listen to so many songs of the spirit nurturing blessing the uplifting just showering my mind with love and there's another one love holds no grievances I would wake to my Christ self by laying all my grievances aside and wakening in him ah oh my that is so beautiful well speaking of Oman and Shanti I I'm going to call upon one of their songs to help us be lifted up past even the possibility of a grievance to be lifted up and see the newborn world that Christ has has given us this world of shimmering love and light and and and and feel it that that everything is is just perfect right minded seeing sees only perfection some of you have heard the phrase about being born again in Christ and this is literally being born again to the present moment free of the past no worries of the future no grievances and regrets from the past no ambitions for anything to be different in the world just a loving prayer of acceptance in the heart of all the love that is real and true so let's just pause for a moment and have a little meditation next and this will be Oman and Shanti singing meet the unborn world that's it that's our booster today love holds no grievances let us go out and meet the new born world for Christ has been reborn in it and the holiness of this rebirth will last forever how sweet how adorable to know the truth in our heart to speak the truth with our words to shine the light and to be the light of the world yeah and we cannot consistently be the white light of the world if we hold any grievances even the slightest grievance the slightest twinge of a judgment against a brother a sister against anything or any one of this world and the clouds try to come again to over to cover over the pristine light of love and truth that is us that extends through us that that we live and move in this light yeah this is the light of the world so beautiful have a blessed blessed day go forth uh and if any kind of judgment or a little sliver of judgment even tries to arise in consciousness and awareness today remember love holds no grievances and I would wake to my Christ self by laying all grievances aside and awakening in him in my Christ self okay God bless you


Welcome back folks, it's out.  Let's get over to our man, Tim Ord, as we kick off 2024. And don't forget, folks, you can reach Tim every trading day at Ord. www.ord-oracle.com. That's www.ord-oracle.com. Tim Ord, happy new year. Yeah, happy new year to you too. So actually, I sent over some charts. Oh, I got them all. This is going to be a beauty, folks. I can't wait to hear this one, man. Right. Did you get chart number seven, though? I did. Yes, I did. All right, all right. So about, I don't know, 10 minutes ago, I can't remember. 10 minutes ago, I sent out a notice or an update, I guess. We're going along on the SBX on tonight's close. And the only reason why I'm doing that is it's chart seven here. Okay, that's why I was so excited to have you. Well, I'm always excited to have you on, but as soon as I saw that come across, I says, okay, let me see what this is now. Okay. This is kind of obscure stuff, but anyhow, it worked over the years. The bottom window is a 10-day arms. Okay, Tim, I'm sorry. Which chart do you want me to start with, seven? Yeah, chart with seven. Okay, here we go. There we go. Okay. All right. Anyhow, I sent out an alert just a few minutes ago. Yes. And the reason why I sent this alert is because of this chart. And there's some other stuff going on on the bigger timeframes that we'll cover it. But usually, if you get to train up around 1.2, you're getting close to some sort of a low. Okay. That doesn't mean it has to be the same day, whatever. But what really has worked over the past, actually several years, is when the markets up five days in a row, or six or seven, but at least up five days in a row, the markets usually higher, 83% of the time within five days. So anyhow, we've been, we were up five days going into December 28th, and we fell back a couple of days. But it shouldn't be the final high. I see. So I'm thinking either today's the low, or possibly tomorrow, turn around Tuesday. Okay. But normally when you get five days up in a row, the market will be higher within five days. And a lot of times it's over a percent, sometimes a percent and a half. So I'm thinking the next rally up, we're probably going to hit new highs and stuff. Okay. That's the reason why I went long on tonight's close. Wherever it's nice close, this is where I'm long. So I like how that works out. Okay. Good. Good. I get it. Right. Because we certainly, we certainly don't have fear in the market right now. Right? It's not a lot. I'm thinking what the pattern is going to form here. You know, if you do a Fibonacci relationship today, on today's decline, we're over 61.8% to the downside. So I'm thinking this is probably three drives to a top pattern. So we only have two lows. If today or tomorrow is a low, and we had a low back on, you know, that red candle there. Yes. You know what? Seven days ago, that's low one. Today's low two. Yeah. Then we make a higher high. Then that'd be three drives to a higher high. Then a lot of times that's why I'm thinking what's going to happen here. Okay. It's not going to be a long-term rise up. I think it's going to be a higher high than we're going to probably start entering into some sort of a consolidation phase through January. Which would make sense. No, that's pretty cool. Okay, I got it. I got it. Okay. All right. So it is maybe a 2-3% trade. So nothing huge. Yep. Okay, start chart number one. Okay. We've gone over this so many times. That's all right. That's all right. But it's just a kind of review. Yep. On October 27th, we hit the summation index at 813. And for a bullish, immediate term triggered that to occur, the summation has to go below minus 700, which is like a selling climax. Yep. Then within two, within around two months, it has to go above plus 1,000 to show a sign of strength. And that's what happens at immediate term lows. And I marked all those immediate term lows going back to 2007, wherever it is. And on December 27th, exactly two months, we got above plus 1,000. And this is, the date there is, looks like December 28th, whatever, and we're at 1,078. But you know, there's a high probability the next 12 months will be up because of this indicator. Yes. And they really work pretty, pretty good. Has there been failures? Not many. But if you go back 50 years, you probably could find some. Okay. But going back to the last, what, 10, 15 years, there's none. So, Sonia, that's bullish air midterm. Let's flip to chart two. Okay. Chart two, the middle window is the SPX VIX ratio. And it kind of shows what's going on in here. We're starting to get our divergence. And the pink areas show the times when the SPX was making higher highs in this ratio is making lower highs. And it happened back in December of 2022. You got a minor high when market went down. You got another one July of this year, late July, early August, where the SPs were going higher. The ratio kind of went sideways. But if you look at the VIX, which is the top window, it actually did make lower highs, or higher, lower high. So, yeah, it was making higher lows as the SPs were making higher highs. And that's the convergence. And we got one right now where the SPs over the last couple of weeks is making higher highs. And this ratio is also making lower highs. So that's why I'm saying probably the next rally on the SPs, we hit another new high and this ratio does not hit a new high. Then we're probably going to have a sense of a worthwhile consolidation in July or in January. How big a one? Yeah, I don't know. We'll have to wait and see. You know, I don't have a crystal ball. It's pretty interesting today, Tim. We had the VIX get up to 14-23, but it has already given up. It's only a 13-44 right now. It gave up quite a bit of it, man. So it's kind of intriguing, actually. Yeah, I watched that too. It really blasted open on this morning. It really went up. Then it kind of came back. It's still up. There's a little divergence here. Sometimes I play these short-term trades, and sometimes you get spanked a little bit. So I don't know. I think I'm going to be all right in this one, but I think it's a 2-3% trade. So I'm thinking I'm taking it. If it's 1% or less, I think I'll use that. No, no. I get it. I can tell you, I'm surprised that, you know, I mean, the Dow Industries actually went positive today at one point. So it's like, there's not that much. You know, the S&P, well, the Nasdaq's a different animal, man. I mean, the apple's taken the Nasdaq's health in a monster way. But, you know, the Dow Industries went green. It's like, really? But it did. It's red now, but it went green. Yeah, there's not a lot of stocks in it. Who knows? I don't even pay attention to that thing anymore. Nasdaq's kind of important. But, hey, this is the SPX VIX ratio is giving kind of a warning sign. You want to go to chart three? We're almost out of time. I know. Yeah, we'll get, I get to chart three here. Yeah, let's just, let's just wait for a second. We'll start chart three folks as soon as we come back. And don't forget, you can get hold of Tim. You can get his newsletter at www.aud.rd-oracle.com. That's www.aud-oracle.com. We have the Dow Industries right now at 75. Nasdaq off 314. S&P's off 51. Tim and I are going to be coming right back, folks. Welcome back, folks. It's Tim Oetomo, Brian. We do appreciate your growling and prowling with us out here. We have the Dow Industries trading down 77. Nasdaq's off 314. S&P's down 51. And I have, let's see. I think I can get chart three up, Tim. Is that right? Yeah, chart three. Yes, okay. That's what I have. Yes. All right. So chart two is the SPX VIX ratio. Chart three is the VIX to VVIX ratio. Yes. And these ratios on the VIX seem to work pretty well. And it kind of gives you a heads up. The time that, what's going on right now? The S&P's are making higher high. If you look at back in July with that previous pink area. Yes. The S&P's are making higher highs. That ratio, which is going straight up. We got something similar here going here. We got the S&P's making higher highs and this ratio is making lower highs. So something's coming at us probably in the next couple of weeks, whatever. I don't think it's today. I don't think this is the one to catch to the short side here. Okay. Because I think as of chart seven, we're thinking about, but yeah, this is a warning sign that we're probably heading into some sort of a consolidation sometime.  You know, not this week, maybe next week. I don't know what to wait and see. So that's two different ratios showing kind of a sign. Yes. That January may not be an up month. I'll put it that way. So let's go to chart four. Okay. And now this is the VIX ratio also, but it's on the weekly timeframe. Right. So this looks at the bigger trend. So, you know, if we do get a January pullback sometime to say second half of January, but this ratio here, you know, it's not showing any divergence at all. So that next decline we may have in January at some point, you probably want to buy it because the bigger trend, according to the weekly VIX ratio is making lower lows as the SP is making higher highs and that's the positive divergence. So we're not having any major divergence on the bigger timeframe yet. This kind of goes along with our, you know, the summation index hitting below minus 700, rallying to plus 1,000. Yes. This is another way to look at the market on the bigger timeframe. Okay. Nice.  This is one of the reasons why you should probably buy it. Nice. Because this ratio is not showing any deterioration on the bigger timeframe. So that means bullish. So we've got five minutes left. All right. Yep. Let's go to chart five. Okay. And it's hard to make charts really legible. And I try to break them down where you can kind of look at and see what's going on. And this chart, you know, the middle window is the Sprout Gold Trust Discount Premium ratio. Yes. And so a Sprout Gold Trust is actually you can buy physical gold through this trust. And so every time, and the middle window there shows a premium and discounts on what you can buy for.  That's pretty cool. Okay. Yeah. So that's the red lines. All those dotted red lines across there. And the blue lines are times when you get above zero. And I just, as you're speaking to him, I just put up the Bloomberg with it and live right now, it's minus 2.396 percent. Okay. Cool. I got it. Nice. Wow. Right. Right. So I bought some options. Probably should have a way to look closer to the low here. But usually this is pretty close to the lows. I'm not saying the exact day of the lows. But you know me in the vicinity. So if you look at GDX and all those red lines, you can see where they came in at. It came in the October low pretty good. Came in that looks like a June low, maybe a July low of last year. The one in the previous year didn't work out. But they worked out about 80, you know, better than 80 percent of the time. It picked out the COVID low. It got down to like minus 3 percent below. So you know, if you get these crashes, this premium thing's pretty good. Yeah. This is great to know, man. That's pretty wild. Yeah. Pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. So actually if you go back and look in that shaded pink area there. Yeah. That stayed below minus 2 for like six months. Okay. So I'm thinking that was a significant.  A big one because the sentiment was so bearish at that time, even though the market rallied. Nobody believed it was going to go anywhere. Yep. So I'm thinking that was a major low that probably won't be tested for years. And you know, it's amazing too, Tim, and folks, is that when people get bearish on gold, they really get bearish, man. Yeah. Yeah. According to this chart, you know. Yes. No, that's why I'm digging it. Right. Yeah. The market rally is now it ain't going to go very far and they just kept rallying. Yeah. So it's pretty much, I think the market is significant near midterm low or actually I think it's a longer term low. I'm thinking some indicators. Yeah. Here, I flipped to chart six. Okay. Here we go. I got it. Right. The monthly, okay. The bottom window is the weekly cumulative advanced decline for GDX. Yep. The bottom window up is the cumulative advanced or up down volume for GDX. So it looks at the internals of what's going on in GDX. The gold stocks are in GDX. Looks, you know, how many going up, how many, how much volume on the upstocks and all this other stuff. So you want both those squiggly lines actually trending up. And I put a Bollinger Band on them. And normally when they're above a Bollinger Band, you got to trend that's really going up. The bottom window is advanced decline. You're at the Bollinger Band right now, but the next one up, you're still a way above, not way above, but you're above the Bollinger Band. As long as those two indicators on the weekly timeframe can stay above the Bollinger Band, I don't have this chart shown, but the monthly really dictates the really big trends. And I have a monthly chart of the cumulative advanced decline and up down volume. And right now, both those on the monthly timeframe are heading up, but still below the mid-Bollinger Band. And once the monthly gets above the mid-Bollinger Band, it's really stable. It doesn't whip back and forth. So once it gets above the Bollinger Band, it's a lot of time it just stays above the Bollinger Band for months and sometimes years. So I like to have this GDX market actually at least hold steady, not perform to the market over the next probably about 30 days. The only reason why I'm saying 30 days, it'll probably push the monthly cumulative advanced decline and monthly up-down volume above their mid-Bollinger Band. And when you get that, that pretty much is an all-clear sign, probably a release over the next 12 months that the mark's going to be heading higher. So the weeklys are the intermediate term times. It can give you a signal that could last several months. But the monthlys can signal that you can get rise for the year or even longer. And so I'm hoping that this month GDX remains relatively strong if not heading higher. We get a lot to look forward for in 2024. You got to love it. Yeah. Well, Tim, this is always a pleasure, of course.  That's the bottom line. You got live as to why he wanted to, you know, basically thread this needle and go long. Tim, you have a great one. Safe one. We look forward to speaking to you on Thursday. All right. Have a great one. Stay right there, folks. Come right back.


I am the energy editor of the economists, but I've spent most of my life dealing with different aspects of European security. I was the Moscow bureau chief, I ran a newspaper in the Baltic states, I studied Polish in Poland during the Cold War, and I lived behind the Iron Curtain as a journalist, and so I'm going to talk today mainly about the energy aspects of European security, or perhaps the security aspects of European energy. I'm going to focus particularly on gas. Electricity is a really interesting subject, and we were just discussing over lunch the enormous importance of building electricity into connectors across the North Sea connecting Ireland, Britain and other countries, and that's a whole big subject on its own. I'm very happy to get into that in the Q&A if anyone wants to talk about that particularly. And I will touch on a bit later maybe the effect of the fall in the oil price, which is also an absolutely enormous subject which has both some implications that I think people haven't spotted and some implications that I think have been rather overstated. But I want to focus for this talk really on the question of Europe's gas supplies and Russia's role in them, because I think we've seen a historic change over the last nine years. And one that hasn't been fully appreciated, certainly not in Britain where people see everything that happens in Europe through the goggles, the distorting goggles of British exceptionalism. I speak as a former vice president of the Young European Federalists about 30 years ago, so I'm one of the few paid up British Euro files, and I hope you won't beat me up for the sins of UKIP or anything like that because I really don't like them. But if you cast your mind back to 2006, we were in a completely different situation with regard to Europe. We had many European countries that were 100% dependent on Russian gas supplies. We had other countries that weren't 100% dependent but were very dependent. I remember going to the German Energy Ministry in I think 2004 and asking them whether they were worried about the German dependence. This is where Nord Stream was first being talked about, where they were worried about the dependence on Russian gas, and they said, well, we don't really have any alternative. They've got the gas, we need it, we can afford to pay for it, they want to sell it, so that's just the way things are. I didn't think you'd find anybody, not even in the Bulgarian Energy Ministry, would you find someone saying that now? They've got it, we need it, so let's just go ahead. There's been a fundamental change in our situational awareness. People see energy in quite a different way, partly because of the political and diplomatic developments in Russia, partly also because of the vulnerabilities we've experienced in Russian gas transit chiefly across Ukraine. We've had several instances, the first in 2006, but also in subsequent years, where arguments between Russia and Ukraine, and I wouldn't say at this stage where I say the blame should lie mainly, but led to factories shuttering people being cold, real energy emergencies in countries in Eastern Europe. This map, which I think is from a couple of years ago, shows the way we used to be thinking about it. I don't know if this has got a laser pointer, let's see. I don't want to blow the place up, which one do I think? Here we are. We were thinking about Nord Stream, and that was seen at the time as a big danger. This was going to allow Russia to bypass these main transit pipelines and supply gas to Germany. The Polish foreign minister, my friend Radeck Shikorski, notoriously said this was the energy equivalent of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Now our thinking on Nord Stream has changed a bit since then, as I'll say. Then we had all these planned projects to try and get gas from here, where there's a huge amount, Turkmanistan also in Azerbaijan, and to get that across southeastern Europe and up into Central Europe. We had all these different plans. The main one was Naboka, and this was the one that was strongly backed by the EU and by the United States. That was going to get gas from Iraq, when we thought Iraq was going to be a success story for at least the Kurdish part of Iraq. It would get gas from here from Azerbaijan, and then we were going to build a Caspian interconnector and get gas from Turkmenistan. The Russians had their own project of South Street, and that was going to be straight across the Black Sea, and then go on a slightly different route, bypassing Romania, going through Bulgaria, and giving them a slice of transit revenues and then up through into Austria. Then we also had these two pipelines here, which were much less talked about, were going to be built, taking gas to Italy. The situation has really changed a lot since then. I hope I can now go to a slide. This is a rather complicated slide, but it shows what we are in now. Nord Stream has been built, and thank goodness for that. It's a really big shift now. The same century Europeans, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, who were worried about Nord Stream being built 10 years ago, and I see it as a really important fact in their security, because what it means is that so long as the gas is flowing from Russia to Germany, we can then send gas by reverse flow into countries like Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and so on. This is happening. We are beginning to get a north-south gas grid, and I said to the Czech energy representative, a great friend of mine who has been doing this for years, aren't you worried that the Russians in a crisis will cut the gas off to Germany as well? He said, if the Russians cut the gas off to Germany, we're going to be in uniform anyway, and we're going to have other things to worry about apart from gas. I think that explains it very well. It's very hard to imagine a situation in which Russia is going to cut off its main customer and the only country in Europe where the leader still really takes Putin's phone calls. That then allows us to supply mixes a lot less dependent on these transit pipelines. We've actually seen a remarkable development, which I don't think anyone would have anticipated 10 years ago, that we are now supplying quite significant amounts of gas to Ukraine. We've got gas coming to Ukraine from Poland across an interconnected. We've got gas coming from Slovakia, and there's potential that isn't actually happening at the moment. It did happen a few couple of years ago to send gas from Hungary. The idea that gas simply flows from east to west, and there's one supplier and one customer, and there's not very much you can do about it, has changed very substantially. We've also got LNG. Now this map is slightly out of date. This one here on the Lithuania coast has been built. This is the LNG terminal. It's a floating LNG terminal, which is very interesting. The cost of LNG terminals has gone down hugely. It's still very expensive to make LNG, but it's got a lot cheaper to have a terminal to receive LNG. You can have this floating terminal. This is at Clifoda in Lithuania. No sooner had it arrived than the Lithuania Energy Minister was able to negotiate a very substantial discount on Lithuania's gas supply from Russia. It was a very, very clear illustration that even if not a molecule of gas actually flows from that terminal, even if you never need it, the fact you've got it puts you in a strong bargaining position. And more terminals are being built. The Poles are building one here at Finorsci on the northern Polish coast, and there are others which I might get on to a little bit later. But that's one huge change. We are now able to see the beginning of the north-south gas grid and the west-east gas grid, I suppose, in a different position. But there are other things that have happened as well. Compared to 2006, we have an incomparably better awareness of data. The EU in 2006, when the first emergency happened, had basically no idea what was in gas storage, how much gas storage there was, what the capability was to ship gas around. That is now a very sophisticated operation. We collect the data from all over Europe. If there is an interruption, it's much easier to work out what to do. We've also built many more interconnectors. Some of them are on this map. We've got the Polish Czech interconnector, the Polish Slovak interconnector. There is a Slovak Hungarian interconnector I think is working, a Hungarian Romanian one. And we don't yet have, I think this is a bit optimistic. I don't think we have a Romanian Bulgarian one, and we certainly don't have a Bulgarian Greek one or a Bulgarian Serbian one, for the interesting reason that the permissions to build those are held by companies closely connected with a certain foreign power, who I might mention in the off the record session later. So it's far from complete this, and this is very largely thanks to the European Union. The European Union identified the structure of the gas grid as a major weakness, it identified the lack of data as a major weakness. It also identified the lack of storage as a major weakness, and it's put serious money and serious political effort into making that happen. I do apologise to the people at the back who probably, unless you have fantastically good eyesight, you probably can't see any of this. If you Google it, sorry. Oh, you've got another screen there. Oh right, I no longer feel sorry for you. So that's been a very important thing. We've also had the third energy package, which is one of those immense, what we call it, the economist boring but important stuff. If you know about the subject, it really matters, but it's very hard to get people excited about it if they don't know about it. But this has basically broken the gas prom business model in Europe. It's made it impossible to own the pipeline and the gas that flows through it. And this was why Southstream, which I'm going to just highlight here, the Great Russian Prestige project, which made no real economic sense, but was a wonderful way of exporting corruption into the countries through which it was going to pass. A great victory for the EU, almost totally unremarked in the British press, was that in the end these countries, these transit countries, did not want to sign up for a pipeline which the European Commission had said was going to be illegal. The European Commission said very clearly, you cannot build a pipeline and own it and operate it. And the Russian said, that's very interesting, thank you, don't use your enthusiasm, but we have an excellent deal with our friends in the Bulgarian and other governments and we're going to go right ahead. And it was a real battle of will. It was sort of alien-v-terminator in terms of energy policy. And the Russians really believed that they were going to be able to face down the Commission. They thought the Commission would not be able to stand up, not just to having these rinky-tink little East European countries, but what the Russians call real countries, i.e. the Austrians and the Italians, who were going to benefit from Southstream. They said the Commission simply won't be able to withstand this sort of political pressure. And we all get an exemption. We'll be allowed to build and operate Southstream the way we want it. And we'll be able to export gas, influence the energy markets and pump stuff into the political systems and public life as well. And it didn't happen. Very humiliatingly, Vladimir Putin had to say the end of last year were not building Southstream. There were financial pressures as well, gas from short of money. But that was a really important victory for the European Union. What comes next? I'm aware I've been rabbiting on and we want to get onto the Q&A. There's a lot more still to do. I talked to Minister Shevchovich, the Vice President of the Commission Shevchovich, who's the head of the, who runs the overall energy portfolio, a couple of weeks ago and wrote about that in The Economist. And his task is to make the energy union happen. And so his big priority, which he's going to be presenting in Riga on the 5th of February, is interconnectors. He's, we've basically done what needs to be done in terms of the third energy package of dismantling this market abusive model. But we need to do a lot more on interconnectors, both on gas and on electricity. For example, we need to get this Lithuania and Polish one built. We need to get the, particularly here, the Hungarian route to the coast. This is perhaps the single most important thing in, I think in European energy policy, is to sort out the riot between Hungary and Croatia, which is one of these sort of extremely boring commercial squabbles. Build an LNG tunnel here on Hungary's coast, and do reverse-flail on the pipeline back up to Hungary. And I think that would then lead to a radical change in Viktor Orbán's energy policy. Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister, has become a notable Putinista to the dismay of many of the other century European countries. But one of the reasons is he doesn't really get on well with his neighbours. He's very worried about being dependent on gas transit across Ukraine. And he saw South Stream as the best way of widening his options for getting substantial amounts of gas from an independent source. If we can build that, I think that will have a big breakthrough. We need to go ahead with the other LNG terminals as well. But the final thing, which I think is absolutely crucial, and this is perhaps the thing to watch this year in terms of European energy security, is what the new competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, does on the complaint against Gazprom. This was one of the great epiphany for Vladimir Putin, Alexey Miller and all the other people who run Russia. Something they never thought would happen. I think it was served three or four years ago now. When commission officials, with search warrants and using their prosecutorial powers, broke down the doors metaphorically, and they actually just rang and showed the warrants and were let in, in 20 or 30 Gazprom offices and affiliates all over this region, and went in and seized documents, confiscated computers and took them back to Brussels and analysed them in order to prove exactly how Gazprom had been abusing the rules of the single market, chiefly, with its country by country pricing, but also with other market distorting behaviour. That led to what in EU jargon is called a complaint. It's exactly the same process that was used against Microsoft. If you remember the row with Microsoft perhaps more than 10 years ago now, about whether it was fair to bundle internet explorer with every version of Windows. Microsoft, rather like Gazprom, didn't take the European Commission seriously. Big mistake. Talk to anyone from Microsoft, they would admit that it was a very, very fundamental misapprehension. They did not see that the European Union's competition commission was something to worry about. The competition commission can impose fines and it can impose more fines and more fines and more fines. It has the full force of law and it can collect them. It also has the ability to make legally mandated changes to business models. It can ban you from doing things. It also has the ability, if a complaint goes through, there's also scope for class action lawsuits by all the people who've been the victim of this market abusing practice. That's really important. I see it as a giant torpedo aimed at the heart of battleship Cremlin. If that complaint is launched, it's curtains for Gazprom, it's current form in Eastern Europe. It'll do far more damage than even the third energy package did. It'll be humiliating, it'll be expensive and it opens a whole can of worms in terms of all the other things. Now, this complaint was already finalised, actually, this time last year. It then sat on Commissioner Almunia's desk because with everything that was going on in Ukraine, people felt this is not the time to pick another flight with Russia. Hawks, such as me, would have said this would be a great time to turn the pressure up on Putin. This is an absolutely perfect time to do it and by not doing it, we signal weakness. As with Southstream, the message that Cremlin got from the fact that we did not go ahead with that complaint was that they were able to face down the EU, that political pressure was getting in the way of what's essentially a judicial issue. The Commission here is not acting as a political body, it's acting as the competition authority. It shouldn't really be open to political influence but, of course, these things do happen. So it was postponed. Almunia said he wanted it to be finished by the time he actually said, I believe off the record, something on the lines of I want Gazprom's scalp on my desk by the time I clear it. I may be being slightly more colourful than he actually said it but he certainly was a very clear priority but it was postponed and postponed and postponed and in the end Almunia left and we got the new commission and it's now on Verstygar's desk and that is the thing to watch for. I think if the Russians are able to face down the commission on this, it will be a very major victory and it will allow them to continue to consolidate the position they've got in Central Europe. It will dismay people who are going for more energy independence and will be really quite a setback. On the other hand, if it goes ahead, I think it's curtains in Europe for a very important part of the Cremlins business model. So on that note, I'm going to stop and if you don't mind turn the cameras off and I shall be very happy to answer questions on background. Great, thank you very much.


The system that we are currently getting trained on vastly outperforms our other legacy systems. The purpose of the Ground Web of Locating Radar System that we have here is to detect plows as first strike capability.


Hello there, my beautiful, oops. Knockin' stuff over. Hi there, my beautiful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thank you so much for joining me here today. Now, as you know from a video ago, I got my running blade. This little puppy right here. By the way, she still does not have a name. So sad. Please join our live stream details on screen to help me name her next week. However, now that I can actually practice and start using her some, I wanted to take her to a local high school track. I think I can get in. I'm actually not sure we're gonna find out and do some practicing.  I haven't had much time yet to actually just sort of play around and see what I can do. So we're gonna head there right now. All right, I gotta make sure I remember my single running shoe, which is working out fantastically, by the way. Now, I've mentioned this before, but it is about 50 degrees outside, which is not terribly cold. Don't get me wrong. However, it is a little bit chilly. I've not been able to find a way to wear pants yet, so I'm probably gonna be a little cold today. We probably won't spend too much time outside, but let's go do this. Okay, friends, we have just arrived. I need to head down to the track. It's looking pretty deserted here, which I feel like is a good sign for me. There are no indoor tracks and like all of Colorado Springs, so deserted high school tracks, sounds like a good idea. So on the way over here, I had an idea. I've mentioned my dad before and how he's into jogging. He's really supported this whole journey that I've been on. And I just thought I'd give him a call and see if he had a few free moments from work. So he's actually gonna come join me here and watch me run for the first time. Oh, that was a little loud, I'm sorry, but I am very excited.  But first, I'm gonna go get set up, warm up some, get this party started. There's literally no one else here, which is ideal because, I mean, I'm cool trying new things in front of people, but also if I'm not running for one of the first times ever on my own with a random audience, I'm good with that. Random tidbit from my history. I remember playing a game of soccer on that field right there. I didn't go to public high school, as you know. I was a homeschooled kid, but I did participate in some sporting activities and that was one of them. So I think my big goal for today is really just to see what feels good, what feels natural, what doesn't feel good, what feels super unnatural. When I was practicing with Anika, I realized that my upper body felt really tense and really abnormal and I woke up the next day with shoulder pain, which is just, that's not what you expect from running, right? And so I'm looking to see if I can pay attention, that tension in my back and shoulders and kind of let it go, maybe run more naturally. I don't think that's gonna happen one day, but one can hope.  So I think I'm gonna start by a lot of warm-up. I've been told that warming up is like half of running, apparently, little did I know, to really get like the blood moving and really see how it feels, so I'm not rushing into anything. Also, it's shockingly warm-out. I don't even need this. Thank you Colorado in December for sure. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this before, but I had knee surgery on this knee a number of years ago, and it never really fully healed. I've done physical therapy on it previously, but then when I was on the eye walk for like nine months straight, it definitely aggravated whatever was going on with it anyways. And my knee has been fine over the last year, but I've also not done a lot to strengthen it, and I definitely feel that now. Like it feels weak and tight and a little bit painful, so I'm gonna have to be really careful with my knee. You're out of breath, it means you're warmed up, right? Or does it mean you're out of shape? I'm not sure, but I think I am warmed up, and I think it is time we keep jogging a shot. Hair is just not complying today. We're gonna have French braided into submission. I'm not sure if this is normal, if you're new to running. My runner friends out there, please let me know, but it feels like, like I feel the impact in my whole body. I'm not sure if that's because I'm running wrong, or because my joints aren't used to it, maybe a little bit of both. So I'm gonna try some things. We're gonna play around a little bit. So I just watched some of the play bag of my tape. It's messy. It's messy, but it just means we have a good starting point to improve from. I mean, if I was already amazing at running, it would be a disappointing process trying to get better because it'd be that much harder, so it's good that I'm kind of terrible now. I like that logic. Would you like to say hello to my audience? Hello audience. This is my dad. You may remember one of my goals has been to be able to go jogging with my dad because my dad here jogged all throughout the time I was growing up, and I can never really go with him past the age of like 13. We went for walks. Yeah, but no, no jogs. No jogging, but that is changing now. My fortuit. Yeah, me too. So the furthest I've been able to go so far is like, I don't know, like, where's that? Like a hundred meters? Hundred yards. I'm gonna see if I can make it all the way around without stopping, without hurting myself. Get set. I follow for it starts. On your mark. Okay. Get set. Go. Double start. Oh yeah. Just ripping. Good 150. So I just made it about, I think exactly halfway around. I made it from like the 50 yard line on this side, which I don't think most tracks have, to the 50 yard line on that side, so it's a good starting point. I'm guessing in like a month I'll be able to at least double that. So I think that was a pretty successful day at the track for our first test ride when following you. You did awesome. Thank you. That was really cool. It runs so fast in my life. I love being lied to. It was good. I got halfway around. Did some warm up, did some sprints. Home. I don't want to stand up out of the car. My legs have worked enough today. Did you miss me? Did you miss me? No, we're not going anywhere. No, we're not going anywhere. Now that I have some carbohydrates in me, I'm feeling much better. So that was so cool to be able to do. I ran, I think about 150 meters feet. I don't know. I still didn't get that right. Meters feet, it's this one. I looked it up later. I have a long way to go clearly, but also that's what I was expecting. Like I expect this to be a journey. I expect it to take a long time before it starts feeling like I'm running normally. Normally, whatever that's gonna mean. But it definitely feels like a little taste of freedom and I love it. So with that being said, this is a rather vloggy sort of video today. Let me know what you think of it. Let me know if you liked it. I'm definitely gonna be taking you guys on more running adventures in the future. And I'll be honest, there was more things I was probably gonna say, but I feel like running has zapped my brain of the power to put words together. So we're gonna leave it here. Thank you so much to my patrons over on Patreon for supporting these videos. I truly cannot thank you enough for everything that you do for me. And to you watching this video, thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day. Here with me today, you could be anywhere in the world doing absolutely anything. And you chose to hang out with me for a few minutes and watch me run rather ineffectively, but I was running. And that means a lot to me. So thank you. I love you guys. I'm thinking about you and I'll see you in the next video. Bye guys. Hand her from the sky.