Just Two Good Old Boys

027 Just Two Good Old Boys

May 11, 2023 Gene Naftulyev Season 2023 Episode 27
Just Two Good Old Boys
027 Just Two Good Old Boys
Just Two Good Old Boys
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Dude Named Ben:

Good morning Gene, how are you?

Sir Gene:

Oh, I'm all right. Getting up a little late, but other than that, pretty good.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, well, we we chose the wrong week to skip last week.

Sir Gene:

Well, it wasn't a random skip.

Dude Named Ben:

No, it was just because you had taken your time while processing things. Yeah,

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Packing. I needed to pack before I went on my trip and that the making the podcast, but,

Dude Named Ben:

yeah. How was your trip to Arizona?

Sir Gene:

Oh, it was great. Yeah. Arizona's a good, good, fun place to be. It's hot there.

Dude Named Ben:

The desert, hot. Hm,

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Although I will say in the mornings beautiful.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, I've got some friends who live in Arizona and they love it, but man, that's just...

Sir Gene:

Yeah. I couldn't stand not having water around. But other than that, it's, and, and the difference too, between the wet heat and the dry heat, like here in Austin, I would not say that we're particularly humid as a general rule. It's not like Houston, but it's still more humid than Arizona. Mm-hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, there is a massive difference in that, and you can easily end up with nosebleeds and you know, pretty dehydrated really quick when you're in hot, dry temperatures. But

Sir Gene:

You don't, you don't really feel yourself sweating. Mm-hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

no. Well, because it's just evaporating off of you. But like right now... It is, let's see what temperature is it right now it's 76, and it is 87% humidity here. So,

Sir Gene:

Uhhuh,

Dude Named Ben:

oh,

Sir Gene:

80 sevens. That, that's a, that's Congo. That's Brazil,

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, well, Southeast Texas.

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

Anyway, so, we missed last week. Tucker got fired.

Sir Gene:

He did.

Dude Named Ben:

Don Lemon got fired.

Sir Gene:

He did. I would love, I mean, this ain't gonna happen, right? But I would love to see a little one minute YouTube collab those two guys would do.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. Well, I mean,

Sir Gene:

as hell, and they would get so much publicity if they did that.

Dude Named Ben:

so Tucker did a show on CNN back in the day, didn't he? With,

Sir Gene:

he did.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, I mean, that would very, yeah, yeah, and that would very much be in the same line as Hannity back in the day with, what's his face,

Sir Gene:

combs.

Dude Named Ben:

Combs, Hannity and Combs, that's right,

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

which, Combs, boy, his career tanked after that.

Sir Gene:

Well, he died. Yeah.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I mean he was alive after yeah, is he really dead? I don't

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he died just a few years after they split up, couldn't handle the separation, I guess

Dude Named Ben:

like a Heartbroken

Sir Gene:

dog

Dude Named Ben:

after the yeah.

Sir Gene:

or that. Yeah.

Dude Named Ben:

Anyway, so some interesting things have come out. There have been some leaks Some people think some of these leaks are deep fakes some people think they're actual

Sir Gene:

I don't think there's any chance they're deep fakes because a Fox filed a injunction or they filed for injunctive relief.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, well, it's I think it's Fox leaking them, first of all, and

Sir Gene:

I would have thought that until they actually went to the courts, cause they're not suing themselves.

Dude Named Ben:

well, They very well may be to try and cover it up because the, the leaks do not portray Tucker the way the Daily Caller is trying to make it. So, at

Sir Gene:

No, he's, he's coming across as a very self aware kind of guy.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. Believe it or not, Steven Crowder did a pretty good breakdown

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I don't believe

Dude Named Ben:

Alex Jones. I don't know if you saw that one.

Sir Gene:

did that. No, that wife beater. Hell no way. I'm not watching him.

Dude Named Ben:

That was another thing that got leaked, is some ring video of him. So, which to me, he sounds completely reasonable, actually.

Sir Gene:

like a dick man I I think he may have a point and I will definitely say that but there are multiple ways to get what you want and sitting on your ass smoking a cigar with your leg crossed over the other leg and Telling your pregnant wife That she's being a dick does not make you look good.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, no, but it very well may be the case.

Sir Gene:

No, it certainly, and like I said, he may very well have a legitimate point, but the presentation style is

Dude Named Ben:

hmm. Oh, I'm not saying he made himself looked look good,

Sir Gene:

Yeah, it's what he was trying to portray daily wire as being a bunch of, you know, big, big con, bunch of fat cats sitting around smoking cigars, not giving people any money. And then you combine that with all the, the now more and more employees of his coming out and saying, he's the worst boss ever. He abuses employees. He's totally unfair and he's the one that builds contracts that nobody else does in the business. So it's, I guess it's not unexpected because he is a product of Hollywood. He's been in show business his whole life. And so he is, both has deep seated resentment for the Jews in Hollywood. And let's, let's just be honest here. Whenever he's at Daily Wire, we know exactly what he meant. He meant the Jews.

Dude Named Ben:

I don't think he's ever said

Sir Gene:

He's such one of the biggest anti Semites out there as far as I'm concerned on the right

Dude Named Ben:

how

Sir Gene:

Oh, dude, you just got to listen to him. I can't believe people didn't watch him at all.

Dude Named Ben:

I mean, I

Sir Gene:

And then,

Dude Named Ben:

him regularly I listened to him on a couple of things here this last week because I ran out of podcasts,

Sir Gene:

and, and now of course, his ex employees have a show on

Dude Named Ben:

semitic

Sir Gene:

well, you got to just listen better. And then his employees have now a new show on The Blaze, which is hilarious. So, I think Crowder just worked himself out of a a much more lucrative future by having all this shit happen all at once.

Dude Named Ben:

So did you see the news about the hundred million offer to Tucker?

Sir Gene:

I watched the actual thing live when it happened.

Dude Named Ben:

So I did not. You want to

Sir Gene:

I'm not a fan of that dude, by the way. I know a lot of people like him.

Dude Named Ben:

Is the dude?

Sir Gene:

is it, Ben Mike or whatever, Ben, Ben Joseph, whatever the hell his name is. He's a he is a former finance dude. Like he made, you know, hundreds of millions in finance. He is originally, like he's got a great story. He's... He came to the United States as a refugee from Iran and became successful. He's conservative and

Dude Named Ben:

Which guy is this again?

Sir Gene:

the guy that gave the 100 million offer to Carlson.

Dude Named Ben:

name.

Sir Gene:

Something been something. Do you want me to look it up in real time? I can, I can look

Dude Named Ben:

Patrick bet

Sir Gene:

Yes, that's the one. That's exactly. Which, by the way, does not sound like a... Iranian name kind of sounds more like a Jewish name, but Patrick doesn't sound like either Jewish or

Dude Named Ben:

the, yeah, he, Tim was on his show the

Sir Gene:

yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's the

Dude Named Ben:

it, but you know, I've watched some of his stuff. He's not, I don't know

Sir Gene:

I think

Dude Named Ben:

like about him.

Sir Gene:

I think he's crappy. Not, not anything that he's not his stances. I think he's a poor interviewer. He's like a bull in the China shop. He, he doesn't. Ask people questions and then probe deeper. He says shit that he is thinking at the time. The first hour of Tim's interview was not about Tim. It was about Vice.

Dude Named Ben:

I mean, I just started watching it and I am like, I put the, put it on this morning, I'm 22 minutes in. And they're just now starting to talk about Vice. The first bit was all about Tim and his narcissism

Sir Gene:

it was really not. No, no, no. But, but they'll talk about Vice for an hour. It's, anyway, and I've watched, I don't know, maybe six or seven of his interviews. I haven't watched a, a ton of them. they are a couple hours or longer each. Which is good, but I just feel like he's not, maybe this is all it is, but he doesn't seem to be asking questions that I as an audience want to hear next.

Dude Named Ben:

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene:

He's asking questions that are kind of like, dude, you could literally read this in his Wikipedia page. It's maybe that's exactly what it is. Maybe he just doesn't bother reading the wiki page on people before the interview. And so he's asking him questions that, that are super easy that are on the wiki itself. Which you would think that information is the starting point. That's what everybody knows. So you ask the, well, tell me more about when you were growing up in Chicago and you were blah, blah, blah.

Dude Named Ben:

so since Patrick has made Tucker a hundred million dollar a year offer,

Sir Gene:

No, it's

Dude Named Ben:

Or, what was it? Was it 100 million a year? Was it over amount of time?

Sir Gene:

five years, 20 million a year.

Dude Named Ben:

Eh, it's not bad.

Sir Gene:

That's basically less than what the Crowder would have gotten.

Dude Named Ben:

Yes, but it's more than Tucker was making at Fox.

Sir Gene:

he's making 24 million.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay.

Sir Gene:

It's the last number I heard

Dude Named Ben:

I don't think so. But,

Sir Gene:

24 million a year.

Dude Named Ben:

because Hannity's making that. I think Hannity's making more than him, but.

Sir Gene:

Tucker was the number one guy on Fox for ratings.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, regardless, it's been very entertaining to watch that slot, time slot's ratings just tank.

Sir Gene:

Not just that ex Fox slut. What's her name? One yeah, that one not a

Dude Named Ben:

Gene at SirGene.

Sir Gene:

a fan at all, man. She slept her way to the top and then decided to leave when she was too big for her britches. And by the way, she figured out this is, this is always shit always happens, man women cut their hair when they think they're in charge. And they grow their hair out long when they realize they're not.

Dude Named Ben:

Mm hmm. Okay.

Sir Gene:

A woman with short hair loses all the power that she garners as a female. She, she's no longer attractive.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, so back to Tucker.

Sir Gene:

So back to Tucker with his short hair. Oh, actually, Tucker's got kind of long hair. But so she went through cause she, you know, she's not a fan of Fox either.

Dude Named Ben:

Mm

Sir Gene:

and she did a lot more probing than all the other hosts on ratings. And what she found was not just that that slot has lost 55%, no 59%

Dude Named Ben:

hmm. Mm hmm.

Sir Gene:

its viewership.

Dude Named Ben:

All the key demo

Sir Gene:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The key demos, but even the next slot, which is Hannity lost 42% of their audience. Fox can't stay in business with a 42% drop in its number one host, who's still there.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I mean, people... It's very apparent people were coming to watch Tucker, and then stayed for

Sir Gene:

Exactly. Exactly. And so... Now, you know, Fox has kind of been put in the same box as Bud Light.

Dude Named Ben:

Gene, did I lose you?

Sir Gene:

No, can you not hear me?

Dude Named Ben:

No, I... You silenced when you said Bud Light, and it kind of just cut off.

Sir Gene:

I wonder what happened. Yeah, I think Fox and Bud Light kind of are in the same box right now.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah which, that's another story, but what do you think Fox is going to do to get out of this?

Sir Gene:

I think Fox is going to do exactly what Fox has always done. And that is do absolutely nothing and wait for it to blow over. And meanwhile, they're going to bring

Dude Named Ben:

will it?

Sir Gene:

well, that's a different question. I mean, their ratings have steadily been going down. But they're going to bring Kelly Mcnaney in for that slot.

Dude Named Ben:

Hmm. You think?

Sir Gene:

Now they ran and then I'll say, yeah. And, you know, it's, it's a potential break for her. The problem is she was wonderful as a spokesperson for the white house. Much worse as a. On air talent, I thought,

Dude Named Ben:

Well,

Sir Gene:

I don't know if she can run

Dude Named Ben:

I, I don't know that she'll, I mean, unless they've announced something, I don't know that they'll bring her in. But even if they do they're not going to have,

Sir Gene:

they've announced it.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay. Well, they're fine. They're not going to get the ratings that Tucker had at all. And, you know, here's the question they've gotten almost a billion dollar payout off this dominion suit. And we can say, regardless of whether or not that was. Something they should have fought more or not, but they've got a billion dollar payout and then they have this lack of ratings Man, I I see fox headed for bankruptcy

Sir Gene:

Well they will only be handed for bankruptcy if they also, if, if that billion dollar payout is completely depleted, their their coffers.

Dude Named Ben:

well, even if it's not it's going to be a very Hard thing to overcome. I mean, I don't care what company it is when you have a Billion plus dollar write down it's going to hit hard.

Sir Gene:

Yeah.

Dude Named Ben:

So

Sir Gene:

Yeah, for sure. But I mean, there's there, I think they're still worth more than CNN.

Dude Named Ben:

I well my and I I don't know I mean, they just, CNN and MSNBC, when they had what's his name? Guesting or coming in for Tucker beat Fox in that time slot. So, you know, you, you have this confluence of events where you have a huge financial hit and then you take another huge financial hit

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

your, your ratings, which is ultimately your ad sales. I, I think that's pretty bad. So, I mean, hopefully Kaylee can come in and turn it around for him, I guess. I, I, I don't watch Fox News anymore. I haven't for a long time. And I don't know who

Sir Gene:

haven't watched Fox News in 12 years.

Dude Named Ben:

So where do you think where do you think Tucker lands after this? Do you think he does his own thing?

Sir Gene:

I think Tucker's got a non compete, so he's not going to land anywhere for a while.

Dude Named Ben:

I

Sir Gene:

They paid out his contract apparently, which means he's got a non compete. And

Dude Named Ben:

no.

Sir Gene:

well, they wouldn't have paid him out otherwise. The only, the only reason to buy out his contract is to keep the enforcements in, which would be the... Predominantly the non compete.

Dude Named Ben:

There has to be extra consideration given. And,

Sir Gene:

is the buyout of the contract.

Dude Named Ben:

no, because he has a contract, they can't just terminate his contract.

Sir Gene:

Oh, they could have, cause they could have terminated them for cause. They, they negotiated a deal where it wasn't for cause.

Dude Named Ben:

I highly doubt that that would have held up. But, okay. What cause would they have used?

Sir Gene:

You don't think that there was a cause to terminate him with all the stuff going on with the lawsuit?

Dude Named Ben:

No, not at all.

Sir Gene:

Hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

Especially when he

Sir Gene:

well, we'll find out.

Dude Named Ben:

He had said to Sidney Powell, you know, bring me proof, bring me proof. He, he pushed back. So actually, I think he was evidence against the defamation claims of Dominion. First of all, that lawsuit was just trash and should have never been heard to

Sir Gene:

I agree with that.

Dude Named Ben:

So, no, I, I think there is no way, I think if they would have tried to use that as cause, he could have sued the living crap out of him, because no, that

Sir Gene:

He could have, but then he'd be unemployable. So I think that

Dude Named Ben:

I, I disagree.

Sir Gene:

How many people do you know that have sued large companies that still have jobs right now?

Dude Named Ben:

I don't see the issue there.

Sir Gene:

there, there is something beyond just getting legal justice, which is burning your reputation. You burn your reputation. You're not going to get employed. If you don't want to get employed, like Crowder, for example, that's fine, but you're stuck just doing your own thing at that point. So my, we'll find out, I mean, this is all going to unravel, but. My suspicion is that Tucker has a non compete that's still going to be in force for about a year. And so he's probably going to be a guest and coming on to other people's shows, which is not covered by that. But I don't think he'll have a contract with a major network. And I don't know how much YouTube activity that allows or forbids. I suspect that if he puts out just, sort of, opinion pieces, like John Stossel does, then he'd be fine on YouTube. If he does an interview on YouTube, that's probably covered by the non compete. So, I think we're gonna see a limited Tucker for about a year.

Dude Named Ben:

Boy, that really takes him off the board for the 2024 elections.

Sir Gene:

And again, I could be totally wrong. This is just based on what I would have imagined with a high profile person like that and the contract that he would have had. So if they, if they don't have that compete with them, they didn't do their job. Right.

Dude Named Ben:

someone didn't do their job right if he accepted some of those clauses that you're suspecting, but...

Sir Gene:

It's all viable, dude. It's the way it's, it's like the steps that Crowder skipped. You get a contract like that. You say, well, I don't want that. Okay. What's that worth to you? How much do you want to negotiate from that? Okay, no non compete. It's 20 million less over the life of the contract

Dude Named Ben:

So where do you

Sir Gene:

most people would just say screw it I'll take 20 million and I'll take a vacation for a year after I'm done. Sorry. What did you say?

Dude Named Ben:

So where do you think Tucker ends up? Let's say he sits out for a year.

Sir Gene:

I well, there's the where I would love him to end up which is on YouTube I don't want him to be on a major network because I think he'd be a lot more relevant if he was making YouTube videos But, you know, he may not want to work that hard. So, who else is there and has money? Maybe, I mean, it could be something sideways too. It could be like, he, Tucker, gets a show on HBO, kind of like Bill Maher. And he does like a conservative talk show. With full no restrictions.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay.

Sir Gene:

I don't know. It's hard to say dude, but who else is there? He's not gonna end up on CNN. He's not gonna be on MSNBC. He's not gonna be on any other network What do you think he's gonna end up?

Dude Named Ben:

mean, I would like to say he would do his own thing, but I can, I, again, to your point of whether or not he's going to want to work that hard. I Glenn Beck has already said something about. him coming to the blaze you know, that he would like that, you know, Jeremy boring is sitting there thinking, you know, daily

Sir Gene:

yeah, I'm sure they've got an offer out Yeah,

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah.

Sir Gene:

not gonna do it publicly like David Ben, whatever

Dude Named Ben:

yeah. So I, I think that those offers are there and a possibility. So to your point, if he doesn't want to work that hard, I, I see him going to one of them.

Sir Gene:

And I mean, I could be not YouTube But actually rumble which didn't rumble do a deal with Crowder for way more money than they should have

Dude Named Ben:

I don't know if they did it for more money than they should have, but there is a deal between Crowder and rumble. And he's really pushing to build up his own thing, man. He's he's hustling.

Sir Gene:

choice. No one's going to hire him at this point.

Dude Named Ben:

Right. But I mean, are you aware of what he's doing to really?

Sir Gene:

He's doing Mug Club like he's has for the last 10 years.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, but he's doing Mug Club in a very unique way. Any, if you send him a receipt from any, any conservative streaming platform,

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

Wire, WPN, in any of them, he'll give you three months for free.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, that's called desperation.

Dude Named Ben:

I, I think that's, I don't think that's desperation. I think that's a huge way to potentially steal people away. Or add your stuff into the mix.

Sir Gene:

Mm. Yeah, I know. I'm not seeing it that way. I think when you're, when you're trying to compete by giving away the products, this is one of the, one of the things I've heard so many times over and over in marketing is never give away the product. Whenever you do some kind of an add on thing, it's, it always has to be different than your product because when you give away the product, it devalues it. And so when you give away three months of the show and the show is the only thing that you're selling. That devalues it. If you want to say, Hey, show me a receipt from any other conservative talk show from big con. I'll send you a free t shirt. That's totally fine. That that's not giving the product away. When you give the product away that that shows the lack of creativity and desperation.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay. Value for value would say otherwise,

Sir Gene:

I don't think he's got value for value. Wow.

Dude Named Ben:

because you're literally giving the product away for free

Sir Gene:

Well, you're not giving the product away for free. I mean, that's, you're not selling anything with value for value. What you're doing is you're saying that. If you, it's a guilt, I mean, let's be honest, value for value is guilt driven.

Dude Named Ben:

to an

Sir Gene:

It's saying, I, I like this so much that if I don't send them money, I will feel bad.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, my point is I think Crowder is doing something smart there because I wouldn't join mug club. But given what all's going on and some of the content and some of the guests he's had on lately, I mean, he's had Alex on repeatedly.

Sir Gene:

Be on anything else. I

Dude Named Ben:

what do you mean?

Sir Gene:

well, Alex is banned by YouTube. So anyone that has them on YouTube has to be very, very careful the way that Tim Cass has in making sure Alex doesn't say something that he can't say. So. I mean, I, look, I like that he is Alexandre, but

Dude Named Ben:

So, one of the other things that Crowder's doing that's pretty smart, I don't know if you've watched his show on YouTube versus Rumble, but they literally have this interruption on YouTube when they're getting into areas where it's a little much for YouTube, and they just, you know, please stand by if you want to see the full version of this go to Rumble. Brilliant. Instead of avoiding the

Sir Gene:

has been doing for five years. Which is what Ben has been doing for five years.

Dude Named Ben:

Ben Shapiro, I don't watch Ben Shapiro, I can't.

Sir Gene:

clearly. But

Dude Named Ben:

not a big fan of

Sir Gene:

that, that is right from their show. They just do it for a different reason. It's not censorship. It's that, that's, they save those bits for the paid audience. The same thing that TimCast

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, but what I'm saying is that the way he's doing it is it's in the freeform show It's where you can go see it And I think it's actually a fairly creative way of doing it to point out the censorship of YouTube and you know I I I

Sir Gene:

But again, Tim cast, which you do watch has been saying, Oh, well, we'll have to get into that on the after show without the censorship on

Dude Named Ben:

instead of doing it in the after show or anything else Give me the ability to go to rumble and watch it

Sir Gene:

So they're just putting a black screen on YouTube. You're saying,

Dude Named Ben:

more or less. Yeah,

Sir Gene:

and there's nothing, there's no audio or

Dude Named Ben:

there's music. There's hold music

Sir Gene:

Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. I did not see that. I did watch maybe five episodes of his show on YouTube, but I didn't see that

Dude Named Ben:

a very creative way of doing it and so basically on there it just says go to Rumble if you want to see this. I think that's very

Sir Gene:

Yeah, they're going to get kicked off YouTube before too long. As that's gotta be bordering terms of service, because if all you do on YouTube is advertise the competitor of YouTube, if it's not against terms, it will be next year. Because

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, absolutely.

Sir Gene:

that's it. It's a private fucking network. They don't have to have anybody on. And if literally your channel is about promoting a competitor, why in the hell would YouTube helmet

Dude Named Ben:

Well, but, you know, as far as YouTube's concerned... So, here's the thing. Rumble still sucks. It's gotten better,

Sir Gene:

that's gotten better? I agree it

Dude Named Ben:

it still sucks.

Sir Gene:

it's not that rumble sex, it's the UI of Rumble Software. Sex.

Dude Named Ben:

That's what I'm saying. It's not the content, it's the app. So...

Sir Gene:

think it's a backend, like I don't have issues with stuttering or anything on the Rumble,

Dude Named Ben:

No, no, it's just the, again, the UI in the app and the, the, the ability to, you know, cast to a TV or something like that, that YouTube is just very slick and integrated.

Sir Gene:

Totally.

Dude Named Ben:

So, they still haven't it managed there. Crowder still gets a shit ton of views on YouTube. Why would YouTube give that up? And if he's censoring himself so that it's not, if it's not violating their terms of service or demon, you know, violating where they're going to be demonetized, I let him do it because I'm still getting that money. I'm still getting that revenue. There will be a few people who peel off, but, you know what, I'm likely to, if I ban him from doing that, I'm gonna lose them anyway. So, no, I think they keep it up.

Sir Gene:

I think they do the math. And then the moment that it becomes more of a problem to them, more of a headache, they, they pull the switch.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah,

Sir Gene:

rumble keeps growing the way it has been, YouTube is going to start having to see them a lot more as a real competitor.

Dude Named Ben:

yes,

Sir Gene:

They're not quite there yet. They

Dude Named Ben:

but Rumble doesn't make the money on ads that YouTube does, that's part of the problem there.

Sir Gene:

don't, which is why I, the fact that they're paying Crowder. And I don't remember how much somebody probably listening wouldn't know. I don't know, but. But I think it was somewhere around like 10 million a year or something to be on, on his platform. So I, you know, I, I didn't think they had the money to do that. Apparently they do. Do

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I mean, at some point, Rumble's gonna have to become a subscription service.

Sir Gene:

You think that would work?

Dude Named Ben:

Yes, I think so.

Sir Gene:

Not without a good

Dude Named Ben:

Well, that's that's the point. I think that they're gonna have to stay free until they can get the content and the UI stuff down and then as Google Google has a choice then to continue its censorship and ad based model or rumble switches then to a Hey everybody's here, you know and really rumble would need to be See, the problem is, you already have so many conservative streaming sites like Daily Wire and so on. Do you ever see Rumble getting to the point where they can do a deal with Daily Wire, Blaze, WPN, all of them, and say, Hey, Come here, we'll have one subscription service for everybody, everybody, you know, go the, the new conservative cable TV.

Sir Gene:

I think that would limit them more than they want to be. Cause I think they want to just beat YouTube because the rumble algorithm I think is it's not as optimized for money. It's more optimized the way YouTube's used to be,

Dude Named Ben:

Right, but, but how do you make a business model out of Rumble? My point

Sir Gene:

Well, rumble is I mean, it's saying it's just a copy of YouTube.

Dude Named Ben:

yes, but because of the content, they're not going to get the ad sales.

Sir Gene:

I don't know why they wouldn't. I mean, if. You know, if, if

Dude Named Ben:

Brand safe.

Sir Gene:

if Bud was smart, that's exactly what they would be doing is buying ads on Rumble and conservative shows saying, no, really, Bud Light is not woke.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. Well, but they've proven that they are,

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

which getting into that topic, just store sales of Bud Light is down over 20%.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing, huh?

Dude Named Ben:

Bud Light is having to give distributors beer to keep them in business.

Sir Gene:

Mm

Dude Named Ben:

I think Anheuser-Busch InBev just, if they do not recover from this very quickly,

Sir Gene:

hmm. Mm

Dude Named Ben:

I think Bud Light's done as the number one beer out there.

Sir Gene:

I think you're right. I don't think anybody outside the U. S. drinks it either, do they?

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. They, it's the number one beer in the world.

Sir Gene:

Right. But isn't, I just kind of assumed that was because the U. S.

Dude Named Ben:

No, it's all over, dude. At the Dubai airport, they had Bud Light on tap.

Sir Gene:

Oh my God, that's, it makes me think Dubai is not all that anymore.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I'm just telling you that Budweiser is out there and all around the world. It just is.

Sir Gene:

Well, well, I don't know. I guess I, it's hard for me to really comment on a topic. I don't really know. I don't drink beer in general. We've had this conversation. I'm if anything, I drink a Corona.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, like I said, I'm, which is owned by Anheuser Busch and Beth. Yes. So, I normally, I, I, I don't normally drink Bud Light, but I did drink a Anheuser Busch product. And when I went through that, and I was at Sam's the other day, I had a choice to make. And I decided to buy a Miller product instead.

Sir Gene:

Is that the only two options?

Dude Named Ben:

You've got

Sir Gene:

better beer? Why don't you get a good beer, like from Europe?

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I do have good beers, as well. But, you know, sometimes after you mow the lawn or you're doing something outside and it's hot, you just want a, you know, lighter beer. And that's why St. Arnold's Lawnmower is a perfect example of that. You know, it's it's a little heavier than I want to.

Sir Gene:

Rolling Rock,

Dude Named Ben:

Oh God, no.

Sir Gene:

college beer?

Dude Named Ben:

Oh

Sir Gene:

you know, Rolling Rock may well be responsible for me not drinking beer. Because that's what every, all my friends drink down in college.

Dude Named Ben:

Odd.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, really? You know, that's like a cheap beer.

Dude Named Ben:

So in college, for me, it was always Keystone light that everybody drank. Cause it was the cheap beer for my college days. My dad, you know, it was Lone Star when he was a kid and

Sir Gene:

God, I haven't had a long, long start in a long time. Yeah, I, I don't know, man. It's a, I'm just trying to think. It's did I dislike that beer? I don't,

Dude Named Ben:

well, regardless, they are really. getting hit hard, and since they are not standing, here's the thing, they're getting a double whammy, because not only the conservatives saying, hey, yeah, until you apologize and really roll this back, no, screw you, and the fact that the conservatives, and there has been such a backlash. Among the average working person is amazing, but here's the funny thing since they have said, you know, Oh, well, this was a mistake. This was an outside ad agency. There was one can sent to Mulvaney. This was not meant to be this, da, da, da, da. Now there are bars in Chicago you know, LGBTQIA plus plus whatever. saying they're taking out Anheuser Busch for not standing with Dylan.

Sir Gene:

Oh, my God.

Dude Named Ben:

So, literally, they're getting hit from both sides.

Sir Gene:

And this is why companies hate this shit.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, and quite frankly, this is why I think Bud Light as a brand is... And potentially, you know, Anheuser Busch and Bevis big enough that I think they'll survive it,

Sir Gene:

self respecting gay man would drink that? I

Dude Named Ben:

what do you mean?

Sir Gene:

mean, it's a shit beer. Like I can't see anybody like standing up for drinking a shit beer.

Dude Named Ben:

I mean, but dude, it's literally the most popular beer in the world.

Sir Gene:

The fact that it tells you something about the world. The fact

Dude Named Ben:

A lot of people like cheap beer.

Sir Gene:

the fact that Dylan would be seen, you know, dead with a Bud Light is. It must've been a lot of money because I can't imagine that

Dude Named Ben:

I actually, I don't think it was. I think it was a little bit of money, and he's an influencer. I hate to say it, but whore that just anything, you know, and I think he...

Sir Gene:

You can't call him a whore dude. He's not promoted that many products.

Dude Named Ben:

I think his entire transition is him getting attention.

Sir Gene:

Attention. Yes. Attention whore or fine, but not like a promotion or did there's people on tick tock promoting like a product a day

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, well, okay. I mean, I guess it depends on

Sir Gene:

to tick tack.

Dude Named Ben:

the level of prostitution you want

Sir Gene:

that's not even, he's nowhere near horse status.

Dude Named Ben:

I mean, he's not a streetwalker, okay, fine. He's a little higher end call girl, sure.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. The Kardashians have him like they run circles for promotion

Dude Named Ben:

Again, okay, not a streetwalker, cool.

Sir Gene:

I, I think this, this very well was a lesson to Dylan as well, because I think this is

Dude Named Ben:

he didn't, he, he didn't say anything for weeks. He went dead silent for weeks. Which is shocking.

Sir Gene:

of being a fake girl. I picked the bad beer to advertise.

Dude Named Ben:

Whoopsie!

Sir Gene:

Huh.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, you know, I think it, so, there was a a YouTube channel that popped up that you may be familiar with, that I was listening to last night, and this guy's making a case that You know, the conservative backlash is coming, and he's somewhat fearful of what that means, and so on, but it was an interesting analysis, but I

Sir Gene:

the channel name?

Dude Named Ben:

I'll have to look it up on YouTube, but I, I think that that's right. I think that we have pushed things to the point where we're getting very close to a jump the shark moment where, you know, this is just not okay.

Sir Gene:

Well, it'll be interesting if it happens. So 2023 is supposed to be the pivot year according to a book written by a friend of mine.

Dude Named Ben:

What if all this, alt hist, or, yeah, what if alt hist.

Sir Gene:

Oh, that's the, no, I don't think I watched that one. Or maybe I have, I'll have to see the, yeah, when I look at the logo, I'll, I'll remember. But so about 10, 12 years ago a couple of guys that I know wrote this book called Pendulum and kind of chronicles a a shift between two polar opposites with an 80 year cycle. So it's,

Dude Named Ben:

which is pretty much the four turnings, thoughts, everything.

Sir Gene:

It, it, yeah, it's a little different but it's like they're not,

Dude Named Ben:

JCD has talked about this 80 year cycle as well.

Sir Gene:

yeah, I've sent him a book. I've sent him a copy and Adam a copy of the book years ago. JCD was supposed to be writing a book like this, which is one of the reasons that I sent him a copy of this one, so he could actually read it and, you know, either quote from it or just talk about how he disagrees. But in that book, the, the year of the edge of the pendulum is 2023. And 10 years ago, reading this, this seemed like crazy, like what the hell could possibly be happening in 2023? Well, things are lighting up nicely in 2023 being the pivot year. And the swing of the pendulum is between individualism and, what's the opposite of that collectivism, exactly. And right now, we are at the very edge of collectivism. And the last time that we were at the same place would have been 80 years ago, which would have been 1943. And it goes back about 2, 000 years.

Dude Named Ben:

hopefully we can get back to post World War II days. That would be nice.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Well, and that's, that's the thing. So, like the, the polar opposite edge of in the individualism was 1983 and I definitely go along with that because I remember in 1983 and it was a decade of individualism and certainly in the early eighties you know, the, the, the, It was, I think individualism in a lot of ways equates with free unbridled capitalism, and it certainly was that. So if this pattern holds, which they've identified this pattern, like I said, going back thousands of years then we are starting to go towards individualism and away from collectivism, which the way that it would be recognizable for the average person, I think is just conservatives winning more. And all the socialist organizations losing more,

Dude Named Ben:

Mm hmm. Well,

Sir Gene:

it's a long way to go.

Dude Named Ben:

we can hope.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah. So that that's, here's the two thoughts. So according to that theory, then that's good for America, right? Because people are finally fed up enough. They're starting to push back and we're going to go away from the current direction of this country, which is very much trying to emulate China.

Dude Named Ben:

Mm

Sir Gene:

Um, however, if this theory does not hold and America keeps going the way it is going I think it's it's literally just a matter of time until there is a dissolution of the United States because the, the difference in mentality of California and Texas, for example, or Florida and New York are further apart now than they even were during the the civil war, I think.

Dude Named Ben:

hmm. 100% agree. And you know, I, I, I really think that we are heading for very dangerous times, and I think this this video I was watching, which I'll, I'll send to you, was making some very interesting points right along that Same thought pattern of, hey if things don't turn around, if the if, if there isn't a swing in the opposite direction, you're going to end up with a breakup of the country. I mean, there's no two ways about it. You're going to end up, basically, the summarization of the video is, If we do not allow for peaceful revolution of the pendulum swinging back the other way, we make violent revolution inevitable. And I, I very much think that's where we're

Sir Gene:

I like the way you said that.

Dude Named Ben:

Because what, what it comes down to is, there are people like us who are definitely straining against the bounds of this societal pressure that we feel. And, you know, we're older you know, we're not twenty

Sir Gene:

I am you're, you're young yet.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, but I'm not twenty something that, dude, the rate of male virginity has gone through the roof.

Sir Gene:

Yeah,

Dude Named Ben:

That is a scary thing, and if you don't realize why, you know, some prudes would sit there and go, Oh, well that's a good thing. No, it's not. No, it's not. You want to see a revolution? Take everything away from young men. And on top of that, make sure that they have no alleviation of any testosterone levels. Guess what? It's not going to go well. Well, you know, I say that, but Jesus Christ, the testosterone levels in these kids are so low that maybe it doesn't. But that would be the only reason why. Historically, this would be a very bad thing.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I, I agree. And, and I think I've mentioned this before that if it wasn't for the continuous illegal flow of immigrants to the U. S. The U. S. would not have nearly as good of a age curve. As it does right now.

Dude Named Ben:

Yes, this is very true.

Sir Gene:

So yeah, it's, it's definitely a problem, but I don't know, I guess I've just, I've spent so many years, well, a decade now watching this pendulum getting edging closer and closer and closer to to the, the, God, why am I forgetting that word again? Not, not socialist. It's a collectivist to the collectivist side that I've almost forgotten what it looks like when it's going the other way.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I look forward to it going the other way. So,

Sir Gene:

I forgot to turn my phone off. Sorry about that.

Dude Named Ben:

Charles Coronation.

Sir Gene:

I didn't see it.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I didn't watch it either, but I did find it hilarious. Did you see the giant penis that someone mowed into the lawn in front of where he was getting coronated?

Sir Gene:

I did not.

Dude Named Ben:

You should Google this, because it's hilarious.

Sir Gene:

Okay. I'll

Dude Named Ben:

Like it, they, the, so the UK said, Hey, no protests on coronation day. You cannot, you know, protest the coronation of our King. No. So again, it comes down to those. You can't silence people when you do things like this happen. And it's hilarious. So I encourage anyone to like Google just. Charles, Coronation, Penis. And you will see this big cock and bollocks literally mowed into the lawn in front of where he's going to be coronated.

Sir Gene:

Mm. Yeah, that's hilarious. So, I'll dig out the photo. And then, so he's coronated, he's officially the king now and everything? Mm. Mm.

Dude Named Ben:

What's her face is now Queen Consort.

Sir Gene:

Right, because that was the promise that she would never be queen.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, she, she can't be. She, the lineage is through him. So if he dies, I mean... Then she has no power. She would just be the queen mother.

Sir Gene:

Well, okay, so then Diana would have been the same thing? I thought there was a distinction that they were trying to make between Diana or she can't be, I guess she, she wasn't princess. That's what it was. She could never have been princess, but she, she can be the, the consort. Okay.

Dude Named Ben:

You know, I am not a Royal watcher, so I very well may be wrong on this. I just found the image of the dick, which I think Charles is hilarious.

Sir Gene:

no, I think that is hilarious. There's a, I watched a really funny British comedy show they, they had about the Royal family called the Windsors. If I, I think it's on Amazon, I don't know, maybe it's on something else, but they had three seasons, but you know, British seasons are like five episodes. But they had, they, they did started it prior to the redhead getting married, the black chick and then kind of finished up with that wedding. So it, it was really funny. Like the actors they got were. Marginally similar looking, but the mannerisms were absolutely spot on. So if you can get past the, in the first episode of the fact that, well, it doesn't really look like Charles what's going on here. The mannerisms are hilarious. And I think that portrayal of the, the royal family is a bigger insult than just about anything else. Cause it's very true to life.

Dude Named Ben:

Good to know.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Like how Charles is completely. So removed from reality that, you know, he, he has, he has his own town and

Dude Named Ben:

Oh my god.

Sir Gene:

makes ridiculous rules for that town based on, you know, environmentalism. It's funny. It's a funny series. I recommend people check it out. And it's again, episodes are short, a series is not very many episodes, but it is pretty damn funny.

Dude Named Ben:

eh. Well, I think that it's gonna be interesting to see where the UK goes with their new monarch.

Sir Gene:

Probably nowhere is my guess. Yeah. I think it'll be a bunch of nothing. I'm more interested in what will happen with the next monarch.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, will there be another monarch?

Sir Gene:

What, you think he's gonna have to, er kill the whole monarchy?

Dude Named Ben:

I I mean, he's pretty damn unpopular, dude.

Sir Gene:

William?

Dude Named Ben:

No, Charles.

Sir Gene:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I know Charles is, but I think William's pretty popular.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay, but does it survive Charles?

Sir Gene:

Oh, yeah, yeah. I think it'll thrive Charles. There's only two ways to get rid of the monarchy. One is to have a monarch who is willing to kill off any future for his kids. And then two... Is the, the British public does what the French are doing right now and burn the streets down saying we're not going to pay taxes any longer to keep these people living a luxury lifestyle.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, well, I, I don't know, I think the UK is pretty,

Sir Gene:

I don't think the government is going to do it. I don't think the politicians are going to defund the royalty anytime soon.

Dude Named Ben:

I don't know. We'll see. So, hey before we get into a couple more serious topics just another little light thing here. So... Have you looked at the Flipper Zero at all?

Sir Gene:

I had, but not for a while.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay, so it's been out for a little while, but they've been backordered and basically if you wanted to get one you had to get on eBay and spend over double. Well, they finally got back in stock and I picked one up to play with. Especially if you load, which it's very easy to load some of these other firmwares on there that you know, maybe don't follow country restrictions and things like that. Holy crap, is this a useful little

Sir Gene:

Really?

Dude Named Ben:

Yes,

Sir Gene:

Okay.

Dude Named Ben:

so for instance, I immediately cloned my security badge for work and used it and it worked.

Sir Gene:

First step.

Dude Named Ben:

You can also jam things and do lots of things and it's it's got IR on

Sir Gene:

it lets you flip lights too, does it?

Dude Named Ben:

it lets you do all sorts of stuff so Any it allows you to clone garage door openers or whatever you can even add on wifi or Bluetooth if you want, well, Bluetooth is built into it, but well, you can add a wifi module. You can control it from your phone which is pretty nice, or you can use the interface. It's got a built in universal remote. So there was something on that was annoying. I can turn off the TV at a restaurant or whatever. But anyway, the, the badge cloning,

Sir Gene:

watch used to have that feature.

Dude Named Ben:

I'm sorry,

Sir Gene:

My watch, I used to have a watch that had that feature.

Dude Named Ben:

right. But one of the things that I found so interesting was how easy it was to clone my badge and it actually work.

Sir Gene:

Why wouldn't it be?

Dude Named Ben:

well, because there's, you have to do some nonce collect, there, there, there are some steps. So, I'm just saying. In, and we've seen RFID cloners and things like that in the past, but this is a consumer grade piece of electronics. This is something you can go buy off the shelf and, anyway, it, it's a very useful little pen testing tool. That's all I'm saying. I, I am very happy with that purchase.

Sir Gene:

Cool. And how much are they?

Dude Named Ben:

They were like a hundred and something bucks.

Sir Gene:

Oh, that's super cheap. I didn't realize they were that cheap.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. That's my point.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I've seen the video of a guy changing like traffic lights for that thing.

Dude Named Ben:

Depending on if it's a traffic light that has like an IR signal or you know, some frequencies depending on, you know, police vans or things like that. Yeah. But it's got a sub gigahertz radio in it. That's pretty cool. You could. Actually do quite a bit with it. So, I'm going to continue to play around with it and I'll let you know.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, that's, that's very cool.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, anyone who was on the fence or thinking about getting one and wanting to play around with it while they're in stock and you don't have to pay the two, three times a mark up on it. I am very happy that I got one because it's a, it's a cool little toy.

Sir Gene:

Who, who makes it? Is it the

Dude Named Ben:

their own company.

Sir Gene:

Oh, it's not the 5x5 guys or whatever?

Dude Named Ben:

No, it's not hack five.

Sir Gene:

Tech5.

Dude Named Ben:

Man, hack five makes a lot of cool stuff too, though. And they

Sir Gene:

I remember when those guys first started, I, I never, never would have thought that they would turn into a company.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I mean, they are actually a pretty serious security training company if nothing else.

Sir Gene:

I know, but they like the, the, it was like two guys and a chick and they were like, dorky,

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, but they were, but they're actually fairly decent hackers.

Sir Gene:

Eh. And okay. Okay. So back, this is.

Dude Named Ben:

And by the way, it's 1. 69.

Sir Gene:

169. That's still reasonable. Yeah, I, I thought they were very much on the light hacker side back when they started. That was also when I was running my, my,

Dude Named Ben:

they've gotten into ShmooCon repeatedly. I mean, they've shown their chops. And a lot of what they build out, their hardware is really pretty cool.

Sir Gene:

And that's, I think that's where I met him the first time with Smukon.

Dude Named Ben:

yeah. So, I mean, back in the day, the Wi Fi pineapple, which I still have was a fantastic little device. The USB rubber ducky. It was a fantastic little device. There's lots of stuff that they've put out over the years and now with some of the Bash stuff the Land Turtle, I mean, they're, they've got, they've just continued to evolve. They've continued to update the Wi Fi Pineapple to make it even better. You know, they

Sir Gene:

I'm impressed. I mean, that's, that's very cool. Cause. Like I said, I just, know, I, I just did not think that they were going to have a real company out of it, but good for them.

Dude Named Ben:

So, we've had some incidences here. Do you want to talk about the one that happened last night? Or do you want to talk about New York?

Sir Gene:

What happened in New York?

Dude Named Ben:

So, New York subway three people restrained a guy, ended up, he ended up dying because he was held in a chokehold too long after he had come on the subway and started threatening people.

Sir Gene:

Oh, so you deserved it.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I don't know that he deserved to die, but he engaged in threatening behavior to a car of trapped people and when three people Decided to restrain him because of his behavior, which one of the people Restraining him was black and the guy filming it was Hispanic. So to say that this is racially motivated. I do not believe it's true

Sir Gene:

This is a black guy.

Dude Named Ben:

It was a black guy. You know, him being held down, people are like, Oh, well, the Marine, you know, he should have been trained or he was trained to do whatever. No Marines are not trained to subdue people.

Sir Gene:

No, they're trying to kill people.

Dude Named Ben:

And what it comes down to is this guy, I, I, I'm not going to say he deserved to die because I don't think he did, but he, through his actions, put his own life in jeopardy.

Sir Gene:

That makes sense. I think was he mentally ill? Do we know?

Dude Named Ben:

He was homeless. He'd been arrested arrested over 40 times.

Sir Gene:

Wow.

Dude Named Ben:

you know, he, he was not some, Innocent. And here, here's the thing, the AOC has come out immediately, and said you know, he was murdered, which is just, there's no evidence for this. And you know, I, I think, you remember the kid that CNN and everybody said was in the face of the Indian and it turned out that he wasn't, I can't remember his name.

Sir Gene:

I remember.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay, well, he, he got defamation suits through that ended up getting him a decent amount of money, if you remember. So, I, I think very much this Marine is going to be able to sue the crap out of AOC if he wants, based off of her rhetoric.

Sir Gene:

Well, where did she say it? If she said it on the floor of the house, then

Dude Named Ben:

No, she said it on an interview on YouTube. It is not protected

Sir Gene:

That's the kind of shit you have to say for the house.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, that means save it for the House floor, sure,

Sir Gene:

Yeah, and that's, if anybody doesn't know, this is one of the little rules they came up for themselves. Is anything said by a member of the house on the house floor,

Dude Named Ben:

it's constitutionally mandated.

Sir Gene:

it's a bullshit rule.

Dude Named Ben:

No, it's not.

Sir Gene:

I think it is. I think it's a bullshit

Dude Named Ben:

No.

Sir Gene:

Can we say what the rule is or are you just going to keep saying no?

Dude Named Ben:

okay. Okay. So, what the rule is, is that congressmen and women are politically immune. They have how do you want to phrase it? Indemnity. Whenever they are traveling to or from A session of Congress, and during a session of Congress. Literally, and this goes back to if you remember during the, some of the stuff leading up to the Civil War, there was a guy nearly beaten to death on the House floor and no charges were brought, because guess what? They have political immunity.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. So,

Dude Named Ben:

a congressman

Sir Gene:

they can say anything they want, they can lie outright, and nobody can sue them.

Dude Named Ben:

they can kill someone and they cannot be charged

Sir Gene:

I'd love to see that demonstrated, but

Dude Named Ben:

I mean we have a case from the 1800s of someone literally beating someone nearly to death and not getting charged

Sir Gene:

1800s were a different time.

Dude Named Ben:

Yes, when I should have been born.

Sir Gene:

I don't know dude, I suspect, had you been born in the 1800s, you'd be talking about how great the 1700s were, and how you were born at the wrong time. Thank you. When all the great men lived in the

Dude Named Ben:

I probably wouldn't have lived very long let's face it

Sir Gene:

Ah, you would have lived long enough to say that.

Dude Named Ben:

Back in my day. Yeah, So, you know,

Sir Gene:

I want to live in the 2700s. That's my preferred time period.

Dude Named Ben:

the, the whole point is the, the coroner you know, ruled this a homicide, which means somebody caused a death, which is true. But again, I, I

Sir Gene:

Whitey going down.

Dude Named Ben:

I'm sorry,

Sir Gene:

Whitey's going down.

Dude Named Ben:

well, you know, we'll see. I don't think he did anything wrong. I really don't. I think, unfortunately, the guy who lost his life put himself in jeopardy.

Sir Gene:

And had this happened in Texas, that probably would have been the case. But given that it's not. Yeah,

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, given New York City, it's it's going to be a. Very big fight, 100%. Now, the other thing I'll say is The cops, this was a 15 minute encounter. The cops didn't respond in that time.

Sir Gene:

That's to be expected, I think.

Dude Named Ben:

I, I think that's a little ridiculous. I mean,

Sir Gene:

fast do you think the cops are?

Dude Named Ben:

thought the cops, you know, regularly had Officers stationed at subway stations.

Sir Gene:

Mmm, I'm surprised the cops ever responded. New York is one of those cities where I think the cops are either working for the mob or they're only going to show up after everything's cooled down just to take statements.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, the cops, the cops in New York did not arrest anyone involved. So... You know, the mayor has already backed off some of the rhetoric that has been put out there because I think this is a pretty clear self defense, defense of others case. So,

Sir Gene:

a case where some black dude got killed or something and then Obama came out and talked about how this needs to get prosecuted? And then it turned out the guy was, you know, a criminal.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, and you know, I will say this, I don't like the way, this is all very much being compared to George Floyd and Derek Chauvin. And, I will say this, as much as I, I, you know, how I feel about police force and how I think they go way too far sometimes, given everything we know now about George Floyd. What was going on and what happened.

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

I don't believe Derek Chauvin should be in prison right now, much

Sir Gene:

Not for that.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, not for that. I'm not saying he's a good guy. I'm not saying I don't know anything about him. But I think the amount of force that he used during the encounter with Floyd was, in fact, he would have probably been better off. He would have been better served by using more force and using a taser on Floyd instead of doing what he did.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, he should have punched him out and put him in the back of the squad and left him in there.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I don't know about punching him out, but tase him, and get him in there,

Sir Gene:

Yeah, metaphorically.

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, anyway, my, my point is, we have a situation in this country that is really the worst possible combination. One, we have... Police being less and less supported in these blue areas, which is going to make violent encounters with the police far more likely because, you know, cops are going to feel persecuted, so they're going to be on edge,

Sir Gene:

Yeah, of course.

Dude Named Ben:

then you have civilians that are seeing it. More and more crime escalating and escalating, you know, in, in, we see 20 some odd people be pushed onto the tracks in New York City over the last year.

Sir Gene:

Holy shit.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, exactly. So, if you're on the subway and someone's threatening violence and saying, I'm ready to die and all this.

Sir Gene:

Hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

Hey, I'm going to take that seriously. So now you're going to see what people will see as vigilantism. But I don't think that was the case here. I think this was defense of others. You know, subduing this guy and holding him

Sir Gene:

Help, help me clarify something is vigilante ism simply any time that a civilian non officer takes a legal action into their own hands or is vigilante ism only when it's done in retrospect, because I have this,

Dude Named Ben:

is very much in the eye of the beholder.

Sir Gene:

you're not really helping that.

Dude Named Ben:

What do you mean?

Sir Gene:

Well, I mean, so it could be anything is what you're saying.

Dude Named Ben:

The way the left has used it, if I defend myself and end up. Killing someone who's attacking me, that could be seen as vigilante justice. The way I would personally define it is if I am wronged, I go to the cops, they're not doing anything about it, and I go out and do something about it myself. That would be vigilantism to me. Which may or may not be a bad thing, in my mind.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Cause it, it, I had this impression that it's, it's basically somebody that's going out. acting as a law enforcement official without having the the authority to do so.

Dude Named Ben:

Again, I'm wrong. Something has happened. And, you know, let's say someone stole something from me. I report that to the police. They're doing nothing about it. So then I say, okay, well, I'm gonna go do something about it.

Sir Gene:

All right. I guess that's what it is. And I, I think that there's nothing wrong with that as long as while you're doing that, you're not breaking other laws.

Dude Named Ben:

Give me an example.

Sir Gene:

Well, so let's say that you've got somebody that just robbed the store and you're watching it happen. And then. You are in a position to and choose to tackle the guy as he comes out of the store and then hold him down, lean on his neck until you know, real authority show up. Like to me, that's vigilantism is you're taking the law into your hands. You're acting as a law enforcer at that point in time. But

Dude Named Ben:

So essentially what these three guys did on the

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I don't think you're, you're breaking a law or you shouldn't be anyway, breaking the law by doing that. Although I'm sure that the the perpetrator of the crime or the victim of your crime, if there is one, is gonna argue that it was illegal arrest or whatever.

Dude Named Ben:

Unlawful imprisonment.

Sir Gene:

Arrest, yeah. To me that seems, that's the kind of shit that from common sense, it should be allowed, is that... If you're a witness to a crime and you're, but there's also a difference, right? Between taking and tackling somebody and bringing them down to the ground and holding them there or just beating the crap out of them. And they, they die as a result. Like one is crossing that legal boundary, in my opinion, or let's take an earlier example of, of you watch somebody, you know, rob a grocery area, some kind of store jewelry store. Let's say, and then you tackle him after the fact and then you tie his hands behind his back and you string up on a tree and wait till he stops dangling.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, you know, AOC compared this to lynching. So, there you go.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I mean, that's, but I, I think that's just a, like a, a big example or a extreme example, I would say that would be lynching.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I, I think it's an incorrect, you know, comparison. I, I think that, again, by going... On yelling, screaming, throwing the fit that he was throwing, threatening people. Those choices put his life in danger.

Sir Gene:

Isn't there a first amendment issue then? Since when did words become violence?

Dude Named Ben:

Okay, he was, my understanding is there was violent action taken. Like pushing, shoving,

Sir Gene:

I didn't see the video, so I don't

Dude Named Ben:

And, and in New York in New York Threats of violence can be considered assault under New York State law. So

Sir Gene:

But should they though?

Dude Named Ben:

I'm not here to make that argument.

Sir Gene:

So we'll see what happens. My guess is that the white guy ends up in jail

Dude Named Ben:

I wouldn't be surprised.

Sir Gene:

because I don't think they're going to let that go.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, so just to use his name, Jordan Neely was the guy who died and I'm not gonna use the Other people involved because I don't think he was I I don't believe they should be found at fault he was again arrested many many times so And on some violent crimes, he's been arrested for assault and other things. So 40 arrests

Sir Gene:

but somebody's

Dude Named Ben:

prior assault, disorderly conduct, you know?

Sir Gene:

that would just go towards character, but it, just cause somebody has been arrested doesn't mean that you could just really beat them up and kill them.

Dude Named Ben:

No, but I'm, I'm here. Here's the thing. I think it's a. Very strong statement to say that he was arrested 40 times, you know If he had been arrested once would that say anything about his character? No, but you know since he's been arrested that many times He's obviously

Sir Gene:

and I think this goes to my argument for reopening asylums. Are

Dude Named Ben:

You know, I I that thought crossed my mind

Sir Gene:

you growing, are you growing on my argument?

Dude Named Ben:

Well, this is obviously someone who should have been taken care of in some way shape or form now and I don't think that asylums are Mental wards should should just totally disappear, but I, where you and I differ is what is the level that we go to as a, how do I put this, as a bar for entry. Right.

Sir Gene:

I don't know that, why we would differ. I'm just saying that anybody ought to be able to not be committed involuntarily.

Dude Named Ben:

All right, say that again.

Sir Gene:

I, okay, I said that poorly, but I'm not for involuntary commitment. I am for commitment though.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay.

Sir Gene:

So what that means is you can't just talk to a shrink and say, yeah, this guy's crazy. We need to commit them. I think you need to have a court case that decides that.

Dude Named Ben:

Mm hmm. Okay. So, how, what, what would the initiation of that court case be, though, is

Sir Gene:

Well, the initiation I think would be just like what's been in the past historically which is that. You know that there's a I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Actually, I guess I have to say that I've not been involved in any of these. I don't have any personal experience with them. So I'm not sure what the initiation would be, but I think that there ought to be a method to have a jury of your peers be able to judge you mentally.

Dude Named Ben:

so that, that's another important thing, is it should be a jury, not a judge.

Sir Gene:

It should be a jury and not a judge and not a doctor.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay.

Sir Gene:

Like the doctor should be showing the jury why this person ought to be committed. And this person should sure as hell be able to speak in their own defense as to why they shouldn't,

Dude Named Ben:

Mm hmm.

Sir Gene:

if they want it to speak in their own defense.

Dude Named Ben:

So that I can agree with. What I can't agree with is the way menstrual institutions were used throughout the 1900s and up until the 1980s

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Yeah. And in other countries, all the time, even now

Dude Named Ben:

well, I mean, one flew over the cuckoo's nest is not totally out of the realm of reality here, unfortunately.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, that was a good movie. I should rewatch that. It's been many years since I've seen Jack Nicholson at his peak.

Dude Named Ben:

All right. So next tragic story we've got to talk about what happened in Allen, Texas

Sir Gene:

Yeah. What the fuck dude? I've been at that mall.

Dude Named Ben:

I have not. But yeah, so eight dead seven injured as of right now. And I want everyone to really think about this. I haven't looked to see if this mall would, but a lot of the malls do pause post 30 out five, 30 out, six, 30 out, seven signs. This is absolutely an argument for people to carry.

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

That, there is, had someone been armed right there and involved, we would have seen less

Sir Gene:

And, and again, there's an example of vigilantism

Dude Named Ben:

Well,

Sir Gene:

shut back,

Dude Named Ben:

the, the reason why this person only shot and killed as many as they did, was because a cop was nearby, happenstance, heard the shots, and engaged and killed the shooter.

Sir Gene:

So do we know anything about the shooter? Is this another tranny or what?

Dude Named Ben:

I don't know anything about the shooter. As far as I know, his name hasn't been released. This happened literally yesterday evening.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. So I'm kind of surprised they haven't released the name yet.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. And you know, we're saying him, we don't know.

Sir Gene:

Speaking, it's probably a transsexual male. I'm

Dude Named Ben:

you say this, but anyway,

Sir Gene:

saying it with a smile on my face, but it is likely a male. I mean, it's very few female shooters out there,

Dude Named Ben:

yeah. Well, we will see. The, the point is, and I really seriously want everyone to think I didn't carry for a long time because of the concealed carry laws you and I were talking I guess over a year ago at this point, and you expected me to be more of a carrier than I am, and we it, it got me thinking, and, you know, I, I, anytime I leave the house now, I'm, unless I'm going somewhere where I know I can't, I carry, and you know, even then I'll have a gun with me up until the point I can't and, you know, I would encourage people to read and understand the penalties that can be exacted on you under a 30 0 5 sign and make your decision based off of that. So I'm not

Sir Gene:

that's a Texas specific thing, but yeah,

Dude Named Ben:

It is a Texas specific thing, but this shooting also happened specifically in Texas, so.

Sir Gene:

Well, and I, I generally only carry in the sense that I have a gun in the car. I almost never have one on me, especially if I'm going shopping. Partly because it it's well now I actually don't have an excuse cause I have a gun that's small enough, but generally the guns I've preferred shoot have been full size. And I've never liked the,

Dude Named Ben:

It's not comfortable to conceal a full

Sir Gene:

yeah, it's it's, it's basically unconcealable, like people know that one side of your body is sticking out more than the other side for whatever reason, it's not hard to figure out what that reason is. So while I've, I think there's a benefit having a gun in relatively close proximity in the car. I've not been particularly good. Like I wouldn't have done diddly squat in this scenario because if I would have been shopping, I wouldn't have had the gun on me. It would have been in the parking lot and that would not be the right place for it. So really what we need is people just getting used to having guns in open carry.

Dude Named Ben:

well, and actually I'll send you a video, but John Lovell warrior pro society recently did a video kind of changing his mind on open carry and. I think this is a perfect scenario where I, I personally will not open carry because I want the advantage of people not knowing that I have a firearm. That said, thank God for the people who do. And I think we need more of it because it does set a different tone. And

Sir Gene:

open carry

Dude Named Ben:

yep.

Sir Gene:

and there's a reason fewer crimes are committed in the presence of a cop. It's not because people are afraid of cops. Because people are afraid of guns,

Dude Named Ben:

Well, they have the ability to exact force immediately if need be. So anyway.

Sir Gene:

everyone who carries. Is

Dude Named Ben:

Yes, it is a shame that this person is dead. I am not a fan of the trend that we see where shooters are just shot dead

Sir Gene:

there a reason why you don't think it's a good thing?

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. I wanna see a trial. I wanna see.

Sir Gene:

It saves the state so much money. These trials are multi million dollar trials.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. We also need to understand what's going on and why, you know, what was this person's motivation? I, I don't wanna see something like,

Sir Gene:

You don't think we'll find that by looking at their bedroom?

Dude Named Ben:

I'm sorry,

Sir Gene:

You don't think we'll find that by looking at their bedroom?

Dude Named Ben:

maybe, you know, look at what happened in Vegas. We still don't have an answer or motive prescribed to that. So, I don't think that's a great place to be.

Sir Gene:

no. I agree. But I, I think the Vegas thing really looked like a gun deal gone wrong.

Dude Named Ben:

That is my favorite pet theory as well, but, again, the official answer is, Gee, we don't know why he did it.

Sir Gene:

The biggest problem with what happened in Texas. Now it's kind of selfish to say this is that I can no longer stay in Vegas. Casinos and carry a gun.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay. Well, I don't know what I didn't know you could before.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, absolutely used to do that all the time. You know, that, that front side, the firearm school that as a member of you know, I used to be out there a couple of times a month and sometimes I want to stay closed, but a lot of times I would say in Vegas and then after the, you know, after we're done,

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, I have no idea what Nevada's laws are, and I don't know how they've changed them.

Sir Gene:

yeah, well, I had a Nevada concealed carry permit.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay, so why can't you take it into a casino

Sir Gene:

because casinos now will actually x ray luggage. And if they find the gun, whether you declare it or they find it, that gun will be put in the safe until you leave.

Dude Named Ben:

Really? So, you're going through a metal detector and luggage x ray when you go into a casino

Sir Gene:

Apparently, cause there's been multiple videos on people that have very innocently anticipated, just, you know, they're not, they're not doing anything weird, they're literally just stopping over in Vegas, maybe on a trip or something and the issues that they have. And across all casinos. It's not just one casino to avoid.

Dude Named Ben:

Interesting. Well, you know, I, I'm not a fan of that. And I'm, so it's interesting. Cause I had that experience in Qatar where going into the hotel, I was walking through a magnetometer and my luggage was x rayed and that was just anathema to me. It was okay. I don't want to ever stay here again. Oh, that's not just this hotel. It's all hotels.

Sir Gene:

I kind of actually don't mind that. And that, that was,

Dude Named Ben:

a

Sir Gene:

was my experience in in Russia as well. I don't know. I mean that as long as everyone's going through it, I don't mind.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I I mind because I, again, like freedom.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Fair enough. But it, it, you know, it's a private business,

Dude Named Ben:

I I don't care, I still like freedom. Heh.

Sir Gene:

but you know, one of the things we have in Texas here is that a lot of businesses like to in fact post is to say we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, and I don't think that's a real thing.

Sir Gene:

it is.

Dude Named Ben:

It's not.

Sir Gene:

I'll look up the law. Good. Keep talking.

Dude Named Ben:

Anyway, it's a, it's a tragedy. I feel very bad for the people who lost their lives. And,

Sir Gene:

Eight people.

Dude Named Ben:

the left is already using this to make gun control arguments and everything else. And

Sir Gene:

Well, of course they are. It's, it's unfortunate, of course, that it happened in Texas. But I think in the grand scheme of things, if you look at the amount of people that actually die to this type of shooting, your odds of dying in a car accident are much higher.

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, absolutely.

Sir Gene:

So, it is what it is, but I have been to that mall when I used to live in DFW. That was one of the places to go to buy. You know, name brands for cheap,

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, it's an outlet mall

Sir Gene:

cheap being relative

Dude Named Ben:

Right. Last year's

Sir Gene:

25% cheaper

Dude Named Ben:

Well, one of the things I'll, I'll say, and then we can kind of move on to whatever else. This was a case where a good guy with a gun could have really helped out a lot. And unfortunately they had to wait several minutes for the officer to respond. Thankfully, a single lone officer did. When you look at what happened in Uvalde

Sir Gene:

where nobody

Dude Named Ben:

opposite of that, and I don't know that the officer's name has been released, but whoever he is that, that's a good cop, doing what he should have done.

Sir Gene:

It's absolutely, I mean, that's, and, and to your point, it's what anyone that had a firearm should have done

Dude Named Ben:

Yes.

Sir Gene:

regardless of being a police deputized or not. So I am curious to see what this turns into. Now, the last few shooters, it seems have been lefties. So I'm curious to see if this is yet another lefty lefty with a gun. Because, honestly, this is, this is my biggest worry about Austin, is there's a lot of annoyances in Austin, but my biggest worry about Austin is a leftist with a gun. Because we have way more leftists here than anywhere else in Texas. But yet our gun count isn't really all that much lower than the rest of Texas.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, we'll see. I, I think that,

Sir Gene:

one, I hope not to see. I'm hopefully going to move out of here before I get to see anything with a leftist with a gun.

Dude Named Ben:

well, you better get to moving, Gene.

Sir Gene:

I know I'm, I'm, you know, I'm looking, I'm looking, I have a, I have a an idea of what I want. The area is fairly sprawling. You know, I'm not set to any one particular area. I'm shockingly impressed that in the middle of nowhere, Adam has five gigabit fiber

Dude Named Ben:

Well, he's not in the middle of nowhere, though.

Sir Gene:

re relative middle of nowhere.

Dude Named Ben:

I, I don't think Fredericksburg could be qualified as the middle of nowhere, but

Sir Gene:

If, if you drive to his house, it's the middle of nowhere, dude. It's like ranch land around him. It's not really he's not in the middle of Fredericksburg. He's kinda on the peripheries and obviously close enough to get fiber, but you would be surprised that they bother dragging fiber out there, given how few houses there are.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, cool.

Sir Gene:

But it's, yeah, I mean, it's a year ago when I went to probably been close to a year when I went to buy rabbits to my rabbit dealer and that's not code for anybody. It's actual rabbits. But my rabbit dealer dealer was literally in the middle of nowhere in not even on the outskirts of a city. He's on the outskirts of a village and he still had either a gig or two gigs out there which surprised me at the time. just always assumed that if you're that far out, you're just going to be relying on Starlink.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, I think that should be your assumption.

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

You know, what it comes down to is there are, I mean, they're putting in fiber or lots of places. Here in call station, we're getting fiber all over the place. Brian's

Sir Gene:

Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

You know,

Sir Gene:

Where does that all shit, where does all that shit connect to? Because I know what the big cities did years ago, but what about the smaller cities, like College Station? Did they, do they have a fiber loop?

Dude Named Ben:

Oh yeah,

Sir Gene:

When did they get those? When did those originally get put

Dude Named Ben:

oh, there, there are data centers in college station. Brian cost station.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, like, when did that happen, you know?

Dude Named Ben:

Oh, oh, oh, long since before I was here. Yeah.

Sir Gene:

Really? So before you were in college.

Dude Named Ben:

yes.

Sir Gene:

Hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

Part of that's because of the university and everything else. You have to remember that the internet was literally built for the universities. So, there's internet 2 connections here and everything else.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. But that took a while. I mean, I, I got to imagine that there were plenty of colleges that were on shitty T1 lines back in the

Dude Named Ben:

sure, but not Texas A& M, which is one of the premier colleges, universities in the nation. Same reason why Austin has the infrastructure they have. Same reason why Lubbock has the infrastructure they have.

Sir Gene:

Lubbock has an infrastructure.

Dude Named Ben:

Sadly, yes.

Sir Gene:

I do not know this.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, Texas Tech you know, there's

Sir Gene:

that where Texas Tech is? I actually know a guy that went there. Yeah, I should probably know that.

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, yeah, the, I'm, I'm, don't get me started on the Red Raiders. Don't,

Sir Gene:

Is that a sporting team?

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, it's the Texas Tech. And get your guns up! Yeah,

Sir Gene:

hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

anyway. Waco, same thing. Waco has a lot of infrastructure because of

Sir Gene:

I always just think Waco is bigger than all these other places.

Dude Named Ben:

What do you mean?

Sir Gene:

I don't know if I think of

Dude Named Ben:

than Bryan College Station.

Sir Gene:

if I think of like big college towns, I think of Waco before I think of college station.

Dude Named Ben:

That, I don't know why Waco Hadn an existence before, well, not really before, but you know, Waco was a big community outside of the University College Station. Literally, this town did not exist before

Sir Gene:

So they just built a town on cheap land. Is that the deal?

Dude Named Ben:

No, they literally, the reason why it's called College Station is literally, it was the train station for the university.

Sir Gene:

but why did they build the university? There's my question.

Dude Named Ben:

Texas A& M was a land grant school. The state

Sir Gene:

So it was cheap land.

Dude Named Ben:

well, yeah, it was six miles south of Bryan, you know, at the time.

Sir Gene:

Mm. Texas tech had 40, 000 students. Holy shit. That's much bigger than I would have expected. How big is how many students does A& M have?

Dude Named Ben:

I'd have to look it up, but when I was at A& M, there was over 44, 000 students.

Sir Gene:

Oh, damn, that's pretty good size. Yeah. I don't, I don't know. I just. I didn't realize these schools were that big. I just assumed they were like, you know, 10, 000 students or something. So, yeah, I, it's probably more than anything. I'm just showing my

Dude Named Ben:

000 students, right, this year.

Sir Gene:

So it's about the same size as the university of Minnesota that I went to,

Dude Named Ben:

Yes, 70, 000, and then, let's see, about UT Austin.

Sir Gene:

Yeah.

Dude Named Ben:

So, here's the thing. I put in it's a, it's a funny thing. I, I put it in reverse. So,

Sir Gene:

Hmm. Oh,

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, Texas A& M is actually larger than UT Austin. UT

Sir Gene:

000. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That's about right for us. And I would have imagined it'd be relative. Okay. I did. I just didn't realize A& M was bigger.

Dude Named Ben:

when you look at the number of students in the three main Texas universities, it's

Sir Gene:

hmm. Mm hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

pretty damn big,

Sir Gene:

What's A& M stand for? Agriculture and mechanical. Okay. That's what it is. Is that still a big thing there?

Dude Named Ben:

what do you mean?

Sir Gene:

Do people get degrees in agriculture?

Dude Named Ben:

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And the ag school is huge. We have a vet school. We have one of the best vet schools in the nation. Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a big deal. One of the things I'd also like to point out is A& M was founded before TU.

Sir Gene:

Before the University of Texas?

Dude Named Ben:

Which, by the way, you know, anyway, always called it TU instead of UT.

Sir Gene:

1866. A& M. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting.

Dude Named Ben:

Yep, A& M graduated their first class before UT. And it was 1876, by the way.

Sir Gene:

Oh, they, they funded it in 1866 and it was named in 1870.

Dude Named Ben:

The 1871 was the first classes and so on.

Sir Gene:

Now I'm looking on their site here. Yeah, that's, that's very cool. I just did not realize it was as big of a school. I thought that the University of Minnesota was way too big. I would have enjoyed it much more had it been a smaller school.

Dude Named Ben:

well, it was a smaller school when I was there. But A& M also has... Three well, technically four plus campuses at this point as part of not the system, but actually the A and A Aggie school that gets the ring including, you know, Galveston and Qatar. So we were one of Qatar. Yep. A Doha.

Sir Gene:

That's hilarious.

Dude Named Ben:

Why?

Sir Gene:

I think it's funny as hell on that. Okay. Any American university with an overseas campus is funny.

Dude Named Ben:

I mean, Georgetown has an overseas campus.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, that's ridiculous.

Dude Named Ben:

Why?

Sir Gene:

Hey, it, it just is. I don't know. I can't explain ridiculous dude. That's just funny.

Dude Named Ben:

Okay.

Sir Gene:

It's just, you know, it's like American university. They're, they're just, they're cranking out spies or state department people, at least. No, I think it is pretty, pretty damn funny. The you know, Working in a, how do I phrase this?

Dude Named Ben:

Are 15 American universities with international campuses,

Sir Gene:

there you go. There you go. So that's, that's the 15 where the CIA has its recruitment offices.

Dude Named Ben:

dude. Robert Gates was president of Texas A& M when I was

Sir Gene:

Mm-hmm. makes sense. Oh, who are the other, do you have a list or just number? Mm-hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

there. I'm just looking at it right now. So, it's, it's fairly interesting. John Cabot University has one in Italy. McDaniel College has one in Budapest. American Business School, Paris. American University of Beirut. American University of Dubai. American University of Paris. New York University has a Florence, Italy campus. Franklin University, Switzerland. St. Louis University, Madrid. Schillner International University, multiple locations, not listed. Anyway, Duke has one in China. Interesting.

Sir Gene:

I knew that.

Dude Named Ben:

Duke has one in Singapore. Georgia Tech has one in France. St. John's has one in Italy and yeah, then A& M. And that, that can't be an exhaustive list because I know that there are some different ones that have overseas campuses, but it's actually quite a few, so.

Sir Gene:

Interesting.

Dude Named Ben:

According to Wikipedia, it's actually 28,

Sir Gene:

28th. Okay.

Dude Named Ben:

which looks more like it to me.

Sir Gene:

More likely. Yeah, I agree.

Dude Named Ben:

Cause like Georgetown is actually listed. They have one in Doha, Texas A& M is listed, obviously one in Doha. So.

Sir Gene:

Cool beans.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, A& M's Qatar campus actually was founded the year before I started at A& M.

Sir Gene:

Why isn't that convenient?

Dude Named Ben:

Okay, why is that convenient, Gene?

Sir Gene:

Oh, we'll just let people know they, they, they, they can make up their own minds.

Dude Named Ben:

I mean, I never went to the campus in Qatar, so

Sir Gene:

Sure. I buy

Dude Named Ben:

trip I ever made to Doha was here recently,

Sir Gene:

That's right. Of course. Naturally.

Dude Named Ben:

Anyway, alright man anything else we need to cover?

Sir Gene:

I don't know. It's been kind of a heavy week. I'm just trying to think other than the Bud Light stuff, if there's anything going on. Oh, do you have any book recommendations? I've got a book anti recommendation. Does that work?

Dude Named Ben:

Sure.

Sir Gene:

So, a book I've been reading lately, and by reading I mean listening,

Dude Named Ben:

Mm

Sir Gene:

my method of reading these days. What is this called? James Roscone's series, Into the Battle, Into the Stars, and there's one more. It's space sci fi.

Dude Named Ben:

hmm. Mm hmm.

Sir Gene:

I thought it looked pretty good. I bought the three of them. Not very good. So it's an anti recommendation. So if you see into the bell, into the stars or the other one by James Russ, Russell, R O S O N E Russ one, Russell, I don't know. So you can skip it. It's it has the right parts for what should be interesting. It's basically a future. Maybe a hundred years in the future, civilization finally develops faster than light travel through warm through a warp drive and,

Dude Named Ben:

Alcubierre Drive.

Sir Gene:

and finds a earth like planet somewhere, and it turns out that it's actually inhabited. And so there's aliens that look surprisingly like the avatar aliens. They're tall and blue and have braids of hair, but they also have four arms, which they make them. a little different from the avatar ones, I guess.

Dude Named Ben:

Mm hmm.

Sir Gene:

But you know, they're the bad guys and then the earth has to reunify and mobilize against saying it's just the book feels and maybe this is a pet peeve for me, but it feels more like you're watching a TV show or a movie, maybe we're in the TV show because it skips over a shit ton of details that I would have preferred in the book or even the TV show, which has more time than the movie. This feels more like a movie where we, we have a scene and then the next scene is two years later and where we've built the spaceships now and we're ready to go. And I, I would, I would prefer to get a lot more detail and more, you know, less time jumping and more actual, like what happened. So for that reason, I think I I'll still read the third one. I'm,

Dude Named Ben:

You're invested at this point.

Sir Gene:

yeah, I mean, and they're short, they're 10 hours each. So they're not particularly long books, but it's just one of those things where you, it's you know, it's like diet soda, like you want a soda, you don't want the sugar, you drink a diet soda, and then you go, yeah, I should have just had an iced tea because diet soda just doesn't taste as good as real soda.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah,

Sir Gene:

But I don't really want the real soda either. I don't really want that sugar. So I'll just, I should just get a nice tea.

Dude Named Ben:

Mm kay. Well, I do have a book recommendation.

Sir Gene:

got one to recommend. Go

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. So, The Dog Stars by Peter Heller which apparently he's a fairly popular author In the NPR class, it's a pretty good book, it's set in the near future, a super bug goes through and wipes out a bunch of people, and there's some after effects, and it's just post apocalyptic,

Sir Gene:

I buy it?

Dude Named Ben:

I'm sorry?

Sir Gene:

Should I buy it?

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, you'll like it.

Sir Gene:

2012. Looks like

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, it's not a new book in fact they may or may not develop a movie around it that's still up in the air it was popular enough that it looks like there might be.

Sir Gene:

10 hours, 41 minutes. All right. I bought it.

Dude Named Ben:

It's what?

Sir Gene:

10 hours and 41 minutes.

Dude Named Ben:

it's, it's a quick read. But it's compelling enough, it definitely left me wanting more. You know, I wish it would have been a longer book. There were some story arcs that I think could have been explored. He definitely could have written a sequel to it. You know, it, The characters were compelling enough. It's definitely a character driven driven read.

Sir Gene:

Hmm. That's well, I bought it, so it'll be on the list. 87 more books before it. Mm-hmm.

Dude Named Ben:

yeah, it, it, it's very reminiscent for me of The Earth Abides or Lucifer's Hammer or any of the, you know, good post apocalyptic books, one offs that you know. I, I, I think Jerry Neville could've written way more on Lucifer's Hammer, you know? Like that, that book should've been like a five book series.

Sir Gene:

not read that. What was that about?

Dude Named Ben:

What? You have not read Lucifer's Hammer? Are you kidding me? By Jerry Pornel?

Sir Gene:

I

Dude Named Ben:

You know,

Sir Gene:

is, but I haven't read the book.

Dude Named Ben:

oh my god, you, this skips to the top of the list, dude.

Sir Gene:

Oh, it was Larry Niven and Jerry

Dude Named Ben:

Larry Niven and Jerry Pornel,

Sir Gene:

I haven't read this, cause I've read a lot of Larry Nivens stuff.

Dude Named Ben:

Larry Niven and Jerry Pornel, anytime they team up, the books are fantastic. The Moat and God's Eye, all of it.

Sir Gene:

let's fix this right now. I'll get it right now.

Dude Named Ben:

So, the Lucifer's Hammer is about an asteroid or comet impact and the fallout. And there's even stuff about diabetics and insulin and the things that people don't think about in there that's just fantastic.

Sir Gene:

There we go.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, that, that is a phenomenal book, and absolutely should jump the line a bit. Mm hmm.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, I, I can move that up. Yeah. I, I, I just kind of. I've been reading a lot of space sci fi lately, or I, let me rephrase it of the of anything at all, but I've been reading that's fiction. Most of that fiction has been space sci fi lately. And I think not even, not, I'm not even necessarily in the mood for that. It's just that I bought a shit ton of space sci fi over the last few years.

Dude Named Ben:

hmm.

Sir Gene:

It makes up the bulk of my back backlog,

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. I mean, how many, how many books do you have in Audible?

Sir Gene:

like total books. Let me look there. Does it tell me 269? Boy, how many do you

Dude Named Ben:

Hold on, let me look

Sir Gene:

have? So now I'm going to make you look.

Dude Named Ben:

now you, you have to remember, I also get the Kindle version and do all that.

Sir Gene:

Well, you can't double count.

Dude Named Ben:

No, I'm

Sir Gene:

but keep in mind that Audible at some point lost a bunch of my books that I bought pre Amazon acquisition of Audible. I don't know how I missed this, but somehow I did not merge my accounts. so this represents the number of books purchased Since Amazon

Dude Named Ben:

open audible to download everything

Sir Gene:

I do now, but I did, I didn't 10 years ago.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah.

Sir Gene:

So I've actually lost books that I used to own.

Dude Named Ben:

I definitely have I don't know if I lost any when that happened, but I've a member since well before the purchase as well. So in my audible library right now I have 468 books,

Sir Gene:

So you got about double.

Dude Named Ben:

but you know, I, I go through roughly depending on, you know, certain things I go through about a book you know, a book or so a week

Sir Gene:

Yeah. And I,

Dude Named Ben:

that adds up quick.

Sir Gene:

like I, I read two books almost completely. So one and three quarters of a book last week on my trip, like there's nothing better than listening to an audio book when you're in a plane,

Dude Named Ben:

I tend to agree

Sir Gene:

it's, it's better than staring at your iPad, watching the movie, which is. You know,

Dude Named Ben:

Why

Sir Gene:

like not the right size screen. I'm not a fan of watching stuff in small screens. So, but an audio book, you just shut your eyeballs off, put them into park and just listen

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah.

Sir Gene:

and then your plan lands.

Dude Named Ben:

Oh man, we get some thunder and lightning

Sir Gene:

I heard that one, dude. That's that's actual thunder. That's not a TV set. Your wife turned on.

Dude Named Ben:

No, that's that's thunder. So,

Sir Gene:

that's nuts. All right, I'm going to send you a link to a a video that is a very impressive demo of where we are now with with game engines, because it looks like a movie.

Dude Named Ben:

I think you've, I've seen it.

Sir Gene:

Oh, have you?

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah. The unrecorded one or whatever,

Sir Gene:

Unrecorded?

Dude Named Ben:

where it's, it's not a pre rendered thing. It was a live render.

Sir Gene:

Yeah. Well, so this one's cyberpunk ish. I don't know if you've seen this one or not. I'll send it

Dude Named Ben:

Hmm.

Sir Gene:

But there's... Right now, there are very few games actually available on Unreal Engine five, which is the current version of Unreal, but the demos that are available. And there's a lot of demos they're literally movies. It's movie level quality in real time. It's amazing. It's, it's revolutionary. And I know, and forget about the fact that it's a video game. It's just a reality engine.

Dude Named Ben:

over the noise gate?

Sir Gene:

I do. I know it's loud.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah,

Sir Gene:

Yeah. So which way is it moving east or west?

Dude Named Ben:

I'm sure it's coming

Sir Gene:

It's usually moving.

Dude Named Ben:

north northwest.

Sir Gene:

Yeah, there's a big dip happening right now. I know I looked in the big weather map of the whole country and it looks like we've got a lot of Canadian air pushing down to Louisiana right now.

Dude Named Ben:

Yeah, it's actually coming from the southwest, interestingly enough.

Sir Gene:

So we got a low pressure zone over there,

Dude Named Ben:

All

Sir Gene:

but I don't have anything else, dude. That's, that's about it. You know, it was nice to we did take a break last week, but I actually, there was a new show uploaded because I was really slow in uploading. So there, the show from the previous week get uploaded last week. So we're back in schedule now.

Dude Named Ben:

Well, it was good to talk to you again, Gene, and we'll we'll catch you next week.

Sir Gene:

All right. Take care, Ben.

Dude Named Ben:

Bye.