062 Just Two Good Old Boys

Gene: 0:22

Hey, Ben, how are you doing today?

Ben: 0:25

Oh, man, it was a busy weekend. You, you showed up late as usual, but that's okay.

Gene: 0:30

I did not show up late as usual. I said I would be late.

Ben: 0:34

You showed up two hours later than the late time you said you were going to be there.

Gene: 0:38

Oh, details, details. Now I'll tell you.

Ben: 0:44

man, it just started pouring here. And I don't have the noise gates because I'm on the Yeti again.

Gene: 0:49

We'll see.

Ben: 0:50

noise, I apologize.

Gene: 0:52

Yeah. Yeah. Everyone can keep complaining about Ben's audio.

Ben: 0:56

All right. Hey, someone volunteered to help me fix the Motu and I'll be happy to.

Gene: 1:01

Yeah, so I drove out to Houston to meet up with Ben at a gun show over the weekend and it was good to see you. It was you know, we haven't seen each other in person for a while, so that was fun. The gun show wasn't too bad either. It was a. I would definitely say on the larger size, as far as small gun shows go.

Ben: 1:22

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't like a shot show or anything like that by any stretch, but it was a good size local gun show. Yeah,

Gene: 1:30

Yeah. And it was, I mean, it's, I say Houston, but it was really a little city on the outskirts of Houston. Which

Ben: 1:37

still Harris County though.

Gene: 1:38

Okay. Yeah. So also means that the drive there sucked for me, because if I go to Katie, which is on the West side of Houston, It's a little over two hours which is not bad. There's usually not a whole lot of traffic. Once you get further in past Katie towards Houston then the traffic starts becoming an issue. And that's kind of what happened this time around is that I made good time up until the ring and then traffic was moving at, this is like middle of the day. On Saturday,

Ben: 2:12

Yeah,

Gene: 2:13

probably like 3 p. m., and traffic was going at 40, 45 miles an hour on the highway.

Ben: 2:18

and that's kind of 1 of the things that people have to realize about Houston is when you say, oh, I'm in Houston. Okay, where this is a geographically huge footprint city and that's what a lot of people don't understand is how big Houston is by area. I think

Gene: 2:34

I think Houston's the size of Rhode Island.

Ben: 2:37

Not quite, but yeah.

Gene: 2:38

It's pretty close

Ben: 2:39

the, the point is that Houston is geographically, I think only LA and a couple others are more sprawl oriented. And the Houston metro area, you know, is just huge.

Gene: 2:55

Yeah, it's, it is big, and I think even the guys that do the So after the gun show, we went to the No Jen The Meetup.

Ben: 3:04

Mm-Hmm.

Gene: 3:04

In Houston, which I guess is the Northwest meetup for Houston.

Ben: 3:09

which is on, we were on the northeast side, so

Gene: 3:12

Huh. Yeah. Yeah. As usual, you were wrong. Houston is actually larger than Rhode Island. I just looked it up. Huh.

Ben: 3:20

I, I, okay. I overestimated Rhode Island. I'm sorry. Jesus

Gene: 3:25

It, you, you did. So Rhode Island is 669 square miles. Houston is 1, 034 square miles.

Ben: 3:32

Yeah.

Gene: 3:33

Think about that. 1, 034 square miles

Ben: 3:36

Or a city.

Gene: 3:38

That's, that's

Ben: 3:39

And that's gotta be the Houston Metro, not Houston Proper, by the way. Yeah,

Gene: 3:43

yeah, yeah, metro area. But, oh, that's the metro area is where, where the, you know, everybody

Ben: 3:50

I gotcha, I gotcha, I gotcha. We're, we're ant fucking, as Adam would

Gene: 3:53

I know, I know, that's a good point. We went to the meetup. Not a whole lot of people there, but still fun to meet a few folks. I got recognized by two people I've never met before. That was interesting. I'm gonna guess it was either the tracksuit or the beard. I don't know.

Ben: 4:09

Yeah, or the combination thereof. And I'm sorry I didn't stay longer. I should have, but I was, I hadn't slept much the night before, so I was dog tired

Gene: 4:18

I, I was

Ben: 4:20

I went and crashed out. Yeah, so

Gene: 4:22

to leave, not much after you, but ended up the, the older dude that was there is a geneticist. Of course I got into a conversation about genetics pretty quickly,

Ben: 4:35

nature kicked in and you're like, I

Gene: 4:36

and I, I absolutely, and I, in fact, I brought up that, unlike Adam, I'm actually a geneticist, so I, I think that it's gotten a bad rap, and talked a lot about COVID, and the, the, I, the way that these RNA protein synthesis vaccines. If you want to put the vaccines in quotes worked. So it was pretty interesting conversation, honestly. Because rarely, rarely do I run into somebody that's got a PhD in that stuff. And he's actually a professor of genetic, I was going to say of eugenics, but he probably wouldn't appreciate me saying that.

Ben: 5:12

Probably not. Probably not.

Gene: 5:14

yeah. Of genetics. And and so it was, it was a fun conversation. I asked him to listen to the last episode of Unrelenting, and then send me back an email correcting anything that I said that was complete and utter bullshit, because on that

Ben: 5:30

where

Gene: 5:30

I talked a little bit about it. I think that would be hilarious. I'd love to do that. But no, I think, I think

Ben: 5:36

you're an idiot.

Gene: 5:38

yeah, yeah. It just, that just never happens. I, I don't think that's a particularly highlight. Nonetheless and in fact we, you know, we talked about science in general and the the need for people that don't have religion to create their religion out of other things. And that's why we have the, uh, the whole you know, global warming religion out there. And anybody like, you know, that they're treating science like it's a religion when they see things like the sciences and no, the science is a process. The process cannot be in

Ben: 6:12

Yeah, I mean, details, details, details. You know,

Gene: 6:19

Anyway, it was,

Ben: 6:19

it's only in until their favorite person changes the narrative and then it has to change as well.

Gene: 6:26

yeah, yeah. But yeah, it was, it was pretty good hanging out. I never did end up ordering food because I, I guess I found out too late that you actually had to go up to the counter to get food instead of having some waiter stop by

Ben: 6:41

Yeah, it wasn't

Gene: 6:43

in conversation.

Ben: 6:44

Yeah, it wasn't all that great, but I, I got some food in and I got to eat. So that was at least something.

Gene: 6:51

Yeah. And I will say that the place that the Austin meetups are held looks almost exactly like this place. And I don't understand why people pick these restaurants.

Ben: 7:01

um,

Gene: 7:02

Spooks picks the restaurants?

Ben: 7:04

spooks. Yeah, the guy organizing it's got to be a spook or something, you know, sir. Economic hit man there. I mean. I agree with you that the Austin meetup are very eerily similar as

Gene: 7:14

They're super

Ben: 7:15

location. You know, maybe, maybe there's something going on there. Who knows? No, I'm just joking around. The guys there were pretty nice and friendly, so I can't, can't complain too much. Yeah, and met another dude named Ben. You know, he was doing forensic videography, if I remember correctly, or something like that. Or doing depositions or whatever. Yeah,

Gene: 7:38

Something like that.

Ben: 7:40

nice to meet everybody.

Gene: 7:41

Yeah.

Ben: 7:41

I met a guy who was in doing flood control for the county and lots of interesting things. Yeah, some people we need to stay in touch with probably go, we need to go back to the Houston meetup to go to the Austin meetup to, you

Gene: 7:54

that I, I hate these things because of the heat. And right now, while it's still not hot, I'm more inclined to go, but once the temps hit over a hundred degrees, I'm not going to any outdoor events. It's like, you guys can have a meetup indoors. And if you choose a restaurant that's outdoors, fuck you. That's, that's the take.

Ben: 8:14

know, we could always do our own meetup in cause station, which is kind of in between.

Gene: 8:18

the two of us can sit there and talk to each other, that, that'd be fun.

Ben: 8:22

Oh, my buddy Josh had come to the very

Gene: 8:25

would, Josh would come unless he's working.

Ben: 8:27

Yeah, so anyway, the the gun show was interesting. You went with me

Gene: 8:34

Yeah, yeah, it was it was fun. You actually were selling, not just looking around and buying.

Ben: 8:39

Rid of so we were and you know Some other people as well and you brought some stuff to get rid of although you were asking you you You didn't get there early enough Saturday and I held on to your gun Sunday And you didn't respond to me quick enough on a couple of the offers you had so Yeah.

Gene: 8:58

all right. I mean,

Ben: 8:59

your, your gun's sitting in my safe right now. Mm-Hmm.

Gene: 9:02

I, you could be sitting in your trunk for all I care. It's a yeah, I, I like, I probably have other guns that I could get rid of, but this was an obvious one, which is a folding Caltech in 40 Cal. The good thing about it is it's 40 Cal, which is less popular and a little harder to get these days. But

Ben: 9:22

and I will tell you, if had, if it had been in nine mil, it would've sold 20 times over. There were a lot of people picking it up and looking at it,

Gene: 9:29

That's insane dude, that is

Ben: 9:31

I, I, okay if my ARS would've been in 5, 5, 6, they would've sold a lot quicker and for more money.

Gene: 9:38

that's crazy, that's insane. Yeah, it's like, people are idiots. Okay, the

Ben: 9:45

no, they just, they, they want their, they want their standard cheap cartridge. And, you know, the military and law enforcement and everybody has gone to 9 mil and 506. So it's a, it's the most plentiful, cheapest cartridge out there and they will pay. You know, it's,

Gene: 10:03

yeah,

Ben: 10:04

I'm a cartridge and caliber guy. So I, you know, I like my 6. 8 or 308 or 300 rum or Weatherby or any of those. And I have picked, you know, cartridges that have become less popular over time and I get to pay for it. Or 10

Gene: 10:22

ballistics tests, and decide that that 9mm was a shit cartridge. So people were either sticking to 45, which a lot of them moved off of, or they were going to 40 caliber and,

Ben: 10:38

millimeter, but you know, the, the.

Gene: 10:41

millimeter. But honestly, nobody really went to 10 millimeter.

Ben: 10:44

I blame the FBI for 10 millimeter and 40 cal not kick being coming the cartridge. Quite frankly, had the FBI never selected 10 mil or, and then changed it to 40, came up with a 40 caliber as a shortened neutered 10 millimeter to do their qualifications with. And then the, quite frankly, the pussies at the FBI still not being able to qualify with

Gene: 11:09

Mm. Of

Ben: 11:09

40 Cal you know, that, that's what killed the 40 Cal because law enforcement one of my cousins is a cop right now. He, he still prefers 40 Cal over 9 mil, but the department's made him switch to 9 mil.

Gene: 11:25

that's stupid.

Ben: 11:28

I mean, it all comes down.

Gene: 11:30

He's willing to pay for the ammo. They ought to just let him shoot whatever he wants.

Ben: 11:34

Yeah. Anyway,

Gene: 11:36

That is just stupid. Okay. Especially considering how few bullets cops actually use per

Ben: 11:41

Oh my God. If you ever want to get a good deal on a gun, get a law enforcement trade in you, you will have more wear on the slide than down the barrel.

Gene: 11:49

Yeah, you're exactly. That's absolutely right. And I've gotten many glocks that way over the years, you get a, in fact, I had a guy at a local gun shop back when I slid in the soda that he'd send me an email as soon as they get some traded ends. And he's like, Oh, I got one. Looks like it's never been shot. This is great.

Ben: 12:07

Yeah.

Gene: 12:08

So they've generally been shot, but man, not very much.

Ben: 12:14

Speaking while we're, where we're on the gun show stuff, I know you talked about it on unrelenting with Darren, but we, we probably need to talk about the Arkansas shooting. Yeah, especially given you

Gene: 12:25

Oh yeah.

Ben: 12:26

we may be targets next considering what we were doing at the gun

Gene: 12:28

I never sold any guns. I don't know what you're talking about.

Ben: 12:31

I mean, technically I haven't yet either, you

Gene: 12:34

Well, there you go.

Ben: 12:34

some other people at the table, but the table was in my name, so I'm the one they're going to come after.

Gene: 12:40

So there was a what appears to be, I'm going to use my careful language here, because we're not, you know, giving legal advice or anything, but what appears to be a targeted hit by the ATF is And the, the question for me is, was this purely just an ATF hit or is this a Clinton hit?

Ben: 13:01

I mean, let's just stick with the for now, because what I would say is even as I've read through the, I've read through the warrant application in fact, I put a post on name, Ben dot com with the link to the warrant application and the statement by the family and some brief comments there, the warrant application to me, gives. Absolutely. If I were a judge, and that came to me, I would say, why the fuck do you need a no knock warrant here? But, you know, judges being rubber stamps, look at that. They said, okay, he's done 150 FFL transfers in the last year, and we know he's been to several gun shows and sold guns, and we have evidence that three guns that We're transferred to him at some point in time ended up being used in a crime. This is a guy that buys sells and has a large gun collection

Gene: 14:00

Mm hmm.

Ben: 14:00

and they have no evidence that he sold directly to a criminal or a prohibited person. And even if he did. They have no evidence that he did so knowingly. One of the CIs in the warrant that's quoted said, you know, he was overheard at a gun show saying, yeah, I'm a private seller, so no paperwork is needed, which is true and not evidence of a crime unless he had, unless he had knowledge that the person he is selling to is a prohibited person. He didn't do anything illegal. The only thing they can maybe. Even try to say and get him on is, Oh you were selling too much. This was a business for you. You need to be an FFL. So that point it's a tax violation. And this is the rationale they use to get a no knock warrant, break down a man's door. And when he fired at them. And then retreated, turned, ran the other way, they shoot him in the back of the head. I, I,

Gene: 15:01

pretty much the impression that I got from you know, looking at the data like you have as well. And it, it's the idea that they had a search warrant, this was not an arrest warrant. It, it makes sense in some cases to do a no knock arrest warrant because you know, if it's somebody for a violent crime arrest, you, you want to surprise them and grab them. You don't want to give them an opportunity to grab his guns and then start shooting at you or take hostages or something. But this was not an arrest warrant. This was a search warrant, which means they didn't know what he had and they wanted to take a look. And, and some genius decided to get a no lock warrant for a search for a person with no criminal history

Ben: 15:52

well, and not only that, this, this guy, he was, you know, an executive at an airport, which means he almost certainly has to have a TWIC card, which is a, you know, Department of Homeland Security. TSA regulated thing. So they have his fingerprints on file. They have already done a background check on him. They know who he is. He

Gene: 16:14

They've done

Ben: 16:15

quantity.

Gene: 16:15

ton of background checks because he buys guns.

Ben: 16:18

That's my

Gene: 16:19

So he's not on any lists.

Ben: 16:22

He himself isn't.

Gene: 16:24

yeah, except for the one that I just put him on, which is an obituary list.

Ben: 16:30

And man, I got to tell you, I know it's not going to happen, but here's my opinion on this. An officer involved shooting like this, especially something like this, the person who testified to the warrant and its necessity needs to be brought up on charges. The person who pulled the trigger and shot him need to be brought up on charges. And here's why I'm saying this. If you look at Kyle Rittenhouse, you look at all these cases that were clearly self defense. They went to trial. You know what? All these officers need to start going to trial too. And maybe they'll be acquitted. Make them justify it to a jury.

Gene: 17:10

Mm hmm. Yeah, I, I kinda agree with you less so probably on the guy that I actually shot him, because unlike the snipers, like, up in, um, whatchamacallit, where he used to live Idaho, yeah.

Ben: 17:26

Who are you talking about? Are you talking about Ruby Ridge?

Gene: 17:29

Yeah. Yeah. this is, I think, more of a shooting in response to being shot at after doing something stupid. Breaking down the door of a guy who has guns.

Ben: 17:45

Yeah, but I mean, again, he was retreating. And an ATF agent was injured in this, by the way. He did hit the ATF agent.

Gene: 17:53

Yeah. I

Ben: 17:54

But the guy was turned around, running the other way, retreating. At that point in time, An officer's duty is not to revenge kill the suspect, and I'm tired of whether it's the mass shooters, this guy or anybody. Officers are just, they, they are more worried about their safety than their duty, and that's bullshit. If you don't want to preface civilian lives over your own, don't take the fucking job.

Gene: 18:23

Yeah. Good luck with that. Because the only people that take those jobs we've talked about this before. They have the exact same personality profile as the criminals that they're pursuing. And so in this situation, you actually had people that have the personality profiles of criminals that were going after somebody who didn't have a personality profile of criminal because he wasn't. He was a totally legitimate businessman. And so consequently you know, he was shooting for a break into his house and trying to Prevent any escalation of that break in they were shooting for revenge.

Ben: 19:05

Absolutely. I, I, I don't know how you can see it in any other way, the, the, a cop was hit, he turned around to run, seeing, you know, oh fuck, maybe, maybe he recognized it was the ATF at that point, stopped, and was going to say, hey, don't shoot, I just figured out who you fucking are,

Gene: 19:24

Yeah, yeah,

Ben: 19:25

I don't think he knowingly shot it. I think he heard someone breaking into his house

Gene: 19:30

exactly.

Ben: 19:31

6 a. m., 4 a. m., whatever it was, woke up and said, Oh, Jesus Christ. I'm yeah, home invasion. I'm getting I'm about to my family's about to be taken.

Gene: 19:42

Exactly. And, and I'm going to guess being gun guy, he probably practiced that drill numerous times to make sure that if there ever was such an event, there's such a break in that he would have muscle memory to be able to grab his gun and go in and make sure that somebody actually did break in that they were having second thoughts because they were getting shot at

Ben: 20:05

You know, I mean,

Gene: 20:07

The problem is here with the ATF is that they weren't going to scurry out and leave if they're getting shot. They were going to you know, kill anything in sight. And then I'm, I'm frankly surprised they didn't set the house on fire. Cause

Ben: 20:22

oh, you mean Waco.

Gene: 20:24

I'll let anything. I mean, that's standard MO. If you've been watching videos

Ben: 20:28

Yeah, I mean, they got to get rid of the evidence somehow, man.

Gene: 20:32

There was one recently in, in Pennsylvania that remember there was probably three months ago, we've talked about it where they were coming out with a warrant and then mysteriously the house exploded

Ben: 20:46

There were a couple in D. C. too.

Gene: 20:49

oh, that's right. There was one in DC. I remember that. Yeah, this was, this one was Spencer, but there was one DC that was very similar. So yeah, this is kind of a. Surprising that the house is still there. To me, this really just felt like we're back in the Clinton days. Cause this was, this was the ATF of the Clinton era is they had a, we're above the law kind of mentality that was very much coming from the top down. And

Ben: 21:24

man. Is it just do you think, let me ask you something. Do you think Hillary picked Janet Reno? Hello, lesbian and all,

Gene: 21:32

yeah, I mean, maybe it's hard to say because

Ben: 21:37

Let me ask you this. Do we believe that Janet Reno was a biological woman?

Gene: 21:43

she did look very mannish.

Ben: 21:45

I mean, for those who don't remember, I think it was on Living Color that Jim Carrey played Janet Reno in some of the skits

Gene: 21:51

It looked, just looked so much

Ben: 21:54

scarily like her. It was not, not, not okay.

Gene: 21:58

Wasn't hard to do. No, no, she's absolutely a horrible evil person.

Ben: 22:03

I mean,

Gene: 22:03

yeah, it's that attitude that that's where it starts is having these career. You know, civil servants that are really have the, they divide people into us and them and the them is basically the majority of the population of the country the serfs and they, they apply rules differently. They see people differently and as a result. You know, they,

Ben: 22:35

It's the S versus them enemy mentality. Right.

Gene: 22:39

but, but it's that it's, they lose the humanity of the people that are actually paying their jobs. Like they don't see them. In the same vein as they do their compatriots

Ben: 22:52

Yeah.

Gene: 22:54

and whether it's a policeman or an ATF agent or FBI agent, whoever, there has to be some, something I think in all these departments that has to on a daily basis, remind people who they work for because they think they work for their boss. They don't work for their boss. They don't work for the president. They work for the person on the street. And if. Yeah. And if they don't, they don't need to exist. And this is where I love what Vivek said about what he would have done if he would have been elected is just get rid of these departments immediately.

Ben: 23:33

So there's some interesting ideas. So the supposedly Vivek will not be Trump's VP.

Gene: 23:40

No shit. I said that from day one.

Ben: 23:42

Yeah, you and I, but I, and I've said I would love it if he was, but I agree. But there've been some interesting rumored spots for him. FBI director was one of them. I, I would love to see Vivek go into agency after agency, start him in the FBI let him stay there for a year, then move him to a TF, let him stay there for a year, then move him to CIA

Gene: 24:05

needs to get shut down. Yeah.

Ben: 24:07

and and just that's the point though. Just start gutting these fucking agencies.

Gene: 24:11

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's easier to do that without actually being the head of the agency though,

Ben: 24:17

Not without an act of Congress, though. I think from inside the agency as the head, you can go in and do a lot with that power. I mean, just shutting it down, it's pretty difficult, man. It's a, it's a congressionally mandated thing.

Gene: 24:36

a congressionally paid for thing. I'm not sure it's mandated.

Ben: 24:40

Depends on the agency, so like the FBI actually was created via executive order. So the FBI can be totally dismantled via executive order. Oh yeah, absolutely. The FBI started out in the Treasury. Yeah.

Gene: 24:56

They all kinda start out of treasury because treasury is the legitimizing factor and all of these things

Ben: 25:03

No it's not. There's no federal policing power in the Constitution. The federal policing agencies should

Gene: 25:08

but that's

Ben: 25:08

fucking exist.

Gene: 25:10

Literally what I'm saying, dude, is that it starts off in the treasury because they're not the federal police, they're the treasury enforcement arm.

Ben: 25:21

Which should not exist. Because the federal government has no ability to enforce. To quote Thomas was it Thomas Jefferson? Maybe not. I forget, or it may have been Hamilton, but The Supreme Court has ruled, let them enforce it. Meaning, without the states to enforce it, The Supreme Court had no perceived power to enforce jack shit. Which is why nullification exists, which is why state law should trump federal law. This is, again, the 14th amendment and it's, it's interpretation of incorporation is a problem for us. I

Gene: 25:58

yeah, anything or no, I, I think everything over the 10th amendment should be gotten rid of.

Ben: 26:04

I

Gene: 26:06

my new, that's my new bandwagon.

Ben: 26:08

personally, I, I'm, I, I see the constitution as a treasonous act and we should have never left the articles of confederation and I'm ready to go back to anarchy over what we have today. I think we have too many moves too often by the government that it has just proven that it is destructive to its own end. And, you know, I don't know that we should allow it to continue the way it has.

Gene: 26:34

so you, before I forget here, you were talking about the signing off on the no knock warrant for, for the search. It reminded me, I actually did a role play. That was a, how do I describe it? So I was acting in the capacity of a a lawyer at the FBI. Needing to convince a judge to get a a warrant signed off on that. We needed for a raid that was coming up immediately. And, um, the, the guy that was playing the judge was an actual FBI lawyer. And so it was a he was not making it easy for me. He was like. Walking away. It's like, that's my kid's birthday. I got to take off and, and my job was trying to convince them at the severity and need for this warrant to be issued immediately before you know, before he disappears, because we've got guys that are literally sitting there outside waiting. So as soon as the warrant sign off on, we can jump right at it.

Ben: 27:51

Right.

Gene: 27:52

Like, I think that's a very realistic thing, the judges don't actually read anything, they just hear a brief verbal explanation, and then they say it off on the warrant. That's

Ben: 28:04

pretty much. And, you know, a lot of it is there are good judges, but there are far too many judges who just take the word of the officer

Gene: 28:16

How, how do we even get to saying good judges? Because, Good judges start off as lawyers and everybody hates lawyers. And, and then some of the lawyers become judges. It's like, these are the same people, dude. There's nothing, there's nothing that changed here between when they were lawyers and when they became judges.

Ben: 28:38

even though I have some very people who are close to me that are lawyers I jokingly tell them often that, you know, I agree with Shakespeare.

Gene: 28:47

Yeah, yeah.

Ben: 28:48

And for those who don't know, it's the quote from Shakespeare is first, kill all the lawyers.

Gene: 28:53

Mm hmm. Yeah. And

Ben: 28:58

Is that from King Lear? I can't remember which play that's from. Anyway, sorry.

Gene: 29:02

probably, it probably is. I don't think it's from Hamlet.

Ben: 29:06

No, it's definitely, I, dude, I've seen, I, I have seen Hamlet too many times. I, I can quote a ton of Hamlet.

Gene: 29:14

Oh, please don't

Ben: 29:16

One of the best quotes out of Shakespeare's from Hamlet.

Gene: 29:19

grace

Ben: 29:19

of the poetry. I can also go back to Dante. What do you want from me, man? I read a lot as a kid.

Gene: 29:24

Dante's better, better now

Ben: 29:26

Yeah, La Vita Nuova, man. La Vita Nuova.

Gene: 29:33

the new life.

Ben: 29:34

Yeah, one of Dante's underrated poems. 120 page love poem.

Gene: 29:40

Nice.

Ben: 29:41

Actually, to me, better than the Inferno. The Inferno is just overrated.

Gene: 29:46

Okay. I was talking about lawyers before you hijack the subject of poetry and the as far as lawyers what else I was gonna, I was wrapping up that thought we're talking about. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I was going to say that the, I think where we need to go isn't like just to take the guy to chat him and the guy that brought up this case before a judge, we need to have the judges start being defendants in court as well, because I think a lot of bad rulings that are happening right now. That's where I was going with this, and you can't just blame all the bad rulings on having good prosecutors, good at what they do, not necessarily good for society.

Ben: 30:41

Mm hmm.

Gene: 30:42

I think the judges are fully culpable in this as well, and, again, it shouldn't be a surprise because judges are simply older lawyers. Mm

Ben: 30:52

I don't think, you know, as much as I would love to see that, I think what would actually make more of a difference and be more likely to happen is actual enforcement of current laws that are on the books around malicious prosecution. And prosecutors who bring. Charges you know, let's say this guy had survived and he brought was brought up on charges. The prosecutor needs to be gone after for malicious prosecution. In my opinion, you know, maybe this guy was a flying under the radar and being a bad guy. Maybe

Gene: 31:25

even if he was

Ben: 31:27

he didn't deserve to die.

Gene: 31:28

He should, maybe he was, maybe he deserved today, but we will never know because somebody decided to be the judge, jury and executioner all in one person

Ben: 31:38

but that's cheaper. Don't you know?

Gene: 31:40

it is cheaper. And I agree with that. I think, you know, if, if you want to start looking at the cost of government and saving money, then yeah, we should get rid of a lot of branches of government and maybe have just like judge dreads walking around. Right. But, but it's not. I think what most people want, and again, you have to remember who these people work for. They're, they're not. Working for the king, and I think there are an awful lot of people that are in the employee of the US government who really act as though they work for the king back in the Robin Hood days. that the serfs are the serfs and the king is the king and the, the connection between the two is simply a one directional and the, and the way that this country is supposed to work is that the king works for the serfs and it's bidirectional because they get to pick which king they want. Now, lately, there's not been a whole lot of choice in that manner, but, uh, but it's, it's just, my problem has always been with the attitude of. The government workers somehow thinking that they are privileged and it's just, if anything, it is a backwards attitude because if you work for the government, in my mind, my first thought is couldn't make it in the private industry. Huh? Okay. Why else would you be working for the government?

Ben: 33:21

I mean, it's like people who teach, right? Those who can do those who can't teach.

Gene: 33:29

That is very true, and I think for the most part, it's true in terms of, yes, that statement's been around forever, but it's also, I think, a correct statement for the most part. There are always exceptions. There are incredible

Ben: 33:44

yeah, I mean, and there are people who don't want to do. They want to spend their entire career in academia, doing research and theorizing and leaving the application to someone else.

Gene: 33:56

and

Ben: 33:56

also have the minds that would not be very good at taking application and, you know, going forward with that.

Gene: 34:04

but there are also people that are really good at teaching that just don't want to teach and don't enjoy it because they'd rather do the research.

Ben: 34:12

Or do, yeah. Anyway, regardless, the point is people in government service should, should feel like they are servants of the people and lesser than not have the power trips that they're having.

Gene: 34:30

you know, that's servant to the people was the name of the TV show. God, Zelensky elected

Ben: 34:40

You know, he's, he is getting very close to

Gene: 34:43

suiciding himself.

Ben: 34:45

I don't know about suiciding, but, you know, he's I don't think he's going to be a long around very much longer.

Gene: 34:53

He was not around much before. Again, remember, this is essentially the equivalent of a Saturday night live actor in Ukraine that got cast into a dramatic show about how a school teacher Ends up becoming president of the country because he just wants to show the kids that when you have, yeah

Ben: 35:20

for democracy to work.

Gene: 35:22

when you have the right

Ben: 35:23

have to do my best CSB voice because he also sounds like Zasalensky.

Gene: 35:27

he does kind of sound like, I don't know which one's getting insulted in that sentence, but, but there is definitely that, but also that's not his natural voice. Cause if you watch videos of him back when he used to be an entertainer. His voice does not sound like that. It is not all deep throaty. This is his, like, I'm an important person voice.

Ben: 35:51

That, or he talked too much like Alex Jones for too long and then blew out his vocal cords.

Gene: 35:56

Yeah. And then now he's stuck.

Ben: 35:58

Yeah. Which, it totally had happened to Alex, by the way, if you listen to him as a young man versus now, he has totally blown out his fucking vocal cords.

Gene: 36:08

Yeah. Either He sounds like somebody that's been smoking 20 packs a day forever.

Ben: 36:13

yeah, or gargling motor oil. Either 1. Yeah.

Gene: 36:18

think that would be smoother, actually. Yeah.

Ben: 36:22

Then I knew a guy that was in the oil field that when I was, this was years ago. This was right after college. I was working at a man service provider and working with this oil company and this 1 guy. I won't say his last name. His name was Don and he was a big craggly guy. It was old field guy and we were managing some of their stuff. Anytime he'd call up 1 of the, 1 of the help desk guys, the. Yep. He's garing motor oil again. You know, that's just the joke. But he was a like four pack a day smoker. And, you know, it was obvious where that voice was coming from with him, but yeah.

Gene: 36:58

That's just horrible. You ever go to the the museum exhibits of the guy that, like, takes bodies and then fills them with plastic? Or

Ben: 37:08

The, the living Yeah. Yeah. The, the anatomy. Yes. I've seen those exhibits. Yes.

Gene: 37:15

Okay, so I remember one of the distinct things that exhibit when I went to it with my ex wife. Is they had a pair of lungs. We had two pairs of lungs.

Ben: 37:27

she, she was comparing you,

Gene: 37:29

No, no, no, No, because she was a smoker. And, you know,

Ben: 37:32

you're, you're missing the joke. Mm-Hmm.

Gene: 37:35

I don't know. Yeah, I am clearly, I have no idea what you're talking about anyway. You know, looking at what a set of smoker lungs looks like versus a non smoker lungs, it looks like two different body organs. Like, that they're not just that the smoker lungs are black, but that they're they're shrunken severely.

Ben: 38:01

The people are typically not breathing as deeply and there's lots of things there. Yeah. I

Gene: 38:07

So just all these kids vaping that are, are not that much better. Like the vaping

Ben: 38:15

think it totally depends on what they're doing.

Gene: 38:18

Nah, I don't, I think anything in your lungs that is a a substance other than air is not good for them. They're, they're little fragile little sacks that have to constantly be opening and closing. And interaction of any kind of chemicals into them is going to deteriorate them. What, what's wrong with,

Ben: 38:41

Yeah I think it also depends on the air quality and everything else too, but yes but I think there's a massive difference between cigarettes and vaping and a lot of different things. So when you look at the chemical makeup of cigarette smoke, it's terrible, right? Exactly. When you look at the chemical makeup of some of the alternatives, it's not great, but it's not. I mean, there's just a step difference, man. I don't know. I grew up with my grandparents some of them smoking, some of them not you know, I'll smoke a hookah or cigar occasionally, but yeah, hookah. Yeah. But cigar is occasional. You know, I think there is a difference, but there hasn't been enough research on it, really, and everything gets compared, so like hookah, when they compare hookah one of the things they'll say is, oh, it's equivalent to 120 packs of cigarettes. By volume of smoke that is transiting your lungs, Maybe. By composition, by nicotine amount, by anything that matters, no. You know, it's just, when you see studies that do really shitty comparisons that don't really have any validity to the statement that's being made, it makes you question things. At least in my mind. But, you know.

Gene: 40:06

in my mind, you sound just like a cigarette company executive in 1960s. We need more studies. We really don't know if, if smoking hookah is bad for you. Like obviously it's bad for you. Just like drinking.

Ben: 40:22

I don't know, man. Given the rates of cancer in the Arabic world, I don't know.

Gene: 40:28

I don't think most Arabs smoke hookah, dude.

Ben: 40:30

Oh my god, are you kidding me?

Gene: 40:33

No.

Ben: 40:34

When I was in the Middle East Every hotel I was in had Keisha available. And yes, there

Gene: 40:42

because that's what the guests want.

Ben: 40:44

no bullshit. The in, in the UAE the areas I was sitting in were full of Emirati, the in there and everything else, especially like if and stuff like that. Yeah, no, sorry dude, but they, they do it a lot. It's a, it's a big portion of the culture and Saudi Arabia is even worse.

Gene: 41:06

They might, but it's a It's not It's just not good.

Ben: 41:12

it's a, if you want to go have a business deal in Saudi Arabia, one of the things you're going to do is sit down and discuss it over shisha. Just saying.

Gene: 41:22

Yeah. There's a lot of things they do in the Middle East that are not good.

Ben: 41:28

I'm not saying it is good. I'm just saying they don't have the cancer rates that you would see, given the amount of smokers. I mean, it all, anyway, it doesn't matter. I mean, Russians smoke a bunch of cigarettes, so do Greeks and everything else. But

Gene: 41:43

Yeah, used to. The

Ben: 41:45

the only culture in the world that has this puritanical view of smoking.

Gene: 41:51

I don't We also manufacture more cigarettes than anybody else. We sell them to other countries.

Ben: 41:57

Yeah.

Gene: 41:58

I don't know that I think everybody should have a choice of what they want to do with their bodies, like anti smoking, but I think it's stupid to think that smoking is safe for you. It's obviously not. It never has been. And it's, you're not going to guarantee that you get cancer by any stretch. But again the way this topic came up is all you got to do is look at what a set of smoker lungs looks like and what a set of non smoker lungs of the same age look like. Looks like, and it's pretty obvious which one is impaired.

Ben: 42:34

Oh, absolutely. But let's look at I would love to see vapor lung versus a smoker lung versus natural lungs. And my guess would be the vapor would be in

Gene: 42:46

be halfway. Yeah, I agree with you. It probably would be. And then,

Ben: 42:50

put it this way, what's, what's less healthy? That vaping or being, you know, 50, 60 pounds overweight?

Gene: 42:59

It's one is not mutually exclusive with the other.

Ben: 43:02

But, okay, I'm just saying when we're making judgment calls on what's affecting people's health, I think diet and exercise has a lot to do with it.

Gene: 43:12

But again, a fat dude vaping isn't doing himself any more favors

Ben: 43:17

Oh, yeah, he's double putting a gun to his head, whatever. Yeah. So don't vape, Gene.

Gene: 43:22

it's a, I don't. Makes no sense to

Ben: 43:25

I think the skinny Adam Curry is probably a little healthier vaping than the you know, Gene DiTullio of not vaping. Yeah.

Gene: 43:32

I don't know about that.

Ben: 43:34

Huh.

Gene: 43:34

It's, it's a Health is something that we have to either look at retroactively or just look at statistics. Because we, you know, we're all healthy enough but the question is, what do you, what does that health translate into? Is it longevity? Is it quality of life? Is it a risk of disease? What are these concerns? But I, I think in general, the idea of getting some kind of a high off of a substance delivered through your lungs?

Ben: 44:15

Huh.

Gene: 44:16

It just seems crazy. This is basically this had to have started when, you know, cavemen were sitting around the fire. And then one of them thought, hey, you want to get really lightheaded, just stick your nose up to where the smoke is coming instead of avoiding smoke and start breathing in.

Ben: 44:33

Yeah, that or, you know, like for me, sitting down with a hookah, one of the things that I like about it, and I'll be very honest about it, is that it makes me sit still. It makes me sit down and relax and focus on whatever I'm doing. I can't really move from there. I'm going to be there for a little while. Versus if I don't do that, I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off most of the day anyway. I don't know.

Gene: 44:56

a cigar doesn't do that for you? In the same way?

Ben: 44:59

Mm, cigars have a different smell. It's, it's just different. I, I do enjoy a cigar. You know, it's just different. And cigars, you don't inhale, you're getting that through your under your tongue and everything else. And you can get way more nicotine from a scar than you would other methods. You

Gene: 45:18

More nicotine, but yeah, but less tar. It's,

Ben: 45:23

Anyway, let's move off the smoking topic. I don't think anyone gives a shit and it's not one we necessarily agree on.

Gene: 45:30

They want. I just think that you want to do it with your eyes wide open.

Ben: 45:37

that I completely agree with. Yes.

Gene: 45:42

What else we got? You wanted to talk about. A few different specific things, I think. Right.

Ben: 45:48

Kind of going back to guns and purchasing so I think I'm going to make a purchase. I think I'm going to get something here.

Gene: 45:55

Okay. Night vision.

Ben: 45:57

I know, I think I'm going to get to 4. I really

Gene: 46:01

Oh, an actual

Ben: 46:02

I was going, I was going back and forth between the divorce 7 and the SIG spear and I really want the spear. I think the spear would be a better rifle in a lot of ways, but it's double the price and it's still a generation 1 and I don't want to buy a generation 1 gun.

Gene: 46:19

And I'll tell you the spears that are commercially available are in three or eight

Ben: 46:25

Which is fine by

Gene: 46:26

in car. Yeah. Yeah. But here's my

Ben: 46:29

You can, you can, no, no, no. You can get them chamfered in 227 Fury. You can, you can get them in the civilian 227 Fury.

Gene: 46:35

Different from the military one?

Ben: 46:38

it's less pressure. It's not as hot of a round but it is. And you can run the chamber pressure. The chamber design is for the military round. It's just the ammo that's currently available is the civilian variant, and it's not going to be very available for a

Gene: 46:57

so here's my prediction. My

Ben: 46:59

the next 24 months.

Gene: 47:00

Is that this, this gun will end up being in 308 in the military because they're going to have the exact same problems that we talked about with the FBI. They're going to have guys that bitch about having a hard hitting round like that on their shoulders. And this is going to come back and they're going to change the contract and say, the remainder of the stock is going to be shipped in 308 and

Ben: 47:30

it's going to go back to 5. 56 to be honest with you.

Gene: 47:33

It may, but because

Ben: 47:34

Because of the weight of 308.

Gene: 47:36

yeah, yeah, but 308 is lighter hitting on your shoulder than this new round. So it's I think what we have is I guess what we should expect, which is a Gen Z military, which is

Ben: 47:53

They're gonna want unicorn colored guns, DEAN!

Gene: 47:57

and we should provide those. I don't think that there's, there's no reason not to.

Ben: 48:01

Oh, you want pink camouflage, okay. Here

Gene: 48:04

Pink cameras. Hey, have you seen, have you seen my character in cyberpunk? Oh, I should send you some pictures.

Ben: 48:13

Okay.

Gene: 48:15

it's in

Ben: 48:15

I'm always disturbed when you're playing a Buxom female, it's

Gene: 48:20

Oh dude, very female and very buxom.

Ben: 48:23

Yeah, Gene's totally gonna be doing the virtual only fans thing at some point in time. That's his retirement plan, by the way.

Gene: 48:30

That's not a bad retirement plan. There's nothing wrong with that. As

Ben: 48:34

Hey, Dirty talking to some poor schlub, some poor intel. Oh, God, that's

Gene: 48:39

the AI is talking and I just own the damn thing.

Ben: 48:42

Huh. Huh. Oh, so wrong. Just think, when you're chatting with someone you think is a hot babe online, it really is a guy that looks like Gene.

Gene: 48:53

That's usually the case. If you get for chatting with the baby online,

Ben: 48:58

Huh.

Gene: 48:59

that's, that's all I would say. Anyway, I just sent you a couple of pictures here, so you can see my cyberpunk character.

Ben: 49:08

Eh, too flat.

Gene: 49:11

It's a C cup.

Ben: 49:13

Eh, too

Gene: 49:13

I know you prefer the F cups yourself, but C cup is as big as I ever needed to go.

Ben: 49:18

Yeah, yeah.

Gene: 49:20

Yeah, it's Okay, what the hell we're talking about? Cyberpunk before X, that we're talking about? Oh, yeah, yeah. Pink guns and stuff. I don't know, and I, I think I, I'm a lot less concerned about the the rainbow unicorn stickers on the guns than I am about the way people act. And what we need to do is channel some of that Black Lives Matter type energy into military service. And I think instead what we're getting is we're getting a military that is constantly cutting back on requirements there. And, and by the way,

Ben: 49:59

And going more and more woke.

Gene: 50:01

Yeah, I've obviously I've never been in the military. I think people know that. But

Ben: 50:06

No, just the FSB.

Gene: 50:08

the stuff, yeah, the stuff that I'm saying. Is in, in at least part due to my conversations with friends, including friends that are you know, fairly high up rank in the current military been lifelong in the service and are bitching about the Gen Z's coming in. the, the, all the baggage that they're bringing with them. So it's, I don't see that new around as sticking around is the long.

Ben: 50:44

Yeah. I, I think any heavy full battle cartridge 308 to, you know, the 68 or 227 fury, whatever you want to call it. I, I think both of those, the ammo is heavy. When you're talking to. About carrying a combat loadout for a battle rifle versus a carbine, you're talking a good 20, 30 pound difference in overall weight. And I think that's a lot for most people. So I just think that, you know, the U. S. military philosophy and the combat loadout should probably change. You know, it was very different in World War II when they were carrying 30 06, which is heavier and larger of a caliber. You know,

Gene: 51:28

He also a time when most men knew how to shoot.

Ben: 51:32

Yes, and

Gene: 51:33

as many rounds

Ben: 51:34

correct. And they were using a long gun that was accurate and they were able to shoot.

Gene: 51:42

and, and without

Ben: 51:43

a combat effective range in a combat, you know, if you can hit minute of man at 500 yards, you're combat effective. Go.

Gene: 51:53

And, and keep in mind that. There were virtually no scopes, you other than the dedicated snipers all World War ii guns came with iron sight. Yeah. So it

Ben: 52:05

I will say that the M1, the iron sights on the M1, cause I have an M1A which has the same iron sights are fucking fantastic. They are really good sights.

Gene: 52:15

They're only as good as your eyeball

Ben: 52:18

Oh, I, dude, I could, I, at 500 yards, I can hit a 10 inch plate with with the iron sights on my SOCOM 16. It's

Gene: 52:26

No way.

Ben: 52:27

Easily. I, I can prove it

Gene: 52:29

One inch plate,

Ben: 52:31

A 10

Gene: 52:32

or sorry, 10 inch plate. Yeah. 10 inch plate at 500 yards. So two, two minute of angle.

Ben: 52:38

Yes, with open sights with my eyes. Yes. On a 16 inch barrel.

Gene: 52:43

yeah, I, I couldn't. I'd need, I'd need magnification for that.

Ben: 52:47

Okay.

Gene: 52:50

That's, I mean, if you can do that, that's very impressive. And

Ben: 52:53

I, I, I will make

Gene: 52:55

got 20, 20

Ben: 52:55

time we go to the next time we go to the range. I will take the LPVO I have on there off. I will take a 10 inch plate and I, I will make a bet that I will hit 3 out of 5 shots on it.

Gene: 53:09

I mean, sure. That's fine. I don't, I'm not really doubting you. I'm just saying that that's impressive because, so you've got 20, 20

Ben: 53:17

Yeah, I've got better according to my vision. Yeah. Cause you can see about a, an MOA is what the human eye is capable of seeing. At 20, 20,

Gene: 53:27

yeah. And at which distance exactly? That's the issue because

Ben: 53:31

no, it's about a minute of angle. So at a hundred yards, you can see about one inch of resolution at a thousand yards, you can see about 10 inches of resolution. That's the way the

Gene: 53:43

Yes, but what I'm getting to is some of us can see that minute of angle up until about 20 yards and then everything starts getting fuzzy.

Ben: 53:52

Right, but I'm saying again, if you have normal 2020 vision, you can see about. Yeah, that's the way it works.

Gene: 53:59

Yeah. I haven't, I haven't had 20 20 vision since probably the mid 90s. Used to

Ben: 54:06

only issue I have with my vision is I as a kid, I damaged my left eye and ended up with a slight stigmatism on my left eye, but it's my non dominant. I so most of the time. It's not an issue. Luckily.

Gene: 54:20

Yeah, that's good.

Ben: 54:22

Anyway what's your take on the ISIS K? ISIS K. We've got you know what I mean? It's like Special K, but for ISIS. Attack on Moscow.

Gene: 54:32

Yeah. So ISIS, as I mentioned in a number of different places and really just repeating what was commonly known many years ago, ISIS is a creation of the U. S. Much like Taliban was a creation of the U S and ISIS

Ben: 54:50

Yeah, and for those who don't know, go watch Charlie Wilson's War and look at how we funded the Mujahideen and that became, yeah.

Gene: 54:57

Yeah. The book's much better than the movie. The movie squeezes everything into two hours with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. The book has much more interesting plot twists and, you know,

Ben: 55:10

Yeah, and we also funded Saddam and the Ba'ath Party, and

Gene: 55:13

Mm. So ISIS is. Really just that for Syria is we've managed to essentially oppose Russia in Syria with isis. And I think that technically it may be true to say that ISIS was responsible for this attack in the theater. Isis being responsible is kinda like saying. That in the 1950s, Cuba independently was responsible for putting nuclear missiles on their own territory.

Ben: 55:51

And you can also go back and look at, and this is something I haven't heard you or anyone else talk about, go back and look at the the mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. There are a ton of Afghans, there are tons of Syrians, there are people coming in that you could definitely collect, connect potentially to ISIS and sit there and say, oh, this is that when really it's mercenaries who were fighting for Ukraine. So I see that as very possible.

Gene: 56:17

that is very true. But again, that's, that's why you can say ISIS and be technically true, but really ISIS in quotes is just simply us. It's us funded. Isis is us funded. It always has been us funded. It at some point will cease to be us funded and it will become a terrorist organization against the us much in the same way the Taliban was against the us. This is. This is a way for us to somewhat distance ourselves, but at the same time have all the financial controls, you know, the U S is. Let's put it this way. The U S is as responsible for the civilian deaths in Moscow as it is for the pipeline getting blown up. Now, some people would say Russia did both those things and they're just a red flags. Okay.

Ben: 57:12

False flag, Jimmy.

Gene: 57:13

Yeah. False flags. Yeah, I was, I was confusing false flag with a herring with red herring. But yeah, it's and what Russia has is now. They, they have the guys that were perpetrating this and they have images of those same guys fighting for Ukraine.

Ben: 57:36

Yeah you know, all I can say is when you fuck around, eventually things come home to roost and it becomes a problem.

Gene: 57:48

So the, the, the thing that the U. S. is concerned with right now is that given this identification, obviously in the U. S. interest, anybody that commits acts of terrorism would get blown up and never identified. Like that would be perfect for us.

Ben: 58:07

Mm hmm.

Gene: 58:07

Didn't happen. But the, I think the, the, the fear right now in the at least the Portion of the U. S. military right now is that the Russian retaliation can happen in Syria, and that will mean American deaths.

Ben: 58:32

Okay.

Gene: 58:34

So this is, this is the problem with like kicking the ball over the fence is that it may come back and hit something else. And we'll, we'll see.

Ben: 58:48

I mean, that's never happened to us in the past, Gene. Why do you think it would happen now?

Gene: 58:53

Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. Is that the so that's one, one sort of international political thing. You know, honestly, if, if it was just some Ukrainian nationalists, this would have been much better for the U S than to have guys that are tied in with Syria. This, this, this opens up a bigger can of worms and it legitimizes retaliation by Russia in Syria. Yeah. And that is problematic for the U. S.

Ben: 59:24

I mean, yeah, if the, if Russia wants to say, okay, fine, we accept this is ISIS K, we're gonna go full bore after them wherever they

Gene: 59:35

Exactly.

Ben: 59:36

Okay, Syria is now ours. Oh, we found ties that a lot of the Ukrainian mercenaries are from the same group. Guess what? We're going to step it up there and use this as justification.

Gene: 59:48

You saw that the two things that happened the next day is a bombing of an airport on the very Western part of Ukraine one where a lot of these mercenaries fly into. And then there was also a bombing in a village I'd never heard of, which I don't know, but presumably somebody in Russia knows what's in there. Maybe some kind of staging territory area. So those were immediate next day responses already basically saying, yeah, just because you're in the West of Ukraine, it doesn't mean that you're safe. You know, just because most of the fighting is happening on the Eastern side, we're fully capable of extending the campaign over to the West.

Ben: 1:00:32

Let me ask you something. What do you think of Putin's statement that was made right before this about going to kind of a DMZ sort of thing that would be maintained and run by the Kiev regime? Why do you think he was making that concession so publicly? Because that struck me as odd, because he's going in and saying, okay, we're going to have to stop this and solidify at some point, and there's going to need to be a DMZ. In that same statement said that it would be controlled back yev. That seems odd to me versus saying, we will establish A DMZ and we will control it. Why? Why give that concession? It

Gene: 1:01:11

I think here's my guess on that and I, I agree with you. I had the exact same thoughts when I heard that it was like this seems weird. My having thought about it a little bit, I think what that indicates to me is that there have been conversations between the Ukrainian military and Russia in basically saying, okay, so when you guys get rid of. Your president you know, at some point we're going to need to have order here. And here are the terms under which we're going to be willing to recognize you as the legitimate

Ben: 1:01:51

Yeah, that or it's just an excuse knowing that they're not gonna be able to maintain control. And when something happens in the DMZ that the Ukrainians didn't stop, then it's an excuse to go. We've got to take over the rest of the country. If you're, you know, from the Western school of thought, I guess.

Gene: 1:02:09

it could be, but honestly, gluten has always wanted there to be a non military solution to this. The, the reason that the military got involved in the E went in there is after literally how many years? So from 2014 until 2022. So eight years of trying to get this problem fixed non militarily. And remember they were having negotiations, multiple negotiation meeting in Turkey in the first year of this conflict. And it wasn't until Johnson, Boris Johnson flew to Kiev and told Zelensky that he's not to negotiate with Russia. Like, things were a lot closer to just being agreed upon, because really, the only things that. That Russia was looking for was to be able to have a referendum in the different districts of Ukraine to decide, do they want to be part of Russia or part of Ukraine? Because the borders that were drawn were completely arbitrary and they were not drawn You know, when, when the USSR broke

Ben: 1:03:28

I mean, Gene, you're, you're, you're sounding like Nazi Germany after World War I and leading up to World War II.

Gene: 1:03:36

words. Yeah. Yeah. And German people ended up living in Poland through

Ben: 1:03:41

and, and that there was a, you know, some ethnic cleansing shit going on there too.

Gene: 1:03:47

Yeah. But

Ben: 1:03:48

Shocker. People of Europe, man, the people, here's the thing. The US gets

Gene: 1:03:55

it though? Because I, I had

Ben: 1:03:57

Hold on, I wanna make a point here, and it's gonna piss CSB and a bunch of other people

Gene: 1:04:02

All right. Good.

Ben: 1:04:03

The US, I talked to people from the UK, I talked to people from all over the world, and they all think that the South of the US is the most racist place in the fucking world. Bull. Shit. Bullshit. You know, I'm sorry, but Europeans are fucking racist, man. And their definition of race is very different than what we would say here in the U. S. You know, a Frenchman and a German do not consider themselves the same race. At all.

Gene: 1:04:31

no, no. There, but that's why Europe has been innovating more than the rest of the world,

Ben: 1:04:39

Innovating? Innovating, really? That's the term you want to use there?

Gene: 1:04:43

Yeah, I think it's the proper term because war brings with it the benefits of innovation.

Ben: 1:04:51

Mm hmm.

Gene: 1:04:52

You have products that come out as a result of war that would have never existed and don't exist in other parts of the world that doesn't have a war.

Ben: 1:05:01

yeah, yeah. And they also have a lower lifestyle. But, hey, I, I want to change the topic and ask an economic question.

Gene: 1:05:09

Okay. Mm hmm.

Ben: 1:05:11

You know, we've been making fun of Zahon some, and we've been, you know, questioning predictions and so on.

Gene: 1:05:17

Mm

Ben: 1:05:19

I've been looking at So let's say the demographics that are being talked about by everyone, you know, WEF, Zahon, World Bank, a bunch of different people are true and we are looking at a population collapse. Elon has warned about it and so on. Have you noticed no one's talking about how that has to be inherently inflationary? No

Gene: 1:05:44

and economic collapse

Ben: 1:05:45

no, no, a population collapse.

Gene: 1:05:48

A population collapse is inflationary

Ben: 1:05:51

Yeah, because if you, if you think about it, descendants or whoever is getting the money from the people who are dying off, you're seeing a more and more constant, more and more dollars going into fewer and fewer hands.

Gene: 1:06:05

There's a way around that. There's a way around that. It doesn't have to be inflationary. If you start imposing a hundred percent tax on but

Ben: 1:06:13

still inflationary because then it's going into the government coffers that they are going to spend it. It's not going to just be destroyed

Gene: 1:06:19

they already spent it.

Ben: 1:06:22

I got that. I got that. But my point is what we're seeing is because there are fewer people and the dollars exist and they're creating more dollars every day. They're not removing them out of circulation or out of the economy.

Gene: 1:06:35

Yeah.

Ben: 1:06:36

As the generations die off and as we see a change in that, that is in and of itself inflationary.

Gene: 1:06:43

it is. But I think that there's a lot of mitigating things that can be done for that.

Ben: 1:06:49

okay, I think that's modern monetary theory and decidedly proven wrong. So I would love to hear from you know, Sir Economic Hitman or any of the other bankers out there and tell me where I'm wrong.

Gene: 1:07:02

I think that there's what, what you really want to hear from is the, somebody that's an Austrian school economist talk about it. I think that you have to look at the economies of different countries and how they're actually operating before you can just blanket statement and say it's, it's it's going to be inflationary.

Ben: 1:07:24

Did you see the Japanese raise their interest rates?

Gene: 1:07:27

No, I didn't

Ben: 1:07:28

They've raised their interest rate for the first time

Gene: 1:07:31

was going to say they never did that. They had negative interest for a while.

Ben: 1:07:34

exactly. So they've raised their interest rates for the first time, like literally since the nineties. So what's that tell you about inflation worldwide?

Gene: 1:07:48

But it's kind of a misnomer. I mean, it's inflation is just simply the, the ratio between fake money and actual value of things. So can you still trade one gallon of milk here for, you know, a loaf of bread there? Yeah. I don't think those have changed much compared to each other, but they've both changed compared to the fake currency, the the fiat currency that like the U S dollar or most of the world. You know, if you're storing wealth in the fiat currency, then you're an idiot because that currency is fully manipulatable. And this is why the BRICS countries. Are storing valve in gold as the the store value and then using commodity pricing to determine what the fiat currency should be like, that's just inherently a better way to do it. If you wanna preserve value, if you wanna manipulate everybody, then you do what the US did back in the sixties.

Ben: 1:09:04

Are you do it? The, you know, Chinese have been doing as well. There's a

Gene: 1:09:08

I don't know that that people in China would ever consider the Wong as a store of value.

Ben: 1:09:14

No, that's why they put it on to real estate. That's very overbuilt and going to collapse. There's not two.

Gene: 1:09:20

Again, there's different types of real estate. I think that the real estate that is more apt to collapse and not hold value is it's improved real estate. It's actual buildings. The real estate that is just land property. Isn't really gonna collapse.

Ben: 1:09:39

We'll see.

Gene: 1:09:40

How's it gonna collapse dude? Oh, how is land value

Ben: 1:09:43

need for it in China, and it has to be in China where they spent their money. You know. I will tell you this.

Gene: 1:09:51

Has a population density that is like ten times the US.

Ben: 1:09:54

yeah only in cities.

Gene: 1:09:56

Oh, no countrywide like they have for the size of country They are

Ben: 1:10:00

Right, but they're, they're very concentrated in the areas there. You go into Mongolia and the Western deserts and it's, you know, very sparse.

Gene: 1:10:07

So are we

Ben: 1:10:08

yeah, I know we need to change that. We need to go back to being majority rural. I will say this. I'm thinking about after going to the gun show and everything, I'm thinking about starting a little side business and I may actually, you know, not, not, not changing guns, not guns,

Gene: 1:10:24

I was gonna if you're getting an FFL I'm in dude. I'll buy all my shit for

Ben: 1:10:27

I, I may eventually, but I think I may start out,

Gene: 1:10:32

hard to do without a physical presence these days.

Ben: 1:10:34

Anyway, WI, I've, I've got a buddy that I might be able to get on and do something with, so anyway, but

Gene: 1:10:44

it doesn't sound that bad Illegal at all.

Ben: 1:10:46

it's not, not if I'm a not, what do you mean?

Gene: 1:10:49

I don't know. I'm

Ben: 1:10:50

a physical store and we can have multiple locations and I can, anyway,

Gene: 1:10:54

Sure.

Ben: 1:10:55

There are legal ways around this. Anyway, what I'm talking about doing right now, though, is I may get on LA Express and buy like that Wilcox mount that I found and a bunch of other stuff

Gene: 1:11:08

Yep. Yep.

Ben: 1:11:10

take it to the gun shows and, you know, have my dad, you know, Have my dad do woodworking stuff and things like, you know, I mean,

Gene: 1:11:18

ponchos.

Ben: 1:11:20

yeah, you should

Gene: 1:11:21

I didn't even think of that. God damn it.

Ben: 1:11:23

but

Gene: 1:11:24

suck at being a sales dude.

Ben: 1:11:26

right. But I think that could be a retirement gig for my parents is my point is, you know, something for them to go do.

Gene: 1:11:33

The gun shows.

Ben: 1:11:33

Yeah, I think they'd enjoy it. I don't know.

Gene: 1:11:36

You think, you think they would enjoy that? Cause it's like being in a different city every weekend.

Ben: 1:11:41

Okay. And talking to a bunch of people.

Gene: 1:11:43

Oh, maybe they would enjoy it. I don't know. I mean, you know, your folks

Ben: 1:11:46

parents are friendly folk.

Gene: 1:11:48

They are very friendly. I will totally agree with you on that. Hey, is your, your dad had he with like sitting down for a long time? I know he's got some back issues.

Ben: 1:11:59

Ah, he's all right. I mean, he, he doesn't like to sit down. He's a up and going kind of guy. He moves around a lot.

Gene: 1:12:06

Yeah, cause well, no, it's just, it, I think being in a gun show, you're, I guess you could be standing. You don't have to be sitting, but it's just, you're like in a little, you know, four foot square. Yeah.

Ben: 1:12:21

Anyway, I don't know. It was just a thought. So,

Gene: 1:12:24

I've always thought it'd be fun to be part of a, like a part owner of a gun shop. But every time I've met somebody that was kind of working on that, I'd found out something shady enough about them that I had no interest in being a partner with them.

Ben: 1:12:41

yeah you already know the shady shit about me.

Gene: 1:12:43

I do. I know. And I, I mean, it's, I wouldn't care about any of that, but it's like, it's weird. Cause the guys that seem to make the most progress towards actually getting a gun store. Inevitably I've just found out shit about them that was like, Oh my God, no. Like they, you know, they, they embezzled money or some shit like that. It's like, what the fuck did, are there no honest people running gun stores?

Ben: 1:13:09

so speaking of what the fuck moments did you notice about. The royal family and the AI generated photos and all that that turned out to be real.

Gene: 1:13:22

Which ones? No, I haven't heard any of this.

Ben: 1:13:24

So Kate, whatever her name is, the princess or whatever, there were photos that surfaced of her and her kids and everything and people are like this is Photoshop. This is fake. And the royal family had to come out and say, you know, there were theories that she was dead and all this and it came out that oh, she has cancer.

Gene: 1:13:44

Cancer.

Ben: 1:13:45

Yelp,

Gene: 1:13:46

Oh, that sucks.

Ben: 1:13:47

but it's funny because the the internet totally called them on the bullshit fake photos They were putting out and they had to address it. It

Gene: 1:13:55

So what was fake about the photos?

Ben: 1:13:58

was photoshopped. It was from previous photo shoots and stuff like that,

Gene: 1:14:02

Oh, so she doesn't look the same.

Ben: 1:14:05

correct? And

Gene: 1:14:07

That's too bad. I always kind of liked her. I thought she was a good princess. Cause she's a good princess. She, you know, she, she looked pretty. She was pumping out kids left and right. She's doing a job.

Ben: 1:14:20

What's the other one that's part part black?

Gene: 1:14:24

She's been removed from the family. It doesn't really matter anymore.

Ben: 1:14:27

I mean, that, yeah, I think it just goes to show that that the, the one she was married to was not what's his name's son, you know?

Gene: 1:14:36

Oh, Harry.

Ben: 1:14:37

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because obviously, you know, it was like, yeah, you're not really part of the royal family, so it doesn't

Gene: 1:14:43

Harry looks nothing like Charles.

Ben: 1:14:45

Exactly.

Gene: 1:14:46

Looks nothing like his brother. No, and we know that Diana was fucking drowned. This is not a surprise at all.

Ben: 1:14:55

Which is probably part of the reason why she was killed.

Gene: 1:14:58

Yeah, I think I've

Ben: 1:14:59

don't understand why everyone in the U. S. was so fascinated with Diana. I don't

Gene: 1:15:03

Everybody in the U. S. loves the royalty because we don't have our own.

Ben: 1:15:07

But why? Why do we give a fuck? Why does anyone give a fuck? I don't

Gene: 1:15:10

Because people like to have betters.

Ben: 1:15:18

Okay.

Gene: 1:15:19

This fucking surf dude, people grew up being surfs for thousands of years. It's hard to shake that.

Ben: 1:15:27

I guess my,

Gene: 1:15:28

was trying to explain to somebody else the other day, maybe it was at the get together is that, yeah, it wasn't the get together. I was explaining to them that the, the phrase that was the phrase that the people does not actually refer to everybody. It refers to male landowners who are able to write.

Ben: 1:15:49

I

Gene: 1:15:50

And the, and, and furthermore, it should be even more restrictive when it shouldn't.

Ben: 1:15:56

with you on

Gene: 1:15:56

That's fine. You can have an opinion

Ben: 1:15:58

That's not my opinion. It's if you go back and look at the, the, no, if you go back and look at the debates in the Continental Congress over the Declaration of Independence and the phrase, we, the people when you go back and you look at that, or you look at the Constitution and the, the ratification debates and what was meant by that it was very much meant to be much everyone being represented now who had the franchise who had the requirement to or the capability to vote and things like that. That was tied to civil service, right? If you, if you were going to vote, you had to be tied to the fire brigade. You had to be able to be drafted or called up for military service or taxed or some, some form of civil duty was also put there with that.

Gene: 1:16:53

So I, I think that

Ben: 1:16:56

You have to also remember that being a landowner, before when the constitution was originally written, that means you were being taxed. Because if you weren't a landowner, there was no income tax at the time, you were not being taxed.

Gene: 1:17:11

so I, I think that whether in the United States or elsewhere, that there is a, a small minority of people that has the intellectual capacity to make good decisions. For everybody else. And if you leave it

Ben: 1:17:34

I think that's a very fucking presumptive thing to do.

Gene: 1:17:38

it's just true. But if you leave it up to the populace to make a vote and make a decision on literally everything, what you'll end up with is socialism. So if you don't want socialism, then you don't want to have a general vote for everything.

Ben: 1:17:57

Yeah, but if you look at someone like Charles, who is a socialist himself, then it can still go that way as well. And I don't believe in a technocracy being the right thing either,

Gene: 1:18:07

hitting for genetic monarchies. I, I'm saying that it should be based on intellect, not based on heredity.

Ben: 1:18:16

That I, you know, I am all for a poll test. I'm all for some skin in the game, some reason to limit the franchise of voting.

Gene: 1:18:27

Problem with some countries is that instead of having the most intelligent people get to that position of power, you have the most ruthless people getting to that position of power. Effectively, a mob run country. And a lot of countries currently are run that way.

Ben: 1:18:45

And I would tie that into our jury system. You know, our jury system define my peers.

Gene: 1:18:50

mm hmm,

Ben: 1:18:51

How do I have a jury of my peers? Quite frankly, I have a jury of people who are too dumb to come up with an excuse to get out of jury duty.

Gene: 1:18:57

absolutely.

Ben: 1:18:58

That, that, that is not a good situation for me.

Gene: 1:19:03

I was talking to my dad a few weeks back and he got a jury summons and he's in his 80s and and so I'm trying to like come up with ways for him to get out of it. It's like, how about you just mentioned the fact that you had a stroke and you have a problem with remembering short term memory things.

Ben: 1:19:23

Yeah. So see, I'm the opposite. Every time I've gotten a jury summons, I've tried to get on the jury because I've always thought if I ever faced a jury, God, karma is a bitch and I would rather have done it myself and I sure hope there'd be someone like me on the jury.

Gene: 1:19:39

There isn't.

Ben: 1:19:41

Yeah.

Gene: 1:19:42

Nonetheless, I, I've had the same attitude when I was younger. At this point, I don't really want to spend time on a jury, but I'd say up through my 40s. I, every someone's I was excited for cause I was like, yay, I get to be on a jury again. And I only had, I think one actually fun case which was a, in us court, federal courts, and it was a a counterfeit money case. But everything else is just not particularly interesting. And, and you do have to have. Sufficient enough income to be able to be on a jury to where you can miss a week or two of work and not worry about it.

Ben: 1:20:26

Oh, you mean the 2 an hour they pay you isn't enough,

Gene: 1:20:29

So I lost like a buck a day on parking. After the jury fees,

Ben: 1:20:35

which is just.

Gene: 1:20:37

So I had to pay money to be on the jury.

Ben: 1:20:40

God, I, I hate our society so much in so many ways. Right, man. Anything else you want to chat about? I mean, this actually probably isn't that good of an episode because you and I saw each other and thus we talked

Gene: 1:20:53

Yeah, we, we did. So I'm trying to think if there's, did we talk about anything there that we should have brought up on the show today?

Ben: 1:21:01

I know we were playing Spot the Spook when

Gene: 1:21:03

Oh, I,

Ben: 1:21:03

gun show. Totally.

Gene: 1:21:05

were, I wasn't.

Ben: 1:21:06

Yeah, I was like, hmm.

Gene: 1:21:08

the,

Ben: 1:21:09

I tell you what, there were some interesting stuff, like this one woman came by and she was on her phone and she was looking at the guns and my dad who was there too, was talking to her and she she decided not to purchase ours and I'm like, hey, you couldn't have sold, you shouldn't have sold to her even if even if You know, she wanted to, and he goes, why? I'm like she was on the phone with some dude on FaceTime asking questions back and forth. It's obviously a straw purchase, not something we're going to

Gene: 1:21:38

yeah, you shouldn't be doing strawberries,

Ben: 1:21:40

yeah you know, we avoided all that and I, you know, made sure that everything we were doing was as probably tighter than I really think we should have been just because of the Arkansas case, which goes to its chilling effect, which is the problem.

Gene: 1:21:56

It does. No, that's absolutely true. No, I, I do remember one other thing I wanted to mention from the show is that there was a booth there where I ended up spending most of my time, which was the the thermal night vision guy,

Ben: 1:22:08

Mm hmm. And there were definitely some booth babes walking around, too.

Gene: 1:22:13

Oh, really? I didn't see any of those.

Ben: 1:22:14

Mm hmm.

Gene: 1:22:15

But the, this guy had a booth that where he was predominantly selling like thermal stuff. So expensive stuff, and I got to look at a couple of products that I've never seen before in person, which was interesting.

Ben: 1:22:29

Mm hmm.

Gene: 1:22:30

Of course, Ben was giving me the finger every time I point the

Ben: 1:22:33

Gene kept pointing a thermoscope over at me, so I just, you know,

Gene: 1:22:38

Huh.

Ben: 1:22:40

I didn't know if you noticed that.

Gene: 1:22:42

Oh, yeah, yeah. See, it just proves you don't need to have night vision to see things. The details, the thermals work just fine. But but they were both surprisingly low priced. And okay, when I say

Ben: 1:22:55

priced.

Gene: 1:22:56

When I say low price, people are going to be like, you're fucking crazy. But for what they were, so that one of them was a, an IRA thermal.

Ben: 1:23:05

the IRAE one, which I've been telling you about for a

Gene: 1:23:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's what you've been telling me about. It's an IRA thermal laser range finder. So I like, I've got a number of

Ben: 1:23:20

will go back in our text messages and send you the links to the IRAE stuff that I've sent you, but okay. No,

Gene: 1:23:27

you tons of IRA videos. It doesn't matter. It's a, it's this, you never talked about these two products. Okay. Anyway, so one of them was this laser range finder, which also was thermal, which was 640 thermal, by the way, and that was 2600 bucks, I believe. So again, people say, what do you mean cheap? Few thousands of 200 for a range finder. You're crazy.

Ben: 1:23:53

but for a thermal

Gene: 1:23:54

but it's a thermal

Ben: 1:23:55

cheap.

Gene: 1:23:56

and it's, it's compact. It's the same shape as like my, um, Leopold range finder that I have currently except that it's also got thermal in there and that's pretty damn cool. So you can, you know, spot the thing and then immediately get a laser accurate distance towards the thing that you're going to be shooting at. And then the other product was from a brand new company out of China that he is repping now, you know, I've got the guy's card so I can get more info on it, which was a, a rifle scope. That was a combination of thermal and digital light vision and the digital light vision that we've been talking about and that we've both owned has been kind of like the cheaper, you know, four to 500 digital light vision. This is using a large sensor, kind of like a. Sony cameras that is that they can do like full color at night kind of thing. Just a lot more light sensitive. It's still not going to be anywhere near the sensitivity of the analog night vision devices, but having that digital night vision with a thermal overlay. Placed right on top of it

Ben: 1:25:20

Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Gene: 1:25:21

at a three and a half thousand dollar price point is fucking cheap is typically devices that do overlays with both thermal and a vision you're talking 12, 000 for the cheapest and up from that now I Ray and this is the thing that you mentioned makes a device that slaps onto the front of an analog. Night vision system and then adds,

Ben: 1:25:47

are there Gen 2 Plus digital stuff?

Gene: 1:25:51

okay, and then that adds thermal capability as well, but this thing looks like what you would expect it to look, meaning it's one image that has thermal. In color overlaid on the normal image, which could be either in color or black and white, whatever combination of colors you want to choose. But at that point, that is a very good product. So I definitely want to watch some reviews of this thing. But honestly, if, if the reviews are good, I'd probably buy it because I just bought a pure thermal monocular for the helmet mounting for three and a half thousand dollars.

Ben: 1:26:36

Which you still need to get a helmet.

Gene: 1:26:39

I still need to buy a helmet for, I know. Yeah, so I should probably order that soon. So send me, send me a link to the helmet. I'll just get the one you got.

Ben: 1:26:47

There's one on the website, under gear, but I'll

Gene: 1:26:49

Oh, perfect. All right. No, that's fine. I can, I'm capable of going to your website, which is named bend. com.

Ben: 1:26:58

Yeah, yeah. And the Hardhead Veterans is not an affiliate link, by the way.

Gene: 1:27:02

Oh, it's not. So it doesn't matter. They don't have an affiliate program. You checked

Ben: 1:27:06

I don't think

Gene: 1:27:07

check.

Ben: 1:27:08

Someone did purchase a MVG 10, though, using the affiliate code from

Gene: 1:27:12

Oh, nice.

Ben: 1:27:13

set up.

Gene: 1:27:13

All right. Good.

Ben: 1:27:14

whoever did that, cool, thanks.

Gene: 1:27:17

Yeah. Let's I mean, it's tiny amount of money, but still something.

Ben: 1:27:22

Hey yeah. It all, it all adds up to

Gene: 1:27:24

Yeah,

Ben: 1:27:25

you know, help me fund my habits.

Gene: 1:27:28

it's like not, not quite to the level of Darren where he's on the last episode. He talked about how like he was shocked to find that he had like 10 million or 12 million sats in his

Ben: 1:27:41

That, how many sets to a Bitcoin?

Gene: 1:27:44

A hundred million. So

Ben: 1:27:46

Yeah. I mean,

Gene: 1:27:47

yeah, it's like a 10th of a Bitcoin of donations sitting there and he'd been

Ben: 1:27:51

it's still like

Gene: 1:27:51

getting money out. You've been taking money out. It's not like he hasn't been taking money out either.

Ben: 1:27:57

Yeah, so I mean that's, that's, you know, that's something. That's a couple guns.

Gene: 1:28:03

it definitely pays for his Photoshop subscription.

Ben: 1:28:08

I shouldn't fucking hope so.

Gene: 1:28:10

Yeah. That's 600 bucks a year.

Ben: 1:28:12

Oh Jesus, why do you need Photoshop for 600

Gene: 1:28:15

Dude. My, my, this,

Ben: 1:28:16

Good God, use GIMP.

Gene: 1:28:18

my dis oh, fuck him. That's horrible. It's one of the worst products out there.

Ben: 1:28:22

A GIMP.

Gene: 1:28:23

descript is 240 bucks a year that I'm paying for, for editing our podcasts the hosting that you're paying for is like 20 bucks a month. So it's. 200 bucks a year.

Ben: 1:28:34

No, or more.

Gene: 1:28:36

All this stuff does that up. And,

Ben: 1:28:39

luckily we have a few people who are helping us out and it's not all on us. So that's much appreciated.

Gene: 1:28:45

Yeah. And you know, if we can get like one new person that joins. I mean, maybe get up to 12 people over the course of a year. That would be awesome. I, I have no like I hate asking for money and, uh, cause I mean, let's be honest, even if we got zero people, we could still afford to do this podcast. However, sending us money tells us something more important than just financial help, which is that you're enjoying what we're making enough. Put a price on it.

Ben: 1:29:19

And you know, just like some means some of the guys at the meetup the other day, that was good to hear, you know, people say, Hey, really appreciate the podcast. You know, it's a, it's kind of niche, but we, we enjoy it and that sort of thing. Yeah, that that gives us incentive to keep doing

Gene: 1:29:34

The fact that there were,

Ben: 1:29:35

are listening and enjoy what we're

Gene: 1:29:37

yeah. And

Ben: 1:29:38

if not necessarily agreeing with us, enjoy the process and the thought

Gene: 1:29:42

I don't care if they agree at all, but the fact that there were two people at a meetup that had listened to our podcast was pretty cool. Cause it wasn't our meetup.

Ben: 1:29:51

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Gene: 1:29:53

So that's a, that's a good sign. And I think realistically speaking, I think there are a lot of people that do, Maybe not religiously listened to us, not like every week, but they certainly listen to us occasionally and do enjoy the contents. And so an easy way to let us know, yeah, you are enjoying what you're hearing. Or if, if you were enjoying it and now you think we suck, you can let us know by sending us some money as well.

Ben: 1:30:20

The share the podcast, get it out there because if we can get the numbers up, that would be great too.

Gene: 1:30:26

Oh, and then I got to make a plug for my X for my Twitter thing. If you're on X, make sure that you follow Sir Gene TX. Because I'm almost at my

Ben: 1:30:37

you get on that list.

Gene: 1:30:39

sure, but I'm almost at the 500, which is the 500 minimum is what I need to turn on a whole bunch of features in X. Like, I can, I can stream right now, which is great, but I can't there's a few other things that I can't do. So once I hit 500 subscribers, then that all the features will be turned down. So help me out if you're on there.

Ben: 1:31:03

one more thing I want to cover real quick before we wrap it up. Probably the last topic though. Did you see the article I sent you on Google turning over,

Gene: 1:31:14

Yeah,

Ben: 1:31:14

turning over information?

Gene: 1:31:17

yeah, I must say that I always kind of assume that they're doing shit like that, but you know, I mean, I guess this proves that

Ben: 1:31:25

yeah, the problem is though that Google literally, so if you watch certain YouTube videos, the justice department is got your name. Excuse me freedom of speech, first amendment why does it matter what I listened to? Why am I being singled out here?

Gene: 1:31:40

You're free to say it doesn't mean that they don't want to monitor you.

Ben: 1:31:44

that's just crazy, man. It's

Gene: 1:31:46

But again, it's the mentality. It's the mentality of you're all the serfs and we are working for the King. And that's the problem. I think,

Ben: 1:31:58

ahead.

Gene: 1:31:58

no, I don't know that there's a whole lot more to say. It's just, I think if the mentality was different, a lot of, even the things that we take issue with wouldn't be as bad, like if genuinely the only reason the government has monitored anything with YouTube is to prevent child pornography. I would have no problem with that, but we know that that's not the case because even if they say that's what they're looking for, what they're really looking for are ways to use laws to put people in prison that are not doing child pornography, but that are doing something that the administration doesn't like.

Ben: 1:32:40

We should totally go back and re listen to episode 44, by the way, and figure out what we did that episode.

Gene: 1:32:47

Oh, because everybody liked that or there's a lot of people that listen to that one.

Ben: 1:32:50

It's literally

Gene: 1:32:53

It's way above.

Ben: 1:32:54

triple the downloads of most of our other episodes.

Gene: 1:32:57

yeah, that's a good idea. I don't remember what that episode was about, so we should check it out. Obviously, something people shared more than they normally do.

Ben: 1:33:05

exactly.

Gene: 1:33:06

Cool. Alright I don't really have anything else, Ben.

Ben: 1:33:09

Oh 1, 1 last thing. I don't know if this is going to go out in time, but if you're in the San Antonio area, and you can go out and vote for Brandon Herrera, you should because that runoff is coming up.

Gene: 1:33:20

Do you remember when?

Ben: 1:33:22

I think it's this week.

Gene: 1:33:24

Is it really? Okay. I thought it was in May. Or,

Ben: 1:33:28

you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right.

Gene: 1:33:30

I think it was over a month.

Ben: 1:33:32

2024, May 4th. May the 4th be with you. And June 15th, actually, there's two of them. Hmm, yeah.

Gene: 1:33:40

That's weird. But yeah, Brandon is running against a complete rhino, a

Ben: 1:33:46

Which is getting ratioed on Twitter constantly,

Gene: 1:33:49

anti gunner rhino. Mm hmm. And of course, they're portraying him as this crazy gun nut. Who's, you know, has no business being in politics and yada, yada, yada. Even though Brandon is a successful businessman with multiple businesses that he owns

Ben: 1:34:08

yeah, by the

Gene: 1:34:08

and this guy is that,

Ben: 1:34:10

the statute is that the runoff has to happen between May 4th and June 15th.

Gene: 1:34:16

Oh, that's a weird

Ben: 1:34:17

So when is it going to happen for the Republicans? It will be let's see I'm going to have to get, so we have some I will

Gene: 1:34:26

we can tell me to,

Ben: 1:34:28

the Googling real quick did not come up the way it

Gene: 1:34:31

yeah. If you, if you're in the, in Texas from San Antonio and going directly West, that's all,

Ben: 1:34:39

way to El Paso.

Gene: 1:34:41

yeah, pretty much.

Ben: 1:34:42

congressional it's a, it's a congressional district with the most border the U. S.

Gene: 1:34:47

Yeah, it's, it's the one that all the border, border crossings are happening in. So definitely make sure that you get the word out to vote for Brandon Herrera. Cool, dude. Let's wrap her up.

Ben: 1:35:02

All right, Gene, we'll see you later.