Joe Rogan Experience #2021 - Mike Baker

Baker argues that the U.S. cannot realistically transition off fossil fuels while simultaneously over-regulating domestic mining, because China dominates mining and refining of key inputs like cobalt, lithium, and phosphate—and uses influence campaigns to keep U.S. resources “in the ground.”

Rather than only targeting the White House, Beijing backs lawsuits, environmental activism, and local lobbying to block U.S. mining, buy up land near sensitive bases, and embed students and technology inside American systems, leveraging the same freedoms that constrain U.S. counterintelligence.

Baker, who runs an investigations firm, says the multiple shell companies, pass-through accounts, and foreign payments to Biden-linked entities resemble a standard asset-tracing case, and he criticizes major media outlets for their lack of curiosity compared to how they treated Trump-Russia allegations.

They highlight the contradiction of aggressively pushing EVs, solar, and wind while constraining nuclear power and mining; this both underestimates grid and materials requirements and further strengthens authoritarian suppliers like China and the DRC’s abusive cobalt sector.

Comparing roughly $80B already sent to Ukraine to total Afghanistan spending on security forces, Baker stresses that Washington is repeating patterns—massive commitments without a defined exit strategy, all while reconstruction and contractor windfalls loom as an even bigger cost sink.