021 Just Two Good Old Boys

Sir Gene: 0:12

Hey Ben, how are you today?

Ben: 0:14

I am doing well, Gene, yourself.

Sir Gene: 0:16

Hanging in there. Not a whole lot of sleep, but

Ben: 0:19

Yeah. You're it. I mean, have you gone to bed

Sir Gene: 0:24

Well, that's a trick question. I did go horizontal. And then I ended up watching cop videos for about five, six hours

Ben: 0:33

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 0:33

my alarm

Ben: 0:34

audit can be addicted and can't it

Sir Gene: 0:36

Oh, fucking amen. Ugh.

Ben: 0:39

and all it does is get you pissed off,

Sir Gene: 0:40

It does it, I

Ben: 0:42

of the time.

Sir Gene: 0:42

that's why, because it just, it like stimulates the whatever, production of cortisol or some shit

Ben: 0:49

Yeah. It, it, it's definitely a it, it makes you understand the defund, the police movement plenty.

Sir Gene: 0:55

been, say I ever since they, that came up as a slogan. I've been supporting it.

Ben: 1:00

Oh yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:01

I do not think that we spend the appropriate amount of money on the. It should be a lot closer to like a dollar.

Ben: 1:09

Well, it depends on the police. So I would say that elected sheriffs and sheriff's departments not saying they're perfect, not saying they're great because they can certainly be as bad and as corrupt, but when you have less bureaucracy and at least some direct accountability to to the electorate, that's a good thing.

Sir Gene: 1:30

Yeah. I, I think honestly the, there's a organization that I didn't realize existed until recently, until tonight, this morning that I, I need to look into more and start supporting. They're a group that is not focused on defunding the police. They are focused on removing qualified immunity.

Ben: 1:51

Ah, yes.

Sir Gene: 1:52

it's literally a group called like, outlaw qualified immunity or remove qualifi or something like that. But it's. It's, it's a nonprofit, legally based group, and that's what they're trying to do is just get qualified immunity removed.

Ben: 2:05

And for those who don't know, tell us what qualified immunity

Sir Gene: 2:09

Yeah. Qualified immunity is a shield behind which cops can hide. Saying, well, I was just following orders. I was just doing what I'm told. I was just following my guidelines from the department that I'm at, and therefore I'm not personally liable for anything bad that I did. And so what happens is the department ends up paying money if there's a lawsuit. I mean, it's not everybody sues, but if, if there's lawsuit, department pays money, person usually gets a couple of weeks with pay and then comes back to work and keeps on doing what they're doing, there's no real there's no real penalty

Ben: 2:44

Well, it, it, there's a little more nuance to it than that because qualified immunity, as long as the officer is in good standing with the department, now they can be reprimanded. They can, they're, they're basically, as long as they're not absolutely fired, they are not personally liable for anything they do. The police department picks it that up. Now, if the officer's behavior is egregious enough to actually get them fired, then that qualified immunity goes away. And they do bear the brunt of, civil lawsuits. But how often do we see that happen?

Sir Gene: 3:19

Yeah. Very rarely. You basically have to demonstrate that what they're doing is going to get the department in trouble. And at that point the department will want to distance themselves and say, well, they weren't doing this on our behalf. We're not gonna cover them with qualified immunity.

Ben: 3:37

Let's not forget that most police are unionized.

Sir Gene: 3:41

Yeah. So you got a double whammy there.

Ben: 3:44

Yep. Yeah. I've been watching audit, the audit for several years and it, it's a fantastic YouTube channel.

Sir Gene: 3:52

well it's a great scam. I mean, frankly cuz he all, all the guy figured out he could do is take content that other people create people that actually take risk and people that actually get arrested. And then what he needs to do, he's either himself probably initially, and then eventually, I doubt he does this himself, is just look up some keywords and legal documents and legal texts and then read'em off. He's not a lawyer. He's not a lawyer. He is doing this to make money. He's kudos to him being creative.

Ben: 4:26

he's a lawyer.

Sir Gene: 4:27

He's not a lawyer. No. That came. He's, he used to say he was not a lawyer. He stopped saying that, but he did not become a lawyer. But there are now knockoff channels of his channel, which I find hilarious. Well, they're using literally the same voice as him.

Ben: 4:47

Interesting.

Sir Gene: 4:48

Yeah. I mean, this always happens. There are people that really get into the YouTube algorithms and understand how to monetize the hell out of'em. And a lot of channels that make a, I, I wouldn't say like the biggest channels cuz you really have to be doing a lot of things right and be lucky to be big. But a lot of channels that are in the, let's say 10,000 to 50,000 subscriber size,

Ben: 5:14

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 5:15

A lot of'em are run out of China.

Ben: 5:18

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 5:19

Now, this guy isn't, but the knockoffs.

Ben: 5:22

at two point, he's at 2.25 million

Sir Gene: 5:25

Yeah. Yeah. And I started watching him when he was 20,000

Ben: 5:28

yeah.

Sir Gene: 5:29

and back when his quality of videos was way worse, but he also used to say he was no lawyer.

Ben: 5:34

Yeah. So on the YouTube channel it says John Lang. I am an investigative journalist and creator of Audit. The Audit. Okay. He sure sounds lawyery,

Sir Gene: 5:44

Well, that's what I mean. That's, that's the beauty of that channel is that when he reads the legal documents, it sounds what a TV lawyer would do.

Ben: 5:53

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 5:54

Not a real lawyer. Real lawyers are a lot more scummy, but a TV lawyer sounds just like him.

Ben: 6:00

Gene ET or

Sir Gene: 6:01

Oh dude. They would totally agree with me. Look, if, if you're a lawyer, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Ben: 6:07

Yeah. Insert Shakespeare quote here, you

Sir Gene: 6:10

Uhhuh, So, but yeah, it's a good, good channel. Actually interviewed one of the, The mid-size channels auditor dude's channel about seven years ago for the podcast I was doing back then.

Ben: 6:25

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 6:26

And cause I, I watched this guy's channel quite a bit. He's out of Houston. And I liked his approach, which was very non it was very mild. He was like a 50 something dude, very calm, very laid back. He didn't get into yelling and screaming matches, but he certainly placed himself in a whole ton of situations. I told him on that interview that, that what he ought to be doing is going after grant money available for police training and putting together courses for these departments so he can make some money off him instead of just spending his time. I mean, obviously he doesn't mind interacting with the police. Instead of getting cops putting handcuffs on you, you could send the bill to the cops.

Ben: 7:13

Yeah, but I mean there, there is something to this whole, first Amendments auditing community that I think is useful. Right. I mean, people going out and pushing the limits and recording it is absolutely something that needs to be done.

Sir Gene: 7:29

Yeah. Because in the absence of pushback, the Orton window keeps moving.

Ben: 7:37

Yes. The, and the Overton window just because some people may not know this is actually a marketing term basically saying there's a window of what the society will accept. And by pushing on either end of that window, you can move what the society will accept. That spectrum moves. And it's interesting because what that means is as you move more liberal, that means more conservative points of view fall off as acceptable.

Sir Gene: 8:04

Yeah. Well, do you know where qualified immunity comes from?

Ben: 8:08

Yeah. I mean, it comes in principle from the entire concept that you can't sue the government.

Sir Gene: 8:16

It's actually very recent. It, it first popped up in 1967 in Pearson versus Ray, but it really started becoming more utilized by police departments in 1982. And I think there was a bad ruling because in 67 the case essentially said that federal government had a qualified immunity in certain situations. In 82 that got expanded to the states as well,

Ben: 8:48

Well, I mean with the incorporation doctor, and why not?

Sir Gene: 8:52

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it, it's these are not laws, these are fictions created by the US Supreme Court out of thin air. As many things have been

Ben: 9:03

I mean then what would be any ruling that mean that could be any ruling?

Sir Gene: 9:08

Yeah. But it's a ob it's a, it's not a ruling based on actual law. It's a ruling based on opinion. It was a,

Ben: 9:17

I mean, that's a dangerous

Sir Gene: 9:19

it was a three to four ruling with one Supreme Court Justice not voting. I can't remember which one's off the top of my head, but I just, I watched a video about the history of this just recently, not today, like a week ago. So I'm going off memory, but it was a, it shouldn't exist because. In any other job including the military. Mind you, if you fuck up, you're gonna be held liable. I, I hear that Putin's got an arrest warrant on him now.

Ben: 9:53

Yeah. Interesting that Putin

Sir Gene: 9:56

Now, does he not have qualified immunity?

Ben: 10:00

Well, I mean, fundamentally he does. It was,

Sir Gene: 10:02

I would, I would certainly think Trump would be he doesn't have qualified immunity or anything, does he?

Ben: 10:09

Oh, I mean, apparently he's getting arrested Tuesday.

Sir Gene: 10:12

I mean, if he's arrested for something he did while he was president, then I can't imagine why that would be qualified immunity.

Ben: 10:21

Yeah. So, which do you wanna talk about first? Trump or Putin?

Sir Gene: 10:25

Oh, I don't care, dude. I'm falling asleep. I, I've been up all night. I've been up for like 27 hours.

Ben: 10:29

Okay. Well, did you see where Putin went today?

Sir Gene: 10:32

No

Ben: 10:33

Marol.

Sir Gene: 10:33

Where do you go? Air Airport.

Ben: 10:35

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 10:36

Hmm. Okay.

Ben: 10:37

So, it, it's interesting because, marol has been the symbol of Ukrainian defiance and so on, and well, Putin went and toured what the West has been saying, his front lines.

Sir Gene: 10:51

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 10:52

So I don't think it's that front of a line,

Sir Gene: 10:55

Yeah. No, I

Ben: 10:57

going, it's obviously not too dangerous there for him.

Sir Gene: 11:00

Yeah. So apparently Putin went an illegal trip into Ukraine, is

Ben: 11:04

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 11:05

the news says. Yes. That's not an approved trip.

Ben: 11:11

the whole concept of that statement is just hilarious.

Sir Gene: 11:16

Mm.

Ben: 11:17

anyway, I, I found it interesting because Marol, has been fairly devastated cuz there has been quite a bit of fighting there and, from even Russian TV and what has been put out from Putin's visit, it, it's a very devastated city and

Sir Gene: 11:31

no, it looks pretty bummed for sure. Yeah.

Ben: 11:35

But anyway, I think this is

Sir Gene: 11:38

Well, I don't know anything about the visit. Was there anything interesting or just the

Ben: 11:42

just the fact that he did I don't think there's anything other than the rhetoric coming out of the west and crap, but I, I don't think much of the visit other than it's interesting that he did, especially with the propaganda that we've been getting around Mari Pool for the last several months. So, yeah think it's a sign that this is all wrapping up because again, he, he's going to what up until recently was quote unquote front lines and now. It, it's a Concord city, that's for sure. And I, I think that I, I, I think that Ukraine is going to have to accept that the Donbass, Russian territory, and I think Russia has already very much said that legally. And we can argue the ethics of it all day long, but I think the reality is that that's theirs. So yeah.

Sir Gene: 12:33

Yep. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, there's a few other Russian cities there, but

Ben: 12:38

I'm sorry.

Sir Gene: 12:39

there's a few other Russian cities there as as well.

Ben: 12:42

Yeah. So I think it's also interesting that Germany has sent tanks to the point where they don't have tanks for training in their own.

Sir Gene: 12:55

what do they, what does Germany need a military for?

Ben: 12:57

I don't know. Apparently nothing

Sir Gene: 13:00

I don't think they do.

Ben: 13:01

Nor do they need a economy apparently.

Sir Gene: 13:03

Well, they certainly don't need the military if they don't have an economy.

Ben: 13:08

Yeah. Well, I mean, they're de industrializing pretty rapidly, man.

Sir Gene: 13:12

yeah. So remember the, what Munich looked like back when it was still a city before it becomes a country village.

Ben: 13:20

Yeah. Munich is oddly spread out city, by the way. You've been, right?

Sir Gene: 13:25

yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, you gotta

Ben: 13:28

different skylines.

Sir Gene: 13:29

drive out, drive in from the airport cutaway.

Ben: 13:32

Yep.

Sir Gene: 13:34

Down to 3 0 1. Yeah, it's it's not the prettiest city, that's for sure.

Ben: 13:40

Hmm. Yeah. I, I didn't get to spend as much time there as I'd like, but yeah. So anyway, on the world leaders getting arrested front,

Sir Gene: 13:51

Yes.

Ben: 13:51

Trump has said that he's likely to get arrested Tuesday.

Sir Gene: 13:54

what I've heard as well. Yeah.

Ben: 13:56

Yeah, but it's interesting because like I sent you, he's also planning a in Waco next Saturday.

Sir Gene: 14:02

Which is pretty cool.

Ben: 14:03

which is it?

Sir Gene: 14:06

Well, I mean, it could be both.

Ben: 14:08

No, he's not gonna get arrested.

Sir Gene: 14:10

I think you'll be out on bond.

Ben: 14:12

You think they're going to arrest and perp walk Trump?

Sir Gene: 14:15

You don't think they will?

Ben: 14:16

I think if they do, it's done and over with.

Sir Gene: 14:20

Well, yeah, but you what you, you think that somebody.

Ben: 14:25

Oh yeah. Trump arrangement syndrome is real. I understand.

Sir Gene: 14:28

Yeah. But you know, a group of people that thought that going after him for Russiagate twice, not once, but twice it, they're, they're gonna be just let him walk and, and not take advantage of an opportunity to prove welcome.

Ben: 14:45

I mean,

Sir Gene: 14:46

I mean, they, they impeached them twice, not just once.

Ben: 14:49

yeah, but I mean, Jesus Christ, dude, if you really go down that road of perp walking, a former president who, they, they have had very little that you could even say that has been done wrong. And I mean, okay, you can, you can say, I don't like his rhetoric. You can say lots of things, but as far as crimes, I mean, they've been looking hard and haven't found Jack, from what I can tell. So you, you, you go in perp walk Trump.

Sir Gene: 15:23

Yep.

Ben: 15:24

the fuck do you think is gonna happen to Biden

Sir Gene: 15:26

Well, he can't run.

Ben: 15:29

who can't run?

Sir Gene: 15:30

Trump can't.

Ben: 15:31

How so?

Sir Gene: 15:31

If he is under a criminal investigation at the time of election, he can't be on the election.

Ben: 15:37

that's not true. There are no, well, I mean, it's, it's, it's just not, there are laws that say, if you've been convicted of a felony and so on, that you can't hold public office, da, da da da da. However that law enacted by Congress does not trump the Constitution. And the Constitution is the only place where there are qualifications for who can run for president. And it says nothing about that in the Constitution. So

Sir Gene: 16:03

Well, that's, that's true, but.

Ben: 16:06

unless he is convicted of treason,

Sir Gene: 16:08

It's not, no, he's not gonna get the treason, but it's not gonna stop him from trying.

Ben: 16:14

Oh, they can try that rhetoric all they want, but it would be the Constitution. The, if the Supreme Court didn't step in and put the kibosh on that nonsense, then

Sir Gene: 16:26

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 16:27

It, that would be a Let them eat cake moment.

Sir Gene: 16:31

Yeah. Speaking of cake, have you seen what's happening in France?

Ben: 16:35

Oh yes. Some of the protests there.

Sir Gene: 16:37

Hmm mm-hmm.

Ben: 16:39

Well,

Sir Gene: 16:40

how long do you think until the guillotines come out?

Ben: 16:43

Boy, they're, they're getting close,

Sir Gene: 16:45

I, I think they're weeks away.

Ben: 16:47

you think?

Sir Gene: 16:48

Yeah.

Ben: 16:49

I don't know. I think they might get pacified, but we'll see.

Sir Gene: 16:52

Well that's, let's see. I mean, there's whole buildings burning.

Ben: 16:56

Well, what do you think the issue is that's going to kick off the second French Revolution? Like what, what do you think that would actually be

Sir Gene: 17:03

Well, we, we were looking at it right now. I think it's I, I do, I I have to say though, before I give my serious answer, I, I love Elon Musk's answer to that question.

Ben: 17:15

Okay.

Sir Gene: 17:16

He tweeted that the problem in France is that they have too many people that retire too early.

Ben: 17:28

True. I mean, but France is demographically decent. But you know, the pension reforms and everything that they're going through, y there, there is some truth to that, right?

Sir Gene: 17:43

the, the, it, it sounds like, oh, well, he's got a good point. My reply was, of course, well, nothing that a, a six day work week wouldn't cure. but but then somebody actually looked up what the retirement age agent France is 62,

Ben: 17:57

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 17:59

so three years earlier than the us.

Ben: 18:03

But you know, part of that is, well, yes, but their nationalized pension system is the

Sir Gene: 18:09

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 18:10

It's very different than social security

Sir Gene: 18:12

Well, yes, because it's paid for by companies.

Ben: 18:17

in enforced by the government. But anyway, one, one of the issues that we have is, I mean, it it, anyone who's retiring at like 65 in the us it's just, I don't know. To me that's, it seems insane. Like there's no way I will retire at 65.

Sir Gene: 18:37

yeah.

Ben: 18:38

Not a chance in hell.

Sir Gene: 18:39

Well, there are people that, that like to work hard and retire at 40.

Ben: 18:45

well, I, okay, even if I made enough money to retire with a lifestyle I wanted

Sir Gene: 18:51

you'd wanna be raising cows by the time you were 50.

Ben: 18:54

okay, that's still not retirement.

Sir Gene: 18:56

Well, it kind of is. If you're not working for somebody.

Ben: 19:00

Oh, well retirement does not mean not working for somebody. I mean, I can have my own business and still not be retired.

Sir Gene: 19:08

sure you could.

Ben: 19:10

I mean, yeah, a goal would be to either be a, let's say a CISO or something by the time I'm 45

Sir Gene: 19:17

do you, what do you think all these 64 year old people in France are doing?

Ben: 19:20

I think a lot of them are actually retired and not contributing to society and just spending the little bit that they get. And that's about it. I don't think they're out there producing or farming or doing a second career by any stretch of the imagination. And I think that's a big difference between America and Europe is the work ethic.

Sir Gene: 19:40

And without weighing in with my opinion on this, wh where are you getting this data from?

Ben: 19:45

Just cultural observation, I guess.

Sir Gene: 19:49

So, so stereotypes.

Ben: 19:52

Not just stereotypes, but personal interactions. One of the conversations I had in in Europe was about oh,

Sir Gene: 19:58

French people.

Ben: 19:59

time, how much time do you get off and so on. Actually one of the guys was Spanish and then the other guy was Hungarian.

Sir Gene: 20:07

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 20:09

But it was very focused on, and, the Germans and their attitudes around firing and everything else, and just how it, it, it's, it, it was just very highlighting to me the difference in, work ethics. We were talking to some of these people and they're like, oh yeah, we get so many days off and so on. I said, oh yeah, well that's more than I get, but I get this, but I never use it all. Well, why not? Why, why, why wouldn't you? Because I don't need that much time off. And there's just a, there's just a drastic difference. And then we have those people in the US too that take every last little bit of vacation that they can and eek out everything. And those are generally not your best workers.

Sir Gene: 20:53

No, no. But the the 60% of French farmers are over 55.

Ben: 21:02

Well, farmers are very different than the pensioners though.

Sir Gene: 21:06

They are, but they're the ones that are writing right now.

Ben: 21:11

Yes, because of the government austerity. And there's lots of reasons for that, including some of the climate change stuff.

Sir Gene: 21:19

But I think mostly it's, it's the, the lack of money needed to provide support for migrants coming over to France because they were not budgeted for, because they're also on full government pensions as well.

Ben: 21:37

Which is just insanity.

Sir Gene: 21:40

Oh yeah, it is. And that's, so the question you had was what, what, what's gonna lead to the next French Revolution? I think this may not necessarily guaranteeing it, but this may very well be it because people that now you can argue that they work a lot less than Americans. I would tend to agree with that. I, when I had employees. All over the world working for me in a large multinational company. The Americans were by far the hardest working and a, a lot of'em, we made fun of Bec because of the, like the Australians, I always just said they work a four day week because they, they just have fuck around Mondays

Ben: 22:23

because

Sir Gene: 22:24

because the weekends in the US and, and in Europe. So when it's there Monday,

Ben: 22:29

in Singapore.

Sir Gene: 22:30

there's nothing, there's nothing for them to really do. It's just like a bonus day. And so they'll show up to the office late they'll take long lunch, go out with other coworkers, and then leave at, 3 34 o'. And so they, now, this is all pre covid stuff, obviously, but they'll, they will show up to work. It's just, you can't expect productivity out of'em on Mondays because they're just, it's fuck around day. And, and I'm, I, I kind of suspected it before I went to Australia. When I went to Australia, I confirmed it absolutely for me. And then in the uk the they worked quite a bit better in terms of productivity. The problem with the UK that I had was that they tended to to have a lot of what at least was claimed to be government regulations. And so you would, you would have, aside from weird holidays popping up in the middle of weeks that nobody. You had all these things like, well, I, I'm working from home today because I have b BBC coming out to check on my antenna license, total bullshit, stuff like that. But there was a lot of it. That's just one example, there, there just seemed to be just a barrage of, love my work, love my job, but there's so much bureaucracy where I live that sometimes I, I can't I can't be at the office.

Ben: 23:57

Yeah. Well, so a couple things there. The whole work from home debate, I guess is finally settled, so

Sir Gene: 24:03

I, I think for the most part, everybody's going back to work at this point.

Ben: 24:06

No, they're not,

Sir Gene: 24:08

Oh, it sure seems like it.

Ben: 24:09

Not at all.

Sir Gene: 24:11

definitely going back to work. Microsoft's going back to work. Facebook's even going back to

Ben: 24:15

Okay, man, I,

Sir Gene: 24:16

I'm just telling you what friends that work in those companies are telling me, cuz they're bitching about it. They're not happy, but everybody seems to be. The expectations are going back to the office.

Ben: 24:26

Everybody that I know is not like they're, they're may be doing hybrid at most but yeah.

Sir Gene: 24:36

Well, yeah. Everybody's officially hybrid, but I got two friends at Amazon that I talk with pretty regularly. They're doing four days minimum. At the office?

Ben: 24:46

Yeah. What I'm seeing is two days a week in the office and their scheduled days.

Sir Gene: 24:50

At at Amazon.

Ben: 24:52

No. At various Fortune 500 companies.

Sir Gene: 24:56

yeah. Well, the only ones I'm I'm mentioning is Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft, cuz that's the people I've talked with.

Ben: 25:04

And it also depends on what your job is.

Sir Gene: 25:06

what Google's doing.

Ben: 25:08

So one of the things I've seen is that, if like trading floors of companies that have Well, trading floors for commodities they're back in the office because they want that group dynamic and so on.

Sir Gene: 25:22

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 25:22

It departments boy, they're, they're, they're remote and I think they're gonna stay remote.

Sir Gene: 25:29

Probably. And I've argued for that for like 25 years that there's no no point in keeping introverts sitting in an office environment if you're not gaining any

Ben: 25:38

stay in their closet.

Sir Gene: 25:40

Yeah. If you're not gaining a benefit from having them at the office, don't have'em go to the office. That's pretty obvious.

Ben: 25:47

Now, I will also say that the, the people who actually have to do physical work inside the data centers, they're gonna be at the data centers, but they were never at the office

Sir Gene: 25:56

Right?

Ben: 25:56

anyway,

Sir Gene: 25:57

Yeah. Talk. Working out of a closet.

Ben: 26:04

yeah.

Sir Gene: 26:04

job where you have to bring an extra coat with you to work.

Ben: 26:08

Y. Well, depends on the data center and which aisle you're on.

Sir Gene: 26:13

Yeah,

Ben: 26:14

you definitely need

Sir Gene: 26:15

in a hot data center. Yeah. No, it's, it's I haven't been to one in years, but I remember a variety of data centers from ones that had man traps at the entrance and sticky floors at the entrance to clean your shoes off. Two ones were like, it, it's just, it's just an extension of the front office

Ben: 26:44

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 26:45

so they, they're all over the place. But I, I will say the most fun ones in terms of from a security standpoint were the ones on the east coast towards the Virginia area, and they were in very nondescript warehouses.

Ben: 26:59

Well, most of them are across, depending on, I mean, really wherever you go, the people would be surprised at how many non-descript buildings what they contain inside. D O e for instance, it, anyone who's visited a lot of DOE facilities, there are quite a few that you would drive by and think, oh, that's an empty office building. And it is anything but an empty office building.

Sir Gene: 27:28

Yeah. They're, they don't tend to popularize what they're what they are now outside the building. That's for.

Ben: 27:35

Well, and it's pretty, it's crazy to me the parking situations in some of these, because like I said, you would think it was an empty office building because basically there's no cars there, there's nothing. And then you go in and it's the office full of people.

Sir Gene: 27:51

Mm-hmm. Now, I will say the coolest one that I'd ever gone to, and this was for a security visit as well was in a cave underground, and I think I still have some photos somewhere. The, the break room in this data center looked like something out of Dr. Evil's layer because you had modern appliances in the kitchen that, that's next to a wall, and then like two of the walls looked like normal walls. One was actually glass, but then the other two walls. Are literally the cave, like the, the, dirt or rock, like, like you're standing in the fricking cave and it's what it looks like is you're in a cave. It, it was definitely the coolest looking facility. It, it is about the closest I've ever come to getting inside of area. What the hell is it? 54, 51, whatever it is.

Ben: 28:52

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 28:54

the one where the aliens supposedly are. Yeah. So, and I've never been there, but this is about as close as I've gotten from a visual standpoint because you're driving along at normal street level and it's fairly flat, and then you, you follow the gps and it takes you to a, a road that goes down at an angle. Not super steep, but relatively steep. And it, and it goes down, basically into a hole for about a quarter mile. And then you get to a very large gate that is at the dead end of this road. So you, you could either turn around or you could go through the gate, but when you go through the gate, you're underground you're probably about five, six stories underground.

Ben: 29:42

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 29:42

So it was pretty wild. That's a huge ass cave system down there too.

Ben: 29:47

Where was this?

Sir Gene: 29:49

This is in Arkansas in Springfield maybe. Is that the city Spring something? It's, it's just a little south of where the Walmart headquarters are,

Ben: 30:01

I don't know. I'd have to look at a map.

Sir Gene: 30:03

point. But it, it's a. I can't remember where the cave originated there. It, I'm sure it started as a natural cave and then it was just expanded greatly. But it was used for a long time by craft foods or cheese aging.

Ben: 30:22

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 30:24

And then, I don't know what happened. Something happened, they became too expensive to Asia, their cheese, so they just fake it now or something. And somebody said, Hey, so this is a cool, naturally cooled place where there's a lot of room and yeah. Anyway, somebody figured out you could put computer servers in there. And so there was massive, massive server farms.

Ben: 30:52

So, oh crap. I'm blanking on the name of the on the novel there was a novel shit. Who wrote Dune?

Sir Gene: 31:02

Frank Herbert,

Ben: 31:03

Frank Herbert. That's right.

Sir Gene: 31:04

If I was trying to remember that name, I would not remember it. The only reason I, I could say it is cuz you were the one who asked for it.

Ben: 31:11

yeah, there's a book by Frank Herbert that was pretty interesting. I'm trying to find it, but it's basically this town has

Sir Gene: 31:20

Springdale. I just looked it up. Springdale?

Ben: 31:24

okay. Well anyway, he's got a book that's I'm trying to find it, but it was pretty interesting cuz basically this town has a cave where they age cheese and so on. And it has a interesting effect on people and outsiders are trying to find out what the secret is and so on. And it's a fantastic book. See if I can find it.

Sir Gene: 31:47

hmm. Yeah. It, that's mean Cheese has historically been Asian caves. It's a good place to age it.

Ben: 31:56

Yeah, but I mean, to your point, fewer and few people are doing things in a traditional way, although I think we're gonna be heading back to some of

Sir Gene: 32:04

Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you don't need electricity, it's naturally cool.

Ben: 32:08

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 32:09

Don't need all those acs running. Yeah, in fact, I was talking to Darren. My co-host on, on the Relenting podcast maybe two weeks

Ben: 32:18

alive?

Sir Gene: 32:19

Barely. But yeah, he, he well, I, I told him which medicines you need to stop taking, and that seemed to have worked. So, not giving medical advice or anything, just telling him what not to do.

Ben: 32:29

Yeah. The Santa Barrier is the name of the

Sir Gene: 32:32

Ah, okay. There you go. There's the book title for the episode, guys.

Ben: 32:37

Also the White Plague by Frank Herbert is awesome. Scary, but awesome.

Sir Gene: 32:42

Hmm. I just started listening to read something.

Ben: 32:46

Red Rising

Sir Gene: 32:48

Probably

Ben: 32:49

Mars book. Darrow.

Sir Gene: 32:51

yeah, yeah. That one.

Ben: 32:52

Yeah. You into it?

Sir Gene: 32:54

One chapter in,

Ben: 32:57

Okay.

Sir Gene: 32:57

gonna take you a while.

Ben: 32:59

But are the, do you get why it's an interesting book.

Sir Gene: 33:03

Well, from the first chapter, it's, it's looks like good sign fiction to me so far. But, I don't really know what's going.

Ben: 33:09

Okay.

Sir Gene: 33:10

So yeah, the, but anyway, I was talking to him about caves two weeks ago because we're talking about mobsters and I mentioned that St. Paul had a pretty big mobster scene back in the prohibition days. It was a sort of a safe city where the the Chicago mobsters could go to Min or go to St. Paul without any risk of being picked up. And there was a a speakeasy that was mob controlled there, that was located in a cave just down the Mississippi River.

Ben: 33:44

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 33:44

And this cave was, again, like all caves, starts off naturally, but then gets expanded by humans. And it was expanded significantly. What's cool is they built a whole nightclub in this cave with a, a great big wooden dance floor and a stage and a 60 foot long bar. It, it's very cool. And I, I happened to have been there quite a bit in the nineties and there was a lot of it was the resurgence of the swing dance phrase going on, so I was into that whole thing.

Ben: 34:27

Well, in Texas, this Texas swing has always been a thing, so

Sir Gene: 34:30

Really

Ben: 34:31

yeah.

Sir Gene: 34:32

I haven't seen it anywhere here

Ben: 34:35

You're joking.

Sir Gene: 34:37

swing.

Ben: 34:38

Yeah. Texas swing. Yeah, dude, I used to be part of Aggie Wranglers. There's a whole, there's groups, there's college stuff both at UT Austin and a and m and everywhere else

Sir Gene: 34:50

Okay, well let's, let's get our terms different. What, what is Texas swing?

Ben: 34:55

it's swing dancing, country and western.

Sir Gene: 34:58

Got it. Okay. Well, I'm talking about swing. Swing,

Ben: 35:01

It's very similar. You would, you would recognize it very easily.

Sir Gene: 35:07

yeah. But anyway, so don't they, they use that same actual mobster hideout as a bar and dance club, and you could see like bullet holes there from when when Bugsy Malone and the other gangsters would have arguments. Interesting stuff. Caves caves can be cool. There's a reason that Batman lives in the cave.

Ben: 35:34

Caves definitely can be cool. That's a thing. Yep. Pretty much anywhere. Three feet in the ground or under is gonna be cool.

Sir Gene: 35:43

I mean, yeah, you, I'd say six, but Sure. Three, it'd be a start. What else is going on? Cuz the only thing I've been watching is cop videos, so I am not really up on anything for current events.

Ben: 35:57

Well, we already talked about the coming French Revolution some, but we also have some changes and moves in the Netherlands as far as the farmer's party now.

Sir Gene: 36:08

the latest I haven't heard?

Ben: 36:09

Well, it looks like they're gonna take a plurality, but according to Adam, that's just hoodwink and that's not really the movement, but they're basically farmers in name only as far as who got elected, but we'll see if the constituency doesn't at least push them to do the right thing. Peterson has come out with his group announcement. So that's a YouTube video that you

Sir Gene: 36:33

Yeah. He was teasing that last week. So he is actually talked about it now.

Ben: 36:37

Yeah, it, it, the acronym for it is arc and it's advocates for Responsible Citizenship. And basically,

Sir Gene: 36:45

sounds very ominous.

Ben: 36:46

Why

Sir Gene: 36:47

That sounds like a group of people that come and check to make sure that your, your communist party flags are flying at the appropriate.

Ben: 36:56

Yeah. I, I don't think that we need to have any worries about a communist group coming out of Peterson or, any sort of authoritarian group. In fact, their founding principles are very much against that. Anyway, I would encourage anybody to go watch his video on it. There will be more and more people coming out

Sir Gene: 37:12

What's

Ben: 37:12

in their own

Sir Gene: 37:13

What's he, what's his whole thing?

Ben: 37:15

Basically countering the World Economic Forum. That's their entire purpose is

Sir Gene: 37:19

So they're gonna give stipends

Ben: 37:20

I don't know if they're gonna go that far yet, but at least thought leadership is the purpose

Sir Gene: 37:26

Okay.

Ben: 37:27

under a unified set of principles in that, basically anti-human rhetoric can't

Sir Gene: 37:33

And he was saying this was a, he was doing this in the uk.

Ben: 37:37

Yes. They're meeting in the UK

Sir Gene: 37:38

Hmm.

Ben: 37:40

because, halfway between Europe and the US basically is kind of the

Sir Gene: 37:45

not really halfway, but

Ben: 37:47

depending on what part of Europe.

Sir Gene: 37:50

yeah. Fair enough. Not really halfway either though. But yeah, I mean, like, probably Morocco would be closer to halfway.

Ben: 37:57

Yeah. But who wants to go to Morocco?

Sir Gene: 37:59

I do

Ben: 38:01

you have

Sir Gene: 38:02

wanted to go to Morocco. I've never been.

Ben: 38:04

okay.

Sir Gene: 38:06

I would be a fun trip. Well, okay. Well that's good. I, I've seen him get a lot more feisty on Twitter lately.

Ben: 38:14

Yeah, he's, I, I think a, he's, I think he's gotten back in the swing of things. I

Sir Gene: 38:22

You think he's back on the drugs?

Ben: 38:24

no, I think he's recovered fully at this point. Which maybe that is drugs, I don't know. But, hey, whatever, whatever it, whatever makes you

Sir Gene: 38:32

he's certainly dressing very interestingly now.

Ben: 38:35

So he, yeah, he had some suits made for him. They had 12 different suits that some suit maker gave him, and they're definitely interestingly themed.

Sir Gene: 38:45

Yes. It's

Ben: 38:46

some of them would definitely not be my style, but,

Sir Gene: 38:48

I mean, they're not classically, appropriate, but they are interesting.

Ben: 38:55

How are they not cl? What do you mean by that?

Sir Gene: 38:57

Well, the, the patterns and the colors are not something you would wear to a coordination, for example,

Ben: 39:06

Okay. Who's going to that anyway?

Sir Gene: 39:08

a funeral,

Ben: 39:10

Okay.

Sir Gene: 39:11

I mean, they're, they're, they're a little out there,

Ben: 39:15

Okay.

Sir Gene: 39:16

which is fine. Nothing wrong with it. I mean, I've, I've worn weird suits myself before. It's it's a different sort of image than I think what he had prior to joining Daily Wire.

Ben: 39:29

Well, yeah, and there, there's no doubt that the Daily Wire has had a pretty interesting influence on him to say the least.

Sir Gene: 39:37

I, I think he's been fighting people mostly on his own, with very little corporate support for so long that he's forgotten what it was like until he joined the Daily Wire. And then all of a sudden, like there's an actual company that is trying to get him to be more widely not, not just seen, but accepted. I, I think that he's got a, that's part of at least why he's got a resurgence of energy.

Ben: 40:15

You think he's just feeding off of actually having people around him that support him,

Sir Gene: 40:19

Well, I could tell you, I, I sent the

Ben: 40:21

I think he's had that group around him. You know that with Michaela and his wife

Sir Gene: 40:26

well, I'm not talking about family. I'm, I'm talking about people who are not your family or even close friends, but who nonetheless are cheering you on. I don't think he's had that for a long time. I mean, he does in the sense of like the people that buy his books and go to his events or were doing that. And that would be something, but not, not really a, it's different though when you have an organization, a company, or even a non-profit really that's just kind of focused on you. It's, it's something that I, frankly, a lot of CEOs in my experience really crave. They're not really getting it from anybody who is working in their companies

Ben: 41:12

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 41:12

or, or their ex-wife. And so consequently they end up going to these like CEO focused waste of money events.

Ben: 41:23

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 41:24

Like, Hey, we're all gonna go skydiving and then we're gonna drive Ferrari down the coast to a winery. That kind of stuff. Which happens like all the freaking time.

Ben: 41:34

Yeah. So a actually I, I looked at a cool one that almost had me wanting to go.

Sir Gene: 41:40

Mm. What, what was that about?

Ben: 41:43

I'm gonna try and find it so I can send you the little link.

Sir Gene: 41:46

okay.

Ben: 41:46

But it's off of South Carolina on an old oil rig. And basically it's fishing, ski, shooting, golf, you

Sir Gene: 41:56

that sounds fun.

Ben: 41:58

playing around on an oil rig.

Sir Gene: 42:00

Mm-hmm. Hell yeah.

Ben: 42:03

Yeah. It's yeah, a buddy of mine's, one of the facilitators, which is part of the reason why it looked so interesting to me. But you know, it's ridiculously expensive,

Sir Gene: 42:12

like I said, they all tend to be Well wait, and, and now I'm curious how, how ridiculously expensive

Ben: 42:19

Not that bad. It's just, it's for a weekend. It's expensive. think it's like 3,500.

Sir Gene: 42:27

for the weekend. That's not expensive. Now a lot of these things are like between 10 and$50,000 for a weekend.

Ben: 42:35

Yeah. Well, that's for A C E O. I'm not on a CEO's salary.

Sir Gene: 42:38

No, but I'm, but. I guess my, my point is that the reason that people go there, even though it sounds like they're going there for a unique event experience, it's, it really isn't. The reason they're going there to these things is because they're not getting that sort of support almost by virtue of being the ceo.

Ben: 43:01

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 43:01

There's, their employees are getting that, but they aren't getting that. And I, it's not a critique on on American corporate work environments. It's just, it's just reality. Like this is the environment that I'm typically in for my job. So I see this a lot and I, I see a lot of CEOs have certain unfulfilled emotional areas. I'm trying to find the right words to describe

Ben: 43:34

What you're describing is the c e o that's so in charge. He goes and hires the, do you know, dominatrix? Later on

Sir Gene: 43:41

Oh, you'd be surprised. Or maybe you wouldn't.

Ben: 43:46

That's definitely not my gig.

Sir Gene: 43:48

not, it's not even the hiring the dominatrix, it's just that you've got you've gotta have people that actually agree with you and not just say they agree with you. If they do agree with you,

Ben: 44:04

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 44:05

that's what's missing, right? Is that, that too much communication when you're the ceo is really like, you can't trust what people are saying because they're probably saying it in order to look good to you and not because they actually. I think what they're saying.

Ben: 44:24

Yeah. It's, it's any sufficiently powerful person or popular person is going to have this where you have people trying to predict what and do what you want. That's like what we see in in China with them, spraying disinfectant on runways because Yeah.

Sir Gene: 44:42

What's that gonna do?

Ben: 44:44

it's just some of the

Sir Gene: 44:45

It's not gonna do shit.

Ben: 44:46

Exactly. Anyway did you see the link I sent?

Sir Gene: 44:49

Yeah. You want me to click it?

Ben: 44:50

Yeah. Take a look and we'll drop

Sir Gene: 44:53

gonna play a video. Right. Okay. Neptune. All right. So April 20th, 23rd.

Ben: 45:01

Yep. And decommissioned oil rig off of South Carolina.

Sir Gene: 45:04

that actually looks smaller than I expected. It's the rig is called Fry.

Ben: 45:13

Yeah, whatever. Yeah.

Sir Gene: 45:15

Okay.

Ben: 45:15

I mean, it's an old

Sir Gene: 45:16

rusty.

Ben: 45:17

Yeah. That's the, that's the point. It's supposed to be a

Sir Gene: 45:21

Hmm.

Ben: 45:22

a,

Sir Gene: 45:22

would, I would like something like this, but like on the new rig,

Ben: 45:26

yeah, but the whole point is it's roughing it, you

Sir Gene: 45:29

right. I would prefer to rough it on a new rig.

Ben: 45:31

Well, but a new rig is gonna be actually in production

Sir Gene: 45:34

but they could shut it down for a weekend. It, it'll cost 30,000 ahead, but they'll do it

Ben: 45:40

Yeah. Well, but it would cost more than that. Anyway.

Sir Gene: 45:42

I don't know, man, the way that Biden's been holding out.

Ben: 45:45

What do you mean?

Sir Gene: 45:46

well, I mean, I think there's a lot of R rigs that probably are roaring to go and can't pump oil without permits. Right.

Ben: 45:52

N no the, the, the rigs that are. Ready to go are already in production and already have permits. So they, they haven't moved or riggin to possession waiting on a permit? That's just not a thing?

Sir Gene: 46:04

No, they're, they just, what? They don't start billing'em until they get a permit.

Ben: 46:09

They will be wherever their last production was or sitting in a protected water somewhere and then moved into place depending on the type of rig when they are ready to produce, but they're not gonna move something to site set up, get ready, and not have permission to drill.

Sir Gene: 46:29

Well, didn't he pull a bunch of permissions that Trump authorized this first day?

Ben: 46:32

So yes, there were permits that had not yet been executed. So there could be something like that where something was. in play. And then, a company got

Sir Gene: 46:42

That's what I was

Ben: 46:43

from under them. But again, they're not gonna just have that oil reg sitting out in the weather taking stress, all of that. And, for something that may or may not happen, it's,

Sir Gene: 46:53

Hmm.

Ben: 46:53

it's just not a thing. Because one of the things you have to realize

Sir Gene: 46:56

gotta assume it's gonna happen.

Ben: 46:58

huh?

Sir Gene: 46:59

No, I, I, I meant for things that were going to happen and then it got canceled.

Ben: 47:03

Right. But even then, you're, you're not going to leave a rig tethered out there because there are basically wear items that, would have to, you, you would be, you'd be shortening the l effective life of the

Sir Gene: 47:17

Sure. Mm-hmm.

Ben: 47:19

without getting any production out of it. So

Sir Gene: 47:21

Yeah. Cuz I know Musk was talking about buying some of those

Ben: 47:26

why was Musk talking about buying oil rigs?

Sir Gene: 47:28

for landing platforms.

Ben: 47:30

Eh, yeah.

Sir Gene: 47:33

Speaking of rockets, I since I was up, I happened to watch the electron launch that happened.

Ben: 47:44

I'm okay. You tell me something. I

Sir Gene: 47:47

who? Elec. Okay. Did you watch it? Do you know what Electron is?

Ben: 47:50

No. What time wa What time was the launch?

Sir Gene: 47:53

I don't know, like maybe 3:00 AM, 2:00

Ben: 47:55

definitely did not watch

Sir Gene: 47:56

like that. Okay. So Electron is another rocket company. It's significantly smaller, obviously than than the one that I'm blanking out on the Musks company, but yeah, that one. But they've been around for probably about six years, maybe.

Ben: 48:12

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 48:13

Then the, they, they've been doing successful launches. It's just a much smaller rocket, and they've typically launched from New Zealand.

Ben: 48:22

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 48:23

Which is a very pretty lunch site. It's like in the, the very edge of an island. Looks really cool. But this one they just got a launch site in Virginia. So that's where this one came launched out of. And they're unique. There's a few unique things about'em. One is their rocket engines are 3D printed,

Ben: 48:40

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 48:41

Which is pretty cool. And then the other one is that they, their pumps are electric and so they're running on batteries.

Ben: 48:54

Okay.

Sir Gene: 48:55

So, they do a, a battery swap about halfway through the second stage. And that's always a critical moment for

Ben: 49:06

Now, what do you mean they do a battery swap during the second stage,

Sir Gene: 49:10

Well, they bring two sets of batteries. And they start running the second stage on one set of batteries. And then about halfway through they flip a switch switches to the second set of batteries and it jettisons the first set of batteries.

Ben: 49:26

but why take the extra weight? That makes no sense.

Sir Gene: 49:30

What, what do you mean extra weight? You need both sets. Well, they're gonna need both sets.

Ben: 49:35

right, but no, no, no. Why? Why use an electric pumping system to begin with?

Sir Gene: 49:40

It's a much less complicated, more reliable way to do it.

Ben: 49:44

Yes, but additional weight.

Sir Gene: 49:47

Yes. But I don't know. Apparently the electric motors are very light.

Ben: 49:51

I, I don't know, man. I, I'm just thinking of, there was one power plant at a company I worked with that had been built, it was a European style fluidized bed coal plant. And it was a European style plant, so we always called it the alien spaceship because it was just so different than than, what we were used to. And it had electric boiler feed pumps, and that was one of the dumbest ideas I'd ever seen. Because a, the parasitic load of the boiler style feed pump the electric feed pump is way higher than any pressure loss off of a steam driven feed pump. And yeah, you're just, you've got additional things there. My, my, my, my point is that you could use a different pumping system as all, I guess.

Sir Gene: 50:37

Well, I think they're the only ones that use electric,

Ben: 50:42

Okay.

Sir Gene: 50:42

it, it's a, it's somewhat unique to them. But.

Ben: 50:46

It just seem, seems like you're taking weight that could be used for payload.

Sir Gene: 50:52

well, there, I don't think it's quite that simple. The, I've heard the explanation, I can't remember it enough to give you the synopsis, but for the size rocket it is, there is good reason to have it be using an electric motor for a pump.

Ben: 51:13

Okay. I'll, I'll believe you. So, so what did, what was the payload? What did they launch?

Sir Gene: 51:19

There's a handful of satellites. They're, I'm trying to remember how big this rocket is. I wanna say it's like two and a half meters diameter, so they're not very big.

Ben: 51:30

Wow. Yeah, that's teeny.

Sir Gene: 51:32

Yeah. Yeah. So they're, they're working on their next rocket design, which is gonna be comparable to the current SpaceX rocket. So they're slowly growing, but they're, they're also catching their first stage with a helicopter,

Ben: 51:54

Okay.

Sir Gene: 51:56

like a, it is parachuting back down. They grab it out of air. So they're doing some interesting stuff.

Ben: 52:02

That, that, that's, that's different than Musk.

Sir Gene: 52:05

Yeah, I mean, it's, so instead of landing, they actually burn through all their fuel, but then when a thing comes back down, it's, it's coming down slowly cuz it's on a parachute,

Ben: 52:15

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 52:15

but it's, it's small enough to

Ben: 52:18

Yeah, I mean it's,

Sir Gene: 52:19

to.

Ben: 52:20

that, that's one of the things I would say is that's part of the size difference there.

Sir Gene: 52:27

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And their, their next one I think is gonna be quite a bit larger, so I, and, and they're not

Ben: 52:34

a helicopter.

Sir Gene: 52:35

well, they're not only are they not gonna catch it with a helicopter, they're not going to use I don't believe they're gonna use electric boners for that one.

Ben: 52:45

Yeah. I think some of the some of the other launch vehicle. Tech that people are doing some of this centripetal stuff and,

Sir Gene: 52:52

Oh yeah. That's cool.

Ben: 52:53

The, there are other ways to reach escape velocity. And one of the advantages that things like the centripetal launchers have is, a, it's all earthbound and

Sir Gene: 53:03

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 53:04

throwing whatever it is and into space. So literally put a wrapper around the satellite, accelerate it till it hits escape velocity and

Sir Gene: 53:13

There's, there's some problems with that. Even though, obviously being on, on the earth, you don't have as many constraints on power. But using that type of system, you're also at your maximum velocity at your densest atmosphere,

Ben: 53:34

Yes. Which is why it needs to be near the equator on a mountain.

Sir Gene: 53:39

which it, yeah, that, that's fine, but it's still not gonna be enough. You're, you're going to be in order to get into a an orbit around the earth, you're gonna have to have high enough speed at launch that you're gonna be creating plasma around the entire thing. Guaranteed. Just,

Ben: 54:05

I mean,

Sir Gene: 54:06

just played kurbo last night.

Ben: 54:09

you just what?

Sir Gene: 54:10

I just played k.

Ben: 54:13

Okay.

Sir Gene: 54:13

that's that rocket simulator game.

Ben: 54:16

So you trust that.

Sir Gene: 54:18

Oh hell yeah. Use real, real signs. Mm-hmm. Yeah, because you're, unless you are gonna just use that as a a push off in order to save some fuel and have a smaller stage you're, you're going to have to have enough velocity coming out of the gate to reach 10,000 meters per second at your destination.

Ben: 54:49

Mm. Okay.

Sir Gene: 54:53

So I think that's a problem.

Ben: 54:59

Well, we'll see. There are definitely some people investing in the technology,

Sir Gene: 55:02

Oh yeah. No, I've watched the videos. It's very cool. I like the idea. I just think that I think it's gonna be much better as a something to reduce the size of the first stage than as a completely shoot up payload into space type scenario.

Ben: 55:24

Yeah. I mean, you, you have some potential issues with fuel and trying to do something like that where you're,

Sir Gene: 55:33

And you're never gonna use it for humans. So

Ben: 55:36

well, but I mean, most space launches aren't for humans. So that, that's, that's okay. I mean, if we can get the, here's the thing though. If you could get something like that to be functional to where you could get to low Earth orbit with with something like that and have uh, another ship that's already in orbit, go grab said cargo and you could launch enough cargo like that. I mean,

Sir Gene: 55:59

Oh yeah. I think it's the same problem as a space elevator. It's technologically, it's theoretically possible, but technologically impossible.

Ben: 56:10

Okay.

Sir Gene: 56:12

It's just we don't, we don't have the,

Ben: 56:15

Rocket talk,

Sir Gene: 56:16

a way to do it. I

Ben: 56:17

two guys that really don't know what they're

Sir Gene: 56:19

it's, I know a little bit and you, you're supposedly got some physics background in there

Ben: 56:26

Yeah. A little bit.

Sir Gene: 56:27

a little bit.

Ben: 56:28

A little bit,

Sir Gene: 56:30

So we can have rocket talk. I don't mind having rocket

Ben: 56:32

right. It is just interesting where we disagree. That's all.

Sir Gene: 56:36

Well, I, I, you read a lot more sci-fi than I do. I know that.

Ben: 56:41

yep. My, well, I read, I like to read

Sir Gene: 56:44

Yeah. No, it's good. And I barely listen, which should tell you something.

Ben: 56:52

indeed. All right, gene, so what other topics do you want to chat about here?

Sir Gene: 56:56

Let's see, what shall we chat about? Well, I don't know, dude. I mean, I guess we can do a little bit on the war thing. The special military operation,

Ben: 57:04

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 57:05

the, there was something I actually saw recently. Let me try and scroll up and see if I can find it relating to, oh, I know what it was. We could talk about your favorite dude out there, Peter Zhan.

Ben: 57:17

Mm.

Sir Gene: 57:18

Yeah. Did you see his article about Iran?

Ben: 57:21

No, not necessarily. And I mean, I don't watch everything he puts out,

Sir Gene: 57:25

Well, I kind of figured you would.

Ben: 57:28

All

Sir Gene: 57:28

Iselle seemed to have

Ben: 57:29

oh, wait, wait, wait. You mean the lithium deposit story? Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Sir Gene: 57:33

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 57:33

yeah, yeah. So,

Sir Gene: 57:35

So he's poo-pooing the whole thing, saying, well, sure they've found something, but it's like 20 years.

Ben: 57:41

well, he's just saying that it's in a geographic area that's going to be difficult to develop,

Sir Gene: 57:46

Yeah.

Ben: 57:46

but e e even so, lithium, lithium mining is a. The expensive operation to begin with. So how, how worth it Is it, and are we going down the, are we going down the EV route, to need that lithium

Sir Gene: 58:05

Oh yeah, that's right. I ordered my second. Do you car today?

Ben: 58:09

y Yes. You put a hundred dollars down,

Sir Gene: 58:11

I, yes. I put a hundred dollars down. I now have two electric cars that I've ordered.

Ben: 58:17

you, you, you subsidized a company by a hundred dollars.

Sir Gene: 58:20

Well, I'm tempted to buy some stock in the company too.

Ben: 58:24

Why?

Sir Gene: 58:25

Cuz then your car gets there faster.

Ben: 58:27

ugly car.

Sir Gene: 58:29

Oh, it's, yeah, it grows on you. What it looks like is, it looks like a like. It's sort of a boat, small boat that's fully enclosed.

Ben: 58:37

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 58:38

It looks more like a boat in the car for sure. I think it actually even has a a little kinda a tail. If you flip it upside down and look at it look like an

Ben: 58:49

so this, this, this car, what, what's its claim to fame?

Sir Gene: 58:52

Company's been around for a damn long time. I think they've been bankrupt once and this is their second go at it called Appera for anyone

Ben: 59:00

that, that's confidence building.

Sir Gene: 59:02

It is usually a second round is when they get all the tech from the first company for pennies on the dollar. So their investment is tiny compared to what the original company was. That was definitely the case for all the satellite companies that we have out there right now.

Ben: 59:16

Yeah. The, a lot of the satellite telecoms definitely were,

Sir Gene: 59:20

they went through that.

Ben: 59:21

yep. Yep.

Sir Gene: 59:21

But. It's an interesting looking car. Here's what I like about it. I like the fact that it's covered in solar panels. Kind of reminds me of a car that was built when I was at the university for the solar challenge where I think the guys from Wisconsin actually won that year. But it looks quite similar. Basically a very low drag coefficient vehicle that has solar panels on the top of it and batteries and electric bons on the inside of it. Now this one also has a, a modern interior as well, but it's kind of neat, like it's, I like small cars and this would definitely be very easily parable. It's a two, two person vehicle, so it's not like huge in any dimens.

Ben: 1:00:11

Yeah, so basically it's a teeny it. It's a smart car with batteries and solar panels.

Sir Gene: 1:00:17

Well, and I, I used to drive a smart car that was battery powered when I was Yeah, no, I, when I was working in San Diego, I exclusively drove an electric smart car. I, I like,

Ben: 1:00:29

you so much new now, Gene.

Sir Gene: 1:00:30

well, that's fine, you can do that, but you know how much easier it is to get parking spaces in downtowns of any city with cars like that.

Ben: 1:00:39

Yeah,

Sir Gene: 1:00:40

It's super easy. And it sounds like you're driving a golf cart. And then of course, I had the, the 500 E electric Fiat had that for three years. That was a great car. Love that car.

Ben: 1:00:51

okay.

Sir Gene: 1:00:52

So, I, I wouldn't mind another small electric. Tesla truck's a different thing like that. Beast, first of all is overpriced. So there is that issue. There are points at which I'm making sufficient money to justify own something like that. And there are plenty of points where I'm not. So, I haven't had to worry about it because they've been so damn slow in making it that. It's now been, I think six years since I heard it.

Ben: 1:01:17

Do you think you're ever going to see it?

Sir Gene: 1:01:19

well, either I or somebody else will. I mean, I, I got it on day one, so I'm one of the first like 5,000 people

Ben: 1:01:28

Yeah, but I mean, do you think Musk is actually ever going to deliver the cyber truck?

Sir Gene: 1:01:33

It there, there will be a vehicle called Cyber Truck.

Ben: 1:01:37

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:01:38

I'm sure there will be, cuz otherwise he'll have to give back a lot of.

Ben: 1:01:45

Yes.

Sir Gene: 1:01:46

So, and he doesn't like doing that.

Ben: 1:01:49

Okay.

Sir Gene: 1:01:49

I'm sure they're just focused on making the glass less shatter.

Ben: 1:01:55

That definitely was funny.

Sir Gene: 1:01:57

that was hilarious. The be the best part was when he thought it was a fluke and decided to

Ben: 1:02:02

to do

Sir Gene: 1:02:02

other window. It's like, well, okay.

Ben: 1:02:07

Fail

Sir Gene: 1:02:10

Oh, that's pretty funny. But they do say that they literally did the exact same thing in the parking lot a few hours before that event.

Ben: 1:02:17

That was probably the problem.

Sir Gene: 1:02:19

And everything was fine. Nobody checked for micro cracks.

Ben: 1:02:22

It, well, the, exactly, so it's like, it's like when you can't open the pickle jar and then you hand it all to someone and it's just

Sir Gene: 1:02:28

Yeah. You just opened it right up.

Ben: 1:02:30

I loosened it for you. Sure.

Sir Gene: 1:02:32

Uhhuh,

Ben: 1:02:35

Oh man.

Sir Gene: 1:02:36

But I, I don't know. I mean, realistic, I drive so little dude that like, really does not make any difference. What kind of car? I have

Ben: 1:02:45

Okay. By the way, there is a north so there's a Houston meetup that the, A group is trying to get together and they're gonna be doing it in, looks like the northwest according to no agenda. Social.

Sir Gene: 1:02:57

Houston.

Ben: 1:02:58

Yes. So that'd be a pretty easy drive for both of us, by the way.

Sir Gene: 1:03:01

Oh, so you're like, which day?

Ben: 1:03:03

T B D

Sir Gene: 1:03:04

Oh, okay. Well, keep me posted if I have nothing else going on. I, I drive up there

Ben: 1:03:10

Yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:03:11

so northwest, so that's gonna be like

Ben: 1:03:15

Right off two 90 for you, you just go straight down. Two 90.

Sir Gene: 1:03:17

Straight down. Okay. Yeah, that's all right.

Ben: 1:03:23

Yep. So,

Sir Gene: 1:03:25

I usually stop at a buck.

Ben: 1:03:28

well, there's a Bucky's off of two 90,

Sir Gene: 1:03:30

I know that's the one I stop off at and I, I, I assume everybody knows what a Buckys is. It's a, the world's largest gas station that Texas and a few surrounding states have. I think the biggest one is 72 pumps.

Ben: 1:03:46

Yeah,

Sir Gene: 1:03:47

Most people, when they see it, and they're not familiar with it, just they stop moving and open their mouth.

Ben: 1:03:55

there, there's definitely an effect on people where they just don't, it, it doesn't make sense to

Sir Gene: 1:04:01

No,

Ben: 1:04:02

but you know

Sir Gene: 1:04:03

it's

Ben: 1:04:03

great about a

Sir Gene: 1:04:04

in use.

Ben: 1:04:05

what's great about a Bucky's is, they always have good food and clean restrooms,

Sir Gene: 1:04:12

Yeah. Clean restrooms. They're number one rated restrooms according to the company. That changes the restroom crap. It's an actual thing. So it's like a Spanish sounding name of the company, cellulose or

Ben: 1:04:25

you're out of my territory,

Sir Gene: 1:04:27

Yeah. I, the companies that service like bathrooms, they bring all the fresh toilet paper and stuff. That company rates them the highest. The food is actually pretty damn good. Their brisket's good, they're pulled. Pork is good. They have a huge selection, a whole gigantic wall of flavors of jerky. And who doesn't like jerky?

Ben: 1:04:49

Lots of free samples.

Sir Gene: 1:04:51

Lots of what?

Ben: 1:04:52

Free samples.

Sir Gene: 1:04:53

Oh, I thought you said sex. It's like, what, what, what? I missed that Free sex. Missed that part.

Ben: 1:04:59

There's no such thing?

Sir Gene: 1:05:00

That's pretty true. So are you acclimated back to American temperatures and whatnot and boring looking cities?

Ben: 1:05:12

Yes.

Sir Gene: 1:05:12

After your, your fun trip in Europe and Middle East?

Ben: 1:05:16

yeah. I, yep. I think we talked about my trip. Plenty, but yes.

Sir Gene: 1:05:19

No, we did, but you know, now that you've had a chance, cuz you just came back when we talked.

Ben: 1:05:23

Yes. Yeah, it, it, it's it's, it's, it's a good acclimation. It's,

Sir Gene: 1:05:29

so in retrospect, do you feel like you, you were tired during the trip or was it a nice break from normal routine or where, where do you pull it?

Ben: 1:05:38

well, I mean, the first few days especially the first couple days there in Germany was definitely jet lagged. I mean, it's just your, your hours are very screwy and, your, your body, you're awake and your body's saying, why the hell are you awake? You shouldn't be awake right now. So there's that. But after acclimating to that, it was fine. It was a very, Bam. Thank you, ma'am. Kind of trip to some of the places I went. So some of'em, I got to spend some time there. But that, that's okay. Spent a little over two days in Munich. Three days in Barcelona right at four in Greece, but then like Doha, that was in Doha, less than 24 hours, so flew in the evening, flew out the next evening, so yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:06:25

Yeah. Well, that's I've always enjoyed trips. Just, they always re-energize me. I don't know if you feel that way as well.

Ben: 1:06:36

Well I'm, I don't know if I'd say re-energized cause I'm pretty energized to begin with. But I would say it's definitely it's always useful to get a different perspective. And, one of the things a lot of people don't appreciate about the US is, everybody gives the Americans a lot of crap for not, not being well-traveled and so on. But that's because people forget how big the US is

Sir Gene: 1:07:00

Oh yeah.

Ben: 1:07:01

the US is. The US has as much variation across it as Europe does

Sir Gene: 1:07:06

It's as biggest as.

Ben: 1:07:08

Yeah. Well anyway, the point is, there, there's The French and the Germans are as alike as they are different, right. Without the language barrier, I mean there, there's easily more difference culturally between New York City and rural Texas as there is between France and Germany.

Sir Gene: 1:07:30

Sure. Yeah,

Ben: 1:07:33

So

Sir Gene: 1:07:33

that's true. But also you, you, you still have the city versus country in Europe as well.

Ben: 1:07:40

Oh yeah, absolutely. And I we're seeing that and I think, I think that is the revolutionary lines that is going to take place across the world is, urban versus rural. We're seeing that as the division point here. We're seeing that as the division point across Europe.

Sir Gene: 1:07:56

And I think people that have access to food and water should start acting like they actually have something of value and not just put up with bullshit.

Ben: 1:08:07

Yeah. I mean, there's some difficulties with that, but yes.

Sir Gene: 1:08:13

Yeah. I mean, I think that what happened in the microcosm of the US House representatives in this last election where the, the people on our side, let's say,

Ben: 1:08:30

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:08:31

were not willing to just go along with the majority, even though they, they were now a part of the majority and said, no. We're gonna hold out for something better because you need us.

Ben: 1:08:48

And what you're referring to is the vote for speaker.

Sir Gene: 1:08:51

for speaker. Yeah, I mean, it's, it, it, you can argue that it's not all that even important, but they held out and they pushed their agenda and now every time I watch YouTube clips of the house they're all in top positions of control.

Ben: 1:09:11

Yeah. I mean, they, they kind of got their way. I

Sir Gene: 1:09:14

their way. And that's what I mean is that if you are a food producer they need you a lot more than you need them. And by they, I mean the country and referring to France. But it's true of any country. It the, without farmers, everything else is I.

Ben: 1:09:37

Y Well, and here, here's the, here's the thing though. We are going into, if we are going into de-globalization and you're not going to be able to import food in the same way, then yes, your local farmers become infinitely more important. And more importantly than that, it, it's really gonna be bad for certain countries that don't have the capacity to feed their own populace.

Sir Gene: 1:10:04

It's gonna be bad for certain states. Yeah.

Ben: 1:10:10

Well, if the US. Devolves and breaks up. Sure. But if we maintain our current order, I don't think that that's the

Sir Gene: 1:10:16

97% of US adults, according to Gallup rely on buying their groceries at a grocery store and have no other means of obtaining them. So if you were a farmer in the US you got a lot more power than you think you do.

Ben: 1:10:34

Well, the problem is there are, in the US especially, you have fewer and fewer family farms. Most of'em are corporations. And when Bill Gates is the largest landowner and of a lot of farmland that's not a Let's not give Bill Gates more power gene.

Sir Gene: 1:10:55

Well, I, I dunno, man. I mean, if Bill Gates all of a sudden had to feed even like 10% more of the population, I think he'd, he'd be in trouble.

Ben: 1:11:06

What do you mean?

Sir Gene: 1:11:08

Well, what I mean is that you can say they're corporate farms and they are, but they're still operated by humans that we don't have fully autonomous farms yet. It's coming, but it's not here yet.

Ben: 1:11:20

Right. But I mean, the amount of labor required for our farms has gone down precipitously.

Sir Gene: 1:11:28

but the labor that is required is not skill, less labor. It's,

Ben: 1:11:34

No. It's very skilled

Sir Gene: 1:11:35

skilled labor. Yeah. And so

Ben: 1:11:38

anyone who thinks that it's not just watch clarkson's farm.

Sir Gene: 1:11:43

well if you wanna watch about, find out about Bridge Bureaucracy doesn't Absolutely. Watch Color Clarkson Farm. It was insane.

Ben: 1:11:51

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:11:52

Like getting permission. Just to shift topic to that for a sec, getting permission to put something on your own land in the middle of your own land, that has nothing to do with anybody, like a parking lot or, or even better putting a road that is wholly on your own land between a multiple fields that you. It requires a approval of the city council. What the fuck?

Ben: 1:12:25

Well, and the, the bureaucracy could shut him down the way they did.

Sir Gene: 1:12:30

Mm-hmm. Oh, it's, it's just ridiculous. And I, I was telling I did an interview on my other podcast, Sarine Speaks with a former RT reporter who who's a British guy. So he lives in the uk and I told him, I don't know how anybody can live in the uk. How anybody, at least that attempts to own property there, you put up with this shit. It would make me wanna move out of the country. I mean, it's, it's an insane amount of regulations. Now, certainly we have some regulations in the US here as well, and I, everybody's heard horror stories. People not being able to finish their homes or, not be able to renovate their homes or whatever because of bureaucracy. But, oh my god, the waring, German Clarkson was next level.

Ben: 1:13:24

Yep.

Sir Gene: 1:13:25

He's got, he's a guy with 320 acres who's worth, I think, conservatively a hundred million dollars and he has to

Ben: 1:13:35

something, but yeah,

Sir Gene: 1:13:36

half a billion. It's, it could be more, but it's, it's over a hundred million for sure. But, and he's somebody that has to like convince a bunch of Karens, for lack of a better description that have enough free time to be serving on all these committees that what he's doing isn't going to upset the local field mouse population or whatever the hell the animal.

Ben: 1:14:02

Yeah, but this, this goes to the conversation earlier where, I, I think the work ethic and the amount of freedom is very different between the US and Europe. And I would say that Europe is far closer to US than like the Middle East. And I was having a interesting conversation with a coworker about that. And well, they think it's a good trade off for no crime. And no, I, I will take dangerous liberty over peaceful slavery any day. Thank you very much. And.

Sir Gene: 1:14:29

you mean as far as what? Surveillance?

Ben: 1:14:32

yeah. Surveillance and rule arbitrary rules and so on. Like, oh, well there's no gum on the street in Singapore. Yes. Because chewing gum is illegal. Is that really the way you want to live your life?

Sir Gene: 1:14:43

I can agree with that rule.

Ben: 1:14:45

Oh God.

Sir Gene: 1:14:47

I,

Ben: 1:14:47

It's authoritarian bullshit.

Sir Gene: 1:14:49

I've had gum in my beard, man. Fuck gum.

Ben: 1:14:53

Well, don't spit your gum into your beard.

Sir Gene: 1:14:56

my gum. I'll just let your imagination Round. Wilder

Ben: 1:15:07

Well, okay.

Sir Gene: 1:15:08

Gum does

Ben: 1:15:08

little bit in both Louie, don't,

Sir Gene: 1:15:10

near beards.

Ben: 1:15:11

yeah.

Sir Gene: 1:15:15

yeah, but

Ben: 1:15:15

see a Harlequin fit involved or something. Shit like that.

Sir Gene: 1:15:18

there's some shit. Exactly.

Ben: 1:15:20

Sorry.

Sir Gene: 1:15:21

the point is that you're saying that you want freedom to just do whatever and not have intrusion to it. And I, I totally agree with it. I think there's different levels of intrusion. There's the intrusion that is sort of happening passively to you that you may not be aware of. And then there's the intrusion that the British are famous for, which is the bureaucratic intrusion, which is. Anything you do requires a form to be filled out and

Ben: 1:15:53

and queuing.

Sir Gene: 1:15:54

somebody to authorize and stamp it and then somebody to stamp that stamp.

Ben: 1:15:59

Yeah. A great example of this is in if you Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the, the bureaucrat race.

Sir Gene: 1:16:07

Yes. The Hitchhikers guys. The Galaxy is great. Also, the movie Brazil

Ben: 1:16:10

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:16:12

is a great example of this sort of

Ben: 1:16:14

although Brazil's just weird.

Sir Gene: 1:16:16

bureaucracy. That's one of my all-time favorite movies. Love that movie.

Ben: 1:16:20

Why does that not surprise me?

Sir Gene: 1:16:22

I don't know. Well, I like 12 Monkeys too, but Brazil has a special place in my heart. Terry Gilliams in general, I like his stuff.

Ben: 1:16:28

Y yeah. I'm, I really do find myself moving more and more towards wanting not really anarchy, because anarchy is just dangerous, the, the not true anarchy.

Sir Gene: 1:16:41

I'm getting a lot closer to just calling myself an anarchist at this point.

Ben: 1:16:45

I, I feel, yeah, I'm kind of going that same way, but at the same time, I don't really want to go full anarchy.

Sir Gene: 1:16:51

Just partial

Ben: 1:16:54

I, I want more anarchy than we have today. I, I, again, defund the police,

Sir Gene: 1:16:59

Well, I would love to talk to Michael Malice, who's the head of anarchy

Ben: 1:17:03

mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:17:04

about it, and ask him some questions. That would be you on the conversation. I'm

Ben: 1:17:07

Yeah. Yeah. I don't want us to devolve into Lord of the Flies, roving bands of people, that sort of thing, but

Sir Gene: 1:17:17

Well,

Ben: 1:17:17

I,

Sir Gene: 1:17:18

but at least our band has guns,

Ben: 1:17:20

Well, yes, exactly. And I, I want people to butt the fuck out. The, the idea that the, I, I just,

Sir Gene: 1:17:29

Well, so, okay, two things related to that. One is have you been following the Washington State bills that are banning guns

Ben: 1:17:37

In defining their definition of an assault rifle. Yes.

Sir Gene: 1:17:40

it's literally everything. Everything is an assault rifle, including handguns.

Ben: 1:17:45

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:17:46

It's cuz they, they're just calling assault weapons.

Ben: 1:17:48

and they're grandfathered in for you, but not necessarily your

Sir Gene: 1:17:52

not for, exactly. So, yeah, that's how they get you.

Ben: 1:17:55

Yeah. And this is, this is where, people were posting memes on no gender, social about, oh, the F B I trying to rile us up and so on. Yeah. But at the same time, if you're gonna have a armed revolt, it's better to do it while you still have arms.

Sir Gene: 1:18:10

Yeah.

Ben: 1:18:11

so th this is the, this is a quote that I've, I've brought up before, and I, I really like it because it really kind of defines how I feel about civilization. And it's, it's a Frank Herbert quote from God Emperor. And Most civilization is based on cowardice. It's so easy to civilize by teaching cowardice. You water down the standards by which you would lead to bravery. You restrain the will, you regulate the appetites, you fence in the horizons. You make a law for every moment. You deny the existence of chaos. You teach the children to breathe slowly. You tame. I don't, I don't, I don't. I don't like being tamed. So yeah,

Sir Gene: 1:18:57

No, no. I think most men don't. Hell

Ben: 1:18:59

I think most men do. That's the problem

Sir Gene: 1:19:02

Well, shit maybe, I don't know. They, they don't say that they do let's put it that way. I think it's, so, okay. Well, I don't know if we need to dig any further. If you live in Washington state, please like write to everybody because you guys are about to lose all access to all guns.

Ben: 1:19:21

Well, if you are in the eastern part of Washington state,

Sir Gene: 1:19:26

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 1:19:27

Get your counties to succeed from the state.

Sir Gene: 1:19:31

Yeah, yeah. Or just

Ben: 1:19:32

Join the north great greater Idaho

Sir Gene: 1:19:35

go to Idaho. Exactly. It's is looking really bad. And I mean like, they're, they're really trying to over overtake California as the worst state for gun ownership.

Ben: 1:19:47

Hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:19:48

And if they pass this, they're gonna succeed.

Ben: 1:19:51

I, I, yes, I, I think they're definitely going to succeed in passing this. And one of the big problems with this bill is that there is no enforcement period. It is instantaneous. So if you are a gun store owner in Washington State, what are you gonna do? You can no longer sell or you're gonna be stuck. I mean, this is gonna put gun stores outta business just by

Sir Gene: 1:20:14

could sell your guns mail order

Ben: 1:20:17

I don't know that you could

Sir Gene: 1:20:19

if you're a gun stored. Well, no, no. There's a, I looked at the thing.

Ben: 1:20:23

The other thing we needed to talk about and I'm glad we brought this back up and, should have talked about it earlier. Cause I'm sure people have like, oh my God, they're just

Sir Gene: 1:20:30

Well, I am half asleep,

Ben: 1:20:31

yeah. Yeah. The Biden executive order on gun

Sir Gene: 1:20:35

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Ben: 1:20:35

So have you read it?

Sir Gene: 1:20:37

No. Mm-hmm.

Ben: 1:20:38

Okay, so one of the biggest things in there, a lot of it is, okay, it's an executive order, so there's very limited things that can be done here. Right? One of the things that's very interesting and dangerous is he directs the attorney general to define more closely who is required to have an F F L.

Sir Gene: 1:20:57

Mm-hmm.

Ben: 1:20:57

The dangerous part of this, and what's been floating around is one of the opinions that has been put out there, and I would say almost field tested, is that if you ever sell a gun for profit, you have to even one, you have to have an ffl.

Sir Gene: 1:21:17

Right, right, right. I've heard that. Yeah.

Ben: 1:21:19

So basically you buy a gun, it goes up in value because they're rare or whatever. You got a great deal and you sell it to someone and you make a profit on it, and you're not an F F L. You are now a felon. Now that doesn't affect me cuz I never sell guns, but,

Sir Gene: 1:21:39

some of us do.

Ben: 1:21:41

all right. But anyway, it's just that, that's a very dangerous move because that would require a l that, that would basically make felons out of a lot of gun owners very quickly and

Sir Gene: 1:21:51

get a lot more FFLs registered.

Ben: 1:21:53

well, but then you've got the whole issue with being an F ffl and the background check and the ability for the, at TF to have a perfect inventory of everything you have in your possession. And not only that, be legally authorized to come in and do inspections and inspect records and the recordkeeping process that would've to be kept. I mean, the, there's there's a lot of really, not things that people want.

Sir Gene: 1:22:17

Oh, absolutely. I, I remember back in the eighties, late eighties there's probably three or four FFLs on my. Guys that, bought enough guns to wanna buy mo sale. Cause it was very easy and very cheap to do. There was not a whole lot of special requirements. Yeah. And over the last 50 years they've just kept whittling that down to make it to where you literally have to have a storefront if you're gonna do an become an ffl. The last guy that I knew that didn't have a storefront was in Dallas about 12, 13 years ago.

Ben: 1:22:56

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:22:57

And that's who I got all my stuff from when I lived there. It was great cuz he just drove it right out to my house. Man. How do you beat that customer service?

Ben: 1:23:07

Hmm. There, there's, there. I know a couple guys that have their F F L without having a storefront, but what I would say is they are very much the exception and, yeah. I,

Sir Gene: 1:23:22

And I, I, I always thought that it, like, if I ever got to that point where I had the sufficient money and sufficient free time to do it, I would love to do a class three ffl.

Ben: 1:23:34

yeah. Be able to manufacture.

Sir Gene: 1:23:36

Well, I don't care about that. Even just be able to buy the guns that everybody else can't buy,

Ben: 1:23:43

Okay.

Sir Gene: 1:23:44

like, P 90

Ben: 1:23:45

Yeah. Well,

Sir Gene: 1:23:46

with full automatic.

Ben: 1:23:49

yeah, I understand.

Sir Gene: 1:23:50

So as long as you're buying them for your inventory for sale to people that are able to buy'em i e police departments then you could play with them. Cuz you gotta, you gotta demo

Ben: 1:24:04

it. You gotta test it out. Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:24:06

that's the loophole. But it's an expensive loop. And it does have all the stuff that you mentioned with the background checks and the showing up and checking your records and all this crap, all that. But that's literally like the only way that you can currently get into a position where you can have legal access to fully automatic guns made after 1985

Ben: 1:24:34

Yeah. Which again I think that yes, and, we have to look at the, this executive order and go, okay, there's not a lot here from a day-to-day effectiveness thing. But, depending on the legal precedent that ends upset by, perfect example, the ffl stuff that could be extremely dangerous. And, we, we, you have to have a point where you just say, Yeah, I'm not going to abide by this. And I think a lot of people have decided that the pistol braces is a ruling that they are not going to abide by at least verbally. I see a lot of people putting that rhetoric out there saying, Nope, not gonna do it. I'm going to be illegal.

Sir Gene: 1:25:19

Well, and to be fair, it's a fairly easy thing. There's minimal stuff that you can do to still be compliant so people can talk the big talk and then just take the brace off.

Ben: 1:25:33

Yeah. We'll, we'll see if they do. I mean, hopefully, I mean, I am hopeful that there will be some people who stand up and say no, but we'll see.

Sir Gene: 1:25:42

I don't know. I'm, I'm gonna do a little bit of that. I'm definitely gonna register at least two guns because I want them to be full on short barreled rifle. This is my one opportunity to get it done for free. But

Ben: 1:25:58

It's not

Sir Gene: 1:25:58

what do I, what do I do with the others?

Ben: 1:26:01

But it's not free.

Sir Gene: 1:26:02

Well, it's cheaper than it would cost me if I was to do it any other way.

Ben: 1:26:06

Well, technically it's a deferment and there's the whole thing about not being able to put it in a trust and so on. That's very problematic.

Sir Gene: 1:26:14

true. But also, eh, I mean, it's, it's not good. Right. But also while there's a, I would prefer to put'em in a trust, is it gonna kill me? Not how I'm in a trust, just have'em be on my name. I, I don't care.

Ben: 1:26:34

Okay.

Sir Gene: 1:26:35

It's not, yeah. Like none of these is expensive enough to justify paying them right now, even though I don't have to, and putting in the trust.

Ben: 1:26:48

Okay.

Sir Gene: 1:26:49

So, But yeah, you're right about the deferment part cuz technically they don't have the legal authority to not charge you money cause it's a tax I just had one other story to talk about.

Ben: 1:27:01

All right, then let's do that.

Sir Gene: 1:27:03

I think I sent you a link that Tim had the current head of the Libertarian party.

Ben: 1:27:11

Yeah, and you were a very ho-hum about her.

Sir Gene: 1:27:13

Oh yeah, totally. I can't remember her name off the top of my head, but I was very disappointed. I mean, I've, I've heard her before, so I wasn't like shocked or disappointed in the sense that, oh my God, I can't believe this person just showed up out of the blue. Angela McCartel, Al McCartel, I think is how you pronounce it. M C A R D L.

Ben: 1:27:39

Yep.

Sir Gene: 1:27:40

But oh my God, she's the most like milk toast, libertarian I've ever heard. And, and

Ben: 1:27:49

is the problem with the organized libertarian party?

Sir Gene: 1:27:52

It's hard from the get-go. Yeah. I mean, there's numerous problems, but if you watch that Tim cast interview, her answer to literally everything is like, well, we just have to try harder to negotiate.

Ben: 1:28:05

well, and the, the part of the prob part of the problem is only the very minor. The people who aren't, quite frankly, aren't what I would call real libertarians are the ones who join the libertarian party. Because if you're really a libertarian, aah, the way I feel, you're not exactly a you don't do well in groups.

Sir Gene: 1:28:30

So back when I. In the libertarian party and active in it and, and like, had office and stuff. My take was that the, the objectives were not helping us and they were just like throwing their votes away because they weren't supporting the libertarian party, even though we agree on like 95% of everything and what the fuck. Let's work together against these Republicans and Democrats

Ben: 1:29:03

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:29:04

and like 40 years later,

Ben: 1:29:07

you're now seeing the point of the Objectiveness.

Sir Gene: 1:29:10

well point. Yeah, I'm, I'm at a point now where I don't even tell people I'm a libertarian because I don't really wanna be associated with those guys either. So, and I, I hate, I mean, I don't wanna say I'm independent cuz I'm clearly not. I have a very part. And, and consistent frame of reference for my political views. But cuz I, when I hear independent, I'm instantly thinking of, somebody that

Ben: 1:29:36

You're thinking of

Sir Gene: 1:29:37

sure how many capitals there are in the United States.

Ben: 1:29:41

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:29:41

Not, not even naming'em, but just like how many, what's the total number of capitals in the United States? It'll be 20. So,

Ben: 1:29:48

quite frankly, it does depend on how you count it,

Sir Gene: 1:29:51

Does it though?

Ben: 1:29:53

Well, yeah, sure. I mean, are you counting Puerto Rico or are you counting DC and

Sir Gene: 1:29:58

there's 51. There's 50 states in one nation.

Ben: 1:30:01

okay, but what about the territories and

Sir Gene: 1:30:04

what about'em? They don't have capitals. Territories don't have capitals. Anyway, point being is I guess. I'm sort of disappointed, but I'm not surprisingly disappointed. I'm just disappointed. Disappointed, and this chick is, ugh, she, there was, there was literally nothing that she brought up as a rational reason for any position whatsoever that she was asked about. Not one.

Ben: 1:30:36

She equivocated a lot. Yes.

Sir Gene: 1:30:39

And here's, here's the worst part. She just moved from California to Austin for fuck's sake. You don't elect somebody to head up the libertarian party that lives in California. That should disqualify the person automatically. Like you can't both live in California and be a libertarian.

Ben: 1:31:00

The last time I was excited about the Libertarian party was McAfee. And ever since 2016 they have just lost the narrative and lost the way the, when the Libertarians really went hard against the Libertarian party. I think actually most libertarians were pretty with Trump to a large, large extent.

Sir Gene: 1:31:20

Begrudgingly

Ben: 1:31:22

I'm sorry.

Sir Gene: 1:31:23

begrudging.

Ben: 1:31:25

Yes. But the Libertarian party went hard, hard against him, and I think that was, I think they lost a lot of people at that point.

Sir Gene: 1:31:33

Yeah, but that's not why I dislike her. I think it's, it's the opposite. In fact, it's the fact that there's no guns to stick to. It's just like at this point, libertarian party is just Republican party light.

Ben: 1:31:47

Yeah. That's not a good thing.

Sir Gene: 1:31:52

No. No. And I personally put in a lot of effort, my effort into making sure that party gets on the ballot. And and I, I was one of the people that helped get it on the ballot in Minnesota and

Ben: 1:32:07

Oh, aren't you glad you did that

Sir Gene: 1:32:09

yeah, well, it doesn't matter apparently Because the, the, that party, like I made fun of it back in the nineties about just mostly being potheads and that's not sufficient grounds to have a, a alternative political party. Plus there's the greens party, which is also mostly potheads. It's like, at least combine the two pothead groups and have a pothead party. You probably do more, but I don't know, man. I, I, Like, there's nothing she says that's bad. It's just that everything she says is milk toast. It's not backed up with any rationale, and it's just these non, non-committal, everything was non-committal. Everything. The answer to literally any question is, well, we just have to do better at negotiating. Well, who's gonna do that? Clearly not you. who's, who's gonna be negotiating things? And anyone that's that's been in Debate Club knows that before you can negotiate anything, you gotta run down and get all the facts.

Ben: 1:33:18

And if you're gonna negotiate, you need to negotiate from a, you have to know where here. If you don't have a principled stance from which to negotiate from, you are likely to give up the farm because you don't care. You'll equivocate and move far too far. And I think a lot of us feel like that has already happened to a very large extent. And basically her stance was, well, we, we can I, and here's the thing. I think it's a pipe dream that we are That we can negotiate our way back to being a country. I,

Sir Gene: 1:34:00

No

Ben: 1:34:00

I don't think that's going to happen. I think what's going to happen is the US is either, there's going to be a revolution in the US and one side's going to win, and the other side's going to lose a true, true civil war, or we're gonna break up.

Sir Gene: 1:34:16

Yeah, and I, and

Ben: 1:34:17

those are the only two options at this.

Sir Gene: 1:34:19

I think Tim actually put it very well when she said, well, then we, we need to have a peaceful divorce. And he says, well, we had that, that, that was. before the Civil War, the South peacefully divorced themselves from the north

Ben: 1:34:36

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene: 1:34:37

and without anybody firing a single gunshot. And it wasn't until after that divorce happens or happened in at that point that the North declared war in the South. And, there were some circumstances that led up to it. I don't wanna get into necessarily, because we've heard it a million times. The point is that he's absolutely right. This was what people are talking right now about, oh, we need to have a peaceful divorce. Well, what makes you think it's gonna work this time when it didn't work 180 years ago

Ben: 1:35:14

Well, I,

Sir Gene: 1:35:15

160 years ago, or whatever it is during the Civil War? It's like, Half the people are going to want to leave the other half, and the other half isn't going to want to allow the first half to leave. That's what's gonna happen.

Ben: 1:35:34

Well, a, again, it comes down to the point of when people get a line that is crossed that. At least stand up with civil disobedience. And then that comes down to the question of how far are you willing to go. One of the other things that was in the executive order was moving funds around for communities that enact red flag laws.

Sir Gene: 1:35:59

Yep.

Ben: 1:36:01

Well, I, I can tell you right now, If someone were to ever put a red flag on me, and this would probably be justification for said red flag, but that's never, I, I would never extra judiciously submit myself to that. And that is, not going through a judicial system. That is by very definition the way these red flag laws are designed to work is an extreme amount of power that that would be a red line for.

Sir Gene: 1:36:31

Yeah. And, and I think that the. Like I'm, I have a lot of confidence that obviously the people that have been gun enthusiasts are in the better position here than the people that ate guns. But it doesn't mean that there's an automatic W here.

Ben: 1:36:52

No, by no means, because, I mean, where's the, the real big question is where's the military gonna land? And a lot of the military is very woke,

Sir Gene: 1:37:01

Oh, absolutely no, the, the entirety of the military is very woke there. Anyone who's not woke is leaving the military and has been for the last three years. It's, it's gonna be almost exclusively woke. So you're gonna have a bunch of woke people that are just one step away from Antifa sitting behind controls of drones and very heavy Arma. And I don't think they're gonna think twice about using'em.

Ben: 1:37:31

No, because you're gonna be absolutely Nazis, right? You're, you're gonna be literally

Sir Gene: 1:37:36

they, they have, they have become very good at deeping people they don't agree with.

Ben: 1:37:44

Yeah, and we've seen this from the left for quite a while now is the othering, right? I mean, we see it on the right as well where people are very much othering people and that that's a very dangerous

Sir Gene: 1:37:56

see a whole lot of that on the right. I see a lot of it on the left.

Ben: 1:38:02

Well, I wouldn't say a whole lot, but we do see it.

Sir Gene: 1:38:05

Well, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I, it sounds more like rhetoric to me than, than the sort of stuff we see on the left. The, the left genuinely wants to kill people.

Ben: 1:38:17

Well, the left

Sir Gene: 1:38:19

just babies, I mean like actually adult people they want to kill.

Ben: 1:38:24

They are going down a. religious fanaticism that has has not been seen in a long time.

Sir Gene: 1:38:34

Well, and I think you hit the nail on the head right there because religious fanaticism. Is very difficult to fight against because those fanatics place no value on your life and just slightly more on their own. And that that is going to result in people thinking very rationally about the dangers of what they're about to do and not having a, a whole lot of regard for that. There is a little bit of. Common sense that kicks in when you physically feel pain or a closeness to death. But man, there, there's nothing stopping these people up until they get to that point. So I think this idea of a peaceful divorce, I think maybe it'll start that way and we'll try it for a week. But I think that's about as long as it's gonna last because I think that the, the stirring of the rhetoric on the left is going to basically say that, that the other half of the country, the other 160 million people or whatever it is, have all now been succumbed to Russian.

Ben: 1:40:01

Well, it doesn't necessarily even have to be Russian control. They're

Sir Gene: 1:40:04

or whatever,

Ben: 1:40:04

wing Christian extremists.

Sir Gene: 1:40:06

they'll right wing Russian Christian extremists that are Nazis. Exactly. Just throw everything in there, everything all at once and, and completely dehumanize the other side. And basically say, well, we tried, we failed. The bad guys got them. Now the best thing we can do is just. For their own good. So I think, I think we're getting closer to that right now.

Ben: 1:40:36

yeah, I think that the othering that is taking place is. Very dangerous. And I think that it's continuing and I think we're getting to a point where people, can't agree on gender issues, can't agree on. Any of the issues. I mean, like that video I had you watch earlier which we didn't end up talking about, but it there, there's a young woman who's 25 and she calls herself a traditional wife and goes through and makes a video about it. And if you look at the comments, the feminists and everyone just roasting her, talking about, oh God, why would you wanna do that? And everything else,

Sir Gene: 1:41:10

I watched it, but I also think that that's, I mean, that video is a,

Ben: 1:41:14

oh yeah. It was

Sir Gene: 1:41:15

it's an Instagram for money.

Ben: 1:41:17

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But not the point. The reaction is the point.

Sir Gene: 1:41:22

Yeah, exactly, exactly. If you look at the reaction, the reaction is completely negative and the same. This is what I, I, I mean like, I don't even care to watch this shit, but it pops up on my stream on YouTube. I think there's a show called whatever. And then there's the other one has got that tall redhead chick. Was it like

Ben: 1:41:40

pearly things.

Sir Gene: 1:41:40

something? Yeah, pearly things. So they occasionally will pop up and I'll watch'em if they're up there. But the same, same women that are the opposite of traditional will also expect the guy to be completely traditional. And that's, that's the interesting thing. And what I mean by that is he has to pay for everyth. and he has to make at least 200 grand a year. Like that seems to be the cutoff for all

Ben: 1:42:13

Well, there was one girl on one of the Pearly Things episodes that said her criteria for dating a man was, he had to be six foot, six inches or better and six figures. And she was, nothing special. And it's like, Hmm, okay. Interesting.

Sir Gene: 1:42:29

Yeah. And that like,

Ben: 1:42:30

And you know how shallow and vapid, men are always accused of it, but really

Sir Gene: 1:42:36

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and this is the, the antidote to that is more and more men are not seeking wife material in this country, and they're going outta country where women are at least closer to what the norms used to be. But anyway, I don't know that they need to keep going on that topic. But it, you. My, my disappointment with the current president of the libertarian party is definitely real

Ben: 1:43:06

Yeah, I, I, I'm right there with you, so.

Sir Gene: 1:43:10

So, anyway, I'll be a little bit arrested and probably pick a few more topics before starting to talk next time. So we'll catch you in the week buddy.

Ben: 1:43:20

All right. We'll catch you then Gene.