046 Just Two Good Old Boys

Gene: 0:22

Oh, hey Ben, how are you today?

Ben: 0:25

Gene, I am fucking tired,

Gene: 0:26

dude. Well, notice I said today instead of this morning.

Ben: 0:32

Yeah, yeah, I so I got up at 3am eastern this morning. That's early. Yeah, to make a flight. And so that's 2 a. m. my current time zone. Anyway, I'm tired. It's all

Gene: 0:48

good, though. Yeah, well, hopefully you had another good flight coming back from United Airborne Airman, sir. Yeah,

Ben: 0:56

it wasn't too bad. Some turbulence in Chicago that had the guy at the window seat puking, so. Oh my god. Really? That's terrible.

Gene: 1:07

Was. I don't think I've been on a flight with puking in over 20 years.

Ben: 1:12

It's been a long time for me, too, but this guy, man, he just, he couldn't hang. And the poor girl in the middle was just like, uhhhh.

Gene: 1:24

Wow. Yeah. Must've ate sushi or something right before the flight. He was Asian. Oh, was he? Well, that's then the sushi shouldn't have done anything. Jesus. How much for that? Well, you're back, back home anyway. So that's good. Actually,

Ben: 1:43

no, I'm in the Woodlands right now. I'm doing a presentation tomorrow. You're still on the business trip? Okay, wow. Yeah, yeah, I'm doing a panel tomorrow and then a presentation afterwards at the American Petroleum Institute cybersecurity

Gene: 1:59

meeting. Nice. So some, so you would promise to have a link to a video that you were... Presenting from the last episode. Ah, I gotta dig that. Yeah, send me that, or just post it on No Agenda Social. I'll post something on No

Ben: 2:13

Agenda Social. Mm

Gene: 2:15

hmm. People are asking.

Ben: 2:17

I haven't seen anyone actually

Gene: 2:19

ask. Well, no, that's because they're asking me, not you.

Ben: 2:22

Well, why would they do that? That makes no sense.

Gene: 2:25

Oh, because they know that you're out of the country. I wasn't out of the country. Oh, okay, yeah, let's go with that. Yes, of course, that's why you're so tired of being up at 3 a. m. Eastern, makes subtle sense to me.

Ben: 2:42

You know, partying all weekend.

Gene: 2:46

Yeah, partying all weekend and then flying. Flying through Chicago to get back home, that makes total sense, too.

Ben: 2:54

It totally does when you're trying to get miles, man. When you're trying to get to that next

Gene: 2:59

status level. Well, that part's true. I'll definitely agree with that. I remember making a lot of those types of floats. Mm hmm. How are you, are you gonna, are you gonna hit the, whatever milestone you're aiming for this year?

Ben: 3:10

I, I think so. I think so.

Gene: 3:15

Yep. It always sucks when you get close and then you're like, ah, fuck, that trip got canceled. So I thought I was going to have it and I don't and,

Ben: 3:23

well, I mean, it's going to come down to the wire. I'm still going to have to add one, at least one more trip than what I got planned. So we'll see. But I'll come up with a cool reason to go somewhere,

Gene: 3:37

so. Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly. Go out here the Holy Lands is beautiful around Christmas, I hear.

Ben: 3:44

Yeah, no, not a place I'm going. I

Gene: 3:47

hear flights are gonna be pretty cheap, too. Yeah,

Ben: 3:50

well, United isn't flying there, so

Gene: 3:55

it racist. Why is it racist? To not fly somewhere? That's pretty racist sounding to me.

Ben: 4:01

It's not racist. It's a fucking war zone. They

Gene: 4:03

said no. I know what I don't know man That's sounds very sus to me.

Ben: 4:09

So I I was in the DC area this weekend when the When the pro palestinian riots were happening, I

Gene: 4:18

mean the peaceful process.

Ben: 4:20

Oh, no, this this was not I Wouldn't

Gene: 4:23

call it peaceful. I that's I'm saying what I heard being reported.

Ben: 4:28

No, it was like a massive, massive March. Like I had friends that went to the mall just to, you know, kind of go and everything else, given where we were. And they were like, dude, that was it boots on the ground report was that it was just absolute chaos and nuts. And if you were not. Militantly pro Palestinian in your rhetoric and showing support, it was not a pretty thing.

Gene: 4:58

Wow. That's amazing.

Ben: 5:05

I'm, I don't know, I think it's gonna have to be expected,

Gene: 5:07

but okay. Well, I mean, it's, it's gonna, what's amazing is how these are the same people that are gonna re elect Biden. Biden's not getting

Ben: 5:18

re elected, dude. Mm hmm. There's not a chance in hell on that one. Mm hmm. Two thirds of the country in latest polling says that the country's going in the wrong direction. Two thirds?

Gene: 5:33

Two thirds. So like, all the Republicans and a third of the Democrats?

Ben: 5:40

That, yeah.

Gene: 5:42

Mm hmm. Yeah, it'll be, it'll be a tough one for them. Or do you think they're gonna stick in Newsom and kind of pretend he was right

Ben: 5:52

all along? Ah, everybody I've talked to does not see how Joe... Runs, but you know, we'll see.

Gene: 5:59

But if Joe doesn't run, I mean, they're, they're getting kind of close to the wire here and thing. That's the filing deadline, you know,

Ben: 6:08

for a primary or for the general general election, I don't know for the general, because usually everybody gets to the primary process. But I can't imagine it would be a year. That's come and gone for a lot of states, it's per state. It's what? It's per state, and that's come and gone for quite a few

Gene: 6:31

states. Yeah, that's, that's what I thought. That's why I'm asking about the general. Because we're getting, you know, we're within the year of the general election. wEll,

Ben: 6:39

we're, tomorrow will be a

Gene: 6:41

year, but sure. Well, I'd say I'm pretty close. Yeah, so that's, that's Not that's what I'm saying it because as far as I know Newsom still has not filed.

Ben: 6:56

You know, and what would the Federal Elections Commission do if Joe just dropped dead, you know, obviously they'd have to let somebody

Gene: 7:05

they would they would because I think what they're gonna end up with is having Trump on like 43 states ballots, but they'll be able to Replace joe on 50 states ballots in like any time. It doesn't matter

Ben: 7:20

I mean that that's okay because the states that are going to remove trump are ones he would not have won Anyway,

Gene: 7:28

right, but I think they're going to immediately file a court case saying that somebody who wasn't even on the ballot in the state can't be a president JUSTIN Yeah, well,

Ben: 7:40

that clearly

Gene: 7:42

is not over. This is not gonna be over probably at least until, like, March of 2025.

Ben: 7:51

JUSTIN No, it has to be. It has to be done by January 6th, or it goes to a contingent

Gene: 7:56

election. SEAN No, no, no, no, because they won't be able to vote on January 6th, cause the Capitol will be taken over. JUSTIN Okay. SEAN I mean, we have a pattern of that happening, so. Insurrection and all.

Ben: 8:13

Okay, uh, did you see CSB's comment that he put out for your eventual presidential run?

Gene: 8:21

Oh, oh, was that me? I thought that was Chink. No,

Ben: 8:25

no, that was you,

Gene: 8:26

and it, it was that doesn't look like Chink a whole

Ben: 8:28

lot. No, but it looks like you. I did, I did like one comment that I saw on the, on the social, there should have been a snake in the background.

Gene: 8:38

There's a snake in the background. Oh yeah, if, if there was a snake in the background, that would have been more apparent than it was me. That's true. That's true. Yes. He's, he's getting really good at typing a few words suddenly. Oh, you think that was just AI? Oh no. He said it was AI. Of course. Ah, okay. Which I don't, I don't think that's like, I mean, I'll still make fun of the fact that it's AI, but it's totally legitimate AI. Because you gotta pick the right words in the right order, and then you gotta go back and refine and tweak things if it doesn't look good, uh, although I will say that my beard is not monocolored like that, it is definitely mostly white with a little bit of brown in there.

Ben: 9:27

Yeah, well, he wasn't wanting to age you unjustly.

Gene: 9:30

Oh, is that what, okay, yeah. aNd there was a similar cartoon too that had. Both Darren and me, but I think if I'm the same looking guy as this cartoon, then Darren was completely white. And Darren is not completely white, but neither am I, so it had one guy with a black beard and one guy with a white beard. So I think you could definitely tweak those a little more to get more of a you know, silver beard. Silver beard, that's a good name.

Ben: 10:08

Oh, is that gonna be your new podcast? No,

Gene: 10:11

cuz it'll change by time I get used to silver bearded with change to being totally white Fucking white beard, but I think I might just call him Call it call him call me Sergine the gray

Ben: 10:28

The gray or the gay?

Gene: 10:30

Well, I would say the gray but I clearly you have something on your mind now. Where in Houston, which bars are you going to in Houston? Because it sounds like your mind's racing out somewhere.

Ben: 10:40

Oh, no. I, I, dude, I'm, I'm, I, I, I, I have passed the two gauntlet tests. I made it through the last two conferences without drinking at all, so Oh, really? Congratulations. I'm gonna, I'm make it to the end of the year and cool dude. Go from there.

Gene: 10:59

Awesome. Yeah. I still haven't restarted. So, you know, I'm still not drinking.

Ben: 11:02

Yeah. I'll after the end of the year, I probably will, but we'll see.

Gene: 11:06

That's what I said a year ago.

Ben: 11:10

Yeah. Well, I, I got invited some of the. Cyber security professionals that I know have a habit of flying with large Pelican cases full of very expensive whiskeys and I got invited to come do a tasting and I'm like, well, I'll, I'll show up to the room. I'll sit and bullshit with ya, but I'm not drinking. So if I can make it through that, I'm good.

Gene: 11:33

Yeah, when's this? When's this happen? Oh, no, that

Ben: 11:36

was Friday.

Gene: 11:37

Oh, it already happened. Okay. So you, you didn't partake of the expensive whiskey? I didn't. No. What'd

Ben: 11:42

they have? Anything good? Yeah. He, he had quite the list of both rye's and bourbon's. So.

Gene: 11:50

Do you remember any of them? People are

Ben: 11:53

no, I don't. Off the top of my head. Okay. I, I was

Gene: 11:59

huh. Huh. Cause I'm sure everyone's. I'm wondering what, what it is that you passed by. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I know if I was telling you that story, I guarantee you people would be asking that right now.

Ben: 12:15

Yeah. Well, you know, sometimes you don't pay attention to the details cause you got enough going on, but. It's usually all the time. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what, there's some really interesting proof of concepts came out of DISC this last weekend.

Gene: 12:33

So. Proof of concepts of what?

Ben: 12:36

soMe interesting command and control out of ICS environments. I had some conversations with some people directly involved with Hawaii Hawaiian electric and confirming some, what I had already heard and yeah, some pretty crazy stuff.

Gene: 12:54

Cool. Yeah,

Ben: 12:57

that's you got to love when you're in a room and somebody starts a conversation after they've been drinking for a while, you know, well, we've all got a clearance so we can talk about this and you, you just keep your mouth shut because you don't have clearance.

Gene: 13:13

Somebody actually has a clearance and says that they shouldn't have the clearance for long.

Ben: 13:17

Oh, well, you know what? All I can say is, do you, do you have any idea how often that a happens? And yes, it is absolutely evidence of. How over permissive we are with, you know, both classifying information and granting clearances.

Gene: 13:35

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. If the number of people that I know that currently have active clearance is way too high. I completely

Ben: 13:46

agree.

Gene: 13:49

Yeah. Unnecessarily so, in my opinion. So other than your events, we've had a pretty interesting week here. What happened? Well, not, not here locally, but in the world stage, I mean, yeah, there've been a few things. It looks like the Ukrainian situation is fast falling apart for them. And not because of specific big pushes by Russia, even though they are still doing the usual bombing there. But because it looks like the stability of the government is fast coming into question and Zelensky is he, his days may be numbered even before Ukraine. You know, ends up

Ben: 14:41

Well, there was that one video showing a lot of drugs on the table and everything else that got poo pooed is, you know, fake or funny or whatever. That I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. What's your take? Was that fake or all right.

Gene: 14:57

You never know. You never know. I think, I think that Even if it was fake, it probably isn't far from reality. Right. But. It sounds like, Zalushney? I can't remember how he spells his name, but he was the military commander and it sounds like he is ready to surrender and come up with a negotiated deal where Zelensky, of course, keeps blowing the same trumpet that he's been for a long time, which is basically, you know, if the U S would only come in here and use nukes, then we could still win.

Ben: 15:42

Well, I mean, but you've seen concessions from Congress, you know, passing money for Israel, which I don't think they need to do, but passing money for Israel, but not Ukraine and likely that that's going to die in the Senate, which is okay with me because, hey, let's not send money to anyone. That's

Gene: 16:02

my position. Yeah. Yeah.

Ben: 16:04

Yeah. And it's, totally crazy. And I will say this the people I was around this weekend, uh, normally would have been all rah rah Ukraine and everything else. And we're very quiet on the subject because like, yeah, I, I think everybody recognizes it's just over.

Gene: 16:29

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm glad that better late than never, as they say.

Ben: 16:35

Well, I mean, I guess we get them, you know, got to expend enough munitions to. Make everybody happy and now the,

Gene: 16:43

Record profits

Ben: 16:43

this year for sure. Yeah. Well, I mean, you've got submarines and aircraft carriers and everything and, you know, the Mideast and, you know, we're ready to kick that one off. I think I think they're gonna

Gene: 16:57

I think it was. They just, just got another billion dollar supply contract that came through just this weekend. Wouldn't surprise me. So, yeah, that's if, if people invested in, in stocks within that industry over the last 18 months, you've been doing pretty well.

Ben: 17:17

Yeah which is unfortunate, but yeah. Well, you know, if we're so smart, Gene, why aren't you and I play in the stock game on...

Gene: 17:31

Who says I'm not?

Ben: 17:34

I just don't buy for short term investments. I just, I'm not a day trader, and I don't ever think of myself... So

Gene: 17:39

Bitcoin's up to 35, 000?

Ben: 17:43

Okay, well... Speaking of long term... We did have one guy send us some stats. Oh, he did?

Gene: 17:52

Yeah.

Ben: 17:52

Oh, I should probably check in with that. It's still not showing up on the on, oh, I wouldn't know because you're in charge of that. I did get, that's right. I did get a notice. Um mm-Hmm. of a boost of 777 SATs from Tom Tomsky,

Gene: 18:08

so Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tom's the one that was trying to urge us to get that shit taken care of.

Ben: 18:13

Yep, and he followed through with a bitch, so I appreciate that.

Gene: 18:17

Yeah, so you're in charge of all that stuff on this

Ben: 18:20

show. Yeah, so I, I, I did try and get Gene to set up a split and he said no, he said he did not want to do it because it

Gene: 18:30

would not amount to anything. You tried to get me a split please. Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure you're just going to pull off a Darren here. I Tell ya, with friends like these

Ben: 18:44

Gene just doesn't have any faith in our, our, our audience's

Gene: 18:47

abilities. Hmm. Hey man, our audience has donated pretty well in terms of, now it's not very often, but when they do donate, they've donated pretty decent amounts in PayPal. That's

Ben: 18:59

nice. See I don't get the PayPal. Yeah,

Gene: 19:02

I know Yeah, I I think now we talked about it on the show so it's all kind of take care But I think we like maybe two and a half three weeks ago We had that hundred dollar donation come in. To which show? For our show.

Ben: 19:21

Oh This is the first time hearing of

Gene: 19:23

that. We definitely talked about it Yeah, it's you know, it happens just not very often, but then again, we also don't ask, right? We just kind of let people look, if you want to do it, go for it. But this is one of those shows, unlike 99. 99 percent of all other podcasts that doesn't spend the first five to 10 minutes of the show begging for money.

Ben: 19:49

Well, I mean, We both have day jobs and I don't think either one of us are under any illusions that this is going to replace that.

Gene: 19:57

So no, but honestly what the biggest thing that getting, especially SATS, which is like, you know, pretend money. Cause the amounts are so tiny. thE biggest thing that it does is it strokes the ego. Yeah, and I think both of us have egos sufficiently large enough to not require that much stroking.

Ben: 20:17

Yeah, but it's still

Gene: 20:19

appreciated. No, it's, I, yeah, no, I get, I get a smile on my face when somebody sends some money in, but also, like, that's not the key thing. And it's also why I absolutely failed on YouTube cause I've tried multiple times to get into a regular schedule. With like gaming content and stuff. I just, I don't ask for money because it just feels, it feels so weird because when I'm playing video games, I'm not really working, you know what I mean? And same thing with this show, it's not like, this doesn't feel like work to me, this sounds like a, just bullshitting with a buddy of mine on the phone. Which, you know, maybe why we don't get donations, because that's all it is.

Ben: 21:00

Oh, yeah. So what's your take on you know, as far as the, some of the New York lawsuits and, you know, not necessarily trying to remove Trump from the ballot because I think that's not really going to end up going anywhere. I think that's going to get enough shut down. But

Gene: 21:18

it's okay to record. I mean, it's pathetic. It's ridiculous. It solidifies the perspective that more and more countries have, including New York. Countries that theoretically are in the U S side, but the U S is a banana Republic at this point. Like,

Ben: 21:35

well, I mean, sitting there, silencing Trump while he's giving testimony and, you know, saying, Hey, you know, you're not really answering the question when he very much seems to be from my perspective.

Gene: 21:50

And, and having that court case be conducted by both a prosecutor and the judge. As both donating to Democrat anti Trump organizations. I mean, it's in any other instance, these people would be asked to recuse themselves and if they didn't, then the whole trial would be thrown out. But because it's Trump and a good percentage of the country has Trump derangement syndrome, um, they're just letting him go on.

Ben: 22:27

Ah, well, I mean, at some point something's got to get right.

Gene: 22:32

Yeah. Well, that's, I mean, the biggest question in my mind is, is with Joe's drooping popularity rating, I don't think they're going to be able to have Joe come in with whoever the real president is. As the veep and sneak somebody in there, I think they're going to have to run somebody instead of Joe. And if they do that, then of course, uh, it means that I think it's going to be harder for, for that person to win. I mean, not like it's going to be easy for Joe, but at least. They have a, a playbook on how to do it for Joe. Like they know exactly what they need to do and which boxes to drop off where. But I think the eyes are going to be like, if it's Gavin Newsom, there's an awful lot of people in California that, that think he's horrible. Yeah. They're going to like those California people who didn't vote for him for the governor are going to go and become. You know, polling place watchers with their cell phones out on election day, recording everything. Yeah,

Ben: 23:37

they're going to be rabid. Mm

Gene: 23:39

hmm. Cause they're like, oh no you don't, you're not gonna fuck up the whole country the way you fucked up the state.

Ben: 23:46

Well, who else could it be other than Gavin though?

Gene: 23:49

I always assumed it would be him. I don't know anybody else that looks presidential on the democrat side. And of course that's the main thing you need to do. Unless, you know, Barack Obama comes in and throws his two cents in. Yeah. He could still do that, right? Cause you can't run for more than two in a row, but you can run for one after you've done two, right?

Ben: 24:09

No, you can, you know, no, you can only serve, you can only serve two full terms or a total of 10 years. So in the case of the vice president coming in midterm the maximum term for a president right now in the United States is 10 years.

Gene: 24:27

Yeah. Which I think that's what it is in Russia now too. So you just maximum of two terms. Yeah,

Ben: 24:33

but Russia you can take a break and then come back. No, no, they

Gene: 24:37

fixed that. They, they changed the... Oh, so Putin's

Ben: 24:40

out then here pretty quick. No, Putin's

Gene: 24:42

exempt. So, because he was president at the time of the new law, then the law doesn't apply to him. But it'll apply to every new person after him. Hmm. That's I mean, that's just fair. You can't have laws being passed that apply to a sitting president. Well, I, oh, shit, we do. They're not a banana republic, unlike us. So, yeah, Putin has officially put his hat in the ring now. They've got I just looked this up yesterday, in fact. They have, I think, four declared candidates and about four or five assumed to be soon declared candidates, and he was one of the ones that was assumed that he was going to. Declare what she does, I think. So there it's, it's funny because their election is also next year. So everybody's having like, and then the fact isn't, and I, I don't remember off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure that Ukraine's elections are also next year. I, that

Ben: 25:46

I don't know. I don't know enough about Ukrainian geopolitics to know when their elections are you know, when they're slated for.

Gene: 25:57

And I, I wonder when the Israeli ones

Ben: 26:00

are. Well, Israel's a parliamentary system, so they can be called a couple different ways in a couple different times, right?

Gene: 26:10

I believe so, but I mean, they still have elections at some point.

Ben: 26:16

Yeah, but I think it's like the UK where there's a maximum time they can go, but they can call them short of that is my

Gene: 26:26

understanding. Okay. It looks like the last ones were 2022. Yeah. So they have one for a while. That's when. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Well, it's 2024 is going to be interesting. And I think certainly there seem to be more signs that the pendulum is starting to starting very, very slowly on its return voyage. Like we were already maxed out and now we're heading back to the other side. Wow. I may be saying this because I'm biased because I know the guys that wrote the book, but it feels that way.

Ben: 27:09

And, you know, a couple different aspects, you know, I, I think quite frankly, not just geopolitically, but domestically and issues with, you know, male, female relations and everything else.

Gene: 27:26

Yeah. Well, and the, for, in the book, the, the swing on the pendulum is basically a 40 year cycle. From one extreme to the other extreme between individualism and not communism. What's the, what's the other word for it? You know, where it's all groups. What's the word? Collectivism. Collectivism. Yeah, yeah. So we, we are at, or just beyond, just past the peak of collectivism. If, if the future follows through the way that the past has, which is not to say we're anywhere near out of the muck. But at least the muck isn't going to keep getting deeper.

Ben: 28:13

Well, you know, I don't know. I had some people tell me they thought AOC was very intelligent. She stepped in at some, but obviously very intelligent. She's

Gene: 28:25

intelligent for a barista, you mean, or?

Ben: 28:29

No, as a

Gene: 28:30

member of Congress. How drunk were these people? Heh

Ben: 28:34

heh. I believe they were sober at the time. Oh, boy.

Gene: 28:40

And these people have jobs that have something to do with security?

Ben: 28:43

No, this this particular person is a is a lawyer.

Gene: 28:47

Oh, well, okay, okay, okay, that I understand. Why? Yeah. Well, because a lawyer doesn't actually have to say the... tell the truth.

Ben: 28:58

Ha ha ha ha! Oh! Yeah. So, elections are tomorrow in Texas. Have you have you voted? No.

Gene: 29:09

Are you going to vote? Yeah, I'm planning on it. I I need to log into the Texas website to see who all I should vote for.

Ben: 29:20

Well, right now the big thing is the constitutional amendments and some of the changes here in Texas. Oh,

Gene: 29:27

have you voted

Ben: 29:27

already? Yeah, I, well, I, I wasn't going to be in town. So that's

Gene: 29:32

true. So what's, what's the big ones you remember?

Ben: 29:35

Proposition one is a pretty big one. It is on guaranteeing agriculture and, and the state. I don't like it because it gives the state more power, but at the same time, it's actually intended use according to the politicians, we'll see how it actually ends up used, but is to nullify some of the crap coming from. The U S government. So using, you know, state law to nullify and have state standards, Trump, uh, versus federal for anything that's produced and consumed here in the U S

Gene: 30:16

so like getting rid of the FDA then or what,

Ben: 30:18

no, it's to protect farmers and ranchers, it's a new constitutional change. The idea is to give the Texas State Agricultural Commission more power to then fight, theoretically, federal

Gene: 30:34

overreach. Okay. I guess I don't know what the Texas Agricultural Commission is in charge of.

Ben: 30:42

Here, I'll send you the Texas Farm Bureau deal on this Prop 1, but yeah.

Gene: 30:52

Alright, any

Ben: 30:54

other words though? There's a ton I voted against, but that's because I'm a curmudgeon and don't like spending money. Well yeah, as we all should be. The school district where I live wanted four bonds totaling several million dollars. And I said, exactly. Yeah. Nope. You shouldn't exist. Thank you.

Gene: 31:19

Damn straight. Damn straight. Yep. All right, so

Ben: 31:27

But I believe they're in austin. You actually have like some mayoral elections going on and stuff like that Don't

Gene: 31:34

you? I don't know. I don't pay attention to that stuff

Ben: 31:37

I'll find out now you got you got to try and get rid of adler.

Gene: 31:42

Well, anybody with any brain cells would get rid of adler. The problem is this is awesome. Yeah,

Ben: 31:49

I You can always vote for the homeless trans guy that campaigns on

Gene: 31:55

the corner. I'll vote for anybody at adler But I think that my hope was that the legislature would actually go through with their threats and unincorporate the city or disincorporate the city.

Ben: 32:12

I, for the life of me, do not understand why they haven't. Mm

Gene: 32:16

hmm. Because it sure seems like that would solve a lot of our problems. Yeah, well,

Ben: 32:27

it would solve some of Austin's problems. That's for sure. Mm hmm to get rid of Adler and the

Gene: 32:35

Yeah, well, there's an awful lot here that No, it's not just Adler. It's really the pretty much the

Ben: 32:42

City Council and everything. Yeah Yeah,

Gene: 32:45

so he's certainly a problem But even if he's replaced the City Council if it stays the same was gonna be this is bad it's it's It's honestly, I think going to be more and more difficult simply because the majority of the California transplants really like Austin. And so these people don't know how to vote. it's, it's because, you know, it's got what they want, what they need. It's got people that all drive Privas's and talk about how their farts don't smell. And it's... It is a, a cleaner, um, slightly more polite San Francisco

Ben: 33:36

slightly being the

Gene: 33:37

keyword there. Well, it's, it's going in the wrong direction is what I mean by slightly because it used to be absolutely more polite, but I think things are changing here, but a lot of these California types, they, they have never seen a ballot with an art candidate on it. So they just kind of vote for these by default because that's all they've gotten used to. And I don't see that changing as much as we can make fun of this. And as much as I love the little series that Babylon B did to the Californians moving to Texas. Cause it just hits so many things right on the nose. The reality is that as even if these guys go to a gun range and somebody brings them out to have some fun, even if they engage in some Texan type activities, when it comes down to it in the voting booth, I have zero confidence that they will vote for anybody other than a Democrat.

Ben: 34:38

Yeah, well, I mean, you, you've got a growing number of people on the left that are actually going very pro second amendment, but staying with very radical policies on the other side and to the point of, you know, me, you know, the left was always worried about the militia extremists and what they were going to do and, you know, oh, we've got to monitor these people and everything else. Well, shit. The left has proven far more violent than the right. So,

Gene: 35:12

yeah, well, I don't know if you probably haven't been watching Tim at all because you've been traveling, but.

Ben: 35:18

He had a, no, but I was at the casino he goes to

Gene: 35:20

a lot. Oh, were you? Which

Ben: 35:22

one's that? One of them in Maryland that he mentions he goes to a lot. So, no.

Gene: 35:29

Is it any good?

Ben: 35:31

I, I can't stand it. It's a, yeah, but you know, it's where certain things are held. So I'm

Gene: 35:39

there. Oh, okay. Really? You were, they, they were holding him in a, it's an Indian casino, right?

Ben: 35:45

No, no, no, no. Oh, it's not? No. Really? It's a, it's a Vegas style. Casino.

Gene: 35:52

Really? I just kind of assumed it was one of the local Indian casinos. No, it's,

Ben: 35:59

Maryland has gone through and done these it requires a ballot provision to pass statewide for these casinos. I think they've got three of them now that they've built. Wow. And yeah, Maryland Live was the one I was at. Okay. Last weekend. That's the name of it? Holy shit. Yeah. I chose not to stay there, but

Gene: 36:20

yeah, I would say the Marriott. Yeah. That's what I did. Yeah. Good, good man. iNteresting. Yeah. I didn't realize it was like a, just a regular commercial casino. I figured it was some kind of, I guess I'm just used to that from having spent so much time in Minnesota where the, that the casinos are like the major funding source for the, the local tribes.

Ben: 36:45

Yeah, same way it is in, you know, Oklahoma and Texas. Yeah,

Gene: 36:50

well, I, I've not been to any Texas casinos. Where the hell are the Texas casinos

Ben: 36:54

located? There aren't many. In fact, I don't know if there's only one or what. But there's, there's one that's just north of Houston. thAt's on a reservation.

Gene: 37:07

Okay. Okay. Because I've been in the Oklahoma one that's just across the border. Yeah. That's the

Ben: 37:12

biggest casino. Yeah. In the nation. Yeah.

Gene: 37:16

Is it really though? It didn't feel like it was when I was there. I was there 12 years ago. Oh, no,

Ben: 37:22

the, the, one of the Oklahoma can see knows is the biggest casino in the nation now

Gene: 37:28

interesting. Yeah. 13 years ago now probably, but yeah, right around there. Yeah, it was, you know, I mean, they're all kind of similar. It's It's hard to really find something different and unique about these places. Well, and they're

Ben: 37:49

just I just, I hate casinos. So, my problem with Live is 90 percent of the games and everything they have are video based. Like, even their craps is largely video based. Which is just weird to me. And then. Their poker rooms and everything where they the the only cheap card game you can get in on is blackjack If you're gonna go sit down and play poker, you better bring some money because you know They they don't do anything low limit, which I'm not a big gambler. So for me, it's I'm I'm willing to walk in with a hundred bucks and you know, sit down and play I didn't this weekend because I was too busy, but You know, normally I would be willing to do that, but I, I don't, you got to give me a game I want to play. Sure. Sure.

Gene: 38:50

Yeah. Yeah. It's, I, I haven't gambled damn long time. I, I always enjoyed poker and I used to enjoy blackjack when I was younger, but I, I just don't think it feels way too chancy. So the rest of them, obviously the last thing I did, I think gambling wise, which is years ago is I remember, boy, I don't know. This was when it was one of the podcasting events was there's probably like seven years ago or something. And Curry got me to lose a hundred bucks in one bet. It's he decided it'd be fun to go to the roulette table and put it on 33. And I was like, yeah, sounds good. Being the idiot that I am. And and obviously it wasn't 33. So there you go. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I guess it would have been a fun story had it turned out to be 33.

Ben: 39:52

Yeah. Had it, had you won, I

Gene: 39:55

would have been like. Genius. I definitely would not have kept going. I would have been like, okay, I'm done. Thank

Ben: 40:01

you. Oh, bullshit. You'd have been like, let it ride. No,

Gene: 40:05

hell no. I don't do that. But it's a, it didn't. So, so it was just like, okay, well, I could have had a nice steak dinner, but oh, well,

Ben: 40:16

By the way, pro tip on going through airports with the new facial recognition thing. Cause this have you, have you flown recently with the new TSA facial recognition thing?

Gene: 40:28

I don't know. I mean, I went to

Ben: 40:30

Mexico. Now, when you're walking up to TSA lines, you put your driver's license. In a reader which pro tip number one if you use your passport or something like that It doesn't go in the reader. So that's an advantage, but it goes in the reader and the Computer scans the photo on your driver's license Hold on, it validates that it's not a fake ID, and then they have two cameras that are both IR and 3D imaging cameras to take a photo of your face, which they don't need this higher resolution photo to just match like they say they're going to. And also these are extremely wide angle lenses having sneaked a view behind the TSA agent when I was waiting in line. Yeah, anyway. So make sure you step way off to the side, but if you, if you do say you're opting out they will still do manual verification at this point, which is what you want, but yeah. But they are, TSA is building a facial recognition database on every American flying. And I, I didn't see anyone else opting out of this.

Gene: 41:43

Yeah, I, I wouldn't expect people to. I mean, I don't remember anyone opting out of the, any of the TSA machinery. Ever. Oh, I, I do. Well, obviously, but I mean, just generally every time I've flown, I'm the only guy doing that. Yeah,

Ben: 41:59

I, I asked for my free massage.

Gene: 42:04

And how's that working out?

Ben: 42:07

You know, it's a, what do you mean? It's,

Gene: 42:10

it is what it is. I haven't gotten a massage in years.

Ben: 42:16

I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, it's just, you

Gene: 42:20

know, typical. Just keep going through those scanners. Typical, man. No, I don't go through the scanners, but they don't, they don't really search me either.

Ben: 42:28

Well, you know, you can always say you can't raise your arm. Yeah. That's out that way until you go to one of the airports with the backscatter style that you can keep your arms down. Really got to figure out something else.

Gene: 42:45

What about my iron leg? Is that going to, is that going to heat up and explode? Yeah,

Ben: 42:50

they've got some new scanners that they're talking about pushing that they're pushing to the people as oh You won't have to take your belt and shoes off. Mm hmm. Why the fuck do I need to do that now? You know, this is this is theater. It is totally theater. Yeah, so

Gene: 43:09

It's always worse on the East Coast every time I fly to the East Coast. It's the most rudest of all TSA lives there It's like take off your watches, your wedding rings, take off, not a bit of metal on you. It's like, what? That shit will make zero difference, dude. Well,

Ben: 43:29

and funny thing, so, I flew in and out of BWI because it was closer than Dulles or DCA. And Anyway I went in terminals A, B, and C because they, that's where the Uber dropped me off, and I just was like, okay, well, I'll go through security here, and then I'll, you know, walk back on the backside to D where my flight's taking off, no big deal. Because the line wasn't too bad, so I just wanted to get in and get out. Well, I did. And then, nope. Construction. You can't cross over. You gotta go back out of security and the line was horrible at D& E. It was terrible. And, fucking funny thing. So this just, TSA screws themselves in so many ways. My bag had already gone through inspection. Everything, I, you know. Passed through, no problem, and I hadn't changed a thing in my bag, hadn't repacked it, hadn't moved anything, nothing. Secondary screening.

Gene: 44:37

Of course. Well, I'm happy at least you're getting that. I mean, I'm not happy, but I felt like it was totally unfair that I had gotten a secondary at the fucking game in Mexico. Oh, yeah. Remember that

Ben: 44:53

story. Well, I, I got that on my way back from the Middle East. I got the quadruple S, you know, you're going to be you're gonna prepare for the colonoscopy sort of inspection.

Gene: 45:10

It's all rigged. It's just racist. Yeah. They're, they're sitting there taking bets on who they're going to give a cigarette to. Who they're going to pump. Yeah. Meanwhile, and if you're a Washington state congressman, you can fly to China with a gun. Yeah.

Ben: 45:27

What's

Gene: 45:28

the resolution on that? I don't know. That's a damn good question. I mean, you're bringing it back up again. I probably should have looked that up before I brought anything up. Yeah, you should have. But Yeah. I just thought it was a hilarious story when it, when it happened.

Ben: 45:42

Yeah, I may go go see some partners. Well, I, I am going and seeing one partner in Seattle later this year. And then I may go to Eastern Washington as well. So we'll see.

Gene: 45:55

You're not gonna... Gotta

Ben: 45:56

get some, gotta get some more trips in.

Gene: 46:00

Get those long range mileage runs. Yeah, I don't see anything updated about that story. I just did a quick search.

Ben: 46:14

You know why? Because he's fucking in

Gene: 46:15

jail. Probably. I know, right? With the

Ben: 46:20

way Chinese U. S. relations

Gene: 46:22

are going,

Ben: 46:22

shit, that's not great

Gene: 46:24

timing. No, no. And it seems... I mean, I guess it's not that weird, but the guy is taking a five week trip to China, and yeah, it's a little suspicious. Pretty weird. Who in the U. S. takes a five week vacation? That's what I'd like to know. Yeah, I

Ben: 46:44

don't know. I'm gonna be struggling to use all my vacation before the end

Gene: 46:49

of the year. Exactly. That's why I've always struggled to do that. So it's kind of a, you know, Yeah, all the stories just say he was arrested. None of the stories, uh, say that he was, Oh, oh, no, here we go. He was acquitted in a Hong Kong court. Wow. There we go. They dropped all the charges. tHen they, they called it an honest mistake. So 24 month probation to not break any Chinese laws.

Ben: 47:31

I would not be going back to

Gene: 47:32

China. Oh, and they kept his gun. See that. I told you his gun. I told you. That's because the gun should have never left the plane. It should have been left on the plane. No, no.

Ben: 47:43

What he should have done is immediately go to a resistance fighter and get it to him. Oh my

Gene: 47:47

God. There's no resistance fighters in China. That's just propaganda. It's totally propaganda, man. Don't watch those, those channels

Ben: 47:59

on YouTube. So you're telling me the Donald Trump, don't trust China, China is asshole guy was propaganda? Course.

Gene: 48:06

No. Absolutely. No, I, I think that China... Yeah, that guy's dead, but go on. Well, yeah, exactly. That's why there aren't any. What were you, what did you think I was talking about? Yeah, I think I think people in China would, well, we know what happens to their social credit score at the very least. So if you have any, any thoughts about being anti China as a Chinese citizen. You're probably not going to be letting other people know that you are like for now you can still think that stuff as long as you don't mention it anywhere because you know they did there might just be an apple factory on the western side of China that you may end up visiting if you start saying too many things.

Ben: 49:03

Yeah, I'm, I do not want to go to to China, like, I will skip

Gene: 49:08

that. Yeah, I've my last trip I was supposed to go to China ended up getting canceled, so I never ended up going, which kind of sucked, actually. I was looking forward to it. It's great food, especially if you enjoy Chinese food, because it's so much better than the American Chinese. Is it, though? People are

Ben: 49:28

friendly. I mean, that's like saying Italian pizza is better than American pizza. It is, absolutely. But it's, it's really not, because it's an American invention, really.

Gene: 49:36

Well, it's, yes, Italian pizza, the original pizza, is definitely different than American pizza. And, yeah, you look, if you lived in Italy, maybe you'd get sick of the Italian pizza, and you'd actually start thinking that American pizza, like Chicago deep dish, is better. Or the New York super thin stuff. But... As somebody that mostly ate American pizza, I definitely think the Italian pizza is tastier. Okay. And I'll tell you, one of the biggest things is just, it doesn't have pizza sauce on it. Which I don't like pizza sauce. I order most of my American pizza without the the red sauce in there. Yeah. I like marinara. I like the garlic sauce is fine, but I don't want marinara on it. I like I like more unusual pizza. Somebody else, you know who likes a bizarre pizza? Pizza? Who's that? Before we leave that topic. Just recently while watching the interview Joe Rogan did with Elon.

Ben: 50:40

Yeah, I saw that, yeah.

Gene: 50:41

Yeah, and Joe apparently likes a pizza I've never had, but I would totally order, which is double pineapple, uh, double anchovy. Yeah. I would totally eat that. Yeah, apparently

Ben: 50:56

he eats the shit out of anchovies

Gene: 50:58

too. Anchovies are good for you.

Ben: 51:01

Not when he's eating that much.

Gene: 51:04

They're they're generally over salted. That's the main problem with anchovies. But if you go to an Asian market, like H Mart or something, you can, do you guys have an H Mart anywhere? Houston's got to have an H Mart. It's a ginormous, like, really large, bigger than H E B size Asian grocery stores. It's a Korean store, but it's Pan Asian in terms of inventory.

Ben: 51:31

Yeah, but in, in College Station we have a Spice Mart something or other that's Pan Asian.

Gene: 51:38

Yeah, I wouldn't expect you to have one there, but, but there's one in Dallas, they opened up one in Austin while I'm living in Austin, I would have expected they, I'm sure have at least one around Houston area and they probably have another one down in San Antonio, but it's, I always used to go to it when I lived in Dallas because like they literally have everything and a lot of everything you could buy the. The super thin sliced bulgogi, bulgogi beef already pre marinated in there, which was awesome. Made it super easy to cook it at home. But I don't, why did I start talking about it? Because Asians and anchovies. Oh, anchovies. Yeah. So they have a, just a ton of different fish, like dried fish, fresh fish. You can pull out of a bucket. Fish that's marinated fish, that's like being turned into fish sauce, all kinds of like huge fish department. And it's a national grocery store. So they also, like, I've been to those in Seattle area as well. I assume they have them in Korea. Cause I think it is a, like a legitimately Korean owned grocery store. Not an immigrant owned one, but very good store. If you ever see an H Mart, go check it out. I probably wouldn't enjoy it, but that's okay. And they have a lot of the food you can, like, they have a bunch of these like in store, little kiosks where you can eat cooked food.

Ben: 53:17

So like a Sam sampler?

Gene: 53:20

No, not sampler. Like little, little kiosk store things, you know, where you can order like a boba tea, or you can get a lot of the foods that are sold in the store. As raw, you can get the cooked versions there. They're not selling the way you would like Boba tea. Are you kidding? It's the best stuff. I've always loved Boba tea. I don't drink it very often anymore. Just simply because it's got too way too much sugar. But I still occasionally will do it a treat of Boba tea. I just. I really like sucking those little balls down.

Ben: 53:58

Oh my goodness. Somebody put that on the agenda. Someone send that to Adam as a

Gene: 54:04

ISO. Oh, Adam's not going to care. But I can pretty much guarantee you that Darren is going to have that playing. He loves ISOs like that. Oh, in fact, one of the fun things I've started doing with him on my other podcast, unrelenting that show is, um, just if, if I get one of those in, then the best way to screw it up for him is just to keep putting out one liners that now he's, he's can't decide which one to use. It's like, which one's going to be a show opener? Goddammit. This one's even better. This one's even better. So I don't, I don't think Darren's ever had a show opener clip of himself. It's always a clip of me saying something that's double entendre.

Ben: 54:53

Yeah. Better. Just outrageous.

Gene: 54:56

Yeah. Well, I guess, I don't know. I don't think I see too many outrageous things. Oh, sure you do. So speaking of the totally not outrageous. Well, what do you think's gonna end up happening long term with the whole Israel thing?

Ben: 55:14

Well, I, biblically, or

Gene: 55:18

in the immediate future? Use whatever reference source you prefer.

Ben: 55:24

I mean, I don't know I, I don't think that the Arab nations are going to freak out over Gaza right now, but it

Gene: 55:32

seems like most of the freak out is in the West.

Ben: 55:36

Yeah. And it seems like, you know, the, it's the liberals here and everything else, but I don't think Saudi or Jordan or anybody is going to become involved. Unless there is some massive, massive humanitarian reason. And so, as long as Israel doesn't give them that, I think I think they'll be alright. Now, if this goes to a broader war, and if Israel goes with the Samson option, things like that, I think it gets really ugly really quickly. Mm

Gene: 56:10

hmm. Yeah, I think it's gonna get ugly. I do agree with you about the... Like the, the Arab states that have nothing to gain from Palestinians just want to stay away from them with a 10 foot pole. And which of course the huge irony is if you look at during the British administration, the area that was. Designated as, what was it Palestinian mandate. Mm hmm. The majority of that Palestinian mandate was in, in, on the right side of the Jordan River and got absorbed into Jordan very quickly. As soon as Jordan stopped being trans Jordan and became actual Jordan, they pretty much just swallowed up the, the entirety of their side of the Palestinians. Meaning there is no Palestinian nation. There's a Palestinian population within Jordan

Ben: 57:18

yeah, and you know one of the things that I thought was pretty interesting is some of the talking points out of some of the The U. S. based Hamas, whatever you want to call them, the U. S. based pro Palestinian movement of calling Jordan a proxy state for Israel. Right. Which I, that's an interesting description. I don't know that I can agree with that, but okay.

Gene: 57:48

I think a lot of these people will twist reality into something that fits their narrative. It's, and yeah, Egypt for their part, multiple times have been. Asked to take over the administration of Gaza and every time, as politely said, no fucking way. They don't want anything to do with it. They don't wanna, well come us, I mean, on their inside of Egypt, be Well,

Ben: 58:15

because then it would be Egypt attacking Israel. Exactly. And that would not go damn straight. That would not go well,

Gene: 58:22

Uhuh. No, they don't want that. So there's definitely a lot of rhetoric flying back and forth, you know, between the, the usual suspects, Lebanon and Iran. But as far as actual actions, the majority of, of what you see is the, the completely peaceful protests happening all over the world in Western countries. You have that massive, I don't know if you saw that clip massive prayer shutting down streets and plazas in Toronto. Where, you know, you had the, the Muslims, or what we are going to assume were Muslims praying on a lot of them had brought actually instead of little prayer mats, they brought Palestinian flags and were laying those down on the street to pray on them. I don't know how that's supposed to be, that seems disrespectful to me, but I don't know. Not my culture. Maybe that's a totally legitimate thing to do. To use the, the country's flag as a prayer mat. I mean, it's probably preferred to use something over nothing, right?

Ben: 59:36

Seems odd. Well, apparently the protesters outside the White House during that protest this weekend were chatting, you know, al Akbar and so on. And just, I mean, just a decade ago, this would have been a trigger word for most Americans, especially during the war on terror that would have. Just go on just absolutely, I don't know, man. I, it's interesting because the people who would have been freaking out about, uh, 9 11 and everything else are now taking different tacks and

Gene: 1:00:22

yeah, it's, I think it'll keep moving in that direction because if you now, I think the, the, the crowd in Toronto is a little different, but in most of these places, if you look at the crowd, I'd say it, it appears to be about 10 percent people with a Middle Eastern complexion and 90 percent European complexion. So it is, I think it would be a stretch if somebody wants to say that, Oh yeah, these are all the, the migrants that are out in the streets protesting right now. I think there's some migrants, there's plenty of migrants that want nothing to do with it. They left those places. And but it does seem to be very much the, uh, the cause du jour, uh, by a lot of the college students. What the hell it is about college students that just makes them hate Israel?

Ben: 1:01:22

Well, you know, it's the propaganda of Palestine being an open air prison and some of the talking points there. And, you know, I, I, I kind of heard part of what you said on the flight. I was dozing too. So, you know, yeah, Egypt only controls one fence and other nations control the other. So there is that, and you're not wrong, but you know, the, the people in Gaza are not living a great life. They are not in great conditions. A lot of that is. Their own doing, a lot of that is historical from, you know, how Gaza became Israeli territory. I don't think it's mostly

Gene: 1:02:06

their own doing at all, I think it's... It's mostly the, the doing the only thing Israel is doing, well, I shouldn't say the only thing the main thing Israel is doing is controlling access for them into Israel. Yes. But

Ben: 1:02:19

the power, water and food and everything is

Gene: 1:02:22

provided. Yeah. I mean, they, if they were, if they just started treating them as a separate nation, that would be the first thing you do is you cut off the power, the water, the sewage and transportation, because that's not your country. Why would you be providing that? Well,

Ben: 1:02:39

bEcause if they did that Saudi Arabia would get involved.

Gene: 1:02:43

Well, good. Let them take them. Saudi Arabia has plenty of sand. They could literally Saudi Arabia could literally give. The, all, all the people that are currently in Gaza, they could give them an area double the size of Gaza that would not impact the Saudi population in one bit.

Ben: 1:03:02

Yeah, well, that's not going to happen and

Gene: 1:03:05

we both know that. No, not at all. They don't want them. Nobody wants them. That's, that's the reality of it, is nobody wants them. Certainly they can be used as a pokey stick against Israel by a lot of countries, including Iran, but Iran sure as hell doesn't want these people. One

Ben: 1:03:22

of the things people have to realize and understand about the Middle East is it's a pretty racist place, and, um,

Gene: 1:03:32

I would have just said people have strong convictions, but okay.

Ben: 1:03:36

They are racist not just racist against you know, everybody,

Gene: 1:03:42

they're racist.

Ben: 1:03:44

They think their sect of whether it's the Emirati or whoever, they think they're on top for a reason. And if you're not their sect. You're beneath them and I don't care which sect it is certainly seems to be the the thing

Gene: 1:04:06

Well, the wild card to me that I'm following here because it's interesting is Turkey because Turkey is definitely Trying to get themselves in the middle of this.

Ben: 1:04:17

Yeah, what country is this Turkey? Oh, you

Gene: 1:04:22

mean Turkey a Oh Turkey. Yes,

Ben: 1:04:27

Turkey

Gene: 1:04:28

Jesus Christ so Turkey Which it's all, I mean, I could just use the Russian word for it, but Turizia, uh, it's a, it is historically the country that controlled that territory longer than any of the other Arab countries as part of the Ottoman Empire. Yeah. Yeah. So they have more legitimate claim. than any of the other Arab countries to that part of the world. Historically, if we're going to talk about ancestrals. Now, the second biggest controlling group was the Jews predominantly between Egypt and Ottoman empire, not in recent days, but you know, I mean, if you want to really rile up Turkish nationalism, then it, I could totally see Turkey taking over for Iran. As being the, the main sponsor of the from the river to the sea chant, which incidentally it's something you hear all the college students chanting from the river to the sea, which literally is the declaration, not just by Hamas, but by all the anti Israeli groups calling for the removal, i. e. destruction of Israel because Israel literally is between the Jordan River and the sea. So, if you want something other than Israel to be between the river and the sea, that is a call for the removal, I don't know what other word you can describe it as, the elimination of Israel.

Ben: 1:06:13

So, Gene, let me ask you this, do you consider yourself

Gene: 1:06:16

a Zionist? I think it's a loaded term, so probably not. I think that I think that the Zionist beginnings were,

Ben: 1:06:31

let's clarify what I mean by that for history, because it is a loaded term, you know, after World War II, the Zionist movement was to create Israel as it is today as a state for Jewish people, and that's where Palestine and the territories that were controlled by the British Empire had given over and everything else, but there was a direct push So when you say is someone a Zionist historically what that means is are they for a pro? Israel a pro a

Gene: 1:07:12

little earlier than you mentioned, but yeah, it's it's really Started in the late 1800s.

Ben: 1:07:17

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, it really didn't get any meaningful traction till after World War II.

Gene: 1:07:23

As, as a legitimately recognized. State, yeah, World War II definitely made a huge impact in that. But the, the movement itself, which was really, Much older, yes. Getting, getting Jewish people to start moving, of their own accord to the historical Jewish homeland. That's really what it was. It'd be no different than like, Having a movement for the Free State Party. Southern pride, and trying to get people who, Moved up north when they went to college to all come back to live in the south because it's out the better I mean, it's

Ben: 1:07:59

different because of religion, but

Gene: 1:08:01

you know, I'd be the same thing. I mean, yes. Okay. Yes a little different but the whole thing is This is part of I think why it's confusing about Jews because ethnicities Jew refers to both a person's ethnicity and their religion or slash and slash or it can be one, it can be both and it can be either one. Like you can have a Jew who is ethnically Jewish if you did the DNA test, but as a Christian in day to day life and in their beliefs. So are they Jewish or are they Christian? Or are they both? Or you can have somebody who married a Jew and converted to Judaism and has no genetic DNA that is the same as most Jewish people. So is that person a Jew? Well, yes. So it, it's confusing because it's a term that refers both to a religion and an ethnicity. And it's always been confusing because of that. Yeah, I think there's a lot of things there, but go ahead. Well, I think that's part of the problem is because... You know, when, when people exhibit anti Jewish sentiment, which happens increasing. So, these days it's, it's sort of like, well, what, what does the person with ethnic Jewish genetics. You know, genetic DNA who lives in a country outside of Israel has never been to Israel. What the hell do they have to do with somebody getting pissed off about Israeli political actions? They're definitely getting you know, they're, they're being pulled into it as somebody who doesn't live in Israel, whether they want to or not, because they're ethnically Jewish. So I, I think that's, it's kind of like, I guess some people conflate Arab and Muslim. Even though they have two separate words that mean different things, but it's similar to that. Imagine if Muslim and Arab were the same word that would be, that would, that would create the same types of problems, I think, as the word Jewish has, because you can obviously have Muslims who are not Arabs. You can have Arabs who are not Muslims, but you know, we try and make a distinction here. But with Jewish, it's, it's, it's all clumped into one basket. Well, it's also

Ben: 1:10:53

partly because it's the religion that codified the Mama's baby daddy's maybe mentality, you know, so so let me ask you this I know you sent me a clip and I kind of know but I want to bring it up on the show What what do you think of the federal government? Using heavy machinery to remove some of the barricades that Texas had put in place Allowing yeah immigrants to just flow in

Gene: 1:11:24

Yeah, the federal government interfering with Texas's internal, uh, measures of controlling their state border. Yeah, I think it's, it's absolutely an act of war.

Ben: 1:11:38

But what policy, what rationale, what reason could you possibly have for justifying that?

Gene: 1:11:45

There is no reason, and in courts they've effectively been told as much that you have no right to do this. This is, this is not Texas doing something to the U. S. border. This is literally Texas doing something to Texas territory. And then the federal government's coming in and breaking Texas's efforts apart and allowing people to circumvent the U. S. legal process.

Ben: 1:12:14

And for those who haven't seen it, literally, it's a forklift going in, lifting up the razor wire, while hundreds of people stream in under it. Like, the, eh, well, the

Gene: 1:12:25

video is all it's hundreds. Millions of people, 23 million right now. But the point

Ben: 1:12:28

is, they're not going to a port of entry. They are not going through any entry mechanism at all. Yep. Literally, this is taking down a barrier out in the middle of fucking nowhere. For no reason,

Gene: 1:12:40

yeah, it's a fuck you. They don't care. They just don't care. I, I really do hope this will bite them in the ass, but I'm not 100 percent confident that will, um, the bunning him in the ass part. I'm all for Texas. Yeah, I'm definitely all for Texas. But I, I think that, um, One of the things that probably will happen before Texas fully happens is we'll have some scuffles between the, the Texas, I don't, I mean, it wouldn't be between the Texas National Guard to be between some Texas administrative groups and the U. S. federal government. So. Let's say that it wasn't just razor wire, but there was actually people stationed there, like from the, the Texas Rangers, for example, and then the US government did the exact same thing and then came along and use the heavy machinery. To break through, but the Texas National Guard tried to hold people back and inevitably somebody shoot somebody. So would that then be a declaration of war by Texas against the U S government? That's probably the way they would look at it.

Ben: 1:14:00

No, but they would certainly throw the book at the. Person who shot

Gene: 1:14:05

only if they can get them a employee. And that's the thing is, if it's a, if it's a state employee, I think we'll get to a point where the state's going to refuse to provide jurisdiction to the federal government for these things because otherwise the federal government is just going to rape effectively what they're doing is they're just saying we could do anything we want to you and you have to put up with it. And I think that was never the intention of the Founding Fathers. No, not at all. I

Ben: 1:14:34

mean, the, the Supremacy Clause, and what people point to all the time, is, is... You know, a federal law and the constitution should be the supreme law of the land. Yeah, well, the constitution inherently limits and says, if it's not listed here, it's reserved to the people and the states. Well, and

Gene: 1:14:54

that's the distinction Very, very clear. I think that's the distinction that I draw, which I think you're even a little more so than me, but for me I do think that the Constitution does have a a superior standing above state laws. Where it has jurisdiction. But, yes, but the Constitution alone, not U. S. Code. U. S. Code doesn't get to ride on the Constitution's coattails. And say that any old law passed by the U. S. government, or even worse, any old legislative, or not, any old executive action gets to ride the coattails of the Constitution and override state law.

Ben: 1:15:36

Well, and someone please find federal policing authority in the Constitution for me.

Gene: 1:15:41

Well, good luck on that one. It's never existed. So... You know, yeah, I don't, I don't know any way that you can suss that out. I guess that their, their argument would be that every federal police agency is just an extension of tax collectors, but it's, it is definitely limited to constitution itself and of the areas where. It specifically is mentioned. So, it, I, I think that's probably going to be how the embers get ignited. It's not just going to be like, okay, well, majority of Texans voted for Texas. So I guess we'll see you guys. Bye. I don't think it's going to be peaceful like that. I think it will come down to the federal government just fucking with Texas enough that Texas eventually just says no. And then, you know, you, you think that there's. A sedition going on on January 6th. Well, I know you don't, but you know, the federal government would argue that. Yeah. Just wait till that happens with the biggest state in the union. Well, sorry. Second biggest. I keep neglecting Alaska.

Ben: 1:17:03

Well, I mean, it depends on how you

Gene: 1:17:05

measure it, but yeah, I think Alaska would happily join Texas though. Maybe they've got oil and they got a lot of guns.

Ben: 1:17:14

Yeah, well, the the only problem is they're geographically separated off. So, mm hmm, you know, but you know We could take parts of Western

Gene: 1:17:23

Canada. They're geographically separated off from the rest of the United States Anyway, well,

Ben: 1:17:28

you know unless we take parts of Canada,

Gene: 1:17:30

too So you're going back to the old the old border of Texas and then north from there And adding to

Ben: 1:17:39

it, the, the problem is that would encompass some parts of Colorado. I don't think we want, so

Gene: 1:17:46

that's true. Well, you know, we could just take over that part and just build a fence.

Ben: 1:17:53

Yeah, but we already got to build a fence around three cities as is.

Gene: 1:17:58

That's true. That's true. Yeah. Well, then again, you can, you know, I can, I can hear what you're thinking. You clearly want to turn my beloved Austin into. A open air prison.

Ben: 1:18:11

No, no, no open air. Cause that's what I'm hearing. I want to put a fence around it and turn it into a full on penal colony. Like close every Texas state prison that we have and just go full escape from New York and Austin.

Gene: 1:18:25

I see. So Austin becomes Australia. Or

Ben: 1:18:30

New York and escape from New York, I think,

Gene: 1:18:32

well, yeah, that's the movie, but I'm thinking historical context. Yeah. Yeah, it's I don't know, man, I, I'd like to see that Texas continue on with its journey towards independence, but. The importation of the Californians worries me a lot more than the, the immigrants crossing over the border in the South. Yeah, me too. If you put it down to it and, and those guys, which I don't know how often you watch the border crossing cams that are popping up. Now there's multiple ones out there. You can just watch live to watch the streams of people crossing over.

Ben: 1:19:07

I watch them when you send them to me.

Gene: 1:19:10

Oh, okay. Okay. Well, I watch them now and then, but the last batch I watched the vast majority of the demographics of people crossing over were not Central American or Latin American. They might've been, yeah, they, they, they may have been all coming from like, what the hell is that country? Jamaica, but more likely they were coming from Brazil. yEah. Parts of, yeah, yeah. But more likely they were coming from, from Africa. These are some dark skin, Nairobi and types. It was definitely not what the sort of stereotypical screenshot that you would imagine of. Mexicans streaming into San Diego kind of traffic. This was definitely people that had purchased a ticket, uh, with whatever money they did have, or could put together to bring them into the United States. This is, this is an operation. This is not a. Random people deciding to walk for a thousand miles and cross a border at midnight by swimming across the river.

Ben: 1:20:25

Well, and I'm sure there's still some of that mixed in, but yeah, I agree with you. And I think if you take into account what happened at the, uh, at the razor wire, the way that was done. The only thing I can think of is hey, we don't want you to go through port There's a group that we don't want to go through port of entry We want you to come in through this way for a specific reason and then you had ray christopher ray testifying earlier in the week about hamas hit squads in the u. s. Trying to go through and attempt assassinations, which I I don't know if I believe or not, but if he's putting that out there, it's certainly something that

Gene: 1:21:11

They wouldn't be called Hamas. I mean, at least not initially, because that would be bad.

Ben: 1:21:15

Well, but that's what he was saying to Congress.

Gene: 1:21:18

Right, right, right. But I think that, like, when they actually do have... Some of that happening, like actual Hamas style, let's just say terrorist actions in the United States, which I think is about 95 percent chance that it's going to happen. thEy're never, they're not going to be referred to as Hamas. They'll be a right wing, crazy people. And then once they're actually shot, then, and then we start getting some of the backstories and images. all of a sudden we'll start realizing, Hey, wait a minute, these guys all look like the you know, the, our, our buddies up in the Middle East. Yeah, we'll see. This, this is the problem with working with groups that are fighting somebody else, whether it's Hamas, whether it's ISIS, whether it's Taliban, is that you're doing it under the guise of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. But what you don't understand is that the thing that makes the, their current enemy their enemy, you also have, so it's not a huge shift for them to switch. On who their enemy is, which is exactly what ended up happening in Afghanistan. And you can, you can read about it in, in the book Charlie Wilson's War, which is a great book. Or watch the movie, but yeah. Oh, the book's way better than the movie. That movie I don't think really, there's too much time that passes in the book for a two hour movie to do it justice. Yeah,

Ben: 1:22:58

well, I, I, I have not read that book, but speaking of books, Gene. Mm hmm. Have you been keeping up with the series?

Gene: 1:23:07

I am. Let me see where I'm at. I'm gonna open up my Audible and check. I am on chapter six of which book? I don't even know what number book this is. I think book seven? All right, cool. So I'm, I'm moving along. You know, not, not, not doing a book every two days like it was for a while there, but still moving through it. Yeah. I'm my, my other buddy that I got to start reading it, he's on book two now. It's addicting. It's addicting. Huh. Yeah. Well, okay. It's actually worse than that because not only is he in book two, but He was asking me, Hey, so did you figure out which water filtration system the guy was talking about? Like, Oh, here we go. This whole book is basically a way to get Amazon to have you part with your money.

Ben: 1:23:53

Oh, man. Well, I'll tell you what, I'm on a book two or book, book two or book three of the side series. Yeah. And, uh, I am very, I don't want to give away spoilers,

Gene: 1:24:07

but yeah, please don't. Cause I'll get that.

Ben: 1:24:10

There is, I can't wait to hear your take on, on certain items going on, but He, this guy who's writing this, A American, has just gotten better and better and better. And, you know, it may be the guy who's also writing with him, helping out quite a bit, who knows. But regardless, the series just keeps...

Gene: 1:24:36

You're going to have serious withdrawals when you get to the last one, because you've been

Ben: 1:24:41

doing this for a long time. I, I, well, I mean, I've gone through them pretty quickly. Yeah.

Gene: 1:24:46

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, you're definitely going to feel it. And yeah, I've certainly, I will confess that I've probably started spending. More money than I necessarily should be on once again, buying prepper type things after reading this book.

Ben: 1:25:07

Yeah. It, it definitely gets you thinking on a few things and Yeah. Makes you consider your kit and what you're gonna do, reevaluating

Gene: 1:25:14

a whole bunch of stuff and, uh, getting Yeah, exactly. So it, it's realistically too, I think it, it makes you think about like. Because most people that are kind of, you know, kind of into prepping, but not like hardcore, which is where I would have put myself generally, like I'm, I've got more stuff and I'm, I've certainly have more food and even the water at home than most people. But I also don't have like a an underground bunker. That's buried underneath my house either that, you know, so consequently, I'm, I'm like a lightweight in this regard.

Ben: 1:25:55

Yeah, I don't think a bunker is a great idea to be

Gene: 1:25:59

honest with you. Yeah, and that's one of the things I think the book points out too, is that if you don't have the ability to be mobile, then it's going to become a lot harder for you. Because things, things will force your hand to where your house may no longer be the ideal place for you to be. Yeah,

Ben: 1:26:27

your house your community you may have to bug out for a while and hope you can take it back Yeah, so I just love that the DHS is the bad guys

Gene: 1:26:40

I I do but I also kind of feel like I think it's the whole government I there's no way in hell that the entirety of the US military Would be on the side of the guys opposing DHS. Just

Ben: 1:26:58

wait till you... I'm

Gene: 1:27:00

not going to spoil it for you. Don't tell me, but at least as far as I've got, it's basically the DHS are the bad guys. The US military are kind of like the quasi good guys because once they figure out what DHS is doing they kind of start to join with the... The, the regular folks on there, the citizens in trying to restore order, but without violence and without, and, and really trying to go after DHS, who's been like illegally operating as far as they're concerned. So again, I'm not finished with the series. There might be other things that will come up the way you're saying it sounds like there definitely are, but. I think that everybody that's wearing a uniform will be asking themselves a question every morning. Do I want to keep getting paid and getting food and providing for my family and being excluded from the bullshit that's happening around me? Or do I want to deal with all the bullshit? And risk losing everything that I own. And I think the answer is going to be the same. There always is, which is, I'm just going to do what I'm told. I think you

Ben: 1:28:17

will like the second series more than you like the first

Gene: 1:28:21

series. Okay. Well, cool. Well, looking forward to it. And just people that haven't been following this whole series as we've been talking about it, when you started reading it and then I guess started reading it. Tell people what to look for.

Ben: 1:28:38

iT's the Going Home series of books by A. American. And the secondary series that I'm on to now because he's, he is supposed to be releasing another book in the main series this, this month. But the Charlie Charlie's Requiem is the secondary series and it, it basically covers a EMP event in the U. S. and the first group that we follow is kind of out in the country making their own way. And then the, the secondary series is following the. Poor bastards in the city

Gene: 1:29:16

and it's it could become very much a reality because we are according to more scientists on the brink of. Saul, our son here, um, flipping its polarity

Ben: 1:29:33

and Yeah, but em, you know, mps we know how to ground things and we, we do protect against a lot. So I think

Gene: 1:29:39

there's a lot. That's we, we do. And if you go to mp shield.com right now, you can find out how to protect yourself. You can use the discount code, SIRGENE to get 10 percent off your purchase on that site. so I'm glad you brought it up, Ben, because it's important for people to be able to protect themselves.

Ben: 1:29:59

Hey, do not associate me with your shilling here.

Gene: 1:30:03

It, this is, this is the only EMP shield product that has been tested by and approved by the U S government. And it's, in fact, it's something that the U S government has purchased themselves. For DHS, in fact, they've got the contract information. So you don't want to be left out in the dust when all the cars stop working, all the computers don't turn on, all the cell phones can't get a signal. Do yourself a favor and get EMPShield. com. All right. So moving on, not an ad. That was just a random little factoid that popped into my head. But I think that the sun flipping its polarity will have. A once in a lifetime changing event for humanity. Like we've never gone through this before. Yeah, the earth has we haven't and the potential very much is that we're going to start seeing Solar flare events that we've just literally never seen or even imagined So will that have adverse effects on the earth? I think it's almost guaranteed to have adverse effects and it may be in a situation where we're basically On the earth as the earth spins like a roulette to see which face of the earth ends up getting the brunt of it. And short of changing the speed of the revolution of the planet, there's not anything can be done about it. Maybe. Well, yeah, maybe because we haven't had it happen yet, but there seemed to be more consensus among scientists, at least the YouTube scientists that I watch, more of them are talking about the imminent flip flop of the polarity of the sun. It's gotta be a fascinating thing if that's what you've been studying, like that's what you did your PhD on. And now you find out it may happen during your lifetime. How awesome would that be? Terrifying and... Yes, but terrifying but also awesome. No. Is that... No. Well, I mean, it's kind of like you've been, you did your dissertation on black holes. And all of a sudden, you find out that there's a black hole on the collision course with the Earth. Like, it gives you a chance to actually data. No it doesn't. It

Ben: 1:32:33

gives you a chance to die

Gene: 1:32:34

horrifically. That's just incidental. The death is incidental to science. Science is more important than death.

Ben: 1:32:43

I do not agree with that statement

Gene: 1:32:45

or sentiment. Fauci is science. So, gotta go with him on that one.

Ben: 1:32:50

I am the science. He is the son. What do you think? Is he gonna get Nothing. No? He and

Gene: 1:32:59

Zelensky are gonna be hanging out drinking margaritas in Florida. Oh no,

Ben: 1:33:03

Zelensky's dead. Zelensky's not getting out of this alive. There's

Gene: 1:33:07

no way. I

Ben: 1:33:08

think he will. No. He'll have a heart attack. Something will

Gene: 1:33:12

happen. I think he'll be in the U. S. I think that the only way Zelensky has a heart attack If he manages to first kill his internal competition in Ukraine, I think that if he can't do that or won't do that, then I think absolutely he's going to leave the country and retire in the US and Florida. And he's got, he's got I think more than one house in Florida already. He's got at least one there that people have sent photos of.

Ben: 1:33:42

Yeah, no clue, but I just don't see that happening. I see him dying of a heart attack for no other reason than cocaine

Gene: 1:33:49

abuse. But there's, there's no benefit to anybody of him dying. Not yet anyway. Okay. I mean, think about it. Like, Russia doesn't want him dead.

Ben: 1:34:01

I Think it's a way for us to say, give an excuse as to why they, Ukraine lost. I think it saves face saying, Oh, without their fearless leader, they just couldn't resist anymore.

Gene: 1:34:17

Okay. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. But Russia, their ideal scenario is that after surrender, then he becomes essentially a prisoner. Like he, he will get a sentence to life in prison. He won't be killed. He's much more valuable alive as a reminder of what happens when you fuck with Russia. Yeah, but that's not gonna happen. Probably not. I think he'll be in Florida. Okay. Yeah, maybe maybe he'll be dead. The thing is if he's afraid that he's gonna get taken out by the West That's when he becomes really dangerous because all of a sudden then he'll start doing shit to damage the West because so far He's kept his mouth shut. The reason he's keeping his mouth shut is because the the threat of him getting killed Is small enough that it makes more sense for him to play along as soon as he thinks that the West is literally going to kill him next month, all bets are off. He's going to stop being the the actor that he's been.

Ben: 1:35:29

Well, I don't know, man. I think he's out. I think he's on the outs. I think all the signals point to, you know, Ukraine is winding down, we are moving on, we, Zelensky, I think Zelensky is potentially in jeopardy, and, you know, we'll see.

Gene: 1:35:50

Yeah, I think he is definitely going to be out, I just don't think he's going to be dead. But we shall see, we'll see what happens you know, the funny thing is, uh, this is going to be, once, it looks like Ukraine is truly winding down, like, once there's talks for their surrender. And incidentally, it's, it's a surrender. It's not a ceasefire. It's definitely going to be a surrender. Once that's happening, everybody's going to try and scramble to get in there and make sure they get their piece of it as part of the surrender deal. So, you know, all those contracts that Ukraine has with BlackRock and all these other companies. They're going to want to make sure those are all going to stay. And and so we're going to have, I think kind of a rally for who's going to get to be the boots on the ground to be peacekeepers in Ukraine. And here's my wild prediction on that is that given the fact that Europe and the U S supplied weapons to Ukraine. There's no way in hell they're going to get to be in there. Russia is not going to get to be on the non Russian side of it because, well, that's part of the surrender deal is that there's still an independent Ukraine. Here's what I'm going to predict. I think China's going to go in there. I think China will have their peacekeepers in Ukraine because there have been impartial this entire time or as impartial as China could be. And they're the only ones that can come across as having relationships, trade relationships, because they are the trade federation after all, uh, that they will be the ones that have a unique, a unique place to be the independent peacekeepers in Ukraine. And of course it's great for them because it finishes the Belton road.

Ben: 1:37:55

Yeah, I don't think China is going to get ascendancy out of this, but okay.

Gene: 1:38:02

You watch. All Americans keep underestimating China. China's not an asshole. I'm just watching my social credit score going up. This is great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ben: 1:38:17

Mine's plummeting. Yeah.

Gene: 1:38:20

Which ones, which one of us gets to stay a prolonged visit in China?

Ben: 1:38:25

I, I just won't go. All right, man. Well, I just, I don't think China's going to make it. I think this is why I said this is my demographic collapse and I'm so as the U S potentially, but we're at least bringing

Gene: 1:38:39

in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Not just

Ben: 1:38:43

Zehan, and I disagree with a lot of what he has to say, but he did talk about something interesting that I hadn't seen anywhere else about Argentina looking at going to

Gene: 1:38:53

the dollar. I haven't seen that. Well, clearly you watch him a lot more than I do.

Ben: 1:38:58

His stuff pops up every now and then, but yeah, he's your boy. Okay. You're my handler. You're the one who pointed him out to me.

Gene: 1:39:08

I pointed him out by saying, here, check out this guy. What a show for the, for the US government. You were like, read

Ben: 1:39:15

this book. It seems kind of interesting.

Gene: 1:39:19

I did not say read this book. No, no, no. I sent you videos. But, and, and, and look, I would totally have lunch with the guy. He's an interesting character. He's, he's definitely got like, he's made a living doing this stuff, international politics. Been working for the CIA since he was in college, but you know, being interesting and presenting actual true information are two different things. He is presenting what the official us government position is without saying that he is presenting the official us government position. Yeah,

Ben: 1:40:03

well, I, I don't know that he has the official government position, but I think he is definitely read in to a large degree. Hmm.

Gene: 1:40:14

Yeah, well, we'll see. We'll see what happens. But if, if China ends up going into Ukraine as peacekeepers, y'all do have to make a donation to me because that, that will be a hell of a call ahead of time if it happens. Yeah,

Ben: 1:40:32

no, I don't think you can buy me. Why would Russia accept China on that border?

Gene: 1:40:40

Russia has been doing a lot of dealing with China that in the best of times they wouldn't bother doing I think Russia is they have to Get a lot closer to China to keep Russian stability, which you know amazingly during not just 18 months of conflict but all the sanction bullshit And the exclusion from the civilized world, um, not only is the ruble strong and the, in fact, it's too strong there, they're having to raise interest rates. To get more competitive internationally, their GDP went up. And the last stat that I saw was that the non governmental portion of Russian, uh, productivity, essentially factory output was up 7 percent compared to last year. So like the non military non government. Industrial engine is actually up, which is not something I would have predicted, honestly.

Ben: 1:41:49

Okay. You don't, I still don't see how China helps with that

Gene: 1:41:55

though. We'll see. We'll see what happens. I think it's the right play for China. Just like getting, getting Israel into this mess that that's definitely a China play. I think China's doing exactly what's good for China and managing to keep their name out of it in a lot of ways they're acting kind of like the the the North Korean dictator in the movie, uh, team America, like, like they're, they're what us? No, that wasn't, that was just random. That's not us. You know, that kind of attitude. No, why would

Ben: 1:42:33

we do that?

Gene: 1:42:35

Exactly. So I, either I'm giving China way too much credit, which is certainly a possibility, or I'm not falling into the typical Western and very much American trap of like, Chinese are idiots. All they do is copy our products. Eh, they've been around longer than any other culture that's currently on the planet. Well, but

Ben: 1:42:59

they're not one culture and you have to remember that.

Gene: 1:43:02

That, that's a distinction without merit. They've been multiple cultures that are against. Others together, if you look at the dynasties in China, they're, they're clearly still all against the invaders from the outside, the barbarians. So I, I give China credit and maybe it's too much credit, but in this case, we'll see if I'm right, probably in a year down the road, but we'll also see, because I'm still saying that Trump is going to end up losing the election to, so see if I'm right on that one.

Ben: 1:43:42

I don't think you will be, but that's okay. I think it's a great place to stop because we can just leave it on

Gene: 1:43:50

that. And it's been exactly two hours. So of course it's a great clip. All right. Sounds good. Send a, well, enjoy your trip home when you finally get there.