041 Just Two Good Old Boys

Gene: 0:22

Hey Ben, how are you today?

Ben: 0:25

I'm doing well. Gene, did you, uh, figure out your v p N connection issues so it didn't look like you were

Gene: 0:30

coming from Russia? I did not. You know, it's weird. It seems like zoom that I'm traveling with, that it doesn't want to connect. Like other software is fine. I can surf the web, but, uh, yeah, I, I'm not in Russia, dude. I'm in Mexico.

Ben: 0:45

Ah-huh Sure

Gene: 0:46

you are. I, I even, I even sent you a picture of palm trees just to prove it. Yeah,

Ben: 0:51

it looked AI generated.

Gene: 0:54

Why, were they missing fingers?

Ben: 0:56

Missing fronds, yeah.

Gene: 0:58

I counted the number of fronds. That's a silly thing, man. Yeah, so, I'm sure people are noticing the audio quality is going to be shit on this one because we're both portable.

Ben: 1:08

Yeah, I was going to say that too. I've got some audio routing issues. I'm trying to... Set up a workstation to work with Linux and getting the Motu to work with Linux is not easy right now.

Gene: 1:19

So I didn't know it would work with Linux at all.

Ben: 1:23

So I think I've got it working except for figuring out the audio routing stuff. So we'll see hopefully by the next one. If not, I'll revert back to Windows until I can figure it out more. But we're recording this one late at night instead of our usual morning time. And

Gene: 1:40

so I don't know it's morning for me. I mean, it's night time I just had lunch. It's perfect. So, what's going on, man? I watched that Paxton prosecution video right before this. I texted you. Yeah. And, uh, man, I love that attorney, man.

Ben: 1:56

Oh, Paxton's attorney? Yeah, he did a good

Gene: 1:58

job. Oh, he's, he's one of those classic Texas attorneys that I used to sit and watch videos of all the time. You mean the good old Southern boy attorney? That's, that's right. The good old Southern boy attorney.

Ben: 2:11

Yeah, definitely the type of attorney you want on your side during that case. He roasted that witness. Oh, yeah,

Gene: 2:18

no, he did. And that that was not the only thing I mean, his speech was it's going to be studied man that speech he gave at the end is

Ben: 2:27

great. Well, I think Dan Patrick's speech is also going to be studied, and I think what Dan Patrick is kicking off on the investigation into what was spent and how this was handled and everything else is going to be a key thing.

Gene: 2:42

Oh, it was a witch hunt. There's no two ways about it. It's totally a witch hunt. Yeah.

Ben: 2:47

Did you see the news about Trump that dropped today? No. What happened? A New York judge has ordered the Trump Organization

Gene: 2:56

dissolved. Uh, which Trump? Like, the whole company?

Ben: 3:01

Multiple, multiple, multiple of his LLCs. There's a whole lift. How does that work? Um, summary judgment saying the Trump Organization should be dissolved.

Gene: 3:12

Yeah, but what was the rationale for it? They didn't pay taxes? What

Ben: 3:16

happened? Well, summary judgment on fraud on a civil suit, which is

Gene: 3:21

just insane. Civil suit can't bring the dissolution of a company.

Ben: 3:26

Hey, man, I'm, I'm just reporting this came out today. This is breaking news as far as when we were recording this. All I'm telling you is a judge in New York is wanting to try and dissolve it. I mean, I wouldn't,

Gene: 3:39

I'm not surprised, but I

Ben: 3:42

don't see that sticking. Well, you know, it's, uh, it's one of those things that it's definitely a, um, sign of the times, if you will.

Gene: 3:53

Oh yeah, no, it, the, the, uh, the volume knob has definitely been cranked to 11 by the, uh, socialists

Ben: 4:01

out there. Well, and this is just more evidence that I think they are panicking because if Trump does get back in, I think he's going for revenge, so.

Gene: 4:11

Yeah, and I think, given what happened in Canada, where, The truth just really wants to come out.

Ben: 4:20

You mean where the parliament clapped for a Nazi?

Gene: 4:24

A standing ovation with, uh, three minutes of non stop claptor and fist brazing. Yes. Yes, for a member of the Waffen SS. He fought against the Russians bravely during World War II. Nobody, it occurred to nobody whatsoever that the people... Fighting against the Russians, they were only two people, two, two types of people. The Japanese, which was a very minor skirmish during World War II with Russia. Or the Germans, which was a very major skirmish with Russia with 30 million dead. So yeah, truth really wants to come out. And I think, I think the reason that all these Nazis keep saying, well, there's no Nazis in Ukraine, they're not actually, honestly, well, they're correct. They're not actually Nazis anymore. They've switched to being international rather than national. So it's not the national socialist party. It's, it's really the international. So we just need to tweak one letter. A Nazi, to be correct. They're the Itzis.

Ben: 5:27

Itzis, I like it. It's, I like it. Although for them it may be a little too close. It may be a little too close to gypsies.

Gene: 5:36

Gypsy, you're gonna have to sue on that one. But, it's, it is amazing. It is, it's almost like my childhood dream of living in dystopia has been realized. How so? Well, because we're living in dystopia right now. This is absolutely the, the version of the future that 30, 40 years ago was the dystopian future. Yeah. Yeah. Where America is the bad guys. The world is run by secretive private corporations and societies and, um, you know, and, and we literally have things like the Canadian parliament giving a standing ovation to Nazi. This is, this is like. Coming out of Highland or something. Highland. Highland. I can't pronounce his fucking name. You know what I'm talking about.

Ben: 6:31

No, I don't. Oh, Heinlein.

Gene: 6:33

Yeah, that's that. The guy whose name I'm having trouble pronouncing. Hein. Hein.

Ben: 6:38

God Damnit Heinlein. Hein. He

Gene: 6:43

Yeah. The reason I'm having trouble pronouncing is that since I am remote in, not on my usual gear, actually, I wonder if I can fix this. I might be able to fix this. Uh, while I'm talking, I can't hear myself talk. I usually do the show in, um, open air style headphones. So there are, there are headphones that don't actually block outside noise from coming in. Um, I prefer that style versus the closed style, which is, you know, prevents all outside noise from coming in. And while I'm traveling, I've only got my, uh, my ear plugs that I use for noise blocking on the plane, which obviously don't sound the same, but I, I may be able to. I don't know if it's worth fucking with because I may fuck up the audio for you guys. Yeah, let's not

Ben: 7:30

fuck up Yeah, it already is.

Gene: 7:33

I don't know. I'll just not hear myself I guess which is which is a very weird thing for me because I like Hearing myself, I sometimes just talk to myself just to hear myself.

Ben: 7:43

Well, I, so I'm on the opposite. I use my noise canceling headphones without the noise canceling turned on, plugged in audio normally, but they're a big foam over the ear headphone. So all I hear is you and I.

Gene: 7:57

Yeah. So, well, it is what it is. Uh, so what else is going on? Um.

Ben: 8:04

As we, uh, just gloss over a judge, you know, ordering the Trump organization dissolved. Yeah. Well, there's

Gene: 8:13

no thing there. I don't know that it's worthy of a whole lot of conversation at this stage because... Obviously, we're missing some piece of it because a, a judge in a civil suit can't do that. So, something's up. Well,

Ben: 8:31

don't you know judges can, judges can do whatever they want.

Gene: 8:35

Well, I know that governors can definitely do whatever the hell they want. Constitution be damned. Yeah, what are you referring to? Because I declared a public emergency. For that bitch down in New Mexico.

Ben: 8:47

Yeah, but that's not going

Gene: 8:50

well. If you watch that justification, well, thank God it's not going well, but You know, you watched somebody, I think CNN or somebody did an interview with her and said, Well, you're a constitutional scarrer, so you must have thought about how this is totally constitutional and there's no issue. And she says, Well, right, because the constitutional rights are not absolute. And I told you that I declared an emergency, which gives me rights as governor to suspend constitutional rights. Like, she truly believes that. That is her absolute. Belief right now.

Ben: 9:27

Yeah. Well, she, she can, uh, she can try that all she wants, but that doesn't make it legitimate. And when her own attorney general is refusing to support her, I think that that's a, that's a good sign for our side.

Gene: 9:41

Yeah. Yeah. I think he sees the writing on the wall that he doesn't want to go down with that shit. Yeah. Um, and it's not like people have actually not carried guns. If anything, it probably got more people on the street with guns. Yeah, I mean,

Ben: 9:58

the marches we saw, yeah, the marches we saw in Albuquerque and everything else, and how she changed it to only be where families may gather, i. e. parks and so on, is just another insane thing, right? She said she was backing down. So, like, state

Gene: 10:15

parks? Because I know there was a lawsuit that went for our side on the federal parks, where you cannot prevent people from carrying in federal parks. That was in the last year or so.

Ben: 10:27

You know, it, it's gonna be interesting. Um, it Did you, yeah. Did you, did you hear the news about the Texas gun case on the Texas silencer law?

Gene: 10:37

Oh, no, I haven't. What, what's the latest?

Ben: 10:39

So the judge threw out Texas case, uh, saying that Texas, the state of Texas did not have standing to, uh, seek injunctive relief, um, until someone actually builds a built in Texas. Suppressor. And is being... I thought there had been some of those. Uh, apparently not enough for the judge's liking. And, you know, people had prepared to build them, had talked about building them, had maybe constructed some, but hadn't been gone after by the ATF. And until there is action by the ATF going after an individual who does this, the court said Texas does not have standing.

Gene: 11:22

Well, yeah, I mean, I could see how that could be the case.

Ben: 11:25

Well, I, I, I think that the,

Gene: 11:29

what Texas needs to do to have standing. What Texas needs to do to have unquestionable standing in the matter is start arresting ATF agents. From your lips to

Ben: 11:40

Abbott's ears, man.

Gene: 11:42

Well, they do. And Abbott's not gonna, obviously, because he's a rhino. But, uh, ultimately, there's nothing better to bring standing to a case than for the state of Texas to be, uh, you know, sued by the federal government for arresting federal employees. There's, there's no way to wiggle out of that because the whole standing thing is very popular these days with government agencies, including the ATF, where their, their defense isn't to argue the case on merits, their defense is to argue the case on technicalities like standing. They're not saying that the state of Texas is wrong in its filings, they're saying the Texas, the state of Texas can't be the one to make them. Well, okay. I mean, it's, it's legal, but it's, it's also Weasley. It's

Ben: 12:34

very Weasley. I mean, this is the same reason why the Texas v. Pennsylvania not being heard by the Supreme Court during the last election cycle was so

Gene: 12:43

bad. Mm hmm. Yeah, and that was, it was totally Weasley. It was also totally predictable and totally understandable that A Supreme Court with several RINO appointed judges, who, those of us that knew, kept yelling, these are the wrong people to appoint, but Trump, you know, he's very bad at his job, so he kept appointing RINOs. But there's no way in hell they were going to let their credibility on the line by taking up a case involving a presidential election. It's not good for the Supreme Court justices jobs to do that. And so they opted not to. Yeah,

Ben: 13:22

well, I mean, it can be not good for their careers. It can be not good for how they think history will view them. But it was the right thing to do by the country is to hear that out. And they would have been better off for the country as a cohesive unit to hear it and find that Pennsylvania did nothing wrong and dismiss the Texas case than refusing to

Gene: 13:48

hear it. But Pennsylvania did something wrong and that's the problem is they would have had to have reversed what all the TV networks said. They, they, there's no way in hell they were gonna do that. They, they all learned their lesson during the bush, uh, uh, and, uh, gore, Iowa, uh, Florida thing, like the Supreme Court needs to stay out of election politics. Yeah.

Ben: 14:13

Well, Supreme Court does need to stay out of election politics, but we also need states to play by the rules and not change the way their elections work. Extra legally through the executive branch versus the prescribed method of through the legislatures.

Gene: 14:31

Well, and I mean, there's, it's not a fast way and it's not a way most people would prefer, but there is a means of affecting this for the population that's in disenfranchised in this case. And that is to leave the state of Pennsylvania and throw away your legitimate votes. And move to the state of Texas or Florida or any of the other states in the South where your vote's not going to be thrown away. Don't go too far west though, because starting with New Mexico, they're absolutely going to get thrown away. Arizona, New Mexico, and obviously California. So, if those states start to, uh, lose actual population, then the number of electoral votes goes down, like California lost an electoral vote, uh, because of people literally moving to Texas. Um, then there is a way to adjust this without doing anything that involves the Supreme Court, but it takes time. It's not like everybody that's voting, uh, against the liberal, I don't even want to say voting Republican because hell, I can barely burn myself to do that with the shit Republicans we got. So, let's say people that are not voting for the liberals to come in and for the socialists to be in government. Uh, they can do something, but it takes a while to change your entire life and move to a different state to be able to do that. Yeah.

Ben: 15:53

Well, and you have work, you have people who are divorced with kids, lots of things.

Gene: 15:58

Well, and that's a question that everybody needs to ask themselves is, do I vote for the convenience of being in a state where my kids are? Do I want my kids lives to be better 20 years down the line? Because the way we're heading, the kids are going to be working in China.

Ben: 16:12

Well, the problem, the problem there you, that you have there is if you're divorced and one parent wants to move and the other does not, you know, the kids are staying. So what are you, what are you actually

Gene: 16:23

doing? That's exactly what I'm saying is the choice of leaving your kids now to help save their future or staying with the kids and watching their future get washed down the toilet.

Ben: 16:34

Yeah. There's something to be said for that,

Gene: 16:37

but some, some choices are not easy. They're not meant to be easy.

Ben: 16:40

Yeah, well, with some of the stuff that I think's coming at us potentially, especially if we continue our belligerence, uh, in the Easter year. Yeah, no

Gene: 16:49

fault, no fault divorce is a, that was one of the major problems that, uh, broke down the family unit. But it ended marriage. As a direct result of, yeah, as a direct result of women voting.

Ben: 17:02

Oh, well, okay. I don't know about that.

Gene: 17:06

It's, it's like you, you play with the kittens by giving them a, a ball of string. And somehow people are surprised when 20 years later, when the kitten's fully grown and an a pissed off wife at home who wants women's rights. And then you basically commit all future generations to the fall of the empire. Congratulations. Job well done. Yeah.

Ben: 17:34

Well, uh, you know, I think that, I don't know that I agree that no fault divorce was a direct link to women voting. I actually think a lot of men at the time wanted ways out of marriage without. fault um because Realistically early on it somewhat advantaged the male not necessarily the female until we got a lot of laws and

Gene: 18:03

everything else Before no fault divorce your wife not wanting to have sex with you sufficiently was grounds for divorce So I don't know what you're talking about, dude

Ben: 18:13

I believe that depends on the state,

Gene: 18:15

Gene. If you start looking up laws, that is one of the grounds that a lot of divorces were initiated by, the ones that were initiated by men were initiated as cause for failure to, uh, what was the technical term for it? Uh, there was a, there was a technical, like, less sexy description, but basically, of your spouse no longer wishing to have sex with you. Yeah. And incidentally, that is historically, like in a Jewish tradition, like 3, 000 years. Gene,

Ben: 18:47

you broke up. We lost you there

Gene: 18:49

for a second. Okay. And I, can you hear me now? Yes. Yeah, I knew this podcast would be a little shaky, but, uh, you know, Mexico's got a horrible connectivity. It's, uh, the internet here sucks. So, yeah, I'm saying even going back like in Jewish tradition back 3, 000 years, the, your spouse not having sex with you was a legitimate reason for divorce.

Ben: 19:14

Oh, well, as it still should

Gene: 19:17

be today. Yeah, because why would you be married if you have no interest in having sex with this person?

Ben: 19:24

That is a very good question. But, you know, most, most marriages go through some interesting issues there, at least in the modern sense.

Gene: 19:32

They do. They do. Uh, because, you know, girl bosses.

Ben: 19:36

Yeah, that in life and kids can get in the way at times, even in the best of marriages. Yeah.

Gene: 19:43

Yeah. No, things can certainly get in the way, but that's, that's, again, nobody said marriage was supposed to be easier than staying single. It's just that marriage allows you to do things that being single doesn't. But if those things get taken away, if you having sex gets taken away, if your kids get taken away, what the hell is the point of marriage?

Ben: 20:02

Well, and you know, people should remember that in a marriage, and I would encourage any young couple thinking about getting married, to remember that the marriage has to come first before everything else. Before work, before kids, before anything else, your relationship has to come first.

Gene: 20:20

And I would encourage the guys not to, but either way, I think it's important to see that where we got today did not happen overnight. This is long time in the making, and I'm not saying that the 1st event that started us down this direction was giving one of the right to vote. But it was one of the earlier events for this country, because this is still a fairly young country. Like, if this keeps going in progress the way things are heading right now, towards very much a socialist United States of America, and a much smaller, with much smaller influence, United States of America, then... This country will have one of the shortest terms as an empire of any empires. Well, I don't think

Ben: 21:05

we've entered our empire stage yet.

Gene: 21:08

Well, that'd be pretty sad because that means we'll never get to it. But I think, I don't think that's true. I think the American empire started during World War II. Could,

Ben: 21:18

you could argue, could right now argue, you could argue that Bretton Woods was the American empire. You could mm-hmm. but, you know, we'll, we'll see where it ends and what happens, you know, uh, depending on, yeah. I'm

Gene: 21:31

not saying it's ended yet, but we've definitely watching Dismantlement of the American

Ben: 21:36

Empire. Well, you know, I, I remember when, um, COVID first kicked off and Alex Jones talking about, um, there only being enough left in the monetary system to really keep one society afloat. And his theory was that that was what Trump was trying to do with a lot of the repatriation and things like that to bring home enough finances to see us through the float. But, um. Obviously, with Biden in and what he's doing, that plan is not working out too well. Mm hmm.

Gene: 22:12

Well, Alex Jones has a nasty habit of being right too much. Right,

Ben: 22:18

right. I mean, the Alex Jones jar is a little thicker than the swear jar. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. It's got a little bit more in there.

Gene: 22:25

Yeah. Yeah. And if the guy didn't, didn't have the, uh, inflections and the appearance of po the kook, yeah. You would think that, holy shit, this guy's a fucking prophet.'cause he knows what's coming. But because you have that combination of somebody that comes across as a, uh, You know somewhere between an old southern tv minister from the 70s and a a radio guy who does ufo interviews um People tend to write him off and really if you look at his record, they shouldn't be

Ben: 23:00

well I mean if you take atrazine right and him sitting there saying well, they're turning the freaking problem

Gene: 23:07

Yeah, I just know I just make it let's not take

Ben: 23:10

atrazine Well, but i'm just saying if you take the case of atrazine and his comment of they're turning the freaking frogs Well, you know, he's not wrong, but if, if people actually heard atrazine is a chemical that when introduced to amphibious life has a habit of creating spontaneous females for males, people would take him more seriously, but they

Gene: 23:32

don't. Yeah, exactly. And, uh, my understanding, uh, in the, some of the follow ups, uh, to that story, like. Going back a few years, it's not something recent that I've seen, is that there actually were studies that were done that showed that it was not just amphibians. The amphibians were the most susceptible because they have no barrier between, really to speak of, like their skin is fully permeable. But, um, other animals that, uh, that are not amphibians were also affected by edge to seam exposure as well, in the same way.

Ben: 24:08

Well, I think we've seen a lot of, um, I think we've seen a lot of exogenous chemicals causing issues, whether that's exogenous estrogens or anything else causing issues in mammals. I think we see it today in our society a lot. The collapsing testosterone rate is the perfect example.

Gene: 24:28

Yep. Yeah, and there have been multiple studies that have shown testosterone, sorry, testosterone, estrogen levels in city water of many cities across the country. As being beyond the safety limits, um, that are in place, um, but there's nothing anyone can do about it. When damn near half your population... which is a majority of females, uh, take the pill every month. Um, you know, they're peeing that shit out continuously. So you just created a huge generator of estrogen going into the water supply and not any means put in place to treat the water in a way that breaks down the estrogen.

Ben: 25:14

Well, and you know, I remember as a kid, um, And granted, I grew up with a little bit more of a granola mom than a lot of my peers, but, you know, I can remember conversations as a kid talking about milk and how milk, uh, hormones in milk and everything were causing girls to enter puberty sooner and, you know, talks about. Breast size increase and everything else due to it. And I think there's a lot actually to that. Um, but I don't think it's just hormones that we're giving our animals. I think it's, you know, people who eat canned, uh, canned vegetables. You know, the liner of most canned goods has a BPA in it. Well, that BPA and BPH. Right. Um. You know, is an estrogen mimicker, and I know it affected me quite a bit, and when I stopped eating a lot of canned vegetables, it had a pretty good effect on

Gene: 26:09

me. Let me ask you, because I think I'm sure I've eaten canned vegetables, but what, why would people eat vegetables coming out of a can in the first place?

Ben: 26:18

Uh, just easier, you can keep it in your pantry, so if you're doing green beans or something like that, you know, it's something that has to cook anyway, and it's just a quick

Gene: 26:28

roll. Versus frozen green beans or something. Correct. Which is what I would buy usually. Okay. Correct. And what I I think the only thing I bought would be like, corn? That I would use for fishing.

Ben: 26:40

Well, you know, corn, cream corn, beans, stuff

Gene: 26:43

like that. Yeah, I guess I've had chili. I've had chili coming out of those cans. Got some of that H E B, high meat content chili.

Ben: 26:53

Now, do you like your chili with beans or

Gene: 26:55

no? No, I don't like beans in most things. I don't get beans when I get Mexican food either. So, it's It has nothing to do with like a southern versus northern chili for me, I just don't like beans, so I would always prefer chili with no beans, which I know is more popular here. And by here I mean, of course, not Mexico where I'm at right now.

Ben: 27:15

Well, you know, I actually, ever since I tried Dvorak's Comdex chili recipe, um, that's good, man. And it's got four different types of beans in it. So, yeah. Really?

Gene: 27:28

Okay. Yep. Well, one of these days you'll have to make them and I'll have to sample it. It,

Ben: 27:32

he, Dvorak knows how to cook, dude. He really does.

Gene: 27:36

Oh yeah, yeah, no, he, when it comes to, uh, eating and drinking, I totally trust that man. I haven't asked him for any advice for a while, because I no longer drink, but this was, I was gonna joke, but it was totally true, is that I would have a 100 percent response rate from Dvorak's phone anytime I send him a photo of a bottle. And I said, what do you think? Or what's your opinion? Like, he would ignore almost every other text I would send him. But he would absolutely reply 100 percent Texts that included a picture of a bottle.

Ben: 28:13

Now, the question is, had he had 100 percent of them?

Gene: 28:18

It sure sounded like it. I mean, I don't know, but uh, He had opinions about all of them, and he would describe them with a level of detail. That I would assume he's had them all.

Ben: 28:29

That's impressive. That

Gene: 28:31

is impressive. I mean, it's impressive. That's an impressive liver is what that is.

Ben: 28:36

Well, you know, it probably looks like some Kobe beef, but you know, it's okay. Yeah, so

Gene: 28:40

that people that don't know, you know, Kobe beef is layered with marbled with fat and you It's fatty liver if you, uh, consume too much alcohol. In

Ben: 28:50

other words, I'm saying Dvorak may have human foie gras for

Gene: 28:54

a liver. Okay. This is, this is moving in a not a good direction for the podcast. I don't, this is, this is not a, uh, Hannibal Lecter podcast, as far as I'm aware. Great show, though. I love the, I love that TV show, Hannibal.

Ben: 29:09

Yeah, I've never watched the TV show. Um, so...

Gene: 29:14

Oh, you never have? Oh, you would love it. It is, it is a total psychological long form, like two or three seasons long thriller. And it's much better than the Anthony Hopkins version. Uh, I've never read the book. I've talked to people that have read the book. I'm, I'm just not like, to me, I'm not a big like horror guy. I've never enjoyed. Uh, a whole lot of horror stuff. Movies, books, whatever. Um, but I do love intellect and, and uh, psychological thrillers. So, and that's what The character

Ben: 29:52

Hannibal should appeal to you, that's for sure.

Gene: 29:54

Well, he was the protagonist. Yes. Yes, just like Darth Vader. Yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. Yeah. And somebody actually, somebody did this on YouTube already, but for a long time I thought if I decided to just fuck around and spend some time doing something that'll have zero income, right, I think it'd be hilarious to do movie reviews, like, you know, full half hour long reviews, but absolutely seriously treating the movies where the protagonist is clearly the bad guy. They are supposed to be, but in my version of the review, he would be treated as the protagonist. Um, and, you know, and then you get into the gray zones, like with certain Batman movies, he could still be the protagonist, but not for all of them, you know? But it's, uh, I think it's a fun way to look at things and it makes for better writing. This is one of those. Very common advice things that you hear from good authors is that if you want to write a good villain you have to write as though they are your main character and protagonist like Unfortunate things happen to them, but ultimately what they're doing they're doing for a good reason

Ben: 31:14

That's very Russian literature of Eugene.

Gene: 31:17

I think good good American writers say the same thing

Ben: 31:21

You definitely have to have a villain that is, uh, relatable and not just, you know, uh, cartoonish. Yeah.

Gene: 31:29

Which Hannibal Lecter totally is. Exactly. Exactly. Or, or like I've been watching House and I'm almost done. I think I have half a season left. So I'm almost done with my House watching. Um, and then I'll be able to move on. But, um, and that's, that's obviously not OCD at all, is it? To watch the complete nine seasons. And, uh, not do anything, any other TV viewing other than that until

Ben: 31:54

I'm done. Yeah, you might have a problem there.

Gene: 31:57

No, it's too late. Too late to might have a problem. This is, this is called a personality at this point, not a problem. But, uh, yeah, from pretty much the first episode I watched, I'm like, Oh my God, why is everyone giving this guy so much shit? They should just get out of his way, for Christ's sakes. You know, it's, um... It is interesting. I get the fact that he's supposed to be this, like, rule breaker and, you know, doing things that are dangerous and bad, but not really, because he's also the most intelligent person in that show. Well, yeah.

Ben: 32:32

I mean, that's what decent writing

Gene: 32:36

will get you. Well, I know when you're copying Arthur Conan Doe,

Ben: 32:40

sure. Yeah, in a way, um, it's, I think House is way more formulaic than Sherlock Holmes, but sure.

Gene: 32:50

Well, they, they shared the primary personality tendencies. Yes. And there was a writing class that I took that... Specifically, they used House as an example of creating a good character and saying that it's literally the exact same character as in Sherlock Holmes.

Ben: 33:07

Well, and, uh, again, going back to that flawed character that's relatable, you know, House definitely has its flaws that you can relate to. Um, especially around love and pain and everything else and the ancillary stuff that occurs in the show. It's a good

Gene: 33:24

show. Yeah, I... You know, I didn't watch it when it was on TV because A, I don't watch anything that's on TV because I don't watch advertising. Um, and, uh, I think I was still married at that point, so I had enough shit to deal with. But, um, you know, watching it now over the course of the last couple, maybe three months now, it's been very enjoyable to just watch two or three episodes a night. And then, um, you know, I, I'm definitely going to miss having house episodes to watch. Once I'm completely done with the series.

Ben: 34:01

Yeah, well, you can always give it a year or two and re watch your favorites.

Gene: 34:05

No, no, no, I don't like re watching things. I've done it once, I don't need to re do things. Uh, but I have, um, I've always enjoyed Hugh Laurie in a lot of different things he's done. Yeah? I just wish his latest one would be good. Have you ever watched any of his latest TV show? The, uh, about the spaceship where he... He's the fake

Ben: 34:27

captain. Yeah, Avenue 5. I actually found

Gene: 34:29

it funny. Oh, I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, it's like

Ben: 34:33

That's the point. It's Jack Black esque

Gene: 34:36

humor. Yes. Yes, I would totally go I would agree with that. It is, uh, juvenile humor. Um, you know, it's it's stepping into shit and falling over kind of humor.

Ben: 34:49

Well, I mean, gee, you gotta remember who you're talking to here. I mean, CSB gave me enough crap about the lingus comment from last show, you know, and that I was giggling over that.

Gene: 35:01

You were giggling non stop like a 13 year old girl, but what was really funny to me was... I mean, that was funny. But then what was funny is during that thread with CSB, by the way, if you want to go, uh, check out CSB's art, do you remember his like, go to, the hell's his art, art, like, I'm kind of embarrassed that I don't remember it because I've been there a few times. Uh,

Ben: 35:26

uh, do you remember? Uh, do you mean

Gene: 35:32

just comic? He's got a website that he's always trying to push. And I thought we'd give him a free, uh, mention of the website. And then I realized I can't remember

Ben: 35:41

the URL. Okay. Well, I mean, it's something on Twitter.

Gene: 35:47

Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's something I'm butchering this thing. See, CSB, this is what happens when you don't send money. Then we, we butcher the link to your thing.

Ben: 35:57

Anyway. He has comicstripblog. com, I believe,

Gene: 36:01

right? No, no, he's got but he's got a new one. It's it's like well his show was ai cooking But I think it's something that ai I believe it's his new comic strip website. But either

Ben: 36:14

way All the freaking time,

Gene: 36:16

uh, and uh, so if if you're on the, uh Either on NoAgendaSocial or one of the other Mastodons. He's just csb at NoAgendaSocial.

Ben: 36:29

Well, if you're on one of the other Mastodons, you might not get in.

Gene: 36:33

Well, no, you don't have to be on that instance, but you can still get to his stuff. Because all you have to do is just reference the username. As

Ben: 36:42

long as, as long as at no agenda social has been blocked by that Mastodon instance. Right,

Gene: 36:48

correct. So if you're running your own, you probably haven't blocked it, but if you're on somebody else's, they may have blocked it because of all the, all the, you know, the Nazis on there, as it were. The non existent Nazis that the actual Nazis always keep bringing up. Sorry, not Nazis, I have to re, re, It's easy.

Ben: 37:08

So it looks like we might be heading for a government shutdown.

Gene: 37:12

Yay! I've been commenting, uh, you know, the same comment on every video on that topic, saying if we can only get this to last until the end of the year, we might have some hope.

Ben: 37:24

Well, I mean, realistically, what we need to do is just say, hey, this is a trial run for the cuts that we're introducing. It's okay. Mm hmm.

Gene: 37:34

Yeah. Anybody... Who is let go or furloughed during the, the, uh, shutdown really just needs to find a different job. Uh, cause

Ben: 37:45

you shouldn't be working anymore. I mean, the FBI doesn't shut down things like that and they should.

Gene: 37:51

Some jobs do. The

Ben: 37:52

FBI didn't though. Doesn't historic,

Gene: 37:55

they, it's not the entirety of the F fbi. I, there, there, there are some jobs within the F B I that absolutely furlough. I know that's from firsthand experience. Uh, but yeah, the what firsthand experience is that? Jean? Uh, maybe I dated somebody that worked there. I don't know. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. you know, there's nothing like a woman in a uniform.

Ben: 38:15

Yeah. Uh, what, what I'm hearing is jean's handler, uh, got, uh, furloughed.

Gene: 38:21

Uh, no, they, they would not. The handlers wouldn't. But administrative jobs definitely can. So, but either way, I don't think that, like, with how big the government is today. If we furlough everybody, or just let go, everybody that is not considered critical, the size of the people still working would be larger than the total size of the government during the, uh, the time that the government was shut down by Newt Gingrich. So in that time, since the Gingrich shutdown, just the number of essential people has gotten to be larger than the entire government was at the time of Gingrich. It's it's amazing. I mean, it's like it really like bureaucracy really is a monster that will keep eating And until it fully consumes everything, but that's why maybe socialism is inevitable because when everybody's working for the government, you know, why pretend calling yourself capitalist at that point?

Ben: 39:24

Well, I mean, it's, it's natural for tyranny to expand and liberty to yield, but this is why, you know, a refresh of the government from time

Gene: 39:36

to If only people heeded the warnings Yeah, there's a guy on youtube called moon Which I think it's a whole production company honestly because they do a lot of videos and they're all really high production value But it's the the one the channel's called moon and it's the same guy's voice every time And he has a bunch of videos that he does basically using movies as Um, as critiques or examples of what's coming in reality. So he's got typically his videos are titled something like The Truman Show Warned You or, you know, uh, pick one. Uh, he's got a lot of movies. But Brazil Tried to Warn You. Or, uh, you know, it doesn't even matter. They don't have to be specifically about a dystopian future. They could be just movies about technology, for example. Uh, but... But he's got a whole bunch of videos in that series, which are very good. And, uh, it's a, um, it's well worth watching. And they're all like an hour long. Like, high production value videos. Oh, man. Have I seen any of

Ben: 40:51

those? I can't remember. You have not. What was that Christian Bale movie? Oh, man. Equilibrium, Equilibrium, 2002. Have you ever seen Equilibrium? I

Gene: 41:02

don't think I have. What is that one about?

Ben: 41:05

Oh my god. You need to watch Equilibrium. It's, uh, Okay. It's about a society where all emotions are purged through chemical means and Oh, that sounds really good. And he plays this cop enforcer that ends up going off the meds, and I won't spoil it too much, but it's, it's Brave New World. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'll watch it. That's a great game. 451 and a whole bunch of everything. Uh huh.

Gene: 41:31

Really good game. Okay. Hmm. Interesting. Alright. Now,

Ben: 41:36

are you gonna watch it like Darren's watched Idiocracy?

Gene: 41:40

No, I'll actually watch it, because I'm an... Vacation right now, allegedly. Well, I, I am on vacation, believe me, I haven't picked up the phone at all today and I've had more phone calls today than I remember in the last couple weeks. I don't know what the hell's going on. Mm. Calls from all over the place.

Ben: 42:01

No. Could be work man. Could be work. Yeah. But I'm on vacation,

Gene: 42:05

so doesn't matter.

Ben: 42:07

Uh, I wish I was in Mexico with you, but, uh, yeah, I did too, man. I invited you. Yeah, you did. You did. But, uh, I had some obligations I couldn't get out of.

Gene: 42:17

Got my sweets in the hot tub, you know, I mean, if I was drinking, I'd be sitting out there with a margarita right now.

Ben: 42:25

It's

Gene: 42:26

uh, It's interesting, I'm actually staying at the same, yeah, go ahead.

Ben: 42:31

Well, I was just gonna say, believe it or not, I've actually never been to Mexico.

Gene: 42:35

Really? Really. Well, you'd probably like the food more than I do. Probably. But, uh, yeah, it's, it's kind of neat. There, there's a, um, uh, there's a book that was written by a friend of mine about, uh, this area. It was kind of a crime mystery novel. And, um, I remember reading it the last time I stayed here. And it was, it was kind of funny because I ran across my old notes that I sent to him talking about the inaccuracies in his book. Um, which, I mean, shockingly is something I would do. So, But, um, uh, book was actually pretty good too. What did I get? Oh, I, I will actually do want to plug the guy's book is good. Um, anyway, keep going.

Ben: 43:26

Well, Gene's going to have a lot of post editing work to do.

Gene: 43:30

I'm not going to do diddly squat for posts, dude. I'm on vacation. So you're lucky to get, the book is called endless vacation, uh, available on Amazon and other fine booksellers. Uh, and it's by, um, Brad Whittington, who's a, a very good writer and a friend of mine. And he, I'd say his style of writing is, uh, somewhat reminiscent of like, uh, uh, pg. What else?

Ben: 43:58

Uh, not a fan,

Gene: 43:59

but, okay. Okay. But you read some of this stuff, stuff? Uh,

Ben: 44:03

a little

Gene: 44:04

bit. Okay. Well, he did the Ves and Worcester stories, which I'm a big fan of. I love that stuff. And, uh, he is, Uh, because a lot of his books are set in sort of British upper class society, um, with very British style of humor in them. So it's definitely, uh, something I enjoy. Uh, but anyway, this guy writes in a similar style, but a different, uh, era. Cool.

Ben: 44:34

Well, while we're on books, I am on book 11, which is the last one currently published of the, uh, Going Home series. And, man, I, I just gotta reiterate, anyone who wants to go down a rabbit hole with some books, it's, it's worthwhile, you know? I mean, this is... Yeah, and I've got

Gene: 44:54

three... Hundreds

Ben: 44:55

of hours at this

Gene: 44:56

point. I've got three of them here, uh, well, yeah, which I hope so, after eleven books. Um, but I've got three of them here with me, I haven't started listening to them, but I may do that one, still on the vacation. Yeah, you

Ben: 45:10

should. I think you'll enjoy them. And, uh, it's, uh, it's a good series. I highly recommend it to anyone. And I really want to see if we can't get a campaign going. If the audience agrees with me and a lot of people take this and like it, let's get a campaign going to get, like, Daily Wire or somebody to make a TV show out of this. Because it to see FEMA and DHS portrayed as the bad guys. Well, have you

Gene: 45:36

contacted the author yet? No, I haven't. I would say start with that and then, you know, chat with him and find out what, what you can help with to help promote his book series. I'm sure he'd appreciate that. Maybe we could get some discount codes for the podcast or something. Yeah,

Ben: 45:54

I'm sure he'd be like, and who the hell are you?

Gene: 45:57

Uh, you're the guy that bothered enough to contact him after talking about his book on every episode. I haven't talked on every episode. Come on now. You've mentioned this on the last six. Okay, okay. And it's not a bad thing. I mean, it sounds like it's a very good series of books. I'm not a j I've talked about House way more, but it's, uh, It is definitely something you've enjoyed starting with the first book that you said you just sucked in, consumed very rapidly.

Ben: 46:26

Well, I'll put it to you this way, it's not just me, it's like my parents, I got them into it. And they've been, like you, uh, like you're going to do, listening to the audiobooks, but they've been listening together instead of watching TV. And they passed me by. Like, it's crazy. They've already finished the entire series. Wow. Oh, damn. Yeah. Pretty

Gene: 46:46

good testimony. Now, is that a, is that a planned last book of the 11th, or does he leave things open enough for the

Ben: 46:53

more... I haven't finished it, but, uh, I believe there's a book 12 coming out. Oh,

Gene: 46:59

okay. Okay. So it's not, it's the current end of the series. Hopefully the guy is not like, um, uh, what's his name? Uh, the, uh, yeah, yeah, exactly. Hopefully he's not like that where he takes 20 years to do one book. Jr Martin. Yeah, the, the absolutely fake name guy.

Ben: 47:19

Well, you know, I mean, y'all kinda look alike. Hey, now

Gene: 47:24

my suspenders are a different color.

Ben: 47:26

you're about the same height. You got a similar beer, you know

Gene: 47:30

Yeah, we have, we have the same build Uhhuh I do my ice. I think my eyesight's a little better than his. He's his is more like Darren. Yeah, yeah,

Ben: 47:39

yeah. He's definitely

Gene: 47:40

got the Coke cuddle bottle of glasses. My favorite interview with him was one, I think it was on BBC, where they, they came into his house, and they were doing an interview, and then they walked into his science fiction figurine collection room, and out of the one hour long interview, he talked about, um, you know, the Song of Mights, Fire, and then that whole series, he talked for about five minutes, and then the other 55 minutes, He talked about science fiction stuff, which is what he was, really saw himself as, as a sci fi writer. And, uh, what he attempted to get notoriety and fame for, for a long time. And it was sort of a, you know, it was the typical sort of, uh, curse that you end up... The thing you get famous for is, is the thing you just did that you didn't really give a shit about too much. And the thing that really poured your heart and soul into, no one cares about.

Ben: 48:40

His sci fi sucks, dude. Night Flyers is just not very good. It's his most popular sci fi. I'm

Gene: 48:46

not ridding of it, but that's, um, It was very funny to see that interview where his focus was like, As soon as he started getting excited about sci fi, that's all he wanted to talk about. And including, like, he's got, you know, Like, he had the Expanse figurines. In his collection and the, the expanse guys, uh, well, they, they, in their interview talked about how they started writing because of him. So I thought that was very, very fitting anyway.

Ben: 49:16

So speaking of writing, how's the book coming?

Gene: 49:19

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm on page one. So it's coming along well, it was a bit of a fuck around day if you will. Hopefully I'll do actual work on the book tomorrow. That's the game plan. And I don't need to do that much. I need to do maybe 20 pages while I'm here and that's about it.

Ben: 49:37

Yeah, just the outline. Just the outline.

Gene: 49:39

No, I need more than the outline. I need, like, I need about 20 pages. That's what I need. So, uh,

Ben: 49:49

but that's alright.

Gene: 49:50

Gotta get that in advance. I've written more than that than one day before for work, so it's not, it's not that hard to do. It's, I was just preoccupied with stuff, so. Yeah,

Ben: 50:03

it couldn't be anything to do with that beach view you have and looking at what was on

Gene: 50:07

it. Beachview is very nice. And I got my, uh, uh, I happened to have brought my night vision camera to test it out on this trip as well. Oh, Jesus. I told you I got that thing. I said, Nina, testing. What are, what are your, you know. Mm. or perfect place to test things. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ben: 50:27

Yeah. Well, don't capture any

Gene: 50:29

Lingus. It it, it definitely works. It is. Uh, Hey,

Ben: 50:35

that got you laughing there. That got you.

Gene: 50:37

It did. It did. Uh, it's very good while still in color mode, like it, it still shows colors to very low light levels. And then when it flips to black and white, then you get a lot more, obviously. So it's, um, yeah, it's, you know, or something that I just kind of thought would be neat to have and no real purpose to it. Uh, I think it's uh, it did accomplish its goal and I think last time I was here I brought a drone, but the hotel has a no drones policy now, which I don't really understand how they're allowed to do

Ben: 51:10

that Gene was there with a drone and now there's a no drone policy What could have gone wrong there?

Gene: 51:18

Must be all the ukrainian

Ben: 51:20

Yeah, well, speaking of Ukraine, um, apparently the Abrams has entered the fray. Yeah. Yeah.

Gene: 51:28

And more coming. And, uh, the Bidens want to ensure that there's at least another hundred billion going to Ukraine. Of course.

Ben: 51:36

It's their retirement fund.

Gene: 51:38

Exactly. They want to cap it out. Max it out. Fully. Um.

Ben: 51:43

Right before Big Mac steps in. Yeah.

Gene: 51:46

Exactly. Exactly. Right. So. Have

Ben: 51:50

you seen the, uh. What's Have you seen the campaign, uh, stuff people put out on big money? Nope. The, uh, the swing of freedom or whatever, and you can clearly see something.

Gene: 52:03

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, look, there are, there are women that have been unfortunate enough to have large clitorises. What do you want? Just cause, just cause it looks like there's a penis there doesn't mean anything.

Ben: 52:16

Well, you know, um, I think with the timing of some of this Obama stuff that's been released and everything else, uh, I, I think there is going to be a pretty good play for Michelle. In fact, I think it's the Democrat's only way out of this election because Biden isn't going to win again. He's not gonna be able to run. I think Kamala wouldn't

Gene: 52:35

run and there's no way they could run her and win. I mean, if out of why they don't have better chance with Newsom than

Ben: 52:42

her. Oh, no. I totally

Gene: 52:44

disagree with you. No, no, no, no. She's not Oprah, man. There are a ton of white women that would not vote for her.

Ben: 52:51

I do not believe that to be true. In fact, I think the majority would.

Gene: 52:56

No way. No way. Now, there is a, um, I think that could actually be a nice silver lining for Trump if he's running against... Obama, because that actually gives him a chance.

Ben: 53:09

I just want to hear the Obama jokes about Barry. That's all. Mm

Gene: 53:14

hmm. Barry, Michelle, whatever. Same difference.

Ben: 53:17

Well, Barry being Barack's actual given name. Oh, Barack.

Gene: 53:21

Yeah, no, no. What was the, uh, what was the name of the guy that he was allegedly sleeping with when he was in college? I don't remember. There was some guy that was mentioned

Ben: 53:31

by name. We, I mean, all you gotta do is look into who raised Barack Obama and the porn scene he was around as a very young man, and it's pretty, uh, understandable. Missy Rump?

Gene: 53:44

I, I know nothing about this. What, what porn scene is Missy Rump? Oh,

Ben: 53:47

Jesus. Oh, man, now you're Googling. Is there

Gene: 53:51

a big porn scene in Hawaii that I'm not aware of? Um,

Ben: 53:56

hold on. Or are you talking like, in his twangs? No, his, uh, adoptive father ish figure. Yeah, um, let's see what we got here Okay, actually that doesn't uh Google does not um help here but uh, yeah, anyway, so there was a the guy who raised barack obama I'll bring it up for the next podcast if you remind me but uh, let's go

Gene: 54:31

back and look I'm still not gonna give a shit at that point

Ben: 54:34

Okay, well, I would have to Google quicker, I guess.

Gene: 54:39

Yeah, man. Quickly goo. Quickly goo. Actually sounds like a good search engine name. Quickly

Ben: 54:46

goo. Quickly goo. Um, yeah. What could go wrong with that search engine? I think you'd end up with a lot of lingus.

Gene: 54:54

Quickly, goodlingus.

Ben: 54:56

Yes, CSB, this is going to be your fake joke for this episode, sorry.

Gene: 55:00

It's like, uh, it's, it's csb. lol. I found his website. That's an easy domain. Yeah, and you forgot it. He got an easy name like csb. lol. I thought it was like ai something. But, um, yeah, it's csb. lol. So, he, I think he mostly uses AI for these cartoons, but then he does it by hand. Uh,

Ben: 55:22

no, I think he does a lot of his drawings by hand and then he's gotten into AI as a secondary thing. All right, Gene, any other serious topics or fun topics we need to cover since you're on vacation?

Gene: 55:36

Uh, since I'm on vacation and we only talked for an hour, um, Well,

Ben: 55:41

the audio quality alone, but yes. I know,

Gene: 55:43

but hey, people listen for the content on the quality. Because they'll tell you how our quality sucks all the time anyway.

Ben: 55:51

I guarantee you CSB is going to have a few comments on it, but it's okay. We love him anyway. Oh, what do you think?

Gene: 55:58

I think so. Well, he provides for a very, uh, good entertainment. Good entertainment value and, uh, he's, he's always, uh, like if you, if you want to make sure that there's always somebody that'll comment on whatever topic, he's always the guy, no matter what the topic is. A very prolific commentator is what I'm trying to get at. Well, what else am

Ben: 56:21

I not aware of that's going on? Well, gee, I don't know.

Gene: 56:24

You're bringing up a bunch of this stuff. I sent you a video earlier today that literally was, like, minutes from coming out, and you're like, ah, I saw that story. Like, you watched an hour long video less than an hour after it came out. Okay.

Ben: 56:37

Well, just because your YouTube updates slower than mine.

Gene: 56:41

Yeah, apparently. Apparently that's what it is. My YouTube updates slower. Yeah.

Ben: 56:45

Did. And by the way, this was a, uh, Brandon Herrera video on a pump, uh, ak. So lots of fun there.

Gene: 56:53

A horrible gun. It looks horrible.

Ben: 56:56

You know, it, I'm sure it serves some Soviet purpose at some point in time.

Gene: 57:01

It's, uh, I, it, it's literally like, here's what this gun is. It's like taking a fuel injected car engine. Mm-hmm. and then slapping a carburetor on top, and, uh, and getting rid of a fuel injector. And then still trying to reuse as many parts as you can. That's what this, uh,

Ben: 57:23

gun was. Well, I mean, literally they took the gas block out and made the, I mean, they left the bolt, the, the bolt the same, they left the gas piston the same, and literally they just put a hand actuation on it.

Gene: 57:38

And they just, instead of, which incidentally, you already have on that gun anyway, at all times. You could operate it by hand. Yeah, you could do it. They just moved that charging handle up front. Which is Yeah, they've removed

Ben: 57:56

the normal, yeah.

Gene: 57:58

But then instead of just having a charging handle up front, like some guns, modern guns have, they, they put what is a, uh, pump action, I don't even know what to call that, what is that part called in gunsmithing? The bit that you put your hand on that actually physically moves on a shotgun when you do a pump action shotgun. Forearm, handguard. Yeah, the moving bit. That's what they slapped on there. It's, it's a hilariously, uh, it's a gun in search of a purpose. And, uh, Brendan did a good job, uh, go Brendan.

Ben: 58:32

It's, uh, it's Soviet engineering at its best, man.

Gene: 58:35

Come on. Yeah, well, it's not only, so it's, it's Eastern Bloc engineering. It was like Yugoslavian or like Romanian or something. It wasn't even coming in the Soviet Union. It was coming out of one of the Eastern Bloc states as a, uh, you know, a legitimate Knock off slash improved version for their particular needs. That clearly wasn't either so, uh, but it's fun to see that he's still doing the same exact kind of videos. Now, he's always done

Ben: 59:07

on a on a serious topic, though. I kind of worry, um, because he, uh, did you see the ad that he had in that video?

Gene: 59:16

Uh, no, I, I don't see as a risk of that. What did it say?

Ben: 59:21

Well, so he did a sponsor spot in that video. Did you watch that or did you skip it?

Gene: 59:28

I mean, I automatically skipped those. What was it

Ben: 59:31

about? Well, it was a TACPAC, um, ad read that he did. Oh, okay. And the problem is, the TACPAC said that... Hello, or whatever in the note to congressman Herrera and my worry is that that could be viewed as a campaign contribution pretty easily

Gene: 59:50

a donation. Yeah. Uh, yeah, so he had better report that I guess. I mean, there's not a lot of donations as long as you're

Ben: 59:58

reporting it. Well, and that's the thing, though, is if you look at. Some of the cases brought against Trump on saying, Hey, the Stormy Daniels stuff, you didn't report as a like kind donation. I mean, this could, this is actually a way easier line to draw and we've already seen what Trump's gotten into over it.

Gene: 1:00:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, back when I ran, I remember anybody over 50, you had to report. And, uh, so I actually didn't accept any donations over 50 because I wanted zero paperwork to do because I'm lazy. Um, but it was a. I don't know if it's gotten up from 50 or if it's still 50 today. Obviously, 50 today is worth a lot less.

Ben: 1:00:40

Well, were you running, uh... State or federal? State. Well, so states are going to vary, and you know, states a little different than federal.

Gene: 1:00:52

Yeah, but my point was there was a maximum amount over which you had to report.

Ben: 1:00:58

Right, and I guess I'm saying that I think federal is any donations you have to report, even down to like dollar and so on, because candidates are having to track the...

Gene: 1:01:10

I doubt that. I would highly doubt that. I'm sure there's a minimum amount below which you don't have to report. In fact, I think that was something that Obama said when he ran, is that, like, the vast majority of his donations were below that cutoff. I just don't remember what the cutoff number was. Well, I,

Ben: 1:01:27

first of all, that I don't believe because Obama had a shit ton of bundlers and lots of things going on there that, uh, it may have been on paper that his donations were under said threshold. Uh, if there is one, but you know whether or not that was legitimate. Yeah, so

Gene: 1:01:47

I'm looking up fbc. It's two hundred dollars for federal so you need to report any donation over two hundred dollars

Ben: 1:01:56

Yeah in a free country that makes a lot of sense doesn't it?

Gene: 1:01:59

Well, I mean I get I get both the pro and the count on this I understand Why they want those reported because you don't want a couple of wealthy individuals just buying candidates wholesale but also um You You know, it'd be nice if they were all anonymous. There is a solution to this and I've said it before many years ago, which is you need to put a cap on the number of terms when somebody never has to rerun for office, when they can only be a senator for one term. Um, I don't really care a whole lot about who donated

Ben: 1:02:35

money to them. Yeah, I mean, there's, uh, well, I mean, you could, uh, conceivably care actually quite a bit, especially, you know, if they're being bought and paid for, but I think term limits, uh, especially for executives and, uh, well, federal. Appointments matter. I, I, the Congress critters, I think, is less so, and I think the executive is less so. I'd rather see term limits on the bureaucracy, like I was just saying. I want them on everything.

Gene: 1:03:12

I would prefer that we have term limits across the board. It makes it clean, it makes it simple, uh, and it makes it so that you don't have a huge, complex law to interpret, because then all people do is just change their titles. And then he's like, well, you know, he, he's, he's in this other title that, uh, doesn't have term limits, even though he ran for this other office, but then he got immediately got appointed to this other thing. Oh, fuck that shit. Everything needs to have term limits. There's no good argument that I've heard for keeping people in place as a career. These are not jobs that should be career jobs. Yeah, what about a Ron Paul? Ron Paul is not some unique individual dude. Ron Paul just happened to be the guy. That was the least corrupt of the bunch, but if we ensure that there's a lot more turnover, we would have a lot more Ron Pauls. I'm not willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say because of Ron Paul. We should be able to have the same politician stay in office forever. No, fuck that shit. I, I, I'll trade a Ron Paul any day for term limits.

Ben: 1:04:20

Gene, have you now or have you ever been involved with the John Birch Society?

Gene: 1:04:25

No, you, why do you keep asking me? You're literally asking me this like once a month. I see.

Ben: 1:04:30

Well, I'm just saying, talking points sound familiar. That's all I'm saying.

Gene: 1:04:33

I've never even read anything from that group. Really? Yeah. I'm just an avid anti communist. That's all. How do you

Ben: 1:04:41

feel? Well, you should look into that group. You should start a chapter in Austin.

Gene: 1:04:47

Why should I? There probably is a chapter. I, Austin, for as, as weird a city as it is, I found it has chapters for damn near any organization you want to look into. Turned out one of the guys that, that was in the, um, in one of the, uh, alternative religious groups was in Austin. And, uh, uh, it was the guy I knew totally outside of that. That was like, uh, you know, a marketing dude. And, uh, yeah, there's Austin is, uh, it's one thing it still is. And it always, I think had been. There are other things that are changing about Austin, but, uh, if Austin isn't diverse, I don't know what is, because Austin is extremely diverse in both good and bad ways, but it's gotten a lot more Californian in the last five, six years, which is obviously a bad thing. Yeah.

Ben: 1:05:41

All those hippies down in Austin.

Gene: 1:05:43

Well, we had hippies. Now we have Californians, and they're worse. They're like cockroaches. And I'm not a fan of hippies. You know, I mean, hippies, the best episode of South Park was when Cartman rounded up all the hippies and put them in the basement. That's

Ben: 1:05:56

the best episode? Come on now.

Gene: 1:05:58

Yeah. No, I think it is. I think it's, well, it's definitely one of the best episodes. It's when Cartman took very good affirmative action with

Ben: 1:06:06

hippies. I, I think the most prophetic episode was Cartman on the transgender bathroom issue. That was perfect.

Gene: 1:06:15

That was very, what, eight years before it actually happened? Something like that? Exactly.

Ben: 1:06:21

It was prophetic. That's why I used that word. It was prophetic.

Gene: 1:06:25

It was. It was. No, I agree. Also, you sent me, or somebody sent me, uh, something about Ren and Stimpy or, uh, maybe... Rick and Morty? Rick and Morty. Yeah, exactly. Those guys. Uh... I, I am not on a sufficiently high enough quantity of drugs to be able to watch that shit, man. Oh, dude,

Ben: 1:06:47

it's so funny. It's so funny.

Gene: 1:06:50

I sent you back a link to, I watched a time history timeline of Rick and Morty. And it was about an hour of my life that I'll never get back, where the guy goes through and explains. All the different timelines and the different interactions of characters as they're going through time. And this is, like... Well, that

Ben: 1:07:14

was your mistake. You should have just watched

Gene: 1:07:16

the show. I don't think pot would be enough. I think this is, like, LSD level shit.

Ben: 1:07:22

Oh, absolutely. You know, that are, you know, high functioning, but sure.

Gene: 1:07:27

Yeah, high functioning maybe ayahuasca or something, you know, but... It's, it's like, there is... So many different levels and layers of absurdity overlapping each other. Uh, that trying to make any kind of rational understanding of what the hell you're watching, I, I can't do it. I

Ben: 1:07:51

can't. Well, it's not meant to be rational. It's, it's comedy. It's comedy.

Gene: 1:07:57

I mean, I thought you knew me well enough to understand how my brain works. I do.

Ben: 1:08:03

Yeah. But you, we were working on getting rid of some of these neuroses, Gene. Uh huh. Uh huh. I'm not just your handler, I'm your therapist. It's okay. Uh huh.

Gene: 1:08:14

Exactly. No,

Ben: 1:08:16

actually, your therapist is not a job I

Gene: 1:08:20

would ever want. Uh, I, uh, no, I, I'm very friendly with therapists.

Ben: 1:08:26

Uh huh. How many have quit on you, Gene? How

Gene: 1:08:29

many have quit? I've never actually had an official therapist. But I've, uh, I've had many friends that had, uh, become therapists. But then they quit their jobs. There's no saving this one! You actually, you actually said it as a joke, but come to think of it, I actually know three people that were therapists when I met them that ended up quitting their jobs as therapists and becoming something totally different. But I'm sure there was purely, I mean, who doesn't? Probably most people know at least three people that used to be therapists and quit their jobs and become something else. Uh huh. Was,

Ben: 1:09:04

uh, Dragon the top contender of the next game?

Gene: 1:09:08

No, no, no. Um, but I always enjoyed taking the psych quiz. I told you that. I think I did that in college. Like, that was a fun pastime for me. It's to sign up for all kinds of different experiments and shit that they would do from the psych department. Um, because you could get credit for that. And so, and it'd be some, you know, idiot grad student doing a paper on something and they needed a bunch of samples for their work. And, uh. Like, I thought those were very enjoyable to do.

Ben: 1:09:39

So, have you been paying attention to what, uh, AJ over at the Y Files is setting up and trying to do?

Gene: 1:09:47

Oh, I haven't watched him in a few weeks. What's the latest?

Ben: 1:09:49

So, he's in the new studio. And, uh, he's setting up a actual podcast companion. Uh, because a lot of the content he does is video. But he's trying to get to a podcast format, too. Because he wants to be able to cover stuff that he can't cover on YouTube. And, uh... I think that that's really if he you since you're the big fanboy there you need to get with him and get him turned on to value for value because that would be a great show to take that way because he can so go that way real quick he's already got a patreon that he's done he's already doing a lot of super chat stuff if he made the podcast value for value podcast and even did some of the podcasting 2. 0 features with video and stuff dude he could definitely go that way.

Gene: 1:10:40

Well, I've never talked to him, but I do send him money every month. But he's, he is very good. I actually figured I, I haven't watched Tim Poole in a long time and I noticed I'm still sending him money. Um, I need to start watching them or just stop sending money because I, I don't like giving somebody money if I'm not consuming their product. There

Ben: 1:10:59

are a few people that I purposefully do that with, um, like Alex Jones, I purposely don't

Gene: 1:11:06

watch.

Ben: 1:11:07

Well, no, I don't, I don't necessarily purposely not watch, but I purposefully send Alex Jones for instance. I, I send him money. Um, And have for years, not because I'm a huge Alex Jones fan, but like we covered earlier, the Alex Jones was right jar is always full and he does, he, he needs to be supported and, uh, you know, there, there's too much information that that man has put out that I have used in some form or fashion in my life that, uh, I, you know, if, if you're taking the value for value, seriously, I, I, I owe him some money still, you know what I mean?

Gene: 1:11:43

Yeah, I get that. That's a good point. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. So, I don't know. It's, um, I, I like the white fowls. I love, I love the hecklefish, even though when the first time I saw him, I thought that was stupid, but the hecklefish really grew on me well, and I understand the purpose of hecklefish now.

Ben: 1:12:06

What's that?

Gene: 1:12:07

Well, it's a third gravitating body.

Ben: 1:12:09

Oh my god. Are you a three body problem kind of guy?

Gene: 1:12:13

Well, are people, are there some people that aren't?

Ben: 1:12:18

Uh, yeah. Chinese authors suck.

Gene: 1:12:20

Chinese authors. Um, but yeah, I think that's, Jeheklophis is definitely a third grad main body in this instance. So, uh, he, he works even though he shouldn't.

Ben: 1:12:34

Yeah. Well, I, I think AJ has put out some interesting stuff. I think he's touched on some third rails occasionally, and I would love to see what he would do on some real third rails. I think a lot of what he puts out is, is fun fiction, and it's fun to listen to, but it's, you know, clearly, uh, art, you know, art bell, coast to coast AM nonsense. Yeah. And, you know, that's fun. That's fun. I love listening to that stuff. But I'll say this, when he covers the moon landing, the way he did, um, And I'm someone who is predisposed to believe in the moon landing, but, uh, you know, over the years, just like I didn't necessarily question 9 11 right away, but, uh, when you start looking at, oh, the government lost this, the NASA doesn't have the original tapes, oh, there's this, there's that problem, you know, there's a lot of things there that quickly add up to legitimate. Yeah.

Gene: 1:13:40

Questions. Yeah. And you don't necessarily have to jump to a full, there was no moon program out of it. Um, I think that you can both say that NASA built all the shit that they talk about building and, and you can even say that, uh, American vehicles were in the moon and at the same time say that the videos that we watched were fake. Like they're not mutually exclusive. And that's the argument that everybody who wants to portray, uh, the moon landing deniers as being crazy. It, they, they always throw this, this really far out. You know, red herring example, and then equate everybody else with that. It's like, yeah, well, you, you know, you probably don't think that, uh, you're one of those people that doesn't believe that NASA ever built anything. It's like, no, dude, I've toured the facility. I know what NASA built. I have friends, uh, several friends, in fact, that were NASA commanders. So I, I know what NASA did. And I, I've had friends that have worked. In, um, some of the companies that were supplying the product back, back in the early nineties, during space shuttle days, I had access to certain stuff that I don't anymore, and I saw certain things. So I know, I know what NASA has been doing, but it is not mutually exclusive to say that what was demonstrated to the United States public and the world public really. As the American success of the moon landing program. Was calculated to be a very strategic move to checkmate Russia into not spending any more money on space. Well, and you can Like, politically speaking, it was a brilliant thing to do.

Ben: 1:15:33

Yeah, Star Wars was the same thing. Exactly. Exactly. But one thing I'll say is you could even say that, you know, Americans landed on the moon, but maybe it wasn't Neil Armstrong. If you look at, you know, the potential, let's take the radiation problem, which I think is a little bit, um, Overblown. I think the Van Allen radiation belt, there's some misunderstandings out there. But let's just take that as a case. If you're NASA and you're looking at this as a, you know, if we send these guys up, they're going to die. They're going to get cancer. They're going to die. Well, maybe you, maybe you pull what USSR did in Chernobyl and you send in the human robots, you send up some sacrificial lambs. They're going to be in spacesuits anyway. So what does it matter? They can plant the flag. And, you know, uh, Buzz and Neil can come back and, you know, uh, from orbit or, you know, even from the soundstage and give the press briefing. Yeah. And, you know, the real poor bastards never got their day in the sun, so.

Gene: 1:16:32

Absolutely. And, like, uh, Gagarin is, uh, regarded as the first human that actually orbited the Earth. Um, you know, he was basically the, uh, The guinea pig in a a sealed ball where he had no controls over that ball But nonetheless, he made it back in one piece and could be Demonstrated in propaganda movies and news as being, uh, you know, the astronaut that was in the cosmonaut in Russian terminology. But he was not the first actual human to go up in space from Russia and even to come back. It's just he was the first one to survive.

Ben: 1:17:15

Exactly. Uh, yeah.

Gene: 1:17:17

We had this declassified, uh, about 20 years ago. There were actually two other guys that preceded him in the program that both ended up burning up. Uh, the capsules did not hold stability on re entry. And as a result, these guys were dead on arrival. Well, that's not a very newsworthy event. You gotta have somebody that actually survives to... Demonstrate them. So how many people we know about the fire that, that, um, that happened in Gemini that killed a couple of the guys from the program in the U. S. That was publicized.

Ben: 1:17:53

Well, Apollo 1, you mean.

Gene: 1:17:55

Uh, I thought it was still on the Gemini program where they were using pure oxygen and the guys ended up burning up inside the capsule.

Ben: 1:18:01

No, that was Apollo.

Gene: 1:18:03

Okay, well then, it was Apollo. I thought it was still on the Gemini side. Yeah, it was

Ben: 1:18:09

the oxygen and the, uh, Apollo 1, it was oxygen and, uh, the Velcro in the environment.

Gene: 1:18:18

Yeah, yeah, that sounds, that sounds right. Um, so, you know, we haven't had a completely error free program, and obviously with Apollo 13, but then, you know, they came back, so even though we have the mishap, you're not going to be really needing to bury it, but I think that there is a fairly high chance that, uh, Neil Armstrong was not the first person that That attempted landing on the moon. And, in fact, whether he landed on the moon at all is questionable. But I do think that America did send people to the moon. I don't, I don't think that, like, that's all fake. The question isn't so much as, well, the technology would have been horrible. Yeah, what, the only thing that the bad technology does is it increases risk of failure, but it doesn't, it doesn't increase it to 100%.

Ben: 1:19:16

Well, and it adds weight, it adds weight, which actually a lot of the additional, you know, the size of the computer and how the navigation computer functioned and everything else, a lot of the material science that was being used in, and this is some, part of the reason why I don't think the, um, You know, the Van Allen issue is as big of an issue as some people think. You know, they talk about the, the lunar lander skin, the limb skin, uh, well, the limb wasn't going through the high radiation piece and, or it wasn't occupied at the very least, uh, the command module was. The command module also had a huge amount of ceramics and a lot of material. And anytime you're talking about radiation, it's time, distance and shielding. Well, the time that you're transiting that peak period of radiation, uh, where there's a build up due to the, you know, um, the magnetic field of the, uh, Earth, uh, that's a very small thing. And as long as you have enough shielding, you're all right. And then once you're talking about interstellar or, you know, inter, uh, interplanetary, inter object, uh, rays, uh, from radiation, You know? Yeah. Their d n A probably took a bit of a pounding, but Okay. Um, again, how, how, how many of us fly all the time? There's a significant amount of, uh, radiation exposure there. Um, you know, radiation damage is cumulative and. These astronauts weren't going up and doing multiple moon missions over and over exactly. And, you know, this, this is a few days of relatively minor exposure.

Gene: 1:20:56

Exactly. So is it detrimental to go through the valium builds? Yeah. I don't think anyone would dispute that. Is it, is it catastrophic in a short timeframe? Probably not.

Ben: 1:21:10

Well. And, you know, it takes a massive, pretty massive dose of very high energy radiation to kill you in any short order.

Gene: 1:21:19

Yep. So it's, I don't think it's an insurmountable problem. And for people that think that, well, they couldn't have possibly gone through the valium belts at all back then, I think you don't understand what you're talking about. Because they, they certainly could have. And they, they knew risks, maybe not all of them. I think they underestimated the balance. There's, there's still research that came out up to the two thousands about the balance. Uh, as far as, uh, discoveries about the, the specific electronic charges that, that are up there, and different layers that exist. Well,

Ben: 1:21:59

and you have to remember the high, high frequency radiation that's the most damaging is the easiest to shield against. The, the higher energy radiation is actually pretty easy to shield against. Um, Now, if you're talking, uh, exposure, other things, you know, there's some caveats to that, but, you know, when people are talking about, you know, radioactive pools of water at Fukushima and so on, eh, okay, nah, not that big of a deal. Um, now, would I want to go stand and see the elephant's foot at Chernobyl? Yeah, no, I'm not dumb, but there's a little bit of a difference here. That'd be cool, though. Yeah, for all few seconds before you melted and you died, um, you wouldn't be able to see it was significant enough shielding If there was if transparent aluminum out of Star Trek was yeah, that's what

Gene: 1:22:50

I think it's like, yeah Well, that's what that's what's in the back of the night phone, man. What are you talking about?

Ben: 1:22:56

Yeah, yes, as you have you gotten your upgrade to USBC yet?

Gene: 1:23:01

I'm waiting on it. I won't get mine going back obviously

Ben: 1:23:04

What? You're not picking one up in Mexico? Come on. No, I

Gene: 1:23:08

don't have a Mexican iPhone guy. I only have a U. S. Apple guy. Um, I wonder if it'd be any cheaper. Probably not. The way that Apple pricing works, U. S. is actually the cheapest place to get stuff. A lot of other countries actually will get it from the U. S. because it's cheaper than

Ben: 1:23:22

local currency. Well, you know, it kind of shocked me when I was in Dubai and I was looking in duty They've got some you know in the Dubai Airport They've got some pretty heavy duty free stuff and the electronics in there. It would be cheaper to buy it here in the US Yeah, I know. I know

Gene: 1:23:41

it's exactly I was I had the exact same experience in Hong Kong dude Well, I'm thinking the shit's made here. It ought to be super cheap. I'm looking at prices. I'm like, uh, I can give that back home for less. So what the fuck? I think, I think there's a lot of factors that play into local pricing of high end parts in these countries and, uh, the, the volume, the sheer volume that is sent to the U S. Ensures that we have the cheapest prices. Well, and

Ben: 1:24:16

in that case, we are in America's empire because we certainly have consumed like an empire in that sense. Oh, God, yeah.

Gene: 1:24:24

Absolutely. Yeah, and again, like, if you're going to live somewhere, it's better to live in the empire than not in the empire. Um, you don't want to be a slave in the empire. Yeah, you want to be a citizen in the empire. But... It's better to be a citizen in the Empire than a citizen outside of the Empire. However, if you're going to be like a, you know, a principality, you're going to be some kind of a, uh, upper level person, a royal, if you will, then it's better to not live in the Empire. It's better to live outside of the Empire. So, there, there, depending what strata you happen to be flying in, there are better and worse places to live.

Ben: 1:25:09

Well, you know, one of my friends, uh, is very fond of saying it's never good to be a peasant and, uh, I, I think that's very true. Whether it's for the criminal justice system or anything else, you know, it's, it's always good to at least have enough money to be upper middle class where you can pivot. Yeah,

Gene: 1:25:29

but you don't really tell the peasants. They, they tell them, hey, at least you're not one of those, you know, slaves in China making iPhones. No, you're

Ben: 1:25:37

just, you know, starving on the streets of Austin.

Gene: 1:25:40

Yeah, starving while making 40, 50 grand a year, exactly.

Ben: 1:25:45

Which, by the way, I was surprised Charlotte had as much homeless as it had. That really did shock me. And that's something, I guess, we didn't talk Sunday, so we haven't talked about my

Gene: 1:25:55

trip. Yeah, there you go. Let's talk about that and wrap up.

Ben: 1:25:59

Okay, well, uh, I got there last Monday and there was an NFL game going on, and my first impressions of the city were, Oh, this is kind of a very lively downtown. It's a little boisterous, but they've got an NFL game going on. But they had cleaned up the downtown for that NFL game. Hmm. The very next day and the day after the homeless all moved back in and Wow. Oh wow. It, it was, it was a shocker of a difference, man. It really was. So they, and Charlotte's

Gene: 1:26:28

not that big of a city for Monday.

Ben: 1:26:30

They, there were no homeless to be seen Monday for Monday night football. Do that, and

Gene: 1:26:35

why can't they do it all the time?

Ben: 1:26:37

I don't know, man. The, the, the cops were in force. I guess they were enforcing vagrancy laws. I don't know. But, like, by Tuesday evening, every bus stop you walked by in the evening had people sleeping under it for shelter. And that was pretty shocking to me and charlotte's not that big of a city It's under a million, but it's uh, it's got a it's got a pretty big downtown for its size actually

Gene: 1:27:03

And what's the big employer?

Ben: 1:27:05

Um Banks, uh, there's a pretty good financial Sector and stuff like that.

Gene: 1:27:12

Gotcha. So, uh other than being surprised at the homeless population any other revelations from charlotte

Ben: 1:27:19

Uh, just very thankful to be in Texas, uh, the gun laws in North, uh, in, uh, North Carolina aren't the greatest. Yeah. Really? Okay. No. Um, they share reciprocity. They share reciprocity with other, you know, concealed carry states and stuff like that, but they do not, um, Okay. They don't have constitutional care yet. They're, they're still working on a few things. They have yet to catch up to a lot of the other states, um, that and the immigrant population again for not what I would consider a major city in the U. S. was. Shockingly high. Like, I, I, I don't think I, and when I say immigrant, I don't necessarily mean foreigner, I mean literally every Uber driver I had was either from another country or another state. There was no one, not a single Uber driver that I had, um, or any of the staff that I really interacted with were from the Carolinas.

Gene: 1:28:24

Well, that's true in Austin as well. Every Uber driver I have, including food delivery, not just guys that drive me around. Uh, they're, they're all have accents. Like the guy that drove me, dropped me off at the airport last time, uh, he is from Sudan. And he's been in the U. S. for two and a half years and been in Austin for a year. I think it's fairly common, and I've had, uh, drivers from all over Africa. Yep, me too. Um, in Austin.

Ben: 1:28:57

Well, not just in Austin or wherever, I mean, I'm talking about all over the country.

Gene: 1:29:03

Yeah, yeah, but it's, what I noticed when Uber first popped up on the scene a decade ago, Is that all the taxi drivers were definitely heavily accent people. They were immigrants from somewhere. Um, hopefully legal, but all the Uber drivers were basically millennials, right? They're just, they, they have a car they can't afford to make payments on. They started doing this as a side gig. It was truly a part time side Uber. Sometime in the last, it was right before COVID. So probably like last four years. Or maybe it was around four years ago. I've noticed that a majority of the Uber drivers or Lyft started to be the exact same dudes that used to be taxi drivers, except now they were driving their own cars instead of a taxi car.

Ben: 1:29:55

Yeah. When was the last time you did a auto loan? Um,

Gene: 1:30:01

15 years ago, maybe.

Ben: 1:30:02

Okay, well, having just done one, uh, for my stepdaughter's car and helping her out and things like that, um, they are now asking if the vehicle is going to be used for any ride share or. Gig type of service. And part of the reason why they're asking that is because Uber is killing the used car market, not just, uh, not just from a. Um, you know, people buying cars and using them for that, but what people are doing, and this is, this is kind of an interesting statement on the state of our economy. Um, they are buying cars, racking up a shit ton of miles on them very quickly, and then they are allowing them to go into default, and while that is defaulting, before it hits their credit, going and buying another car.

Gene: 1:30:59

Well, uh, that sucks, obviously, and I totally understand why loan companies would want to have a, a clause in there that prevents you from using your car for Uber. Right, it just

Ben: 1:31:09

devalues the qual it just devalues the car very

Gene: 1:31:13

quickly. Yeah, it would have to be a commercial loan with a different set of criteria in it, not a personal loan for a personal vehicle. Yes. So, I get it. That makes sense to me. But, yeah, I mean, like, I think the last three cars I got I just paid for, so I didn't really get loans. But, um, it would make sense that they would want to ensure that if they had to do a repossession, that they're not going to get a, uh, you know, totally fucked up vehicle. In fact, I had a friend of mine that did a personal loan. Basically, he did something stupid. Here's what he said. Uh, he bought a car, got a loan for and bought a car for his former personal assistant because she wanted to go be an Uber driver and her credit really sucked and, you know, whatever. She convinced him to do something stupid and then basically get a loan on her behalf and then she would just make payments to him. Instead of, um, sorry, not get a loan. He didn't get a loan, he gave her a loan, right? So he, he bought the car for cash, but he, she was paying him monthly for the car. Well, something completely predictable would happen. So after about three years, she stopped paying him. And it was like a five year term for this thing. And so it took him a couple of months, but eventually he got the car repossessed because it was in his name, right? So he's the legal owner of the vehicle. Uh, he, he would have signed it over to her at the time she made her final payment. And, um, the car was completely shit inside. Like, it was just beat to hell. You know, it had not been thoroughly cleaned ever. And it had, uh, 160, 000 miles on it. And this was after three years. And so, he effectively got a car that he'd have to pay somebody to get rid of. It was still a technically a working vehicle. It wasn't salvaged or anything, but it was in extremely rough shape and not worth anything. And she'd only paid off like, you know, three shifts of the car. Yeah. So, and I, I, I told him, I was like, what the hell were you thinking? He's like, well, she was, you know, she was a good, She did a good job working for me. I trusted her. I'm like, yeah, she might be a good PA, but dude, you know, giving somebody a car loan is not trivial unless you're prepared to just buy them a gift car. If you're just going to gift the car to somebody, that's one thing, but if you're going to do it as a actual loan, don't do it. Yeah.

Ben: 1:33:50

Uh, let me ask. What, uh, what was her bra size?

Gene: 1:33:55

I don't remember. She wasn't particularly attractive. She was East European. And, uh, I think she was like, uh, gypsies when I, I, well, that was my sort of turn for her.

Ben: 1:34:03

Okay, then your buddy's just a, your buddy's just a nut then. I was hoping to find an excuse somewhere

Gene: 1:34:09

around that. Nah, it made no sense. It made no sense. Uh, this is the whole crazy story, right, is that, um, he hired her And, like, he just had a sort of string of bad decisions. He hired her as a personal assistant because she was his taxi driver on a trip to Vegas and they got along really well. And so he hires her as a PA. And I'm like, already, it's like, dude, what the fuck? You don't, don't do that. Hire people based on qualifications, not based on a 20 minute ride from the airport. That's just stupid. And, uh, she was very loyal, but, you know, loyalty is just one of the qualities that you need in somebody who's a PA. Uh, you also want actual skills, not just somebody who's gonna take your side in arguments. And, um, uh, I think she was a fairly mediocre PA, eventually got her replaced. And then he did this other stupid thing of basically... She convinced them that she's going to go back to basically being a taxi driver, but now she's going to drive her own car, but she needs a loan. And could he do that? And, you know, long story short, don't ever feel like somebody needs your help unless you're truly willing to just give them something don't ever like. Make the mistake of investing in somebody thinking you're going to get your money back. It never works out

Ben: 1:35:42

Well, this reminds me of hamlet. But yes, which part polonius's speech to his son Neither a baron nor a lender be because loan often loses itself and friends,

Gene: 1:35:56

right? Exactly. Exactly That's good advice Um, I, I did not memorize Shakespeare, uh, when I was in school, so congratulations, you got

Ben: 1:36:05

me on that. Oh, dude, uh, I mean, it's not, it's not a, you have to memorize thing, it's, uh... Just, uh, you know,

Gene: 1:36:19

part of it. Oh, it is. And I, and I actually do like, uh, most the Shakespeare I read. I think, um, once you get used to the writing style, it's actually quite good. Yeah.

Ben: 1:36:30

Well, uh, you know, hi, his sonnet, uh, uh, I always liked, uh, you know, sonnet 1 41 was always my favorite.

Gene: 1:36:39

Oh, right. Okay. Do you think anybody in our audience knows what that is? No,

Ben: 1:36:45

but I can see a few people Googling it really quickly.

Gene: 1:36:48

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Do you want to tell us why you like it?

Ben: 1:36:52

Uh, just, it's, well, you know, it's one of those, uh, poems about love that's, uh, talking about more than physical attractiveness and that, uh, there are things that you may or may not like about a person, but there's more in the totality that matters.

Gene: 1:37:08

Yeah, yeah, and, um, I do not think I've ever read that, but maybe I have, I don't know.

Ben: 1:37:15

Yeah, so it starts out, In faith I do not love thee with mine eyes, for they in thee a thousand errors note. Right?

Gene: 1:37:22

So... So, basically, she's ugly. Got it.

Ben: 1:37:25

But she's got a good personality, Gene. That's what matters. Right, right.

Gene: 1:37:29

She's got a thousand flaws. That's how ugly this chick is. I'm just saying, you know, it's, I'm, you know, I'm interpreting for the, for the layman here. All right, dude. Well, I think we're good. Uh, this again, apologies for the audio quality. This travel setup is just haphazard. What I would have normally brought is my. Uh, my blue microphone, which lately everybody's been telling me sounds like shit. So I think the microphone's actually broken. So I need to get it serviced. I have no idea. I mean, it worked fine up until, like, three months ago. And then I didn't use it for a few months. And then, uh, all of a sudden... Uh, I had it a couple of times with you and Darren, where it's like, it's, that was my default mic on my computer. And before I switched it over to the multi, both of you guys were like, God damn, this sounds horrible. What do you want? So obviously that mic is not working. Okay. So we'll just, I have no idea why, but something is either physically or electronically broken. It's not the software. I've rinsed all the software and it's something else. And I could have, I have one additional, like, I also have a whole bunch of. Maybe this is what I'll do for next time. My next trip. I'll just bring a lavalier because I do have some decent quality lavaliers, so I could, I could go that route, but, um, nothing is going to sound as good as my home set up with the Moto and the RE320, which obviously I like the sound of the

Ben: 1:39:01

most. Well, it's hard to, it's hard to beat the Moto. That's for sure. All right, we'll catch you next week.

Gene: 1:39:10

Sounds good. We'll see you next week. Thanks everybody.