0089 Sir Gene Speaks with Dude Named Ben

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Transcript

Track 2 0:14

In this episode, Ben had the wrong mic selected on his computer. So he thinks he's talking through a good microphone. We're in reality, he stocking through his laptop, built in So the audio quality is going to be shittier on this one. Sorry guys.

Sir Gene 0:32

Hey, Ben. Uh, how are you today?

Sir Ben 0:35

I'm doing well, Gene, how are you this morning?

Sir Gene 0:38

Pretty good. So, um, You're back in the country, huh?

Sir Ben 0:42

made it back. Yeah. Sounds like you made it back too. You actually had an alibi even.

Sir Gene 0:47

Uh, well, apparently people were asking about it and it turned into the alibi.

Sir Ben 0:52

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene 0:54

Um, but yes, there was verification that the person I talked to on the plate. Boy, you're scratching your mic or something. I'm hearing a lot of scratchy noise.

Sir Ben 1:03

Uh, I swallowed. Are you still hearing it?

Sir Gene 1:06

Y yeah. Well, it sounded like you were touching the windscreen. You're not touching a windscreen.

Sir Ben 1:10

Nope.

Sir Gene 1:11

No. Okay. All right. Uh, anyway, yeah, so I, I just mentioned somebody that I sat next to and then, uh, people listening on the livestream click quickly checked apparently, and, uh, found a, a news article talking about that gal flying off to, uh, Mexico for a few days. And I, and I said how many days she was gonna be gone, and that's what it said in the article as well. Apparently,

Sir Ben 1:40

Yeah. So either Gene read the article beforehand.

Sir Gene 1:44

How would I read the article before it happened?

Sir Ben 1:47

Uh, well it, the article was available when you started talking about it.

Sir Gene 1:52

Oh, that's true. That's true.

Sir Ben 1:53

you know, you could have planted.

Sir Gene 1:55

I'm still hearing a, a mic touching noise.

Sir Ben 1:58

I, Dude,

Sir Gene 1:59

Are you on your normal mic?

Sir Ben 2:00

No, I'm not.

Sir Gene 2:02

Oh, is there a reason you're not on your normal mic?

Sir Ben 2:05

There is

Sir Gene 2:07

Okay. Um, alright, well then be super careful and not move cuz probably like the mic cable is touching your clothes or something.

Sir Ben 2:16

literally nothing is touching me.

Sir Gene 2:18

Well, right the second there isn't, but two minutes ago something was scratching,

Sir Ben 2:23

Huh?

Sir Gene 2:24

so just kind of pay attention cuz I know sometimes the, uh, if it's a mic with a cable and not a wireless earbuds, then uh, quite often just the noise of the cable coming across your clothes is enough to pass soon to the mic

Sir Ben 2:40

Okay.

Sir Gene 2:41

anyway, inside baseball stuff. So we're gonna be covering, uh, a bunch of politics. But you also mentioned you, you had some, uh, grapes on a podcast app.

Sir Ben 2:53

Yeah. So lately Fountain has been absolutely damn near unusable. So I, I'm only bringing this up just because, you know, podcasting 2.0, everything, that there's a lot of good things going on.

Sir Gene 3:07

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 3:08

you know, with these new apps, um, you know, before you add a whole bunch of features, focus on basic usability first. So, uh, If, if anyone else is having this problem, I'd be interested in knowing, cuz I'm trying to get feedback to the developer. But essentially it will not play a podcast unless you have internet access and it will not, which is just an athema because, you know, the whole idea is I'm downloading something and being able to play it whenever, wherever I want. And then two, if you close the app and then go away and do something else and then come back, it starts the podcast over again. Instead of remembering where you were

Sir Gene 3:44

Oh, yeah. That's

Sir Ben 3:46

the chapter feature, you can kind of find your place back. But dude, that's just basic blocking and tackling that has to get done first.

Sir Gene 3:54

And it, like, it used to do all these things so it became broken.

Sir Ben 3:58

a new thing that it started doing that's just broken. And I like Fountain because it's got a lot of the new features. They're way ahead on the feature list. So I'm trying to support the front runner and saying, Hey, you know, I'm gonna use you. I'm gonna, uh, use you to boost and you can take a bit of money from it. I am, but you know, and I'm fine with bleeding edge problems, but at the same time, um, the problem should be with the bleeding edge stuff, not the basic stuff. Right.

Sir Gene 4:27

Right. Right.

Sir Ben 4:27

So that that's the only gripe.

Sir Gene 4:30

Okay. I've not heard of it, so I, I'll, I'll take a look, see if I can replicate what you're doing.

Sir Ben 4:37

They've got, they've got a good feature set, They're going in the right direction. I like their discovery side. I like the funding side, the way they're doing the boost, the way they're handling the sat. There's lots of good cool things about the Fountain map, but come on, man.

Sir Gene 4:52

Hmm. Yeah. Well, hopefully they'll get it fixed. You know, it's, you have to make sure you let the companies know when you guys run across problems because just sort of griping to yourself or your friends. It's not enough. Uh, cuz they may not know there's a problem.

Sir Ben 5:08

um, I mean, I've sent the developer, you know, multiple, uh, notes on several

Sir Gene 5:13

Yeah. Well I'm not saying you're not doing that. I'm just saying it's, it, it's very common for people to bitch about stuff and not actually notify the person that could fix it.

Sir Ben 5:23

absolutely. And, you know, working with customers on bleeding edge software fairly regularly, um, it's definitely feedback and getting that to engineering and letting engineering know and letting engineering dig in if they will. I is the way to do it.

Sir Gene 5:38

Yeah. All right. Any other ticky stuff that you can think of?

Sir Ben 5:44

Um, well, there, there's a handful of things. Um, there's, uh, the whole Elon Musk pulling out of, uh, supporting Ukraine

Sir Gene 5:53

Yeah, well, I was gonna say before we get into Ukraine,

Sir Ben 5:57

Well, but this is kind of

Sir Gene 5:58

that's related. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. So,

Sir Ben 6:02

he was spending over$20 million a month of his own money to

Sir Gene 6:05

uh, he's not spending money, um,

Sir Ben 6:08

Well, burn rate,

Sir Gene 6:09

it's, it's like, it's, yeah. It's like if you own the, uh, the railroad company and you have to amortize your rail because you have to replace it every 30, 40 years and then you start, um, allowing somebody else to have access to your rail,

Sir Ben 6:33

Well, it, it is more like someone using your train though, because you have to pay the

Sir Gene 6:38

Well, but it, but, but there is no fuel costs. There's

Sir Ben 6:41

Yeah, there is, there is the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, not terre, Yeah. The terrestrial ISPs that they have to pay interconnect costs to.

Sir Gene 6:50

Yeah. Those, well, those terrestrial ISPs are, are in, in Ukraine, they're, they're

Sir Ben 6:56

believe that to be true. Uh, I don't think there are any star link up

Sir Gene 7:01

What, where do you think, where do you think they are?

Sir Ben 7:04

Most of'em are in the us.

Sir Gene 7:06

They're not in the us. I can tell you that right now. The Europe by starlink is not served from the us That data stays in Europe. So they, they could be another European countries. They're, they're not in the us.

Sir Ben 7:18

Well, I, I don't think they would be in

Sir Gene 7:20

either, either way. I don't, uh, it, I think that it, this is clearly. The end result of Musk wanting to get out of a situation that he walked into before knowing anything was in it. And

Sir Ben 7:37

I definitely think must stepped in it and is now realizing the error of his ways

Sir Gene 7:42

he, he, he jumped into politics without reading the tea leaves is what happened. And, uh, I think that, I'm sure somebody told them, Hey, you know, it would come across really good for our, uh, Department of Defense contracts if you were to say, provide internet in Ukraine. And then next thing you know, uh, six months later, there explosions are using his technology to be triggered in other countries. And incidentally, just because, uh, he's providing those free internet connectivity in Ukraine, doesn't mean that they're being used by civilians. And in fact, I think that's part of the, what the, the realization was, is that yeah, they're not really being used by civilians. They're being used by the Ukrainian military, which is comprised mostly of people who are not Ukrainians at this point.

Sir Ben 8:41

Yeah. The well, and they're being used for offensive activity, not just communications. And that's

Sir Gene 8:47

Right,

Sir Ben 8:48

They're, they're being used for geolocation and targeting systems and everything else.

Sir Gene 8:52

Yeah, because, uh,

Sir Ben 8:54

of it being,

Sir Gene 8:55

Russia has been jamming GPS signals in Ukraine. So this is the clear, easy alternative for that for the US side.

Sir Ben 9:03

well, the Ukrainian site,

Sir Gene 9:05

You sure? Why not

Sir Ben 9:07

uh, I mean, there's no doubt that NATO is involved and that we are the hand that is driving this. I fully get that. Um, I mean, even to the point of paying, you know, uh, the Taliban to

Sir Gene 9:18

weapons, US technology. Uh, a lot of European and US troops

Sir Ben 9:25

for us.

Sir Gene 9:26

and any,

Sir Ben 9:27

ironies.

Sir Gene 9:28

any, any sort of technology which, uh, did not exist in Ukraine previously is clearly being operated by people that know how to use it, which is not the Ukrainians. So I think this is convenient for Musk that, um, he was told to fuck off by Ukraine officially on Twitter,

Sir Ben 9:49

Yes.

Sir Gene 9:50

uh, and that his, his photos have all been pa pasted over in Ukrainian cities that were previously, you know, having posters of Elon Musk as the great, uh, billionaire savior of Ukraine. Uh, now they're all covered up and so now he's like, Oh, well, okay, well I guess we're, we're done providing free internet and you all can start paying for it.

Sir Ben 10:14

Well, even to the point, um, Gonzalo Lera was talking about this and I, I didn't get a chance to write down the site, but apparently he is on a hit list at this point.

Sir Gene 10:24

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. But I think he's, See this is why he says he stepped into it rather than just made a mistake, is because he's fucked. Uh, he's gonna end up losing defense contracts because of this, because the warhawks, the, the people in, uh, not just the neocons, but the people on both sides that are warhawks, uh, at this point, they're going to make sure that the government isn't spending money with Musk. may end up having NASA problems as a result of this, frankly.

Sir Ben 10:53

Uh, possibly, but I mean, he's kind of the only game in town, so he's got that going for him As far as satellite

Sir Gene 11:00

mean that, Oh, he may be the only game in

Sir Ben 11:02

or that, that, or they're gonna go to, uh, you know, Russian, Russian launch systems. Boeing

Sir Gene 11:06

have, you still have ela, uh, and they're, Yeah. Boeing is not ready. They're not human certified. But it doesn't stop Congress from giving Boeing way more money than they give to, uh, SpaceX. Like they've historically done that anyway, like Boeing, even though they're now how many years behind? Has received about three times as much money as SpaceX

Sir Ben 11:33

Boeing's technology is easily close to a, a decade behind SpaceX.

Sir Gene 11:38

easily.

Sir Ben 11:38

they, they, they're, they're just, I, I, I, I, I

Sir Gene 11:42

they started with an Apollo capsule, They, they started with an Apollo capsule and then said, Okay, let's tweak a few things. I mean, they're not like, this is the advantage of getting into it from scratch is you're not held back by legacy.

Sir Ben 11:59

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene 12:00

You know, all the tech you're using is new or just invented and yeah, there might be more things to iron out and, uh, clean up, but you're not held back by old tech, which mowing absolutely is.

Sir Ben 12:17

Which brings me to an interesting point. So, um, Billy Bones had recommended the book 2034, a novel from the Third World War. Well,

Sir Gene 12:27

reading that right.

Sir Ben 12:28

I finished it last week.

Sir Gene 12:30

Oh, wow.

Sir Ben 12:31

I mean, I've finished that book within like three days. It was a very good book. But when, Well, when, But here's the thing. When you, when you listen to the, there was an interview that I listen to, uh, with the author who is an admiral and retired and so on. He's a total libtard, and he's one of, but he's one of those people who is very liberal and very, doesn't think of themselves as such, but the, you know, the, the ideas they espouse versus their values don't match, right? They have total cognitive dissonance. But regardless of that, it was a very. But it talks about America facing a peer power and the technical technological issues that America has. And in the book it's the Chinese that are able to exploit, um, our quote unquote technol technological advantage and turn it against us, um, in various ways. And it, it's interesting, and I was thinking about this actually as I was reading, is that while we are technologically more superior to China, it is likely that China would actually have the edge in more because of our legacy systems because they are new to this and they've had the chance to build cyber security in from the beginning versus we're patching and glomming it on. They do have a, from a cybersecurity standpoint, which is what I do, a strategic advantage there and that needs to be recognized. Um, Russia is kind of in the same boat we are, uh, from a technology standpoint, except they have less technology, which actually aids them if their cyber offensive capabilities or anything.

Sir Gene 14:08

Yeah,

Sir Ben 14:09

saying is we have less, we have less capability to materially affect them from a cybersecurity standpoint because they're not as dependent upon it as we are.

Sir Gene 14:18

Yeah. Battle Circle Africa.

Sir Ben 14:20

Exactly. Exactly. Great analogy, but anyway, Good book. Uh, it's set a decade too early and it has us in China getting into it, and India coming in, being the peacekeepers, which I don't see. I see India actually moving way more towards the Russian side than us.

Sir Gene 14:39

Yeah. Yep.

Sir Ben 14:41

Modi is a fan of the US but we'll see how long he main exactly he

Sir Gene 14:48

This administration is absolutely destroying any of these relationships.

Sir Ben 14:53

Well, and here's the thing, Modi is absolutely a nationalist. He's going in doing amazing things for India and he's going to keep doing amazing things for India, under Trump. It was totally advantageous for him and Trump to have the relationship they had. It was mutually beneficial. Biden is fucking that over.

Sir Gene 15:14

Yeah. Yeah. And I, I think that this is something that's, uh, whether it was triggered or whether it was gonna happen any regardless anyway, uh, right now a lot of countries like India, like, uh, Saudi Arabia that have kind of been taken for granted by the United States as friendly, are starting to stretch their legs a little bit and say, Eh, you know, we're actually, um, you know, we're not a VAs of the United States.

Sir Ben 15:47

Well

Sir Gene 15:48

just

Sir Ben 15:49

do, just to make a point.

Sir Gene 15:51

yeah.

Sir Ben 15:52

The, they, they, the reason part of this, the reason why is cuz they were actually given respect by Trump. Um, so they were given respect by Trump. They were given a, you know, a lot of respect the way Trump handled the Abraham Accords and went to Saudi Arabia the way he did and everything else. They kind of got a little bit of confidence there. And it's the establishment that is taking them for granted and has taken them for granted for forever. So it's like that person that you just kind of mistreat, kind of ignore whatever. They get a little bit of confidence and then you're like, Wait, what? Why are you telling me, fuck you? Oh,

Sir Gene 16:30

Well, and I,

Sir Ben 16:31

you like shit.

Sir Gene 16:32

and I think with Saudi Arabia, the, the next shoe that's gonna fall is when they don't renew the American Air based leases.

Sir Ben 16:41

Well, I mean,

Sir Gene 16:42

They don't need

Sir Ben 16:43

the, they don't need to, but depending on who's in office, that will trigger a war.

Sir Gene 16:48

No, it's not gonna trivial war.

Sir Ben 16:50

Sure. We'll invade Saudi Arabia to make sure we can maintain those

Sir Gene 16:53

Nah, it's not gonna happen.

Sir Ben 16:54

with,

Sir Gene 16:55

not gonna happen.

Sir Ben 16:56

if Joe Biden is president, I bet it will.

Sir Gene 16:59

Well, if, if Joe Biden's president, I, it's not gonna happen in the next couple of years. I mean, the, I think the lease has run for another six, seven years, but, uh, I, I don't think they're gonna renew.

Sir Ben 17:10

or not. Well that will be a huge hit to Americans' ability to project its power, uh,

Sir Gene 17:16

don't know that America's gonna have an economy to project at that point. So it may not matter. It may be sort of like, Oh, you can't afford these leases, that's why we're not gonna renew'em. It's, uh, you guys, Yeah, your economy can't sustain that. Um, the, uh,

Sir Ben 17:32

I.

Sir Gene 17:33

you know, Russia calls this, this change of realignment, the Fair World order, um, which is essentially a world order without having us at the top. Um, but it's definitely shifting. It's, I think, uh, whether it's just simply the focus of the US in Europe on Russia, or whether it's other countries saying, Oh, somebody is standing up to the us. It's definitely having an impact on a lot of countries who you would think would be saying yes to the us but are instead are saying no. And once Saudi Arabia basically tells Biden to fuck off and, uh, we're gonna limit our production further, and nothing he can do is going to change that, uh, that's not a, that's an, that's an emotional response by Saudi Arabia. That's not a rational response by Saudi Arabia. They're basically rubbing it in. Not trying to win some specific favor.

Sir Ben 18:39

Well, I, I, I, I will say that I think the release of Biden asking them to not, not reduce production for a month is an emotional response, but I think the, them reducing production is absolutely in their financial best interest.

Sir Gene 18:56

Well, it always is. But typically what would happen is that the US would come to them and explain to them why the US wants something different. And then they would said, Well, you know, it's really gonna cost us, you know, what can you guys do for us? And then there would be some negotiation and, and the US would get what it wants and Saudi Arabia gets what it wants. In this particular instance, it seems like there's nothing the US can offer Saudi Arabia that is equivalent to a reduction by 2 million barrels.

Sir Ben 19:28

Um, well, yeah. Um, so this ties into the financial piece a little bit and, um, you know, we are the Titanic. It is hitting the iceberg. It's time to get people into lifeboats. Uh, to use Glen Beck's analogy, but I'll say this, I, I think, I think Glen Beck is a little bit of a doomsayer because I think there is potentially a way out of this, but it fucks the rest of the world, Um, and I think if the Fed holds interest rates around 9% and. We just allow for some inflation. Basically. The only way out of this is that we de industrialize Europe and we industrialize ourselves. Uh, that that's the only way I can see possibly out of this, but it totally will fuck Europe.

Sir Gene 20:16

Europe's dead anyway.

Sir Ben 20:18

I, So why would we try and save them? I mean, the Bank of England's moves lately. The Bank of England is about to be defunct.

Sir Gene 20:26

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 20:27

I mean, we're talking major collapse. The, all the retirement funds in the UK are about to just go under

Sir Gene 20:33

Yeah. And I, I mentioned this on the, uh, on unrelenting as well, is that part of the reason that we've got to where we have with these mega corpses is because people trust their savings to anonymous mutual funds. And there's too much money that, that people don't individually control, they don't make decisions about. And what that allows to happen is much larger corporations to exist than would've otherwise. So, um, I, I think that, uh, it's a self resetting mechanism. Bank fails, people start to realize they can't trust the bank. They take bigger control of the money that they have in the future. And that kind of shrinks things back down.

Sir Ben 21:25

Well,

Sir Gene 21:25

these conditions don't arise in a vacuum. They arise because they're primed to arise given the circumstances we live in,

Sir Ben 21:34

And to put it slightly differently, this is why the unseen hand of free economies works, is because individually, if you're controlling your own economic future and so on, if you fail, okay, you fail. Um, but maybe a hundred others succeed. So the failure is limited. But when you consolidate, when you centrally plan, when you go the communistic route, whether that is through corporatism or actual communism, when there is someone who fails because we're all human and we all fail at some point in time that failure is much larger. Incap.

Sir Gene 22:10

Yeah. And people are playing with not their own money. And so they're willing to do things that they wouldn't with their own money. And by people, I mean, yeah, more cal, I mean the people actually managing the money.

Sir Ben 22:23

BlackRock is a great example with

Sir Gene 22:25

could not exist if people didn't put money into mutual funds for their retirements.

Sir Ben 22:31

right? But what I'm saying is what they're doing with ESG is a perfect example of what we're talking about because no rational human being would say, Okay, I'm gonna accept the decade old losses because I think this is going to be better in the future, but because it's someone else's money and I feel the power to do this, and this is a social thing I want to do, I'm going to do it.

Sir Gene 22:50

Yeah.

Sir Ben 22:50

I guarantee you Larry Fink, if it was his own money, wouldn't be doing.

Sir Gene 22:54

people, people somehow attribute qualities to corporations that are different than qualities of humans, and I think that's ridiculous. The, the, A corporation is simply the agreement of a bunch of people that, for one reason or another, have gotten themselves into very high power positions. So,

Sir Ben 23:18

it's not even necessarily an agreement of people. I mean, I've, I don't know about you, but I've watched multiple boards just acquiesce to a CEO because of cult personality more than once,

Sir Gene 23:28

yeah. Sure.

Sir Ben 23:29

you, you get a fairly ca charismatic CEO and the board, especially if the brand is tied to that CEO specifically, and the, if the CEO decides to walk the company's defunct sort of thing, then the board is nothing. But yes ma'am,

Sir Gene 23:47

Yeah, yeah.

Sir Ben 23:48

regardless of his percentage of control.

Sir Gene 23:51

Yep. But we've got a few things that have contributed to where we are right now, which is very much an oligopoly and, and what those things are. Include, I mean, this is not an exhaustive list, but they include things like the majority of people's savings, retirement accounts being the biggest savings, being under control outside of themselves and in a very limited number of companies that are managing all those accounts and making the investment decisions. And another thing, uh, that's gotten us kinda where we are, uh, are the, uh, there, there are a lot of bad laws relating to, uh, to patents of products. Um, and so companies that have the ability to spend millions on lawyers get to a very big advantage against startups and newer businesses. Um, there's a, uh, certainly the way our banking system operates with the creation of new money happening literally at the bank level when they, uh, create a loan, um, rather than at the government level.

Sir Ben 25:10

Well, let, let's talk about that a little bit because I don't wanna assume that everybody who's listening, um, you know, all three of you,

Sir Gene 25:17

yeah, I was gonna say what the, the two people that generally listen.

Sir Ben 25:21

Yeah. But, uh, let's not assume that everybody knows how money is created in the United States. Um, since the Federal Reserve Act, basically any, all US dollars at this point are tied to debt. They are only backed by debt of real goods. So if all the debt in the world that is backed by US dollars was paid off, there would be$0 in Circula.

Sir Gene 25:47

exactly. Yeah. And that's, that's worth bringing up cuz I take shit like this for granted. But you're right, maybe not everybody's aware of this, that essentially the entirety of the US money supply is based around debt and when the debt disappears, so does the US money supply, and this is why China doing what it's doing is, or could be considered certainly economic warfare when they're effectively, um, they're, they're buying their own currency and selling the US dollar. And that includes, uh, closing down, um, you know, accounts that were in US dollars. So you're, you're essentially bringing more money back into the United States, but that money is disappearing because it's paying off debt.

Sir Ben 26:45

Which in an inflationary environment that we're in is not necessarily a total bad thing. This is part of the reason why I would say to the Fed, Hold at 9%. Don't go higher than that because

Sir Gene 26:57

You're super quiet right now. It looks like you're away from the mic.

Sir Ben 27:02

uh, can you hear me?

Sir Gene 27:03

I can barely hear you.

Sir Ben 27:05

I don't know why.

Sir Gene 27:07

Yeah, you're you. It sounds like you're about two feet away from the mic right now.

Sir Ben 27:11

I'm not.

Sir Gene 27:12

Okay, Now I can hear you fine. Whatever you just did. Now you're in front of the mic,

Sir Ben 27:17

Okay. Um, alright, anyway, let's

Sir Gene 27:22

repeat what you were. Well repeat what you were just saying

Sir Ben 27:25

Okay?

Sir Gene 27:25

that people could hear you.

Sir Ben 27:27

Okay. Um, apparently we're gonna have gene's gonna have to do some editing on this episode or I'm just gonna

Sir Gene 27:32

Yeah. Clearly

Sir Ben 27:34

Um, what I was saying is that, uh, this is why I would tell the fed to hold at 9% is because we want some destruction of debt. We want some destruction of dollars to slow down inflation, but at the same time, if you go to the 30% that would be required to actually stop this inflation, you would destroy the US economy. So this is where I think, you know, out of all the nations that are allied to the US currently, we are the strongest economy

Sir Gene 28:03

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 28:04

there. Um, so all of that capital in those countries that still can, is going to flee to the United States as a last refuge, and that's going to help offset this somewhat.

Sir Gene 28:16

Yeah. Um, yeah, and I don't disagree with you. I, I do think that cranking up the, I mean this happened in the seventies. I, I looked through it, I remember it. The, there were, you know, with the prime interest rate being, uh, I think right around 10 or 11%, I remember, well, probably maybe nine,

Sir Ben 28:36

hit 20.

Sir Gene 28:37

uh, what he did

Sir Ben 28:39

20. Yeah.

Sir Gene 28:40

no inflation though. Not prime rate.

Sir Ben 28:42

Uh, you said prime, sorry.

Sir Gene 28:43

Yeah, prime. Cuz I remember, uh, my parents had a, um, a mortgage out and it was at, I think 13% for the house, and that was like a good rate. So, um, I, I would assume the prime was like just a point or two below that, uh, without looking that up. But, uh, it's gotta have been right around there because, uh, the idea that the prime rates hovering at just 1% for as long as it has been. I, I don't know that that's ever been the case in the.

Sir Ben 29:19

Yeah, I mean, so, you know, we are in the same situation that we were in 2008, but instead of, uh, so in 2008, after the bank bailouts and everything else, we saw massive inflation, but we didn't feel it. And the reason why is because that inflation was in the stock market. It wasn't in real goods, it was in companies, um, because of banks investing, because the banks got the bailout. Well, now that humans have gotten the bailout, citizens, we're seeing the inflation in actual durable goods. Um, you combine that with supply chain shortages and that's why the inflation rate has jumped the way it has. Um, had we not had the supply chain shortages, there would been inflation, but not to the degree we're seeing the, the supply chain issues that we got because of Covid, Um, absolutely. Is really driving the demand side of this.

Sir Gene 30:14

Yeah. Um,

Sir Ben 30:17

and that's another point that should be noted. The fed's only tools in this ares are, uh, are supply side. So they can't control the demand. Right. They can only control the supply and the demand is high because we just went through two years of, you know, basically not getting much.

Sir Gene 30:37

Yeah, exactly. Uh, it, it's, uh, I don't know, man, it, it's hard to try and predict what's gonna happen right now, because unlike the last time that the US was in a, a major long term, uh, downturn like this, uh, the, the stability of the rest of the world is a lot shadier. So it's, uh, it, it seems like the last couple times the US had downturns that the, um, uh, like you could at least predict somewhat what, what's happening in the rest of the world. I don't think that's the case right now.

Sir Ben 31:19

Well, I think we're looking at 1930s, uh, repeat right now. Uh, if we're being honest with ourselves. So I think the US is going to slide into a depression and I think the only thing that's gonna get us out of said depression is a war. And I think that we're seeing

Sir Gene 31:36

Well, they're trying as hard as they can.

Sir Ben 31:39

Oh yeah. And you know, I would put the situation we're in economically as in 1929 in the situation we're in geopolitically as in 1930.

Sir Gene 31:49

Yeah. Yeah. A actually, I think that's quite accurate because, uh, and when you said in the 1930s, I started kind of thinking, it was like, well, as far as US market crash and the, the economy going down, Sure. But, um, but yeah, I think probably. More like 1939 as well. Hmm.

Sir Ben 32:11

Yeah, so I, I think geopolitically we are very much in the, and, and I would, you know, I've said this since before the Ukrainian, um, situation emerged the way it has, I've said that they were setting up Putin to be the next Hitler because the Dom bass and the hinterlands and Poland are very analogous. And what it comes down to is you literally have the same sort of narrative coming around. And instead of Churchill being the impetus and the reason why we have World War ii, it's now Biden for World War.

Sir Gene 32:56

Yeah. Yeah, Yeah. I could see that. And it's, uh, unfortunate that this is where we end up, but I also don't think that things are going the way that they predicted either. Uh, I'm sure that there were people that brought binders worth of scenarios and the way they would play out back, uh, a year ago to the White House, and I would bet, and I, I have no idea, but I suspect that, uh, what's actually happening right now was not predicted by.

Sir Ben 33:33

Well, so I, I think the way this was done and the way this was, I think the scenario they thought would unfold. This is just, you know, I know nothing that anyone else knows, but just reading the tea leaves and looking at this, I think they thought, okay, he's gonna take these areas. We can make it expensive for him. We can drive some economic development, like we're at war because of spending and so on. Um, and we can make it expensive for Russia and hurt. What they failed to realize is that they pushed a little too far. So the bombing of the UK Bridge, for example, was pushing too far. And the response we've seen of that is, okay, now Russia is going to escalate and actually take the gloves off and go to war. And what they're doing is destroying Ukraine. The infrastructure that has been destroyed in Ukraine will take decades to rebuild the power plants that are destroyed. That's a five year project, at least.

Sir Gene 34:28

Yeah. Yeah. We're, I mean, you talk about a deindustrialization of Europe, we're gonna have a massive de deindustrialization of Ukraine happening.

Sir Ben 34:37

Well, U Ukraine's already the industrialized. Now granted, they were not a very industrial country to begin with, but as far as being able to provide power to the citizenry, they are

Sir Gene 34:49

No, they're gonna be fully reliant on Russia.

Sir Ben 34:51

Absolutely.

Sir Gene 34:52

Yeah. There's all, and I think that will be the. strategically as well as inevitably, um, you're saying, well, it's five years to rebuild it, they're not gonna get rebuilt.

Sir Ben 35:05

Well, here, here's the thing. The, the substations that Russia has hit are all on the western edge of, uh, uh, of Ukraine. They are severing strategically through munitions. They are severing Ukraine's ability to import electricity.

Sir Gene 35:24

And they should have done that the first month, as far as I'm concerned. Like, that was a, a mistake. Us tactics would've blown up everything on every part of the country, uh, that, that can be utilized for, uh, infrastructure, electricity, uh, water, uh, food, everything. Because the US strategy, looking at the last engagements the US has been in, uh, and, and incidentally we definitely want to talk a little bit about Haiti as well, is, um, coming in and the full complete destruction of the ability of the populous to sustain itself in the normal life

Sir Ben 36:09

shock and all.

Sir Gene 36:10

shock. And a, that softens things up to when we do start coming in. People are desperate on the other side, and they're not desperate to kill us. They're desperate to get a drink of. So, yeah, I mean, in a lot of ways I think the, the new commander, uh, that's in charge of the operation at this point in Russia has been saying this. He's a hardliner guy, and, uh, Putin putting him in charge now, I think, uh, to a lot of people in Russia is acknowledging that Putin made a mistake.

Sir Ben 36:41

Yeah. I mean, it, it's definitely, you know, we want them desperate and dependent and he.

Sir Gene 36:49

Yeah.

Sir Ben 36:50

He, and here's the thing, the US tactics are about destroying the quality of life and preventing the enemy's will to fight.

Sir Gene 36:59

Yes.

Sir Ben 37:00

Putin very much wanted to say, Okay, I'm going to, quite frankly, from his point of view,

Sir Gene 37:06

It was a liberation.

Sir Ben 37:08

and indifferent,

Sir Gene 37:09

he, he was acting as though he's liberating Ukraine because in his eyes he was,

Sir Ben 37:14

liberating the dom bass, not necessarily

Sir Gene 37:16

well, no, liberating, liberating Ukraine from the Nazis, because that's, that's, I don't think just, uh, lip service. I think that is the way

Sir Ben 37:25

the I do, I I take the as off battalion stuff as fairly lip service because if he, if he was really going after the as off battalion and de detoxifying Ukraine, he wouldn't be fighting in the dumb bus. He'd be fighting in the west.

Sir Gene 37:39

no, you wouldn't be fighting in the west because, uh, the majority of the, uh, Of those guys were right on the border of Don Bos, because that's where they were fighting.

Sir Ben 37:50

That's where they were deployed, not where their homes are.

Sir Gene 37:55

Well, but he, Well, fair enough. But he's not trying to destroy the families of the as offs. He was trying to destroy the, the actual guys in the military. But the bottom line is that this was, by the way, that it, that this special operation, it was even called a special operation at that point. The way that it was, uh, fought was very much through the eyes of a liberator. Like you guys had a, um,

Sir Ben 38:27

Oh,

Sir Gene 38:27

a uh, a coup in your country. And now, although we took way too long, we're coming in to help liberate you from that bad coup. This is, this is, this is I think more akin to the way that the, the us uh, you know, try to fight in, um, um, Korea.

Sir Ben 38:52

I agreed. And the coup that we're talking about was under the Barack Obama administration, and we should note Victoria, uh, Kagan, Newman's, uh, statement of fuck the eu. And I think we're coming full circle on that strategy. And part of the reason why Putin backed off is, again, because of Trump coming in, not going with the, uh, Liberal economic world orders playbook in saying, Hey, Putin. Yeah, I, I get you, there's problems in there. We're not going to go after you taking crime Crimea and liberating Crimea from this situation, but let's just not cause any more problems right now in He aquias to that. I really believe that there was a conversation between Trump and Putin, whether it was Putin being afraid of Trump being a madman and willing to use nukes over this, or just a friendly agreement of, Hey, we're not gonna do that under my watch. Okay, we're just gonna let it be, Um, and I'm not gonna push for anything on Crimea because Trump didn't, He, he didn't insist that Putin give back Kaia. And he, quite frankly, because of those four years legitimized Russian control of Crimea, Crimea is never going back to Ukraine. It's not at this point.

Sir Gene 40:07

it's, it's never going back to Ukraine because it never has been Ukraine. It's always been Russia. It was just the way that the maps were drawn was wrong.

Sir Ben 40:17

Well, okay, I mean, legitimately in the eyes of the world body, it was part of Ukraine. Whether, for whatever reason, I understand and agree, but right now

Sir Gene 40:29

Yeah.

Sir Ben 40:30

map should definitely be redrawn to show Crimea as part of Russia. And quite frankly, so should the Damas. Um, I liked Elon Musk's idea of, Hey, let's settle this peacefully. Have the UN come in, monitor the vote, and see what happens. And I really think that Russia would've gone for that if the Ukrainians would've, because I think the majority of the DOAs would've voted to go with Russia.

Sir Gene 40:55

This is literally what Russia asked for before this started back. If you go back to, um, the, the, the mins chords, that was literally what they were asking for as we wanted to let people make their own choice here. And we want Ukraine to acknowledge that if they vote to separate, they're gonna be separate.

Sir Ben 41:19

Yep.

Sir Gene 41:20

And not even part of Russia, they're just gonna be separate regions.

Sir Ben 41:24

Well, and that was the entire talking points at the beginning of this, and people need to remember this. Russia did not start out with this, with these regions being part of Russia. They wanted to create a new vote. Russia, basically a vasal state that would be, uh, closely allied with Russia, but you know, not necessarily Russian territory as they are seen in Russia. Now, today, I.

Sir Gene 41:50

Yep. And, uh, you know, the other one that's still gonna happen and uh, it's just a matter of time, is odea, because Odeo is also always Russian. So it's a Russian, always has been a Russian speaking, um, uh, region. So when Odessa falls, that will completely isolate what's left of Ukraine from water.

Sir Ben 42:14

Yeah. It,

Sir Gene 42:15

be an inland state.

Sir Ben 42:17

it should be said though that Odessa has been much more homogenized in the, the last few decades and is not as overwhelmingly Russian as the dumbass.

Sir Gene 42:30

Well, yeah, that's true because when, um, when they banned the Russian language in Ukraine, uh, a lot of people started leaving.

Sir Ben 42:40

So I, I don't know that Odessa is a make or break for Russia. I think Russia could accept what they've got and that'd be good because now they've got their land bridge to cra.

Sir Gene 42:52

that, that may have been the case a month ago, it's not with the new guy that's in charge.

Sir Ben 42:57

Okay. Fair enough.

Sir Gene 42:58

Odessa is part of the package. In fact, um, the entirety of Ukraine may end up being going that way.

Sir Ben 43:04

Well, uh, so I d.

Sir Gene 43:07

They're not gonna stop at this point. I don't see under the, the current military leadership, I don't see there being any stoppage there. There's not a line outside of the, the actual border of Ukraine for them. I don't think they're gonna go into Poland. But they're not gonna stop, I don't think. Um, they, let's put it this way, once they capture a desa, what I don't see happening is a statement saying our military operations are complete and we're not going to wind down.

Sir Ben 43:37

Fair enough, but I can see them taking Odessa, accepting a ceasefire from Ukraine, the what is remainder rump, Ukrainian state fracturing. Um, once it fractures the remaining Russian speaking portion of Ukraine, going to Russia and the western side of Ukraine, voting and being annex by Poland. I can totally see that happening.

Sir Gene 44:02

Well, if that happens, then that was literally right on day one of the war, cuz that's what I said was gonna happen. The line that I drew on day one went through Kiev. It went from Odessa up north, slightly east through Kiev and everything. Uh, west of Kiev was gonna be pawned, everything East was gonna be Russia.

Sir Ben 44:22

Well um, and you know, I think we might even get CSB on board with that plan,

Sir Gene 44:28

Yeah.

Sir Ben 44:30

so,

Sir Gene 44:31

it's interesting cuz um, sorry I'm Chung down while we're, we're talking here. Um, but I always

Sir Ben 44:38

your breakfast.

Sir Gene 44:39

I usually have my breakfast when we're recording this. Um, I, I think right now, The, the, the thing that the US and the West completely was oblivious to and didn't predict the possibility of happening even is the way that this is perceived by the rest of the world. Like all the events and like, you know, Russia crossing over into the Ukrainian border, I think was universally perceived as a dangerous and bad and an act to condemn.

Sir Ben 45:13

before you continue, and I'm gonna let you ring for a little while, but let's talk about what we mean by the rest of the world, because

Sir Gene 45:19

Well, I mean

Sir Ben 45:20

the Western world, Europe, Europe, Hold on, hold on, Hold on. Europe, Canada and the United States, Japan, Australia are all, and even New Zealand, I would say, are all pretty on board with the US narrative. Now, when we say the rest of the world, we mean everybody.

Sir Gene 45:39

Yeah. So what we mean is what we mean. What I mean, I'm not a royal we, although I, I guess I am sort of, but, um, like this last un vote that just took place, uh, where us was trying to, um, I think push for, what was it the, was it saying that this, this latest attack by Russia on Ukraine is a war crime? Something like,

Sir Ben 46:09

Which this was a general assembly vote, which is relatively meaningless. And the reason why the US took it to the, The reason why the US took it to the general assembly and not the security council where it would have some teeth is because they knew that, well, Russia has a

Sir Gene 46:24

is in the security council. Yeah,

Sir Ben 46:26

exactly there. There's nothing

Sir Gene 46:27

But, but this is what's, so I believe every country or damn near every country has a representative in the un. And so using this general assembly vote, we can actually get an idea of what different countries thoughts on this matter are. Right. Um, the, uh, the interesting little factoid that came out was that the number of countries that either voted against this, so with Russia, which was fairly small number, but if you add that to the number of countries that abstained, which is a larger number because, uh, and abstain is, is effectively the same thing as a no vote because it's, uh, you're, you're removing your vote from the support of that thing. Uh, it's just not as strong in opposition to the vote. But the number of countries that either abstained or voted no represents over 4 billion people. I'd say that's a vast majority of the planet,

Sir Ben 47:35

Yes, but not a majority of countries.

Sir Gene 47:37

but not a majority of countries. Correct. So once again, the US is acting like they're the elites of the world. They're the top 1% of the world in trying to push things through, and the majority of the world is saying, uh, no.

Sir Ben 47:55

So just to really quickly, the actual numbers on this, there were 141 votes, four, five against, uh, 35 abstentions, and 12

Sir Gene 48:05

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So the 35 plus the 12 represent the vast majority of the world.

Sir Ben 48:12

Well, the vast majority of the world being Russia and its close allies, China, most of Africa?

Sir Gene 48:20

It's basically bricks and some African countries. But again, that literally means that the people that are for this is only one out of 10 people in the world.

Sir Ben 48:32

Mm. I, I don't know that I'd go that far on population density, but it, it, it's over 50% of the world population

Sir Gene 48:39

What's the total population right now?

Sir Ben 48:42

9 billion,

Sir Gene 48:43

Is it nine? Okay.

Sir Ben 48:45

eight point something, nine. I don't know. We can Google it. Go ahead and talk while I Google

Sir Gene 48:51

I mean, I don't think it's gone down in a damn long time. 7.9 billion in 2022. So yeah. So yeah, you're right. It's over half, it's, it's not nine out of 10 for sure. Uh, but it, it, it's definitely over half.

Sir Ben 49:07

Well, regardless, the, the, the entire point is that the abstentions and the votes against are geopolitically damn significant.

Sir Gene 49:18

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, I, I don't think we had 50% of the population abstaining from votes against Germany in World War ii.

Sir Ben 49:30

I, you know, I would have to go back and look, but when you think of the nations that were really actively involved in war, I don't know, you know, India, India at that time would be considered part of Great Britain. So,

Sir Gene 49:46

Yeah. India would be considered part of Great

Sir Ben 49:48

so you have a huge population shift there. Um,

Sir Gene 49:52

Yeah. But China was war within with Japan.

Sir Ben 49:56

which by the way, India was one of the countries that. That abstained. So just a

Sir Gene 50:02

God, in World War two.

Sir Ben 50:03

No, uh, India was part of Great Britain during World War II that I'm talking about today.

Sir Gene 50:07

Oh yeah. Well, ob well, I said all the bricks countries. Uh, so that's as expected, I think. Um, but, um, I don't know, man, if, uh, here, here's something that I don't, I have, uh, this is just purely conjecture I don't have any insight on, but if, if Russia and Putin can broker a deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, that's it. The US has done.

Sir Ben 50:38

I I don't see that ever happening, uh,

Sir Gene 50:41

Yeah, but if, that's why I'm saying, that's why I'm saying it. If it did, can you imagine?

Sir Ben 50:46

Oh, it, it, Yes, but I mean, what you have to understand is what would be required for that peace deal. Um, you know, the wahabiists in Iran or not in Iran, in Saudi Arabia are, I mean, we, we talk about, you know, the, you know, most of the time in the US when we're talking about Muslims, we're talking about Shia versus suny. Okay, great. That's really not that big of a conflict when you compare the lobbyists, you know, the, the house of sod, um, are some real hardliners man. Um, and I don't see them giving in, but maybe

Sir Gene 51:22

I don't know, man. The sheia pretty damn hardliner.

Sir Ben 51:25

Well, I, if when, when the King of Saudi Arabia finally dies, depending on who takes over, that will determine

Sir Gene 51:33

Oh, we know

Sir Ben 51:33

a lot of geopolitics. We don't. We do not. Absolutely, we do not. There is a huge fight inside of Saudi, Saudi Arabia right now as far as how this succession should go. If you look, it went from brother to brother to brother, and now do we go with the son of the Lattice Lakes, the current ruling power, or do we go back to the original ruling power that that is to be determined? Absolutely. There is a

Sir Gene 52:00

Yeah. MBS is gonna win. Clearly that fight. And,

Sir Ben 52:04

I think he is very much the favorite, but I'm saying it is not fully determined.

Sir Gene 52:08

I think it's fully determined in his mind.

Sir Ben 52:10

Okay. I I, I think you're

Sir Gene 52:12

this way, if I'm gonna make a bet, he's my man.

Sir Ben 52:17

I agree with you. But you know, just like with football, there's a reason why we play the games, you know,

Sir Gene 52:23

Okay. That analogy made no sense to me, but, Okay.

Sir Ben 52:26

because you, you have upsets, you have things that happen in the contest that yes, the superior team usually wins, but you know, every now and then the underdog gets a win. So I, I agree with you

Sir Gene 52:38

he, he has, he has demonstrated his ability to use all means at his disposal.

Sir Ben 52:49

So this is something we've never talked about, but I wanna get your take on this, especially given this line of conversation. Do you think he killed or had Khashoggi killed?

Sir Gene 52:58

Obviously

Sir Ben 52:59

Why

Sir Gene 53:01

because Khashoggi was working for the us

Sir Ben 53:03

I, Okay. Um, I don't know his involvement or not. I could easily, at the time, especially given the administration that was in power, is that as a CIA thing, to just be a trope and go from there because he had outlived his usefulness?

Sir Gene 53:22

Oh, no, I, I think Khashoggi was absolutely killed by Saudi Arabia. I don't think there's any doubt about it. I don't think it's that big a deal though. I mean, it's, uh,

Sir Ben 53:32

It's definitely not as big of

Sir Gene 53:33

he's, he's not a US journalist the way he's been presented. He, he was always, has been involved in Saudi Arabian politics for many, many years. And I think that, uh,

Sir Ben 53:45

voice.

Sir Gene 53:46

yeah, and I, and uh, I think that he started speaking out against the wrong guy.

Sir Ben 53:53

Interesting. So, I, I have always been under the impression of a, the Khashoggi thing is way overblown and then, I have not been convinced as to who did it, but it sounds like you are so

Sir Gene 54:08

I don't think it, it, yeah. I, I just, I don't see a problem with it. I mean, honestly, I think Saudi Arabia can kill anyone who's a Saudi Arabian citizen and it's their fucking business.

Sir Ben 54:20

well depending on where they do it. Sure.

Sir Gene 54:22

Not really. Not really. No.

Sir Ben 54:25

So if the US

Sir Gene 54:26

don't, they don't have the US Constitution, dude. Incidentally, the US is, is in the process of killing Julian Assange, who's not a US citizen, and, uh, is flexing its muscle with other countries to ensure that it's able to do that. So, yeah, I think if if the US is able to, uh, which they are in the process of killing Assange, and I think he will die before, uh, he's ever sentenced in trial or, or, uh, voted not guilty. I think he'll be dead before then. What difference does it make if Jamal Khashoggi was killed by, uh, Saudi Arabia?

Sir Ben 55:06

Well, fair enough. Um, did you watch Peterson's interview with, uh, Sonja's wife?

Sir Gene 55:12

no.

Sir Ben 55:13

Well, you should watch it. It's, and I would very much recommend anyone who's at all political and interested in this.

Sir Gene 55:20

I didn't even know San had awa.

Sir Ben 55:22

He does, and Peterson did an interview with her and it's excellent.

Sir Gene 55:28

Did he get married while he was in, uh, exile or,

Sir Ben 55:32

Um, no, it's the, it's the mother of his children and it's been kind of downplayed

Sir Gene 55:39

because wasn't he originally charged in the UK with a rape in Sweden or some bullshit story like that? Wasn't that the whole pretext for putting him in jail?

Sir Ben 55:52

Yeah, it was. And she actually goes into that and Peterson asks her why she doesn't believe those charges and a whole bunch of things. And it comes down to he supposedly, and she even acknowledges that he did, uh, slept, which speaks to their relationship, but that's neither hearing or there slept with two women, uh, in a short period of time. And he was never charged with actual rape. What they tried to force him to do, and apparently in Swiss law you can do this, is to take, uh, an STD screen

Sir Gene 56:23

Okay.

Sir Ben 56:25

because he had slept with these two women in short succession and they were butt heard about it.

Sir Gene 56:30

Huh. Okay. Well, I dunno. Yeah.

Sir Ben 56:35

But I absolutely agree with you that the US is, I mean, if through no other reason. Um, killing a Assange. Um, and in the interview she even went into why they are fighting extradition to the US so hard because Peterson said, Why not just go to trial and beat it there? And she talked about the, um, the different types of isolation that exists in the us, which I didn't know about. And there are currently 50 prisoners in the US under this special provision isolation that you literally once a month get to talk to your lawyer or a loved one. You

Sir Gene 57:16

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 57:17

and you don't talk to guards, you don't talk to anyone else. You are completely and totally isolated. It's what they did to Bradley Manning, which in my mind, uh, is why Bradley is now Chelsea. Chelsea, I mean Chelsea Manning, uh, was literally kept naked in the cell because of quote unquote suicide risk.

Sir Gene 57:37

Yeah.

Sir Ben 57:38

I mean, that's just, that is the definition of cruel and unusual punishment. It is dehumanizing

Sir Gene 57:46

I don't know how that's all that cruel. I mean, we used to test whether somebody was a witch or not by seeing whether or not they drowned when we held them underwater. Like, if you don't drown, you're clearly a witch.

Sir Ben 57:58

Okay.

Sir Gene 58:00

This is normal human behavior. That's my, my, my only point here is this, I'm not surprised or shocked by any of this stuff because this is very much the way that humans have been acting for thousands of years.

Sir Ben 58:11

Yeah. I mean, humans have been shitty for a long time, but that doesn't excuse

Sir Gene 58:17

It's, it's part of, it's the same reason that you can't have too many rats in one small space because they're nonviolent towards each other until there's too many of'em.

Sir Ben 58:28

Hmm,

Sir Gene 58:28

Population density breeds violence.

Sir Ben 58:31

absolutely.

Sir Gene 58:32

we

Sir Ben 58:32

Well, it

Sir Gene 58:33

reduce the population of the earth down to 500,000 people.

Sir Ben 58:36

uh, Okay, Jean, It, it exacerbates violence. But violence exists even in small communities. Um, it exists even in the family structure. Uh, violence, humans are extraordinarily violent creatures. We, we, we definitely are,

Sir Gene 58:53

I think there's, I could be wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure just from stats I read that the amount of violence in cities greatly outpaces the amount of violence in, uh, farm communities.

Sir Ben 59:07

in absolute numbers. Yes. When

Sir Gene 59:09

No, no, in, in

Sir Ben 59:10

capita, I don't, I, I, I think there is an uptick, but I don't know that it greatly outpaces. Um, my point is that human interac. Are all underlined by, at, at the very least, a threat of violence. Your, your behavior to another individual is based off of a threat of violence. Whether that's friendships, whether that's adversarial, whether it's familial, it all comes down to, okay, you can push me so far, but don't push me this far. Um, and why would we expect nations or anything else to act differently?

Sir Gene 59:47

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. But yeah, as far as the Khashoggi thing, I always thought it was just, uh, much do about nothing. It's just an internal conflict within Saudi Arabia, about Saudi Arabia and, uh, politics. And, uh, Khashoggi comes from a rich family. He was, his family's been involved in Saudi Arabian politics. He's been very vocal about Saudi Arabian politics. How do people think that he's anything but a Saudi Arabian, uh, political operative?

Sir Ben 1:00:24

While we're on the subject of Saudi Arabia, since we haven't talked about this and it actually predates us doing this podcast, what do you think the Saudi Arabian ties to, uh, the Las Vegas shooting?

Sir Gene 1:00:35

Ooh, I'd never heard of that.

Sir Ben 1:00:37

Oh yeah. Um, so one of the theories around the Las Vegas shooting, which has never been explained, uh, was that, uh, there were several Saudi Arabian princes at a, uh, hotel nearby. Uh, and that when this was all un unfolding, there was, uh, reports of shootings elsewhere in Vegas and so on, and there was videotape of Saudi Arabian being, there was literally videotape published on the internet at the time of Saudi Arabian being exfiltrated out of, uh, hotels in the area. So, yeah. Um, uh, my personal view on the Las Vegas shooting was that it was an arms deal gone bad.

Sir Gene 1:01:18

That was my impression. Yeah.

Sir Ben 1:01:20

yeah. But there, there's definitely, um, there's definitely some, you, you should look it up, there's definitely some scuttlebutt about a Saudi Arabian element being involved.

Sir Gene 1:01:31

think you're gonna find that anytime there's a, um, a mass, you know, violence event happening, that the Saudi Arabian are the ones that are getting scuttled out of there and limos and off airplanes immediately. And it, I don't think it's because they're to blame, I think it's because they have the money to do that.

Sir Ben 1:01:49

They have the security. Yeah, that, that's definitely a thing.

Sir Gene 1:01:52

they don't travel without a 20 person private security team that is paid to do that.

Sir Ben 1:01:57

Yeah. And that, and it, that could be easily the answer. But the other answer could be that, that, uh, and I think MBS was rumored to be one of the Saudi Arabian that was, uh, getting out. In fact, one of the theories was that it was, uh, going to be an assassination attempt.

Sir Gene 1:02:14

Hmm.

Sir Ben 1:02:15

So, oh

Sir Gene 1:02:17

Way too many guns in that hotel room for an assassination attempt.

Sir Ben 1:02:21

uh, depending on the force. But, you know, I mean, that, that, that brings up another question. How did one man literally carry that much armament up the stairs? You know, Or even through an elevator. I mean, this is, this is not, so this is, this is literally hundreds or thousands of pounds of munitions.

Sir Gene 1:02:42

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 1:02:44

It's not a one man, one trip sort of thing.

Sir Gene 1:02:46

Absolutely. Yeah. That's why the, the, uh, gun deal is the most, the, to me, the most obvious explanation.

Sir Ben 1:02:55

So let's say it is a gun, Dale gone bad. What's the motivation to then turn those arms on civilians? Million, million million

Sir Gene 1:03:04

that's a tricky one because what's the motivation for WTC seven going down?

Sir Ben 1:03:10

millions money.

Sir Gene 1:03:12

Well, that's a, that's a good answer.

Sir Ben 1:03:14

Well, there's not only the insurance policy, there was what was stored in WTC seven there. The, I mean, there were lots of things there.

Sir Gene 1:03:22

Yeah. Because if you have an armed deal that goes bad, typically people shoot each other.

Sir Ben 1:03:27

Correct. So again, why so why wasn't there just a blood bath in the hotel room and

Sir Gene 1:03:34

Which there should have been if it's just a money or just a, uh, again, deal goes bad. So, I don't know, man, I, it's a tough one there. don't see a who comes out ahead, like who benefits from this other than the gun lobby to have a mass shooting in Vegas? Yeah. The gun control lobby. Yeah. Who benefits from that?

Sir Ben 1:04:00

Well, I mean, it got bump stocks to be banned, so who knows?

Sir Gene 1:04:04

Yeah. I don't know. It's, I, I have no idea, man. Cause it, it, the whole thing just made no sense to me.

Sir Ben 1:04:13

Well,

Sir Gene 1:04:14

just does not make sense. It's not the most efficient way to kill a bunch of people. It's not,

Sir Ben 1:04:19

at that range

Sir Gene 1:04:20

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Sir Ben 1:04:24

and, and you know, I mean,

Sir Gene 1:04:26

How did the guy die? Did, did the cops kill him or did he kill himself?

Sir Ben 1:04:30

uh, I believe the narrative was that he killed himself, but I had to go

Sir Gene 1:04:34

So probably had two to the back of the head to himself is my.

Sir Ben 1:04:38

Yeah. Oh, well, he, he, he killed himself by shooting himself in the back of the head twice.

Sir Gene 1:04:43

that's the most common way to commit suicide, don't you?

Sir Ben 1:04:46

Well, especially if you're, uh, you know, targeted by the hag.

Sir Gene 1:04:50

Mm-hmm. Yep. I don't know, man. It's, uh, I, I've never really understood the why that event happened, it seemed like, and I was in Vegas just previous to that too. So timing was very, uh, strange on that. Um, I don't know. It's,

Sir Ben 1:05:10

You know, you just opened yourself up to CSB saying that you were

Sir Gene 1:05:13

Oh yeah, yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. you know, I usually stay in the Mandalay Bay myself, but, uh, I don't know.

Sir Ben 1:05:21

So, question, What do you think of, uh, this video that just came out on CNN of Pelosi saying that she was waiting for January 6th to happen for people to trespass in the, uh, house, and that she wanted to go beat up Trump and was willing to go to jail over it.

Sir Gene 1:05:39

I have not seen the video. So what you said is the first I've heard of it.

Sir Ben 1:05:43

Yeah. So you need to look it up. But, uh,

Sir Gene 1:05:46

a crazy old hag. What do you, you know,

Sir Ben 1:05:48

but I mean, she should be arrested for this. She was literally threatening violence to a sitting precedent. Where is, where's

Sir Gene 1:05:56

But

Sir Ben 1:05:56

service going and

Sir Gene 1:05:57

She's, she's Nancy Pelosi. She's allowed to do.

Sir Ben 1:06:00

Anyway, it's just hilarious that, uh, this has come out and it, it, it's like the Democrats think that something like this is going to benefit them. Uh, and you know, it's utterly not it's, I, if anything, it makes it look like Pelosi knew this was going to happen and, you know, it sure seems to answer a few questions, especially around, you know, Hey, why did law enforcement usher some people in and some not. And why was there essentially a stand down before this? Trump wanted to bring in more troops, she said no. Uh, you know, it basically, it seems like an admission that Nancy Pelosi orchestrated January 6th, not Donald Trump.

Sir Gene 1:06:42

Yeah. Okay. I guess, I don't know. I, I'm getting bored with that whole January 6th thing. It's, it's much to do about nothing. And unfortunately, a bunch of the people that went there of now ended up sitting in prison for a year with no charges. Um,

Sir Ben 1:06:59

In solitary confinement.

Sir Gene 1:07:01

but that's part of the American experience.

Sir Ben 1:07:03

God damnit. Oh,

Sir Gene 1:07:05

This is, this is the world order that needs to go.

Sir Ben 1:07:08

Well, and you know, how do we come back from this? And

Sir Gene 1:07:11

Well, I, I don't know if you saw, but, uh, uh, Russia officially, uh, put out a, a notice that, uh, if any United States states would like to succeed from the United States, that uh, they need to open a conversation with Russia. About the full support and guarantee of their, uh, independence.

Sir Ben 1:07:30

Yeah, and you know what? Um, I, I think, uh, you know, I, I, I am of the opinion that Texas should absolutely succeed and, you know, uh, move

Sir Gene 1:07:42

we have Russia as a guarantor of our secession rates?

Sir Ben 1:07:46

Um, sure they can acknowledge us internationally and maintain this as a free and independent, uh, state. But,

Sir Gene 1:07:54

have trade with Russia?

Sir Ben 1:07:55

sure. Free trade with every nation.

Sir Gene 1:07:58

Yeah. Yeah, totally.

Sir Ben 1:08:00

Uh, there are two bumper stickers on my truck. One says, uh, bravery, not obedience, and the other says, succeed.

Sir Gene 1:08:07

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 1:08:08

that, that should tell you where I, where I've fallen. This

Sir Gene 1:08:13

did you go to any of the Texas Independence movement events that they just had a whole bunch of'em?

Sir Ben 1:08:17

uh, I haven't been to any lately, but I have been to them. Um,

Sir Gene 1:08:21

Yeah, they just did. I, I didn't go either, but they had like the, on the same day. They ha I think over a hundred events.

Sir Ben 1:08:27

Well, and you know, the, in current polling, uh, it's around 30% of the state of Texas thinks we should succeed. And it's interesting that there's

Sir Gene 1:08:38

think it's, I think it depends on how you phrase it, because it's 30 people think we should, but then another, I think it was 36% are not opposed.

Sir Ben 1:08:49

Well, the, the way the latest poll that I saw was 30 some odd percent, uh, or pro vocally, pro secession. And then there was another 20 some odd percent that were unsure. And then there was 20, you know, the remainder. That

Sir Gene 1:09:08

It's basically the Californians that moved to Texas are the ones that wanna stay in the union, cuz they still have property.

Sir Ben 1:09:14

to an extent. Yes.

Sir Gene 1:09:16

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know man. It's, um, you know, when I was done in Mexico, I was mostly surrounded by Californians and Brits. That's the two biggest groups of people that were there when I was there.

Sir Ben 1:09:28

sucks

Sir Gene 1:09:29

Brits and Californians. Uh, and I think, I don't know if I told you about this, I, I, on the elevator, I was going up with a, uh, a couple, um, these are the Californians and then they, you know, said something about how much they love the place. I usually do small talk in the elevator. I'm one of those people. And, um, they mentioned that, yeah, they, they come down here pretty regularly from California and they said, Oh, California, you know, we got a bunch of Californians moving Texas. And their response was, Yeah, we're so glad to be rid of those people. They're not real Californians anyway.

Sir Ben 1:10:05

That's

Sir Gene 1:10:06

And I, and, and I was like, I had to think for'em. I was like, do I even bother responding or did I just leave it?

Sir Ben 1:10:12

Well, it, you know, it's interesting because on the ballot, um, there is a part of, uh, eastern Oregon that has on the ballot right now, but become part of Greater Idaho,

Sir Gene 1:10:24

Yeah. Which they've been pushing for years and years,

Sir Ben 1:10:26

State of Jefferson project has been a thing for years, but it actually, being on the ballot is new.

Sir Gene 1:10:32

Yeah. And I, and I think, uh, and their whole thing is like, this is not changing anything for, for Idaho, you know, cuz they're not gonna like gain any more seats in the house or anything. This is a, this has more to do with who we feel that we, our lifestyle and our, our mentality is more like people in Idaho than it is people on the west coast of Oregon.

Sir Ben 1:10:57

It, it comes, it comes down to we don't want Portlandia governing us. And by the way, if anyone has ever watched the show, Port Landia,

Sir Gene 1:11:06

It is a nonfiction show. It is a aary.

Sir Ben 1:11:09

It, well, it's a cartoon, but

Sir Gene 1:11:11

Not at all.

Sir Ben 1:11:12

it, it is, it's a little bit of a cartoon, but it's damn close.

Sir Gene 1:11:17

Yeah. It literally is there. I, I worked there for nine months and uh, I worked there right. One point Landia as first season was starting and I was like, holy shit that they have this exactly right.

Sir Ben 1:11:30

Yeah. Uh,

Sir Gene 1:11:30

absolutely on the money.

Sir Ben 1:11:32

and it, it's funny because other than really Portland, um, the rest of the state is very normal and conservative.

Sir Gene 1:11:41

Well, it's true of a lot of states. I think once you get out in the boonies, people are not liberals anymore. Um, and it's a, it's also a beautiful state. This is, this is the problem. I've said. I love California, and California is awesome. I just hate Californians. And if you could get rid of the Californians from California, it would make for a great place to live because the, the climate's great. There's nature there. There's all kinds of cool stuff. Get rid of the environmental bullshit regulations. You could actually turn it into a productive state as well. Uh, North California is also gorgeous with all the redwoods and everything. I mean, it's, it's a place you'd like to be other than the fact that it has communists occupying it.

Sir Ben 1:12:28

Well, and the same thing's true of Portland and Washington, um,

Sir Gene 1:12:32

The entire, that toll West Coast strip

Sir Ben 1:12:35

and Washington. Yeah. I mean, the entire West Coast is absolutely gorgeous. You know, it, it really is. Um, but, you know, Washington has a similar divide. Um, California has similar divides and I, I think what you're going to see esp, you know, what's gonna happen if that vote actually goes through. I mean, it's non-binding at this point, but I, I, I think the us, especially if we do not survive this, if we don't have a new Marshall plan for the, uh, for Europe to rebuild our economy with, if this does really tank and goes bad, you're gonna see political realignment. You're going to see a, uh, at least a shifting in state borders, if not a absolute breakup of the United States.

Sir Gene 1:13:23

So do we take Oklahoma with us as we rightfully own that territory,

Sir Ben 1:13:28

Uh, you know, we can take Oklahoma parts of, uh, Wyoming and I think we bring along Louisiana just to help'em out.

Sir Gene 1:13:37

just to help out. Cause Colorado's definitely on the California side of the spectrum.

Sir Ben 1:13:41

Oh, absolutely. Ignore California, Ignore New Mexico. But, um, you know, up to about Casper, I think we can take with us, Uh, Oklahoma definitely will come along, uh, Louisiana. The reason why I say we take Louisiana along with us is because of. You know, Western Louisiana, uh, is politically aligned. Parts of Eastern Louisiana are not, but what I would say is the refining capacity. You combine Texas and Louisiana on, on the refining capacity front. And, uh, we're, we're one of the largest, uh, oil producers and refiners in the world at that

Sir Gene 1:14:17

Yeah, it sounds to me like you're just trying to pony up to Putin

Sir Ben 1:14:21

Uh,

Sir Gene 1:14:22

controlling all the, uh, raw supplies of energy.

Sir Ben 1:14:26

Well, I mean, the rest of the United States wants to go electric, so they don't need us. Um, but I think if you look at what happened after Ian and what's going on with all the Teslas in Florida, it's absolutely hilarious. Battery cars have proven that they're not the way to go.

Sir Gene 1:14:44

Yeah.

Sir Ben 1:14:44

you see that?

Sir Gene 1:14:45

I have

Sir Ben 1:14:46

Florida's recommendation if your car was submerged and disabled in your

Sir Gene 1:14:50

Get rid of it.

Sir Ben 1:14:51

to, to push it out of your house because

Sir Gene 1:14:54

Oh, so it doesn't blow up.

Sir Ben 1:14:55

Yeah,

Sir Gene 1:14:57

that's true. I mean, I have had an iPad here on my desk that has decided to disassemble itself because the battery's starting to deteriorate. Um, so lithium batteries are fairly active. Um, so yeah, that's, uh,

Sir Ben 1:15:14

Well, I mean, it, it's hilarious that we all go through these TSA screenings and you know, we, we go through all of this, but the amount of lithium that I take on a plane every time I fly.

Sir Gene 1:15:27

Not supposed to.

Sir Ben 1:15:29

What? What do you mean?

Sir Gene 1:15:30

I mean, that's part of the, the regulations they tell you is that you should place all batteries into check lugg.

Sir Ben 1:15:37

No, you should remove batteries from checked

Sir Gene 1:15:40

Or removed. Yeah, you're right. It's the other way around. Remove all the berries

Sir Ben 1:15:43

they don't want uncontrolled fires in the cargo compartment, so it means it should be on your

Sir Gene 1:15:47

under your seat.

Sir Ben 1:15:48

Right. But here, here's the funny part. So I have a big battery pack that I take with me. I've got my cell phone, I've got two laptops, you know, I've got, uh, several pounds of lithium ion battery with me. If I wanted to make that into a incendiary device, you know, it would be a

Sir Gene 1:16:08

You won't be allowed in an airplane.

Sir Ben 1:16:11

uh, whatever. Uh, the fact, the better is, I'm surprised I'm a lot on a plane as is

Sir Gene 1:16:17

dude in Mexico. They, they, they wouldn't let my leather man through. They made me check my luggage because of the leather. Man,

Sir Ben 1:16:26

Uh, well, that's pretty normal.

Sir Gene 1:16:28

That's stupid. I always travel

Sir Ben 1:16:29

It's a knife.

Sir Gene 1:16:31

It's not a knife, it's pliers.

Sir Ben 1:16:33

It it, does it have a knife blade on it?

Sir Gene 1:16:35

No, it's a TSA compliant version of the leatherman.

Sir Ben 1:16:38

Really

Sir Gene 1:16:39

has no knife. It's just pliers and, uh, you know, toothpicks and

Sir Ben 1:16:43

me a link to that one because I

Sir Gene 1:16:45

Every company makes it. Now. I bought this as soon as it came out, like seven years ago.

Sir Ben 1:16:50

I'll have to get one.

Sir Gene 1:16:51

Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, it's same exact shit. Just snow life.

Sir Ben 1:16:55

Why did they make you check it? What was their rationale?

Sir Gene 1:16:59

Well, in, in, you know. My poor Spanish in their poor English. The explanation was that all according to Spanish TSA equivalent law, uh, that it says that all knives and portable tools need to go and check luggage.

Sir Ben 1:17:20

Interesting.

Sir Gene 1:17:20

So it's ambivalent enough that clearly they didn't want to bother saying any tools that have a knife should go into check luggage. They're like, No. If it's a, if it's a folding tool, it goes into luggage.

Sir Ben 1:17:33

But a screwdriver. That's okay.

Sir Gene 1:17:35

Uh, I suspect they would make me check a screwdriver.

Sir Ben 1:17:39

You know

Sir Gene 1:17:40

The way the language, the way the language actually said it. I, I suspect screwdriver would have to be checked.

Sir Ben 1:17:45

That's another thing that people need to think about. So I'm allowed to fly with a screwdriver.

Sir Gene 1:17:49

You shouldn't be. That's an all.

Sir Ben 1:17:52

Well, but under TSA regulations, you are

Sir Gene 1:17:55

Yeah. But I guess they're thinking if you don't have your leather men, then you can't really like sharpen the screwdriver into something that you could use as a weapon.

Sir Ben 1:18:03

well, but here's the thing. If we think box cutters took over the planes during nine 11, why couldn't I do something similar with the screwdriver?

Sir Gene 1:18:09

you could keep talking. You won't fly.

Sir Ben 1:18:13

I, I don't think you could. That's my point.

Sir Gene 1:18:16

You don't thi Oh dude. Piercing wounds are,

Sir Ben 1:18:20

They are. But you know what would happen if I tried? I would be gang rushed and taken down. So why weren't the hijackers?

Sir Gene 1:18:28

you wouldn't be cuz you don't have a big beard.

Sir Ben 1:18:31

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene 1:18:32

That's the first thing they look for. It's the beard. The beard is a

Sir Ben 1:18:36

How do you ever fly Jean?

Sir Gene 1:18:38

I know, right? That's, it's, it's always a pain and ass to fly because, uh, they always assume the worst.

Sir Ben 1:18:46

Yeah.

Sir Gene 1:18:47

Yeah. I mean, it's known fact that over 50% of hijackers have had beards.

Sir Ben 1:18:53

Oh man.

Sir Gene 1:18:54

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 1:18:56

so do you think there is any way for the US out of this current economic situation? Or are we just gonna go. Because I, I think it's a toss up at

Sir Gene 1:19:06

when you say any way out, you mean back to what though is the question?

Sir Ben 1:19:11

Um,

Sir Gene 1:19:12

Like, back to Trump days, back to Clinton days, back to Carter days. Yeah. It will go back to Carter days, I think.

Sir Ben 1:19:19

I, I would say at least second half of Reagan on the stock

Sir Gene 1:19:24

again. That happened only once.

Sir Ben 1:19:27

Yeah. Oh man, it,

Sir Gene 1:19:29

If you, if you're living through the fall of Rome, you can't be sitting there going, How do we fix Rome? How do we, how do we get this back to the Republic that was.

Sir Ben 1:19:39

Well, the question is, do we fall from the Republican go into Empire because that, that is a possibility cuz Or do we just skip the empire stage and collapse? Right. Do we go from

Sir Gene 1:19:53

I don't know that you can be, I don't know that you can be an empire having left nothing worth to conquer. Like you

Sir Ben 1:20:01

I don't know. We might go into Haiti.

Sir Gene 1:20:03

And we, we are going into Haiti, it sounds like. Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up. So this has a potential to become a big disaster for the us. We have no business being in Haiti. Uh, there'll be a lot of people that start taking advantage of it. And you know how I was saying what happens when Russia decides to support Mexican cartels?

Sir Ben 1:20:27

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene 1:20:28

What happens when Russia deploys to support the opposition in Haiti with cutting edge weapons?

Sir Ben 1:20:35

Well, um, first of all, they gotta get it there and, uh, you know, that's would be stopped by the US

Sir Gene 1:20:42

So the US is gonna start shooting down Russian planes flying across Atlantic

Sir Ben 1:20:47

potentially

Sir Gene 1:20:48

so that, So Russia should be shooting down American planes, bringing military equipment to Ukraine right now. Then,

Sir Ben 1:20:53

Dude, we're very close to this.

Sir Gene 1:20:56

I mean, the US lives by such a bizarre, you know, worldview where they have the ability to do things that nobody else can.

Sir Ben 1:21:07

Well, that's

Sir Gene 1:21:07

It's bizarre.

Sir Ben 1:21:09

it's the threat that we have maintained for, you know, since World War ii.

Sir Gene 1:21:15

Well, no, we have balance between World War II and the 1990s. We had a, we have this assumption that if we do something, the, we have to assume there will be a measured response. And that balance that existed meant that we were looking to come up with faster technological and better technological solutions, not to just do anything we wanted to. The US was extremely constrained in its abilities to do things between World War II and, and the mid nineties. Uh, there, there was a, a lot of people that were paid good money to do, um, opposition research. And for, I feel like for the last 25 years that all disappeared and the US is operating as though it exists in a vacuum. And I think this started.

Sir Ben 1:22:14

Well, it started with the fall of the

Sir Gene 1:22:16

1990, it started in 1992 with the American invasion of Iraq.

Sir Ben 1:22:22

Well, in the fall of Russia and our scene ability and supremacy of we're gonna go in and do this under not necessarily the greatest circumstances. Yes. And the rest of the world is just gonna let us do it, and we got away. That's the thing is, well, why wouldn't we have this opinion when we did this? And no one stopped us. No one even sanctioned us or stood up to us. It was just, uh, okay, the US is doing this.

Sir Gene 1:22:52

Yeah. But I don't know, man. I think there's a real potential risk here that, um, that we're gonna have Haiti turn into something very unpleasant for the us.

Sir Ben 1:23:05

Um, well, at the very least it's gonna be very, even if the rest of the world does not do anything, it's gonna be very unpleasant because, you know, the Haitian people, um, have been, it, it is nothing but a bomb waiting to go off, whether it's international scrutiny or us

Sir Gene 1:23:24

way of putting it.

Sir Ben 1:23:25

us going in there, it, it, it will breed nothing but terrorism. I mean, even if we go in peace, keep, do whatever, try to annex, it's not gonna be good.

Sir Gene 1:23:36

No, no. And what's this gonna do to the Dominican?

Sir Ben 1:23:41

Well the Dominican Republic is already very, very, um, protective of that border we'll say. I mean, so that, that's the question. Are we just gonna take over the downtrodden portion of the island? I don't think so. I think if the US does anything, it's going to be trying to annex, annex that.

Sir Gene 1:24:04

Yep.

Sir Ben 1:24:05

which it, I don't see as beneficial. But,

Sir Gene 1:24:09

yeah, I mean, right now Russia's only exporting about 10 million bucks worth of products to Haiti. It's not all that much.

Sir Ben 1:24:16

and to be clear, the, what we're talking about is currently, um, I think it's Port of Prince, the, uh, main, uh, importation of the terminal for importation of fuel into Haiti is being, uh, block hated. And the importation of fuel stopped by a separatist group in Haiti and the US just dispatched a Coast Guard cutter to international waters, which granted, Haiti doesn't have much of a, uh, doesn't have anything that could defend against it. So it's, you know, it's a minor force from international standpoint, but at the same time, compared to the Haitians capabilities is, you know, um,

Sir Gene 1:24:59

Well, they're in a stone age. I mean, this is more of a typical US war action where we're coming into somebody that's 30, 40 years behind the US technologically.

Sir Ben 1:25:07

Yeah,

Sir Gene 1:25:08

Uh, but man, I just, I'm very leery of that. That's cuz that's a lot closer to home here. And

Sir Ben 1:25:15

Well, it

Sir Gene 1:25:15

it, it, it could, and I don't want to be a total black pill about it, but, uh, it could very easily start resulting in, uh, terrorist bombs going off in the us

Sir Ben 1:25:28

Uh, I, yeah, I, I, I, I think if there's actual US involvement, which right now there is no US military involvement,

Sir Gene 1:25:36

No. Well, today there is, but it's very likely.

Sir Ben 1:25:39

It sure seems like it. And you know, here, here's the thing, Um, the current president of Haiti is a US stooge. The Haitian people can't stand him, and they're standing up to him. There's infighting in Haiti, and we're gonna go in there and support our guy, and that's gonna breed nothing but absolute resentment and problems.

Sir Gene 1:26:05

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 1:26:06

Yeah. So, I, I, I don't like this move at all. I, I don't think the US Coast Guard should operate in international waters at all. But I'm no fan of the Coast Guard for many reasons.

Sir Gene 1:26:17

Yes. You have personal involvement there,

Sir Ben 1:26:20

Yeah. I have personal animosity towards the US Coast Guard. That is for sure.

Sir Gene 1:26:25

Yeah. Um, Hmm.

Sir Ben 1:26:28

What else do you see playing out with Haiti?

Sir Gene 1:26:31

I just think it's close to the us. It's a powder keg waiting to explode. There is no good thing that the US can do other than stay away. And uh, I think that given the can of, can of worms that's been opened by the US in involvement in overseas operations, I fully expect China and Russia and all the bricks countries to leverage Haiti against the US

Sir Ben 1:26:59

Well, and we should say why the Haitians are not, The Haitian people are not big fans of the US and that's because of the Bushes and the Clintons

Sir Gene 1:27:08

Yeah. The Clintons exactly.

Sir Ben 1:27:10

You know, we're, Well Bush, the Bush crime family was deeply involved, Right. Uh, George W. Bush saying, I know you wanna send water and blankets, but just send your cash. And that resulted in money being taken away from the Haitian people. Haiti has never been rebuilt, and like you said, they've been living in the Stone Age and they're fucking tired of it,

Sir Gene 1:27:32

Yep.

Sir Ben 1:27:33

so.

Sir Gene 1:27:35

Yeah. And it, it's an opportunity for anybody that doesn't like what the US has been doing for the last year or longer, it's an opportunity to stick it to the US cuz all. Conflicts. All these things that are happening have all been somewhere else. They've been in Europe, they've been in the Middle East, they, they've been in Asia. Now. I think a lot of countries are looking at Haiti and ringing their hands and going, Okay, us. Now it's time to bring something back to you guys.

Sir Ben 1:28:06

Well, and you know, had the US gone in, uh, after the earthquake and actually rebuilt Haiti and said, Okay, look, you have a failed government here. We're gonna come in, we're going to rebuild, we're going to help. We're, we're going to invest in Haiti. Oh, by the way, do you want to join the US as a protector at, you know, ala Puerto Rico? I think the Haitian people would've probably at that time, absolutely gone for it,

Sir Gene 1:28:35

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 1:28:36

but now we've given lip service, fucked'em over, and they're not friends of the us.

Sir Gene 1:28:42

No. Well, and we've got, God knows how many people crossing the Texas board right now. We're gonna have a whole slew of quasi official Haitian refugees coming into Florida.

Sir Ben 1:28:55

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene 1:28:57

And again, refugees being accepted is a great way to cross the border for any nefarious purposes as well.

Sir Ben 1:29:06

absolutely.

Sir Gene 1:29:07

I'm very concerned about this. This is, this is going to bring. Conflict a lot closer to home for the us

Sir Ben 1:29:15

Well, and, and here's the thing, uh, and in the US as we currently exist, it's not like you have to have an operative bring a bomb in. You just have to get the operative in and then Exactly. Yeah.

Sir Gene 1:29:29

Yeah. And it, it's absolutely ridiculously easy to make those things. Um, and I think the, uh, the, I don't think that a lot of people in the US realize just what types of benefits physical isolation has been bringing to the US for a long, long time. Just not being near any conflicts physically means that you just don't have to worry about things that most of the rest of the world has to worry about.

Sir Ben 1:30:00

The US has only had to defend one border in the last hundred plus years.

Sir Gene 1:30:05

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Sir Ben 1:30:07

So yeah, I mean, having, uh, the Canadians on our northern border and them being as amenable as they are ever since, you know, post war of

Sir Gene 1:30:21

communists these days, but

Sir Ben 1:30:23

Well, the Trudeau side of the government is Sure. But I don't think, I think other than again, the liberal east in Vancouver, uh, the majority of Canada is. pretty okay. I think they've allowed themselves to be voted into a position that I think the US is heading to and that I don't wanna see. But yeah,

Sir Gene 1:30:46

Mm.

Sir Ben 1:30:47

I mean, they're gun control laws alone are just absolutely insane. And that that is the one thing keeping America where we are is how many citizens are armed. And to what extent?

Sir Gene 1:31:01

Although I will say they do have one gun that I've been kind of looking at that is available in Canada, but not available in the us

Sir Ben 1:31:08

What's that?

Sir Gene 1:31:09

It's um, an SGAs. Bullpup.

Sir Ben 1:31:13

Oh, well, I mean, you can make an SKS into a

Sir Gene 1:31:17

I'm not talking about making, I mean, I'm talking about buying the actual thing from the factory

Sir Ben 1:31:22

Yeah, but why would you want an SKS bull pup?

Sir Gene 1:31:25

cuz I like Bullpups.

Sir Ben 1:31:26

I do too. But SKS is not a modern weapon. And you know, I mean, I appreciate the SKS for what it is. I have a couple of them, but you know,

Sir Gene 1:31:38

Now you have a model of an sks and SKS is not a design and SKS is the manufacturer. So this is a modern design that is manufactured in that.

Sir Ben 1:31:49

okay. I didn't know SKS was still, uh, I think SKS refers to the specific rifle, not the manufac.

Sir Gene 1:31:58

Nope.

Sir Ben 1:31:59

really well. There's only one gun that I've ever known from that

Sir Gene 1:32:02

I know. That's the ones that were brought over to the us. It's like people think that, that, you know, AK is a factory.

Sir Ben 1:32:09

Yeah. It's the redneck hunting rifle.

Sir Gene 1:32:12

No. Uh, but look, they're making more modern weapons. They're not anywhere near on power With what? Like the, what these Israelis are making in their bullpups. Um, it's, it's a lot more crude, but I don't know if I could get my hands on one. I would certainly pick one up. But, and when I started doing the research, I found that they're literally right now available in Canada, but not available in the US cuz they're on the, you know, they're on the list. We, we can't

Sir Ben 1:32:37

The importation ban. What, what's the, uh, Is it the sks ar

Sir Gene 1:32:43

Uh, I can't remember the model. I thought it had a number in its name, like SKS 98 or something, or something like that.

Sir Ben 1:32:51

Okay. You'll have to send it to me after this.

Sir Gene 1:32:53

I'll send you a

Sir Ben 1:32:54

our obligatory, uh, gun talk.

Sir Gene 1:32:56

Gun talk. Oh, I do have, well I can't remember the last time I talked about which guns I got, but I did have one thing that I need to go pick up. Uh, that's the store, but, uh, I haven't picked up yet. I bought a lower finally.

Sir Ben 1:33:11

Mm-hmm.

Sir Gene 1:33:13

Uh, and I'm gonna build my own 300 blackout.

Sir Ben 1:33:17

Okay, cool. Why, why are you choosing that round

Sir Gene 1:33:20

Uh, it's the only round I don't have currently. I mean, that's an exaggeration. There's plenty of rounds I don't have. But of that common rounds of that size, I kinda went from being, I only wanna have one type of ammo to keep to now having like a dozen different ammos that I need to keep. And I, this is the one I'm missing. So I'm like, Fuck it, I'll just get a, I'll build one. I'll build a 300 blackout.

Sir Ben 1:33:42

Yeah. Are you gonna go, uh, pistol or what?

Sir Gene 1:33:46

Uh, yeah, it's a pistol. Uh, ar lo. Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 1:33:50

Okay.

Sir Gene 1:33:51

So let's talk about that. That's a good transition. Um, I've heard something a little bit scary the other day on video with the, the, uh, the forthcoming atf uh, restriction on pistol braces.

Sir Ben 1:34:08

mm-hmm.

Sir Gene 1:34:09

Um, now my assumption on this has always been that this, this flip flopping back and forth on pistol braces saying, Yes, they're legal, and now it sounds like they're going to make them illegal, even though nothing changed. They've just changed their mind. Um, the silver lining I, I always saw in this is that, uh, since they're gonna make something illegal that over 6 million people already own. They can't just show up and take it away from you.

Sir Ben 1:34:44

6 million weapons exist. I

Sir Gene 1:34:46

Sure. Fair enough. Okay. So like six people own a million new weapons each and, uh, whatever the number is. Um, it's a lot of stuff. It's more than what? Bump stumps. Bump stocks were anyway,

Sir Ben 1:34:59

Absolutely much more popular.

Sir Gene 1:35:01

way more popular for a while. Almost every gun could be purchased in this variant. A lot of companies like Cig, for example, have already stopped selling guns with, um, any, any version of a, uh, um, what do you call'em?

Sir Ben 1:35:18

A shooting brace.

Sir Gene 1:35:19

Brace? Yeah, no braces at all. Uh, so guns either come with nothing at all in the back, so it's just a pistol or they come with, um, a stock. Uh, but my assumption of the silver lining was that they, they can't make you get rid of it. So while you're filling out the paperwork to pay the, the extra stamp fees for your braces, at least you get to still use the gun. And, um, what this current, uh, guy that was, uh, it was a YouTube video that I watched was talking about is they discovered some of their, like, as usual, you know, preliminary drafts or whatever. And what they're now saying is that these bump stocks need to be destroy.

Sir Ben 1:36:07

You mean? Shooting braces.

Sir Gene 1:36:08

uh, sorry. The shooting braces need to be destroyed so you can keep the gun and you can pay the, the fee for the fact that it has a short barrel, but you can't keep the brace. You have to have proof of destruction,

Sir Ben 1:36:22

Yeah. But what they're saying is that you need to destroy the brace and it, once you register it as a sbr, then you can put any sort of stock on it.

Sir Gene 1:36:32

but not the brace. Their, they wanna get rid of all these braces. They, there's, their policy is to have no braces be available in the United

Sir Ben 1:36:40

Which, I mean, let's be honest, the brace is a loophole around the sbr, but for the love of God, the SBR thing shouldn't be Anfa item to begin with.

Sir Gene 1:36:48

Absolutely. I, I fully agree with that,

Sir Ben 1:36:51

It's like suppressors. Suppressors shouldn't be anfa item at all.

Sir Gene 1:36:54

but making a distinction between what type of, uh, what shape of stock can be on the firearm or not be on the firearm, I think goes well above what Congress, uh, gave them the power to regulate.

Sir Ben 1:37:11

Oh, absolutely. The ATF is absolutely a runaway entity at this point.

Sir Gene 1:37:16

Yeah.

Sir Ben 1:37:17

You get no disagreement with me on that one.

Sir Gene 1:37:20

uh, it's one thing to make you pay the 200 bucks tax on something you already own, but it's another thing to do that and then make you destroy.

Sir Ben 1:37:32

Well, I, I have a bigger problem with the NFA than the tax. If I could just go down to the post office and buy a tax stamp and say, Okay, I now own this. Cool. Great. But that's not how that works. You have to go through the background track process. You have to do lots of things. You have to register with the atf. That's the problem I have with the NFA from a rights standpoint. Um, if the government wants to tax something, can they, Sure. But my eligibility to pay said tax should then not be regulated. If I want to go into economic activity of whatever kind, um, and purchase an item and they wanna tax that item, I can be okay with that. But the background

Sir Gene 1:38:16

of the,

Sir Ben 1:38:17

restrictions is the problem.

Sir Gene 1:38:18

Yeah. Yeah. One, one of the lawyers on, on YouTube also was talking about how the idea that, uh, guns have a sales tax is unconstitutional because, uh, the Supreme Court is in the number of trials held that, uh, constitutionally described activities cannot be taxed. This is why you can't have, for example, a tax on voting.

Sir Ben 1:38:48

Well, so that, that, if that ever got a Supreme Court decision that said constitutional activities can't be taxed and regulat. Then that would be awesome because then there would be no driver's

Sir Gene 1:39:01

Yeah. The problem with all this is that no cases are allowed to go up to the Supreme Court challenge, these things.

Sir Ben 1:39:09

the Supreme Court just kicked a suppressor case down the road. Now I don't think they're gonna be able to kick the Texas case down the road because of the in interstate commerce bit, but you know, um, and by the way, we have, people are like, what the hell is he talking about? Driver's licenses wouldn't exist. Um, the right to travel is enshrined in the Constitution as one of your freedoms. Um, it

Sir Gene 1:39:32

it is interstate trial. So you Yes. You, you can't be, For example, here's what, what can't happen, which would be held illegal, is if California at its border crossings, which they already have border crossings with guards there. It's just that they're allegedly checking for produce, which is such bullshit. But anyway, uh, if at those border crossings they also charged you a$10 feet of crossover into California, that would be held illegal.

Sir Ben 1:39:59

Yeah. Um, I think that would be a better case would be Texas defending its borderers against Californians, and restricting immigration. Um, but, uh, you know, it, it's more than just interstate right? To travel. Now here, here's the thing. Um,

Sir Gene 1:40:18

Yeah. But, but it isn't. You can have toll roads. You can have roads that charge money to be.

Sir Ben 1:40:24

But those are usually privatized, not the state. Um, here, here, here's the thing. You, you can't have the incorporation doctrine in both ways. So I very much believe that the US Constitution should only apply to the federal government and not to the states, and then the state constitution should only apply to the state. That is my belief. That said, that is not the current interpretation of

Sir Gene 1:40:49

Yeah. I don't, I don't like that I'm on the other side of that, cuz I don't want the Second Amendment or any of the amendments. I don't want the first Amendment to be up to the decision of the states individually.

Sir Ben 1:40:59

Well, but the states have their own guarantee of rights, and that's

Sir Gene 1:41:02

Yeah. But what if a state, like California says,

Sir Ben 1:41:04

then. Good. Then that's why you can travel and move to a different state.

Sir Gene 1:41:09

I don't like that. I, I think

Sir Ben 1:41:11

Well, but anyway, so the incorporation doctrine is a thing. It's the way you want it. So then the right to travel cannot be restricted by the state.

Sir Gene 1:41:19

right. Yeah.

Sir Ben 1:41:21

my, my entire argument is here, Okay, the incorporation doctrine exists, This is the way we're going. Okay, fine. I don't like that because I think states should be free and autonomous in, in a larger federation, but okay, if we're going to apply that logic,

Sir Gene 1:41:35

what the hell's the Federation of the States can do anything they want regardless of any federal laws.

Sir Ben 1:41:40

uh, because it's the powers. very much singularly enumerated to, to the federal government. Right. The ability to control interstate commerce being the worst worded one.

Sir Gene 1:41:56

Okay, so the federal government controls interstate commerce, but every state has laws that are contrary to constitution.

Sir Ben 1:42:03

Yeah. Yes. That's the principle of nullification. That's what our founders literally did in opposition to shitty federal laws very early on, is a state law can nullify a federal law within its own borders. Absolutely.

Sir Gene 1:42:18

Uh, I think that leads to a lot of trouble. I think that leads to a revolution.

Sir Ben 1:42:22

Okay, they had just fought one, and that's what they did, because they did not want an all powerful federal government. So

Sir Gene 1:42:29

I know they didn't wanna know

Sir Ben 1:42:30

are you a, are you a Texan? Are, are you an American? Right. How do you view it?

Sir Gene 1:42:36

well, I view it as a Texan, obviously, but I think that there's a, like, here's the thing. If, if we had what you're describing, then I would be in favor of armed conflict with the United States from Texas. Right Now,

Sir Ben 1:42:54

I literally have a secede bumper sticker on my

Sir Gene 1:42:56

I'm not talking about se succession, I'm talking about war.

Sir Ben 1:42:59

Um,

Sir Gene 1:43:00

I wanna, I wanna conquer the rest of the country and make their laws like Texas laws.

Sir Ben 1:43:07

Or you can be a peaceful neighbor and say, You know what? Y'all can do whatever fucked up thing you want to do. We're not doing this.

Sir Gene 1:43:13

We're doing. We're going to conquer the rest of the country and bring our freedom to them, whether they want it or not.

Sir Ben 1:43:20

Yeah. Uh, okay. George W. Bush?

Sir Gene 1:43:24

Well, he was from here too, I guess.

Sir Ben 1:43:26

No, no, no. Do not. He is not a Texan. I'm sorry.

Sir Gene 1:43:32

Well, he lived here. Now was he born in Kenny Bunk port or is he born here?

Sir Ben 1:43:37

Uh, that's a good question. I don't

Sir Gene 1:43:38

I know his dad was obviously born in Ken Bport.

Sir Ben 1:43:42

I, You can Google it, but I, He is, he's a maner. He's not a Texan, as far as I'm concerned.

Sir Gene 1:43:49

Yeah. Well,

Sir Ben 1:43:50

I, I, I, I will, on the behalf of the

Sir Gene 1:43:53

He's, he's lived in

Sir Ben 1:43:54

disown him and his family given their trees and its roots.

Sir Gene 1:43:58

Fair enough. But, uh, if he was born here, he, he's definitely a Texan.

Sir Ben 1:44:03

Well, all right. Well, you talk while I Google.

Sir Gene 1:44:06

Okay, well you go ahead and Google. I don't know. I'm trying to think of what it, Oh, I know what else I was gonna talk about. So you're not a video game guy. I'm obviously a lot more of that than, than you are you used to be, I guess. Um, I recently, after my vacation here, started playing a new video game for me. It's not a new video game though. Uh, called Cyberpunk 2077 and

Sir Ben 1:44:29

just to put the record straight, he was born in New Haven, Connecticut,

Sir Gene 1:44:33

Oh, well there you go. So this is not a Texan. Yeah, I'll go with, I'll, I'll agree with you on that. Um, and. I took the advice of people that were very eager for this game on YouTube when it came out. They came out about a year ago. Everybody was bitching about how it's too buggy and it's just not ready yet. And really you should, you should not buy it and you shouldn't play it cuz it's way too buggy. And the advice was just wait like a while. So I waited a year and I finally got it. Um, and so I've been playing it for a couple days is and holy shit, is this a great game, dude.

Sir Ben 1:45:11

What? What's the storyline?

Sir Gene 1:45:13

Uh, so the storyline is cyberpunk. I mean, it's the name of the game. It takes place in the very sort of dystopian cyberpunk, future meaning Blade Runner, uh, esque kind of, uh, Gibson's cyberpunk series, Naman Que kind of future where, um, it's how many, what, 50 years in the future. And, uh, corporations are really in control of everything. Uh, government's job is essentially to ensure that corporations are not interfered with

Sir Ben 1:45:52

So kind of like, uh, Alienesque universe in the same sort of way,

Sir Gene 1:45:57

Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But on. And, uh, closer to our current timeframe, Not, not Spaceshipy. So sidebar punk. Some people have described as, uh, sci-fi without space ships

Sir Ben 1:46:13

Okay?

Sir Gene 1:46:13

cause it takes place on the planet. Right. But, um, and there have been a bunch of TV shows and movies and in this particular genre, uh, but it's an adult game. There's a ton of not just violence, but sex. Uh, your characters can have sex. Um, and, uh, you're dealing with a lot of topics like that, that are very adult in nature. But also because of that, the storyline and theme Uhhuh. Yeah, yeah,

Sir Ben 1:46:48

in the theme of Grand Theft Auto or leisure suit, Larry?

Sir Gene 1:46:53

No Grand Theft Auto, but more like an adult and not a teenage. I feel like Grand Theft Auto was like a teenage vision of this would be fun to do. So, Grand Theft Auto is

Sir Ben 1:47:09

I just didn't know if it was going into the, uh, realm of the leisure suit

Sir Gene 1:47:13

no, no, no. It, it, it, Well, it's, it's just more fetish, I guess I would say.

Sir Ben 1:47:17

gotcha

Sir Gene 1:47:19

Right. And so you've got obviously all kinds of prostitution. Everything else is legal. Uh, and one of the tens

Sir Ben 1:47:28

it should be in a free society if you own your body, you know,

Sir Gene 1:47:32

uh, in cyberon, one of the tens of course is, is, uh, the progression of augmentation. And so everyone's essentially a cyborg. Uh, everyone's got some kind of augmented parts, whether that's, uh, you know, replacements, bones or joints, uh, for faster movement or stronger hands or whatever. Um, everyone's got essentially, uh, chips that connect them to the internet. Uh, everyone's plugged in. Um, so a part of the game is hacking. And, um, uh, did you ever read Near Answer or any of those books?

Sir Ben 1:48:14

I didn't read Neuro Answer, but I've read, um, plenty of, uh

Sir Gene 1:48:18

The genre?

Sir Ben 1:48:19

oh, the Commonwealth Series. I forget who wrote it. Uh, it's very much in the same vein.

Sir Gene 1:48:24

Yeah. But even, even stuff like Ready Player One, I think is kind of in that type of universe as well. So people live a lot of'em. Oh, you have a world which is extremely divided between the, the CORs, which are the people that have, you know, everything, quote unquote, and, uh, work for these corporations and then everybody else who has very little, and they're in the gig economy. And so they're, they're running various odd jobs or working as prostitutes or whatever. Um, the, the playability of the game is very similar to Grand Theft Auto, uh, in that it's a massive, huge, huge world map

Sir Ben 1:49:10

First person or third person.

Sir Gene 1:49:12

first person, uh, you go, go anywhere, do pretty much anything you want. There's, uh, Ev the city is, the city is called Night City and it's absolutely gorgeously lit with neon. I did a little bit on, um, on Twitch last night playing on Twitch, uh, which I'm gonna probably continue doing as long as I'm playing this game cuz it's very pretty, Uh, it's a game with great visuals,

Sir Ben 1:49:39

Gene on Twitch. Next thing you know, it'll be a fans only you.

Sir Gene 1:49:44

yeah, well there's already, those jokes have already been made a long time ago. Uh, I've been on Twitch forever, dude. I've been on Twitch for like seven years. I just don't stream very often, so I don't, not like I have a big following or anything.

Sir Ben 1:49:57

I've, I've just never found Twitch very appealing, but

Sir Gene 1:50:00

It's, it's really not the, the reason I use it cuz it's literally an app with one button that I can push that just starts streaming. And, uh, I have had some, like when I was doing American Truck Simulator, uh, I actually had a bunch of people from no on the social come down and be in there and watch what I'm, where I'm driving and. Chat with me while I'm doing it. It could be fun. But, uh, anyway, absolutely gorgeous game. But holy shit. The, uh, the stuff in terms of symbology and, uh, language is right out of the no agenda. Playbook, Uh, I mean it's, it's all these

Sir Ben 1:50:39

I've gotta, I've gotta do this to you. Symbolism. I gotta channel William Defo and say

Sir Gene 1:50:45

what, what did I say? What did I say? Symbology is a word.

Sir Ben 1:50:50

Yes. Symbology is a word. It's the study of symbolism.

Sir Gene 1:50:54

Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay. Okay. Okay. So I, I used the wrong definition.

Sir Ben 1:50:57

You, you, you give me crap about the nuclear versus nuclear. So I've gotta, I

Sir Gene 1:51:02

that's a pronunciation issue. So I didn't mispronounce something. I just used the wrong word is what you're saying.

Sir Ben 1:51:07

Yes,

Sir Gene 1:51:08

That's fair. I'll give you that. I'll give you that. I'm, Hey, I'm all about, uh, trying to improve myself here. I have no qualms about somebody correcting me if I'm wrong, as rarely as it happens.

Sir Ben 1:51:20

as rarely as it happens. Okay. Uhhuh

Sir Gene 1:51:24

so the, the idea in this game is, it is you're obviously playing not the high end corporate character. Uh, you're playing, uh, kind of a scrappy, uh, underdog person and you're dealing with. Plucky upstart, and you're dealing with a bunch of, uh, bunch of, let's just say people with morals of varying degrees of looseness and, uh, pulling off heist and doing J It is similar to Grand Theft Auto in those regards, but just the visually all, all the 1984 style symbology is there with, but, but skewed from government to corporations, which I think is more similar to the where we're living today, where the place of government, by 2077, it has kind of gotten to the point of the representative from Coca-Cola and the representative from Pizza Hut instead of the representative from, you know, a geographic area. Um, and the corporations are the ones that are fighting each other and trampling on people while they're doing that. Uh, the, the advertisements are just all X-rated for any type of product. Literally, like for soft drink products, they're X-rated advertisements.

Sir Ben 1:52:52

How do you make an X-rated advertisement for a Softing product?

Sir Gene 1:52:56

Uh, you have a, the name of the product, uh, makes you think of sex and you have a picture of a naked chick.

Sir Ben 1:53:06

Okay.

Sir Gene 1:53:07

I mean, it's. Everything has a, a very blatant, double entendre kind of me warning. So

Sir Ben 1:53:18

over sexualized the way

Sir Gene 1:53:19

it's over sexualized. Yes, yes. That's a good way of phrasing it. It's over it. Everything is overtly, overly sexualized. All fetishes are normal. You know, you'll have a store with a bunch of, uh, of, uh, fists and dildos in the window for the store right next to like a, a burger shop, cuz they're, it's just normal, you know, they're just sort of selling normal stuff. Um

Sir Ben 1:53:49

So what you're saying is this is very predictive of where we're going with the, you know, normalization of maps and everything.

Sir Gene 1:53:56

mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And in, I mean, in general, I think the summer punk genre was always a dystopian sub-genre. Like it's looking at a future that is never particularly bright and cheery. It's always looking at the dystopian future and usually a character that overcomes odds within that future, but is not like a. Leader character, but more of a plucky upstart type character. And this game is absolutely, I think, captured that perfectly. So anyone who's a hashtag gamer and has not grabbed, uh, Cyberpunk 2077, I don't know if it's on sale at all. I don't think it's on sale, but, uh, it's been out for a year. They fixed all the bugs that people were complaining about and they did have a lot of bugs. If you watch some of the older videos, they're pretty funny with cars getting stuck or things have being upside down or just bad geometry in the game. Um, but, uh, at this point I think all of that stuff has been corrected. I haven't experienced any of these types of bugs.

Sir Ben 1:55:09

was the name of the game again? Cyberpunk. What?

Sir Gene 1:55:12

2077 and uh, uh, Keanu Reeves is one of the, uh, actors in it.

Sir Ben 1:55:20

Hmm.

Sir Gene 1:55:21

Yeah. Um, I think he's the only, well, he's certainly the only guy I recognize. There might be other actors that are, other people may recognize. I didn't really recognize anybody other than him, but he basically just like in every movie he's been in, he plays himself. Um, So you get the same kind of guy

Sir Ben 1:55:42

How did he, uh, play himself in, uh, as Neo?

Sir Gene 1:55:47

did. Yeah, exactly. That's, it's that persona, you know, that same persona.

Sir Ben 1:55:53

Okay. Um, it looks like it's available on, uh, Steam. So

Sir Gene 1:55:58

Yeah, that's where I get it. It's on steam. Uh, so are you looking at app? Is it like 40 bucks, 50 bucks? What's that up?

Sir Ben 1:56:04

I didn't click through. I didn't open up Steam. I just searched.

Sir Gene 1:56:08

okay. Okay. Yeah, it, it is in steam. Um, you know, I I, I'm assuming it's in the$50 ish range, right around there, plus or minus, but if,

Sir Ben 1:56:21

to view this page.

Sir Gene 1:56:23

yes, because it's adults only, you can't be under 18 until you look at this game. Even

Sir Ben 1:56:28

Uh,$60 game.

Sir Gene 1:56:29

So it's 59 bucks. Yeah. Eh, they're all in that general price range these days. It's, I mean, honestly, I remember in the eighties paying 30 bucks for video games, so compared to the price of most things, video games have actually gone up very little. They,

Sir Ben 1:56:46

Yeah. And I, I don't know if you do this or not, but have you ever played on, uh, any of the games on Go Gog good old games.

Sir Gene 1:56:55

Yeah, I'm not a fan of old stuff except for music.

Sir Ben 1:57:00

Okay.

Sir Gene 1:57:01

Um, I, I mainly prefer to play photo realistic games and, uh, so much like with a lot of technology, I can't wait to get the latest, newest. So I don't have that whole kind of nostalgia thing for crappy looking video games that a lot of people seem to have. Cuz I actually played those when they were, when they were new, when they first came out.

Sir Ben 1:57:26

I mean, this isn't photo realistic though.

Sir Gene 1:57:28

It's pretty close.

Sir Ben 1:57:29

it's more anime ish is what the trailers

Sir Gene 1:57:32

no, no, no. It's, uh, on a, on a 4K monitor, on a nicely built computer. This thing is absolutely photo realistic. The colors are bright, but uh, but everything is shaded properly. That's, there's, it's not flat like anime is. Um, anyway, so I just wanted to kind of bring that out. Uh, obviously it's not like I'm getting paid to promote game, but I've been playing it. I'll probably do some more stuff on, uh, Twitch. Um, Atlas Rand gaming is my Twitch name, if you're interested in that.

Sir Ben 1:58:07

Alas Rand.

Sir Gene 1:58:09

Yeah.

Sir Ben 1:58:10

Interesting. Good choice.

Sir Gene 1:58:12

Yeah, it was a combination that you obviously know where it derives from, but all other combinations were taken. So that's what I got,

Sir Ben 1:58:21

Yeah.

Sir Gene 1:58:22

uh, like, uh, 30 years ago and I just stuck with it. But yeah, so if you see an Atlas random in most things, it's probably me, Uh, but yeah, it's fun. I think, uh, again, I know you don't play games, but I think if you watch some of the videos, you would see what I'm talking about and see it is extremely enjoyable. Uh, and that if I needed to just sum it up in a couple of sentences, it is kind of like playing Grand Theft Auto in a, um, and a universe that is very, very much a, uh, no agenda universe. So everything from Monsanto to, you know, Alex Jones type stuff to, uh, 33, all that shit's in the game.

Sir Ben 1:59:12

Which we should talk about. Alex Jones.

Sir Gene 1:59:15

yeah. So, uh, sure. Let's, uh, what are your thoughts,

Sir Ben 1:59:20

Um, it's utterly insane and meaningless that they are trying to, uh, award quote unquote the Sandy Hook families a billion dollars that will never be repaid. They're essentially making Alex Jones an inden, an indentured servant for the

Sir Gene 1:59:37

right? Mm-hmm. I think that was the goal.

Sir Ben 1:59:41

Well, I mean, it's sad because, you know, free speech systems, the LLC that owns infowars is essentially gonna be a zombie and an indentured servant. And I've

Sir Gene 1:59:52

Ironic how free speech becomes, uh, an in end servant, isn't it?

Sir Ben 1:59:56

yeah, it is. I'm gonna have to find a new supplement supplier for a couple of things, but, uh, yeah, no, it, it's it. And they did this again without a trial. Uh, the fact of findings against him, it was just about what was going to be awarded, which I think it, this actually is to his benefit, uh, gives him a very good chance of appeal if he even will bother or just do the bankruptcy thing and let them take X amount. I don't know what he's gonna, which

Sir Gene 2:00:22

Well, I think, didn't they, Excuse me? Didn't they personally find him? Not, not just the corporation?

Sir Ben 2:00:29

That the, the way the bankruptcy court is handling it, he has to pay X amount personally, currently is my understanding. But I could be wrong.

Sir Gene 2:00:38

Okay. Yeah. I haven't looked into it at all, but I think, uh, I think it was joint,

Sir Ben 2:00:46

Well,

Sir Gene 2:00:46

liabilities. So that it's, it's both and the corporation.

Sir Ben 2:00:51

So here's the thing. Regardless of the jury awarding that there are statutory

Sir Gene 2:00:55

Keep, keep talking. I'm gonna grab a drink real quick.

Sir Ben 2:00:58

yeah, there are statutory limits that are well below this threshold. He is in no way going to pay this month that amount of money. It's just not a thing. It's not gonna happen. He couldn't, even if he wanted to, he has no ability to pay that much money. The, again, the most thing they're going to do here is create an indentured servant for the rest of his life. Um, you know, it, it, it, but e even if they hit the statutory limits, which I'd have to find out exactly what

Sir Gene 2:01:27

Texas. I think it's pretty low, but I don't know what it is in, uh, Connecticut.

Sir Ben 2:01:31

Yeah, I think that's the, that's the problem is, um, where the trial is taking place is at issue. Um, but again, I think he has a good shot at appeal on this. I really do.

Sir Gene 2:01:43

Yeah, I think it'll be tied up in court, but,

Sir Ben 2:01:46

I think there is one person, uh, the one dad that, you know, we saw on camera smiling and laughing, and then, oh, I'm on camera now. I'm crying about my daughter. Uh, that he potentially, actually defamed. Um, I have my own feelings on the subject. Uh, I think there are a lot of unanswered questions, at the very least around Sandy Hook, so

Sir Gene 2:02:10

um, Yeah, that's fair enough. I just, my main problem here is it, it seems like defamation law shouldn't exist because you're effectively limiting free speech.

Sir Ben 2:02:25

well, um,

Sir Gene 2:02:27

I.

Sir Ben 2:02:27

yeah, I mean, you can be a free speech absolutist and go that route. I think there is a fine, uh, line. Um, I don't like defe defamation suits because generally the reason why defamation suits get brought is because there's some truth to it and you're embarrassed. Um, you know, rarely does someone say something about you that has no truth to it, that has any legs to stand on. So, you know, um, if I call you a Russian apologi, Some people might find some credence to that given some of the opinions you express. But if I say you're a USA absolutist, you may be offended by that, but you're not gonna worry about it because no one's gonna believe it, right?

Sir Gene 2:03:12

Mm-hmm. So I'm looking at defamation here. Uh, so the claim of defamation requires the following five elements. Publication, falsity actor must act with knowledge or recklessness or disregard as to the falsity on the matter concerning public, official, or at least negligent a amount of concerning a private person. Actual damages and statement must be the defamatory. I have a problem with a number of these. Yes, there is a publication. Sure. Let's just say it was false city. For the sake of argument, even though that's debatable, Acura must ask with knowledge or reckless disregard. I, I, I think Alex Jones truly believed what he said when he. And that should get'em out over number three.

Sir Ben 2:03:56

But the argument there is that it's reckless.

Sir Gene 2:03:59

I don't think it's reckless to think that somebody, uh, who is by all appearances is acting as an actor. I don't think it's reckless to say that they're probably acting as an actor and not genuinely expressing their emotions. Um, I, I think that's a very gray area and I, I don't see how the hell they could have said

Sir Ben 2:04:22

This is why I think he will win on appeal, because he never really had an initial trial.

Sir Gene 2:04:27

Now here's the real one. Actual damages. What were the damages to these people as a result of Alex Jones?

Sir Ben 2:04:36

Um, well, they've argued that they've had to move that the, there

Sir Gene 2:04:39

They wanted to move. They didn't have to move

Sir Ben 2:04:42

there were people coming to their house. There were people threatening their lives.

Sir Gene 2:04:46

or, Okay, that's fine. Then you need to file lawsuits against the people actually threatening their lives, not somebody that talked about you.

Sir Ben 2:04:53

I agree with you

Sir Gene 2:04:54

So I think there's a problem with actual damages. That's second one. And then the statement must be defamatory. I mean, I guess we can let that one go and say, Yeah, what he said. If all the other criteria were met could be defamatory, but, uh, at least two outta the five i I, there's some serious problems with.

Sir Ben 2:05:17

Uh, you and I are on the same page with that, and that's why I think that he has a good shot up winning on appeal. But, uh, we'll see where it goes. Um, right now, I really think the judgment was geared towards just headlines. And I think that the prosecutor, uh, you know, needs to be removed based off of his statements of don't just, uh, you know, uh, don't just, uh, make the plaintiffs whole, but prevent his ability to ever do this again. That's not your role. That, that is not seeking

Sir Gene 2:05:56

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 2:05:57

The, this sort of judgment is in, no, let's say 100% Alex Jones is guilty. This sort of judgment is not justice in any way, shape, or form.

Sir Gene 2:06:08

Yeah. Yep. Hmm. No, I, I agree. I think, uh, I don't know, man. I just, I am a lot more of a First Amendment absolute. In general. I, I just think defamation shouldn't exist. I think if somebody lies about you, that doesn't involve the federal government, well, any government. So if there's no governmental consequences of, uh, somebody lying about you, I, I don't think, then you ought to have an ability to pursue any illegal.

Sir Ben 2:06:41

I, and, and to restate what I think you're saying, because I tend to agree with you, unless someone lies about your involvement in a crime or something that inhibits your freedom, you should have no recourse to what they

Sir Gene 2:06:53

Yeah. If somebody

Sir Ben 2:06:54

that would

Sir Gene 2:06:54

about criminal activity and you end up in prison as a result of it, say February 6th or something, then yes, that's a, that you should be able to sue them for, uh, you know, false statements,

Sir Ben 2:07:07

well, and that goes back to the definition of a crime one's, uh, harm to one's property, person, or liberty.

Sir Gene 2:07:13

Yeah. But if somebody says, That person is really ugly, I can't imagine anybody would ever date them. And that the person saying it and let's say is a public figure, so that message goes out to 20 million Twitter followers. So what? Like, that's not, that's not an actionable thing in

Sir Ben 2:07:35

completely agree.

Sir Gene 2:07:36

It's opinion. You can't be prevented from stating opinions, even if those opinions are wrong factually,

Sir Ben 2:07:43

Well, and this

Sir Gene 2:07:44

the earth should, should, should we now sue every person that's ever said their earth is flat.

Sir Ben 2:07:49

This comes back to an opinion that has been lost in this country that we used to have. And that is summed up in the statement. I may vehemently disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. And you know, that to me is an ethos that I grew up with. It was a saying that was taught to me as a child that I fully vehemently believe in. And you know, if my parents even taught it to me, instead of saying, sticks and stones may back your bones, but your words will never hurt me. That's the one they taught to me. So, you know, the ethos of I will defend to the death, not just defend you by supporting you or doing whatever, but defend to the death. You're right to say it.

Sir Gene 2:08:33

Yeah.

Sir Ben 2:08:34

Th that comes into this bit of cancel culture that we have to recognize and that I think you and I personally accept we're an unable, not because I couldn't lose my job over this podcast, cuz I probably could, but because I will not accept that cancellation, you're not going to change me or change my opinions or my thoughts or my ability to speak because you disagree with me.

Sir Gene 2:08:59

Mm-hmm. Well, and it's, Who, who's the guy that did the, who's the woman movie? He had a great, a great clip the other day on Tim Pool. Uh, they showed the clip of him where, I can't remember what the reason was that, that somebody was going after him and trying to cancel him. And, and, uh, and his, his answer was like, No, I'm not gonna apologize for any of the statements I've made in the past or anything I did, and, you know, just completely pushing back and not trying to be, uh, Uh, what's the word? Uh,

Sir Ben 2:09:37

cancel.

Sir Gene 2:09:38

yeah. Well, not, not I cancel, but not trying to like, you know, downplay the situation or, or, or somehow make light of it. It's like, No, I am who I am. You know, it's a, it's the Popeye kind of pushback.

Sir Ben 2:09:52

Well, and it's the ability to stand up for yourself and say, Look, I've thought out these opinions. I have my reasons for having them and I'm gonna stick with them. Now, what I would say is you cannot be so rigid as an individual as to, um, malign your opinions based off of, uh, a dogmatic purpose. Meaning don't foolishly just stick to your guns. Right. If you're wrong it when you're wrong. And that can be okay too. Uh, but the removal

Sir Gene 2:10:23

there's nothing, there's nothing wrong with a person who is wrong still talking about their opinion.

Sir Ben 2:10:31

Right. And the way you should view that person is as a fool. So if you're a flat earth, for example, and you want to continue despite evidence thinking that, okay, my opinion of you is that you're a fuel, a fool. Um, but that's my opinion. And don't be butt heard about

Sir Gene 2:10:47

Yeah. And I, I, and I don't want the flat earthers to have to get sued.

Sir Ben 2:10:52

Exactly.

Sir Gene 2:10:53

Like, that's just asinine. People should be able to say things that are, untrue maybe to me, but are true to them in their heads. Now, if you start talking about taking actions as a result of those beliefs, now we get into some more categories that could be problematic. Uh, like if you believe that all people with uh, uh, I don't know, red hair are evil and that, that's one thing. But if you then go and try and kill all people with red hair, that's a different thing.

Sir Ben 2:11:30

Well, I'll, uh, Cartt Hartman. I think that's a great reference, right?

Sir Gene 2:11:35

You mean until he was Ginger,

Sir Ben 2:11:37

Yes, exactly. South Park is so good, man.

Sir Gene 2:11:41

Uhhuh, Uhhuh,

Sir Ben 2:11:43

Uh,

Sir Gene 2:11:44

Uh, I did finally watch that thing. Well, I think we talked about it. I, I watched the rest of that South Park thing. You, I, I love the fact that they made a whole episode about the fact that they are fucking with the, uh, the, the streaming wars It's, it's a very meta episode

Sir Ben 2:12:04

Oh, it

Sir Gene 2:12:05

where they are the character that they're discussing.

Sir Ben 2:12:08

Yes. Um, have you ever watched to move on to something lighter? Have you ever watched solar Opposites?

Sir Gene 2:12:15

Uhoh.

Sir Ben 2:12:16

Uh, it's, it, it's worth watching. It's hilarious.

Sir Gene 2:12:19

Hmm.

Sir Ben 2:12:20

It's uh, by the creators of Rick and Morty and it's the same sort of humor. So if you like

Sir Gene 2:12:26

am I getting ads for iis log management software?

Sir Ben 2:12:31

Why are you getting that?

Sir Gene 2:12:33

I know, right? Why am I getting that? I shouldn't be. That's bizarre.

Sir Ben 2:12:38

Huh?

Sir Gene 2:12:38

simple is log management. Like

Sir Ben 2:12:41

Interesting.

Sir Gene 2:12:42

it's, it's picking something up. Hmm. Weird. So Trump suffers another legal blow after Judge orders former Top Penn Aid to testify.

Sir Ben 2:12:54

I'm unaware of this story.

Sir Gene 2:12:56

So, Well, I mean, there, it's, it's one of many, seems to be almost on a daily basis that these things are coming out these days of, uh, like legal setbacks for Trump.

Sir Ben 2:13:07

Well, a lot of it's all in coordination with the January 6th stuff, and you know, the January 6th hearing is a show trial because there is no rebuttal, there is no cross examination, there's nothing. It's just pure narrative and

Sir Gene 2:13:23

It's a star chamber.

Sir Ben 2:13:24

It very much is, very much is, and I'm just happy that it's getting the ratings that it is,

Sir Gene 2:13:31

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 2:13:32

which is basically.

Sir Gene 2:13:33

Well, yeah, people are busy watching, uh, Instagram and, uh, what's the other one? The Chinese one.

Sir Ben 2:13:42

TikTok,

Sir Gene 2:13:44

TikTok. That's right.

Sir Ben 2:13:46

did you see the story about, uh, um, uh, what's the rapper? I'm blanking.

Sir Gene 2:13:52

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 2:13:53

Easy

Sir Gene 2:13:54

Kanye West, or no? Yeah. Yeah. The Chase bank. Kicking him out.

Sir Ben 2:13:59

Yep.

Sir Gene 2:14:00

Yep.

Sir Ben 2:14:01

I think this is, uh, actually more backlash over that and more press over Chase's actions than the original story. Like for the life of me, I haven't gone back and watched the Tucker interview because it just has an interest in me. I don't even know what Kanye West said that Chase is kicking him out over. All I know is that

Sir Gene 2:14:22

he, he

Sir Ben 2:14:22

be probably moving my main bank account away from Chase.

Sir Gene 2:14:25

Oh, totally. Yeah. No, he said some, uh, he, he's been a wee bit, uh, antisemitic.

Sir Ben 2:14:32

Okay.

Sir Gene 2:14:33

So,

Sir Ben 2:14:35

gee, imagine that Banks taking action.

Sir Gene 2:14:39

Right. So wait a minute. So you're saying the j the, the Jews, the Jew money lenders decided to kick him out for being antisemitic?

Sir Ben 2:14:47

It's just, So, just the, the meta, the meta analysis of that is just hilarious. Sorry. Uh,

Sir Gene 2:14:56

And you know, this is, this is all coming lo along the typical now Democrat line, which is so different from Democrats of 20, 20, 30 years ago, of saying, Well, it's a private company. They could do what they want.

Sir Ben 2:15:09

Uh, no, it's even worse than that. It's of the Democrats of Occupy Wall Street have totally forgotten what they, you know, I even agreed with some of

Sir Gene 2:15:17

that, that was 25 years ago, wasn't it? Or

Sir Ben 2:15:19

No, it wasn't that long

Sir Gene 2:15:21

years ago.

Sir Ben 2:15:22

Yeah. Anyway, it, it, it's hilarious. And then the whole PayPal thing, right? Which John's gripes and things in the newsletter. That was a interesting blow back there. But,

Sir Gene 2:15:32

Oh, what did you say? I don't, I don't get the newsletter.

Sir Ben 2:15:34

he, he basically told everyone who canceled their PayPal account that they were virtue signaling,

Sir Gene 2:15:40

They are totally, I, dude, I literally posted, maybe that's where you got it. I posted my letter to, uh, to, uh, PayPal the first day it happened. Remember now, I led this story, I posted about this a week before anybody in the media was talking about it, because I actually read things like contracts. So when, uh, when I got the email from PayPal saying, we have new terms, I clicked on it and read through the terms and said, This is bullshit, and posted about it. And then I did a screenshot of my letter to PayPal and posted on No agenda Social with the hashtag, um, virtual signaling,

Sir Ben 2:16:24

Well, here, here's the thing, but the, what John's argument, John's argument was the people who were canceling their accounts were the virtue

Sir Gene 2:16:31

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 2:16:31

And what I would say is canceling your account is one way to protest this. I'm not canceling my PayPal account because for the love of God, I hope they do it because that will give me an actionable stance to sue them and what we need to do

Sir Gene 2:16:45

can't sue if you're graded at terms.

Sir Ben 2:16:48

Oh, I didn't agree to the terms. My PayPal account has been in standing for a long period of time. They can't

Sir Gene 2:16:52

No. You, you agree? No. Your original terms said we will change these terms on a regular basis and it is up to you to

Sir Ben 2:16:59

That is, you cannot have that. Is that ha? That will not stand up under contract

Sir Gene 2:17:04

It does absolutely, totally stands up. Virtually every company does this dude that It

Sir Ben 2:17:10

That's never truly been litigated.

Sir Gene 2:17:12

They, Oh, come on. Uh, they, they will notify you ahead of time every time that there's a change in terms, it is up to you to either accept the new terms or cancel the relationship.

Sir Ben 2:17:26

Well then how can John say that they're virtue signaling,

Sir Gene 2:17:29

John's not a lawyer, but, uh, I think it is virtual signaling. If you talk about it, like, if you just cancel your account and you don't say anything to anybody, I, I don't think it's virtual signaling. If you do what I did and take a screenshot of you doing that, and then post it to thousands of people, fuck. Yeah. That's virtue signaling. Virtue signaling is not limited to Democrats.

Sir Ben 2:17:52

Here's the thing. I'm absolutely not. We people purchasing on their daily lives all day long and it's normal human behavior to an extent where we take exception of it generally on the libertarian right side of things is when it's a virtue we disagree with. But what I would say is that the context of this was that the no agendas show lost a lot of quote unquote sustaining donations because of this. And he was complaining about that, and that's why

Sir Gene 2:18:21

Well, that's

Sir Ben 2:18:22

poor taste.

Sir Gene 2:18:23

Okay. So you should have led with that because that's funny because it's so true that John is all about the money. Uh, John wouldn't be doing this show if it wasn't making money. Adam, I think, would still be doing it.

Sir Ben 2:18:36

Yeah.

Sir Gene 2:18:38

So, and it's not to say, it's not to say that Adam's better than John by any stretch. I think John's closer to me in that regard in my personal mentality. Um, he's like, Well, it's a job. It's, it's, I'm not gonna do a job for free. It may be a job I enjoy, but it's, it's a job So, um, it makes sense. But yeah. Uh, I think a lot of people canceling PayPal, which has a downflow effect, downward effect on no agenda to get fewer donations because people that listen to no agenda are more likely to be the ones to cancel PayPal.

Sir Ben 2:19:16

Why do you think Adam and John haven't promoted things like parallel economy more

Sir Gene 2:19:22

Yeah, I agree. I think parallel economy is the way to go. Um, I've totally looked into. We would need to be an actual, much bigger show to be able to use it, but it is doable. Um, yeah. Parallel economy would be a better way to do it. The other way to do it is just to accept credit cards. You don't need fricking PayPal to accept a credit card.

Sir Ben 2:19:42

Well, but you still have to go through one of the, I mean, at our, at any show size, even something like, let's say Joe Rogan experience, you still have to find a credit card processor who's even going to take you,

Sir Gene 2:19:56

You just don't use Chase. That's all.

Sir Ben 2:19:59

Yeah, fair enough.

Sir Gene 2:20:00

I mean the, Unless you're going to,

Sir Ben 2:20:03

and MasterCard

Sir Gene 2:20:05

Yeah. And MasterCard is the worst set of the two, but, uh, you, you're gonna have to strike a balance. Be when what you're willing to use and what your donors are willing to use. Um, I mean, there's no reason that, uh, we couldn't accept Apple Pay other than the fact that Apple's the most socialist side of the bunch. And if, if anybody sent money to us using Apple Pay, Apple Pay would probably cancel our podcast

Sir Ben 2:20:31

Yeah. Um, I mean this is the whole thing that I think Adam is doing right with podcasting 2.0 is removing that intermediary. Right?

Sir Gene 2:20:42

yeah, I think so. The problem still lies. And, you know, obviously Adam's a friend. I, I was actually supposed to be, uh, having dinner with them yesterday. I'm waiting for packages from China, so I can't leave. Um, but, uh, so I have to stick around the house. But somebody is still in control of podcasting 2.0, like it's not fully decentralized. The degree where Adam and Dave can't remove a podcast if they wanted to.

Sir Ben 2:21:16

Fair enough. But they are making it in such a way as to at least attempt that dis intermediation. Right.

Sir Gene 2:21:26

Um, I mean it's, here's the, the issue is you're relying on the goodness of people rather than having a system that is distributed enough that it doesn't matter whether people are good or bad.

Sir Ben 2:21:39

and what they would say is they have an open API to anyone who wants to download the index that they have today and stand up another one. What we need is more people standing up. Another one.

Sir Gene 2:21:49

absolutely. I think what we need is more clones of this. And we needed not just an API for a one way sync, but we need an API for a two direction sync.

Sir Ben 2:22:00

Um, I don't know that that doesn't exist. I haven't been keeping that close a

Sir Gene 2:22:04

and, and then I don't either, and this is why I wanna restart my series of interviews with podcasting 2.0 and I need to get a on for that as well. Um, is we need to have. A, um, well, we don't need, Look, none of this is needed, right? This is all in entertainment stuff, but what, what would be nice to have?

Sir Ben 2:22:26

speech. It's how you drive a political movement is through free speech and the ability to distribute that speech.

Sir Gene 2:22:33

Yeah.

Sir Ben 2:22:34

That's why this, it matters at all.

Sir Gene 2:22:36

Uh, yeah, but mostly entertainment. I mean, it's, it's politics, but it's political entertainment. Um, it has an effect, but really nobody is listening to a podcast in order to decide who to vote for

Sir Ben 2:22:55

Um, I,

Sir Gene 2:22:58

and let, let's, let me put it this way, The people that are listening to podcasts, and then we'll make a decision on who to vote for based on that podcast. Those people are not listening to political podcasts. They're listening to famous people podcasts.

Sir Ben 2:23:15

what you're saying is if you're driving your opinion from, solely from a podcast and or deciding who to vote for based over that, maybe you shouldn't vote. And that I can somewhat agree with. Um, but, you know, definitely,

Sir Gene 2:23:29

you, you have a, that's quite a bit of an extrapolation, but it is, I think, fairly accurate.

Sir Ben 2:23:33

Okay, so I would say, for instance, if I'm a voter in Pennsylvania and I hear about the Warnock interview and I listen to Tim and what he had to say about the Warnock interview that may influence my decision to vote, and I'm a fairly educated voter

Sir Gene 2:23:49

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 2:23:50

because I didn't catch the interview, but hearing about it, then going and looking at the interview, it's like, holy shit. Right? So I think there is a place for podcasts to at least draw attention to the relevant.

Sir Gene 2:24:03

No, I, Fair enough. But my, my point I was trying to make is that this is not a, uh, critical thing. It's a nice to have thing. And a nice to have thing would be to have the ability to not just replicate the database through the API for podcasting 2.0, but then to run your own independent one and being able to do a bidirectional sync back and forth on a regular basis so that somebody who didn't even register with, with, uh,

Sir Ben 2:24:34

Podcast Guess index.

Sir Gene 2:24:35

with the official one right, with Podcast Index, uh, and registered with this alt version would still end up in the podcast index. Like that would be cool. Now, maybe they can do that right now. I don't know. Maybe we're talking about something that is already there.

Sir Ben 2:24:50

ideally, what would be great is to take the federation model of say, Mastodon and be able to stand up multiple instances. If someone registers with me, they're over there with you apps using multiples. So we're lowering the total cost to operate, set index, uh, by Federating saying, Okay, hey, um, I'm at capacity. Go ping another

Sir Gene 2:25:13

Go do it there. Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.

Sir Ben 2:25:15

Have some load balancing

Sir Gene 2:25:16

And I, and I think the way that the federated system does it, uh, right now is pretty cool. So you can mute somebody that you don't want to hear, or you can block somebody so they don't hear you. Uh, but you're not doing that to groups, you're doing that to individuals, and I think that's the proper size to doing

Sir Ben 2:25:37

yeah, I agree with that. But the problem there is, is that the administrator of the Macon server can block entire channels.

Sir Gene 2:25:45

Yeah. But anybody can spill up their own Macon server.

Sir Ben 2:25:49

Fair enough. And I, I think that that's where Dave and Adam are going. Um, and I hope they continue their work. I, I support them regularly because, you know, I, I, I think they hit the nail on the head at the right time with their project. But, you know, it it, it comes down to this. I think that, you know, whether you wanna argue that Alex Jones, for instance, is a podcast or not, um, I listen to him via rss, not via terrestrial radio. I think a lot of what he has to say is important. I don't like Alex Jones particularly, I've said this multiple times because I think he's too bombastic in his language, but

Sir Gene 2:26:27

That's

Sir Ben 2:26:28

is right way too. I don't find it. I'd rather him, instead of saying the frogs are, they're turning the fricking frogs guy, Hey, they're putting chemicals in the water that are having, uh, adverse effects on amphibians, what it might be

Sir Gene 2:26:40

I think he's an entertainer. I like, I like his style.

Sir Ben 2:26:43

Well, I, I.

Sir Gene 2:26:45

I've always liked the obnoxious, loud people. Why do you think we're friends?

Sir Ben 2:26:49

I, I definitely can be obnoxious and I definitely can be loud, that's for sure.

Sir Gene 2:26:54

Mm-hmm.

Sir Ben 2:26:55

Yeah. Uh, anyway, I don't know Tim, uh,

Sir Gene 2:26:59

it's a good model. Now, the, the one thing that I would like, I'll, I'll, I'll bring this up. I think when I talk to'em, although it's gonna make it's tongue in cheek, but I would love to have a band tag in the, uh, in RSS so that, um, you can exclude certain downloaders.

Sir Ben 2:27:19

individuals or apps,

Sir Gene 2:27:21

all individuals, I do, I wanna do everything on an

Sir Ben 2:27:23

that at the individual? But how do you do that at the individual level then you're requiring apps to it and uniquely identify users, which goes against one of their core tenants.

Sir Gene 2:27:32

Well, I think, I think there's a way to do it. I think you start with individual and you use the biggest or the smallest group the individual belongs to.

Sir Ben 2:27:43

So what you're saying is you believe in intersectionality. Got

Sir Gene 2:27:46

So I think, uh, wait, I think so intersectionality exists. It's not something you can believe or not believe in,

Sir Ben 2:27:53

Intersectionality is the, you,

Sir Gene 2:27:55

like let's say I have

Sir Ben 2:27:56

the appropriate, the

Sir Gene 2:27:58

I have a podcast about, I don't know, farming. I have a farming podcast for example or something. And I wanna just make sure that my podcast is available except for, you know, this other guy that lives next door to me cuz he's an asshole. So we just start looking at the groups or like, if I can't ban him, like what's the smallest group that I can ban that he's in? So like, I know he wears a beanie on his head, so maybe I can ban all Jews. And then, uh, and in that way he won't listen to the podcast.

Sir Ben 2:28:33

Oh

Sir Gene 2:28:33

I mean, it's, I'm just using that as an example. And this is not a real podcast. I'm not talking about farming podcast stuff, but, you know, something that, that allows the creator. To retain their right of distribution. Cause that's effectively what you're giving up right now is the right of distribution. You're saying anybody can have anything they want.

Sir Ben 2:28:58

the problem with that is in the digital world where there are infinite copies of something you, the right to control, distribution is an illusion at best.

Sir Gene 2:29:09

Well, not if you have a tag.

Sir Ben 2:29:11

What I would say there is how do you maintain your right of distribution in order to enforce that? I honor that tag.

Sir Gene 2:29:20

Lawsuits obviously.

Sir Ben 2:29:22

Well, and that's what it comes down to, and that's what you know. Um, so why not put in your terms of service?

Sir Gene 2:29:30

Yeah. And maybe that's what we need as, as a terms of service tag, so that if every time you're downloading a podcast, it's, it's updating in terms of service for you. For that podcast.

Sir Ben 2:29:41

Yeah. So Gene, uh, new terms of service for the show. You can't download it.

Sir Gene 2:29:46

Well only select people can't download it. The people that I band can't download. Everybody else

Sir Ben 2:29:51

people on this list may not download or listen to this podcast. Sorry. Csb.

Sir Gene 2:29:56

contractually prohibited from downloading your listening to this particular podcast.

Sir Ben 2:30:01

Uh, so in, uh, in the license on the new show, we're gonna, we're gonna block csb. I take it.

Sir Gene 2:30:08

I, I didn't hear what you said. I don't, I don't know what you're saying.

Sir Ben 2:30:12

Okay. Uh, all right, man. Well, anything else you wanna talk about?

Sir Gene 2:30:17

Um, I don't know. You haven't bought anything new or cool, right?

Sir Ben 2:30:22

I have not, in fact, uh, been working on the budget pretty hard and trying to just, uh, get everything financially as stable and good as I can, given the current economic, uh, situation we find ourselves in. So, no, no new big purchases or anything.

Sir Gene 2:30:41

All right. Well, that's good enough. We can wrap it up. So, oh, one thing, uh, so actually we should wrap it up. We've got over two hours I just realized, but, um, we mentioned at the beginning, well, I'll just re mention again. So starting with the next episode, we're actually going to be on the new rss and I will be posting and mentioning it on Sir Gene speaks on a regular basis so that, uh, everybody can make sure they have a, a good transition to the new rss, um, for just a good old boys. And this will be a standalone podcast at that point. So that will start with the next episode. Stay tuned.