Speaker 1: Come boom. If you thought four hours a day, twelve
Speaker 1: hundred minutes a week was enough, think again. He's the
Speaker 1: last remnants of the old Republic, a sole fashion of fairness.
Speaker 1: He treats crackheads in the ghetto gutter the same as
Speaker 1: the rich pill poppers in the penthouse. Wow. The clearing
Speaker 1: House of Hot takes break free for something special. The
Speaker 1: Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts right now in the
Speaker 1: air everywhere. Welcome into the podcast dojo as we are
Speaker 1: back at it, a brand new weekend of podcast ready
Speaker 1: to go. We pop the podcast bubble as it is
Speaker 1: the fifth Hour. We thank you for subscribing, for downloading
Speaker 1: the podcast, for giving us a nice review, and we
Speaker 1: are back up to our old tricks yet again. On
Speaker 1: the Friday edition the podcast, myself and Danny Gray. We
Speaker 1: welcome in now someone who has been a big part
Speaker 1: of this show for many, many years. We've had him
Speaker 1: in studio. He has traveled the entire United States to
Speaker 1: meet other listeners of the show, and now he is
Speaker 1: spending some time with us on the international line, which
Speaker 1: sounds pretty impressive. But the magic of WiFi, the magic
Speaker 1: of the Internet. I can look at this man right
Speaker 1: now we have a video connection. You can't see it
Speaker 1: because we're on the podcast and it's audio only on
Speaker 1: the fifth hour, but we welcome in a man who
Speaker 1: has been a big part of a many many things
Speaker 1: that we've done, a platinum winning member of the Mallard Militia,
Speaker 1: the Great Jays Scoop. Now Jay Scoop is joining us
Speaker 1: from a secret location in the Ukraine. You're saying, hey, Mallard,
Speaker 1: isn't that country at war with Russia. Yes? Yes, Jay Scoop,
Speaker 1: who lives in northern California, has made the trek across
Speaker 1: oceans to get to Europe. He's had to cross into
Speaker 1: the border several plane flights will walk you through all that,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to have him on to go in depth,
Speaker 1: find out what it's been like, what his experience has
Speaker 1: been like as he's traveled around in a country that
Speaker 1: is actively at war against Russia. An amazing thing to experience. Now,
Speaker 1: a little backstory. Jay Scoop did spend four years in
Speaker 1: the military, and he's a proud former Marine and so
Speaker 1: he has that background. He also has some Ukrainian bloodlines,
Speaker 1: so that's also a factor. But let's welcome in now
Speaker 1: without further Ado Live on the Fifth Hour with Ben
Speaker 1: Maller and Danny j from Ukraine. We welcome in a
Speaker 1: Jay Scoop. Jay, why why don't we start with this?
Speaker 1: Jay Scoop? Tell me how many hoops? You look great,
Speaker 1: by the way, but tell me how many hoops you
Speaker 1: had to jump through to get to where you are
Speaker 1: right now? Oh man? And isn't it crazy right now?
Speaker 1: Like you're literally in La and I'm in Ukraine talking
Speaker 1: to you right now, Like this is mind boggling. Well,
Speaker 1: and you look like you're like next door. The wife
Speaker 1: is pretty good. I can I kind of can tell
Speaker 1: whatever room you're in, it looks Ukrainian a little bit.
Speaker 1: It doesn't look like American broom. There's there's not a
Speaker 1: lot of advertising on the walls or anything behind you.
Speaker 1: So I got that. Yeah, well, from from what I'm told,
Speaker 1: this is a revamped old communist like Hoteller or something.
Speaker 1: But wow, only the best, Jay Scoop, Only the best.
Speaker 1: But yeah, originally, um, you know, and I told some
Speaker 1: other people this, but when this swar first kicked off
Speaker 1: over a year ago, I was like, oh man, you know,
Speaker 1: I really feel for these people. I'm also a quarter
Speaker 1: of Ukrainian, like, I really want to go over there,
Speaker 1: But at the time I was in a relationship with
Speaker 1: my girlfriends. So that's usually always been the kicker for me,
Speaker 1: whether I was gonna try to jump in on a
Speaker 1: conflict or not. If somebody I loved was like there,
Speaker 1: I usually would refrain. But obviously my girlfriend and I
Speaker 1: broke up in the summer last summer, and that kind
Speaker 1: of opened the door for me coming over here. So
Speaker 1: I decided to pull the trigger once I once I
Speaker 1: saw that it was possible. So you see that it's possible.
Speaker 1: But I would have no idea if I woke up
Speaker 1: tomorrow and said, you know, I want to go to
Speaker 1: the Ukraine, I have no militarch anybod I want to go, like,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I wouldn't know how to get there. You
Speaker 1: can't just fly into the Ukraine. You you would mentioned
Speaker 1: that you had a lot of different stops on the way. Hey,
Speaker 1: obviously it's a long fight. You live in California now,
Speaker 1: so you had to fly from northern California to Europe,
Speaker 1: And did someone walk you through it? Did you know
Speaker 1: because you were in the military, did you kind of
Speaker 1: have an idea of how to get into the Ukraine
Speaker 1: or how complicated was it? Yeah, so it was kind
Speaker 1: of interesting because I had good intel and bad intel
Speaker 1: and I had to go through the stages there. But
Speaker 1: you know, I did have a couple of people that
Speaker 1: I already knew in Ukraine, a girl that I liked
Speaker 1: those over here, an artist that worked on some of
Speaker 1: my music graphics stuff, a couple other people. So I
Speaker 1: was asking, you know, like, Okay, how do I get
Speaker 1: over there? I already knew it was a no fly zone,
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, if it was still a fly zone,
Speaker 1: would you really want to take your chances? You know, exactly? Yeah.
Speaker 1: So basically I was like, okay, how do I get
Speaker 1: in there? And I knew, you know, okay, I got
Speaker 1: to go to a boarding bordering country and get in,
Speaker 1: so Poland seemed like the most likely one to do.
Speaker 1: So then I had to find out how to get
Speaker 1: a cheap flight to get me to Poland. And then
Speaker 1: from that spot, it was like, okay, how do I
Speaker 1: get in? How hard is it to get in? What
Speaker 1: do I need to cross that border? You know, it
Speaker 1: would suck to go all the way to the border.
Speaker 1: And then they're like, yeah, no, what what the hell
Speaker 1: are you doing if you can go home now, surprise
Speaker 1: you're not getting in. So how much paperwork did you
Speaker 1: have to bring with you? Like? Yeah, how complicated was
Speaker 1: that part of it? So? You know, I went out
Speaker 1: I think it was visit Ukraine Calm or or something
Speaker 1: like that, and it had all the all the hoops right.
Speaker 1: It was just like you know, your standard okay passport.
Speaker 1: Being an American, I didn't have to worry about like
Speaker 1: a visa or whatever. But then it was like, okay,
Speaker 1: you gotta have your COVID stuff ready. Your COVID stuff
Speaker 1: has to be within you know, reasonable amount of times
Speaker 1: since your last shot. You have to buy Ukraine COVID
Speaker 1: insurance in case you get COVID over here. You won't
Speaker 1: be like bogging them down in the hospital as somebody
Speaker 1: who didn't have any money. Um, now that sounds worse
Speaker 1: than it is. You had like a lower tier version
Speaker 1: and a higher tier version. The higher tier version, I
Speaker 1: can't remember. It was like the eight bucks or something.
Speaker 1: It was like a Burks. It was like, oh crap,
Speaker 1: and then I looked at the price, was like oh whatever,
Speaker 1: just like rattle off the few dollars like stripper money.
Speaker 1: At them. And then so you're saying, you're saying, Jay Jesse,
Speaker 1: you're saying that the American dollar goes a long way
Speaker 1: in the Ukraine. Is that? Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 1: The difference in in the money you can stretch a
Speaker 1: little bit. Yes, it definitely does. Um right now, it's
Speaker 1: hovering around thirty seven revenreveniez to the dollar. And so
Speaker 1: like a good example, when my last Uber ride was
Speaker 1: sixty herevniaz, so that can tell you that's under two
Speaker 1: dollars that it took me for that ride. So okay,
Speaker 1: So yeah, okay, so you have your I can't believe
Speaker 1: this COVID insurance is still a thing, but whatever, I
Speaker 1: find that they have their rules. So you have your COVID,
Speaker 1: you have your COVID insurance, and then what else did
Speaker 1: you need? And so then there's a couple of things
Speaker 1: like they want to make sure you have enough money
Speaker 1: for your stay, so that in conjunction with this standard one, right,
Speaker 1: why are you here? Where are you going? And why
Speaker 1: are you why are you coming here? And so of
Speaker 1: course I'm like, oh, I'm coming to visit the mic
Speaker 1: at this hotel. And honestly that's all you had to
Speaker 1: really do is say, okay, I have this reservation at
Speaker 1: this hotel and here's my bank account. I show that
Speaker 1: I can meet them, and they have this little algorithm,
Speaker 1: this little formula that says, okay, this is how much
Speaker 1: money if you're there this many days, is how much
Speaker 1: you have to prove you have. And I had enough
Speaker 1: for that, So so I had all this stuff. Ben
Speaker 1: when I got to that border, they just looked at
Speaker 1: my passport. They didn't I did all that shit and
Speaker 1: I didn't need any of it. So it was mostly
Speaker 1: outdated stuff. So they ran you around and then I
Speaker 1: took one look and then I go ahead, do it,
Speaker 1: do what you want. So when you get when you
Speaker 1: get to the border, like you know, you're you're tougher
Speaker 1: than me, you're in the military and all that. But
Speaker 1: when you get to the border and you cross over,
Speaker 1: and you know you're going to a place where there's
Speaker 1: like Russian bombs coming in, Like, do you know right
Speaker 1: away did you see stuff when you cross the border.
Speaker 1: Did you have to go further into the Ukraine before
Speaker 1: you you saw some of the stuff that you've you've
Speaker 1: witnessed her since you've gotten over there. Sure, well, although
Speaker 1: everywhere in Ukraine is in range. Ukraine is a very
Speaker 1: big country, and so when you enter on the west
Speaker 1: west side, it's so far from the front that you
Speaker 1: know you're you're pretty safe. So Leviv is the name
Speaker 1: of the biggest, you know, city out on the west side.
Speaker 1: You kind of cross and then go through there, So
Speaker 1: it takes quite a while to get over into the
Speaker 1: more dangerous areas. So when you're crossing the border, you're
Speaker 1: not really worried about the Russians. You're worried about the
Speaker 1: border gardens from getting in, worried about the politics of
Speaker 1: the Ukraine possibly maybe, And then the other part of it.
Speaker 1: I was curious, I mean, this is you're an American,
Speaker 1: you're in the Ukraine. Did you have to deal with
Speaker 1: the embassy? Are they even open in the Ukraine because
Speaker 1: of what's going on there? Like that part of it?
Speaker 1: What kind of what kind of stuff? Did you have
Speaker 1: to deal with that? From what I understand, there's still
Speaker 1: representation there. But honestly, I just ignored them. I really
Speaker 1: only was going to involve them if it turned out
Speaker 1: I needed them to volunteer for the Ukraine military, and
Speaker 1: I wasn't sure if I was going to be doing that.
Speaker 1: So so my first foray over here was really more
Speaker 1: of a reconmission at first to decide, okay, you know,
Speaker 1: what is it like over here, and then maybe I
Speaker 1: can make a decision, and then if I needed help,
Speaker 1: I was gonna try to go through the embassy things.
Speaker 1: But it very clearly says on any website you go to,
Speaker 1: the US is telling you not to come here, like everywhere.
Speaker 1: So if you get smoked over here, they're basically gonna
Speaker 1: say I told you so. Yeah, and so they have
Speaker 1: no it's liability, right, it's always the lawyers, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah about lawyers and lawsuits and things like that. Let's
Speaker 1: rewind for a minute though, because before I got to
Speaker 1: that border man, he was a ditch my freaking flight.
Speaker 1: So my flight was from San Francisco to London, which
Speaker 1: was cool. I'd never been there before, so I can
Speaker 1: technically say I got to be there, and then from
Speaker 1: London to v in Austria. Well, you could see on
Speaker 1: my ticket there was thirty five minutes from when I
Speaker 1: was supposedly gonna land to when that next flight to
Speaker 1: go to crack All, Poland was going to take off,
Speaker 1: and everybody on that plane along with me that had this.
Speaker 1: We kept asking, hey, are we good? Are we good?
Speaker 1: Like this is a small window, are we good? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're good, You're good. What happens We get and we
Speaker 1: run through and they make you go through the screening
Speaker 1: all over again, like it. I can understand if it
Speaker 1: was like a different flight, but this was Austrian Airlines
Speaker 1: to an Austrian Airlines thing, so it wasn't like we
Speaker 1: anything where we should have had to go out and
Speaker 1: then back in, so that slowed us down. We get
Speaker 1: up to the thing and they're like, yeah, no, sorry,
Speaker 1: it's too late. And by the way, the next flight's
Speaker 1: like I don't know, like a day away and all
Speaker 1: this stuff. And that killed me because remember I have
Speaker 1: a lot more stuff ahead of me, I have a
Speaker 1: trained catch a bus to catch all these things, are
Speaker 1: already paid for set up, and the stupid thirty five
Speaker 1: minute turnaround ended up literally derailing all my all my
Speaker 1: travel plans, so I had to call audibles at that point.
Speaker 1: Did they give you refunds on the trains and the
Speaker 1: planes and the part of the automobiles the rest of
Speaker 1: the trip, or did you have to buy pay pay
Speaker 1: for that again? They were like, Okay, here's a hotel
Speaker 1: in Austria, will pay for that, take a cab, here's
Speaker 1: a card. When you end up paying for that, we're
Speaker 1: going to reimburse you. And here's this flight like the
Speaker 1: next day. And so you know, I'm sitting there just raging, raging,
Speaker 1: right because like I was supposed to. And so I
Speaker 1: just basically got online and I started seeing if there
Speaker 1: were any other options. I even checked to see if
Speaker 1: there was like an uber that could take imagine how
Speaker 1: much that would have cost. Well, maybe not much, but
Speaker 1: my god, that would be a long uber ride. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I was like, well, it's an our flight, like
Speaker 1: it was a short trip by plane, but you know plane,
Speaker 1: I mean, it could be going over mountains, who knows.
Speaker 1: So ultimately I found a there's this a bus company
Speaker 1: that's pretty international. It's called flix Flix and they cover
Speaker 1: a lot of different areas. And there was a bus
Speaker 1: route that went from Austria through Oh I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna mess this up. It's either Slovakia or Slovenia. I
Speaker 1: think it's Slovakia going to Slovakia. We'll go We're going
Speaker 1: with Slovakia. Nobody looking don't look at a map. Nobody
Speaker 1: look at a map. All right, we're just gonna go
Speaker 1: with this exactly. So Vienna Austria into Slovakia, you traverse
Speaker 1: Slovakia and then you pop out through the border to Ukraine. There.
Speaker 1: So instead of crossing from Poland into Ukraine, which is
Speaker 1: a little bit more easier route in I was crossing
Speaker 1: in from Slovakia. And let me tell you, that bus
Speaker 1: ride wasn't too bad because it was comfortable. But when
Speaker 1: I got to that border, it was like you know
Speaker 1: when you go through customs, is the one guy and
Speaker 1: you go through and you're like, ah, shoot, okay, that
Speaker 1: was good, no problem. There was four moments of that,
Speaker 1: every time I handed my passport and then and then
Speaker 1: we would inch forward a little bit, and then there'd
Speaker 1: be another guy, and then there was another guy. And
Speaker 1: they even stopped one guy and pulled them off the bus.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, they're coming for me. This must be
Speaker 1: what it was like in World War Two, Like what's
Speaker 1: happening here and there? And these guys and they're like
Speaker 1: checking you out there like mad I and you're mad
Speaker 1: dogging and all that, right, like what are you doing?
Speaker 1: And you're American? So did you say probably Were you
Speaker 1: the only American doing this? Yes? Yeah, yeah, I had.
Speaker 1: To the left of me, I had this girl who
Speaker 1: had dual citizenship for Great Britain and Ukraine, and so
Speaker 1: she was helping me out with some of the you know,
Speaker 1: translations and things like that. But yeah, I had very
Speaker 1: very limited speech to be able to If these guys
Speaker 1: engaged with me, I knew I was screwed because they'd
Speaker 1: be like, oh, he doesn't know the language and get
Speaker 1: off the bus, let me see what you're about. But
Speaker 1: they didn't do it. I was under the radar. It
Speaker 1: was awesome. Have you seen any Americans since you've been there?
Speaker 1: You've been there a while now, is there have you
Speaker 1: seen anyone who's from the States there or is it
Speaker 1: just all people from the Ukraine and maybe Great Britain
Speaker 1: or some other places. It's funny that you mentioned that,
Speaker 1: because just last night I heard my first two English
Speaker 1: sneaking people. When I got back in town, I got
Speaker 1: grabbed some stuff at the market and these two black
Speaker 1: guys were walking by me and I'm like, wow, that's
Speaker 1: those are the first black guys I've seen since I've
Speaker 1: been here. And I listened, I'm like, I wonder if
Speaker 1: they're sure enough. They were speaking English, and I like
Speaker 1: kind of like did the old way, like hey, what's up?
Speaker 1: But that was crazy. That was the first first people.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people here that speak at least
Speaker 1: some English, but I mean as far as just like
Speaker 1: flat out American, those are the only ones. I wondered
Speaker 1: why those guys were here? Did you ask him? Did
Speaker 1: you say what? Nah? I was? They were heading out
Speaker 1: the door and I was ordering my Uber. It's called
Speaker 1: bolts over here. They don't call it Uber, it's bolts.
Speaker 1: They do have Uber here, but it really sucks because
Speaker 1: there's not that many people using it. There's a bolt
Speaker 1: and something called Uklon. Yeah, uk lo o n. How
Speaker 1: much of the native tongue have you learned? You said
Speaker 1: your bloodlines from the Ukraine? Do you know enough? As
Speaker 1: it a pig Ukrainian buy a little bit sloppy Ukrainian.
Speaker 1: I have decent enough and according to the ladies the
Speaker 1: accents working for me too so. But yeah, I downloaded
Speaker 1: an app probably about a month out from me coming here,
Speaker 1: and I've been taking my lessons on there and so
Speaker 1: far I've been getting getting decent reviews. Give you a
Speaker 1: sample Chennio tlebab p is even know you? So I said,
Speaker 1: wouldn't you like to have dinner with me tomorrow? Oh?
Speaker 1: So you've learned the pickup lines. Yes, that's good, Yes
Speaker 1: you've learned. It's very smooth of you. The priorities, uh,
Speaker 1: I would learn like where's the toilet or something like
Speaker 1: you were going to pick up the ladies here in
Speaker 1: the in the Ukraine. Well, and then I'll tell you, though,
Speaker 1: the best part about though here not knowing the language
Speaker 1: is our technology. I literally, anytime I run into trouble,
Speaker 1: I just break out my phone, go to Google Translate,
Speaker 1: and they're doing the same thing like they clearly they're
Speaker 1: used to it, and so if they can't speak it enough,
Speaker 1: they're doing it right back. And so we're just sitting
Speaker 1: there typing on our phones. That's awesome, that is See.
Speaker 1: It breaks down all the barriers and all the walls
Speaker 1: and all that stuff of communication. Imagine traveling back in
Speaker 1: the day before before the phones and stuff like you
Speaker 1: to have like what books out with the language and
Speaker 1: try to figure it all out, right, you got to
Speaker 1: do body language like a motho on that one. Not
Speaker 1: good at that. I would not do well in that
Speaker 1: world if I would not do so, Like day to day,
Speaker 1: paint the picture here, like we know what we see
Speaker 1: on the news here, and that it's obviously an active
Speaker 1: war zone in Russia's bombing in the Ukraine's fighting back
Speaker 1: and all that. So like in the city or are
Speaker 1: people is it just normals? It feel normal? Can you
Speaker 1: tell there's some weird stuff going on? Like and where
Speaker 1: you've been, you traveled all over, So paint the picture here, jascha.
Speaker 1: What's it like day to day there? Sure? So for
Speaker 1: most of the most of the people here, they kind
Speaker 1: of go like as if on the outside they're showing
Speaker 1: like as if nothing is happening, right, nothing is different,
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, that's more of kind of
Speaker 1: like us keeping your sanity thing right, Like like the
Speaker 1: girl I was talking to you before I came over here,
Speaker 1: she said, you know, it would it would drive us
Speaker 1: crazy if we thought about the war too much. So basically,
Speaker 1: we just live our life like it is and if
Speaker 1: we you know, if we get killed, we just hope
Speaker 1: it happens fast. And I was like, wow, that's very
Speaker 1: cold to say, you know, Like I'm used to military
Speaker 1: people saying that, but not civilians. And but you know,
Speaker 1: Eastern Europeans also have a kind of a reputation for
Speaker 1: being a little bit you know, more sterne. I don't
Speaker 1: know what's the right word, but you know, they're stoic.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the right word. They're able
Speaker 1: to come year mentalize. Yeah, they have a very tough
Speaker 1: that does not happen, um, you know in America very
Speaker 1: I mean people freak out over the right now, we
Speaker 1: freak out over all kinds of bullshit that's going on here.
Speaker 1: So I can if something terrible like this happened here,
Speaker 1: what would would take place? But yeah, what a way
Speaker 1: to live your life, though, Chase Cooper right an, you're
Speaker 1: like something, you know, I guess it's got to be
Speaker 1: the way you do it, right, I mean, diagnose the situation.
Speaker 1: You're like, what else? What else can you really do? Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's crazy, And but I found that the bigger
Speaker 1: city you're in pretty much the more safer you're going
Speaker 1: to be, unless you're like all the way out in
Speaker 1: the east where the Russians are, you know, have been
Speaker 1: taken over and so and then of the big cities,
Speaker 1: the one that's going to take the most fire is
Speaker 1: the obvious one. Kiv is the capital, right, so you
Speaker 1: take the capital, you cut off the heads. So obviously
Speaker 1: they're constantly trying to mess with Kiv. And the town
Speaker 1: that I go to when I'm not traversing other places
Speaker 1: is one of the closest, bigger towns to Kiv, so
Speaker 1: it kind of benefits from that, right, if if rockets
Speaker 1: are coming, they're gonna go the other the other direction,
Speaker 1: because it's like, well, why why I hit this town.
Speaker 1: There's not really much reason to hit this one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then like, but all the restaurants are open and
Speaker 1: people are out, you know, just living their lives like
Speaker 1: you know, so no, yeah, yeah, it's crazy. Like they
Speaker 1: have curfews everywhere and it can change depending on your region.
Speaker 1: But even while I've been here, the curfew let up
Speaker 1: a little bit. Like I want to say, the curfew
Speaker 1: was between nine pm and five am. You were not
Speaker 1: supposed to be out on the streets, and I want
Speaker 1: to say, right now it's like midnight to four. It
Speaker 1: just switched to so um. But yeah, all the places
Speaker 1: I just I did some karaoke, like last time I
Speaker 1: was I was in town. I was like what and
Speaker 1: then they were like, Wow, this American. This guy's like
Speaker 1: she's singing like he's really American. I'm like, because I am.
Speaker 1: You're like wow, You're like you're like the greatest actor
Speaker 1: of all time. Dude, you like seem like a US guy. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's why. And you're like a professional musician Jay School.
Speaker 1: So you must have absolutely dominated the karaoke machine. What's what, Karrie?
Speaker 1: What's your go to karaoke song? Well? I killed it
Speaker 1: because not only my good singer, but I remember part
Speaker 1: of my past I had to do some cover band music,
Speaker 1: so I just like dial up those songs that I've
Speaker 1: done like a million times. So I was doing like
Speaker 1: the Killers, Mister bright Side, Plush by Stone, Temple Pilot,
Speaker 1: It's you know, oh yeah, I just I was slaying.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh my god. Well, you know the famous
Speaker 1: Elvis Presley's story, right, I think this is true. I
Speaker 1: heard this years ago that Elvis went It wasn't a
Speaker 1: karaoke thing, but he went to like an Elvis impersonator
Speaker 1: contest and he didn't win. He finished in like third
Speaker 1: or days because they didn't believe it was him. He
Speaker 1: didn't announce who he was. But but they people and
Speaker 1: like you're a real singer, and people are like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, what's going that's that's that's wild. As far
Speaker 1: as your timeline, ye, where are you at Jasco? As
Speaker 1: far as you're how long have you been there at
Speaker 1: the time we're talking right now, you've been there, it
Speaker 1: feels like for several weeks. Am I right on that?
Speaker 1: Am I wrong on that? Yeah? So I left San
Speaker 1: Francisco on the twenty fifth. I was supposed to get
Speaker 1: here on the twenty seventh. Because of that stupid Vienna fiasco.
Speaker 1: I got here a day and a half later, so
Speaker 1: instead of two and a half of days, it took
Speaker 1: me four days to get here. So so yeah, I
Speaker 1: got here on the twenty eighth. So you've been there
Speaker 1: about as we're talking. You've been there a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: and and you're you're enjoying the experience. I mean, you're
Speaker 1: obviously you're going there. Just you said this was a
Speaker 1: recon mission. You're trying to figure out the next step
Speaker 1: and all that, and and where you at in that
Speaker 1: journey right now after a couple of weeks into this. Sure,
Speaker 1: So the main thing was, Okay, where on the scale
Speaker 1: am I going to be from fall on the left
Speaker 1: side of the scale as humanitarian and all the way
Speaker 1: on the right side is I'm just gonna volunteer Ukraine
Speaker 1: Army and just boom, I'm in and under their control.
Speaker 1: And obviously I wanted to lean more towards humanitarian UM
Speaker 1: and some of my loved ones were really pushing for
Speaker 1: me to not do the military route. So I was like, well, okay,
Speaker 1: how how's the best way for me to go around this?
Speaker 1: And then I decided, you know, I think a combination
Speaker 1: of financially and and trying to get some goods to
Speaker 1: the right people UM was the route I wanted to go.
Speaker 1: And I knew that I with my background, I'm willing
Speaker 1: to traverse into the areas that you would you would
Speaker 1: not want to go to UM and so I have
Speaker 1: brought a lot of supplies and stuff to the civilians
Speaker 1: in the areas that you normally will see that are
Speaker 1: read the map in Ukraine right now, UM and UH,
Speaker 1: and the soldiers. So I've I've gone, I've gotten to
Speaker 1: mingle with soldiers where I normally would not be able
Speaker 1: to go. But because they were able to verify that
Speaker 1: I was legit with my background, they've let me into
Speaker 1: their kind of inner circle, if you will. So I've
Speaker 1: gotten to go in where where troops are and that's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. Unfortunately I can't bring my phone there. Uh.
Speaker 1: I believe it when they say if the drone is
Speaker 1: flying around and it detects the cellular signal, it's going
Speaker 1: to launch something at that direction. I don't even know
Speaker 1: if that's true. Is that what they tell you? That's
Speaker 1: why I wonder is do they you think they have?
Speaker 1: The technology is crazy? Right? I know, right? But am
Speaker 1: I going to test it? I know? I know how
Speaker 1: long ago you were in the military for what four years? Right?
Speaker 1: I think you told me so. How long ago did
Speaker 1: you get out? You've been out of the military for
Speaker 1: for a number of years, right, Yeah, it's been quite
Speaker 1: some time. Now. Imagine the technology now and you were not.
Speaker 1: I mean it's been been a few years. But think
Speaker 1: about where they're at right now with the bells and whistles,
Speaker 1: with the stuff they because every year, right, they come
Speaker 1: up with the new the new technology, and and they're
Speaker 1: always at the forefront the military. I know, Russia's different
Speaker 1: and the Ukraine's using a lot of US stuff though, right,
Speaker 1: they have a lot of a lot of the money
Speaker 1: from the US has gone to the mission for sure.
Speaker 1: Well fortunately for me and maybe not fortunately for the
Speaker 1: infantry people. A lot of that stuff doesn't go too
Speaker 1: fast in terms of the advancements and the technology for
Speaker 1: like a normal infantryman. So even like say the rifles
Speaker 1: that they're using right now are just like kind of
Speaker 1: like a brother or sister to what I was using.
Speaker 1: A lot of the gear is adjusted slightly, but it's
Speaker 1: basically the same, Like I could easily just jump into
Speaker 1: it and do whatever. And then obviously aiming and shooting
Speaker 1: is that's like riding a bike. So it's really more
Speaker 1: on the more support side, right, Your types of rockets,
Speaker 1: your drones, all that, these are things that weren't weren't
Speaker 1: there and prevalent with So it's like, okay, I gotta
Speaker 1: be careful getting detected and stuff. Yeah, no, for sure
Speaker 1: for sure. And so when you when you go around,
Speaker 1: you've been there a couple of weeks, now, is there
Speaker 1: is there anything that some of the locals in the Ukraine,
Speaker 1: some of the people you've met in the different cities
Speaker 1: you've traveled to, they have anything they wanted to pass
Speaker 1: on to the people who might be hearing this, and
Speaker 1: like just curious about just the general the sense of
Speaker 1: what's going on. I'm trying to think of the right
Speaker 1: word here, but there messaging they have, or any kind
Speaker 1: of theme you've heard from the people there. Definitely, yo,
Speaker 1: I was very I was very curious because again with
Speaker 1: how tough people are here, you know, you're not sure
Speaker 1: if somebody's gonna open up and tell you. And then
Speaker 1: much like how I know, you know, being back in
Speaker 1: the States, you know, you ask somebody like, oh, were
Speaker 1: you in the war or you know, you have to
Speaker 1: be careful when you ask them these things because it could,
Speaker 1: you know, be insensitive to that person. So you got
Speaker 1: to know when and when not to ask things. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, one of the people here, um that I
Speaker 1: became good friends with, I just say, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, like what if you could tell America what
Speaker 1: you know, what you're what you're feeling about, what's going on?
Speaker 1: You know what, what would you say? And this is
Speaker 1: what they told quote Honestly, I don't want to say anything.
Speaker 1: I know that people abroad or tired of the war,
Speaker 1: and many are angry that everywhere they are burning with war,
Speaker 1: and I understand them. But the fact is that they
Speaker 1: only hear about it and we live in it, and
Speaker 1: they can't even imagine how tired we are. We are
Speaker 1: very tired. We left our home, many families were destroyed,
Speaker 1: how many young guys, including my acquaintances, died. I'm generally
Speaker 1: silent about our Psyoche and after the war we will
Speaker 1: be mentally destroyed because we live one day but we
Speaker 1: do not know where and when something will fall and
Speaker 1: whether we will wake up. But from the outside, we
Speaker 1: don't care about it because we're just tired. Yes, we
Speaker 1: hold on giving ourselves hope every day that we need
Speaker 1: to suffer a little more. But we were promised that
Speaker 1: it would be a little more than a month, and
Speaker 1: it turned out already four hundred and twelve days. It
Speaker 1: makes it to where you don't even want to convey
Speaker 1: to anybody how you feel. How I feel, So that's
Speaker 1: kind of crazy. And the shocker for me was the
Speaker 1: month thing. I was like months from the United States side.
Speaker 1: I remember thinking, oh Russia's attacking. That sucks. I guess
Speaker 1: Ukraine's are about to be wiped out. Like I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know how everybody else thought, but I just thought,
Speaker 1: oh Russia's army must be so big they're not going
Speaker 1: to be able to stop this. And then I remember
Speaker 1: everybody was surprised how good Ukraine was was doing out
Speaker 1: the beginning. So I don't know when that month thing
Speaker 1: came in, but maybe just after that start was good
Speaker 1: for Ukraine. Maybe then they assessed it as a month.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Well. The other thing I've learned, and
Speaker 1: I think this goes for any any country, is do
Speaker 1: not believe when they say it's only going to be
Speaker 1: a certain amount of time. I mean, remember when COVID
Speaker 1: started here in the un two weeks, A couple of
Speaker 1: weeks will be good, everything will be all right, will
Speaker 1: identify the problem, pinpoint the issue, everything will be fine,
Speaker 1: and you know, two and a half years later, it's
Speaker 1: like it's like the old the old Bruce willis thing
Speaker 1: him die hard. Right, We'll have a couple of views
Speaker 1: and a couple of ye what's the worst thing that
Speaker 1: can happen? Man? All right, Well, we've kept you long
Speaker 1: enough jascause I know you got stuff to do, and
Speaker 1: I thank it. Boy, the connection has been great, though.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you I'm connection here, so stay safe.
Speaker 1: Any idea how long you're gonna be there, just kind
Speaker 1: of taking it day by day. Do you have a
Speaker 1: rough outline and when you'll be heading back to the
Speaker 1: United States. April thirtieth is the date I've kind of
Speaker 1: set for myself that possibly come back. I would stay longer,
Speaker 1: but you know, without without a visa, residency or whatever,
Speaker 1: you're allowed ninety days within a six month period, So
Speaker 1: so I want to be strategic how long I stay.
Speaker 1: So so there's a decent chance on April thirtieth I'll
Speaker 1: start heading back and then at some point I'll probably
Speaker 1: come back over to Ukraine. So yeah, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: if you find your way to Minnesota, Jay School, Big Mallard,
Speaker 1: meet and great. I know that's high on your priority list.
Speaker 1: Jay scoop is to any you've been interacting, I know
Speaker 1: during the show you've been we see. The time difference
Speaker 1: is what time is the show on our shows on
Speaker 1: what time in the Ukraine? Is it in the morning
Speaker 1: or afternoon like when we're doing the show live. So
Speaker 1: for you guys on the Pacific Coast, you would flip
Speaker 1: the AMPM and then you would take two hours away.
Speaker 1: For me, I do the opposite. I flip it and
Speaker 1: I add too. Oh so it starts at nine nine am.
Speaker 1: Is that am I rent on it? Right? Your your show?
Speaker 1: H for me, it's one a am here. Oh so
Speaker 1: it goes all because a day and then a couple
Speaker 1: it's ten hours. Ten hours difference is basically what it is,
Speaker 1: all right, I got e saite. I thought it was
Speaker 1: a daytime thing, but it's kind of it is for us.
Speaker 1: It is so at one pm your show it starts here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're doing mid days. There you go, and all right,
Speaker 1: Jay Scop, thanks stay safe man. I appreciate you doing this.
Speaker 1: And you want to say anything to the fans of
Speaker 1: the show. I know you've been interacting with them on
Speaker 1: Twitter and all that. So any Justin and Cincinnati, your
Speaker 1: your buddy Josh, just Josh, your musical comrade there in
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, and I know, I know bunch I got
Speaker 1: reached out to me. They want to They've been trying
Speaker 1: to get ahold of Terry in England and some of
Speaker 1: the other guys are like, we gotta get all the
Speaker 1: Jay scope and so they're all following along with your
Speaker 1: journey here for sure. For sure, I miss everybody. I
Speaker 1: missed my musical brother Terry in England. I tried to
Speaker 1: text him. I don't know if he's got a rotary
Speaker 1: phone or what's going on there. So Terry, just so
Speaker 1: you know, I tried, man, But yeah, Terry's actually got
Speaker 1: one of the first phones ever when they invented the phone.
Speaker 1: He's no use. It's a tin cannon string. It's fascinating.
Speaker 1: There you go, there you go. But other than that, uh,
Speaker 1: I still also tried to interact with our podcast kind
Speaker 1: of company um to the show, So just do my
Speaker 1: due diligence. You can find me on the Mallartown podcast
Speaker 1: on all streaming format ATS and it's also now on
Speaker 1: YouTube at YouTube dot com slash at Mallartown. And I
Speaker 1: gotta say, Ozzie Guy works very hard on this on
Speaker 1: this show, and uh and especially lately because some of
Speaker 1: the content. It fell off content wise, but we're revamping it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have fresh and new fund parallels to the
Speaker 1: Ben Mallar Show, just as the name mallard Town suggests.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about that. And we don't do shoutouts, as
Speaker 1: you know, but this week we did not do a
Speaker 1: shout out for Ozzie Guy, who may or may not
Speaker 1: have crossed over into the may have crossed over into
Speaker 1: his forty so, but we did not give him a
Speaker 1: shout out because, as you know, we're not a morning
Speaker 1: Zu show, but on the podcast we can. We could
Speaker 1: do that if we wanted to, but we could. I
Speaker 1: don't think we should though. Yeah, that's overrated, exactly exactly
Speaker 1: all right, Jay Scoop, thank you by man, and we'll
Speaker 1: have you on again down the line. And I can't
Speaker 1: wait for you to get back and come visit us
Speaker 1: in the studio sometime. All right, Love me off, Peace,