Just Two Good Old Boys
We never mean any harm!
Just Two Good Old Boys
118 Just Two Good Old Boys
The Second Amendment faces a pivotal moment as Congress considers legislation that could fundamentally reshape gun rights in America. We dive into the House's passage of a bill that would remove suppressors from NFA regulation, potentially eliminating the onerous $200 tax stamp requirement that dates back to the 1930s when it represented the equivalent of $4,000 in today's dollars.
While optimism runs high among gun rights advocates, we explore the political realities facing this legislation in the Senate, where even Republican support remains uncertain. Beyond suppressors, we discuss the potential for short-barreled rifles to see similar deregulation and rumors that Trump plans to issue mass pardons for non-violent gun offenders if re-elected—a move that could restore Second Amendment rights to millions of Americans.
The political landscape shows troubling signs of instability as we analyze the implications of Biden's leaked Axios call and sudden cancer announcement, with staffers reportedly lawyering up as questions mount about who's actually running the country. These revelations, combined with recent politically-motivated violence including the targeted shooting of Jewish Americans, paint a concerning picture of growing domestic tensions.
As Memorial Day approaches, we reflect on what freedom truly costs—not just those who died in foreign wars, but those who've defended liberty at home, sometimes against our own government. From Ruby Ridge to Waco, these historical touchpoints remind us why the right to bear arms remains fundamental to many Americans' understanding of liberty, even as our nation grapples with difficult questions about political violence, gun regulation, and the future of constitutional rights.
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all right. How are you doing today? Doing good. Hopefully, the first portion of our conversation is not part of the podcast we'll find out gene.
Speaker 1:Uh, that is a very good way to get me to never that's a good way to get you to be all cheery and happy. What's going on?
Speaker 2:you sound chipper, oh, I've just uh been up since 4 30 this morning been up, I see. Well, you wish me a happy birthday, it's your birthday oh, happy birthday thank you, I did not know yeah I'll have to take note.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and for anyone listening, it's my birthday on whatever day you're listening, just FYI. So feel free to send us some more donations, because you know those are always good. I will say it looked like we had somebody drop off on donations and we had somebody else come in, which is the way it's supposed to work. You know, we don't expect anybody to be donating forever, but we certainly appreciate everybody who does. Hopefully they enjoy the content, they enjoy the show. Um, I also kind of feel like, with the um, uh, all the ups and downs in the economy, as it were, and and questions on what's going on, and bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin going down 25, then going back up 35, like all of that is causing, I think, uh, more stress to everybody. But in times like this, when people still want to support us, I I think that says a lot I, I agree and uh, it's appreciated.
Speaker 2:It helps this not cost us to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, it's a we already put in the time and efforts to. Uh well, you do anyway, you. You read stories. I mostly don't, but you know that's a different issue.
Speaker 1:It is a different issue. I talked about it on uh there on my other podcast on relenting uh briefly as well, and we talked about it last week. But I just kind of feel like I've been doing politics, politics, politics for over a year, starting pre-election, and there there's definitely been some burnout that I felt, um, like I I probably get on twitter or x these days, maybe once a day. I used to be on it once an hour and I think that was my biggest um place where I got news stories where you know politics is the main topic. Uh, and cutting down on the amount of time I spend on X, I think has reduced my, my sort of default stress level a little bit. Um, because if you don't get on there, you're not part of the arguments, you're not part of the, the sort of um, what's the phrase for it? You know the pitchforks crowd.
Speaker 2:Well, you're not part of the echo chamber, well, that?
Speaker 1:yes, exactly exactly. Because in that echo chamber and you have to recognize it exists on both sides. It's not just like the liberals have an echo chamber and the conservatives don't. There's definitely an echo chamber on both sides and it's fun sometimes to just hang out with people that think exactly like you. But it also gets to a point where I mean, okay, we think alike. It doesn't mean we have to keep talking about it every single minute, that I, I'd love to see more stuff happening on the x. That was apolitical, that was uh, you know, just on other other topics like science or dames or whatever well, the type of stuff I watch on youtube.
Speaker 2:I don't know what feed you have, but mine is mostly childish jokes.
Speaker 1:Yes, that would be appropriate for you. Yes, mine is not. Mine is probably about 90% Trump, people that keep talking about Trump every day and about 10% sort of ironic humor 10%.
Speaker 2:What Ironic humor. Yeah, that would be appropriate for you.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, it's the growing up watching BBC comedies. That's where I got it.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that was the. Yeah, I'm not going to make the joke. Never mind, I'll hold back on the BBC joke.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, you hold your BBC while we keep going with the show.
Speaker 2:Oh man, so a bit has happened since we last talked. Which bit? It's been about a week. Well, do you want to start with the shooting or the bill?
Speaker 1:Let's start with the bill, because I'm going to rain on that parade, so we could start on that one. So there's been a bill that's passed that I never thought would be passed in my lifetime, which includes a removal of silencers, and Ben's about to correct me.
Speaker 2:Are you?
Speaker 1:going to correct me, are you okay? Okay, the original patent said silencer, all right. Well, let's stick to that then. Not suppressors, uh. But it removes silencers from the nfa, makes them totally legal, which they always should have been and, frankly, are. It's just you have to pay a 200 bill and have the government go through all your yeah yeah, all through your materials, to give you a yay or nay. Uh, now you won't have to if it's finished passing the senate, which it won't but, um, I I don't know that.
Speaker 2:I think it actually may I.
Speaker 1:I've called my guy and he is very much an old rhino-type Republican, so I don't know what it's going to do. My guy is the same as your guy, cornyn.
Speaker 2:Well, cornyn and Cruz, yeah, and Cruz will be for it.
Speaker 1:Yes, cruz will be for it, but Cornyn won't be because he's already done anti-gun shit. Yeah we've got to get rid of cornyn. We do in texas, I agree. I don't know why we keep reelecting. Yeah, I told you my office was right across from his right no yeah, so when I lived in dallas um, I was uh, and that's why we keep reelecting him.
Speaker 2:By the way, is dfw?
Speaker 1:yeah yeah, it's definitely dallas uh, I ended up getting an office. Uh, I was a regional director for company down there security firm and ended up we were hiring more people so we needed a bigger space. So I I found office space. Uh, that was in that same building that he's in, which is a great building right off of, not George Bush, it's off the. Where's George Bush?
Speaker 2:It's the road, the turnpike.
Speaker 1:It goes between Frisco and the downtown.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's George Bush. It is George Bush, yeah, yeah, it's george bush, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's total yeah.
Speaker 1:So uh found uh a great building there. It's a health club downstairs, uh it's. It's a neat building, nice looking building and an office on the top floor of the building and it's, you know, floor to ceiling glass. So it was a great view. And right across from that, from that, was uh corner's office. So if you go look at where corner's office is, uh, that's literally the building and the same floor that I was on, uh when I was up there.
Speaker 2:well, very cool, but, um, I think we do have a good chance of the Hush Act staying part of the bill.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Because it's already passed. That's not how that works.
Speaker 1:The Senate will pass their own bill.
Speaker 2:They'll go into reconciliation.
Speaker 1:At which point then? Then it's once again going to be in arguments can we convince the senate to include it, or is the senate going to convince the house to exclude it? And and this is where I just don't have I I don't think we have the votes we will see.
Speaker 2:Um, I think the hushush act staying in the bill is a much better chance than the short. The short bill getting in, which is removal of SBRs from.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's not going to get in period. Yeah, it really should, though. Yeah, yeah, I think it'd be great if they got them both taken care of and then they couldn't work on machine guns after that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is where Vance can really play a pivotal role, Because even if it comes down to a 50-50 vote in the Senate, Vance can move that needle right.
Speaker 1:I think we'll have probably four Republicans minimum that will vote against that, because there are plenty of anti-gun Republicans, especially in the Senate. They're all gung-ho to send young men to war but they God forbid those same exact people, when they get home, are allowed to have a gun.
Speaker 2:Defend themselves. Yeah, you know the SBR rule is such a bullshit rule Completely. It was added in historically because they wanted concealed weapons. They wanted to get rid of concealable weapons, yeah. And short barrel rifles, when the NFA was passed, weren't really a thing, yeah, so that's why they were able to get that through. They really wanted to get rid of handguns. They wanted to put handguns on the NFA, but that was just a non-starter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Well, the whole NFA. If you look at it in the context of when it was passed, and especially if you watch some of the videos of the debates back then, if you watch some of the videos of the debates back then, uk Gene, it was well. I still get that stupid cough left over from my cold. I don't feel bad, but it's still stuck in my throat.
Speaker 2:I'm right there with you. I've been coughing for weeks as well.
Speaker 1:It just will not go away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if I actually cough, actually cough, cough, I'll hit the the mute button so that you guys can't hear me. But if I'm just clearing some phlegm maybe I won't do that. But anyway, uh, it was a knee-jerk reaction to just simply say to the public yes, we know that violence is getting kind of extreme and, look, we're doing something about it. This was literally the only thing that they could think of to do was to pass this stupid law that affects every single American, to account for the less than 1% of Americans that were having issues with gang, with gang violence well, and something on this is thank god for inflation right, because the 200 tax stamp now is not as big of a deal as I think it was equivalent to about four thousand dollars back then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:So this you know people think, oh, 200 bucks, but you got to think in terms of 1930s dollars. Yeah, and holy shit, was that a tax?
Speaker 1:it was very much meant to the. The reason I think and I don't have evidence, this is my, my conjecture here is I think the reason it had a tax amount at all was simply because they were saying they could do it legally.
Speaker 1:Well, I think they could have done it another way, but I think that the reason we have that amount at all was because a lot of the friends of the senators and Congress critters had guns and their friends were rich and they obviously wanted to make sure that they didn't have to change anything. They were doing that. There was an exclusion, there was a cutout. Well, I mean, sure you don't want you know the riffraff owning those guns, but surely those of us that have money can be trusted with them. So I think it's pretty typical Because, remember, the Clinton gun bans did not have any kind of an exclusion or did not have any kind of a uh cut out, for if you pass more money than you can still do it.
Speaker 2:They just banned outright well and, quite frankly, would have been, should have been deemed unconstitutional.
Speaker 1:But well, it was always unconstitutional. The problem was the supreme court at the time and, frankly, direction we're moving uh, once again, unfortunately is the court was very much anti-gun and so they're not going to do anything about it, even if the law is unconstitutional. They're going to just well. It looks fine to me. So I think we've been blessed for a short period of time with the supreme court. Prior to Amy Comey Barrett, that was actually pro-gun. Now, once again, the court is evenly tied anti-gun and I think the next justice likely to be put in is also going to be anti-gun.
Speaker 2:So we've got a short window. Why do you think that I think Trump may have learned his lessons from Trump's not going to get to put in the next one? Oh yes, he is Clarence Thomas is going to step down before Trump's.
Speaker 1:If Clarence Thomas steps down during Trump's period, the person replacing him will 100% guaranteed be less pro-gun than Clarence Thomas. Well, that's because.
Speaker 2:Clarence thomas. Well, that guy fucking based dude the the there isn't anyone better than clarence, thomas.
Speaker 1:What we need is a clone I think he is a probably not just the greatest supreme court justice of my lifetime. I think he is likely the greatest supreme court justice ever disagree.
Speaker 2:Disagree, alito.
Speaker 1:No. You gotta remember Alito. I like Thomas dude. I've been seeing Thomas' rulings since my 20s and it's hard for me to find one I disagree with, because the ones the Supreme Court rulings that I disagree with usually wrote the uh opposing opinion. So I I don't know man he's uh.
Speaker 2:I think he's been excellent for the supreme court well, we'll see what uh ends up happening, but I think suppressors will be off the nfa here shortly.
Speaker 1:I I hope so, which means I'll actually get a suppressor. Prices will drop like crazy.
Speaker 1:Oh prices are totally going to drop. Yeah, because I think they're going to realize look guys, the market just grew by 900%. Like about 10% of the people that would buy a suppressor were willing to buy it through the nfa. Now that's if it passes, which I still don't think it will. But if it passes, uh, we're gonna have that. Market is just gonna go wide open. Uh, you know we'll be that. We'll have the other issue suppressors will take nine months to get because they won't be available.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah so there's the. The flip side of it is, if you want a suppressor this year, you may want to still buy it with the nfa yeah, I'm not gonna do that, all right well, in that case, um, you know, make sure you talk to your local gun shop and say hey, as soon as the NFA passes, I'm on the list.
Speaker 2:dude, whatever it is just put me on the list. Well, anyway, I think there is a chance that the short act.
Speaker 1:It sucks when we both have to cough at the same time dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that there is a chance that the short act gets in, but what it's going to take and this is something I would like everyone to do- you got to call your senators.
Speaker 1:Call your senators. I'm going to give different advice than what all the youtubers are saying they're. They're giving out everyone's giving out the same phone number for the dc switchboard for, uh, calling your congress critter. I've done that. It just rings. It doesn't go anywhere. They don't have enough people to answer it. It's a waste.
Speaker 2:That's part of the reason why I think it's gonna get through is because the DC switchboard has been the congressional switchboard has been overloaded.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it has completely been overloaded, but it's been overloaded on previous issues, not this time. Like I've called before, I could never get through. I just looked up the local phone number of Cordon's office and call them, and they picked it up immediately, because no one calls the local number. So I would actually encourage anyone. I mean, try the dc one. But if you, if you don't get through, if you're on hold forever, just call your local, local office for the senator and likely you'll get through a lot faster. You'll talk to a human being, you will express what it is your and they're prepared for it, like they're. You know. What we need is just your zip code. Uh, we don't need your name, we just need to know what the actual topic is, what your opinion is and what your zip code is, because that's all they're doing is putting stats together. They're like, yeah, 14 calls from austin area, uh, that are pro this. Uh, three calls against it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we're really doing I so when I called my congress, the other thing I would suggest that you do is let them know if this is going to affect your vote and that you are a active voter. Um, yeah, that's a good idea. You know, one of the things that really matters to them is when you say I'm an active voter. I voted in the last blank number of elections. This will, uh, I vote in primaries and this will modify the way I vote for this candidate and it's a complicated way of what I said is just simpler.
Speaker 1:It's like I don't think that if this doesn't go my way, that cordon's gonna get my vote next time yeah, that's fine, cordon's not getting my vote next time, no matter what, he never got my vote is the reality. I never vote for him.
Speaker 2:I leave it blank, but um well, I vote against him in every primary yeah, in the primary either here or there what?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah, but the point is, let them know that you're a voter, that here's your zip code and here's your opinion on the topic and, as ben suggested, let them know that you will use this as criteria for whether you vote for him in the primary or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I really think that can shift the needle. Oh, it can, I agree. So did you see the other news? I sent it to you. Alex Jones and Ted Nugent.
Speaker 1:Did you watch that video?
Speaker 2:No, so Alex Jones and Ted Nugent are predicting that Trump is going to eviscerate the NFA through mass pardons.
Speaker 1:That's what Ted Nugent looks like now. Holy shit what. It's not what I. I mean he looks kind of fat.
Speaker 2:Dude, don't speak ill of Uncle.
Speaker 1:Uncle ted, he is an awesome human being no, I like ted, that's just I used to see him looking like uh you know, kind of a rocker cowboy yeah, anyway, he, he's gained a little bit of weight.
Speaker 2:but regardless what they're, what they're looking at is that trump, uh, upon the successful pass of the big, beautiful, beautiful bill, you know, bbv, instead of build back better. It's big, beautiful bill, but one of the things he's looking at doing is mass pardon, so anyone who was convicted of a gun charge with no associated violent crime. So, for instance, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, NFA charges.
Speaker 2:Well, or NFA charges, or even you're a drug dealer selling drugs and you have a gun on you, and now that's a federal gun crime.
Speaker 1:Right, right right.
Speaker 2:So what he's looking at is literally pardoning millions of people, restoring their rights as they should, and setting up challenges to it. The other thing is apparently, according to alex and ted um, trump is directing the doj not to prosecute any add-on gun charges, like if it's a material charge, fine, but if it's not a material charge, nope, which is huge now that that does not solve the problem because it only lasts as long as trump and potentially vance, is in office.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's a hell of a blow oh yeah, agree, well, and the pardon are always good. And if Trump did this and he did a pardon for anyone that was convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, holy shit, he would get the entire country voting for Vance the next time.
Speaker 2:It's not even just that. It's like one guy was talking about how in fact it was Ted Nugent. He was talking about a farmer buddy of his that had a defective muffler on a tractor and the EPA came after him and it ended up charging him and convicting him of a felony. That now he has his Second Amendment rights removed. That's insane. Your rights should be, and throughout the majority of our history as a country, when you were done serving your time, your rights were restored.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's the law that actually needs to change. What the hell law says? That you lose your gun rights when you become a felon, because that's what they need to go after. Agreed your gun rights when you become a felon, because that that's what they need to go after. Agreed, I mean, look, I, I certainly want to be have the ability to buy a silencer. The short barreled rifle thing, I think, is almost irrelevant. It shouldn't exist as a category, but the fact that it does doesn't really change a whole lot other than the buttstock you get to use in your gun.
Speaker 2:Right. The short-barreled rifles need to come off. The any other weapon category needs to come off.
Speaker 1:We just need to take the F out of ATF, is all. Just leave them with alcohol and tobacco.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing. I can make an argument and I don't believe. I think any gun law is an infringement to the Second Amendment. Ok, any gun law shall not be infringed is? You know that you're done? You know that you're done, you know? Uh, but that said, if we want to sit there and say, hey, there are certain categories of weapons we want to restrict, um, machine guns don't make sense with force reset triggers and binary triggers and everything else anymore. The only one that sits there and you could possibly make a case for to me is destructive devices, explosives.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's another thing I've never liked. I think it's stupid that Texas has laws against putting booby traps in your house. Agreed, that's my fucking house. I should be able to have booby traps Agreed. And if there is a law we need, there's a law that says that if you are in the process of committing a uh, criminal offense against somebody, you can never sue that person if they kill you your survivors can't yes exactly no one can't I?
Speaker 1:Exactly no one can. I mean it's just, the stopping of a criminal act should never be penalized, ever, for any reason. Agreed so done. That's it, we're done, show's over. We solved all the problems of the world. It basically means more guns in more hands and men acting like men.
Speaker 2:Yes, amen, brother. You're supposed to say Amen, brother. I will say that I think that it's going to be interesting to see what ends up past. There's a lot of good things in this bill. There's a lot of bad things in the bill.
Speaker 2:Part of the reason why they're going the direction they are is because they're going to theoretically start using a tool called rescission. So rescission, the reason why trump wanted to go this way pass a clean budget, get something in there and then what they can do is start chopping stuff off through rescission. And the reason why is because it takes less. It's just a simple majority vote in both houses, no issues there. Part of the reason why they're attaching the Suppressor Act and the Short Barreled Rifle Act to this bill is A they can because it's a tax to this bill is a they can because it's a tax, and b um. Again, budget bills only require simple majority. So that's a big win there. So if we don't start seeing here by june, rescission bills coming out of committee and start getting passed, yeah, that should be a warning sign to everybody yep, agreed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's um. I mean again, I, I am very uh, you know I'm generally the glass is half empty, kind of guy um, but that doesn't mean that I won't be happy if I'm wrong. In fact, quite often I'll be happy if I'm wrong I am very hopeful that you're wrong so am I. I'm hopeful that I'm wrong, but my, my default position on this is I don't trust this setup. And, by the way, did you see the look on? Uh, what's his face? His face, the, uh, the speaker of the house.
Speaker 2:Uh, when, this yeah, mike's face when he announced it that it passed, like it was a look of happiness and utter surprise yeah, yes, and I don't fault him for being surprised, because you know that they had failed a couple of times. There were several issues here. Um, you know it's, it was not a it was not a clean thing when you've got republicans like thomas massey coming out against it. You know a lot of people you're a big fancy fan, aren't you?
Speaker 2:I am, but uh and I. But here's the thing, um and this says a lot for me to say this um, there are times when you can't just stand on principles. There are times when you have to be pragmatic. I think there are times when you shouldn't be pragmatic, but that's, that's me, like. I'm a free speech absolutist. I am a second amendment absolutist. Yeah, you know, there there are lots of things that I will sit there and say you have to stand up and hold to your principles regardless of what someone else does. That said, that said sorry, I just listened. Really funny, you lost your train of thought.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm on the same exact page, massey sitting there saying this didn't cut enough and so on. It's still cut. It still did take the win where you have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's that's. The thing is, this is the art of negotiation, and and a lot of libertarian types, uh, score an f on the art of negotiation uh, it's an all, or?
Speaker 1:nothing play every time. For them, it's it's almost like your first game of the season. You have to win, otherwise you give up and you go home. And that kind of attitude, um, is not statistically practical, agreed. So I think it's good to stick to your guns, I think it's good to act like it's this or you are gonna go home, but you gotta know when to take the win, and that's that's very true.
Speaker 1:And this is something that, in a lot of ways, this was an annoyance for me when I was, you know, managing large projects around the world in security. The attitudes in some of these countries, especially Australia, were very, very lax Like, well, we'll give it our best shot. I'm like, well, I don't need your best shot, I need you to actually succeed Now. If you don't think you're going to succeed with your best shot, I'm like, well, I don't need your best shot, I need you to actually succeed now. If you don't think you're gonna succeed with your best shot, then I need to replace you. Let me know, because, uh, I'd much rather replace you now than replace you after you failed.
Speaker 1:And then I get a call into hr because I was mean to the person. You know it's like well, jesus, fucking christ, you know I'm trying to. I'm trying to run a multimillion dollar project that has to succeed and if I don't have people that are willing to actually do the right thing at the right time, then it's guaranteed to fail. So I need to have people that aren't going to bitch about me, putting them in too much stress by telling them that I need to win. And if I and again I'm not telling him you have to do this, or or else I'm telling him if you can't do it, tell me, I'll put somebody else in.
Speaker 2:Right, and you know that's. It's unfortunate that you have to be that way, because adults should, you know, produce, produce. They should cobble their whole lives.
Speaker 1:It started with your generation and kept going downhill after that yeah, well, I I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think there's plenty in your generation.
Speaker 1:Quite frankly, no that uh we drank water from the garden hose dude. So did I don't.
Speaker 2:Don't start with us Dude, dude, dude. I'm sorry, but Gen Xers are very much. You know, they have been beaten.
Speaker 1:Just watch what you say, boy.
Speaker 2:They've been beaten down by their boomer predecessors and have never they've never succeeded. They've never been put in these positions. In fact, millennials are hopping over Gen xers. Uh, quite a bit like I have several times more of them correct and there are more of us and, quite frankly, those of us who can and will.
Speaker 1:I don't know why you keep talking about us because you are so much a gen xer in the way you were brought up that your actual age has little to do with the way you act you are you're basically in the honorary gen xer, so shut the fuck up and quit ragging on us all, right, well?
Speaker 2:anyway, yeah. Yeah point is people are children that don't produce. I have to deal with it all the time with my employees on just herding the cats and, you know, doing stuff. That is just like having to tell people hey, yeah, like I had an employee. So we're, we're running this multi-million dollar project right Over $15 million over five years and I had an employee that's going to be running an employee that's going to be running a um one of the work streams and literally he told me that he was not planning on doing any reporting to the customer on his burn rate. What?
Speaker 2:he was doing his success, his failures, etc. And I'm I just said well, I don't care what you think you're going to do, you are going to do this. But who in their right mind thinks that on a big project like this? Oh, I don't need to tell the customer anything.
Speaker 1:Well, you can think that until you're told otherwise.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't think that. Here's the thing.
Speaker 1:I think it's moronic. These are all negotiated terms in the contract, so it's pretty straightforward that if there's some activity which takes up a percentage of your time which is not in the contract, then you shouldn't be doing it because it's not in the contract. Yeah, it'd be change order. It was once. It's a change order, then it's in the contract.
Speaker 1:My point is that if you start doing activities which the customer did not specify were requirements, then now you're actually wasting your own company's time. So this is why it's not a black and white issue. It's like yeah, you should always do it. No, you should do it if it's something that the customer wants, and there are absolutely customers out there that will bitch about. Well, why are you spending 12% of your billable hours on detailing what you're spending time on? Don't do that, just do the work for me.
Speaker 1:There are customers like that and I've dealt with them. So it really depends on who the customer is, and some customers want way too much data in my opinion. They want to have all the insights and you literally do spend 10% of your time just documenting and 90% doing. There are other customers that only care about the end result and they're like look, this is why I hired you guys. I don't need to know what you're doing, how you're doing it. All I need to know are two things one, you're on budget and two, you're going to get it done yeah, and that's where.
Speaker 2:So the reporting structure that I've laid out that we're going to go with on this project is we're going to tell them what we're doing the project. So we chose some items from the risk report that we just did and we're hitting those high impact work streams. So we've got three work streams going. What we're doing right now is between now and the end of June, which is when we're going to do our next OPR with the customer, we're telling them our work plan from now to the end of June, which is when we're going to do our next OPR with the customer. We're telling them our work plan from now to the end of June. So we did that At the end of June.
Speaker 2:What we're going to do is we're going to go back and say all right, these tasks that we told you we were going to do, here's what we accomplished out of it, the plus, the minus, whatever it ends up being. Here's the burn rate. Here's what we got to and where we're at. Like. I'm not going super detailed here, but you have to have some semblance of accountability in reporting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you need internal reporting regardless. Oh, that's very different.
Speaker 1:That's very different. Internal reporting is you know, I'm, quite frankly, micromanaging the hell out of people's timesheets right now because people are children. Yeah, that's very true, that is a good point. But either way, my only point there is that it's easy to locked into cause.
Speaker 1:I've seen both sides of this, right, it's easy to get locked into an overly regimented uh approach from your company, which for some clients is absolutely a must, for other clients is a waste of time, and so I think the flexibility and getting the pulse of what your client is looking for is very important and uh, agreed, and that's. You know, the bigger the company, the less flexibility you tend to have, and I know you're in a very large company right now. But, uh, certainly I. I don't think it's just a blanket statement to say, well, you got to have that level of detail and reporting and rigidity, no matter what client it is, because it's our approach, because I've been in a company that did that. And the client says, well, I don't care what your approach is, if you want to work with me, I don't need you wasting time, sure.
Speaker 2:So do you want to go to the shooting or do you want to talk biden?
Speaker 1:let's talk, biden, get that out of the way so uh, raise your hand.
Speaker 2:Well, um, did you see? Uh, what's his name? Uh, dilbert creator. What's his name? Scott adams. So he has the exact same form of cancer that Biden has, and he came out about it. Yeah, it's a. And he's like there's no way this happened, it's a butthead cancer?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's basically when your ass is connected directly to your head.
Speaker 2:Okay. Anyway, we've had staffers leak information saying yeah, he, you know.
Speaker 1:He had Biden leak that he said he had cancer and then they had to like two years ago.
Speaker 2:But dude. So Obama and Trump, the prostate cancer marker was on the medical report for the president. No one noticed until looking back retrospectively that it was not for Biden. He's had prostate cancer. They chose not to treat him so it wouldn't be obvious. And then you have the. I assume by now you've listened to the Axios tape, right? No?
Speaker 1:Oh my God, dude, you should send me a link if you want to listen to something I have. I don't know. No, I actually know. Of course I did. I'm just yanking your chain. The video. I watched the video.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean Biden is. He's been senile for a long time.
Speaker 2:We've known this, but not to that extent, man. Yeah, yeah. So any bill that was signed via auto pin, yeah for biden was not signed by him we have. The biden presidency needs to more or less be erased from history. Yeah, it has to be, yeah yeah, this is.
Speaker 1:Uh, this was a. This is really Obama's third term.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, but you know, it's crazy to me because people need to realize. So the Axios tape was leaked on Friday, sunday. Oh, he's dying of cancer. Right, right, right, right, right, right, yeah, like if that is not a perfect example of you know, okay, uh, so we've, we've lost the narrative here. It's time to kill him off.
Speaker 1:I don't know what is yeah, well, I think he's been slowly getting killed off. I don't know what kind of deal they made, but I suspect the deal back when he got picked to be the vp for obama was here's the deal biden, you get to wrap up not as a senator, but as a president. You have to do zero work. First, you're gonna spend four years as my veep doing nothing, because we all watch the show Veep and how little the veep actually does. You mean eight years, oh, the first. Oh, yeah, eight years. You have to remind me now you're getting me depressed. It was eight years. It should have been four, but it was eight years. And then after that, you get to be president for four years while I'm still going to run the country. I don't believe that Obama didn't have anything to do with this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyway, I don't know, man, biden is cooked, biden is cooked, I think, what we have seen out of this both the cancer diagnosis and the leaked tape anyone who can argue with a straight face that this wasn't elder abuse and people should go to jail for elder abuse, I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, but he's black and people should be going to jail. And trump mentioned this for treason because someone was running uh, someone was running the country and it sure as fuck wasn't him.
Speaker 1:So we'll see yeah, yeah, it's just sniffing children mostly. Uh, I would love to have Obama be put in jail wouldn't that be something.
Speaker 2:Wouldn't that be something start getting him prosecuted and put him where he belongs well, I think, I think that would be a little bit more difficult than, uh, some of the others.
Speaker 1:But some of the nfa stuff.
Speaker 2:So I will say um you know, several biden staffers have reportedly lawyered up here in the last you know 36 hours or so. So if that's the case, it could be really interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I agree. Well, all right.
Speaker 2:And then what was the next one? The, uh, the shooting in dc.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if we want to go down that rabbit hole, yeah, I mean first of all you are jewish after all, so well, yes, I am jewish um, not practicing, as you well know, I enjoy my bacon, but uh. But I think that if there was ever something that could be called a race-based hate crime, I mean that's right there as somebody that specifically targeted people not because of anything that they themselves did, but because of what they were born as.
Speaker 2:Well, and I mean, this was, this was not. Oh, I'm just going to shoot people. They were crawling away. Uh, the girl was crawling away trying to get away.
Speaker 1:He reloaded and shot again Like this is a heinous heinous, I mean to be fair he did exactly what we all trained to do, which is to be able to tactically reload. But, um, I don't know, man. I mean you've seen the movie heat, right? No really, oh my god, it's one of the greatest gun movie scene in the in the history of movies. Uh the uh. There were scenes in that movie that are used in the fbi academy uh, what's the movie eat?
Speaker 1:h-e-a's got, uh, de Niro and Pacino in it, okay. And I know, 1995, super libs, yeah, I watched it in the big screen, the theater when it came out and it was a movie we talked about for like years because it had cause. You know, a lot of us were already gun guys back then and it had the most realistic portrayals of gun battle, several gun battles, in fact, of any film, because most of them were, like you know, all you see is a guy shooting 120 times and missing every single time.
Speaker 2:Well, I will put it on the list.
Speaker 1:Put it on your list. It is definitely a movie that every gun buff will enjoy and, um, I won't tell you anymore. I you'll watch it. I don't want to spoil it, but um, anyway, the training has always been to reload just like you shoot, which is using muscle memory and reflexively doing it, sure and not stopping and deciding oh, should I reload or not?
Speaker 2:right, right. But look, man. First of all, this guy was pacing outside the event. You know he decided to kill this couple coming out, which I, you know I'll disagree with you because I don't give a shit why you choose to kill someone. The fact that you're killing someone is a hate crime. There, there is no, um, there is no. There should not be any change in the punishment based off of you know someone's race, creed, ethnicity. What the reason was, oh, I don't.
Speaker 1:I agree. I don't think there should be any difference. I'm just saying from a like. If you ask somebody, why did you kill them? You know a lot of murderers will say well, you know, I had the opportunity. It was, it was my chance to be able to kill somebody. Or they're going're gonna say because he screwed my wife, you know it's that kind of thing. So one is a rational reason, one is a mental illness reason in this case.
Speaker 1:I don't think it was mental illness, but it certainly wasn't anything that was related to these people. This was a lashing out at the country of israel by killing somebody who's not israeli. I mean it's.
Speaker 2:It's stupid, but at the same time I I can't fault the guy for knowing how to reload yeah, and you know, we know this because he chanted afterwards when he was being arrested free, free Palestine.
Speaker 1:He did chant the exact same thing that guys on Twitch chat on Twitch chant all the time as well, which I think is going to have repercussions for Twitch because I guarantee you they're going to pull his Twitch watching streams. Oh yeah, mm-hmm. How did he get radicalized? Well, he was watching all these palestinians on twitch telling you to go kill jews.
Speaker 2:thanks, bezos well, uh, yeah, the, and there are some, definitely some streamers on Twitch that are a little they're not quite calling for violence, but they're really really pushing that limit yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and it's Twitch has the same people working in the. What is that? What is that department called the? Uh dei? Yeah, basically, I mean it's. It's got the people. Basically all the people that were fired from x after musk came in is exactly the same people that are still working at twitter or at twitch. Uh, so it's, it's the safety and whatever department, it's the department you complain to. Basically.
Speaker 1:So, when people complain about videos that call for killing jews, they say they get a response says freedom of speech. When they complain about videos that uh talk about um, you know, biden having uh mental issues, then they take that channel down. It's. I'm using an example. It's maybe not a great one. The point is they absolutely, as employees in the department that gets to choose whether somebody is suspended or banned or whatever in that department, they are 100% supporting the anti-Jew violence that is happening right now. They think that this is something that has to happen because free, free Palestine. This is something that has to happen because free, free Palestine. Like they literally would chant the exact same thing and probably do on weekends, when they're not working at Twitch.
Speaker 2:So I think there's a good chance here of Twitch going down, and it'd be about time you really think Twitch is going to go away. Yeah, what you mean by twitch going down?
Speaker 1:okay, let me explain. So bezos told his newspaper that he owns the uh washington, uh, not the times, the other one, washington post post, that they will no longer be doing uh content. That is anti-Trump. Yes, he can fire anybody he wants in there. If they do, I mean it's his fucking property. So is Twitch Okay? Do the same exact thing to Twitch Say Twitch will have no, but Twitch isn't going away.
Speaker 2:It'll just they'll editorialize.
Speaker 1:Here's why I think it's going to go away. Right now, twitch is getting massive publicity in terms of advertisers that are saying your ads are mostly shown on channels that say go kill a Jew. Do you want your ads being on channels like that? Because that's what they're showing up as, because that's what the big channels on twitch are basically that there. There's two things on twitch there's babes barely wearing any clothes trying to get you to go to their only fans page, and there are guys that are uh, chanting free, free, palestine. There's no gaming on twitch anymore and people don't game on there. You know there's a handful I like I broadcast on there, but uh, there's very little actual gaming that happens there anymore. Everyone's pretty much moved off onto either youtube or onto rumble. Rumble's got some of the biggest gamers on there because they're actually paying them Like Rumble, as a company is paying them exclusivity money to be on their platform. Dr Disrespect is on there now and nowhere else.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't know who that is.
Speaker 1:He was one of the highest number of subscribers. People on Twitch Okay, he's a six foot eight gamer dude that has a persona that he worked out Well. First of all, he looks like a 1970s porn movie actor. Okay, the porn stash thing.
Speaker 2:All right, I got to look this guy up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, look up Dr Disrespect. He's an interesting character porn stash thing, but it's all right, I gotta look this guy up. Yeah, yeah, look up dr disrespect. Uh, he's an interesting character. I think he created a character for himself and he's always he definitely looks like a 70s porn star, you're correct you see what I mean, right? Yes, yeah, and if you ever watch his streams like he's totally, totally in character the whole time, of that 70s porn star but he has gotten, he's worked that character to become a multi, multi, multi-millionaire.
Speaker 1:I think he's probably made about 20 or 30 million doing this and he actually is a pretty good gamer. But gaming is about 50 of a shtick. The other part is just insulting people. Um, I don't know, he's fun too, but he, he, you know he's no longer on on twitch. He is, uh, exclusively on rumble, along with a whole bunch of other people I've seen on there and I stream on rumble as well. Um, I, I try stream when I stream. Good for you.
Speaker 1:But youtube is where the real audience is for me and I think it is for most people, and a lot of you know now that I'm. I'm like a, a, uh, youtuber, whatever person, and I talk to a lot of other people that do this. Everyone, everyone's kind of said that the gamers have moved off of Twitch. So when I say Twitch is going to die, what I mean by that is their advertising revenue is going to shrink drastically and they will have a choice to make One, literally die or two drastically change what they allow on the platform and if they want to go back to the old days of nothing but gaming, uh, maybe they can rebuild it and regrow it, but right now there there's there are the downwards.
Speaker 2:Who's even on twitch other than you know?
Speaker 1:you, I told you who it is? It's? It's mostly chicks that are trying to get you to go to their only fans, so they're doing non-only fans level content, but basically advertising for their only fans. Um, like amaranth was on you. You remember amaranth, the chick that was robbed in houston?
Speaker 2:uh, attempted robbery, yes, and I, yeah, I had never seen her really before.
Speaker 1:Yeah, before that very, very cute girl.
Speaker 2:Um, yes, she's got, she's got like very. How did I miss this one?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah and and she's uh, she's actually pretty sweet in terms of of just the way she acts and stuff. She's not the perfect porn star, but she's made millions on Twitch but made tens of millions on OnlyFans.
Speaker 2:She was on Twitch.
Speaker 1:She started off where she was on on twitch, sitting in a bikini and uh, her big thing was if you donate I can't remember what it was ten dollars at 25 or whatever dollar amount uh, she writes your name with a dry erase marker on her body ah, okay, so she was just like in the bikini covered with people's names yeah, and people think it's funny and they're willing to pay money for it.
Speaker 1:Well that you know, when you add it up, when you start looking at it, she's making like thousands per hour and uh why is life so easy for beautiful women? Because it should be. They are the best genetics that a guy could get yeah.
Speaker 1:And, much like peacocks, we are pre-programmed to. Whether you think it's evolution or God, either way, we're pre-programmed to seek out the perfect mate to go have kids with, the perfect mate to go have kids with. And so when you're a beautiful woman, you display good genetics and men are attracted to good genetics. That's universal. You can't not be attracted to that.
Speaker 2:Our society is so screwed.
Speaker 1:It's the reason that that black people like big butts historically and this goes way back in africa, and it doesn't matter what part of africa. But when food is scarce, what demonstrates? Uh, good genetics and an ability to have sufficient calories A big but Because it's not a necessary location to store fat Like if you're skinny because you're not eating much, you're not going to have a very high chance of having a healthy baby. So it's all biologically explainable. There's nothing mysterious mysterious to me at least about it. But amaranth has an hourglass figure and exactly the type that you're very attracted to. I don't mind her tits, but they're not gonna like, make me go crazy, but you like those double D's.
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean, you know, uh, I have my standards.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, Like a C cup is perfectly fine for me.
Speaker 2:I don't know that's a minimum.
Speaker 1:That's a minimum.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:For you that's a minimum, but for me that's ideal. Uh, so, anyway, how's it get? On the topic of I don't know. But you know, I'm distracted now anyway, clearly yeah, wouldn't want to make you get too distracted, oh god I've had enough issues today.
Speaker 2:All right, so you think twitch is going away, which it definitely is going away in the format.
Speaker 1:It is right now whether it goes away goes away or whether it changes format drastically to try and recoup some of the revenue from advertising. But it's it. It's not going to stay the way it is, because right now it's just basically used as a a platform to um to promote extreme leftist ideology.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I had to hit the cough button. Yeah, I know. So Vance has been going around to the service academies here with Memorial Day and everything and really getting a lot of love from enlisted folk.
Speaker 1:It should. You know one thing about vance that I will say I've I've probably noticed before, but I've really kind of noticed it in the recent photos is the guy he's smiling a lot like. He has a bit of a sort of a dumb, goofy grin, like in a good way, like a gomer pile grid. You know what I mean. Like a guy who's a gomer like in a good way, like a Gomer Pyle grin. You know what I mean. Like a guy who's Gomer Pyle is actually a good example.
Speaker 1:He was a guy in the military, a guy in the Marines, who always had this kind of quirky smile going. His default resting face is not a bitch face, it's a smiling face and I think that goes a long way and it's something that I wish I had. I wish you know something. I I try to control that through just remembering to smile, because you know there's no reason not to smile. Smiles tend to make people more at ease, um, but I guess for me it's more of a psychopathic thing. Where I have to, I have to think to do it. It doesn't come natural, whereas I think for him it probably does come pretty naturally At least he appears.
Speaker 2:Either that or he's a damn good psychopath.
Speaker 1:Well, uh, the TDS sufferers would definitely say, uh you know him and and trump are psychopaths, but I tend to not think that way. Yeah, I mean like actual psychopaths, not, you know, self-diagnosed liberal psychopaths right, did you?
Speaker 2:uh, by chance? Oh shit, I just lost my train of thought again. This is what four hours of sleep will do. Three, four hours of sleep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I did that last week. I think I was going about four hours of sleep and I told you the same thing.
Speaker 2:Oh, there was an. What else happened this week?
Speaker 1:Pretty major political thing.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think of what we talked about Biden. We talked about the big, beautiful bill. We talked about the shooting. There's one other thing that I want to talk about, though.
Speaker 1:Hmm, hmm, nothing's jumping out at me oh, uh, the middle east trip.
Speaker 2:There we go, jesus, my brain is not working. Trump's trip, yeah, yeah, and the multi-trillion investment coming in yeah, we talked about that last week okay, we did there are no, there's some new details you should come to life man.
Speaker 1:All right, what's new?
Speaker 2:so it's really interesting because I think that and we did talk about this to an extent but boeing, the amount of um, the amount of investment that boeing is getting, is huge. So my company um with some of the boeing issues over the last few years had stepped away from working with boeing.
Speaker 2:We're all in with boeing now again. Um, we're seeing factory capacity increases as part of this that Boeing is already putting out for RFP. This is no shit investment where we're going to see infrastructure built here in the United States for this. That'd be cool, so yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a two-edged sword, though. Right, because the great having infrastructure built in the us, great getting investments, but then we all bitch about how, oh, all our buildings are owned by japan, all our farmlands owned by china. It's like all our whatever now is going to be owned by saudi arabia um I okay, am I wrong? I mean people always bitch Saudi Arabia. Okay, Am I wrong? I mean people always bitch about that.
Speaker 2:No, you're wrong, because it's Boeing that will be building it, not Saudi. The investment from Saudi and Qatar and UAE is just facilitating.
Speaker 1:Boeing is going to be owned by UAE. How is Boeing?
Speaker 2:going to be owned by UAE? How is Boeing going to be owned by the UAE?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I mean, I'm just saying where's the investment going? What do you mean by investing?
Speaker 2:Investing in literal infrastructure and new plants to build planes Okay.
Speaker 1:So that's not investing now. The investing is giving money to a company in order to accomplish something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, qatar, but the okay, it is a purchase order right.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's see Qatar. It's a purchase order.
Speaker 2:Qatar just ordered $200 billion worth of planes.
Speaker 1:Or 250.
Speaker 2:200 planes. Yeah, more than that, but okay.
Speaker 1:They're about a billion a pop uh, 737, oh no, not 730s I thought we were giving uh the uh 787s okay, 787 max, whatever, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2:Um, I don't think they're quite that much. I think they're more than around the 400 million mark. Okay, so 400 planes. Yes it is the largest order in Boeing's history and they are ramping up to accommodate.
Speaker 1:Boeing has been notoriously horrible at quality control for the last 15 years. I don't know A what would make Qatar want to buy Boeing, so I guess, other than the fact that there's no other plane that's better uh, yeah, the airbus has plenty of their own problems and the chinese are making their own planes these days, but those are falling apart midair. So I and the russian plane industry, which used to be okay, is pretty much gone at this point. So I don't know that there is anybody other than boeing left and they.
Speaker 2:It's like you're getting the pick of the worst so to an extent, I will agree with you, but what I would also say is I think trump is putting enough into boeing, and what I'm seeing on rfps things like that is they are really trying to get away from that image and they are investing in their own company.
Speaker 1:Uh, accordingly, mm-hmm yeah, well, I mean, look, any company could do a turnaround, and I certainly wish Boeing the best. But Boeing was the gold standard up until the mid 80s, and that's when they started heading downhill. They changed their philosophy, they brought in new management and they started focusing on retained earnings and profits going back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, instead of internal R&D and development and everything.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and so can you bring back a company that had a good name? Yes, does Boeing have a good name right now? No, If you're an engineer, but again, nor does Airbus right. No, airbus is yeah, they're pretty good.
Speaker 2:There isn't a quote-unquote.
Speaker 1:Good or reputable airline manufacturer anymore, here's what it's time for right now, I think and this will take some serious money, like Elon Musk kind of money, but I think right now is actually a good time to start a brand new American airline company, kind of like what SpaceX did for space travel. I think somebody else could do for redoing jet travel.
Speaker 2:Well that. Or you know, quite frankly, why isn't Lockheed building commercial airliners? There you go. You know Northrop Grumman, you know we have. Yeah, well, because they figured out where the pork is.
Speaker 1:They know how to maximize their profits by only selling to government.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, but my entire point here is considering how Boeing and Airbus have really dropped the ball. I think there's a market opportunity for those companies to come back into that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't disagree. But whoever it is, I think they will be well-received. If somebody can start competing with Boeing domestically here in the US, I think, whether it's an existing company or a new startup, I think they would be well received by the industry. They would attract top talent, they would have a no baggage kind of a approach, which is what SpaceX did. They were able to envision space travel in this century, whereas Boeing and everybody else still has baggage left over from the previous century's worth of space travel.
Speaker 1:And so for things like the SLS, it was like well, you know, we got some space shuttle engines left over. Why don't we use those Now? Of course it'll cost $100 million apiece to revitalize them. But yeah, don't we use those now? Of course it'll cost 100 million a piece to revitalize them. But uh, yeah, let's use those. You know, there's that kind of mentality, whereas spacex, everything is just made from scratch. So I think, I think it'd be cool if we got a new domestic. I mean, even if somebody like bezos decided to get into it who I don't really like Bezos, but he could get into it Now, of course, all his planes would be penis-shaped.
Speaker 2:And not achieve orbit? Why does your plane have a slight curve to the left, not achieve?
Speaker 1:orbit. Yeah Well, luckily he doesn't have to achieve orbit in the plane. But it's a're bezos, I know, I know, right. Well, he kind of created it for himself, like he can't be oblivious to it.
Speaker 2:Dude, dude so you know he either has to be compensating, decompensating, one way or the other. Right, because, like jesus christ, you couldn't make it look more phallic, like you literally couldn't, unless it was flesh colored, I know I know exactly.
Speaker 1:Uh, and then, did you ever watch um silicon valley tv show? Yes, of course. Do you remember the logo on the computer that the main antagonist had, the? What was the name?
Speaker 2:um, it also started with a, b, I, I go ahead, go where I don't recall this I'd have to go.
Speaker 1:So they make this super new computer model they're going to release and they, they, he comes up or somebody comes up. It's like you know you should have it be your signature edition. And then they, they decided to put a signature on it. And I don't know if he told them just to go make a cool looking signature or something, but you know they didn't want to use his actual signature. And so he told them just to go make a cool looking signature or something, but you know they didn't want to use his actual signature and so he had them run. A bunch of mock-ups of signatures, right, and one of the mock-ups of the signatures, um I, I gotta find the guy's name, because it doesn't make a whole lot of sense without the guy's name. The silicon valley tv show main, uh, main antagonist, or what would you call him. Was he the antagonist?
Speaker 2:I assume you're talking about the, not the protagonist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so his name was nelson um again kind of a not too dissimilar um, and so they came up with his signature name, where gavin has the g shape. It's rounded right and it was done in sort of a cursive style, and then the b with the capital b is like the balls, so his signature looked like a penis. If you've seen silicon valley, you understand, uh, what I'm referring to. If you haven't, uh, you're probably. I'm gonna send you a picture of it, just because, to remind you, because you claim to have watched the show, right, I, I did watch the show.
Speaker 2:There's the signature, gevin belson okay, yeah that's the signature, okay, yeah I, I, I'd forgotten that joke but yes, that is hilarious.
Speaker 1:That's literally bezos rocket bezos's rocket, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, young belson same character oh my goodness it's. They did a good job in that show, like Clearly he was supposed to be a Bezos-type personality. And then they had the guy that was all focused on being a billionaire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the three-comma club guy.
Speaker 1:And that was obviously Mark Cuban. Oh God, yes, that's the totally Mark Cuban character.
Speaker 2:He's just I'm going to have the three commas. I'm going to have the three commas You're going to have three.
Speaker 1:That's the most important thing is 999.
Speaker 2:Never dip below a billion. Yeah, yeah, can't do it. Mm-hmm. Oh, my goodness, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:So Funny stuff.
Speaker 2:Yes. So it's Memorial Day weekend. Everybody needs to remember that. You know, I don't believe in thanking people for their service, because I think they signed up to do a job.
Speaker 1:That's exactly my take on it, and they're paid for it. Yeah, you know now I did my service Exactly. I'll do a service.
Speaker 2:Now I will say World ii vets yeah, probably a little different. Yeah, uh, vietnam vets a little different, especially because of the draft and okay, so here's my point but any modern, any post, vietnam post draft. Yeah, you signed up for it, bro.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you signed up for it, you got paid for it, you got benefits for it, you got things that no one else got for it, and again, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not poo-pooing the military. In fact, I attempted to join the military at one point in time, like in high school, but it didn't work out. Apparently, I needed to lose like 25 pounds, and that was that. Still do A little more than that, ben, a little more than 25 these days, but yeah.
Speaker 1:So the point being that I think Memorial Day is a good day to remember not just people that died in wars, but people that died so that we could be where we are, and sometimes that doesn't happen in the war. It happens in conflict with your own government. So it's a good day to remember Ruby Ridge. It's a good day to remember Ruby Ridge. It's a good day to remember Waco. It's a good day to think of all the things that people have put their heart and soul into so that we could sit here and have a podcast conversation and not worry about somebody knocking on our doors.
Speaker 2:Well, and one of the other things I'll say on that is dude, where's the off-ramp? Because as we see this violence increasing. If you look at what Jesse waters and others had to say about summer of love, 2.0 is already here. I don't know that. I disagree with them and I think that we are going to be in for a very interesting year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I don't disagree. I mean, I don't disagree.
Speaker 2:I mean, I hear gunshots pretty regularly Really In Austin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's. I mean not every day or anything. It's not like I'm Darren, I'm not sitting in Chicago or anything, but I hear them a lot more regularly than I used to.
Speaker 2:Well, I do not hear gunshots here in College Station. Well, let's hope not. Yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I think, if it comes down to it, there's generally a more polite society in places that are heavily armed than in places that are not, and that's why places like new york, chicago, la dc are gonna really be the brunt of the violence yeah, I, I think, uh, we're gonna see more than just the quote, the quote, unquote brunt of the violence in those areas.
Speaker 2:I think we're going to see, like DC, what happens with the, the Jewish shooting. I think that's, there'll be a misdemeanor problem out there. Well, I think that's going to. I think you're going to see that in more and more places.
Speaker 2:I think, you're going to see the intifada brought home all over the place. I am not one that sits there and you know worries about X, y and Z, but at the same time, man, I got to kind of wonder where the political violence is going to go, because this guy was a left-wing Democrat who lost his mind on this and the entire point is we have these Twitch streamers, we have these other people calling in a more or less iffy way for violence. That I just that you're going to have people doing something very similar for um, for illegals, saying, hey, you can't deport these people, you're doing something evil because they literally see it as evil that's because it's a religion and we we should have.
Speaker 1:We should have that as a topic, maybe for next time in time, after that, which, incidentally, we're going to skip a week. I'm going to be traveling, hanging out with my dad, and this is the first time I'm hearing of this. Oh, really. Yeah, I thought I told you Either way. So in that next show we're going to skip that one, but I should be back home before the one after that.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'll call up Darren and we'll do a I think you should.
Speaker 1:I, I'm all. I'm always for that. But any time that he's not available, you know um, I'm happy to do something with you, or the other way around, whatever. But yeah, yeah, you could do a solo show if you want to. I mean, my only point is uh, I'm not to be around. So unless you want to do something, then we're not going to have a show.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I will ping Darren and see if he's up for it. My guess is he'll take the time off and be lazy.
Speaker 1:He's always happy to take it. Dude, the guy does five podcasts a week, yeah, yeah, so you know, good luck. You'd be better off getting CS CSB to to uh do a podcast with you, yeah, or more likely I should say more likely to do a pod, and I don't know if you listen to uh under one thing and all but uh on the last show, uh, I explained succinctly why we don't do ads, or rather why certain donations that are I have not listened to the last.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, well I'll give you the short version of it. Basically, uh, csb said you know, if you change your policy and advertising, uh, then I might send you three dollars and 33 cents. And then he says because the show only has 10 listeners. And I said well, see, this is exactly why we don't do advertising, is because the difference between advertising and donations is a donation is something you give because you enjoyed the show, you enjoy the product and you feel like you want to support the people that are making it, so you're essentially giving back to them. This is what adam calls value. For value, you're giving people that created the show, uh, some financial support that you are willing to do as a result of having enjoyed the show.
Speaker 1:Okay, advertising is when CSB or somebody else says well, let's see, it looks like here you have about 220 listeners, I can pay three cents a list, so I'll send you $4 based on your listenership and you have to call out my website. That's not a donation, that's an advertising offer and we don't do advertising. And so I explained that and his response was darren. Uh, here, you should go promote my show and not listen to the jew.
Speaker 1:And I'm like well, I mean he's not wrong there he's not, it's the way he said it, like don't listen to jew. I was like, well, yes, and this is why, uh, I've called you a racist before and I still will continue to do so, because you, you use that term exactly in the manner that a racist was used, the term um. So you know, I don't say never trust the polack, do I?
Speaker 2:no, but you should. Yeah, you know some things are better said and others are not so either way, did I ever uh, did I ever tell you my uh polack joke? No, so these uh two polacks were digging a ditch and their boss was sitting over under a tree in the shade watching them. And one Polack says to the other why the?
Speaker 2:hell does he get to sit over in the shade while we do all the work? I don't know. Go ask him. So first, polack walks over there and asks his boss hey man, why do you get to sit here while we do all the work? Well, let me tell you Intelligence, my boy. What's intelligence? Well, let me explain it to you in simple terms that you can understand. I'm going to put my hand in front of the tree and I want you to hit my hand as hard as you can. So he rears back and goes to punch him and at the last minute, he moves his hand and polak hits his hand on the tree and walks away, shaking his hand, almost breaking his hand and damn that hurt.
Speaker 2:You know, goes to his buddy and his buddy goes. What do you say? What do you say? Intelligence, what's intelligence? Well, I'm gonna put my hand in front of my face and I want you to take that shovel and hit my hand as hard as you can uh-huh there you go, csb.
Speaker 1:There's your polack joke for the day yeah, yeah, I'm sure he enjoys the polish oh racist, racist did yeah you know, with the polish jokes were all the rage when I was a kid.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, me too, polak. You know, everybody made fun of the Polaks.
Speaker 1:Which I never really understood why? Because I knew Polish people and they didn't seem particularly stupid.
Speaker 2:Agreed, and I mean I've got two Poles, like in Poland, that work for me right now on my team and they're very intelligent, great people.
Speaker 1:Yeah. One of them's a technical writer and the others are very good. Video game studios are in poland too, but I don't understand like I've never looked.
Speaker 2:I will say this the polish jokes polish women are hot they can't.
Speaker 1:They're Blonde and big boobed. Yeah, so your type? Yeah, definitely, at least historically. These days, who the hell knows? Europe is changing. It's like Irish women these days all wear burqas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're the Ireland, where most popular name is now Muhammad. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Did you know? I watched a video recently. It had a map that shows locations at all the mosques in London. Do you know how many mosques are in the city of London? Uh, hundreds, 187. Jesus, 187 mosques. I think that is just slightly less than the number of churches, but it took a thousand years to build all the churches. It took a couple decades to build the mosques. That country is lost, dude. It is gonna be absolutely part of the caliphate well, we will see.
Speaker 2:Um the trade deal with the uk and the us, that's basically bringing them into uh, nafta. You know that gives at least some hope economically. Now, whether or not they will, um, you know, whether or not they will, you know whether or not they'll change course politically, it's another story.
Speaker 1:I don't understand the politics there, because they seem to be. Even the conservatives seem to be hell-bent on going against the ethnic British populace well, when you've got people who aren't ethnically british, leading your country for a long time? Yeah, yeah, but they, they got there. They keep re-putting them in there. Yes, yeah, yeah, so I don't know, I don't know. I mean it's, it's a bizarre country. But oh, speaking of, I haven't watched it, so no spoilers. But uh, germy's farms new season, just dropped yesterday ah, cool, I need to go.
Speaker 2:Uh, I haven't watched it either.
Speaker 1:I I'm going to do some binge watching tonight probably, and maybe tomorrow. Yeah, I love that show, man.
Speaker 2:It is first of all.
Speaker 1:I can smell the hay. Do you have that reaction, I think, for those of us that spend their childhoods on farms, when you see something visually that is accurate and reminds you of that moment in your life, the smells just rush back to you and it's almost like having some middle vision and smell the you know hay smell. Uh, it was so good back when life was something you looked forward to.
Speaker 2:I definitely can commiserate with bucking of hay and everything else. Right, because been there, done that yeah, yeah, I spent.
Speaker 1:I know I wasn't there a year round, but I spent my summers on a farm every year and uh lived in a little log cabin with an outhouse, so and then wandered around the forest, uh to the utter um fear of my grandmother that I was step on a landmine.
Speaker 2:Why was that a fear?
Speaker 1:Because back then, when I was a kid, there were still landmines that were active from World War II.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this was right on the border with Finland.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And the Finns slash Nazis, which is the side they were on. They had mined that whole area.
Speaker 2:They were on, uh, they had mined that whole area and so and so there was still some mines that people were finding. So what do you think of where the ukraine war is at at this point? Do we think we're going to be involved, going forward, or not?
Speaker 1:Because I think Trump's ready to step away. I'd be great if he did. I think I said plenty on this topic last show, which was essentially I don't see a reason for Russia at this point to stop. No one's offered them a deal yet, a deal that would make sense, so they might as well just keep going, because they are taking territory like 50 to 100 miles a day right now.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I think no peace deal and Trump's gonna walk away, cut funding and yeah well, cutting funding is here's the here's the thing. This is what putin was absolutely right when he said this trump cutting funding will end in a peace deal, because yes, yes, it will just be, he said this war.
Speaker 1:He said trump could end this war tomorrow. This this is back in January, he said this, so before all the negotiations and stuff. But he said Trump could end this war tomorrow with just a swipe of his pen by stopping funding to Ukraine. Stopping funding to Ukraine gets them to come to Russia for a peace deal.
Speaker 2:Well, yes, I think, though, that trump is wanting to, you know, get a minerals deal with ukraine, for example, and I already told him he'll get the minerals deal if he stops funding to ukraine, they can do a deal.
Speaker 1:So the minerals deal is not a problem for russia yeah, I, I think that the a there's that.
Speaker 2:But you know, the liberals are going to lose their mind over the incoming trade negotiations and deal with russia, because what we, what we've already done and what we've already seen is the middle east. Trump has, other than iran, taken away the middle east from china. Yeah, I think he's gonna take russia away from china.
Speaker 1:I think well, that would be the smart move, and we've said that for a long time. Is that like a ukraine?
Speaker 2:does an american russo alliance is keeping? Russia and china apart right, but american russo alliance makes sense yeah, yeah, it's a.
Speaker 1:So what does russia have is has more natural resources than anybody else that have been not exploited. Um they, the current level of exploitation there, uh, certainly leaves a lot to be desired.
Speaker 2:And, quite frankly, zahan has flat out said this that the Russians do not have the technology or the personnel and I think he's right on this to pull their own resources out of the ground they need.
Speaker 1:Western. Well, that's a little broad. They don't have the technology to do it efficiently to maximize profitability. Correct. They're absolutely killing the resources. It's just not done well Sure.
Speaker 2:But my point is a Western alliance with Russia makes sense at this point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, it's funny, it made sense during both world wars.
Speaker 2:Well, it only doesn't make sense during peace yeah, no it. So part of that is we we actually shouldn't have made, uh, in barring operation barbarossa, we wouldn't have made a deal with the russians during world war ii.
Speaker 1:So yeah, well, what kind of what do you mean? What kind of deal um?
Speaker 2:we were not allied with the communists until hitler did operation barbarossa, and the enemy of my enemy becomes my friend right yeah, I mean we weren't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we weren't friendly, but us always had commercial relations with Russia pre-World War II. There's tons of plants. Ford had a plant, coca-cola had a plant. These were all in communist Russia. These were post-communism, because Russia was still very open to bringing in Western companies. The attitude you got to remember. It was an idealistic time for communism in the 1930s, right in the 20s and 30s yes, it was also an idealistic time for national social socialism.
Speaker 2:You don't, don't forget that time magazine put hitler on the cover they did in 1939 because of the transformational acts that he was doing in.
Speaker 1:Germany. Well, they also put Obama on the cover, so they're par for the course. But it was a point in time where the relations between the two giant you know well, the US wasn't even all that giant back then. Britain still really was pretty major in the 1930s. But the US was gaining, uh, its ground to become the superpower that it is and I don't think their relations were particularly bad.
Speaker 1:I think the relations between russia and, well, the ussr and the us really started deteriorating post-World War II. I just never saw that level of anti-Russian animosity in the US pre-World War II, even though everybody knew that the USSR was communist. It was sort of like they're just kind of doing their thing. I think part, know, I think part of it too is this is a true statement, even though it sounds derogatory. But Russian people were very simplistic, like it was easy for communism to catch on because the previous way that life went was serfdom. So going from serfdom to communism, I think, makes more sense than going from capitalism to communism.
Speaker 1:And when Marx wrote about, you know, the sort of transition from capitalism to communism, he was not looking at russia. He never expected a backwards country like russia to become communist. Um, he was not a fan of of uh oh, he was an intellectual, I mean, you know, he was never a fan of uh sort of the, the peasant types, uh he, he saw the, the working man, as revolting against the capitalist machine. And in russia what happened is you had a revolution where the peasants not even peasants, but actual serfs you know a difference between a peasant and a serf right I, I do yes okay, but just for clarity for people that may not, the serf unlike a peasant, which is just a poor free man, a serf is actually tied to the land.
Speaker 1:Like he cannot leave the land, he and his family must work the land. For the land owner it's similar to a slave, but not as restrictive as slavery yeah, in in the us.
Speaker 2:The best analogy would be the sharecroppers right in the us. That's the.
Speaker 1:That's our only history of serfdom uh, I'm not too familiar with sharecroppers, so so after slavery, post--civil War, there were freed blacks that lived on plantations.
Speaker 2:They still worked the plantations and they got a share of the crop for their work, but the landowner in themselves took the majority Very similar, but they could still leave. There was a lot of issues there.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I don't know. Like I said, this is not an area of expertise for me.
Speaker 2:By the way, the Road to Serfdom by Hayek, Fantastic book.
Speaker 1:Alright, put that on the list.
Speaker 2:You haven't read.
Speaker 1:The Road to Serfdom.
Speaker 2:No, oh my god. And then Nigel Farage did the New road to serfdom as an homage, that was pretty good too.
Speaker 1:Uh, I I think that, so I don't know why I started down this whole path. I guess I was just trying to explain the, the perspectives of the U? S towards Russia and even the communist Russia back then, and I? I think that part of it? S never saw Russia as a competitor Like. These were people that were effectively living 50 to 100 years behind where the US was. They had nothing electrified, they barely had gas lit cities nothing electrified, they barely had gas lit cities. They were serfs predominantly, who just overthrew their the governments, and so there was not a whole lot of threat of competition at all from russia, and I think it wasn't really until post-world war ii where there was some examples of russian manufacturing, like the fact that russia was building uh russia's not exactly ever been known for its quality of manufacturing it's not.
Speaker 1:I didn't say quality, I said manufacturing. But they were rolling out more tanks per day than Germany was rolling out in a week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but all right. So let's look at that. You know the.
Speaker 1:Allies T-34s.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Allies in the Sherman tank as well. You know, the US was producing a ton of them as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the Panzers were complicated machines.
Speaker 2:The Panzers and the what's the bigger one.
Speaker 1:The Lion.
Speaker 2:Tiger or whatever Tiger, yeah, anyway, they were better tanks. Oh yeah, yeah, they were far superior.
Speaker 1:Well, okay, in every way, Sort of.
Speaker 2:The only way the Russians and the Americans won tank battles was through, overwhelming through numbers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they weren't better. In one way they relied on hydraulics, which didn't work so good in frozen winter. There was a lot of abandoned, expensive German tanks that seized up and could not run in the winter. Well, regardless, my son is very into tanks right now and I oh, he should play world of tanks uh, he is not touching a computer for years. Thank you, oh, you're one of those parents. Okay, apps are fucking.
Speaker 2:I think there's even an ipad version you can have yeah, no, no, he's not, it's a great way to learn all about tanks so there's a youtube channel that I found that's called simplified history, and it's animations and going through different things and like, uh, the tank video they have yeah, the tanks of world war ii.
Speaker 1:It literally shows cutouts and have you watched that channel's video on the civil war, because you may change your mind about the channel. Oh I, why? Uh?
Speaker 2:just watch the video, see what they say well, I, you know, I I don't all the evil people in the south have tons of slaves and they wanted to expand that to the north okay, well then they're idiots, but the tank videos in the world war ii videos seem reasonable to me from what I've seen of them and yeah, yeah and anyway he will sit there and watch the world war ii tank video on like loop, like this hour-long history. Love to play that video game man yeah, you know, my son's already a nerd, I like it don't.
Speaker 1:don't get him on the internet, just get him on video games.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what I did get him is this really kind of cool projector. So it's a projector and you turn the lights out in your room, you set it up and it projects basically Duck Hunt on your wall and then it's got two guns that you can then shoot and do and it's very simplistic video game. Oh, that's cool. Yes, it is very cool.
Speaker 1:Um, let me find it not sponsored by the company, though we should be. See, that's the kind of ads we would take.
Speaker 2:I would totally be okay with getting paid by uh duck hunt company yeah, so it's called project uh, project x, and it's a projecting video game. Um it uh. Let me find the link and drop this in the chat for you. But it's really cool because it's got three different games it's got a literal duck, it's got a floating target and it's got an alien spaceship and they're different difficulty levels. So, yeah, you've got different targets.
Speaker 1:This looks like the shoot simulator that I used at the fbi it's, it's kind of cool and uh anyway.
Speaker 2:So that that's the sort of thing I'm letting him do good, good, yeah well the important to develop that, that coordination skill between your trigger finger and the image in the wall well, and that's the thing is, it does help with um coordination reaction and you have to re-cock the gun and reload after x number of shots oh, that's awesome. Oh, I'm so glad that yeah, so like, literally, you have to rack the slide on the gun, to re-rack it, to shoot and it's it's. It's, it's cool man, and no tv screen, no, nothing it's battery powered, take it anywhere.
Speaker 2:Just all you need is a blank wall love it.
Speaker 1:That's a good deal. Hey, by the way, you know, I I love to make fun of people or correct them when they say flip instead of magazine. Okay, and I recently and this is funny because this is an instance where, well, I mean the new 5.7.
Speaker 2:I know it has a clip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but this is an instance where I got I was wrong, which never happens usually. Oh, come on now. Yeah, so there's a video game thing and I posted a comment about how why do they all refer to these as clips? This is ridiculous, these are magazines. They had a couple of comments right away after that, people saying yes, I know right, the same thing. It's crazy how these game companies don't know shit about guns and they always refer to them, and this was not, not about the handguns, this was about spaceship guns. Okay, so large weapons, large weapons. And all of a sudden there's a message that comes out of there. It's like well, you, you know technically, uh, these are absolutely using clips, not magazines, because the clips is the mechanism that holds the rounds and the magazines are stored in the battery, in the clips. And I I was like, oh, that's bullshit.
Speaker 2:So I looked it up.
Speaker 1:And son of a bitch was right and I was like, oh my God, this sucks. So apparently, some of the guns on warships, battleships, utilize clips, and I've just been going around for 25 years telling everybody to stop saying the word clips, because the only clips that we actually have are either clips for rifles or clips for revolvers. Handguns don't use clips until this brand new one just came out and, uh, so I? I was just, you know, used to repeating that same old line and saying ha ha ha ha, you don't know shit about guns. Well, it turns out I don't know shit about big guns. So there's my moment of admitting that I was wrong, which?
Speaker 2:you know, people are sometimes shocked to hear that.
Speaker 1:I'm ever wrong or that I would admit to it, but it does occasionally happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's more the will Gene admit to it than you being ever wrong, because you're wrong.
Speaker 1:plenty, my friend, I'm virtually never wrong when it matters. So there, Well and realistically, I'm always willing to change my mind if I'm proven wrong. What I'm not willing to be is just simply be convinced of something without proof. That's a healthy attitude that everyone should have.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, one of the principles on my team that we have put together is really strong convictions loosely held right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly exactly, but you sold that from Amazon. But that's good.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's why Bezos principles okay, it's been a principle of mine for a long time and I did not know that about Bezos.
Speaker 1:Oh, but that's fine yeah, the 12 amazon principles? Um no, it's. I think it's a. It's a healthy way to act. Is you defend your beliefs until you're proven wrong and you defect the correct version, or? You defend the correct version. Yeah, yep. Well, should we wrap it up, ben, or is there anything else we need to jump in about this week?
Speaker 1:uh, no, I think we're good man I think, we've covered the highlights and uh yeah all right, my friend, I will catch you in two, but I might talk to you before then or at least text you. But I will do the podcast in two weeks yep, I hope your dad's doing good yeah, yeah, it'll be nice to see him. Uh, he sounds good, but I'm sure I'll know more when I get there. All right, until next time later.
