Just Two Good Old Boys
We never mean any harm!
Just Two Good Old Boys
114 Just Two Good Old Boys
The media's power to frame narratives affects how we perceive everything from school violence to international conflicts. When a stabbing occurs at a track meet in Texas, the immediate question becomes: how would coverage differ if the roles were reversed? This pattern of selective outrage and manipulated storytelling has become so predictable that many Americans simply tune out, unable to trust what they're being told.
Constitutional rights and their application form the backbone of our discussion as we examine whether the protections outlined by the Founders were intended for all people within U.S. borders or specifically for citizens. The case of a Maryland father deported to El Salvador—who multiple authorities identified as an MS-13 gang member—highlights the troubling judicial overreach we're witnessing, with judges issuing injunctions that interfere with executive powers in international affairs.
What if government positions were filled by lottery instead of career politicians? This provocative idea might actually save democracy from itself by removing the self-selection bias that currently results in leadership by those most hungry for power. As we look at failing systems worldwide, from the troubling authoritarianism in the UK to the shifting stance on Ukraine, one thing becomes clear: citizens who surrender their voice to centralized authority inevitably lose their freedom.
From observations about New York City's surprising gasoline prices and ubiquitous marijuana smell to thoughts on space tourism's questionable marketing, we cover significant ground with characteristic candor. Throughout it all runs a fundamental question worth pondering: At what point does conversation end and the defense of liberty begin?
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How are you Ben?
Speaker 2:How are you today, gene? I am better than I deserve, even though there was a whirlwind trip this week and you were out last week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, half out this week with a freaking cold.
Speaker 2:Yeah, going to Dallas and turning around and coming back in like 30 hours about killed me, that was not the way to start my week.
Speaker 1:I hear you yeah, it's a driver fly.
Speaker 2:I flew okay I flew because well one, I uh Because well one. Last year I missed my status with United by just a couple flight segments and so nope. And the other thing is when I drive, you know it's three and a half four hours. One way that is just lost. If I fly, it's about an hour.
Speaker 1:How is it? Three hours for me and three and a?
Speaker 2:half for you, just the way I got to go, and you're going straight up 35, and I've got to go up 35, east or west depending on where I'm going and everything else, and it also depends on what part of Dallas you're going into. So I was going all the way up to Richardson.
Speaker 1:So there you go. Gotcha Gotcha, but yeah, it's um. Yeah, I mean, my travel last week was fine, but other than that I caught a cold in the flight back. Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 2:I didn't bring enough. Sorry to hear that you're sick.
Speaker 1:That's all right.
Speaker 2:It happens rarely. You didn't bring enough. You didn't bring enough alcohol wipes apparently. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know the approach I take. You just drink alcohol on the plane, so that way you're.
Speaker 1:you know sanitizing yeah, that's, that's true. I but you know I haven't drank for five years now, so I'm gonna start just because I'm flying yeah well, I'm sure people don't care, but uh, it was a productive, uh productive time up there.
Speaker 2:I've got more travel coming that will be pretty interesting. Early part of next month I'll be in DC for a big partnership meeting with a company I used to work for Nice. That'll be fun, I'm sure it's always fun seeing old people, yeah, especially the CEO that I'm not a big fan of.
Speaker 1:But that's okay, it's only a 30-minute meeting with him. Oh, okay, at the World Economic Forum room in New York for a wedding. Yeah, yeah, that was good. The wedding went well, so, and actually the trip was pretty fun. I'm just I definitely got reminded that I can't stay up to 4 am every night and then get up at 9 am the next day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's pretty rough.
Speaker 1:It's pretty rough, no longer in that age bracket where that's an easy thing to do, even though it certainly was in my 20s.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm in an age bracket where that's not easy to do, so I feel you Getting home at 9 o'clock at night on Tuesday wiped me out for the next day. I kind of feel like you were born an old man, so it makes more sense I am born an old man, how house.
Speaker 1:So I don't know, Just the way you talk and the stuff you like.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just older parents, I guess, but yeah, so, jean, did you pay attention to the news at all A little?
Speaker 1:bit, but peripherally what? What's the top thing these days?
Speaker 2:Well, we had a stabbing and we had a shooting and, okay, we had a stabbing in texas, I believe, didn't we yep?
Speaker 1:are the brits coming over, or what?
Speaker 2:because they're usually the ones that do the stabbing no, this was a upper middle class kid and, um you know, both kids were from fairly affluent. You know families and really yeah, yeah, I, there was a racial divide and issue there, but um, and it looks like it was almost purposeful.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, was one of them Mexican? No, it was a black kid and a white kid. Oh, okay, and you know the immediate story was oh well, the fight broke out and he had this knife and you know he didn't mean to kill him, and this, that and the other.
Speaker 1:Which one got killed, the white or the black one? White kid, White kid get killed the white or the black one.
Speaker 2:White kid.
Speaker 1:White kid got killed.
Speaker 2:Got stabbed in the heart.
Speaker 1:That's almost as bad as getting stabbed by a stingray.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, anyway, the video footage of this shows this kid walking around all these tents because it was raining. Um, and the kids represent representation has already said oh well, the school should have canceled the track meet and all this because of inclement weather and like trying to shift blame and do stupid stuff. That dude, that that's not not going to fly. But what's interesting is, you know, the excuse was well, I went under the tent to you know, get out of the rain. Except, you walked around in the rain passing up other tents and walked past this one and then went back to it. So well that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2:I don't know about that Now well, I mean on video, it can be harder to tell. Is the rain getting harder? Was it just?
Speaker 1:light at the time. So how did the guy end up stabbing somebody?
Speaker 2:Because he went to another high school's tent.
Speaker 1:A rival high school's tent.
Speaker 2:And apparently he was told he wasn't welcome there and they said you know, don't touch me, I'm not. You know, f off, I can be here. And apparently this other kid touched him or grabbed him or whatever like there was going to be an escalation of events there and he killed him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, crazy stuff. Yeah, I guess it happens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the interesting thing is there's been a lot of kerfuffles on the give-send-go money and how it's being used and how the family of the stabber is using the money and how the family of the stabber is using the money. They've moved out of their home and into a different home that's not in their name, so they can, you know, stay safe.
Speaker 1:Their house has been swatted. Apparently, Parents are going to sue the crap out of these guys.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're like an Alex Jones $20 trillion lawsuit oh yeah, you're like an Alex Jones $20 trillion lawsuit.
Speaker 2:You always have to pay more for kids because they have a long life ahead of them. Yeah, they have opportunities that have now been taken away. But the interesting thing and the interesting part of this story to me is a lot of the ancillary stuff around it. You know the, the, the people jumping on gives and go for allowing them to raise money. Well, no, gives and go wants to be an agnostic platform and unless, unless they're actively, you know they're raising money for illegal defense, they're allowed to do that. If you don't think they should get that money, don't send them that money, right? So there's a lot of ancillary things around that that I think are interesting. The other thing that I think is interesting is the way people are um, playing. You know the news media is playing the race angle one way, the internet's playing in another, saying, oh, had he been, you know, uh, had the roles been reversed, then you know the, the news media would be saying what, uh, uh wouldn't be defending the stabber, right, probably.
Speaker 1:So yeah that makes sense. Anyway, it's hard to get uh details out of you what the what is?
Speaker 2:this kid doing with a knife at a track meet? Well, that's an interesting question because he's not supposed to have it there no um, now, one of the things I would, one of the things I would say is infringements to your rights to keep and bear arms I think are bullshit. I think weapons should be allowed in schools.
Speaker 1:He's under 18, right.
Speaker 2:You know he is under 18.
Speaker 1:He's 17,.
Speaker 2:So the death penalty is off the table.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean he also has no weapons rights at 17. You know, get those.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, I had a pocket knife way before that.
Speaker 1:So did I, at 10 years old, obviously, but I wasn't stabbing people with it. That's different. Well, regardless the point is we couldn't have to school routinely and no one gave a shit like in junior high and you know, when my dad was in school, they were shooting clubs exactly exactly. They're like what. Johnny, you came to school without a gun. What are you thinking?
Speaker 2:yeah, but you know, I I think that what we need to, what we need to do, is not try and protect our kids from violence by removing tools that you know are going to get in to the school at some point in time, to begin with, because obviously this kid yeah, oh, I think we lost Ben again.
Speaker 1:His motor probably decided to reset, which seems to happen with some regularity during the recording of the shows, but that's all right. He'll be back during the recording of these shows, but that's all right. He'll be back usually in just a little bit when he realizes that nobody can hear him. Right, ben, ben you there.
Speaker 2:Ben yeah, sorry Gene.
Speaker 3:Zoom had an issue on me. Yeah, I figured, something had an issue, that's not funny, yeah.
Speaker 2:Anyway, what I was saying is you know, we need to arm our society, not disarm our society. I was talking about that. I checked a bag on the flight to Dallas for a one-day trip, not because I needed some big bag, but because there was a firearm in there because I wasn't going to go and not be armed I'm cognizant of.
Speaker 2:I'm not walking into a client site packing unless I've been there before and I know they don't have any signs, then it'll be in my backpack. But if they have signs or whatever, I abide and just call it good. But if shit hit the fan and I needed to get home, I would like to be armed. That's my thought.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we both read the book the Gun is an Equalizer. Which book we read more? The book the Gun is an Equalizer. Which book we read? One, the Going Home one.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah. The Going Home series, which yeah. Check in on that series see if there's a new one.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. Yeah, it's a good point, because I think they were coming out with something in the original series, right, not the add-on series, yep.
Speaker 2:Yep. So Anyway, the stabbing is just, it's sad, it's unfortunate. You know what has happened. And then yesterday we had breaking news of a shooting at Florida State.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's unfortunate, but I still would say that, given the population of the US, the amount of shootings that happen for people under 21 is extremely small. You know, people under 21 is extremely small.
Speaker 2:There are more people under 21, mostly females killed in the UK than the US, of course, out there it's legal because you know a lot of muslims well and you know the stabbing death that, uh, the the netflix series is based off of, and everything else they, they put their, they twist it to hide the obvious truth, and the obvious truth is that these migrants are not integrating in.
Speaker 2:There are issues here we need to address either how we force them to integrate in our society and behave, or they've got to go and we're getting to a breaking point. And the sad thing is, in the UK, the people who would normally revolt are now being arrested by their own government.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the UK government has gone absolutely in 1884.
Speaker 2:There's no other way to describe it If you're guilty of thought crime online or anything like that. That doesn't purport to be what Big Brother wants.
Speaker 1:They're showing up at people's homes.
Speaker 2:They're going to come get you.
Speaker 1:Wanting to talk to them aka arrest them for a Facebook post. And it's not a skit by the uh, babylon b.
Speaker 2:No, it's like literally not even the if you literally look like you're in silent prayer outside of a mosque. Oh yeah, that's right, you. You can have someone come up to you and say something. Not that you said anything to anyone, not that that you did anything, but hey, you were silent and bowing your head and had your eyes closed. Were you praying? Well, that could be offensive to someone.
Speaker 1:Well, absolutely the people in charge.
Speaker 2:So this is why we have the Second Amendment, why this is why it is good for the government to fear us.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, absolutely that's. Uh. Anyone who thinks the second amendment was for hunting is an idiot.
Speaker 2:Yes, agreed, mm, mm.
Speaker 3:Yeah so.
Speaker 2:I did uh. What else do you want?
Speaker 1:to say about this and then I got from a listener. Okay, I was gonna just mention, relating to guns, that there was a neat gun that just came out from Springfield that I sent you a video of. Did you watch that, by chance?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, I I didn't watch the video because I'm not in the market and you know it's a neat roller delay package. I'm aware of the gun, though, because they partnered with Strike Industries on it, which is the frame that my gun is Nice.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I was already aware of it. I thought it looked very nice. It's not as cool looking as a Chris Vector, but it's way cheaper. They're saying $1,000, $9.99.
Speaker 2:List which for a Springfield is a pretty damn good price. Yeah, no, it would be a neat little PDW if you don't have one. So I've got two Like made as a PDW, not converted? Yeah, sure, but okay, know, six inch barrel I I okay, I've got a six inch barrel on my uh sig p320, you know, with a comp and I've got it tuned and, like the p320 is as integrated as anything I would want. Yeah, anyway fun stuff. Are you going to get one?
Speaker 1:I really don't need one, but I'll definitely go and look at it For sure.
Speaker 2:You need one, it's a perfect truck gun dude. Yeah, yeah, sure you need one, it's a perfect truck gun dude, yeah, yeah. So in the category of yeah, well then, buy a chris vector too much money, spend the money. No, see you, you call me cheap.
Speaker 1:I'm poor man, I don't have money. I'm cheap, yeah, yeah, yeah, mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:All right, so we got a note. I got a note on LinkedIn, of all places, oh wow. Someone figured me out and messaged me there and yeah, I don't know if he wants his name out there, so I'll just say Steve. But it was kind of a neat note. It really kind of lightened my mood and helped me out a little bit on wednesday in the morning itm I should probably stop being a douchebag yes, you should, but you know it's understandable and donate to just two good old boys I think we're in some of the same circles at different stages of life my late teens.
Speaker 2:Uh, for jack mclam. Anyway, enough rambling, keep up the good work on the show, man, and I'll send a donation asap. And I sent a thumbs up and said thanks, man. How did you know that jack? And apparently he used to be a webmaster, a radio engineer for the broadcasting network. Jack was on. And yeah, knew him and helped him with his radio show and said he was a great man.
Speaker 2:And I said I agree and he was a great friend and mentor. So small fucking world that's the sheriff dude right, yeah, yeah, yeah, Jack McLam.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I just, I know there's a few of those guys you knew, I wasn't sure which one's the sheriff, which one's what.
Speaker 3:Now no that's cool anyway, so he's about your age or he's older than he he's a little younger oh, younger even oh okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So anyway, it's just funny that uh, we have a listener who also knew jack and everything else, so there you go well, it's.
Speaker 1:I mean, it'd be more surprising, uh, if he wasn't a listener, I guess given that okay, you know what I mean. It's like, uh, yes, similar interests, similar, uh kind of interactions with people that'd be kind of like if you knew, um, uh, what's the face? Goddamn, I'm blanking out. Uh, um, goddamn, I'm blanking out Alex Jones. And then somebody says, oh yeah, yeah, I did a thing for Alex. I was like, well, yeah, a lot of people that have similar interests did stuff for with or bought vitamins from Alex.
Speaker 2:Well, I've been taking the methylene blue and I like it.
Speaker 1:Oh, good, good gonna. I forgot to ask you that. I was curious if you were still taking that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm taking it uh every morning.
Speaker 1:I add it to some water and uh, then add in some emergency and you know, so nice so have you uh, a different brand to try as well, because the shit that I was taking has all that combination of other crap in it Caffeine, nicotine and MDMA or whatever. So it's a lot more than just ethylene blue. I wanted to just get some pure ethylene blue as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, what'd you get ethylene blue as well. Okay, what'd you get?
Speaker 1:Ethylene blue from Amazon, or methylene blue rather.
Speaker 2:It's like a so no brand specific.
Speaker 1:Non-descript brand yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean it's See, I don't know if I would order that off of Amazon.
Speaker 1:Brands don't matter that much. All this shit's made in the same factories. I checked on these guys the chinese company but it's made in florida and I know the guys that are making it in florida because I used to be in the business. So it's fine. It does like the fact that they're not paying for marketing doesn't really attract me okay so did you pay attention to the story about the maryland dad that trump falsely deported?
Speaker 1:a little bit. I mean, it doesn't sound like he's just a dad, sounds like he's a major criminal. But you know he was deported.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, right, but the left we. We had Senator Flydown to Maryland to talk to him, and all this. Like you know, they got Flynn on the violation of the Logan Act for having a conversation with a peer on the way into the White House. How is this not like okay?
Speaker 2:this is egregious and at this point we're well, and it's because, you see, there's rules made for you and there's rules made for me, and he's using the rules made for him, which are very different well, I I mean, as, as far as I'm concerned, the Justice Department needs to, because you know, he said in his press statement before he flew down there, he was going to contradict the foreign policy, the stated foreign policy of the United States which is just dead clear and you know, okay, that is a violation of the Logan.
Speaker 2:How many you?
Speaker 1:how many people have done that with, specifically on the left, with all kinds of organizations that we didn't used to think were kosher? How many US senators and I know the answer is quite a few have met up with Nazis in Ukraine Like actual dudes with wearing Nazi insignia and uniforms.
Speaker 2:But were they contradicting the stated policy positions of the united states at the time?
Speaker 1:well, I mean, I guess I haven't read history in a long time. Maybe we were on the side of the nazis for all I know.
Speaker 2:Hard to say, right but our support for ukraine would be the current foreign policy thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nazis and ukraine are good nazis and argentina are bad nazis and Germany are bad, but in Korea they're okay, Got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so before we move off the Maryland dad, let's just be clear. You know he is not from Maryland at all we're national. And he is, and the evidence that he is a member of MS-13 is pretty high when you have the Maryland police saying he's MS-13. You have an immigration judge saying he's MS-13. You have ICE saying he's MS-13. You have a different judge saying he's MS-13. You have the president of El Salvador saying, yeah, he's one of ours and he's MS-13.
Speaker 2:And you know the well, he had an injunction against being deported to, you know, el salvador, because he would face persecution by rival gangs and his uh, his um country because of his gang affiliation, like the fuck. So we could have sent him anywhere else, but we couldn't send him to el salvador, which I think that's whatever judge I don't believe that judges have the constitutional authority to interfere with international relations period.
Speaker 1:I don't think they do either or universal injunctions.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't think universal injunctions are a constitutional thing yeah, but I would be more willing to entertain a judge issuing an injunction against something that the executive branch does domestically. But I have zero possible you know, imagination, for lack of a better term to see how a judge can issue an injunction that deals with international affairs on the executive branch. That is just not in the purview of the us court system. None of it is. Next thing, you know, a judge is going to be ruling on whether the us can declare war on somebody. It's like, no, yeah, you don't get to do that. You, the people, elected somebody cruise missiles around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, turn those cruise missiles around, exactly right. So I think it's a bunch of BS. The one good thing that's coming out of it is we are getting a very good list of activist liberal judges who are trying to rule from the bench instead of doing their jobs, which is making sure that the Constitution is actually complied with, and certainly on the domestic level, not a freaking international one.
Speaker 2:When people are.
Speaker 1:Sorry. This does touch on one thing that you and I have talked about, and I can't remember if we had an agreement or disagreement about which was the idea that are the rights enumerated in the constitution human rights or are they citizen rights? I'm more inclined to say they're citizen rights. I believe there should be a citizen class and then everybody else, and that becoming a citizen should not be, becoming a citizen should not be automatic or super easy. It should be something that you effectively have to make an election to become a citizen and that should entail a granting of certain rights that others don't have, but also certain requirements that others don't have, like serving in the military, for example, in time of war.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you my point of view. The rights enumerated in the Constitution are not rights that are granted to the citizenry. Barack Obama actually said something smart a long time ago that the Constitution is a bill of negative virtues and what he meant by that is it doesn't say what your rights are. It says what the government can't do to your rights.
Speaker 3:So I would say.
Speaker 2:The Second Amendment applies to the government's ability to do stuff to citizens. Government's ability to do stuff to citizens. Now we get into. You know, when we say the people, or we say this, we have to push some of that language out. And you know, um, like the right to habeas hearings and so on, or the right due process.
Speaker 2:I think everybody has the right to do process in this country. Now, what level of due process? That's a different story, but what it comes down to is the answer. Your question is yes. The constitution is talking about god-given rights that are inalienable to any person. What it doesn't do is prevent our uh government from infringing on non-citizens well, and that's the thing is.
Speaker 1:as soon as you walk into customs at the airport, there's a big ass sign that says being in this area effectively removes your constitutional rights. It doesn't say it in those terms, but it effectively says that that they can search anything with no cause whatsoever because you're crossing the border Like your.
Speaker 1:Fifth Amendment rights Within X number of're crossing the border like your your uh, fifth amendment right within x number of miles of the border well, and, and on top of, I was speaking specifically about the border itself, like at the airport. But you're right, I mean that border goes out. What 100 miles, theoretically, that they can stop a car, yeah, traversinging on a highway and then say, yeah, we're going to do a border inspection, but you're 100 miles from the border. What the hell kind of border inspection is it supposed to be? You know, yeah, so yeah, I just I think that there's a. There needs to be more clarity. There's certainly not enough clarity on this, but I would also say that the rights should really be created for the citizens of the country, not for non-citizens. The idea that somebody that you're at war with would have the same rights as the people that they're fighting with simply by entering the country is asinine. That should never be the case.
Speaker 2:Well, I think there are some rights that it is useful to grant non-citizens, like due process. I think is one. Now, some of that due process should be okay, you're here illegally, yes, bye, that's it like. That should be the extent of the due process. Yeah but, if you're here legally, you know, and we try to deport you because we don't like you anymore. There needs to be a little bit more due process, right? Because if you followed the rules, then we shouldn't just change them on you.
Speaker 1:Well, rules are never good to be changed. But also, I think that there's a difference between saying that, yeah, if you entered legally, then you get certain aspects. Well, no, you don't. If you broke the law. It's not. The only time to break the law is not when you're entering. You could also break the law after you're in country and lose your special status, and that's true of people with green cards. It's true of people without green cards that are just temporary residents.
Speaker 1:You're here conditionally. You are in the United States under the laws and jurisdiction of the United States conditionally, with two exceptions One, you were born here, which I don't like. With two exceptions One, you were born here, which I don't like, and two, you actually applied for and took a test to become a citizen Like. That's your two exceptions to not being kicked out of the country. Everybody else, I think, is a.
Speaker 1:They have to justify and prove why they should be here and if they are granted a residency here, whether it's temporary or permanent, there needs to be still a higher level of expectation on them to where, if they, if they fuck up for lack of a better word during that period of time, then they won't get the ability to become citizens. In fact, they'll get kicked out of the country. Most countries do it that way. If you want to be a Japanese citizen, you don't have the same rights as every Japanese person from the minute you get there rights as every japanese person from the minute you get there. You you have to work hard at justifying to the country why they should allow you to become a citizen.
Speaker 2:Well, that's fine but if someone can, if someone commits a you know a crime here after they're in country we'll prosecute them for that crime.
Speaker 1:That's fine and part of that, uh can be expelling them uh, after we've done whatever you know, that's fine, yeah, yeah, but so in agreement, you know I I think until you become a citizen, you have somewhat limited subset of her view, because well, no, your rights don't change, but the government's ability to infringe upon them, should that's my okay, that's another way of saying the same thing I'm trying to say it's it's essentially saying that if you are a full-blown citizen, there is no government getting around your rights like those rights are involuntary, they're, they're yours and they're yours forever, and the government can't fuck with them.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, you see our rights infringed all the time.
Speaker 1:Of course, I watch a lot of videos for entertainment purposes. Of police doing that. Unfortunately, it's entertaining as much as it's frustrating, but it happens all the time. You know police saying well, what? Why are you sitting at this gas station for more than two hours?
Speaker 2:no, you're uh, because I need to. I need to see your papers sir yeah, it's like well, what law am I breaking?
Speaker 1:well, it's not about breaking a law, sir. It's about you being suspicious and I'm needing to see who you are and if you don't comply, then I'm going to arrest you for resisting arrest. I mean, it's just, it's craziness. It's craziness and that's the kind of shit that shouldn't happen for US citizens. I have less concern about that type of thing happening for non-US citizens. Well, yeah, I mean, the police should still always be polite and everything. I just feel like there ought to be less opportunity for them to do that to actual citizens.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, again, I agree that there should be some things that apply to the body politic of citizens here in the us and there should be some who don't. Uh, did you not? Did you watch nick freitas's episode on uh will? Uh will america get a caesar? You should go watch that I'm not gonna replicate it here, is his other buddy here from the podcast there oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and they geek out on the various types of roman emperors and so on, and what's most likely to happen here.
Speaker 1:I wish he had his own show I looked into, he doesn't do anything else, like he doesn't have his own podcast or show or anything else he's only on the maybe they'll, yeah I mean, but they're they're kind of a dynamic duo there, so it works yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it works well. I just like a lot of the stuff that he says is coming from more of a historical perspective, not just a libertarian-minded kind of perspective.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I appreciate the research, the guy does.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he's not a mindless libertarian, right? No, he definitely is. I think oftentimes a lot of libertarians are just well, that violates first principles.
Speaker 3:Well, okay.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree. But the way I think we have to remember is the enemy gets a vote too. Right, you can make your plans, you can say your principles and everything else, but the enemy gets a vote too. And if you're allowing people to just purely use your principles against you, that may be something you have to suffer through, that may be something you have to abide because you don't want to violate those principles. But you should certainly look and assess what you should do and be mindful of it, not just oh well, we can't do that.
Speaker 1:Well, we can, yeah, we maybe shouldn't, and we need to assess it, so yeah, well, and I, I am more of the objectivist school of libertarians and really think that the enemies of freedom are the enemies of us all and they should be treated as such. And it's not a matter of like. We're all just, you know. We have different opinions. No, there's right and wrong, there's good and bad, and people that want to deprive me of my freedom, my liberty, are not people that I'm going to then happily put on a level playing field and provide them with, uh, you know, an equal sort of uh I don't know what you want to call it like equal opportunity, to have them be heard out or whatever. No, fuck that shit, dude, if, if you're trying to work against what I I see as the uh, the principles that that I am for and that embody what America is for then you're an enemy.
Speaker 1:You're not a just a random person with a bad opinion. You're, you're genuinely acting as a bad actor and you should be treated as such. I've said this before I would make an awesome dictator I would yeah, yeah, through sure you would absolutely that there would be no more peaceful protests. I'll tell you that much.
Speaker 2:Mostly peaceful protests.
Speaker 1:It's a very simple question when it comes to initiation of violence. Is initiating violence in order to oppose speech something that you consider, uh, an appropriate, legitimate action? You do great, leave the country, you're done.
Speaker 2:I don't want you here yeah, well, I, I mean, we can say that, but I'm I'm gonna say it, I know you're not gonna say it, but I will say okay. Well, as a member of the generation that grew up hearing violence is never an answer. Violence is never an answer. Violence is never an answer. That's simply just not true.
Speaker 2:And what I would say is people can be doing things and saying things, that they are not engaging in violence against you, but is nonetheless harming you, and at some point conversation ends and no, motherfucker, you're not doing that or saying that, or treating me like that begins well, there's again.
Speaker 1:There's a difference between saying a lot of fucking around. We need some finding out yeah, yeah, but it's this idea that Elon Musk is the most evil person in the world. Therefore, I'm going to damage a bunch of Tesla cars. That behavior should be a lot more than the misdemeanor it's not misdemeanor.
Speaker 3:That should be a ten-year prison sentence.
Speaker 2:A lot of the destruction that we're seeing is, uh, you know, uh, felony vandalism yeah and I think it's uh, you should go even beyond that.
Speaker 1:you know the idea that you have flipped the switch between opposing viewpoints that there's a conversation about and gone towards actual violent actions, which I, I certainly would say being a Tesla is a violent action. Um, although, good luck keying a Tesla truck unless your key is made of something harder than stainless steel, the the cop, the brass keys, copper keys, aren't going to do shit to that shark, but it's jumping the shark. It's saying that what you said is so bad that I'm willing to actually punch you.
Speaker 2:Yes, and at some point in time, that is legitimate. I think they are jumping the shark. I think that's why the majority of people can look at this and say, hey, this is ridiculous. What are you doing? Why would you be acting like this? You?
Speaker 1:could consider to be nonviolent, but that represses your rights, yeah, then I think it is totally appropriate to move things into a more violent direction. But when somebody is just talking about something that isn't repressing your rights, then you're gonna be the one initiating violence in that situation, not the other person, because it's a.
Speaker 2:You know, it's the same kind of thing we're in violent agreement on this Gene.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know we are, but I'm trying to clarify it because I think some people can take you out of context and say well, Ben, just says that you need to start shooting immediately when somebody offends you, and I I don't think you actually support blake, so I think there's a yeah, and so there is clearly a difference in terms of, uh, what justifies jumping that shark, and in my mind, it's things like what is mentioned in the Atlas Shark of the looters.
Speaker 1:Right, so the looter class is, you know, you could argue, are nonviolent, but what they're doing absolutely justifies a violent response, in my opinion, not just a going on strike, as it were, but going on strike that may also cause mass starvation, you know it's. It's like I stopped caring about people who are trying to legitimately, uh, take my rights away. I just don't care about them. Well, I really don't.
Speaker 2:Anyone who doesn't want to read all of Atlas Shrugged or the Fountainhead, at least go read John Galt's speech and Howard Rourke's speech At the very least just read those and then you'll very much understand more what we're talking about, and you can even watch excerpts of John Galt's speech, but the text is better.
Speaker 1:Did you see the movies or not? I only saw the first two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I saw the, they were okay.
Speaker 1:It was somewhat mediocre.
Speaker 2:They just cut so much out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really needs to be a mini series, not a actress they had playing, dagny, wasn't hot enough fair enough, but neither was uh uh and rand either.
Speaker 2:She's not exactly a hot chick no, uh, no, she would be the opposite of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is not, I had I don't know where the hell I put it. I think it probably got lost in divorce or something, but I had a movie poster of um fountainhead, uh, fountainhead, yeah, yeah, yeah with.
Speaker 2:Which the original 1950s Fountainhead movie is good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, with a photograph, a black and white photo, of a young Anne Rand, like in her late 20s probably, and she looked pretty cute. She definitely not like a 10 by any stretch, but she didn't look like a raspy, smoking old lady the way that I was used to seeing her in the 70s, right. You know that's the biggest TV time she ever got was in the 70s, like on Donahue and all these shows.
Speaker 2:Yeah, after the founding of the Rand Institute and everything else, so yes, Now a question for you. Why did men have to put up with that bait and switch from women?
Speaker 1:What Changing the way they look?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they start off looking one way.
Speaker 2:And that is very easy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a genetic I'm joking, I'm going to go through it there's a genetic predisposition that creates a preference in men for women that have a lot of what is a technical term for it that I don't remember, but it's actually. It's essentially excess energy or excess food. So essentially, it's the same exact reason that female peacocks look at the male peacock's tail, and the more ornate and the more cool-looking the peacock's tail is, the more they're going to be willing to get impregnated by the male peacock. I guess that would be. The peahens would be getting impregnated by the peacock. Because what that tale demonstrates is that I live in a place that provides for my nutritional values so well that I can afford to throw away a bunch of energy, a bunch of calories, a bunch of food on something completely useless. With one exception the only use of that tail is to demonstrate the the wealth of the environment that I live in that can provide a good home. So and there's a one word technical term for it in um uh, in biology. I just don't remember what it is but that same concept is the case in a lot of different species and including humans, and that's why men look for certain attributes with women.
Speaker 1:It's not just age. I mean, I'm always kind of being joked about how I like the 22-year-olds, which is true. I think most women look at their peak at about 22, and they start going downhill after that, but it's certainly not true for 100% of the time, it's just generally true. But beyond age, what you're looking for is a certain amount of body fat. That's why the average guy does not like the heroin models that were chic for a while. Those women don't look attractive. They've gone beyond looking attractive into looking unattractive because there's too little body fat in there. Again, it just has to do with the reason for a man getting together with a woman is to create a child. There is no other reason.
Speaker 2:Yes, If a woman has under X amount of body fat, she's not going to be able to get pregnant.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, exactly and it's just pure I'm aware of all this, but I I think you're missing my point and joke, but it's no, no, I I think it's a important topic to talk about because, uh, it's something that has been tried to be at least swept under the rug by feminism. Uh, the second wave and third wave feminism for sure is this idea that somehow men are attracted to feminine, feminine women, and it's they're assigning the cause for that as just, uh, male chauvinism, you know, as something that has no basis, no root in science, but it does. What men are attracted to are features that represent somebody that has good genetics. This is why all humans, in fact, are attracted to people that have very good symmetry left to right in their faces, because good symmetry shows a lack of deterioration of the genetics in that person. Like they probably got hit with less sunlight when they were young. You know their, uh, their parents may have gotten hit with less sunlight. There's, there's been less opportunity for their genetics to get worse, and so that's a universal appeal.
Speaker 1:Kind of characteristics is, is people having good symmetry, um, along the nose, on both sides of their face. And then it's the same reason that men like women with boobs, with like bigger boobs. Why there's a whole industry of implants is because it creates something that men like more, and for women. It's an opportunity to augment what nature didn't give you with something that a plastic surgeon can, and then take advantage of men's built-in genetic-based reaction to having big boobs. And lately it's not just been boobs, because a lot of people are getting ass implants, which is insane in my opinion, but nonetheless, it's addressing a similar thing.
Speaker 1:Which is insane in my opinion, but nonetheless it's addressing a similar thing. You know I can think of that as crazy, but I could also imagine that 50, 60 years from now, maybe 100 years from now, when genetic manipulation and stem cells is very routine for everybody, that the idea of reshaping your body to fit more of the ideal body profile is going to be available. It may be pricey, it may be expensive, not everyone may be able to afford it, but you will absolutely have people that right now would have been getting plastic surgeries, but 50, 60, 100 years from now are going to be getting genetic manipulation and reconstruction for their bodies. I was born a little too short. Not a problem. We can make your legs keep growing even though you're an adult and get you to the height you want. Your face doesn't look symmetric enough? Well, we can fix that.
Speaker 2:You've seen Gattaca right. Yeah, of course, it's a great movie, one of my favorite films terrifying, but it shows tremendous progress that was made by humanity and, unfortunately, at the cost of a loss of humanity yeah, which is why we should be careful on what we do and we should not just say, hey, we can do a thing we should ask if we shouldn't do a thing. You know that's throwing the baby out.
Speaker 1:Like I love the idea that there are pieces of music written for piano and gattaca that can only be played by a person with 12 fingers, like that's really cool, because when somebody's going into that level of dedication that they would actually have more fingers than the normal person, then having something that takes advantage of that is awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get why you think that's cool, but if we look at the history of that, I mean the equivalent of hey, my parents wanted me to be this, so they changed me irrevocably to be this. It's a total lack of freedom for that individual at that point. You were genetically engineered to do this. This is what you're going to do, but I think of the castratos in Italian society, exactly. Literally, parents chose to have their sons castrated so that they could hit verbato notes that no one else could. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely that's evil?
Speaker 1:Well, it is. It is, but there's also justifications for it, like for example no there is no justification for cutting someone's balls off. There is there always is. There, is there, always is. Uh, you know that may have been the only path to their child living a life of wealth instead of poverty okay, I don't want to live my life without my balls I don't either. But you know what? I can't speak for everybody. I I certainly can't speak for all men and say well not a single man wants to live without their balls.
Speaker 1:There are plenty of dudes that we've seen that get their balls cut up. Oh god, yeah the. And I'm like this is where the libertarian part comes. I was like I'm not gonna tell somebody not to cut their damn balls off their own balls, I'm fine.
Speaker 2:If you want to go have your balls surgically removed, then fine. Fine by me, go do it.
Speaker 1:But the problem, I have right right, you're not cutting off your balls, you're cutting off your kids balls the irony is that 20 years ago, if somebody said what you just said, the, there would be a very unanimous reaction like that is just barbaric insanity. That was practiced 200 years ago or more. It's certainly everyone universally would be against it today, but as we've seen in the last decade, there's been a huge resurgence of cutting off your kids' balls.
Speaker 1:Like a ton of moms it seems mostly not fathers, but mostly moms seem to want to cut off their boys' balls, and they all put it under the justification of like well, he told me that he likes playing with dolls. Yeah, I like playing with freaking Star Wars action figures. We didn't call them dolls back in the day, but're basically dolls. It's just for your imagination. How is that something to justify cutting your balls off?
Speaker 1:it's crazy, yeah I, I don't know, I wouldn't no uh, but then you look at thailand, where there's a whole industry based on people getting their balls cut off. You look at thailand, where there's a whole industry based on people getting their balls cut off and other people coming from the west. You know to do things with those people, so it's. I don't know. This is the other thing. Are you telling me that?
Speaker 1:uh, you banged uh some cock in bangkok no, I've never been to bangkok, but I know five people that have been to bangkok. At least one of those five, or maybe two, banging some cockless men are pretty high?
Speaker 2:yeah, I don't know, man, you've seen photos, I'm sure yes, unfortunately, I have been on the internet for more than five minutes exactly.
Speaker 1:and so the bottom line is that, especially in in that country, in thailand, like the way that women, thai women look normally, it's not that hard for a dude to look like that, because they they basically have very little upstairs and small butt. They look like they could be men, you don't know. So I understand why that became popular out there for a tourism attraction.
Speaker 1:I don't I totally agree with you. I totally agree with you. If you want to create an industry based around a fetish, I think that there's always an opportunity to get people that can't get something in their own countries. If you offer that type of thing, like Epstein Island, for example, people couldn't get that in their own countries.
Speaker 3:When are?
Speaker 2:we going to get the Epstein files Gene.
Speaker 1:Never I said this multiple times You're never going to see them, these things. If they were honestly revealed, they would take out major European and american governments. When you have let's do it like 30 of the senate being on that list. Do you think that list is ever?
Speaker 2:sure it sounds good. I think it should. I think it should, along with arrests at the same time of course it should.
Speaker 1:The problem with epstein's list, in my opinion, isn't that epstein, you know, created a list, or that he died in jail before it went public, or whatever. The problem is that they missed a huge opportunity to blackmail politicians from all over the world, or maybe they didn't. But the bottom line is well, all this talk of like well, let's see the list yeah, too many people that are way higher in power and money than us have said no to that question and therefore it'll never come out well, we'll see.
Speaker 2:There's certainly some interesting things about the JFK files that are coming out.
Speaker 1:Your kids may see that list maybe, but certainly not you. And if something comes out before, it'll be just like JFK papers that came out 30 years ago. It'll just be a super redacted, nothing to see here kind of thing that no one's going to believe anyway. Super redacted, nothing to see here, kind of thing that no one's going to believe anyway.
Speaker 2:Um, I mean the jfk files.
Speaker 1:I think we're finding a lot of stuff in them yeah, because everybody's dead already, so there's not the pressure to keep them hidden.
Speaker 2:Yeah but I mean, there's a lot of stuff coming out in the jfk files that have gone to epstein's island when all of them are, you'll have a much higher chance of getting the Epstein files than today. Yeah, sure, I think you know what that. Or if we can take out 30% of the Senate and start over. I'm all for it, like I really think that we need to. I think we need to burn it down, and I think that's one way of doing that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I had a conversation with my 86 year old dad, uh, earlier this week about this topic and and I said, you know, my idea is very straightforward that the we can all agree that the best form of government that we have is the one we've got, but it's also not a very good form of government, and my way to fix it or make it better is to make government be not something that people do by choice, but rather something that they do by lottery.
Speaker 1:Much in the same way that juries become juries by lottery, when people that are in government don't want to be in government, then they'll make less decisions to make things bad for everybody else because they want to get out of there as quickly as possible. The other thing aside from instead of voting for people just to have a lottery system for it is to also have a maximum term of either four or five years, and nobody can. So it's sort of like you've been on juries for 10 times already.
Speaker 2:You're never going to get called to a jury again after that same kind of well, one of the things I would say is a lottery system like that, um, with some vetting, I'm fine with um, what I would also say is take your idea a little bit further.
Speaker 2:Um, if you want to have a say at all, you have to register for the draft, and that draft can either be to go fight in a war, or it can be to lead the country. You don't know which one it's going to be, but you've got to go register for that draft.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing I would say is give the people who registered for that draft the voting rights and say, okay, out of the, the pool for our leaders for the next four years are these people and for these areas, you, you know, go on and you can campaign or not, or do whatever, but vote them in, vote them down whatever Right.
Speaker 1:So you still have some semblance of representation, you're losing the main benefit of a lottery, which is to prevent any kind of special interest pressure, because as soon as you add, even from a small list voting. There'll be groups that will donate money like crazy to get their people in.
Speaker 2:Sure, but they can't If you make it a random lottery up front on who can run, then I think you did the lottery that is far better. That is far better than the self-selected egomaniacs that we have right now, anything is better than that.
Speaker 1:But no, you do a lottery, you basically you have like two teenagers from each state come together and compete in the games. Oh, I like this, you like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think it's a great idea To the death?
Speaker 1:Well, obviously, to the death. What other kind of games is there? We build a tremendous stadium, probably like in Kansas or someplace in the middle of the country, so it's equidistant for people to get to. And then we set up a whole challenging obstacle course with, like fake rain and flooding and lightning and everything else, as they're competing against each other and we have thousands of cameras watching it all and broadcasting it. Uh, you know, it's um. I think something like that would be a great way to determine who should run our government.
Speaker 2:Agreed, but again, I don't think it should just be pulled from the general public. I think it should be enough self-selection of people who want to take it seriously enough to say yes, I will go fight and die for my country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, maybe do the inverse of that right. So if you want to be excluded from the lottery, then you give up your citizenship rights, sure, but I agree with your general idea there, if you know what I mean, I do.
Speaker 3:I do. Let me ask you a totally different question.
Speaker 1:Okay, have you tried pickle juice, lemonade?
Speaker 2:I no.
Speaker 1:Have you heard of pickle juice lemonade? No, okay, I thought it was a Southern thing. It must just be a new thing. So I tried it. I've never heard of it. A few weeks ago.
Speaker 1:There's a number of restaurants, including Popeye's, that are selling it right now. But it's basically just what you think. It's lemonade tasting lemonade with. Take a jar of pickles and pour out about I don't know half a cup, quarter cup of that pickle juice into your lemonade. So it has both the flavor of lemon and sweetness and the flavor of pickled vinegar. Pretty damn good and it seems like a very good kind of warm weather drink.
Speaker 2:I mean I've had various pickle things. I'll have to try that.
Speaker 1:And boy did I have some pickles in New York when I went to the delis out there. I was staying in Crown Heights. If anybody knows what Crown Heights is, you know it's an area with a lot of delis for some random reason A bougie area, Not really, I mean. It's definitely getting more so, but I wouldn't call it that. Right now it is the second largest population of Hasidic Jews in New York.
Speaker 2:Ah, those should be avoided at all costs.
Speaker 1:For anti-Semites sure yeah.
Speaker 2:Totally just Uh-huh, but the you never know when they're going to pop out of the ground man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know, I was very careful when I was walking on the sidewalks because there could be one popping out of the ground at any moment Exactly, you never know. And uh, but I did have my, my taxi driver, my uber driver, whatever you want to call him, chauffeur dude, uh, on passover. As soon as I got in the car, his first question was like what? You're not? Uh, you're not celebrating passover, you're not doing sabbath, what are you doing? I'm like I'm going to a wedding, but yeah, there's certainly a lot of generalization that you can talk about there.
Speaker 1:My niece kept bitching about how these, these Hasidic Jews don't watch where they're going and they're like crossing streets and you know, walking from the cars and stuff, and every time she looked like she was about to run over one, I had to point out to her that he has a walking signal. What are you doing? You're? You're trying to run on the red light or turn on the red. He's trying to cross the street when it says walk. So it was pretty funny Cause, uh, in her mind they're all just getting in front of her car. But the reality was a little different. But anyway, I was starting to talk about pickles, because that's the one thing that you start seeing in delis in New York that you don't even see in delis here, right here, if you go to a deli and there's some decent delis oh, and, incidentally, katz opened up in Austin. I need to go check that out because they were only in Houston. I don't know what that is, katz Deli. Okay, it's a Jewish delicatessen, but anyway, most delis have pickles, right, so you can buy either a whole pickle or sliced pickles or whatever, but they're just one type of pickle.
Speaker 1:In delis in New York, you can have a variety of pickles that you can buy. There. You have the traditional sort of you know, kosher dills, and then you've got the what we refer to as low-sol or like just starting to brine pickles, which tastes quite different. You've got pickles that are meant to be eaten with meat and then you have pickles that are meant to be only eaten by themselves. So there's an interesting variety of pickles available out there, but pickle juice was not available in any of these places, which I thought was interesting, but is available down here in Austin. Okay, things you learn. What do you know the more you know Exactly. What else did I miss while I was gone?
Speaker 2:What do you? I mean? I, I mean, I didn't like you said.
Speaker 1:I didn't really pay attention to the news for about a week, so basically fuck-off stance to these judges on these international issues.
Speaker 2:And the Supreme. Court did rule that if he were freed and he was able to come back, that the administration should facilitate his return. But you know they agreed that no, we can't, our we cannot force el salvador to give him up.
Speaker 3:So yeah, and he's in prison for violating their own laws.
Speaker 2:it's absolutely the the, the insanity, the the way the left keeps choosing these hills to die on that are, just quite frankly, utterly insane. I don't know what to do except go good, keep doing it, let them talk, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is insanity. It is absolutely insanity. There's no two ways about it. This is absolutely insanity. There's no two ways about it. They literally go off of the opposite of whatever Trump likes, regardless of whether Trump is right or not, Like they just take the opposite position. They've really taken to heart being the loyal opposition, even on matters that don't require an opposition.
Speaker 2:I don't know if they're being loyal or if they're being just morons.
Speaker 1:I say the term loyal opposition meaning somebody that has no direct opinion of their own other than to oppose anything the other side is doing. That's kind of the loyal opposition definition. They're not loyal to you or the country. They're loyal to the fact that they will always oppose, no matter what.
Speaker 2:Fair enough.
Speaker 1:Should I get Beef Forma? I'm sorry, should I get Beef Forma or?
Speaker 2:Euro Beef Forma. Okay, I've got to go pick up a Sam's order here in a little bit. I was getting food while I was out.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean, I don't want to interrupt the flow of conversation, it's just I realize what time it is.
Speaker 2:I need to order food, so yeah, we're doing for those who don't know. We're recording this in an evening and trying to make it. Traditionally it's in the mornings, but yeah they were east you know, easter weekend so, and we didn't want to leave y'all two uh, two shows like darren with his you know choice to have all kinds of medical things done to him, like what? Is he?
Speaker 1:thinking he should have done the podcast instead he should have.
Speaker 2:I don't know what you know whatever it is what it is.
Speaker 1:Um, so yeah, I I just being in new york. Well, there's a. Let me give you a little more about new york than while you're thinking of other things I missed. Uh, did you know that their ubers are cheaper than ours?
Speaker 2:but how so?
Speaker 1:well, by the hour, which is really the only metric that matters to the driver and to the company is how long is the car going to be busy for a certain amount of money. So, if you like, my ride from the airport to the house was 45 minutes and it was about 55 dollars, so a little more than a little more than a buck a minute, like, let's say, a buck 25 a minute. When I arrived in austin, my ride of 10 minutes was 32 dollars. Now that that's about three bucks a minute, and these are for the equivalent class of vehicles, everything else being the same, and I took a bunch of uber rides. I think I spent about 300 bucks on ubers in new york, but, but I spent a lot of time in the ubers. I mean, it's not, it wasn't 300 bucks for 10 minutes worth of service, it was for hours worth of uber rides.
Speaker 1:Um, where it's not cheaper is by the mile.
Speaker 1:But I don't think by the mile is a fair way to compare it, because did you know I did not know this until I saw it did you know that the maximum speed limit on the entirety of manhattan and pretty much most, if not all, of brooklyn, is 25 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:What 25 miles an hour? Those streets with like six or seven lanes on them, you're not allowed to drive more than 25. Okay, it's you know, don't ask me, but at those speeds it does take a half hour to go five miles. And so, by the mile, the Uber is a crappy value because you're doing five miles and it takes you half an hour or longer and that half an hour ride is going to be like 30 bucks, 35 bucks, but. But if you look at it by time, which is the real metric that you know both the guys driving in the company, the uber company and taxi companies look at, is the cost per hour, and the cost per hour is definitely higher in Austin than it is in New York. Another thing that surprised me in New York, guess how much gasoline or how much gas stations were charging for gasoline Five bucks a gallon Nope 220 a gallon.
Speaker 2:Wow, hey, that's comparable.
Speaker 1:I know that's comparable. I know that's what I thought I'm like. Holy shit, how about what I'm paying here?
Speaker 2:So that was. That's shocking.
Speaker 1:I know, I agree. I agree Because I thought it would be like California, which is five bucks, but it's not For whatever reason. Gas is cheap out there, but it's not for whatever reason Gas is cheap out there. Now, I didn't get into too much detail on electrical pricing, but it sounded like it actually was very comparable to Austin. It wasn't particularly high.
Speaker 2:Austin's pretty high for the state, though it's true, true story.
Speaker 1:Here's something that was absolutely two to three times more expensive than austin, and that is the cost for drinks I don't think I saw that whole tax. Is that what it is? I didn't see a single drink for less than twenty dollars yeah, like there's that whole tax thing yeah. Yeah, it must be, because I don't really drink anymore, but it still seemed like all the drink prices and menus were crazy high, like you could get a steak meal for $35, $40, and then you would get a single martini for that for $35, $40.
Speaker 1:And then you would get a single martini for that for $20. Like what I'm used to, martinis being like $7, not $20.
Speaker 2:So that was a Depends on where you're at, though, too.
Speaker 1:Yes, but I'm going to comparable types of places both in Austin and and in new york. Um, same steak price, just different price. And drinks is my point, I guess. Uh, food quality very good, but I expected food quality to be very good every place we went, both restaurants and catered meals, and everything was very tasty, very much top quality. But I kind of expected that to be the case. The weather absolutely sucks in New York. I don't know why people live there. It rained and it was between 30 and 40 degrees every day. I mean, it was basically from slushy weather to just starting to warm up weather I don't know why anyone would want to live in new york.
Speaker 2:It smells, I don't.
Speaker 1:I really don't um and you know having relatives that live there.
Speaker 2:It's like you people are crazy yeah, I mean new york city smells like especially in the summer, like rotten milk right, so smell that's a good, good point to bring up.
Speaker 1:Uh, new york definitely has a smell right now. It's not, it's cold, right, so there's no rotting anything smell, but it smells, and you'll recognize the smell, like burnt tires.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm talking about. I do. Why does?
Speaker 1:it smell like burnt tires. It smells like marijuana, because it's legal in New York City and every fucking person is puffing on marijuana.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, if you're going to live in New York City, you might as well.
Speaker 1:There's a haze just kind of hovering over New York from all the exhaled marijuana breath. You know I'm used to smelling that if I go to a music concert or something or one of those places hippies hang out. I'm not used to that smell just like in every fucking part of the city. I'm not used to that smell. Just like in every fucking part of the city. That is definitely a more recent, I think, smell of New York. What?
Speaker 2:else I don't know. Do you want to get back to the news?
Speaker 1:Well, this is news. I mean, I'm doing a report from abroad, report from a different country.
Speaker 2:You got items, let's let's talk about them well, so today, one of the things that came out and I think you'll like this, I think you'll like hearing this but the trump administration said if there aren't significant moves in the ukrainian peace talks soon, they're going to walk away from them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard that. I'm not sure what that means, though. Are they going?
Speaker 3:to walk away from negotiations.
Speaker 1:Are they going to walk away from giving Ukraine money, or where are they going to walk away from?
Speaker 2:I think they're going to walk away from Ukraine.
Speaker 3:Hmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I could see, see that interpretation.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure that is what they meant, though what do you think they mean? You think they're gonna double down and go into war with russia?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I think they're. They're saying that we're gonna stop trying to play peacemaker and negotiate and we'll just go back to the status quo, which is we don't really do anything or talk about it. We just keep sending weapons to ukraine. I don't think we're going to keep sending.
Speaker 2:Not happy with russia either.
Speaker 1:Right, they're not happy that russia isn't jumping head over heels trying to negotiate a peace. Um, which would be shocking if russia did, because russia's winning big time right now. They're capturing territory at a much faster pace than they've ever been able to capture it, so it's a it's a bad time for russia to stop advancing, because that's what they would be doing. It's not a well peace, it's a stoppage of advancement what?
Speaker 2:what needs to happen is advancement. What what needs to happen is okay. If that is true and I believe, like you, that it is why is zalinski not begging to get the peace talks done, even without a ceasefire or anything else, and make concessions and stop this? Well, because he's always wanted to work. Because, okay, but if you don't, if you don't make concessions and get that in writing and stop yeah um, then guess what the odds of the entire country getting walked over?
Speaker 1:pretty high. But but I think zelensky is willing to sacrifice the country of Ukraine just to get involvement from European countries to attack Russia. Like Ukraine was always a pawn in this, it's a throwaway piece. But I think it's even a throwaway piece to Zelensky Because the way that he's made all his money is by doing the bidding of the neocons, which he's always done, and that bidding had nothing to do with Ukraine, or at least, let's say, very little to do with Ukraine, and it had a lot more to do with the repartitioning of Russia for American interests, for American interests.
Speaker 1:And so it was never about quote-unquote saving Ukraine, because Ukraine did everything it possibly could to get to the point of being attacked by Russia. They broke every treaty. They kept shelling people on the eastern side of Ukraine who are ethnically Russian. I mean, if there was, if this was any other country, it would have been called ethnic cleansing and genocide. But because they're russian people, well, who cares doesn't matter. It's not ethnic cleansing or genocide, it's well, I mean, I agree with ukraine fighting for their own good.
Speaker 2:Neither what nothing I was making a joke yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's um.
Speaker 1:So I think, in as much as uh previously, to trump biden that said you know we'll, we'll keep fighting russia until the last ukrainian. Um, I think zelensky is of the same mindset that they'll keep fighting until the last ukrainian, because he's not fighting for ukraine, he's fighting for his handlers in the US.
Speaker 2:Well, anyway, it'll be interesting to see what the Trump admin does. My interpretation is that they're going to say ah, fuck it, Russia, do whatever you want, we're done. We've spent enough money. We've tried to help them. They don't want to listen. Fuck it, we're done. We we've spent enough money we've tried to help them. They don't want to listen.
Speaker 1:We're done well, yeah, but there's also a um nuclear option that they could do. What's that, uh, that europe could do? Who I mean by they is europe, uh, europe, if they, if they feel like the United States has just given Ukraine to Russia, and I don't know why the hell most of Europe, or at least the EU probably not necessarily the people in Europe, but the government of Europe why they've got such a stick up their ass for Russia, but I think they're extremely likely to move European troops into Ukraine unilaterally and place them in an active fighting combat zone and then the first actual attack or death coming as a result of russia, they're going to point the finger at it and say see, this is what we've been warning everybody about, even though it happens in ukraine. Um, and this is now a nato war, and so every NATO country, including US, has to now defend other NATO members. Yes, we happen to be fighting on the territory of Ukraine, but we were the ones that were being attacked and we're the ones that are part of NATO. It's a way to get the US kicking and screaming, you know, through NATO into a hot war in ukraine.
Speaker 1:I think this is their nuclear option and this is something that they are right now considering the optics of doing okay. Now I again I don't know why I really like these countries. 15 years ago, 10 years ago even were content with trading with Russia as a large trade partner, buying cheap resources like oil from Russia, selling European goods to Russia. And now they've given all of that up, their economies are shit and now they're willing to have nuclear war. I don't really understand what led them to that, but I think that's kind of where they are.
Speaker 2:I don't think that that's. I mean, that may be where the government and the elites who think that they are just going to be just fine and dandy are but, I, don't think that's where the people are.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's where the majority of the people are at all, but I think Europeans have ceded control of europe to their governments in the matter that they can't take back sort of a french style revolution. We're more likely to see the uk and france become caliphates officially and institute sharia than we are to see the ethnic people of france and the uk retake their own countries back.
Speaker 3:I think that's a lower percentage odds well I'm not the uk listeners and the eu listeners.
Speaker 2:Get off, you know. Get off your ass yeah, I just.
Speaker 1:I think part of the problem is they've been conditioned for the last 50, 60 years by the us being the parent figure and being in charge of protecting them, to just not be self-deterministic. They're just used to doing whatever somebody tells them to do, and that includes both the governments of europe and the uh citizens of europe well, we'll see.
Speaker 2:So anyway, we'll see how that turns out.
Speaker 1:Well, we know I think that there's a way forward and there could be a peace settled, and all that needs to happen right now is an offer to russia with conditions, because everyone kept saying unconditional, unconditional. You can't have unconditional peace, because that's called rearming ceasefire and nobody wants that. Well, that's not true. Russia doesn't want that. Ukraine certainly does want that. They want to have a ceasefire while they're rearming.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean Ukrainians are drafting children. They lower the age.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Ukraine's population is less than half of what it was three years ago.
Speaker 3:Wow Now the amount of.
Speaker 2:Ukrainian women out there looking for help is astonishing.
Speaker 3:Yeah amazingly, Ukrainian women have had no problems whatsoever leaving Ukraine.
Speaker 1:They seem to be inundated with offers to leave ukraine. Yeah, uh, now I this could be propaganda, but what I've, the word I received from russia is that, uh, they have the highest numbers of volunteers signing up for military service right now than they've had in the last three years. Everyone thinks the end is close and they want to get on their $50,000 bonuses for joining the military and then serve the least amount of time possible because things are coming to an end, and so right now, where there may very well have been a difficulty in getting additional soldiers for Russia, is definitely not the case right now. Right now, I think there's a lot of people that maybe were a little above the standard draft age that are going to be willing to go back in order to get that check for 50 grand yeah, so real quick, just to bolster my own opinion.
Speaker 2:Uh, here bloomberg is reporting that the us is planning to recognize crimea as russian territory officially, so that would again go to my analysis of hey, screw it, we're done here.
Speaker 1:I think if the US recognized Crimea and the three separatist districts that officially voted to become part of Russia, if the US did that, it's going to be hard for European countries to oppose that. They still might. They don't refer to the Gulf of America as the Gulf of Mexico or the other way around. They don't refer to the gulf of america as the gulf of america. They still call it gulf of mexico in the uk and eu.
Speaker 1:Um, they've said they have zero plans to change that which is so stupid, because it's the gulf of america literally means the american continent, not the united. It's not the gulf of the united states of america it's actually more immersive.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, it's more inclusive.
Speaker 1:What the fuck? That's the kind of shit that they would be pulling, but of course now they don't want to because trump did it all right.
Speaker 2:So last, last, last topic. I want to bring up the blue origin, katie perry the goddesses launch. Yes, the penis launch, the penis full of goddesses, yes well, no, she said when the the recording, when, when she they were looking at the moon. Instead of uh, oh my god, it was oh my goddess oh, yeah, and she was wearing a fucking baphomet outfit Like what the fuck.
Speaker 1:You can't make this shit up.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You think Baphomet is a goddess? No comments, but anyway, it's just. It's crazy to me, dude that this is.
Speaker 1:To me the part that's funny is just how fake the whole thing looks.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying you there are a lot of people asking if this was faked. I know there. There are a lot of people saying that this looks faked it looks totally fake.
Speaker 1:That's like they didn't.
Speaker 2:They didn't have the live stream from orbit like they did uh you know well, they didn't even orbit, right they just go up when bezos went, yeah yeah, but they didn't have that.
Speaker 1:They had video later and the video looks like the video is basically them throwing a bunch of toys around while looking into a selfie camera, like they're all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know their phones, I'm kind of surprised that not none of them took a a dildo with them and did something like that, based off of their attitudes and actions.
Speaker 1:But dude, the whole rocket is a dildo, it's. It is the most ridiculously shaped phallic rocket ever. It's basically bezos's penis rocket, come ride the bezos penis. I mean rocket, and oh, and did you see chat? Not even, not even grok chat. Gpt, when asked, described the bezos rocket as barely more than an expensive amusement ride. Like that's the definition of it and it's totally what it is.
Speaker 2:I mean it goes up. You're not even reaching orbit no, no, not really.
Speaker 1:I mean, they're pretending they are, but not really, it's certain. Like would I like to do it. Sure, I'd love to look out of a window and see the curvature of the earth. That would be a fun thing to do. But please, you can't refer to yourself as an astronaut after doing that. And that's essentially what they're selling. They're like go be an astronaut, ride our space rocket now, unlike what musk did, because you saw, last week there was the first ever um polar orbit rocket private launch yes, with people who were not astronauts, so that was a genuine record they went yeah, they did several orbits around the earth, absolutely in in orbit, before coming back down.
Speaker 1:That's way more than the amusement ride and the fact that even of official astronauts there's been just like you can count on one hand probably the number of people that have done a polar orbit in a spaceship. It's a very small club, so like that's actually cool. What bezos did is kind of it's the weakest version of anything that you could call a space uh ride.
Speaker 2:So anything else on the rocket front no, I just think, uh, it's very interesting to see what's what here. You know, I I think I think, looking at some of the footage and what was said, it's just egregiously like, it's just it's. I would have been, it would have been better if god would have just smoked them. You know, that was a thing before the flight.
Speaker 1:A number of people said this oh yeah, is that?
Speaker 2:does bezos want to get rid of his girlfriend? Yeah, did they not get married?
Speaker 1:no, okay, engaged yeah that that chick has the most expensive boob job in the world, apparently what does spending more like okay and?
Speaker 1:it's probably made of genuine boobs of other women or something, I don't know. Uh, the. The thing that was so fucking funny to watch, too, is that when they landed right, uh the, the girls open the door up because they want to get out and take selfies with everybody and talk about how cool what they did is. And so they open the door up and are immediately toward no, no, no, no, no, jeff will open it for you. And so they had to reclose the door to the capsule. And then there's Bezos walking with his giant wrench to free the women from their confinement in his penis head, and then he goes and opens up the door. I mean, it's again. I'm not saying it was fake, but my god, did they go out of their way to try and make it look fake? Yeah, I agree, it is nuts way to try and make it look fake.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, it is nuts. Anyway, regardless, it was interesting. Their reaction to it.
Speaker 1:I think is interesting in telling there you go yep, all right, well, with that, I guess we can wrap things up. Hopefully I don't sound like uh, like my oh, you sound like you've eaten a frog yeah, yeah, it's kind of what I feel like.
Speaker 1:I feel like there's something in my throat trying to climb its way back out. Uh, not a pleasant feeling, to be sure. But uh, hey, first cold flu. Whatever it is, I don't know what it is, but it's the first one I've had in three years. So I can't, I can't bitch too much, as rare as these things happen well, I hope you get to feeling better, gene. Well, thanks, ben and you have a good flight if you're doing that before our next show shouldn't be taking any planes next week, but we'll see, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll be in DC the week of the 5th and then I'll be in dc. I'll be in dc the week of the the fifth and then I'll be in dallas the week of the the next week.
Speaker 1:So like I'm, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be busy we gotta do our uh get together one of these days too, because I've been saving up shit to give you for like a year same here.
Speaker 2:I've literally got a box that sits here with stuff in it for you, yep yeah all right man, later all right man later.
