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- [00:00]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [00:29]
Verizon Wireless Announcer
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- [01:02]
Liam Balmondott
My name is Liam Balmondott. I'm back after a year and a bit. I have moved countries, got promotions, and increasingly grown in my despair for America.
- [01:13]
Jane Marie
Where are you living now?
- [01:15]
Liam Balmondott
We moved to Vienna.
- [01:17]
Jane Marie
Whoa, is that fancy? From over here it always sounds fancy, but is it?
- [01:23]
Liam Balmondott
So the center of Vienna is very fancy, very old fashioned, very white architecture. It's all public housing, but it's really beautiful. Where we live is a bit less so, but it's still nice. And we live still pretty central. Like we're right next to a metro line so we can get to the center of town in like 10, 15 minutes, which is, which is really good.
- [01:39]
Jane Marie
Oh, that's nice. At least you're not sleeping on a couch.
- [01:44]
Liam Balmondott
Well, I will be this evening because I'm going to be playing board games after this until like 2 or 3 in the morning. So rather than disturbing my wife, I will just sleep in here after the game, after the board game is over.
- [01:57]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
I'm Jane Marie and this is the dream. And that is Liam, friend of the show. He's been on a few times now.
- [02:05]
Jane Marie
He's one of my favorite people to talk to about, well, kind of anything. He's really smart. He's got A lot of weird ideas. And for this question that I really wanted answered, I knew he would be nice to me.
- [02:19]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
Maybe.
- [02:24]
Jane Marie
Let's talk today about how embarrassed I am to be American at the moment. What are people saying about us?
- [02:36]
Liam Balmondott
It's like at this point, it's like a mixture of extreme despair and just continually being amazed at how more ridiculous is. I think the fear, the fear is still there in the background, but the absolute terror, especially among Europeans, has kind of, kind of crumpled up into like, this is just pathetic. Like, this is just embarrassing to watch at such a high level. And obviously the problem is, you know, this can still kill thousands of people and destroy entire economies, but it's just so embarrassing to watch from a distance.
- [03:11]
Jane Marie
Yeah, it's like it's become a cartoon.
- [03:13]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah. And like, and it's, it's. When you're watching, it's just a continual, like, shock at how anyone, like, obviously we see a lot of media that's like, we see the CNN and the MSNBC and like the clips of that come across. And it's like the idea that anyone in that room can like, pretend this isn't the most ridiculous situation they've ever seen. Like, everyone feels embarrassing to watch. Like, President Trump saying something stupid looks embarrassing. Stephen Miller kind of trying to be a hard man looks embarrassing. Hegseth slurring out, like, more insults looks embarrassing. Vance helping Orban lose an election is embarrassing. But then watching like Jake Tapper pretend this is like a real conversation is embarrassing. Like watching NPR have people come on to discuss, like, should we get rid of birthright citizenship is embarrassing to watch. Like having Gavin Newsom like, invite like fascists on his podcast so he can hang out with them and smoke cigars. It's just embarrassing. Like, across the board, every time you look at anyone, it's just like, I can't believe you are just like, doing this. Everyone is embarrassing themselves. It's like so pathetic. Across the board.
- [04:15]
Jane Marie
My brand lately has been just calling out reporters, especially those in the White House or who get on the plane with Trump. I don't understand why they're still showing up to work. I mean, I understand we need a paycheck, but anytime a reporter asks the President specifically a question and then he just calls them fat or dumb or tells them that they're job sucks, that's not additive or informative.
- [04:47]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah, like, I feel like there's occasionally you see like a single politician push back. And like everyone on social media, like, freaks out that someone did their job. Like, everyone's like, oh, my God. They, like, asked a follow up question. Like, someone did it. Someone did the thing you're meant to do. Like, how does it. How. Like, it's shocking. And it's like, I think I said this last time, but, like, I've generally taken the view that because the Republicans have been like a relatively pathetic party for decades in terms of, like, their policies don't actually make sense, their rhetoric is stupid, like, their ideas don't work, but, like, people have to take them seriously. Or you acknowledge that, like, half of the government is like, functionally, like, incapable of doing their job. So people have like, kind of treated Republicans with baby gloves since, I guess, like the 70s and like, pretended that they're like, actually competent when they're not. So now you've got, like the most incompetent people ever and they're still kind of just pretending they're competent. It's like, stop it. Like, stop it, for the love of God. Like, ask a follow up question. Push back. Like, tell them that he's lying. Like, so enjoying the first Presidential Trump? Trump 1.0, I think is what the nickname for it is. I feel like Trump's speeches and stories, they were covered by the news over here. You would have clips of it, you would have, like, pieces of it. You would see Trump speaking, like, on a regular basis in like, in just European news, like, to the point that's actually quite funny that the French had to discuss, like, do we dub Trump or. Or do we dub him literally? Because if you dub him literally, he sounds nonsensical in French.
- [06:11]
Jane Marie
You mean like translating?
- [06:14]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah. So typically when a foreign non French speaker is on French news, once the person speaks a little bit, they then go and they cut over and they talk over the person in French, so you can hear the English behind it, but they're talking French. And the problem with how Trump speaks is that in most languages, you need to know where your sentence is going to finish the grammar of the sentence. Like, you have to know where your objects and subjects are, are to like, correctly construct your sentences. And because Trump talks in this, like, weird, rambling way, the French had to decide, like, do we dub what he is like saying overall? Do we dub that and therefore make him look competent and coherent? Or do we like, what they claim, transliterate, where you dub exactly what he's saying and make him look like a genuine lunatic. And there's no answer because, like, in French, like, it sounds bad in English, but in French it sounds so much worse because it just means that someone, it's like. It's like a child trying to talk about nuclear weapons is what it sounds like. It just makes no sense. It's all gibberish. But I think in the end, they picked doing something in the middle where, like, they kind of. They add all his stutters and weirdness, but they do kind of summarize what he's saying. Otherwise you just can't do it. So, yeah, I'm one of those sick people that listens to podcasts Sped up. I have, like, occasionally I'll hear clips of him, like, in a speech, in a political podcast, and obviously listening at, like two and a half times speed. Like, it vaguely sounds, like, functional. And then, like, I hear a clip on the news of him. Just like normally speaking, it. It's just a slurring, incoherent, rambling nonsense. This is why, like, the news here just isn't playing clips of anymore. Like, it wastes too much time. Like, it's just pointless to play a clip. He slurs. He just insults people. He doesn't stick to any points. You can't really do anything with what he says unless you want to, because the BBC was sued for, like, cutting up a speech that he did. And granted, they did cut it in a way that made him look like he was directly calling for the march on the Capitol, which he did, but not in the way they edited it. But at the same time, he just says so much rubbish that you have to edit him aggressively if you want to cover anything he says.
- [08:13]
Jane Marie
I saw a video of him from yesterday where he was at Mar A Lago golfing, which is very important. And he stepped into the dining room somewhere on the resort and patting people on the back and shaking hands and
- [08:31]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
about to sit down to eat.
- [08:32]
Jane Marie
And it reminded me that he believes he's very charming.
- [08:39]
Liam Balmondott
Well, we know that he thinks that, but it just. It just does. Like, this is, like, the state of it is that when the uk. Not that long. It was actually about a year ago, probably the UK had Trump visit King Charles for the first time. And, like, basically all the news coverage was, how are we going to trick and deceive him so that he doesn't hate us after this, what are we gonna do? What keys are we gonna jangle in front of him? Like, what things are we gonna show him so that he thinks he had a good time and everyone likes him? And that's like, the public discourse. Like, public discourse is, how do we trick this old man into thinking we don't hate him?
- [09:17]
Jane Marie
But why do you not Want him to. Why?
- [09:20]
Liam Balmondott
Because America's a big trading partner and, like, until recently, until we've just given up on them supplying Ukraine, they were a major supplier of Ukrainian defense. And we've kind of given up on that now because clearly they're in bed with the Russians. And we have to accept that now that America is not a trustworthy partner. And America cannot be trusted going forward either. So we have given up on trying to schmooze them into helping NATO. By that time, we were trying to make sure that the NATO alliance stayed a functional alliance, but we've given up on that now. You can see how the reaction is. We just don't treat it as serious.
- [09:53]
Jane Marie
Was that, like, in the Daily Mail or everywhere, the idea that we could woo. Woo. That you would woo.
- [09:59]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
I said we.
- [10:00]
Jane Marie
I don't live there. That anyone would be wooing him.
- [10:04]
Liam Balmondott
BBC News, Statesman, ITV channel. Like, all our major news stations were covering, like, what tricks are we gonna do to impress him? Basically, that was like, the coverage. How are we going to impress him so that he has a good time?
- [10:15]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
Well, that sounds like a mistake, right?
- [10:17]
Jane Marie
Because that's like pandering to a narcissist.
- [10:20]
Liam Balmondott
I don't know if you followed the stem with Lord Mandelstone in the uk, who lost his job because of the Epstein files.
- [10:25]
Jane Marie
Yes.
- [10:27]
Liam Balmondott
So one of the reasons why he was selected is because he is more pally with Trump than basically anyone else and more pally with that group than anyone else in British politics. When they, like, there's a. The file got publicized. Like, they knew that he had Epstein links. They knew he had links to Epstein and after all the criminal charges, and they knew that he was still close to Epstein, like, right up until his death. So they knew that he was a, like, really serious risk because of all these ties that he had to Epstein. But they said that they. Because he. Because they viewed him as having a good relationship to Trump, that it was worthwhile to have all these risks, especially because Trump was also part of the Epstein issue. So it's kind of, you know, it should solve itself. It was a really bad decision making, but that's why they picked Mandelson, because of this, like, close network. So we've been trying to, like, keep the Americans from being crazy is basically how it's all framed. Like, we have to, like, be nice to the Americans. We have to, like, send over some kiddie gloves so that we can, like, talk to them plainly and, like, talk in the language they want so they don't, like, just crater our Trade agreements or destroy NATO. That's kind of the framing. It's not that we're doing it because we like them or we want to be liked by them. It's that the international world order is built on the back of like 70 years of American construction, American desires, and now we're kind of stuck with it. So we have to work out how the hell to manage this while there's a lunatic in charge. And a lunatic will probably be in charge again in the future because America seems to have no interest in actually fixing the problem.
- [11:43]
Jane Marie
Can you recall the moment where international sentiment changed?
- [11:51]
Liam Balmondott
I think the whole of Trump won was kind of weird because people treated it as an aberration. It was a weird thing that happened and Biden won, so hopefully it never happens again. That was kind of the first view. But when January 6th happened, that shocked a lot of European leaders. Like, the idea that this was like, not that this happened like America's meant to be the bastion of democracy. That was a very shocking moment.
- [12:11]
Jane Marie
It was only slightly shocking to me because I knew the base and the violence that he was fomenting. We all saw it coming over here, you know, and it was only white faces in the crowd, majority men. Like, we knew this movement was a thing. And they were scary and they were unreasonable, kind of angry, violent, gun toting. Because again, also a lot of the people that stormed the Capitol felt very much like 1776 style patriots, you know,
- [12:48]
Liam Balmondott
for the context for us, like, this was like happening just before evening news. So, like, this was like, because of the time zone, different. This was like evening news for us where this was happening. It was not unsurprising that they tried. Like, the fact that they, they got as far as they did was shocking to me just because, like, I know that, like, I watched Black Lives Matters get brutalized for, like daring to exist. And the fact that they were able to like fully storm the Capitol was kind of shocking. That, like, there was so little resistance given that, like, I just watched friends and colleagues and friends and like former colleagues get shot all summer basically for daring to, like, complain about Black Lives Matter. But what it did is that a lot of people in Europe especially, we kind of view ourselves as like a continuation of America because of our exposure to American culture. So we kind of see a lot of similarity that isn't actually reflected fully when you get down to like the political frameworks of both nations of both areas and America kind of still, despite the fact we kind of view it as hollow, we joke about it, still is kind of seen as, like, a democratic system. Like, it was. It kind of began democracies long before Europe had proper democracies. Like, 1776 is a long time ago when you considered, like, most modern democracies in Europe are like 100 to 200 years old at best, and some of them are even younger. So there's still a lot of ideas around, like, the concept of, like, democracy and, like, you vote on everything. And, like, there is why we kind of don't treat it fully. Serious. There is a kind of recollection of, like, America is a democracy. It is not a place where this stuff. Stuff happens. And I think it shocked a lot of people that it did happen. Not because, like, the local people in America were talking about this. Like, journalists were talking about this. People who knew what was going on. This was not surprising. But. But the average person who doesn't follow this in excruciating detail, this was a shocking moment of America is collapsing and we're watching it happen. What is going on?
- [14:29]
Jane Marie
Did it feel like backwards movement?
- [14:34]
Liam Balmondott
It felt like an incredibly dark day. It felt like one of those days where you just watching grieving the world. Because it just felt so. I think it shocked so many people to their core. Like, this is happening. I think more importantly, it shocked European leadership into. This is not a joke. Like, we cannot. This is not a joke anymore. This is like a very, very serious problem. I think what got worse is when nothing happened afterwards. I think that's when a lot of Europeans, like, began saying, we just have to treat these people like idiots, but we have to work with them because America's not fixing the problem. So we have to be prepared to have another fascist in charge of America. Like, that's. We just have to build our society around the fact that there'll be an idiot in charge of America and there's nothing we can do to fix it, because we're not American. We can't vote on this issue.
- [15:22]
Jane Marie
Well, I mean, even if you are American, you can't vote on this issue.
- [15:25]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah, true, true, true.
- [15:27]
Jane Marie
You know, being here, it wasn't shocking. It was sad. But it felt especially. I mean, I'm a woman. I've been very sad and kind of grieving the loss of, you know, we lost our right to abortion. And it feels, it's like, unsurprising this was bound to happen, that we would go back to disenfranchisement of all kinds of people. Is that sentiment being communicated or understood
- [16:05]
Liam Balmondott
because of how much American stuff just gets into Europe through the news? And culture. Like, like we went to, we went to a protest recently about violence against women and it was in Vienna, it was all over Germany. These protests about violence against women. And obviously this was during like there were signs for Palestine, there were signs for Iran, this was before the Iran invasion. But like there was signs about Iran, there was about the Kurds, but there's also signs about American women. And like there wasn't that many Americans in the thing. But like the. Because of your like dominance in terms of cultural export, like, like when Americans are suffering, like we get a very exposed experience to it and especially when it's in like the liberal kind of sphere because of like a lot of right wing politics for the US just makes no sense in Europe. We don't jive of it because it just doesn't crack a lot of our like entry. But like the left wing stuff, like people who make media, we do experience a lot of it. So like, you know, a random YouTuber who maybe talks about, I don't know, like beauty or like fashion halls, who's like nominally liberal, we'll talk about these things in a way that like now a random Austrian woman is aware much more deeply about what is going on in US politics. And maybe they are in Hungary, which is right across the border. Like Hungary is like 50, 50 minutes away from us. And they. And we might not know in detail the same as we do the US which is thousands of miles away.
- [17:21]
Jane Marie
This is also interesting. I like the idea that we were lauded in any or like seen as like a bastion of freedom or something ever feels very weird to me as someone approaching 50. I don't know, I've not seen us that way having lived here.
- [17:40]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah, I think it's a weird thing where like, I think it's because of like the most people's interaction who are here with America is basically American tv, American media, American music. And then if they go to America, they go to Disneyland in Florida or they go to New York. That's kind of like the majority experience that people interact. Or maybe Hawaii. But like Hawaii has actually kind of fallen out of favor because people here talk about the fact that like we shouldn't visit Hawaii anymore, but no one understands why, but they just kind of been told we shouldn't visit Hawaii, which is really fun to listen to because I know, I know why. I've heard the people from Hawaii talk about why you shouldn't visit. But everyone here just kind of has begun to understand it without knowing why. And I see but like, because. And also the 90s for US culture was really dominant, like dominated our TV networks. America got this view of like, sure, America's kind of weird and like Iraq, the Iraq war did nothing good for America's perception and like what they've done for the last 20 years and their foreign wars didn't do much. But we don't see that. We see the people in America. We see the news, we see the media. We see the media, we see the sitcoms, we have the podcast, the YouTube videos. We don't see the American government, we see the American people. So there's still this kind of perception of like, what America is like and like what people are like there that like, watching it crumble at such a high level, like, I think caught people off guard, that like there is deep, deep rot in this society. That because no one talks about it and especially the white people who make TV don't talk about it. Like, we're just not seeing it and we're not exposed to it in like a way that the average person would. Like I said, I'm a deeply broken person who spends all my time online. So like, this is what I read and listen to.
- [19:12]
Jane Marie
Like, dude, so do I. That's how we know he's.
- [19:14]
Liam Balmondott
Exactly, exactly. Yeah, yeah, but like, and I'm just framing like for the American listeners that like, yeah, I'm like, the average European knows more about North American politics and news and media than the average North American knows about like European politics, news and media. But, but like, I'm also like the worst example because I'm also deeply, like obsessed with this stuff and listen to it and follow it much, much more closely than I do like local news. But yeah, the average European did look well on America. Maybe like a lot of people don't want to live in America because they know about health care and they know about guns. They know about school shootings. But they do like America, which I think is kind of this really hard thing to explain unless you kind of just live it as a normal background experience.
- [20:04]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
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- [20:21]
Jane Marie
She'll say something like, when I was in high school, I lost my kitten once.
- [20:24]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
And then a couple days later, your
- [20:26]
Jane Marie
dad found it inside the hood of his pickup truck.
- [20:29]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
It was fine, the cat was fine. My mom is full of weird little factoids. And stuff from her life and I want to hear all of them. Each week Storyworth sends her a question about her life. She responds however she wants writing back over email or web voice recording or new this year, a guided phone call. That is so cool. No apps, logins or tech hassle. Storyworth makes it easy for her so she can focus on the joy of remembering and reflecting. You can even help pick the questions. Choose from pre written questions or write your own. Or let Storyworth create personalized questions based on her life. You get each story as she tells it and after a year, Storyworth compiles everything her words, her photos, her life into a beautiful hardcover book. Families have used Storyworth to create over a million books and more than 50,000. Five star reviewers agree it will be a treasure your family will love. New this year is Storyworth's unlimited plan. Buy it once and you'll be able to give story worth memoirs to friends and family all year. Plus it comes with their newest feature and multiple full color book copies. That means you can get all your Mother's Day gifts for your mom, grandma and any mom figure in your life. Plus what about Father's Day? While you're at it this year, give Mom a gift that helps her reflect on her life with fresh perspective and gives your whole family the gift of her stories. Mother's day is Sunday, May 10th. Order right now and save up to twenty dollars at storyworth.com the Dream Save up to twenty bucks at storyworth.com thedre storyworth.com thedream I don't know about you, but I like keeping my money. Unfortunately, the big wireless companies seem to like keeping it too. I've been overpaying for years. Crazy bills, random fees, free perks, all of which somehow made everything more expensive. Eventually I just got sick of it and switched to Mint Mobile. Honestly, I wish I'd done it sooner. I'm paying so much less now. Real savings every month. And the service has been just as good as what I had before. Same coverage, same speed, just without the inflated price tag. And that is the whole point of Mint. To change our ideas about how expensive wireless plans have to be. Mint plans start at just 15 bucks a month with high speed data, unlimited talk and text, all on the nation's largest 5G network. Switching is easy too. I was able to keep my phone number. Everything was activated with the ESIM in just a few minutes. No contracts, no hassle, just done. I use Mint and you should too. So if you like your money as much as I do, if you need your money as much as I do. Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans@mintmobile.com dream that's mintmobile.com dream upfront payment of $45 for 3 month 5 gigabyte plan required equivalent to $15 a month new customer offer for first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. The US Surgeon General says kids who spend more than three hours a day online are twice as likely to struggle with depression and anxiety. And nearly half of girls and about a third of boys say social media causes overwhelming stress. Researchers have even found that teens who spend more than five hours a day on their phones are at double the risk for suicidal thoughts. I want to avoid all that stuff with my kid. Good news, there's a better option. A company called Gab is tackling this with something they call tech in steps. Instead of handing a kid a full on adult smartphone right away, Gab offers safer phones and watches designed specifically for kids with no social media. Younger kids can start with GPS enabled watches so parents know where they are and as they grow they can move to phones with parent enabled apps. It's technology that grows with them while helping protect their mental health. The bottom line? Your child doesn't need a device built for adults. I absolutely love our Gab phone for my 12 year old. I can see where she is. She can call me. Others can call her if I approve them. Anytime she gets a text message that has a bad word in it, I see it. I don't have to monitor everything she says. But when she's texting with someone and they say shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.
- [23:59]
Jane Marie
Jerk.
- [23:59]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
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- [24:19]
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- [24:58]
Jane Marie
It's recently come to my attention that Europe doesn't know that we're taught in the U.S. that we won World War II.
- [25:09]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah.
- [25:10]
Jane Marie
What do you think of that idea? Was that what you were taught? Were you taught that?
- [25:16]
Liam Balmondott
So this is British biased, but we were taught that the war was one on three things. American steel, British intelligence and Russian blood. That's like the three slogans that they use to explain the Axis of the war. The Russians died in huge numbers, keeping the eastern flank, like, occupied and bogged down. British intelligence was by far unmatched by anything in the Axis forces and American production because we were buying production from 1939 onwards. Like, America turned to a factory that just made bomber after bomber, ship after ship, like gun after gun. Like, America turned itself into a factory and built enough to arm the Allied forces to the point that it was ridiculous. The Axis, by the end of the war, the Axis had nothing left because there was so much production coming out of the US itself.
- [26:04]
Jane Marie
Were you taught that that was all by women?
- [26:07]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah, yeah. That's actually a big thing we taught. And because it was the same in the uk, like, a lot of, like. So a lot of, like, the women's movement in the uk, post, like, post suffragette. Suffragette movement, was because women worked and they had a job and they liked having money, basically after the war. Yeah. And obviously it's pithy and, like, the reality is more complicated and we do learn, like, you know, some more detail on it. But I think what's interesting is that like. Like, for example, when I used to live in the north of the Netherlands, that was liberated by the Canadians, that wasn't liberated by the Americans. That was only the Canadians that did that. And, like, they have a lot of, like, stuff about Canada and all the Canadians who died liberating that town is, like, really important to the history. And they make a lot of effort to talk about the Canadians who died liberating their city. And the Netherlands was starved to death. Basically, that was how the Nazis treated them. So they talk about it. There's murals to the Canadians, there's markers on the city that you can tell day by day how much of the city they liberated. So it's a big thing for them. And if you went and told them America saved World War II, they would just kind of be insulted. They're like, no, we know our history. It wasn't you, you did important stuff. And no one denies the Americans didn't help contribute to the success. But like, you didn't win the war.
- [27:27]
Jane Marie
We are fully taught that until we entered the war, everyone was about to. Like the whole world was about to end. And that by our generosity and goodness, our spirit of wanting to spread freedom around the world, that we saved Earth.
- [27:52]
Liam Balmondott
I think America is a deeply flawed country and has many, many, many, many problems. Every country does. But like. And I think that the founders of America were deeply hypocritical human beings who knew that they were wrong for having slaves, that they knew that they were the wrong, they were in the bad for having slaves. But the Constitution as it is laid out is a fascinatingly like, liberal piece of documentation from the 1770s. Like, it. It actually establishes the concept of like actual personal freedom and autonomy. It sets the idea that, that you shouldn't be ruled by someone because it's destined by God that you should determine your leadership. It just says that the, the ability of the common person to not live in fear of their government should be enshrined as a right. Like, these are very modern ideas that were set forward and like are. And they are fascinating. Like the fact that like this was something that America decided it wanted to be. Like it chose to be have all the problems of founders as they exist. And then when America was found wanting, like it amended things to like fix these problems and right to. Not every amendment is good, but like it kept adding things to try to build towards like the concept of like the. The pursuit of happiness and liberty. Whatever the, the line is life, liberty
- [28:57]
Jane Marie
and the pursuit of happiness.
- [28:58]
Liam Balmondott
Thank you. And the Statue of Liberty, like, which has the, the poem about like give me your. Like the huddle masses, like you only need to be free. Like, like these are things that like we think are very cool about America.
- [29:08]
Jane Marie
But are you guys watching what we're doing to the huddled masses?
- [29:11]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah. Yeah. So like, I think when it's covered about what's actually happening, it's very like kind of stark and critical coverage. Like when, when Good and Pretty were murdered on the streets. Like that was like big story in the, in, in Austria and Germany. I saw it on all the news channels and like when stuff was. Leon Ramos, like that made international news here. Like that was sort of stuff. And like, I think people kind of generally comment that like America has concentration camps and we should probably do something about that. But the other side of it is there is a deep anti immigrant rhetoric across Europe. Like a really, really, really embedded Anti immigrant rhetoric across Europe, across every European nation at the moment, that is. It's pretty normal for most of our leadership across Europe to openly talk hostily about immigrants and like, pretty racistly talk about them in a very like, dismissive way. So like, we're kind of, for example, so, so, so we have in the uk it's small boats is the term for the, like, people who come across the English Channel on little boats. In, in where I am, it's people talking about Middle Eastern refugees or North African refugees who are crossing in. Either they're crossing the Mediterranean or they're crossing through Turkey and then coming up like round through Eastern Europe. And like, those are the big ones. Like, so we have the Syrians, the Yemeni, like the Sudanese, like, Libyans. Like, these are like big ones we talk about a lot. But like, also here, like, I like people in Austria and Germany hate the Turkish because there's like a lot of them in. There's a lot of them here. And like, they talk very discriminatively about them. We also have people from like, Balkan states that people still talk pretty dismissively about. And like, I think to you as an American, you'd be like, it's two white people next to each other. But like here they can tell. They can tell that you're Balkan and they can tell that you're not Balkan. So like, they can, they can spot you apart. Yeah. The thing that I think is like, very, very funny. If you ask Europeans about like Latinos and discriminating against Latinos, and to us it makes no sense because, like, the complexion difference between a European from like northern Europe to, to like southern Greece or southern Italy or southern Spain, like, is it a wider shade of like, these people look like Latino to us. Like, if you show us a Latino person, they look like a southern European. And therefore, like, when people talk about like, like white Latinos and like, and like passing Latinos and stuff, like, Latino discrimination is so confusing to us because they just look like other Europeans. So we don't see this like, major discrimination. But like, I know that like from listening and watching podcasts, like, people can spot it immediately. Like something they can see. As an American trained eye, you can just spot someone's Latino or not, and therefore people discriminate against it. But to me it just looks like a Spanish guy.
- [31:55]
Jane Marie
What are the vibes over there around our president just bombing countries whenever he feels like it?
- [32:06]
Liam Balmondott
It's, it's, it's bad. Like, it's just bad. Like, it's, it's not good. Like, it's. And it's. Yeah, like, I think the thing. So for quick context, when the Venezuela Maduro thing happens, like, European news was immediately calling it illegal. Like, these are people who don't like Maduro, they don't like Venezuela. Like, and even in those comments, they would, they would say, like, I don't support Maduro, but, like, this is illegal, what you've just done. So, like, that was the setup. So when Iran happened, everyone was like, yeah, this is an illegal war. Like, we're not doing this again. Like, you tricked us in 2004. We're not doing it again. We're not joining your stupid war for no reason. And the problem is that Europe has just, just about right itself from getting itself off Russian gas and oil. Like, because of the invasion of Ukraine, we had to like, basically panic and we had a winter of like really, really high gas people prices because we were so dependent on Russian gas that we had to work out how to find a solution that wasn't Russian. And we found Q80 gas. So then he goes and causes a stupid war. Does the immediate. First thing that everyone knows will happen when you start a war of Iran is they'll close the Strait of Hormuz. They immediately do that, and immediately oil prices spike through the roof. And we're just like, oh, for God's sake. Like, we can't get a single winter where we can't, like, be screwed over because America or Russia is doing something stupid around the world and we're just watching them make mistake after mistake after mistake. I do also have the reporting that like, basically Netanyahu has gone to every president and asked to bomb Iran and every president has told him to go away. And Trump, Trump won't, because Trump, you can dangle keys in front of Trump and he'll do things. I think why America, like, is being looked at so pathetic is that, like, there is so much open criminality happening at the moment in your highest levels of government and no one seems to be doing anything about it. So what's the point of us doing anything about it? Like, let's just watch you become a corrupt country that destroys itself to enrich people at the cost of everyone else. Like, go for it, we can't stop you. We don't have that power.
- [34:21]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
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Jane Marie
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- [37:34]
Jane Marie
What do you want us to do? Like, what do. Cause I live. I looked this up the other day because someone from London was asking why isn't everyone ascending on Washington D.C. and I was like, I literally live as far away from Washington D.C. as a Londoner lives from Lagos, Nigeria. Like, this is not easy, but are there discussions happening about what we should be doing?
- [38:03]
Liam Balmondott
Like, so one of the big stories was that was here and basically was covered by a lot of commentators is the president of America used language that was threatening to wipe a civilization off the face of the earth and Congress didn't come back to do anything about it. So what the hell was going on? Like, how is this a country that exists? Like we like in Europe? I know America's big. I know I'm not playing America Small. But like, but like when, like a, like when a certain event happens in a nation, like the government will just reform to like deal with it in like the uk like we have like, we have meetings that happen like during the summer. Like, basically all the politicians will be called back to parliament to deal with this issue. Like, I think last time it happened, I remember being a big event was like when we were voting on whether to bomb a Middle Eastern country and all the politicians came back basically to vote to argue about this into the middle of the night. Because it was the thing we had to discuss and argue. But like someone should have been doing something. We're just watching. Like, so there's rampant criminality. The guy in charge is a lunatic. No one in the Democrats seems to be doing anything to oppose it. Republicans are rubber stamping it. Yeah, like we can't Tariff you? Because we can't do that. Like, we can't sanction you because we don't have the ability to sanction you. Like, the entire World Order is built on America's back. And America designed the system so that it was always profiting from it. So we can't cut you out of the system because you are, like, central to the system.
- [39:25]
Jane Marie
Liam. I hate that.
- [39:26]
Liam Balmondott
So what are we gonna do? How can we stop this madness?
- [39:28]
Jane Marie
I don't want that to be true because that's the lie we're being sold as well, is, like, we are the most powerful. We run everything, so we can kind of do whatever we want. And this kind of circles back to my own personal freedoms and rights, which are being taken away from me bit by bit every day. Like, the idea that we are unassailable.
- [39:56]
Liam Balmondott
And, like, it's, for me, like, America's not unassailable. But what it is is that the levers of change to put pressure on the US from the European side are not clean and they're not simple to execute. Like, but one of the things they are very dependent on is that they are given at the courtesy of this relationship being beneficial. Like, the reason that, like, the joke is that America can bomb any country in the world overnight is because it has friends all around the world that, like, give it the position to do that. And, like, when Iran happened and loads of European countries were like, no, you're not using us to do this, it crippled America's ability to act very quickly. America, like, lost a lot of capacity and capability to do things. And you saw all these flights of things being moved all over Europe to get to any base where they could actually do something to Iran. Because, like, Spain didn't want it, Britain didn't want it, France didn't want it. Like, a lot of countries were like, no, you can't use this for illegal actions. And I very quickly made it clear that, like, America isn't unassailable, but it's just very hard for us to, like, really put the squeeze on you. And, like, we can't. We can't sanction US Companies because, like, the entirety of, like, our Internet runs on the back of, like, aws, Microsoft and Google. Like, as bad as that is to admit, like, that is, the reality of Europe is that we are built on American tech. So I think, as I said, because of the cultural dominance and export of the U.S. i think we know not all of you are idiots. Like, I think that is, like, an advantage that US has over many other nations that we don't think all of you are stupid or hateful. But I think the line is that it doesn't matter if not all of you are like this, if this is what America keeps doing. Like, it doesn't matter that we know so many Americans who are good, honest, hard working people who are like, trying to make the best themselves and who care for their neighbors and don't want anything to happen. But it doesn't matter if like the, the aggregate result of America is electing lunatics that threaten to destroy the world. Like, you're like the cultural like flexibility, it gets bent and bent and bent. And like, I know people talk about when they travel during the Iraq war, people pretended to be Canadian because they'd get shit from random foreigners for like what they were doing in Iraq. And like the same doesn't happen again. Like, it's not that we don't like you individually, it's just, you just represent like a major issue that we have to deal with. And like, there's a growing thing where like Americans are asked pretty much straight away, like, who did you vote for? And if they say Trump, that is the end of it. That's it. Okay, cool, done. We're not talking about like, like that. That is the end of us having a conversation because we're not. I'm not, you're in my country. I'm not humoring you for voting for like a piece of. Like, I think the thing for like, if you live where I live and the places I have lived, these are like reasonable economies where you have like good social network, social like protections. You can have a nice life. You can have a reasonable life at least. So when you look to America, it's looking for the thing you can't have there. And it is a very transactional perspective of it. And it's like Hollywood, high paying tech jobs and like things like New York City, which don't exist anywhere in the world. Like that is kind of what people look to as. Like, this is why you would go to America and like live in America.
- [43:13]
Jane Marie
But that sounds like the deadly sins.
- [43:16]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah, because that's kind of like, that's like the, like, because you're, you're making a pact with the devil to move to the States. Like, you're, you're accepting gun violence, like no health care. You're accepting so many things that are like unacceptable to modern society. Like when, when we were looking at moving to the States, like, obviously the main motivation was my kind of unhealthy obsession and my Wife having, looking for a position as a grad student. And we were looking at like salaries for my job that I do now and moving to the state. I would like double to triple my salary. Like on pure numbers. Take home taxes, healthcare, all these sorts of things. Like you would change. Obviously I wouldn't take home exactly triple, but you know, I would take home a lot more money in theory. And like some of the jobs I was applying for, like there was a job at Netflix, it was like a 450,000 salary for my job. I was like, that's ridiculous. Like no one makes that doing what I do. But apparently some people do.
- [44:09]
Jane Marie
I know they do.
- [44:10]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah.
- [44:10]
Jane Marie
No one wants to pay me anything close to that, even though I'm great. But yeah, no, they do. People make that. People make that money. Yeah. At Netflix. Yes.
- [44:19]
Liam Balmondott
And that's, that is like, like that is an obscene amount of money. Like I, I'm like relatively high percentage in my country for my salary. And I think most.
- [44:28]
Jane Marie
I'm glad to hear because you were a couch surfer for a while and I'm happy to hear that you're making good money now.
- [44:34]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah, but, but, but I, I make, give or take 70 ish thousand euros. Like I can't remember the exact number. And like, to me this is a very high salary and it's a good salary and like it's high. It's like in the top like chunk of salaries in my country. I don't have a car, so that makes life way easier because I don't need a car. So I save thousands a year on not having a car. Housing is bad, but nowhere near as bad as it is in a big city. In the States, like we pay 1500 for 100 square meters. So. Yeah. Which is expensive for us. It's not cheap, but compared to the states. Yeah.
- [45:12]
Jane Marie
Is it the decadence that's still appealing?
- [45:17]
Liam Balmondott
I think it's like Vegas. Why do Americans go to Vegas? And that's why the Europeans go to America. Even like hardened socialists like myself. You like a little bit of nonsense and like America's just a lot of that.
- [45:31]
Jane Marie
Yeah. Do you guys, do you have a good idea of what the. We call them flyover states or cities.
- [45:38]
Liam Balmondott
But.
- [45:39]
Jane Marie
And I know you've listened to my podcast, so you have some idea, but do you have an understanding of what like the majority of Americans are experiencing day to day? Like outside of those big cities where
- [45:51]
Liam Balmondott
there's all that indulgence outside of the Iowa primaries? I don't think any European has any idea what's going on in these places.
- [46:00]
Jane Marie
But you guys do pay attention to the Iowa primaries.
- [46:04]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah.
- [46:04]
Jane Marie
Is it the donut shops or.
- [46:06]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah, yeah, if you want. If you go to, like, a random donut shop in Iowa, I think you'll find, like, every major European broadcaster just hanging out, speaking their language, trying to find someone to talk to. Like, it must confuse the hell out of these people. I know they probably used it right now. It's their entire life. They've grown out of it. But, like, yeah, like, it's because, like, it's the start. And, like, people, the American presidency matters so much to us that we, the political, the news people, they basically cover Iowa, and then they'll kind of skip ahead to, like, you know, what's the Super Sunday? Is that when. Super Tuesday. Like, when everything happens Super Tuesday.
- [46:36]
Jane Marie
Yeah.
- [46:36]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah. You won't get much until Super Tuesday, and then, like, then we start covering the US Properly. Unless you're, like, a junkie who follows it a lot.
- [46:42]
Jane Marie
So you don't know that, like, most of us live like gypsies.
- [46:47]
Liam Balmondott
I do because I. Because I'm too online to listen to your podcast. Yeah. And I remember you showing me on a map, like, where you. Where you grew up. I was like, oh, yeah, this is. This is the other America. So.
- [46:57]
Jane Marie
Yeah, but people don't really talk about us that way.
- [47:01]
Liam Balmondott
No. Because I think, like, people have the sense of, like, you know, the. Like, this is a really bad example, but the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, like, they know that kind of. Like, that kind of landscape exists, but they just don't know, like, what it's like to live there. Like, also, it's so different. Like. Like, I think when you show me the town you grew up in, or I don't really call it town or whatever you call it. Like, you just far. You just far from things. Like, you were just, like, really far from loads of things. Sorry, that was way more offensive than it meant to be, but I think you understood what I meant.
- [47:27]
Jane Marie
Okay, that's really funny. Is there any talk in Europe of what you're hoping might happen or what
- [47:37]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
you think might happen in the next
- [47:39]
Jane Marie
couple of years or how to save us? Are you Batman or Superman?
- [47:46]
Liam Balmondott
So I think the general position among us is that we are not Batman, that America has. America has to fix this. And when, like, it's not covered, like, fully, because I don't think no one wants to explain the context, but, like, there's been lots of these, like, special elections happening and the news reports, basically, that, like, a special election of a Region that, like, Trump won by, what, 20 points? Like, has gone blue.
- [48:08]
Jane Marie
Right.
- [48:08]
Liam Balmondott
And, like, so they're basically talking about that. We're expecting a. A very substantial shift to blue. Me, Personally, I think 1. I think something happened, which is that Democratic consultants realized that in most of these seats, whatever the Democratic name is, will win the election. And it has terrified them. And you are seeing, like, the most rabid turning against anyone progressive because they know that a progressive that runs on, like, anti Israel, pro Palestine, like, pro trans rights, pro drug legalization, anti cop. They. They can win these seats because people will vote for anyone that's not a Republican. And they are doing everything in their power to make sure they never get to see any power whatsoever because.
- [48:52]
Jane Marie
No, wait, what do you mean? What do you mean? They're. They're shying away from being radical or something?
- [48:57]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah. So, like, the Democratic establishment does not want these progressives anywhere near power.
- [49:02]
Jane Marie
Oh, dnc. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, like, yeah, the national Dems don't want that. Yeah, like, you want to know why? You want to know why?
- [49:11]
Liam Balmondott
Because the billionaires do not like progressives.
- [49:13]
Jane Marie
They like money just as much as the Republicans. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
- [49:19]
Liam Balmondott
The Democrats do not want to change the status quo because it works very nicely for them at the moment. And I wish they would remember that, like, four years ago, every tech billionaire was giving money to the Democratic Party, and then they realized that it's much easier to do corruption with Republicans. So all of them turn on the Democrats immediately, and they just continue to pretend that some billionaires are in it for the love of the game, and they're not. They're in it to make money.
- [49:44]
Jane Marie
Well, listen, as a just regular person living here, making, you know, $100,000 a year, not to brag, but it really is feeling. I'm feeling just so exhausted by our entire culture being based on greed. We don't really have morals and principles and things that we stand for anymore here. Like, it doesn't feel that way as just a layperson. It feels very much like if you're not trying to be a billionaire, then you're stupid. And if you're not trying to be friends with a billionaire, you're also stupid. And I don't. I can't. I just can't see a way out. Like Cory Booker on his book tour, you know, that's a person that we're supposed to be able to turn to and say, like, can you help us out of this whole, you know, bombing children's schools in a foreign country when you guys when the President promised he wouldn't do that. Like, no, I have to go sign books because I got a really good advance.
- [50:51]
Liam Balmondott
Well, yeah. Like, while the President is threatening to wipe a civilization off the map, I have to pick a fight with a twitch streamer instead. It's like, okay, what the hell are we doing? What is the point of this? Like, take so seriously, for God's sake.
- [51:05]
Jane Marie
Yeah, I don't know how much of this part of the conversation, but, Liam, thank you for all of your time, and I hope you have a really fun time tonight with your game. Is it all dudes? Do you guys have any women in the group?
- [51:16]
Liam Balmondott
There are women in the group, but they're not playing this evening. It's me and five Irish guys. So
- [51:24]
Jane Marie
what's that? Tell me about the game. Just real quick again, because I don't. You said the name of it, but I don't know what it is.
- [51:30]
Liam Balmondott
For anyone who listens, it's Twilight Imperium. And we're playing the new expansion, which is called Thunder's Edge. And it's basically. It's like Risk, but if it wasn't nations and it was instead alien factions, all of who are the bad guys. Like, every faction is the bad guy. There's no good guys. And you basically invade, murder, trade, and do diplomatic relations across the galaxy to win the favor of the Galactic Council. That's basically the game.
- [51:54]
Jane Marie
I get it.
- [51:55]
Liam Balmondott
Yeah.
- [51:55]
Jane Marie
All right, well, I want you to take care and say hi to your wife. And I'm so happy to talk to you anytime I get the chance.
- [52:02]
Liam Balmondott
Let me know when you want to talk about AI.
- [52:05]
Jane Marie
Thanks, Liam.
- [52:06]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
Okay. You have a good day.
- [52:07]
Liam Balmondott
You too. Bye.
- [52:08]
Podcast Host (The Dream)
Bye.
- [52:25]
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