042 Just Two Good Old Boys

Gene: 0:22

Howdy Ben. How are you today?

Ben: 0:24

I'm all right. Gene, yourself? I'm doing peachy. You know, there are just some times when you get certain news and it just warms the cockles of your heart.

Gene: 0:35

Like New

Ben: 0:35

York flooding? Or Dianne Feinstein finally leaving us. I mean, her and George H. W. Bush, or H. Bush, Herbert Walker. Yeah. Anyway, Papa Bush. When he passed. I just felt like the wizard had finally passed. Yeah,

Gene: 0:53

but there's so many secrets that disappeared along with him.

Ben: 0:56

I'm okay with that.

Gene: 0:57

All right. All right. Yeah. The Wicked Witch is dead. So that's a, yeah. So Gavin

Ben: 1:03

Newsom is going to have two senators to appoint. Huh. Huh.

Gene: 1:08

You know, he's going to appoint people that are going to ensure he gets the victory. Oh

Ben: 1:12

yeah. Yeah. It is what it is. But. Huh. They'll only be serving out the special term, which is fine.

Gene: 1:22

But the special term includes the Presidential election. Yes. Yeah. That's what I thought. Yeah.

Ben: 1:29

Speaking of, did you hear about Kennedy? What now? Kennedy is preparing to do a independent run. Really? Wow. Which

Gene: 1:43

is That would be awesome, dude.

Ben: 1:44

Cause that would That would be a spoiler from hell for the Democrats. Oh, fuck it.

Gene: 1:48

I'm sorry to hear that he died. I'm really sorry to hear that, his whole family is cursed, they keep dying randomly. Yeah, I

Ben: 1:56

mean, and he was talking about 9 11 recently on a pretty mainstream podcast, dude's kinda

Gene: 2:02

walking a fine line here. He is seriously tempting fate, and by fate I mean Hillary Clinton, but yeah.

Ben: 2:08

Hillary Clinton, CIA, a

Gene: 2:10

few others. Yeah, there's not much difference there. I think the CIA has killed fewer people than Hillary has

Ben: 2:16

in its entire history. And its entire history, the hag squad has killed more. And for those who don't know, hag is Hillary assassination squad.

Gene: 2:27

Yeah, it's, it's a a group. It's a crazy time that we live in. But yeah, I just, I sent you an email, I I don't know if it's an email, text message, I said because I watched a video of the flooding in New York, I'm like, man, you know, I think the non existent God might be wanting to have another flood.

Ben: 2:46

So you're, you're, you're sitting there going, dude, some of this shit might actually be biblical.

Gene: 2:51

All I'm going to say is Is all I asked for is a miracle or two, you know, just show me something, maybe we'll get something, you know,

Ben: 2:59

you know, don't test God, man, you read it, but that's

Gene: 3:03

the only way to really get them to do something that's, that's the lesson I learned from reading the Bible is if you don't test God, he just kind of sits back.

Ben: 3:12

Okay, Jonah, let's see how that goes.

Gene: 3:17

Hey, man, you want me to believe or not? Come on, which side are you on here?

Ben: 3:21

Yeah so, so, you know, I think one of the big things there is, I mean, if you really want an honest answer faith is required. It's, it can't be a all knowing anyone who says I know God exists. No, you don't. You have to take faith. That's the entire point of the exercise of, you know, kind of doing this. Right. Exactly. Yeah. You know, and it's through grace not works that you're saved and there, there are several things here that you have to really think about. So do I want you to believe because you have seen some, what you can see, conceive of as inexorable truth and proof? No, because I think that's falsehood. You have to come to it in your heart.

Gene: 4:08

I don't know that I would, I would agree with that because if you look at the original disciples. They actually did believe through observation.

Ben: 4:17

Eh, they were also chosen and the different were also Jewish of group of So was Christ and Uhhuh. Yeah exactly, exactly. Excuse me one quick thing. They were pre Talmudic Jews, Uhhuh. I point that out. The Talmud had not yet been written. Yes, that's correct. A lot of people, long history. It is. Yeah. I don't know how we jump to religion other than say, know, I know this is like religion talk hour.

Gene: 4:44

Like it's

Ben: 4:44

always been. I, I guess the one tie-in is, you know, I think we could both agree that Diane Feinstein's in a much warmer climate right now.

Gene: 4:52

Oh hell yeah. absolutely. No. She is hopefully getting her just desserts. And people can, you

Ben: 5:00

know, I, I wish we had the clip. Yeah. What those are. We got to set up to be able to play clips better. And yeah,

Gene: 5:07

All that it requires is for us to get on either an hour earlier or stay an hour later to just test things. Cause that's the thing with both you and Darren is it's always like, Oh, this shit isn't working right this time. We never test, we spend literally zero time on

Ben: 5:21

testing. So I think I'm, I've got all the channels on the Moto to show up in Linux now. Okay. I've got to figure out some routing stuff. So while I'm, while I'm doing that, I'm on my windows box right now. So luckily I'm not making any shifts or changes to the mode too. It's just from box to box. So I can literally just unplug and plug back in. But once I get that working, I think that I'll set up to play clips and just leave it, especially on that box. Cause I won't change it. Yeah. But yeah. Anyway, I would love to play the clip of Mr. and Mrs. America. Turn them all in. Oh,

Gene: 5:59

for the guns. Yeah.

Ben: 6:00

Yeah. For Feinstein. Mm hmm. Yeah. I'm glad she did not live to see that.

Gene: 6:07

Yeah. And she saw it once. How so well during the the Clinton gun ban,

Ben: 6:13

There was no buyback. Everything was grandfathered in.

Gene: 6:15

Yeah, I know, but it's,

Ben: 6:17

so it was, you just couldn't buy

Gene: 6:19

new during, she got to see the victory though. And she got to see all the California buybacks. They didn't have buybacks.

Ben: 6:26

Since we're on gun control and Dianne Feinstein, did you see the new laws in Connecticut? No. I haven't heard from her. You can now only buy three guns a month. You are rate limited.

Gene: 6:39

Oh, that's not going to stand. That's so contrary to the

Ben: 6:43

intent. There's so many things. They just passed a handful of gun laws. You can now no longer concealed or open carry. Oh, that's totally

Gene: 6:52

not going to stand either.

Ben: 6:54

They've passed Connecticut's passed quite a few gun bills that... What the

Gene: 6:57

hell? Who's Connecticut? I guess it's the people that work in New York and have a lot of money, huh? Okay. I don't know. I'm trying to think of who would live there, because I think Connecticut is just the suburb. I don't, I don't know

Ben: 7:10

why anyone would live in Connecticut.

Gene: 7:13

Yeah. It's pretty. I've been there. But it's, it's like, if you want to be a New Yorker, but you don't like living in the city. I guess. Short train, skipping the hop away. Yeah. With much bigger lawns and actual lawns.

Ben: 7:32

Connecticut enacts the most sweeping gun control laws since Sandy Hook shooting. That's, that's,

Gene: 7:38

first of all, the size of Connecticut is smaller than pretty much all

Ben: 7:43

Texas. Court challenges ahead. No shit, Sherlock. No shit.

Gene: 7:47

Exactly. And then... I think was it Vermont that was trying to do the opposite where they were like, no gun related laws at all. Like anybody could just, you know, you're guaranteed this by the constitution. We don't need any laws. That would be fantastic. I think that was Vermont that was doing that.

Ben: 8:10

Anyway, the, the, the New York law on background check on ammo is still in effect. There needs, I just, it's such a shocking one. Yeah, it hasn't gone up high enough. You

Gene: 8:22

know, it's the, the, the having to talk to your... Your fire station thing is going to make it a lot easier.

Ben: 8:28

Yeah, if they get that there. I'm and you know, good luck getting people to comply. The compliance rate on that is going to be lower than the bump stock, or the pistol brace band.

Gene: 8:41

Which it seems like the bump stock is back to being legal while the, the, the pistol thing. Brace is, yeah. Is still going to take a little while to get

8:52

there.

Ben: 8:53

You know, the, the, the thing that heartens me and gives me some, you know, positive thoughts is that the compliance rate on the pistol brace ruling was so low and is seemingly so low. So we'll see.

Gene: 9:10

Yeah, I think it was low and I think that the people that did it in order to save 200 bucks, which I was to be fair considering doing myself as well. But luckily reading the fine print, realizing that. It's not really saving 200 bucks because they don't have a deferred. Yeah. So all you're doing is giving up a whole bunch of stuff just to have a, a deferment. So it's not worth it.

Ben: 9:37

Speaking of fine print, go ahead. I have somewhere

Gene: 9:42

I want to go with that. Oh, okay. No, I was just going to say that it's, it's Better just to do the SBR and pay the 200 bucks and then not worry about it and not have to be waiting to see what happens in the courts with us. Because you can have an S and in fact, plenty of people, and certainly just about all the YouTubers, they all shoot SBRs. It's, it's kind of funny. In fact, if, but if you watch almost Almost anyone's videos. When a new gun model comes out, they always have the SBR version of that gun.

Ben: 10:15

He, I, and I don't understand it.

Gene: 10:18

It's they, they can, and it makes it a little bit more unique because very few people will be able to have like the 13 inch version of the barrel. But I, I, I think when you're on YouTube, you have to make sure all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. Unless you want to end up like FPS Russia. No shit. Yeah, so and if you're gonna do that, I mean, they're making way, way enough money off the channel that 200 plus it's a tax deductible 200 stamp at that point.

Ben: 10:54

I don't think you can deduct taxes.

Gene: 10:56

It's a business expense. How would you not deduct the tax? because

Ben: 11:00

it's a

Gene: 11:01

tax. Yeah. You can deduct taxes. Absolutely.

Ben: 11:09

Okay. I think there's some limits on that. I know there's limits on the amount of state income tax you can deduct. For instance. Yeah.

Gene: 11:20

But, I don't know that there is for a company. I mean, for individuals, yeah. Anyway, but these are all corporations. So

Ben: 11:28

yeah, tax law, I will never

Gene: 11:29

have to worry about. Yeah. Yeah, because I may, I I'm, I still want to have a couple of my guns. This BR

Ben: 11:37

yeah, I dude, I've been thinking about a suppressor for a long time and I'm tempted, but I just, Oh, it grates on me. The

Gene: 11:46

ones that are like the ones based on reviews, not having ever had one, but from watching videos and reviews and everything else. They, coincidentally, are also the most expensive ones, but they're the flow throughs. Yeah, the flow throughs. And, the idea of not having a bunch of gun, like, you know, carbon y gas, being, Back pressure. Mm hmm. Flowing right back towards your face. That is extremely appealing and the difference in price is about 50%. So like a 650, 700 regular suppressor, 1, 100 flow through. So it's probably worth it.

Ben: 12:28

So, while we're talking about it, I went to the gun range. Oh, okay. Nice. Yeah. And took some new toys out. Okay. Took my new pistol and the the PC car being out as well. As well as some of my more favorite 308s and stuff like that. I gotta tell you that PC car being I'm impressed with dude. Yeah, I hear it. Yes so at, you know, I'm using just a red dot aim point comp M3, which is just an open sight essentially. And I was hitting freehand, just shoulder freehand, boom, a four inch steel target at 25 yards. No problem. Just bing. No problem. Which, you know, that's not, I wasn't trying for to test how accurate this guy was. I was just shooting. I shot at nothing but steel pretty much this entire time. Okay. So I wasn't, you know, looking on a target, seeing exactly where I hit and going, Oh, it's X

Gene: 13:29

MOA. It was somewhere within the steel. I got it.

Ben: 13:32

Which is all I care about. Because it's functional accuracy for a gun like this, right? This is not a tag driver. This is not a technically accurate gun. This is a truck gun that I know I can hit a hog at a hundred yards with. Speaking of, with just regular, nothing special ammo, a blazer, 124 grain, nine mil, not plus P, not anything ringing an eight inch steel target at a hundred yards with a cross wind was easy. Okay. And I was like, seriously, four out of five of the first shots hit it after that it was pretty much probably nine out of 10 occasionally there'd be a gust or something pushed me off. But other than that. You know, yeah, that, that to me is impressive for a nine millimeter.

Gene: 14:24

Yeah, no, that is I'm

Ben: 14:26

sure there's someone in the audience going, I couldn't do that with my nose.

Gene: 14:32

Yeah, exactly. So eight inch at a hundred. So it'd be about two inches at 25.

Ben: 14:40

Oh, that that was again hitting that was again, I wasn't measuring accuracy. I'm just saying that. There was a cross wind and at a hundred yards with nine millimeter, which is pretty far for a nine mil, I was able to hit that steel target, you know, no problem. In fact, my first round, I kind of thought, okay, I've got to aim high because, you know, it dropped there's going to be significant drop. So I aimed high. And I shot over it and I'm like, motherfucker, I missed high. Okay. That shocked me. Interesting. Not what I was expecting. Magic ballistics here. Okay. So, yeah. Anyway, it was fun. I got to tell you the dagger especially Mr. I've got a golden gun fetish and they've got some that would fit that for fairly inexpensive. Dude, I like that pistol.

Gene: 15:37

I'm glad you're a Glock guy now.

Ben: 15:39

I'm not a Glock guy now. I, I will just say this. I put sorry, and I'm saying a lot, sorry. I went through 500 rounds of 9mm between. Two pistols and the PC carbine. So, yeah, I put some 100 rounds through, through the dagger and it was phenomenal. And the Holosun sight that I have on it, I can't say enough good things about. I still like my SIG M17 a lot more but it's, the dagger is a great gun. For especially for the price and what I'm going to use it for is a truck gun, you know, this all stuff going in the truck as I get home shit at the fan precautions sort of thing.

Gene: 16:20

Yeah it's interesting. You seem to be going in the opposite direction of gun buying that I was, which is you started with the SIG. Then you went to the the I didn't start. Yeah. Yeah. But let me make my point. So the XDM and then you went to the, the Glock knockoff. And like the Glock I was shooting in the nineties, all through the nineties. And then when the XDs came out, went to that and then the XDM. And then I guess, you know, I had a bad experience with SIG. So I never really came back to it, but I don't know. It was, it just, it's interesting. It's interesting watching the stuff that you're, you're buying in the order you're buying it. It's, it's, it's. Your price is getting cheaper, not

Ben: 17:05

more. But my use case is shifting, right? So... Sure.

Gene: 17:10

I'm not saying you're doing it irrationally. I'm just saying it's interesting watching somebody progressing where the price point isn't increasing. Because typically for me, and I think a lot of people that I know each gun they buy is more expensive than the previous gun.

Ben: 17:25

Yeah, I buy the guns I want. You'd be getting

Gene: 17:28

like a 2, 500 Colt 1911 right about now.

Ben: 17:32

That, that shifts around and I would never spend that much for a 1911. Ever. There is no point in spending over 1, 000 on a 1911.

Gene: 17:41

But if you have a nice version of it, like a CZ, you know, those are 2, 500. Like with

Ben: 17:46

nothing. They're not worth it though.

Gene: 17:48

I mean, a lot of people would argue with that. Okay.

Ben: 17:51

And I think Kimber's junk too. So, you know, a lot of people would argue with that. And I like 1911s. I think 1911s are fantastic. I have a couple. That's not the point. I actually have some pretty cool ones, but I, I just, I You're you, if you were spending over a thousand dollars on a 1911, it's because there's something about the pistol itself that you want cosmetically more likely than not, you know, an engraving, a carving, something birdie because from a functional level,

Gene: 18:24

I'm sorry, you just want the well made one. I mean, that's the thing is if you're looking at the competition guns. The no one's shooting

Ben: 18:32

1911 for competition and if you are, you're a masochist,

Gene: 18:37

no, they're the, the problem with the 1911 is that you're taking something that was made to be a mass produced, not horribly efficient gun and certainly a gun that has. A lot more issues when it comes to cycling ammo and you're, you're turning it into something that's going to be rock solid, reliable. And that's what ends up costing you

Ben: 19:00

money. So I disagree with that. I think if you pick up a vintage World War II, 1911 and you shake it, it rattles it's got a fairly loose fit. And part of that is because. The 1911 is designed. You have to go one of two ways. You have to go with very loose tolerances so that it doesn't have cycling issues, or you have to go with extremely tight tolerances and it has to be perfect. Exactly. I think that. The way which makes it a shitty competition gun if you ask me, but you know, I can't I like the design of 1911s I think they're pretty I think they're a neat Design mechanically. I like them. I like the you know, the grip safeties. I like The, the beaver tail on the 1911, I think 1911 shoots great for me especially in 45. A C p. I like it. I I have 19

Gene: 19:57

elevens. Which ones do you have that you can spend 2000 bucks on? That's

Ben: 20:02

none of your business. I'll tell you offline, man, but,

Gene: 20:07

So you do have a Kimber. Okay. I

Ben: 20:09

see. I see. No, no, no, no. I, I, yeah. I, but I've got a buddy of mine. He likes Kimber so much. He named his daughter Kimber. Now that's funny. I shit you not. His daughter's first name is Kimber and it's after the gun. Wow.

Gene: 20:26

Yeah. I don't know. I, I theoretically liked 1911. It just does not fit my fucking hands. It's it's got a grip angle that is just a little bit off from what I like. And

Ben: 20:41

Modern guns definitely have a better grip

Gene: 20:43

and grip angle. One hundred percent. And then a lot of the grip of the 1911 is sort of wasted. If you take it apart, you can see that the, how much you would need for the grip based on the magazine size. Is quite a bit less than the grip on the standard design Colt 1911. Now there are some, there are companies that have been, I think, including Kimberley, that have fitted dual stack magazines in there that takes more advantage of the size of that grip, but I prefer to have a grip more like the XD which is I think for me, that is the most ergonomic of guts. The angle's right. The grip size is right. The natural sight alignment is right. You know, like if you bring the gun up with your eyes closed and you open your eyes, how close is it to the, looking at the sights, it's very close for that gun for me. So I'm, I'm probably of all the guns that I own or have owned, the XDM is probably the closest. To a perfect gun for me, and it's not an expensive gun and

Ben: 21:51

I, I, I like the XD a lot. I think it shoots great. You know, my daily carry is an XDS, so I agree with you. It's to me, it's the right price point of a gun that I want to shoot. I can shoot well. And if I ever have to use it and it's taken for a while from, from me, from law enforcement, I'm not going to be really

Gene: 22:14

sad. Right. It's not a unique gun by any stretch.

Ben: 22:18

No, no, it is a tool that is the definition of a gun. That is a tool. And even my SIG M17 is a tool. It's just a really nice tool, right? So the, the XDS is a Cobalt store brand Lowe's tool. And the Springfield is a DeWalt. I'm just making a comparison, or it's a shitty cheap hammer, or it's a nice east wing, you know, however you want to look at

Gene: 22:49

it. That's good. So there's speaking of guns, I also sent you a video, which I think was pretty interesting about gun use insurance. I think there's might

Ben: 23:01

be a better. Yeah, that's where I was going with the fine print comment.

Gene: 23:04

Okay, good, good, good. Yeah, which there's a YouTube video watched and it's not a normal YouTuber that I watch, but another gun dude, he, he had made some very good points, which is. You know, a lot of YouTube channels are promoting

Ben: 23:22

gun. It was one of his listeners that brought it up

Gene: 23:25

to him. Right. Exactly. But a lot of, a lot of these channels their ads are by companies quite often, not all the time, but quite often that offer sort of gun use insurance. So if you, if you end up having to use your firearm, they will cover the legal fees. Theoretically. Theoretically, exactly. And that's where you get into the fine print comment, because as his viewer pointed out, and as he kind of dug further into all these companies that are actual insurance companies, meaning they're a third party and they're paying for your legal they all have almost identical fine print, which I may or may not be, but I think it is kind of based on law which is that. Any illegal act that you commit, and we'll get to what that is defined as in a little bit here, but any unlawful act you commit will cancel the insurance and allow them to recover funds for any money spent up to that point in defense of the illegal act. Now, what's an illegal act? An illegal act is literally anything that would be a violation of the law. So let's say you're in a self defense scenario where you're defending your house, you had some intruders, literally people broke through your front door you shot one of them second one got wise and ran out of there and ran away. The, the what, what you would call it, the carry insurance. No, no, no. I was thinking that the attorney general or the yeah, prosecutor basically is one of the Soros appointments. They just go after all people using guns except for actual criminals, of course, because they let those out. And so they end up pushing hard and they, they start finding things that you know, maybe weren't done correctly. Oh, it looks like you, you had a pistol brace on that gun. And we checked with the ATF and you never registered the gun. So now you've got a, a violation with the ATF on, on, on the use of that illegal pistol brace for your home defense gun. So your lawyer advises you to say like, Hey, let them slap you on the wrist. Let's get a non gun related violation out of this. Something that basically gets you a small financial penalty and, and you know, maybe probation for a year and then you're good to go. You can still go. Okay. As soon as you do that. You've now have a and whether or not,

Ben: 26:08

whether or not you were actually guilty or not,

Gene: 26:11

you may, you may be advised to compromise down to something that you completely did not do in order to not have to fight in court and try and convince the jury. Who you don't know whether they're pro gun or anti gun that you were well within your rights.

Ben: 26:29

And to, to be clear if you ever go to trial on something like that, there is what is known as the you know, trial penalty where the prosecutor is going to go far, far more than they would have otherwise, unfortunately, which is just

Gene: 26:46

a problem. Yeah. It's in, so. There may be one main thing that they're going for, but they're gonna tack on 20 other charges so that if they can't get a conviction on the main charge, they'll try and get the jury to at least get you on the minor charges. So if they only went for the major one and there that was the only charge, then the jury may just acquit you. But if this is just unfortunately how human logic works, if they acquit you of a main charge and there's 20 smaller ones, They may still give you a couple of the smaller ones thinking we let them go on the big one. You know, it, logically, they shouldn't convict you of any of them, but human nature is to be fair and to be fair, you want both sides to get something, both the prosecutor. This is, I'm speaking as a juror. This is how most jurors subconsciously are going to think. If there's a bunch of charges, no, it's totally not how it should work, but that is how it does work because of human nature. So. So, a long time ago, prosecutors figured out that if they stack a lot of charges, both small and large, then they are almost guaranteed to get the small charges in their favor, if the big one the, the person gets acquitted on. Which could be felonies. Yeah. So,

Ben: 28:09

it could be small charges, we don't necessarily mean that they're not necessarily felonies. It could be

Gene: 28:13

a felony, but it doesn't even have to be for for this example. It could literally be a misdemeanor. Using a gun insurance goes out the window and you thought you were getting the whole trial paid for and now they're going to be recovering the money from you, which is to say

Ben: 28:29

and and even at the most generous interpretation, if so, the worst interpretation is if you're accused of something, it's up to them to decide whether or not they want to cover you, which is never a good place to be from an insurance company standpoint, because guess what? Insurance companies are there to make money and they have a fiduciary responsibility to their stakeholders to look at this in the most strict way. That said, if we take the most you know, benevolent interpretation, we can say that, okay, if you're found guilty. Now they're going to seek recovery of damages to them, which, you know, now, now, not only have you been found guilty and you need to start putting together an appeal or whatever else you're looking at but oh shit, now you owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to this gun insurance company that's now also suing you.

Gene: 29:23

Exactly. So it's a, it's an unfortunate, but it's a fucked up situation it is because you think you're getting something for safety, but it turns out to be,

Ben: 29:36

You think you're being responsible. You're, you're, you're sitting there saying, okay, I want to carry a gun. So therefore I'm going to get this insurance that if I'm ever in this scenario it will help cover me. It'll help protect me. And, You know, you, you're agreeing to the terms. You should read the fine print. I don't know about you. I don't have carry insurance. I never have, so I haven't.

Gene: 30:00

When I, when I carry it every day, I definitely had insurance and, and you know, never had to use it. Right. So I was like, okay, this was money thrown away. But so what this guy brought up, which I'm sure this is not the only example of, but it's one of is an actual law firm doing this. So it's not insurance at that point. You're just prepaying a retainer to the law firm to represent you. And that is totally. Above the law, there's nothing wrong with doing that. And I guess what, what this guy pointed out, and I haven't dug into it, so I'm not sure if he was correct or not, but basically what he's, his understanding of why all these insurance companies have the same clause is because there is a U. S. law that, that prohibits profiting from illegal acts, effectively saying, yeah, so you can't get insurance that will pay all your. You know, legal and medical fees and then go rob a bank and then get insurance to pay for all that. Cause it effectively then removes a lot of the risk of robbing a bank. If you have insurance, that'll cover it. And so there's, I'm just using that as an example, but so there's an actual law and I have seen this, but I don't have in front of me that essentially makes it illegal for somebody to allow you to profit through them off of an illegal act.

Ben: 31:28

And I'll check with the show lawyer, but you know, I don't, it's just a friend, but I don't think that I think that the law that he's referencing there is what like prevents Kaczynski from making money on his books and things like that. It's, it's about your actions. I don't know that it would be based on the actions of another. No, it's

Gene: 31:48

for banks specifically is what it was created for. And then I, I can see how it covers insurance companies as well. Insurance companies are banks. Yeah, effectively. It's a different law. But yeah, it's it was part of the whole, you know, tightening of the financial

Ben: 32:02

system. Have you noticed that a lot of the, I guess, icons of the nineties? So if you think back about the big events of the 1990s, and Polanski. Just how many of those people who are involved in those big events of the 1990s are

Gene: 32:23

dying? Yes, we're all dying, Ben. It's just a slow process. It's happening all

Ben: 32:29

the time. I know, but it's just one of those things, you know, it's... Darren

Gene: 32:34

and I have started getting self conscious about mentioning comedians, because every time we seem to mention a comedian, and last one was P. B. Herman, they turn out dead a week later. So we literally, we talk about somebody and think, oh man, you remember that guy? Oh, he was awesome. Yeah, yeah. Whatever happened to him? Week later. So I guess he died literally after we talked about him. So yeah, it's I think it's part of the,

Ben: 33:00

So what you're saying is the grim reaper listens to unrelenting for ideas.

Gene: 33:04

He's got to listen to somebody. Yeah. Why not? Unrelenting. It's a, it's a show that I would appeal to dead people. So it makes sense. Yeah. Huh. So anyway, the bottom line is there are ways to do that type of insurance sort of, but that is directly with a law firm. And he mentioned one of the law firms that does this based out of Arizona. And it's attorneys and retainers named the company, but there are others. They're not the only ones. That's a very good point that this YouTuber dude made that you, you can't like the only way you, your insurance would work if you got, you know, gun protection insurance. Is if you live in a place where they had zero interest in charging you for anything when you in self defense and there are very few places like that in the United

Ben: 34:01

States. Even in Texas, it's going to depend on your DA.

Gene: 34:05

Absolutely. And Texas has plenty of bad

Ben: 34:07

DAs. Yes, and one of the things I'd say is that, you know, if you are going to pay a law firm the retainer for that one, you're now locked into that law firm. So you better know the lawyers and you better have a good idea of what they're doing. And the problem with that is it's likely to change over time. And then the other thing I would talk to the lawyers about is, okay, am I building this retainer up in perpetuity? When does it, you know, kind of roll off and expire? How can I use these hours? Because a retainer is very different than insurance in its typical use.

Gene: 34:45

It doesn't have to be. It could be exactly the same way.

Ben: 34:48

And you could say that I'm paying X retainer a year for up to this many hours of service that goes away after the end of the year. Sure. I would just want to negotiate something better than that for myself.

Gene: 35:02

Yeah, I think that at least what I checked with this firm is it's a very small retainer. It's under 1, 000. A year and it's like, I think 650 a year or something like that and it, it covers what amounts to over, over 20, 000 worth of legal services. So it really is kind of like insurance. Like you're never, you know, I mean, I guess over the course of 30 years, you might get

Ben: 35:31

to that point. I mean, how, what did you say the limit was or around about 30, 000? I mean, that, that's not a lot in some of these cases. I mean, when you look at Rittenhouse and what it cost him, Oh yeah,

Gene: 35:46

Yes, that's, that was in the millions, but also Rittenhouse had lawyers that charge in the millions.

Ben: 35:54

Yeah. He needed them.

Gene: 35:56

Let's be honest. I mean, I don't know that he did. I mean, if you, if you actually look at the guys that represent them, they are very public and publicity based lawyers. Did you

Ben: 36:07

did you see some of the memes going around suggesting that written house is actually a female cop?

Gene: 36:13

Oh, yeah. Huh. I just felt bad for the kid because he looks like a female. He does look a little soft around the edges,

Ben: 36:23

but most people do these days, Gene. But

Gene: 36:26

most people do these days. Exactly. Not all of us can be Truman's fit.

Ben: 36:31

You know, I, I, I've got a pretty, pretty good jawline, but Uhhuh man, I don't know. It, it's, I, I, I really think if you look back a couple generations mm-hmm. at what men looked like, and then you look at the average people today, oh yeah, you, something's changed, man.

Gene: 36:54

But, but I, I think it was like some these things are not the same. Here's the thing. It was, it was very age dependent. What, what used to happen is men looked much more fit all through their mid thirties or so, and then they very quickly and aggressively started taking a hit downhill and, and looking worse than people do at that age today. And I think a lot of it has to do with smoking, drinking. And the fun things in life and eating a lot of pork,

Ben: 37:27

the fun things in life. And by pork, you mean

Gene: 37:29

bacon could be bacon, but I mean like cooking with lard and it's all the shit that tastes good, but ultimately it's just like a shit ton of calories. Yes. Bacon tastes good, but this bacon, which has seven times as much calories per pound. As a filet mignon, is bacon better, sometimes more tasty than the filet? I don't think so.

Ben: 37:56

I I don't know, man. I think it's,

Gene: 37:59

I'm perfectly fine not eating bacon.

Ben: 38:02

I you know, that's, that's the Jewish excuse, isn't it? Huh.

Gene: 38:07

Ah, it doesn't taste that good anyway. That's, what's the big deal?

Ben: 38:11

By the way, have you? That's my Jewish voice. Yeah. Yeah. Have, have you seen the pork based gun lubes?

Gene: 38:18

No.

Ben: 38:20

Does smell like pork? No. Just some Meraki veterans and everybody decided to use pork fat to make a gun. Lube Uhhuh Uhhuh. Just because of, you know, prohibitions. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that, that, that's how far we go with a fuck you mentality,

Gene: 38:37

It's, it is funny. Yeah. I'll tell you what, I think the average Muslim man is more fit than the average non Muslim man. Oh, yeah

Ben: 38:49

I, I typically agree, unfortunately. Yeah. But they're also coming from countries where they're not necessarily exposed to everything that we are. That's right. Including societal. Yeah, or estrogen. Dude, I really think that, that there's something to that. There is something to it. You look at the rates of gynecomastia in males today, I mean, pretty much everybody has a little something there and Jesus, that's just insane to me. Yeah, I mean, why is this not a health crisis? Why is this not something that we are like freaking out about and saying, you know, the sky is falling. The sky is falling. Oh my God. The sky is

Gene: 39:29

falling. There's not that many men die from breast cancer, but there's a lot of. A lot of people that are dying from heart disease. So we're focused on that,

Ben: 39:38

I guess. I just, I worry about, I really think this is all intentional because if you don't have men with testosterone at the right levels, or at least men that don't have high levels of estrogen in their systems, they're a lot less likely to revolt. And I think that's the entire point.

Gene: 40:02

Yeah, that's, that is very true. And it certainly makes sense. Now, it could also be let's look at the Occam's razor here, that we have things that are beneficial, but not man made either, or not intentionally done. Because one of the biggest things that's changed in the last 50 years is the insane amount of estrogen that is sold and pissed out by women ever since the advent of birth control pills. So, we've got a really chemical waste that isn't being adequately treated. And processed. That no one really has been talking about.

Ben: 40:45

In

Gene: 40:45

the fluoride. In the drinking water. The fluoride was intentional, so that, I will say.

Ben: 40:49

No, no, no. It's a, you know, do you, it's a waste product.

Gene: 40:54

It's a good way to get rid of it.

Ben: 40:56

Yeah, do you know, you, you recognize that fluoride has creeped into pretty much every crop. Like, do you know the beverage with the highest concentration of fluoride? What's that?

Gene: 41:08

Take a guess. Better not be iced tea. I'll tell you that.

Ben: 41:12

Ding, ding, ding, ding. It is tea. Is that right? Yes, the, the tea plant absorbs it fairly well. And then when you steep the bag, fluoride. So even if you start with fluoride free water, fluoride, so yeah, it's, it's very pervasive. I

Gene: 41:29

don't know, I think my teeth should be. Whiter than in that situation because the it's

Ben: 41:34

not how it works. It's never worked that way. It was such a stupid idea. Okay, then why aren't we just brushing with calcium?

Gene: 41:41

I know we should actually calcium is a good abrasive.

Ben: 41:46

But my point is their entire idea was, you know, it's close enough on the periodic table that it'll swap out. What? No. Did you fail

Gene: 41:56

chemistry? What? No. My, my parents did, they gave me a note for school to exclude me from all the fluoride participation. I didn't know

Ben: 42:08

there was fluoride participation when you were a kid

Gene: 42:11

in school. So when, yeah, when I was a kid, they actually in school had you swish fluoride in your mouth and then you know, dump it out as part of the... Governments getting kids teeth to be healthier program.

Ben: 42:26

Gene. Have you ever looked at JBS like this is going to be a thing going on now because you know, are, were your parents Birchers? I mean, there's gotta be something here cause there's too many things from your childhood that are like, huh, that was a John Birch thing. That was a John Birch thing. Oh, that was a John Birch. I think. No, not

Gene: 42:47

at all. I'd never looked at it. My parents were never in it. That seemed like the common sense thing. Okay. You know, it's all about common sense.

Ben: 42:55

Hey, I think the John Birch Society is fantastic, but it's

Gene: 42:58

gotten a bad rap. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not saying anything bad against it, I'm just saying I've had zero exposure to it. I've heard the name, obviously, but

Ben: 43:07

I'm just not much of a organized joining

Gene: 43:11

type person.

Ben: 43:11

You're not a joiner. Yeah, no.

Gene: 43:15

Yeah. I'm more of a starter than a joiner. I've started a bunch of things and then eventually, you know, moved on.

Ben: 43:22

Did I ever tell you about the poker club I started? No, I don't think so. So, in college, I started a poker thing in my dorm to, you know, just... Play hold them and it was going to be friendly games and it was just, you know, fun. And this is right. Yeah, this was right when World Series of Poker was really getting big on ESPN and everything else. And you know, so we started this and it started off with tournaments and, you know, 20 buy in games where it was a tournament. So technically it's legal and everything else. No not when we started, it was just straight tournament and that was it. Anyway. I lost control of it fairly quickly and I decided to exfiltrate myself from this. And by the time I got out right before they got busted people were betting tuition checks. Oh my God. Yeah, exactly. That's not good. No. And there were. A bunch of arrests and everything, and it's like, I timed that exit well. Wow. That's

Gene: 44:29

nuts. Yeah. Yeah.

Ben: 44:30

It's like, yeah. So.

Gene: 44:33

Yeah. Poker, poker is fun.

Ben: 44:36

Anyway, so that, I don't start things cause you know, when I lose control and people take them too far, I feel bad. Not

Gene: 44:43

really. Yeah. All right. So I read about half of the first book of the Going Home series. Yep. And my initial complaint I sent to you, which is the character development's just not very good here. It's just, it feels fairly amateurish, but then you reminded me and I think appropriately so it's like, dude, it's his first book. He's got over a dozen books out. So it will get better. And I was like, okay I'll give him some slack in that regard. And what I mean for, for people wondering what character development. So one of the things that makes for a very engaging character in a story. Is to be part of a path with that character to where it's really the hero's journey, right? So there, there has to be some stress related moments. There has to be a challenge. The, the hero has to make a bad decision at some point so that he can redeem himself further down the line and then make make up for that bad decision. And then end up being perceived as the good guy to hear or whatever. And that's one of the things that in this book that you know, I noticed is this guy is almost like the, the unicorn version of the perfect Star Wars character, you know, like, like the female

Ben: 46:07

No, you, you, you haven't gotten to some of the dark places yet.

Gene: 46:13

Like eight people so far, but. All of them, he seems to have no qualms about because they were all justified. And I beg to differ with that because anyone that has killed somebody, even in the course of self defense it is a unusual enough thing for most people that it changes your behavior drastically. You don't go from killing somebody in self defense to then five days later, killing somebody else in self defense. You. You change the way you act to minimize your ability to run into that. Yeah, this I'm not done with the book. So keep that in

Ben: 46:52

mind. This is in a post apocalyptic scenario. And he doesn't

Gene: 46:57

know that. He technically just found out, but

Ben: 46:59

yeah, so he he's walking home and he's run into some interesting individuals. Yeah,

Gene: 47:05

the story, the story starts with basically a guy who goes, I'm not sure why he went, was it just camping or for whatever reason he goes off. Like a hundred miles away from home. It was work. Was it work? Oh, I couldn't even pick that up. He was.

Ben: 47:19

That's, you're, you're not paying enough attention.

Gene: 47:23

I'm paying sufficient attention. I didn't sound like you're

Ben: 47:26

listening to it and you're not, you're doing something else. You're listening to it while you're playing

Gene: 47:31

Starfield. No, no, no. I was on my vacation in Mexico. I was not playing Starfield. What were you playing? Wasn't playing anything. I brought my Mac only that has no game. What

Ben: 47:41

were you doing while you were listening?

Gene: 47:44

I don't watch TV. I'd listen to the audio and I would be looking at the the beach outside

Ben: 47:50

Okay, so bikinis were distracting you got it.

Gene: 47:53

It's not that many of them. It's the offseason.

Ben: 47:56

Okay. Anyway, yeah He was he was away from for work. So mm hmm

Gene: 48:02

and then He is clearly a prepper, which is very understandable. And then he wait till he gets home. Okay. All right. All right. I'll, I'll wait till he gets home, but like what I thought immediately would have made this a lot more believable and develop this character better was after he shot the, the first person that he killed, the black guy that wanted to rob him. If you would have had, like, the kid's grandma or mom or somebody run out and be crying and talking about how, you know, he was a an A plus student and basically turn it so that he seemed like he was killing this black thug. Turned out that... Yeah, but he didn't. Like, the gun wasn't even real. You know, something

Ben: 48:50

like that. He didn't stick around long enough. He got the hell

Gene: 48:53

out of there. That's because he had the grandpa character be telling him, yeah, you go over that way, I'll cover your tracks, because, you know, this kid that I've lived next to for the last 18 years, he probably deserved to get killed. I mean, it's like, come on, dude. That would not happen in a black neighborhood.

Ben: 49:10

Depends.

Gene: 49:11

No. So, my point is, you It would have been a more compelling, more interesting character had he actually done something out of self defense, but turned out that it, the kid was not what he thought that would have made him have to be more introspective. And even, even if he's going to have to kill again soon, it would have changed the way that the inner voice and inner dialogue would have gone in the way that he perceived things this way. It was a very black and white, you know, typically poorly written, poorly script scenario. Yeah literally as well, but it was kind of like, yeah I'm the good guy. These are the bad guys. Of course, I'm going to be victorious here. So it's all good.

Ben: 49:56

So one of the things that you'll find is as you're introduced into more and more characters in this books. Sphere a lot of those things that you're wanting to be explored, especially by other characters. Have you met that yet? Yeah. Okay. That goes down a real dark rabbit hole.

Gene: 50:15

And so does Jessica. I like the guy that does the the voice, by the way. Oh, yeah, the, the guy who's reading is fantastic. Yeah, because he is very good. And I looked, he's not done that many other books. He's done all of this series and one other series. And that's it.

Ben: 50:30

Yeah. I mean, this was originally published by the author kind of on a shoestring. So, by himself. How long ago do you remember? Oh, it's early two thousands is when this

Gene: 50:40

started. Okay. So it was after nine, 11, yes, but not like modern days.

Ben: 50:47

Have you met Sarge? Yeah.

Gene: 50:50

Okay. And Sarge, I think again, somewhat stereotypical character, but also I've met people like that. So

Ben: 50:57

yes, I, I very much know people like, yes. Yeah. Anyway. It's, it's a good series. You will. Get a lot more development as you go. You have to remember there are 11 books in the series, right? And this was his first publication, so cutting some slack, but I think for I, I enjoyed it. I, I found it entertaining enough that I blew through the first book and then went on

Gene: 51:25

through. So, so here, here's the comparison I would make actually is when I was in high school, I, I read all of Tom Clancy's books that have been published and I, I kept reading him as he was still alive and still publishing books. And what I really loved about him is just all details. And like, I was like, I know what that gun looks like. I, you know, like all the stuff that he mentions is very realistic. And that's something that I see this guy doing either because he's trying to emulate Clancy or he's just doing it naturally anyway. Is he doesn't just say, you know, a gun, he says it was like a, a Glock 19 with an extended magazine, you know, it's like he's getting to a level of detail where people that are into that particular thing, whatever it is or like the name of his fricking bag, the, the brand of his bag, the, the brand of the the water purifier that he's got, I've got the same one. It's like all this, all these little things that fall in there I think are, are neat. I really loved them when I was young. I think right now I kind of see that a little more as a substitute for not being able to write as well. And, and if I reread Clancy's earlier books right now, I will have the exact same comment, which is like, man, the guy is developing items, not character. Cause he's got the same problem. Jack Ryan is too goddamn good. And it's not until the later books where he turns and starts showing, you know, darker side.

Ben: 53:03

So one of the things you'll notice is as they interface with other groups and they run into different hardware, he will call out the hardware. By name, but do less description of it and leave it to the reader to either go look it up or whatever it's you know, mentioned as an aside sort of thing. And he does shift to focus. He gets better as an author as the series progresses, as you would expect. Again, I thought it was pretty entertaining and I think you're being critical, but I think you also obviously have

Gene: 53:35

enjoyed it based off. Oh, no, I, I've totally enjoyed it. I'm, I'm not. Saying it's not worth reading at all, it's just you know, I think to some extent it's just you've sort of hyped it up for me now that, that I, I'm, I've got a slightly higher expectation of it than I, than you probably did when you started reading and nobody hyped it up to you.

Ben: 53:57

Yeah I just picked it up and started reading it so

Gene: 53:59

exactly and I and I've had similar experiences with other books that other friends have sent me and they were like really into them and there's like so great and they start reading I'm like, it's not bad, but I don't know if I would be as

Ben: 54:12

excited about it. I'm not suggesting this is a great American novel or anything. I'm just saying that it's a good story. I think it is pretty well told. And yeah, it's again, you haven't gotten to the point where it'll really hook you when, when you start dealing with DHS and everybody else, really.

Gene: 54:30

We haven't, I'm not there yet, but it's, it's a, it probably is worth for anybody that's listens to this podcast and you want to see what Ben's already done with the series and I'm just starting it. You want to join in and pick it up and start reading it. It's called going home by.

Ben: 54:50

American, which stands for angry American, by the

Gene: 54:53

way, I misspelled angry though, yes, which I didn't realize initially when I was trying to look that guy up. But I can also see why you liked it because he literally worked in your industry. He is your age, the same type of proper dude. And it looks like you, but looks like me. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. And incidentally walking 50 pound pack when you're over 250. It's not easy. I, I don't know that he would be putting on as many miles on his feet.

Ben: 55:31

I don't think he ever said how much you

Gene: 55:32

weighed, but okay. He said in there, yeah, he said over 250. No,

Ben: 55:36

I think that's the author, not the character.

Gene: 55:39

I'm pretty sure it was the character because I, I don't remember that, but yeah, maybe you should read books more carefully next time.

Ben: 55:46

Huh. All I can say is I'm not over 250. I'm not, I have her just under 200 and I can tell you that you'd

Gene: 55:54

be in really good shape at 170. Oh, yes. Yes. You'd be like in

Ben: 55:59

my body. Awesome shape. Yes. My body. I'm a slightly overweight. My body type 175 180 is really ideal. And anyway, but I can take my bag that pushes 50 pounds at times. And I can, I can, I can go pretty good, you know, now day after day. That's the question. Yeah.

Gene: 56:21

And I, like, you know, when I was in my twenties, I'd done 15, 16 mile hikes and it was not fun by the end, but it was totally doable. And good boots matter. Yes, absolutely. Good boots. And back in the day, those would be Reeboks with a lot of, a lot of very shiny, bright neon colors on them. Reeboks are not boots. I know that's why I'm making a joke out of it is because I was wearing tennis shoes, not boots, but but it's a, it's something that I think a lot of people don't do enough. And therefore the idea of putting all this crap into a pack makes sense. I mean, I've got like, I've got three packs that are full right now as the bug out packs. I can't get anything, everything into one. So I have three of them. Clearly I'm going to be tossing them into my car, but but you still, look, it's still better to have shit packed up and ready than not, even if it's three, give me something here. But I, I dunno, I mean, I think 10 miles a day, a day, which is what he was talking about is probably fairly realistic. Yeah.

Ben: 57:40

It falls off pretty quick there too.

Gene: 57:42

Yeah, yeah. But it's like, it's doable. Like I think 15 miles probably took me four hours ish.

Ben: 57:52

So one of the things that I think was that I really appreciated is when, when the event happened, which was an EMP, by the way, yeah,

Gene: 58:01

Don't give things like that away to new people reading.

Ben: 58:04

I don't think it's that big of a thing, but anyway, his electronics. Yeah. And. You know, he's like, okay, and start and, oh, oh, all the other cars are stopping too. And he's got some, he's got some water. He's got his go bag that he, he goes through and decides what he's keeping and what he's not and tries to lighten it. Yep. So he ditches some gear immediately, which is smart. He immediately changes into some decent boots, which is smart and realistic. You know, there, there are just these aspects of it that I thought were good details right at the very beginning that are like, Oh, okay. You know, this is thought through fairly well. And you know, I, I agree that I, so I'm not, I don't like clancy and I don't like Hemingway for a lot of the extraneous details that they'll paint a picture on. And I think this author and a American does a lot of the similar things, but what I appreciate. Is I don't care about the extraneous detail I find that distracting and that takes away from the book for me. However, he is thinking through the real world scenario. Obviously, the actual author is a real prepper. Yeah, he's thought through these things. These are these are considerations he has had, and he's playing that out in his mind. And when you get to the later books, and it talks about how you can kudzu, right? I didn't know you could eat kudzu. Turns out you can and he's thought through this and he's having the characters survive in realistic ways. Okay, that's cool. Now, it starts off with him, you know, describing the bag and the brand and the model and that empty squad, whatever. I don't give a shit about that. I found somewhat distracting, but he's taking that knowledge that he's displaying. And then using it adequately throughout the rest, which is pretty cool.

Gene: 1:00:04

Yeah, it's, I don't know, it's still worth reading. You know, I think given that it's his first book, he's actually done very well. But like I said, I also totally get why you really liked the book. Yeah, it

Ben: 1:00:18

just speaks to me. Absolutely. It will speak to you too when you get to some of the baddies.

Gene: 1:00:25

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure that'll be that'll be in there. I thought he wrote the chick character very well. Better than the, than the lead character. Okay. You know who I'm talking about, the, the girl. Jessica. Yeah. Yeah. Just because she displayed very feminine characteristics, overly caring, okay, okay. But overly caring prone to changing her mind at the drop of a hat. Not understanding him. Yes, very typical female characteristic, accidentally shooting him. But in general, I, I thought her character, even though it's not as developed as the main character, obviously, but I thought she was he probably did a better job with that character. And then the, the black dude's name I forget. Bad. I don't think he's, at least up to the point I'm at, is not quite as well developed, but the voicing was so good on that character that I had an image of him. Oh, yeah. In my head instantly.

Ben: 1:01:22

In Jessica's description of him, he's a black hulk. Why are we going and talking to this guy? You know? Kind of gives you a

Gene: 1:01:31

image too. Yeah. I think of that black actor dude that, that's like a gigantic dude. Mm-hmm. that was in like Green Mile. You know the guy I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know who you're talking about. Okay. I was like, yep. That's who would play him

Ben: 1:01:45

and or at least back. I, I will tell you that, so Morgan's character development doesn't get deep. Mm-hmm. right away. Mm-hmm. Thad's. Gets deep pretty quick. There's some dark shit that happens. So I, I, I, you, that is one of my favorite characters in the book. He's an old country boy is the way I look at him. And he's not as prepared, not as thought through, but he's just a country boy, you know, grew up

Gene: 1:02:21

poor. Yeah, and you spell boy, I mean, you're basically saying it, but you spell, you're spelling boy with an N.

Ben: 1:02:29

I know, I'm actually relating it to myself, thank you, the term boy here does not mean anything to do with race whatsoever, it's a country boy can survive sort of mentality, it's a grew up with your mom, grandma, and everybody else canning, you know how to make lye soap, you know all those things that quite frankly I grew up with,

Gene: 1:02:52

you know how to make lye soap?

Ben: 1:02:54

I do. How do you make it? Ash and fat. Transcribed Mm

Gene: 1:02:59

hmm. Ash and fat. And then what do you do with it?

Ben: 1:03:02

You have to boil. You have to skim. You have to do lots of things. There's a whole process. Why? I'm

Gene: 1:03:07

curious to see how well you do.

Ben: 1:03:10

Go ahead. You want me to go through and describe the process of making

Gene: 1:03:13

it? Oh, I think people would appreciate knowing how to make soap.

Ben: 1:03:17

Okay. They can Google it.

Gene: 1:03:19

They can Google anything.

Ben: 1:03:19

Look at the Foxfire books. There's, there's multiple ways, but you have to be very careful with lye. It will burn you.

Gene: 1:03:26

Absolutely. And it's, it's something you have to be very careful with it in water.

Ben: 1:03:32

And in this sort of scenario, one of the things that they don't explore that they really should have when they're doing some of their latrines and things like that is making some of just the lie and not going all the way to the soap stage and keeping that by the latrine as a. You know, as a thing, because I don't know about you, but the outhouses I've used in the past have all had a lie buckets there to sprinkle

Gene: 1:04:01

on them. You know, we weren't that sophisticated back in the old country. It was just a shithole. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, you know,

Ben: 1:04:13

when my mom was growing up, they had a double seater.

Gene: 1:04:15

Did they really? Wow.

Ben: 1:04:17

Yeah. My, you got to remember my, when I'm sitting there saying an old country boy, my mom grew up in a tar paper shack, dude. Mm. Hmm. Like rural, you know, Mississippi, Alabama, tar paper shack bathed in a tin tub, did not have running water when she was a little kid type person. So, yeah,

Gene: 1:04:39

yeah, that stuff adds up though. When I, when I was in the summer houses back in the old country. I remember we had an outdoor toilet. You know, it was a hole in the ground, basically. And then you'd have to pump the water to wash your hands. But it, there was certainly no lie. It was, it was basically just a, a big pit. With a lot of flies buzzing

Ben: 1:05:09

around well, and that's why you put the lie in there is to keep all that down

Gene: 1:05:14

right now on the smell. Of course, but you get used to it after a while. I mean, that's the scary part. It's like, there are people that work in the sewers that get used to that smell, right? Same thing. It's like if, if you have to use an outhouse on a daily basis. You just kind of get used to the smell and it's not, it never becomes a good smell, but you just don't notice it as much.

Ben: 1:05:34

And you know, again, the, the lie is also helping with disease and everything else. I mean, there's, there's lots of things there. So anyway, yeah,

Gene: 1:05:44

you put that on dead people

Ben: 1:05:47

now. So my, my family, you know, It was pretty interesting because my mom saw the family, poor Irish, you know, and grew up that way. Is there any other kind?

Gene: 1:06:00

Sorry. I just, you, you left the door open. I just had

Ben: 1:06:03

to close it. I need your help here, buddy. Huh. Huh.

Gene: 1:06:06

Huh. Huh. Oh, CSB is laughing his ass off. Yeah. He made fun of the other side of Darren.

Ben: 1:06:14

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of so y'all made fun of me for the the the screenshot you got from Lower Decks. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Which by the way, if you actually watch the episode, make

Gene: 1:06:28

fun of you per se, we're just kind of talking about how much you like that show.

Ben: 1:06:32

Okay you know, if you watch the episode, it's a call back to a season 3 episode where is broadcasting and causing all these fights and everything else. It's actually a pretty decent episode and pretty funny show like. If you are a fan of Star Trek, like I am where you have seen it all, you can go, Oh, that's a call back to this. If you get a lot of the Easter eggs, it's a really fun show. If you don't. Okay.

Gene: 1:07:06

I don't know. I, you know, I'll give it another shot at some point. It's also Rick and Morty esque. Right. And that's, that's the thing. Like I get. That Rick and Morty is, is fucking hilarious. I get

Ben: 1:07:17

that. Yeah. It's just

Gene: 1:07:19

one of the funniest shows out there. That's the thing. It's, it's, it's kind of like, how do I say it? It's kind of like talking to somebody that's not quite young enough to be your kid, but is a teenager and you're 30 and, and then having them describe their favorite current music. And you're like I get why you like that, but I'm going to listen to my 80s shit. It sucks. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, it's universally accepted. The 80s was the best decade in music. There. No, no, it

Ben: 1:07:56

was not. No better music. New. Other than the 80s. No,

Gene: 1:07:59

no, no. It's a fact. You can, you can argue against it, but it's a fact.

Ben: 1:08:04

I don't know, man. I, all the classic rock and everything that I like predates the 80s. Now I will say the 80s had some good music here and there.

Gene: 1:08:12

That's just because you, you, that's all your parents listened to. That's why you like that stuff.

Ben: 1:08:18

Okay. And 80s country was okay. Early 90s country was pretty good. And my parents

Gene: 1:08:22

listened to 1940s music. So, you know, I, I like that. But I also understand that that was not the pinnacle of music. The eighties was that's Christ.

Ben: 1:08:33

How can keyboard guitars No, no. Yeah, absolutely. Overuse of the synthesizer.

Gene: 1:08:40

Drumbeat, the synth, I mean, with it doesn't get any better. Oh, Jesus. And, and the clothes. The clothes make the music.

Ben: 1:08:49

Yeah. Have you ever seen Despicable Me? Sounds

Gene: 1:08:53

familiar. What's it about? Yeah,

Ben: 1:08:55

it's a kid's show. It's a cartoon. It's about a villain anyway, and I think it's the third one or whatever. There's a, this character Balthazar Brat that was a 80s TV show kid and he is like the epitome of the 80s. And I just see you as relating to this character gene.

Gene: 1:09:17

It'd be, I mean, there's some good characters back in the eighties that were on TV.

Ben: 1:09:22

He was very obsessed with his with his TV show being canceled and made him a villain.

Gene: 1:09:29

I could see that as well. I mean, I could do TV shows canceled. It's not like right now. It just means you get on a different streaming service back then. If you got canceled, that's it. You were done. There's no, no other channel is going to pick you up because your current one has the rights. And there's only three channels. And HBO.

Ben: 1:09:48

So, we avoided a government shutdown. Aww. I know. Right? At least for 45 days.

Gene: 1:09:56

That sucks. I was really looking forward to there being

Ben: 1:10:01

less government working. Did you see the, did you see the congressman trying to pull the fire alarm? No. So, they had a fire alarm go off in the house. Okay.

Gene: 1:10:14

Hold on. If you're going to paste something, do it into Signal.

Ben: 1:10:18

No, I'm, oh my god. First of all, I do not have Signal installed on Windows. So...

Gene: 1:10:24

Why do

Ben: 1:10:24

you not have Signal installed? Because I don't want signal off anything other than my phone, really, you can

Gene: 1:10:31

get it, it'll, it'll talk to five different systems on this.

Ben: 1:10:35

I know. I don't, I choose not to do that on purpose. Anyway they were, they were looking for a computer, you know. They were working on this continuing resolution for 45 days to avoid a shutdown and Jamal Bowman pulled the fire alarm in the house to try and stop the vote to force the shutdown Democrat, which, you know, based stop it. Yes, let the government shut

Gene: 1:11:01

down, dude. Exactly. Yeah. And I thought Rand Paul was going to be doing something too. Oh, yeah,

Ben: 1:11:08

he's been doing good, but he's in the Senate. Yeah, but

Gene: 1:11:11

I thought he was going to do another filibuster or whatever.

Ben: 1:11:15

I mean, the House has passed this, the Senate has not, so we'll see.

Gene: 1:11:19

Yeah, but I'm just disgraced the House passed it. They should not have. What the fuck, man?

Ben: 1:11:25

Yeah McCarthy got a lot of Democratic support, what can

Gene: 1:11:27

I tell you? McCarthy, I don't like McCarthy, but you have to say he's actually pretty fucking good because he seems to have gotten a lot of things, including getting himself elected after nine failed attempts.

Ben: 1:11:41

Yeah, I, I don't like McCarthy, though. I don't think much

Gene: 1:11:45

of him. No, I don't like him at all, but I think he, but I can both dislike somebody and to recognize their strength, their ability to get shit they want done. Done. It's a it definitely speaks well to his abilities. Unfortunately, where he wants to go is the wrong direction.

Ben: 1:12:06

He's nothing, but he's, he's a

Gene: 1:12:09

neocon. Yeah, totally. Totally. He's Mr. Ukraine all in.

Ben: 1:12:15

Yeah. I think we're backing off that pretty quick.

Gene: 1:12:19

I hope so. Cause the latest escalations of that seem to be happening from the UK and from Germany, which is that UK. Is said they're going to send in troops into Ukraine to train the Ukrainians, but in Ukraine, not in Poland and Germany, which is pushing. This

Ben: 1:12:43

is like the Green Beret advisors going in, but yeah, exactly.

Gene: 1:12:47

It's like the 101st airborne going in, in country. With over a thousand troops in order to train.

Ben: 1:12:54

Sure. And, and full gear.

Gene: 1:12:56

Yeah. Yeah. And of course, I mean, if they're going to be training, you don't want them walking around in shorts. So, and then Germany pushing for the, I think it's the Thor missile or something. It's a, but it's got a, like a 500 mile range and the response back from Medvedev in Russia. And he's like the deputy something, something for defense. Is that that any Any country, including the UK, that is going into Ukraine as a, regardless of whether it's for training or anything else, will be considered a participant in the war and there they will not be treated like what was the term, the what do you call it? The the paid for army dudes blank. Yeah. So they're not going to be treated like mercenaries. They're going to be treated as a hostile NATO force. Which means that they're not going to be incidental targets. They will be primary targets.

Ben: 1:13:58

That actually gives us a way out. You realize that? How's that? Because it's not an attack on NATO. It's NATO attacking them. So since they are being considered the belligerence and there is you know, Russia would just be responding. But there doesn't trigger article five.

Gene: 1:14:18

Actually, I think for the UK, it absolutely would because they're not going into fight. They're going into train.

Ben: 1:14:24

Okay. The UK can say that. But again, if the British soldiers get killed in, in, in theater, I don't think that triggers article five in any, hold on, hold on, hold on. In theater, that's not going to trigger article five. If the British then get pissed off and retaliate because, Oh, they killed our soldiers. That's again, them escalating as long as Russia does not attack UK soil. I think you're fine.

Gene: 1:14:51

Okay. And then, but don't worry, we have part two, which is with Germany. So given that same message also said that. If any of these missiles are used to hit the territory of Russia, then Russia will see that as an act of war from Germany and will respond by bombing the factories just like they did 60

Ben: 1:15:16

years ago. And I, again, I think that would be

Gene: 1:15:23

Germany being a belligerent. I don't see how that's different for Germany supplying missiles to Ukraine from Germany supplying Tiger tanks to Ukraine.

Ben: 1:15:30

One is Action on Ukrainian soil of the other is hitting Russian native

Gene: 1:15:35

soil that would be the craniums using those missiles.

Ben: 1:15:39

The right. Okay. Come on now. Yeah.

Gene: 1:15:43

So I, I think that certainly as well within his rights to advise the, the European countries wanting to get into world war three that, okay, you will get your wish. But also, I think that all these countries are all doing these things completely under the belief that the, the magic parent of the United States is going to jump in and save their asses if something happens, which I don't

Ben: 1:16:11

think is the case

Gene: 1:16:12

at all, which, yeah, at this point, I think that if Biden commits. The U S to enter into the Ukraine as NATO. I think it'd be political. So February 19th is going to look like a kid's event. I think the Capitol is going to burn. It literally is going to be, I'd say that again. I think that if Biden commits to coming into Ukraine as NATO. I think the capital is going to burn by who, by Americans, which side? The side that doesn't want to be in Ukraine, obviously. Which side do you think is going to be burning the capital?

Ben: 1:16:59

I mean, I, I don't know if that's, I don't know. I think there's, it's complicated on who doesn't want us in NATO because it's not just. Conservatives. It's not just libertarians. It's also, you know, actual disaffected liberals as well. So it covers a pretty good gambit

Gene: 1:17:20

there. Yeah, but, but I think that's what I said. There's people that don't want to be in Ukraine because I think there's a huge amount of groups that that would impact immediately. One, if our current military goes there. All their families and relatives are going to very quickly be pissed off that this is not what they signed up for. This is not coming in, even the Middle East. This is not like we're coming in for retribution for 9 11 and we're going to fuck Saddam Hussein. This is just like a country next to Russia with a local border dispute. And now Americans are going to die out there. Next, you're going to have all the, the Antifa type people that are going to realize that, Holy shit, I might get drafted, because that is absolutely going to happen. Oh, shocker! And they were already, they were already talked about it, because... The enrollments of volunteers are down year over year by more than 10%. Now the U S military is literally going to be running out of people in a matter of a couple of years, if nothing happens, if something happens and they have to increase the numbers in the armed services, there's no way to do it without a draft. So the draft will come in. So that whole group is going to be happily burning down the Capitol. And then you've, you've got people that are just. Have seen this country be going in the wrong direction and bitching about it for a long time that there's gonna be I think It may be the same people, but it is the old adage. If you're going to be found guilty of something, you might as well do it. Yeah.

Ben: 1:19:03

And he

Gene: 1:19:04

walked around between velvet ropes inside the capital. Yeah, and then got years worth of prison for that. I am. They're not going to be walking around between velvet ropes anymore. That place is going to go

Ben: 1:19:15

up in flames. I agree with you on that.

Gene: 1:19:17

That's three groups, but I'm sure there are like a dozen more groups that. If America troops get activated in Ukraine, and it's gonna, the only way to do it is in their guise of NATO, NATO, there's, there's literally no other way to justify or explain why Americans are American troops are in Ukraine, other than to say. As part of our NATO activities. Okay. So I don't know, we may see it all play out and maybe I'll be totally wrong on this. We'll see. But it, it, given the mood of the country right now, I think that there's a certain group that is crazy that that sees that getting us into a war is the way to ensure Biden's next term. Because America has never changed presidents. Oh no, I totally disagree. Yeah, I do as well. But I think there is a group of people out there that thinks that way. That, you know, the, this is why Bush was re elected. This is why every president was re elected because they were at war. So, if he's not at war, he may lose to Trump, which nobody wants. And so, and by nobody talking about their side, no, I, I actually, I'm probably going to end up voting for Trump. I just don't think he's going to win. There's a difference here.

Ben: 1:20:43

Again, go back to the Kennedy you know, Kennedy running

Gene: 1:20:47

and that could be the pivotal thing that makes possible. Cause I think, I think Kevin, the would drive enough people that are never going to vote Republican, but they could vote Kennedy. I think he's going to drive enough of those people away that it's going to make it that much more difficult for them to fake the, the voter counts. So they're going to end up having to have 110, 120 percent of cities voting. And I say cities, because that's what they have to do in order to actually get the votes because the vast majority of the countries of the country that, that is not big cities. They have no chance of getting those Democrat votes, but in large cities, some cities, they don't need to fake like San Francisco, obviously, regardless of what happens, it'd be in the middle of world war three, San Francisco would still vote for Joe Biden. But you know, for some cities they may or may not vote for Joe Biden, like Houston and Dallas, but. It's going to make it a lot more difficult to try. You heard

Ben: 1:21:59

about the Dallas mayor switching

Gene: 1:22:03

parties. So I don't know, man, I think they it's, it's obviously a good thing for the right side that it's it let's put it this way. If he actually does, rather than independent, if Kennedy's going to provide the biggest gift ever, and he had better have. An administrative position in Trump's administration.

Ben: 1:22:23

Oh, I think he will. I mean, Trump had already kind of offered him one previously before he got pushed back from a lot of people. So I think that there's nothing that'll stop him from appointing him to like a vaccine safety board or something like that. And

Gene: 1:22:40

I kind of see him in the same way that I do like Jimmy door.

Ben: 1:22:43

You know, not really a liberal things that are liberal, but not really a liberal. No,

Gene: 1:22:48

I'd say he's, he's a, or you can say classic liberal. He's not a classic liberal. I'd be going back further, but he's definitely a historical liberal. Like the liberals that I knew when I was growing up, the ones, you know, I had a friend whose parents were college professors and You could tell they were liberal because one drove a Saab, and the other one drove a Volvo.

Ben: 1:23:12

So, and they went to parties where they put the keys in the bowl? Oh,

Gene: 1:23:16

everybody did that. That was, that was a standard thing.

Ben: 1:23:19

Maybe for you. Maybe for you. Back in the

Gene: 1:23:21

best decade ever, man. Back in the 80s. Actually, that was in the

Ben: 1:23:26

70s. Probably more like

Gene: 1:23:28

your parents were doing that shit.

Ben: 1:23:29

My, my, yeah. My grandparents. Sure. My parents.

Gene: 1:23:33

Grandparents. Oh, okay. A little bit of hot action going on with the grandma. Okay. Okay. Ben just threw up a little bit in his mouth.

Ben: 1:23:44

Oh, dude, there are hard truths that when cleaning out my grandparents house I had to face you know, finding real to real eight millimeter stuff and oh boy, I'll play boys and lots

Gene: 1:23:57

of things. You know, the the oldest use of film in motion pictures was actually in in France and it was for pornography. That's funny. It was in the 1800s where they were taking still film and then doing the first generation books and

Ben: 1:24:16

everything else. Yep. Little peep shows. Yep.

Gene: 1:24:19

So and moving on to the one that always talks about how like porn represents half the traffic on the internet.

Ben: 1:24:26

It's a third, a third or

Gene: 1:24:28

whatever. So it's a large proportion, a third means at any given point in time when, when that part of the globe is facing the sun.

Ben: 1:24:38

Yeah. So Gene, did you see the two links I sent you? Let me see. One of them I want to talk

Gene: 1:24:43

about the other. I just want to make sure. 520 round case of 308s, Swiss precision.

Ben: 1:24:49

Yeah, that was a cheap ammo. But no, I was talking about the France just rated the NVIDIA offices. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gene: 1:24:56

That's crazy, man. Yeah. I mean, first of all, the French. First of all, France. What?

Ben: 1:25:04

Yeah, right. What the fuck do you

Gene: 1:25:06

frogs think you're doing? They have this idea somehow that the France is in charge of things.

Ben: 1:25:13

Economically, now that Germany has you, that's outta the picture. I know. Yeah. Committed SCO or hung itself. Sure. Yeah. I mean, Germany, German manufacturing's never coming back, dude. Don't they have totally screwed up? I, I can tell you right now, looking at the companies that are leaving Germany from a manufacturing standpoint, the Germans are going to try and do what the Japanese did. Mm-hmm. And I don't think they're gonna be successful in it. Yeah. German manufacturing on, in the European continent is done. Yeah.

Gene: 1:25:45

Yeah. Germans will be only making cars in America.

Ben: 1:25:49

In other places, but yes. But anyway, the French are now the economic

Gene: 1:25:53

power of Europe. Yeah. But they've been talking, I mean, people are saying that France is the reason the new iPhone has a revolutionary new USB C plug because France made them do it. Now, I don't know if France, I don't know if France is big enough to force a company like Apple to do that, but if anybody is, I could see France doing it. But this whole Nvidia thing is that's crazy because on the one hand I have to agree Nvidia does have a bit of a monopoly but I'm not sure that the reason that they're in the monopoly state is because of. I'm competitive practices. I think it might be because they have a unique product.

Ben: 1:26:35

And their rationale for this on the AI side and everything else and determine determining the need for a raid is what just is a shocker to me. Right? Right. Under what circumstances do you really legitimately need to raid a company? I don't

Gene: 1:26:53

think it's very many. Yeah. I mean, don't you only raid an office if you think that there's a potential for documents to be destroyed? Right. Right. Right.

Ben: 1:27:01

But at this point, I think the governments of the world have just decided, no, it's, it's good practice to go ahead and just flex those muscles and make damn sure that you know, they know we mean business. If you fuck with us, we

Gene: 1:27:16

fuck with you. Yeah. I mean, France is also on the verge of Of putting huge penalties on X for not following European law on disinformation.

Ben: 1:27:28

Which Elon has said he may

Gene: 1:27:30

pull out. Yeah, which he said, okay, I guess we won't be in France then. Which I think is the right approach to all of these uppity countries is to say look, you're fully entitled to prevent your citizens from accessing our data. That's well within your rights. So if you want us to do that, we will. And

Ben: 1:27:51

yeah, and as long as he's not operating equipment in France,

Gene: 1:27:55

which I'm sure they have both people.

Ben: 1:27:57

He had to hit the sneeze button, but you know, as long as they don't have servers and, you know, kilos in the EU, they can pull back to the U S and they can even serve French language content from the U S. Yeah,

Gene: 1:28:09

they could. I'm not sure that I think they do have servers in France and, and people, but either way, it's just. It's an international company and it's not where it's headquartered. So I, I don't see what they're trying to achieve by trying to muscle. You remember when Australia started charging Google or there was a law pass that basically said that. You have to pay a fee to all the news media whenever you link to them. And Google said, we will be suspending our services in the country of Australia. And the politicians were like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, no, hold on. That was just, that was the intent, but let's talk about how we're going to do it. They backpedaled so fast. It was in the end, all these politicians still have to remember that if they piss off the voter, they're not going to be there for long. And in France, one additional thing, if they piss off the population long enough, Their population is going to chop their heads off. Maybe. I

Ben: 1:29:20

mean, it's, it's been a while since the French have done

Gene: 1:29:22

that, but Since the France had a French style revolution.

Ben: 1:29:25

Yeah, but you know, I'm, I'm, I keep thinking we're going to see one here and, you know

Gene: 1:29:32

There has to be a pivotal moment for all these things to happen. Like it's, it's It's not a gradual transition to go from just wearing a yellow vest and then going into a march in the street to actually dragging out people and cutting their heads off. It, it, there has to be something that the government does to really fuck things up majorly. And then make sure that they're actually blamed for it. Yeah. We'll transition from one to the other. And I think that's true of any country. It's just the French have a propensity for being more willing to get more quick on the trigger. Yeah. Just willing to get into. You know, they're, they're, they're more emotionally charged, like I see that taking much longer in UK, for example, if it happens at all, I guess, to get to a point where the people are so pissed off, they're willing to take up, I was going to say arms, but they don't have any to take up legs against their government, but I'm bum, but they're going to have to kick them. Out of office, right? See, legs. I, yeah,

Ben: 1:30:45

yeah, yeah. I, I, I'm following the bad joke. I'm following the bad. I'm not even a dad joke here. Yeah. So.

Gene: 1:30:56

I don't know, man. It's, but this Nvidia thing I did was not aware of. So this kind of comes out of left field. Did you read the article or you just sent me the link to

Ben: 1:31:04

it? No, I've read parts of it. I, I didn't go into detail or look up more articles, but I found it kind of troubling that they're doing this raid. Yeah. I just, I don't understand the need for it, I guess is my entire thing. It seems very off base and not it just seems that they are trying to send a message here that I. The purported goal and the, okay, we're going to break up a monopoly and, you know, they've got too much in this space and the AI stuff, none of it makes sense as to why you would do a raid. So I, I keep, I'm going to keep my eye out for something else for some other reason. There has to be something there. Otherwise this just doesn't make any sense.

Gene: 1:31:51

Yeah NVIDIA and the biggest thing that I'm, I, along with a bunch of other gamers are pissed off about NVIDIA is the fact that they, because they've started figuring out alternative uses for their cards, that unlike what what Radeon did, they've not differentiated the card. So, like for example, the video card that I have, the was it Radeon 6950, I think that card. When I got it, was it about a 85 percent of the speed and playing high end video games in frames frame rate of the high end NVIDIA card, but it was about 40 percent cheaper because that card could not do any of the Bitcoin mining or AI processing. So NVIDIA on the other hand has not differentiated their cards. And it's doubled down on just making all of them expensive. So they don't care if you're buying it to do mining Bitcoin mining or any of the crypto stuff or AI processing or playing video games, you're still going to pay 1, 500 to 2, 000. And so it's, you know, if you're making money off that card, then that's a justifiable expense. If I guess it's a leisure thing, that's, that's like the price of four X boxes for just one video card.

Ben: 1:33:25

I mean, we say this, but I mean, you can do the math on how much money I spent going to the range the other

Gene: 1:33:32

day. Oh yeah. 500 rounds. I can do the math.

Ben: 1:33:35

Few hundred rounds of nine millimeter and then a couple hundred rounds of three Oh eight. That's

Gene: 1:33:42

yeah. Like that's the expensive part. Yeah. Unless you got a really good deal. How much were those three weights?

Ben: 1:33:47

You can figure around 75 to 80 cents a round. Oh, that's,

Gene: 1:33:51

yeah, so that's still quite a bit. So, yeah, typically I would buy the Which

Ben: 1:33:55

is about as cheap as you're gonna get it now. Yeah. In fact, the other link I just sent you, which I'm currently in the process of buying is 520 round case of some decent Swiss AML that after taxes and everything comes out to about 81 cents a round. Oh, it

Gene: 1:34:12

does. Okay. Yeah, that's but you have to get it in 500 rounds.

Ben: 1:34:18

Increments, yes. Yeah. And I really, it's pretty consistently for decent ammo hovering around that dollar around mark now, which is just insane. So

Gene: 1:34:29

I started shooting 308 in the late nineties and I was paying a buck around back then, but I was buying a federal match gold, gold bench.

Ben: 1:34:42

Yeah. If you're getting a match grade

Gene: 1:34:45

now, it's yeah, now it's, it's over two bucks around. Yes. Easy. Which is. You know, it makes it, I'm a lot more self conscious at the range than I used to be.

Ben: 1:34:58

Which, by the way, I I had something happen to me that hasn't happened in I don't know how long. So I had two guns start missing, and I was like, what the fuck? Did, you know, did I just, what, what, what happened here? My, my new dagger started off great and then went wild. And I'm like, ah, Jesus, until I noticed that apparently I hadn't put enough blue Loctite on the screws on the optic. Oh, that would do it. So fix that. And then it was,

Gene: 1:35:32

is it the red or the blue one that you use

Ben: 1:35:35

a blue, yeah, something that can come undone reds, permanent, theoretically, theoretically. Yeah. I mean, you can break it up, but yeah, no, I don't use red on anything. And then the other thing that was interesting is the scope rings on my M1A. The screws didn't back out, but the picatinny rail portion where it clamps on, which is a, you know, a nut that is, you've got to use a wrench to tighten down. So it's significantly torqued down. But it's not the back one, the back of the two ring set started backing out some there and it was wobbling. So I tightened both those down and okay, I'm fine. But just a reminder to, you know, when something mild happens, check your firearms.

Gene: 1:36:29

Yeah, for sure. And this is

Ben: 1:36:33

don't assume it's you or don't assume it's something crazy. It's something

Gene: 1:36:37

simple. Usually, although it's usually you, maybe you, yeah. It's usually the human humans, usually the issue. But it's a human that also tightened those bolts or screws.

Ben: 1:36:50

Yeah yeah, recoil happens, but apparently when I put the optic on the dagger, I didn't use enough blue Loctite.

Gene: 1:36:57

So, yeah. And then, but did it come with the optic or did you put it on the camera? I put it on,

Ben: 1:37:04

okay. It came

Gene: 1:37:05

cut for an optic. Okay. Oh, that's right. They don't sell this on some beam or whatever. The hollow sun.

Ben: 1:37:14

Oh, yeah. The, yeah. In fact, I bought the hollow sun, the place that had the best deal was from PSA. Oh, okay. And I'm, again, Holosun isn't my preferred pistol optic, but they're pretty good. The one I got, I'm very impressed with.

Gene: 1:37:28

Yeah, it's listening to you while you're shooting. I'm sorry? It's Chinese spyware. It listens to you while you're shooting. You know

Ben: 1:37:34

what? If they, if they can do that in that little thing, they deserve it. If they really can pull something like that off. Check, you know, it's over,

Gene: 1:37:45

you'll see that there's an extra unnamed Bluetooth broadcasting.

Ben: 1:37:50

Anyway no, one of the cool things about it is it's solar powered. So even if the battery's dead and you're out in enough sunlight, it'll power up.

Gene: 1:38:00

Yeah, which is a cool feature for sure.

Ben: 1:38:04

I wish more something that's going to

Gene: 1:38:05

sit in a truck, solar powered to their devices. I, I really don't understand why there aren't more solar powered, but not even necessarily power, just solar recharging systems out there. Cause there's so many things that that could be used with

Ben: 1:38:22

because it's inefficient and breaks down over time and doesn't really fucking work.

Gene: 1:38:27

But none of that is true. If what your demand is is small. Yeah. And I've got a solar keyboard on my Mac that I've had for 15 years and still works fine.

Ben: 1:38:39

So I have a watch that I've had for a decade plus that's got a eco drive on it. I've I've actually had multiple of the citizen eco drives and then I've got a Casio that I, I forget ProTrek or whatever. It's a hiking watch with a bunch of. Teachers, but it's still not a smartwatch and it's got a solar panel in it. And, you know, I've never had to replace batteries on either one. Now on the eco drive, I will tell you that it's got a capacitor in there that eventually you have to swap out and stuff like that. But, you know,

Gene: 1:39:13

Yeah, I don't know about it, but it is a capacitor on mine. I assume we get the same thing. But I've had

Ben: 1:39:21

to swap it out on a watch because it wasn't holding

Gene: 1:39:23

charge. I've never really, I've never had to swap mine out and I've had the watch Good for you for Congratulations. I got it in the nineties. Okay. I didn't have to ship it back.

Ben: 1:39:34

Capacitors have a habit of going bad from time to time.

Gene: 1:39:40

I ship it back for a Y two K. Other than that, it's been fine. Right? You shipped

Ben: 1:39:46

it back for a Y two K. I mean, that, that, that's a complete sentence. That makes

Gene: 1:39:50

total sense. Their calendar was programmed incorrectly, so when it became, like 2010 was not a year in the watch. It, it didn't, they didn't under, they screwed something up so it couldn't flip to 2010. So 2009 was the last year that would work. So I had to ship it in to get that fixed. But other than that, It's been working fine, but interesting. More interestingly than that is my current Garmin watch is also solar.

Ben: 1:40:21

Yeah, I mean it's solar assisted. Solar will help, but it's not enough to actually operate the

Gene: 1:40:26

watch is the problem. It depends. So with Solar assist, it'll run. So keep in mind, apple Watch is one day this watch, if that, if that this watch has all the exact same shit, all the same sensors, arguably better. G P Ss.

Ben: 1:40:44

Definitely better GPS because it also includes gloss NOS and Galileo.

Gene: 1:40:48

Exactly. Talks to all of those and it has other calculations and shit that it does that Apple one, I haven't seen. And this watch will run for 15 days with solar in it's everything turned on mode. If you go, why are you asking that? Because I might want one is 1, 300. Oh, fuck

Ben: 1:41:12

that.

Gene: 1:41:12

No, I thought that's what you're pointing out. The fact that it's cost way more than the Apple one. It it's, it also does bullet ballistic calculations. Yeah, it,

Ben: 1:41:24

it costs more than a computer.

Gene: 1:41:27

Actually yeah, it does cost more than like a entry level MacBook air. Yeah, for sure. But this is, you know, this is a watch for people that are professional outdoorsman like me. And It has a receiver on it for radio airplane frequencies to get the weather forecasts off of airports. It has a lot of neat features, but it also talks to the the SIG laser range finders, so that using Bluetooth so that. It can get the, the distance from the range finder and then do all the doping calculations to get you the, the correct targeting for for your target, knowing what the barometric pressure is. The wind speeds, all that good stuff. It's a, it's a watch like any other watch that everybody would just happen to have. But if you turn off the fancy shit, right, you turn off GPS, you turn off the stuff that talking to the phone, so you can use the watch for messaging and stuff. Turn all that off. It'll, it'll go for over a year if you are outdoors. And by I think what they're, what they mean by that is you have to be in sunlight. For one hour per day. So it's not like you have to leave the watch out, you know, on for 12 hours in sunlight, as long as you're getting one hour of sunlight per day. The watch will run for a year. Have you or 15 days with everything running?

Ben: 1:43:08

Okay. Have you looked at any of the like, Pulsar thermal stuff?

Gene: 1:43:17

You mean the thermal cameras?

Ben: 1:43:20

So Pulsar just came out with a line of thermal optics that has been updated. I realize they've had it for a while, but they've got some pretty cool stuff, including things that'll go in front of traditional optics.

Gene: 1:43:34

The last one I saw from them was 1800 bucks.

Ben: 1:43:38

Oh, no, this is more like 5, 000.

Gene: 1:43:40

Okay. So that, so it's even higher end then. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, they did have one that was 800. Now I've got a night vision.

Ben: 1:43:48

You're thinking of ATN. You're not thinking of Pulsar.

Gene: 1:43:52

No, no, no. I, Pulsar came out with an announcement. They came out with a much lower price model about a year, year and a half ago.

Ben: 1:43:59

Right. But it's not the same thing. This is. Very different. Thermal is still incredibly expensive, unless you can find something that I'm missing.

Gene: 1:44:08

Yeah and speaking of, so I was, I was curious to see if traveling with night vision would be set off any alarm bell.

Ben: 1:44:19

No, cause you're not traveling with good night vision.

Gene: 1:44:21

Yeah, exactly. I'm traveling with, with cheap night vision. But it's still, I was curious. So nothing at all. They, not only did I. Not have any questions. They didn't even have me take out my laptop on the way out. Like it was just purely, you know, leave everything in the bag. Don't worry about it. And everything just goes, do you

Ben: 1:44:45

have TSA pre or global entry? I don't have anything. You don't have global entry. No. How long was the passport line coming back?

Gene: 1:44:54

There was no line and what airport did you fly out of Austin

Ben: 1:45:00

last time I flew out. The Houston was not, Oh,

Gene: 1:45:04

I'm sure it was. I was also the first person,

Ben: 1:45:06

Cause you were in first class in that, and it's a small plane coming from Mexico and

Gene: 1:45:13

it was a seven 37, not that small

Ben: 1:45:17

either way. I mean, it's not an a three 80

Gene: 1:45:19

land, definitely not an a three 80 for sure, but it was so I had nothing. So on the way back. They're about to call first class boarding. So I stand up they call it, I walk up immediately cause I'd like to get on the plane first and

Ben: 1:45:39

who doesn't as my sit

Gene: 1:45:41

there and wait, probably all the other people that are behind me because they didn't want to be first. And so as I'm walking up this little four foot two Mexican woman. A t ss a uniform waves me over and she said, please take out your electronics. I'm like, oh, here we go. So I had the great fortune of having a random spot check on my luggage while I'm watching gate at the gate. The gate that's not random from the, that's targeted. That's totally random. No. As I'm watching literally every person in line that was supposed to be behind me walking through, I was like, what the fuck's the point of being the first. If I'm not the first, and so they literally had me, they took all of my luggage apart and you know, looked at everything and swabbed everything and tested it for nitrates. I was like, come on people. What the fuck? Can't, they couldn't have done this at the actual kiosk thing, you know? So it was someone wanted to fuck with you. Someone definitely wanted to fuck with me and I'm trying to figure out what it was. Because

Ben: 1:46:58

maybe it's your fake Russian last name.

Gene: 1:47:01

No, I don't think so. I know it's, I don't think that, I don't think they had a record of me either coming or going, so I don't.

Ben: 1:47:12

That would definitely do it. If they don't have a record of you coming or going, then they're definitely going to

Gene: 1:47:16

search it. Yeah. Either way, they did a search. They didn't find anything, obviously. But, it was, so you hid things well. You don't bring things with you. If you're going to bring things, you ship things. Everybody knows that.

Ben: 1:47:31

I, I just... Don't violate customs laws.

Gene: 1:47:35

Yes. I don't

Ben: 1:47:36

violate any laws. The good news is though, that the U S has gone to total optional declaration on the way in. Have you noticed that? Yeah. So, so there, there is no going and declaring things at customs anymore. You just walk in.

Gene: 1:47:52

Yeah. It's actually better than that. I walked in without showing my passport from Mexico though. So yeah, no into the U S. Right from Mexico from Mexico. Correct. I guess the deal is if the southern border is open, then why bother checking at the airport.

Ben: 1:48:10

So there you still should have had to show your passport like the kiosk or something. Nope. Did they at least do a passport check in Mexico?

Gene: 1:48:22

They did not do a passport check in Mexico. What the fuck? Even when they checked, even when they checked my luggage, they didn't ask for the passport. That's... The only thing that they asked me in the United States when I came in was if I was, if I had any any food with me. And I said, Nope, I don't have any food. And they said, welcome home. And then sent me on my way through the door to get a taxi. So I think, I suspect they're using facial ID, which is probably how they don't have to bother doing a passport. But, you know, it used to be, they'd be looking there at your passport and trying to figure out where all you went to and it was this, you know, what was the nature of the trip and all that. Yeah.

Ben: 1:49:10

Looking at the stamps

Gene: 1:49:11

and everything else. Yeah. Especially if you've got a bunch of them. And

Ben: 1:49:15

there's literally nothing. Which now, they don't matter as much anymore. And I mean, quite frankly, it's sometimes you have to ask for a stamp if you want it. Right. If

Gene: 1:49:24

you're collecting those. Yeah, exactly.

Ben: 1:49:26

Which who isn't?

Gene: 1:49:28

Right, right. I mean, I don't care anymore. But I, like, I have an old passport that is just chock full of stamps from all kinds of countries. It seems like they don't really give a shit anymore. Allegedly. From allegedly a lot of countries. Yes, sure.

Ben: 1:49:43

No, no, no. Allegedly, you still have an old passport. You're not supposed to keep old passports. Yeah, you

Gene: 1:49:49

are. You're not. Yes. Did I say an American passport? I'm sorry. Okay.

Ben: 1:49:56

I'm just, just checking, you know, that very well may be true, but you know,

Gene: 1:50:02

and nowadays I think my current passport has like two stamps in it for the last five years. There's no place I've gone bother stamping anymore. The closest you get is you get a little paper insert with the visa and then they'll just take that. And they'll take that out when you leave.

Ben: 1:50:21

It's like, okay. Actually, the interesting thing is, like in Qatar, they give you this sticker that's a barcode that is your visa. Okay. And then when you're on the exit, they stamp it to void it. Mm hmm. There you go. They do an exit stamp, which is interesting.

Gene: 1:50:39

Yeah. So it's, I don't know, man, I think it's all becoming a lot more automated and digitalized and not really, which is good and bad. I mean, it's, it's good in the sense that it's more seamless. It's bad because they clearly have everything that they don't even need your password anymore.

Ben: 1:50:59

So I'm looking at a 1993 AM general Humvee two door soft top truck body. For 16 grand, that could be a daily driver.

Gene: 1:51:13

That's totally not a daily driver. It takes up two parking spaces. It has horrible gas mileage and that's assuming the engine still works. They were horribly underpowered. And and so with the large load, given the weight of the vehicle most of those motors did not survive. So you, it's a, it, it'd be a project truck for sure. I mean, if you want to put in the, the old cat diesel in there. Turn it into more of what the Humvees were in actual service, then you could totally do this. So

Ben: 1:51:45

this is a 1993 actual service Humvee.

Gene: 1:51:48

Oh, it's an actual service Humvee? It's not a... Yes,

Ben: 1:51:50

this is military. Jesus. Yeah, this is not, this is not civilian. This is military. Yeah.

Gene: 1:51:56

It's probably rusty from 1993 then, unless it spent most of its time in the desert. I don't know. It looks pretty damn good. If you were thinking that the Humvee is a good survivalist vehicle, it is not at all.

Ben: 1:52:08

No no, an old Suburban is far better.

Gene: 1:52:10

Way, way better. Yeah. And I can also see now after reading this first part of this book, why you want to get an old Suburban, you want to get a car that keeps running after an EMP,

Ben: 1:52:24

this is part of it. Yes. Yeah. All right, man. Anything else we ought to cover before we go?

Gene: 1:52:30

I don't, I don't think so. I mean, I think we covered most of this stuff, but if you, if you can even use the word cover ever, we, we blabbed a little bit, yeah. There's something, but yeah,

Ben: 1:52:46

it's all good. We opined to copy Bill O'Reilly. I'd rather not. Oh, come on, you don't like the Billy Boy?

Gene: 1:52:55

I, I'm not a big fan. I think he's alright, but I've never been a big fan. I always thought he was too smug. I,

Ben: 1:53:02

I think lots of things about Bill O'Reilly. I'm not a huge fan. Mm hmm. Yeah. And

Gene: 1:53:08

Darren's... Subscribes to him. So I guess we, we cover all the bases. So Darren subscribes to him. I subscribe to Tim Cass and you subscribe to Mug Club.

Ben: 1:53:19

And Warrior Poet. Oh yeah. We're there

Gene: 1:53:22

you go. But see, now that one, I'm surprised that you do Daily

Ben: 1:53:27

Wire. Peterson. Oh, okay. Only reason why I subscribe to Daily Wire is Peterson.

Gene: 1:53:34

Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. And he's been on a rampage lately. How so? Just, he's very. I, from what I'm seeing in his videos, he's just really riled up about this whole Canadian.

Ben: 1:53:51

Oh, we haven't even talked about the Nazi in parliament.

Gene: 1:53:55

Oh, I thought that was last

Ben: 1:53:56

week. No, that's right. We did talk about it on the special, you were traveling episode, the crappy audio. So yeah, it wasn't that bad. So if you didn't listen to that episode, you ought to go back and listen to the Canadian parliament.

Gene: 1:54:08

Yeah, no, there it is. Sometimes the truth wants to come out. Yeah. And Canada, and I posted a number of different articles about this topic. With the top, with the name, Oh Canada, on No Agenda Social because there seemed to be even more revelations about, you know, like we had our Nazis and they were working on building NASA for us. And Canada had their Nazis, but they weren't working on building

Ben: 1:54:40

spaceships. No, no, they were just kind of welcomed in.

Gene: 1:54:42

They were very much welcomed in. They were welcomed in in the late 40s, early 50s. And in fact they ended up becoming very political in Canada. And a lot of them end up having offices in Canadian government. So Canada, yeah, Canada didn't really notice anything wrong because it's chock full of Nazis, both actual Nazis and the. The fake kind that run the country like it's his personal dictatorship.

Ben: 1:55:19

Do you think anyone's going to be surprised when Trudeau comes out and Castro really is his daddy?

Gene: 1:55:25

I don't know, man. I, it's I guess it's possible. I don't know that he's. Like what's, what's the downside for that? So what if Castro was his dad? He'd still be Canadian. He could still be prime minister.

Ben: 1:55:38

That's why I think the truth will eventually come out. Yeah. Just like a big Mac 2024,

Gene: 1:55:43

but also there is a what's big Mac 2024.

Ben: 1:55:48

Michelle Obama's campaign. She's great.

Gene: 1:55:52

I mean, Michael's,

Ben: 1:55:54

Yeah, yeah. Big Mac. Yeah, Michael's the Michael's apparently the one that's endowed, not Barack, if you believe the interview on Tucker Carlson. Who was saying that? The the gay prostitute that Obama screwed in the 90s. Yeah,

Gene: 1:56:15

yeah. Yeah, I mean, my, my question with that would simply be, why did they not come out while he was president? Cause that seemed like that would have been a perfect time and would have scored bonus points for the liberal causes.

Ben: 1:56:30

You got to remember in back, I mean, 2016, the trans stuff still was very, very taboo. We've come a long, long way in eight years. On this, like that, that was not a mainstream thing at all at that point in

Gene: 1:56:47

time. Yeah. It kind of seems like it's always been

Ben: 1:56:50

mainstream. I mean, go back and look I think Blair white was still not really there. I mean, there was a lot of things that were not mainstream about this.

Gene: 1:57:01

2016. Yeah, yeah, maybe, I don't know. I think I started watching Blair pretty much right when he started doing YouTube videos.

Ben: 1:57:11

So that'd be really pre transition even though.

Gene: 1:57:15

No, no, it was after it was after and it was, I'm trying to think of how I first saw her. I think it was somebody talked about her in one of the other conservative shows. As being a non liberal trans person. So I wanted to check her out. And then I was like, holy shit, chick looks like a chick, not a dude. And which, which is surprising because most of them, you know, up to that point, weren't trying to look like women as much unless, you know, unless you go way back to where the only way that somebody could be transgender was. Do a really good job looking like it actually beat up. Otherwise, you can beat up. Yeah, so I don't know, man. It's it certainly, certainly is recent, but I guess I was thinking 2016 was recent already enough and it wasn't still kind of when did the whole gay marriage thing gets all settled nationwide? Was that five years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago? No,

Ben: 1:58:25

I mean, do you, are you talking about from a Supreme Court?

Gene: 1:58:29

Decision. Do you remember that? How long ago was that? Oh, I can Google it. I can Google it too. Don't bother doing that. I thought you might remember. All right. I don't know.

Ben: 1:58:40

I mean, so I know that. So 2013 was when the 2013 was a Supreme Court case on gay marriage. Okay. But the Obama admin had come out in favor of it beforehand. And if you remember, Joe kind of preempted Obama on that. Yeah.

Gene: 1:59:01

Yeah. I guess maybe that would have been a little too early during the presidency. It certainly doesn't seem

Ben: 1:59:11

Obama got shortcutted through Joe because Joe, you know, went out and was pro gay marriage and stopped Obama from coming out and saying not, not, not only

Gene: 1:59:21

am I pro gay marriage, I'm in one. What? Nothing. Oh, was that supposed to be Obama or Joe?

Ben: 1:59:32

Kind of a mixture of both. It wasn't

Gene: 1:59:35

anything.

Ben: 1:59:36

Hey, I never said I could do impressions.

Gene: 1:59:40

Yeah. I, what do you think it would hurt Obama if

Ben: 1:59:43

I mean, after he's reelected, what the fuck difference does it make? Right. Exactly. What's he going to do?

Gene: 1:59:48

Get impeached over it? No. So he should have come out. I...

Ben: 1:59:54

Yeah.

Gene: 1:59:54

Because it, I think it doesn't help somebody to come out.

Ben: 1:59:58

Yeah. I think that there's a problem there though, because a lot of his entire persona would then have to be explained away as fake. Because if Michael... It is fake. If Michelle is really Michael, as Joan Rivers put it you know, then obviously the girls aren't theirs, so who are they, you know, there's lots of things there, and I think it really would reopen a lot of questions into Obama's past that would be pretty, you know, uncomfortable at the very least.

Gene: 2:00:28

So you think Michelle is going to run as Michelle?

Ben: 2:00:31

Yeah, I mean, realistic, I am joking, but realistically, I think Michelle will run, obviously, as Michelle. There's already been some pretty funny memes out there about swinging for freedom. But no, I, I think Michelle Obama is a very high probability in the race because I don't think Joe makes it. I think Joe's out.

Gene: 2:00:50

Yeah, but there's no way, no way in hell Michelle would ever get elected.

Ben: 2:00:55

Oh, I totally disagree. I know tons and tons and tons and tons of people who are, who, if it's Biden, would not vote for Biden, but would absolutely vote for Michelle Obama.

Gene: 2:01:10

I think Congress needs to pass a new law that says that wives of presidents cannot run for president. And

Ben: 2:01:17

under what authority would

Gene: 2:01:18

they do that? Under the authority of Congress.

Ben: 2:01:22

Okay. Don't think that's constitutional, but sure.

Gene: 2:01:25

How is it not constitutional?

Ben: 2:01:27

Because you're barring an individual through association. Yeah, that's

Gene: 2:01:31

what

Ben: 2:01:31

that's appropriate. No, actually, it's not it's against the 1st amendment, which is, you know, against the 1st amendment. Oh, my God. And we're getting that staticky breakup again. What staticky breakup? It was happening a while back and it's back for a while. But anyway, so freedom of association is part of the 1st amendment. And it protects freedom of speech, right to assembly, right to petition and government agreeances. And so under assembly is also freedom of association, which is why you can't block, for instance, Republican or Democrats from having their party affiliation on a ballot and things like that. So, yeah, I wish you could. Oh, me too. I, and I, I think you know, but you, you can't ban political parties in the US right? You, you can't legally you can. So yeah. First amendment right to association.

Gene: 2:02:27

Yeah. I think that's a very far stretch for right association saying you can't ban political parties. I think you should be able to. Okay. And on that note, yeah, I know you gotta take a leak, so we'll wrap it up and we will see you next week.