018 Just Two Good Old Boys

Ben travels to Munich  

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Transcript

Ben 0:24

Well, howdy Jean.

Gene 0:26

Hey, man, what's going on?

Ben 0:27

We're gonna get a shit set of complaints about my audio cuz my drivers aren't working, but, hello Deutschland, this is the Hoff.

Gene 0:35

Why? Why are you doing the Hoff? In a poor accent.

Ben 0:38

Ah, because I'm in Germany and

Gene 0:40

Oh, you're doing Deutschland.

Ben 0:42

and I sweated my ass off to get here, man, let me tell you.

Gene 0:46

Did your, are your arms tired from flapping?

Ben 0:49

Fuck. All right. So I had an amazing flight in I This is flight review time. People who are not interested. Skip 15 minutes ahead. Flight review time. Singapore Airlines. Houston to Manchester. Fantastic. Amazing.

Gene 1:04

like it should be.

Ben 1:05

D Delicious meal. Amazingly comfortable bed every.

Gene 1:10

flying, you weren't in coach.

Ben 1:11

No, I was in business. Yeah,

Gene 1:14

laying flat,

Ben 1:15

I was laying flat. I was having the time. It was

Gene 1:18

you were eating with real silverware?

Ben 1:20

Yes. Until I got to Manchester. Manchester, the problem came in yes, I'd like to continue on through the international terminal to my connecting flight. Yeah, that's under construction. You have to walk three miles this way in the jet bridge with no walkways or anything. Operatable. You gotta go. I actually had to go through passport control and yeah yeah, and customs and everything else. Had to go through customs, get into the uk, walk three miles or

Gene 1:51

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:52

whatever it was, but a long ass way huffing it because I didn't have that long of a connection window, cuz again, I was expecting to stay inside customs. And then I get to the other end and I've gotta go through the UK version of T S A.

Gene 2:07

Mm-hmm.

Ben 2:08

lemme tell you, that's in a special, special kind of hell.

Gene 2:11

Only, only prisoners live in the uk, so that makes

Ben 2:14

right, right. And you must, you will, you shall have all of your toiletries in one bag and you will have them out. You will have them ready and any electronics you will have out and ready. So I pulled my lap. No, no, actually I had everything pretty much ready. But I pulled my laptop, I pulled my tablet out, I pulled my battery out. I pulled my liquids bag, which is internationally ready bag, ready to go out. I did all that. My backpack still got inspected again. You wanna know why you want, they considered major electronics

Gene 2:51

headphones,

Ben 2:53

the microphone I'm talking to you on right now. So they pulled a, oh, it looks like this guy's got a dildo in his bag.

Gene 3:00

Oh, they love dildos and bags.

Ben 3:02

like they used to do with Adam, same sort of thing.

Gene 3:05

Well, except he actually had those, but yeah.

Ben 3:07

I, I'm sure he did for his use only, but

Gene 3:11

Mm-hmm. yes. Just for his use.

Ben 3:13

Anyway, you can tell I'm kind of frisky because I am on like three hours of sleep in the last 36

Gene 3:20

drink

Ben 3:22

Oh, don't, no, not that, that is irrelevant at this

Gene 3:24

on the flight? How much did you drink on the flight?

Ben 3:26

Not di minimus amount. I had a glass of, yeah, I had a glass of champagne when I got on board and won once we took off. And that was

Gene 3:34

as one does,

Ben 3:35

Yeah. And that was it because I.

Gene 3:37

cognac or brandy or

Ben 3:39

I didn't because I was really just trying to go the fuck to sleep. it's only an eight hour flight and I was trying to get as much of that eight hours in as possible. Now that said, I did have dinner, and dinner was delicious. I skipped out on breakfast. I had just a little bit of fruit and it was fine. I mean, knocks the world out of

Gene 3:58

What did everybody else have for breakfast?

Ben 4:00

Pretty much everyone around me did omelets and sausage, that sort of thing. And it looked fun,

Gene 4:04

stupid Americans. Okay.

Ben 4:06

yeah, I, I did fruit and some juice. I will say this, I have never been motion sick on a plane before in my life.

Gene 4:15

Mm-hmm.

Ben 4:16

We were two, two and a half hours out, and so still very much over the Atlantic. And I'm out. I'm asleep, I'm laying flat, and we hit some turbulence and that laying flat bit and hitting turbulence. I woke up pretty feeling green for just a second. Yeah, it, it didn't affect, I like, I calmed down and it was okay,

Gene 4:38

Did you not spend any time on boats sleeping?

Ben 4:41

I did as a kid and everything else, I've spent lots of time, but just this particular time, I'm, I've flown thousands and thousands of hours. I've been on boats for hundreds of thousands of hours of my life. I don't know what it was about that turbulence and laying flat that just kind of got me a little bit. Now I didn't throw up, I didn't puke everywhere or anything like that, but it made me green enough to my stomach. I only had fruit for breakfast.

Gene 5:12

Hmm. Got it.

Ben 5:14

I will say the coffee on Singapore Airlines is like every other airline tra coffee. It's

Gene 5:19

Oh really? That's funny. That is too funny. Yeah. I don't drink coffee in the air Airline.

Ben 5:24

Yeah. At the end of this, I'm gonna get you to tell you what Emirates is like, so that's fine.

Gene 5:29

Yeah, that'll be an interesting comparison. Singapore versus Emeris, two of the best. Their lens in the world.

Ben 5:34

Side by side comparison more or less. And Qatari Airlines, I'll be able to throw Qatari in there as well. So,

Gene 5:41

Yeah. Fun time. So what about your trip from Edinburgh?

Ben 5:44

No, I just went from Houston to Manchester? Manchester to Munich. So I was on basically a domestic flight for Hanza, and while I was in the front of the plane and everything else there is hanza. There is no difference between business and coach. Like literally three seats. Three seats. There's a curtain. That's the extent of the difference. Like I could have paid quite a bit less, been behind the curtain and been just as happy.

Gene 6:17

I think they literally if you want to have a guaranteed seat, then you're up front, and if you just wait to buy your seat whenever,

Ben 6:24

No, I had a guaranteed seat.

Gene 6:26

That's what I mean. Yeah. So if you want a guaranteed seat, you're gonna be buying first class or business or

Ben 6:32

I, I'm saying that you could have a guaranteed seat in economy.

Gene 6:38

Well, you could, but it depends when you buy it.

Ben 6:40

Okay. Maybe, but re regardless, my point is that the hanza flight was, I mean, they don't even have a headrest on their flight. It's,

Gene 6:50

Well, and I told you, I told you ahead of time, they are the bus airline. They're, they're the,

Ben 6:55

Oh, it's the southwest of

Gene 6:57

southwest of Europe. Exactly.

Ben 6:59

But it was convenient enough and it was a two hour flight. So Whoopi, you know, my nine hour flight, I got in on a really good airline, so that's fantastic.

Gene 7:09

Yeah.

Ben 7:09

And I tried to get the UK border. Stamp my passport. He's like, no, not for transit. And I'm like, ah, I'm coming in. Come on. I'm gonna have to go through all of this. At least I can get a fucking

Gene 7:22

you should have said, well, what if I don't come back?

Ben 7:24

exactly what, if I stay,

Gene 7:26

What, what if I walk out of here, then I don't come back? Don't you feel like you should stamp it while I'm a tourist in your country for the next hour?

Ben 7:32

Oh Jesus. Anyway, it, it was a

Gene 7:35

They like to be threatened.

Ben 7:37

I'm sure they do.

Gene 7:39

You always do that at password

Ben 7:41

uhhuh, uhhuh,

Gene 7:43

know who I am? Do you not know who I am?

Ben 7:46

you not know the wrath of God that I'm gonna bring down upon you? No. Anyway I hope everyone realizes you're getting a extremely jet lagged and very tired Ben dude named Ben here for a while, and we're gonna have some fun. I think this topic is fun for a lot of people, cuz I think it's, you know, even if you're not. Traveling internationally, just traveling across the country. Air flights suck, man. There's nothing good about it, and I don't understand the people who, and I know you're probably among the group does, but I don't understand the desire that this be a normal thing. This to me is the exception, not the rule. It's what you do when you have to and you go from there.

Gene 8:33

Well, I, I certainly enjoy stuff at my house, but I will say that really enjoyed travel when I was traveling. I I had opportunities to have trips to Asia and Europe that were paid for by clients, and I always made sure I, I took a few extra days and it was well worth it. And then I flew I, I flew to Asia twice by myself, and then I, I flew to Europe quite a bit just for fun. Mostly Italy. But it, it's, I don't know, it, it, it's really cool when you can do it with somebody else paying, and I think it that, Like if you're in college, you could do this Flying Coach

Ben 9:14

Oh,

Gene 9:15

as a grown ass man. There's no fucking way I would ever do this in Coach.

Ben 9:19

I, well, I can tell you right now, there's no way I'm flying to Europe, anything other than business after this

Gene 9:24

Mm-hmm.

Ben 9:25

I'm just not, it's, that's the right way to do it. It is worth the money for a reason. I,

Gene 9:32

10 grand is well worth it.

Ben 9:33

Which, no, no, no. It wasn't even that much. So Singapore Airlines, from Houston to mu Manchester roundtrip was six

Gene 9:42

Mm-hmm.

Ben 9:42

business class, and that's with access to the, to the latest and greatest United Polaris Lounge, which was phenomenal by the way, which I go to United Lounges

Gene 9:52

Well, you're not flying back on that airline,

Ben 9:54

I am not,

Gene 9:55

so it is 10 grand.

Ben 9:58

No, it's not. I'll tell you why later. But,

Gene 10:01

Okay.

Ben 10:02

Yeah, so I, what Gene's alluding to is my, my trip got extended. I'm currently in Germany. I am then going to Spain, then

Gene 10:12

that, that, that don't tell people too many plans. You never know who's listening.

Ben 10:17

dude, I already got looked like you know, I'm, I'm, I'm telling the, the, the border guard that hey, yeah, I've gotta go hop on another plane that, by the way, you don't have a cross tie for me on. And yeah, there are zero stamps on my passport, so, I, I really gotta go right now. And I got a really good looking too. And then in Germany, you know, it was like, where are you coming from?

Gene 10:43

your purpose of your business? In Germany.

Ben 10:45

Yeah. Where are you coming from? Manchester. Why are you coming from Manchester? Because that's where my flight from the US landed. Why do you not have a stem from Manchester Yeah. It was a interesting experience.

Gene 10:58

Yeah. Well, I think it'll keep getting more interesting as you continue on your flight.

Ben 11:02

Thanks. I appreciate,

Gene 11:04

time. Have you ever seen the movie 12 Monkeys?

Ben 11:08

Yeah. Yes.

Gene 11:09

Yes. Do you remember how that movie ends?

Ben 11:12

Remind us.

Gene 11:14

Well, it's where the one of the animal rights group dudes takes the virus with him through customs and security into first class travel on a plane. And he's talking to the woman sitting next to him, and, and he is, she's like, oh, you, you know, you nervous, you fly much. She says, yeah, no, really haven't, never really flown international. And it's like, oh, where are you going? Well, got a trip all the way around the world.

Ben 11:40

Mm-hmm.

Gene 11:41

Uhhuh. It reminds me of you.

Ben 11:43

I'm not going all the way around the world.

Gene 11:45

No, no, of course not.

Ben 11:47

Just

Gene 11:47

But it still reminds me of you.

Ben 11:48

Just two continents.

Gene 11:50

just two continents. Just, just enough miles from one trip to get all the way up to gold for the next year.

Ben 11:58

Oh. On two airlines.

Gene 12:00

I'm too early. Oh yeah. They hadn't seen better.

Ben 12:03

Yeah. I, I will be gold on American and United and then have points to spare on Emirates, which by the way, it sucks that Emirates does not do points with anyone.

Gene 12:14

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's all right. I think you'll be flying enough Emirates to use those points.

Ben 12:18

I don't know. We'll see. We've got some work out here, so there's a possibility and if I do then I mean that's fantastic cuz I

Gene 12:27

Mm-hmm. Well, it's pretty this way I think. I think there'll be more, more flights going to the Middle East in the next 10 years than going to Europe.

Ben 12:35

100% agree with that. So I had a dinner tonight with some European manufacturing colleagues, and it was very interesting. And this is the beginning. So everybody knows I'm here in Munich going to Maec, which is the European manufacturing conference. And talking to, you know, European manufacturers or manufacturers in general and talking with them about their prospects, what they're seeing, where they're seeing the industry going, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And the price of energy here is absolutely a defining moment. It's a defining moment. Now I will say this. I think the Germans are blind to this. And the reason why. Yeah, well here's why The average German does not realize what they're paying for energy because the German government is subsidizing the shit out of it and then changing their taxes on the back end. So they have yet to really see the bill from this.

Gene 13:45

Mm.

Ben 13:46

And I think that explains a lot of German attitudes.

Gene 13:51

Yeah. Yeah, that's true. So they're, they're gonna end up paying out way more in taxes, but the energy costs are similar.

Ben 13:58

Yeah. And so, and what the Germans are complaining to me about is Germany sets a cap on price per natural gas price per electricity. And immediately everyone goes to the top and that's what they're charging. Well, duh. But again, that's. You know, okay, so have a truly competitive market and don't cap it. The, the reality is when you set an artificial cap, everything is going to go to that. If you don't, then you give yourself some wiggle room that you may or may not realize, and that's the, that's the risk factor there,

Gene 14:36

Hmm.

Ben 14:37

at least in my mind. I don't know, maybe

Gene 14:41

Yeah. No, it's I think the more insulated people are via government policy, the longer the government can stay in power. That's why totalitarian countries have very strong command economies because they're, if you have unitarianism combined with free market economies, that that's a recipe for a government

Ben 15:05

What's a way to get overthrown.

Gene 15:07

Yeah, exactly. So, and Germany is, They're definitely gonna feel the pain of their decisions for the next decade, more, maybe even longer.

Ben 15:20

Oh, it's gonna be longer than that. I mean, all right, so you made fun of me on no gender social.

Gene 15:27

Oh, I never make fun of anybody. I know. Agenda, social,

Ben 15:31

Anyway, so like Peter's Ahan and the other guy that I referenced, Zan, however you wanna say him.

Gene 15:39

Mm-hmm.

Ben 15:39

Yeah. I'm not saying he is right. I'm not saying I think he's right. I'm saying he has an interesting take and there is some truth in it. I will leave up to a lot of people to decide what that truth is.

Gene 15:52

Yeah. Probably the word the, but in my conversation today with Tucker Max, I actually brought that topic up and. He is very much in my camp. We talk quite a bit about China and the misunderstanding of American people that are really supposed to be analysts of the far East, their misunderstanding of Chinese culture and how that impacts their inability to really be able to predict what happens in China. It's too bad that part of the interview got deleted.

Ben 16:25

That's convenient,

Gene 16:26

We had a great conversation on that topic where, where he was in full agreement.

Ben 16:31

Yeah. That's very convenient.

Gene 16:33

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I know. It's, who would've known that there was that much censorship going on that they would've flagged over an hour worth of our conversation to not get published.

Ben 16:42

Mm-hmm.

Gene 16:42

I lost it all, so it's my fault.

Ben 16:45

Well, it absolutely is your fault because you didn't allow it to be recorded. I mean, you, you could have had a backup.

Gene 16:53

you shoulda with her.

Ben 16:55

So what else you got? What's going on? What's going

Gene 16:57

What else I got? Well, I don't know. You probably heard that Dilbert got canceled.

Ben 17:02

No, I heard that that what's his name decided to Yeah. Decided to shut it down. I think that's a different thing

Gene 17:11

well,

Ben 17:11

is no canceling agency.

Gene 17:14

Oh no. He absolutely got canceled.

Ben 17:16

How so?

Gene 17:17

Well, the company that has been the distributor of Dilbert for the last 30 years canceled their contract with him. publisher that has published all of his books for the last 30 years canceled their contract with him, including on back titles.

Ben 17:36

Hmm.

Gene 17:38

His non Dilbert related publisher canceled their contract. His agent canceled his contract. He did. He was very fully canceled based, based off of his inability to sell books, given the curtain circumstances.

Ben 17:55

so you don't think it was something that he specifically said, you think it

Gene 17:59

Oh, no, I know exactly what he said. No, he said no. Didn't you see the video?

Ben 18:02

I know what he said, but that's very different than what you're saying on his inability to sell. What evidence do they have to base that off of? Because as if it's based off of the current controversy, then they don't have enough time to say a

Gene 18:19

don't need it. The most, most high-end contracts have a clause in there for, what is it called? It's essentially it's for not pissing people off clause. There's a fancy name

Ben 18:32

one of those.

Gene 18:34

Well, do you want your millions or not What?

Ben 18:38

a morality clause,

Gene 18:40

there you go. So it's, it's, it's a modern version of the rally clause, but it certainly says that if you rock the boat and there's a perceived negative perception of you based on that, then they reserve the right to cancel all these contracts. And it, it's, it is fairly common. This is not like some unique thing just for him. Like Crowder was bitching about his contract, which was super basic and simple if you ask me. But if somebody actually had a real contract with a multimillion copy publishing, Or syndication contracts, they like. I don't think Crowder understands what contracts are, cuz those are way more restrictive and way more complex. And, and if you want to have something in the traditional media space, you're gonna sign that whether he want to or not.

Ben 19:29

Did you listen to MoFA or any of no agenda lately on the topic?

Gene 19:35

On him? No.

Ben 19:37

You should. I would love to hear your feedback on that.

Gene 19:41

Well, what, what did he say?

Ben 19:42

Mo just has a very different take. He thinks big con is a real thing and he brings things that he thinks are receipts to prove it, and I would love to hear your analysis on it without saying much more than that.

Gene 19:58

Well, you're not gonna get it. So

Ben 20:01

Well, fuck you.

Gene 20:02

big con paid me off. So there.

Ben 20:04

Yeah, no, he, he brings some good points up on the fact that pretty much all of the quote unquote alternate news media sites, the ones that we consider alt-right or whatever else, are all backed by significance amounts of money. Yeah. Those amounts of money may be on the right wing of things, but it's still a significant amount of money backing somebody.

Gene 20:32

Okay. Well that's not really a controversial thing

Ben 20:35

Well, I don't think most people think of the Daily Wire as backed by billionaires.

Gene 20:40

Yeah, they do.

Ben 20:41

No, they don't.

Gene 20:42

They should. Well, who the hell doesn't, everybody I know knows that

Ben 20:46

Okay.

Gene 20:47

same, same thing with the Blaze. The Blaze definitely is,

Ben 20:50

Yep. It is not, but most people think of the Blaze and the Daily Wire as Glen Beck and Ben Shapiro starting up a company. We're just the little guy.

Gene 21:01

and they got investors that are actually own majority of it. Yeah.

Ben 21:05

Yeah. But people still think about the men and the, you know, Shapiro and the little guy, and that's all we are.

Gene 21:15

little guy,

Ben 21:17

Yeah. Ben Shapiro. He's like five foot two

Gene 21:19

he's, he's definitely not five foot toe. He's five foot seven.

Ben 21:23

Oh, gene. Defending your own height. It's okay.

Gene 21:26

Oh my God. It's a, I've, I was watching actually when watching more and more what's her name? Brit

Ben 21:33

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Gene 21:35

on that channel.

Ben 21:36

The, the female version of Ben Shap.

Gene 21:39

Yeah, yeah. You know, she just turned 20.

Ben 21:42

The perfect age for Jean

Gene 21:44

in two years, two years away from Prime

Ben 21:46

jean's like I'm staking this one out.

Gene 21:50

Like, okay. I got two years, I got two years to make my move to Dallas. Okay.

Ben 22:20

Jean, don't do it.

Gene 22:21

No, she's in, she's in actually, is she in Knoxville? Nashville. She's in Nashville.

Ben 22:26

She would definitely be your type though.

Gene 22:28

I mean, her care is the wrong color, but

Ben 22:30

my God. Her hair is the wrong color. That's that. That is the impeding factor for you, is that her hair is the wrong color.

Gene 22:40

Yeah. I don't know. She, she's a little chubby. I'm not saying she's not cute.

Ben 22:45

I, I really want the audience to go Google, Brett Cooper or whatever. Her

Gene 22:51

pounds

Ben 22:51

dude, she's not even that. No, she's not even that

Gene 22:55

eh, she might be. I dunno. Well, Ben is, Ben's definitely that then they're twins. So It's funny, he was talking about how, how Ben Ben's parents met her and they're like, yeah, we could see this

Ben 23:08

how does it feel to be attracted to basically the female clone of Ben Shapiro

Gene 23:15

Well, I, I think a lot of people are, I don't see the problem with it.

Ben 23:19

I want you to just think about the the intimate

Gene 23:21

Okay. Gang.

Ben 23:22

and the noises and what's gonna be coming. Sorry.

Gene 23:27

Mm-hmm.

Ben 23:28

Oh,

Gene 23:29

here's the thing, folks. Yeah. He's got all those little cute little catchphrases. Yeah. Truth doesn't care about your feelings, folks. Exactly. I'm, I'm like half the speed of the speed that he would say that with. Of course.

Ben 23:43

Oh my God.

Gene 23:44

But that's why I tell everybody, you gotta listen to this podcast. At least one and a quarter acts preferably even faster, because that's how podcasts are best consumed.

Ben 23:52

Jesus. I mean, Adam Adam's on this whole kick about, you know, realtime speed versus accelerated and

Gene 24:00

really Oh, I didn't know that.

Ben 24:01

Yeah, he did anyway, but the whole thing is if you listen to a Ben Shapiro podcast, that's like listening to any other podcast, at least two x

Gene 24:11

it is. I wish everyone would speak like Ben Shappiro. It would save us all a lot of time. What?

Ben 24:18

I mean, he's just, I like Ben, but he's a contrite asshole in many.

Gene 24:24

In what way?

Ben 24:26

Every way.

Gene 24:27

Yeah, that's not an answer.

Ben 24:29

No, every way he tries to be. He, he is. He doesn't seek to be understood. He seeks to,

Gene 24:37

Like, that's his problem.

Ben 24:39

yeah. Actually it

Gene 24:40

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ben 24:42

you should always seek to be understood then to understand. In my mind,

Gene 24:46

That's backwards. Yeah.

Ben 24:47

no. Okay. If I'm not understood, then that's a bigger problem for me than me lacking understanding. Cuz one is more likely than the other.

Gene 24:58

that's a problem with all your Christians. You always try to make other people understand shit instead of listening to'em.

Ben 25:03

I don't even know where to go with that.

Gene 25:05

Uhhuh Uhhuh, Gotcha. Yeah, I think I think that the the growth of the audience for both the Blaze and for daily, Are gonna keep going up cuz they are doing the things that people wanna listen to.

Ben 25:23

Well, I think it the whole alternate media space, Tim Cast, I think, I mean, quite

Gene 25:29

What's that?

Ben 25:31

I'm sorry.

Gene 25:32

I don't know what that is anymore.

Ben 25:33

You were subscribed to it for quite a

Gene 25:36

I used to be Yeah, but didn't disappeared.

Ben 25:38

so you know what it is. Anyway.

Gene 25:40

It went away.

Ben 25:41

Why,

Gene 25:43

It's gone.

Ben 25:44

why

Gene 25:46

I don't know why, because he told me to go fuck myself and to not give him any money anymore.

Ben 25:50

Uhhuh anyway? I think there is a big room for an alternate media space and actually I think more rooms opening up with Veritas fucking imploding. And we can talk about

Gene 26:02

Mm-hmm. Yeah, we can talk about that. I don't know why we need to call it alternate anything. I think it's just media. Like, you know, there's fake news media and then there's the real media.

Ben 26:13

Well

Gene 26:14

think the label alt has been slapped on there by the, the Commies, frankly, and we don't need to keep repeating it.

Ben 26:21

there is the legacy media and there is the Nuva media. How about that?

Gene 26:28

I wouldn't quite characterize'em that way, but Sure.

Ben 26:32

The new people on the block, how would you characterize'em any other way, but whatever.

Gene 26:37

Well, I would call them media

Ben 26:40

Okay.

Gene 26:40

what I would do.

Ben 26:42

Well, the

Gene 26:43

You know, I have to throw away totally off topic.

Ben 26:46

Mm-hmm.

Gene 26:47

I had to check a rabbit today.

Ben 26:50

a dead rabbit. You had to check why.

Gene 26:52

I had to check one because I, I was warming it up for my snake

Ben 26:56

Mm-hmm.

Gene 26:58

and

Ben 26:58

and moving

Gene 27:00

Well, no, that would actually be interesting. No, it was frozen so he can't be moving. But I had forgot about it after it got warmed up for five hours.

Ben 27:09

Ye

Gene 27:11

So then I had a, a warm rabbit sitting out in the kitchen for like 24 hours

Ben 27:17

yummy.

Gene 27:18

and I thought, you know, I can't give him spoiled food, so I had to throw the rabbit away and I'm cooking him a new one right now.

Ben 27:24

I mean, it may or may not be spoiled, but Sure.

Gene 27:27

Yeah. He didn't smell spoiled, but I wasn't gonna take the chance. The last thing I need is for my snake to eat food. That's not very good.

Ben 27:33

Yeah. You don't, you don't wanna hurt the snake.

Gene 27:35

No, no.

Ben 27:37

I

Gene 27:38

You know how much snake vets charge and ain't cheap.

Ben 27:40

I mean this is good advice for everyone. Don't hurt your snag. Don't beat it too much. You know, take care of it.

Gene 27:47

Or

Ben 27:48

Don't feed it. Bad things.

Gene 27:50

if you love your snake, your snake will love you. Get a device.

Ben 27:54

I am way too tired at this, but

Gene 27:57

I asked you, I

Ben 27:58

I know,

Gene 27:59

you too tired to do a recording? You're like, no, I could talk for hours. I'm Superman.

Ben 28:05

to stay up till at least one 30 or two my time just to,

Gene 28:09

cuz you wanna sleep normal

Ben 28:11

yeah, exactly. I want, I, I want to set my clock for the remainder of the

Gene 28:15

You know, you,

Ben 28:16

be up at three.

Gene 28:17

you probably could have just done that over the weekend. Do you realize that?

Ben 28:20

Not in interface with my family. No,

Gene 28:23

What do you need that for? You got that every day,

Ben 28:26

no human interaction. I actually, you know, miss my kids and things like that. That's the

Gene 28:32

miss dude. It's been a day. You can't miss your kids yet.

Ben 28:35

I absolutely do. I already called my son on video and was like, look at Munich. And in fact, I was, in fact,

Gene 28:41

a different

Ben 28:41

in fact, I was gonna call him from the plane so he could see the plane that daddy was on, he went to bed too damn early, so he missed it. So that's on.

Gene 28:51

It's on here. He, he missed his opportunity to have you brag to him.

Ben 28:55

He's three gene. He doesn't, he does not

Gene 28:58

can't afford to be flying that airline.

Ben 29:01

Pray. Dude, I can't afford to be flying. You can't afford to be flying that air flying.

Gene 29:06

definitely not. No.

Ben 29:08

anyway,

Gene 29:10

Yeah. But so, what were we talking about? Cancellations? Yeah, so Scott Adams, which I, I've watched one video where they, the guy called him Adam Scotts, which is hilarious.

Ben 29:22

Yeah.

Gene 29:22

Yeah, so he's a multi multimillionaire. He's like super rich. He was big Lee into the whole covid and mask thing, making fun of people that weren't doing it. There's definitely an element of Shuttin Freud here because this is a lefty getting shut down by lefties. And he now on the positive side, he was somebody that actually did come forward later and say, you know, maybe we were wrong at all. These crazy kooky conspiracy theory people, well, you know, even the clock's right? Once a day, not much of an apology, but at least he did something. So really when this whole thing came out, I thought, oh, eye roll more woke bullshit. And then I realized who it was about and I was like, oh, well that's a little shotten Freud there.

Ben 30:12

Yeah.

Gene 30:13

Yeah. So that's my, my take on that whole cancellation thing. And of course I tweeted, I said,

Ben 30:20

Freud,

Gene 30:21

cuz I'm feeling good about somebody else being shut down.

Ben 30:24

but why are you, I mean,

Gene 30:25

Because he was a dick

Ben 30:28

he

Gene 30:28

for a long time.

Ben 30:30

thing. Yes.

Gene 30:30

Yeah, exactly. So let's call Karma.

Ben 30:34

Okay, but don't you want the villains to learn the era their ways?

Gene 30:38

I want the villains to die.

Ben 30:41

You and Dennis Prager? I swear to God, we just repeated a Jordan Peterson commercial and I You didn't even realize the setup I just gave you.

Gene 30:51

I don't know who that is, but that's, he's got a good opinion if that's his opinion.

Ben 30:55

This is the Jewish

Gene 30:56

You understand? There are evil people in the world, don't you?

Ben 30:59

Mm-hmm.

Gene 31:00

Mm-hmm.

Ben 31:00

Yes. And I want those evil people to repent and learn the

Gene 31:03

Who die. Exactly.

Ben 31:06

Oh my God. All right, so for those who have not seen it go look up the Jordan Peterson Exodus demo reel commercial, and then listen to this and

Gene 31:16

PR you.

Ben 31:17

yeah. And tell me that gene and Dennis Prager are not

Gene 31:21

I'm not channeling donut Sprayer.

Ben 31:23

You are totally channeling to the Prager,

Gene 31:25

Mm-hmm.

Ben 31:26

is sad for you, but you know it's

Gene 31:28

he, you know, he's part of of big town as well, according to what's his face?

Ben 31:32

Yeah. Is he a is he a Messianic Jew?

Gene 31:38

Who?

Ben 31:39

Prager?

Gene 31:40

Right here? No, he's just a Jew.

Ben 31:42

You sure?

Gene 31:43

Yeah.

Ben 31:44

I don't know,

Gene 31:46

Boy. Do you think he has too many Christians working for him?

Ben 31:49

Something like that.

Gene 31:51

Seth Deal.

Ben 31:51

you know what, one of the things that just

Gene 31:53

Look, Jews run in the media. Okay. It is totally coincidental that that happens to be the fact,

Ben 31:59

Sine Speaks that guy.

Gene 32:01

but just because it's coincidental doesn't mean it's not true.

Ben 32:04

Mm-hmm.

Gene 32:06

Everybody knows who those people are when YE says it.

Ben 32:10

Jean, let me ask you a fundamental re religious question, just really between

Gene 32:15

might be too early in the morning for that, but go ahead.

Ben 32:17

Not for you. It's literally four in the afternoon for you.

Gene 32:21

Now you're assuming you know where I am. Okay.

Ben 32:23

Oh, I know exactly where you are.

Gene 32:25

Mm-hmm.

Ben 32:26

Who's the spook on this trip?

Gene 32:29

Yeah. Well that would be you cuz I'm not a spook, but yes.

Ben 32:32

Yeah. No, not spook. Just on a ridiculous business trip anyway. No, I mean, what proof would you accept

Gene 32:41

What proof or what?

Ben 32:44

Christ being the Messiah?

Gene 32:46

Well, any, let's start there.

Ben 32:49

Okay. Christ came, was the son of David Fulfills.

Gene 32:55

of those things that's, that could all be made up. We don't know any of that.

Ben 32:59

Okay. After he's crucified, the temple is destroyed. God going, yeah, I'll move.

Gene 33:05

Yeah.

Ben 33:07

Thrown into exile, lots of things. I mean, you know. Hello?

Gene 33:11

Yeah. And

Ben 33:14

I don't know. I, I, I, I don't wanna turn this into the religious hour by any stretch, but I

Gene 33:20

yeah, we usually do like food hour. You wanna go religious hour? That's all right.

Ben 33:24

I had some good food today. We'll

Gene 33:26

Like not on the airplane. You

Ben 33:28

Yeah. Not on the airplane, actually.

Gene 33:30

food? What'd you have?

Ben 33:31

So I had this salmon salad that was absolutely just phenomenal. And then I had this braised beef and this fennel and garlic sauce, which I, this changed the way I thought of German food forever,

Gene 33:50

Mm-hmm.

Ben 33:51

because I had something other than, you know, schnitzel and braw.

Gene 33:55

Sure. American, German food.

Ben 33:58

Yes. Well, anyway, it, it was a fancy German restaurant that. Clients were at, and you know, things like that. But it was, it was delicious.

Gene 34:07

Mm-hmm.

Ben 34:08

delicious.

Gene 34:10

Oh, that sounds good. And then you're in Germany for another two days, so you're gonna have some more meals.

Ben 34:14

Yeah. I will be in Munich until Wednesday and then I go to Spain,

Gene 34:21

Mm-hmm.

Ben 34:22

so, yeah.

Gene 34:23

I think you're gonna, well, maybe you won't, but I, I definitely like the food in Spain better than

Ben 34:29

Well, so I'm going, a client is taking us to do a barbecue with them, which Spanish Barbecue. Who knew? Who knew? I mean, coming from Texas, this is like, yeah. You really know what barbecue is. Let's see. But I'm, I'm sure it's gonna be something amazing, right? I, I'm, I'm sure it's going to be, Something phenomenal, but we'll see. So I spend a couple days in Barcelona, and then I go and spend the weekend in Athens.

Gene 35:00

As one does.

Ben 35:02

Well, I mean, it's cheaper than Barcelona and who wouldn't wanna spend the weekend in Athens?

Gene 35:07

That's what she said. Yes, exactly.

Ben 35:11

Jesus Christ. Gene. You're

Gene 35:13

one of us doesn't need sleep.

Ben 35:14

Huh?

Gene 35:16

One of us does not need sleep.

Ben 35:18

And one of us does, but you know, hey no, I'm Athens is gonna be cool. I'm gonna get to go spend some time and go around, see the sites, play tourists for a weekend, go pop in on a business partner and scare the shit out of, you know, and it's all good.

Gene 35:34

I think it wouldn't be good. Yeah, totally. I think you're gonna have a blast for the rest of your trip. It'll be fun. And then you'll top it off with a nice flight back home.

Ben 35:43

Yeah, the UAE and guitar. That, that, that doesn't worry me because actually from a crime standpoint, Barcelona and Greece are gonna be the worst

Gene 35:53

where you're gonna get pick, pop. If you're ever pick, pop, pick pocketed, it'll be in those two places.

Ben 35:59

Yeah.

Gene 35:59

No, I just can't pronounce words.

Ben 36:01

Yeah. Anyway. Absolutely. So I will take extra precautions there. But that's said, you know, once I get to Doha, it's just, it's downhill from there. And then I get to cap, I get to cap the trip off with a really cool flight on a Emirates three A 80, which is probably one of the coolest commercial flights you can

Gene 36:22

Mm-hmm.

Ben 36:23

So,

Gene 36:23

Yeah. That'll be fun. So on this flight, you were upstairs in the seven 40.

Ben 36:28

no, this flight, it was on an Airbus for Singapore and just up front

Gene 36:34

Oh, so it was just a,

Ben 36:35

it was a single decker on this.

Gene 36:37

okay. Do you know which model? Airbus A three 50.

Ben 36:41

I mean, I can look it up.

Gene 36:43

Oh, I don't know. Just

Ben 36:45

I think it was an A three 50, but I, I will tell you for sure in 20 seconds, let my Singapore Airlines upload. It was an a 3 5900.

Gene 36:57

That's why I figured.

Ben 36:58

Yep.

Gene 36:58

Yep. Yep. That's a good trip. So what else were, we were talking about with the cancellation of Dilberts and then what was the other thing that came up? Far as news here?

Ben 37:09

Well, to me the biggest thing is the Biden. Controversy around Ohio, and not so much that he didn't go there or you know, the fake area around that, but when asked why he didn't, and when he was talking about it, his utter failure to say, yes, I've talked to the mayor. Yes, I've talked to the governor, there was no need because we already had x, Y, Z people on the ground. He just basically danced around it and said, well, why the fuck would I do that? And you know, showed us an aptitude to a very high degree. And th that's, I agree with Adam in the sense that I think Pool boy and others and certain people are being very reactionary to this topic. I disagree that I think it's a topic worth being reactionary too. Does that make sense?

Gene 38:08

No. What do you mean clarify that?

Ben 38:10

Okay, so, yes, I think that Temple and others are making, not necessarily a mountain out of Mole Hill, but they are making hay while the sun shines. Here's an opportunity to rail against the Democrats and to just drive'em into the dirt versus being legitimately pissed off about the actual topic.

Gene 38:34

Mm-hmm.

Ben 38:35

Does that make sense?

Gene 38:37

Yeah, I guess,

Ben 38:39

You're so helpful.

Gene 38:41

well, I, I mean, yes, it makes sense, but it's a question of do you just sort of get along to, what's the phrase, get along to stay long or something.

Ben 38:53

it's whether you take someone at their face value or not. The, there's. So do you think that Tim Pool at this point is being a genuine individual?

Gene 39:06

I don't know what that means.

Ben 39:08

Do you think he's playing a character?

Gene 39:11

We're all playing characters. I'm playing a character. You're playing a character

Ben 39:14

What character am I playing?

Gene 39:16

a h

Ben 39:18

That's not a character It's just who I am, but

Gene 39:22

Well then that's you saying in character that that's not a character. Yes. Oh, everybody plays a character when they're, they've got a camera up my staring'em in their face.

Ben 39:32

I don't have a camera staring me in the face.

Gene 39:34

Oh hell. I know, I know. You don't think you did.

Ben 39:37

No. And in fact you know, I'm not going to a huge link to be an, you know, any sort of anonymous, but I'm not trying to seek any fame or anything on myself. I'm just giving my other opinions. So, you know, no, I, I, I don't think we are all playing a character, but anyway,

Gene 39:57

We are to some extent.

Ben 39:59

okay, well, we can move on from that topic. The German flight for manufacturing and issues out of natural gas are a real thing. The preliminary report from SEC is that the German manufacturing base is in trouble and going to do what B A S F is and try and do a

Gene 40:24

move outta Germany.

Ben 40:25

Move out of Germany and do a Toyota, you know, build where you sell methodology. That said I don't know that they have the timeline to do it and Germany is putting all its hopes really, it sounds like, on American l n g, which is crazy because that's never going to close the supply gap. It's

Gene 40:46

but even if it did, it's not gonna close the price gap.

Ben 40:49

well, the, the price would stay tripled, but

Gene 40:52

Yeah,

Ben 40:53

fact of the matter is it's not going to be able to s close the supply gap. And that's the fundamental problem for the

Gene 40:58

Yeah. I don't think it will either. The, you know, us is definitely telling Germany that, don't worry, we got you covered. But I don't, I don't see how that's gonna happen. Certainly not in the next two years that Biden's still president.

Ben 41:12

No. And you know, and he, here's the thing, w the, quite frankly, I had conversations tonight about Nord Stream and Turk Stream and the the one going through Greece, which I can't remember the name of. And

Gene 41:26

that would be but Stream

Ben 41:28

no, it's Trans AGI something or other.

Gene 41:33

Trans stream. Mm-hmm.

Ben 41:35

Anyway, the Germans are very, very down on basically any savior.

Gene 41:43

Oh, well, they should be.

Ben 41:45

well, but that's a

Gene 41:46

They, they've not had a particularly good relationship with Turkey

Ben 41:50

No, not at

Gene 41:50

and, and now

Ben 41:52

fact, they really

Gene 41:53

they can get. No, they don't. And that's gonna be the main supplier of gas in Europe moving.

Ben 41:59

Yes, but here's the thing. There's a differe, there's a differentiation between the the German people and the German government. So one of the stories that got relayed to me today was the German government put a burnt out tank Russian tank from the Soviet era

Gene 42:17

Yes. Yes, I saw

Ben 42:18

the Russian embassy

Gene 42:21

Mm-hmm.

Ben 42:21

and said, oh, look at what you've done, killing Ukrainians and so on. And the German people

Gene 42:27

It's covered in flowers.

Ben 42:28

went and made it a monument.

Gene 42:31

Mm-hmm.

Ben 42:32

The fuck of a

Gene 42:34

Yep.

Ben 42:36

Dude, that's huge.

Gene 42:38

It is. It is. And that's the thing, I think that this is the sort of thing that is never gonna get covered in the US but points to the disconnect between the official party line of Europe and what people actually are thinking.

Ben 42:55

and it points to you and I having very disparate forms of information because I would not have seen this otherwise. I heard about this firsthand here in Germany.

Gene 43:06

this.

Ben 43:07

otherwise I

Gene 43:07

I heard about it. Yeah. Yesterday

Ben 43:10

Okay, well, my, today,

Gene 43:13

in on the morning briefing from Moscow.

Ben 43:15

yeah, while I was in transit

Gene 43:17

Yep.

Ben 43:18

and you wanna say I glow Jesus,

Gene 43:22

No, and I, I mean, I, I saw the thing. It's it definitely is completely covered in flowers. It's pretty amazing.

Ben 43:28

which, I mean, you could interpret that one of two ways. Now, the way the j and here's the thing. If I had just seen that on the news, I would go, okay, well maybe the Germans are meaning, you know, pro Ukrainian things and they're, the monument isn't to the Russians. But the way it was told to me by Germans today, that is not the sentiment I should take.

Gene 43:51

Yep. Yeah, no, it's, it's absolutely true. And you know, there certainly were some negative feelings from East Germany towards Soviet Union back in that day.

Ben 44:04

There still is, and I would not say that this whole thing, this whole movement inside Germany is not pro-Russian. It's anti-German government.

Gene 44:15

yeah. Well, it's, I think even broader than that, it's anti-American imperialism because more and more people in Europe are waking up to the fact. Their ruling class doesn't actually care about what the people think. It only cares about what the Grand Master in the United States thinks.

Ben 44:36

Yes. Which is why they all have additional homes in New Zealand and a.

Gene 44:42

Yeah. Which is silly because that those governments are exactly identical.

Ben 44:47

Yes,

Gene 44:48

have an initial home, you ought have it in Brazil

Ben 44:50

no, because the fact of the matter is they can flee there and be safe.

Gene 44:56

from Be Safe. They're not gonna be safe anywhere.

Ben 44:59

Sure,

Gene 45:00

No. Why are you kidding? What happened with Covid in in New Zealand?

Ben 45:04

yeah. Well Jacinda Jacinda is gone and it was the elite's will that that happens. So she enacted it. It's all part of the

Gene 45:15

Yeah. It's gonna happen again. So I wouldn't want to have any of those countries that had draconian measures in place as a backup plan.

Ben 45:23

Well, I, so first of all, I don't think the people that I'm talking about are worried about the draconian measures. They're worried about being a target for an I C B M and you know, being able to create a bunker esque mentality

Gene 45:38

Yeah, it's, that's not a thing.

Ben 45:40

Well, it is a trend amongst the elite, whether or not they can pull it off or not, that's a

Gene 45:45

Yeah. It's, it's a trend. And even if you

Ben 45:48

spending hundreds of millions of dollars on it. Now, whether or not, if I'm the security guard, I go, well, this is mine now. Fuck you. Absolutely. But, you know, a again, there's still fan, however you wanna put it, spending money

Gene 46:04

there. Yeah. There was a, a, a funny comedic TV show that was on, I only watched a handful of episodes of them, but it was Mar Marginally funny, but it was like Last Man on Earth or something like that.

Ben 46:17

Okay.

Gene 46:17

Maybe five, six years. Was basically a guy ends up being the only person that doesn't succumb to a big viral outbreak and everybody else dies

Ben 46:29

man or the last human?

Gene 46:32

Well it starts off for the first episode or two as him being the only human and then other characters introduce. So he's not even the last man, but, but for a while there he's essentially, there's no other humans around where he's at.

Ben 46:47

Have you ever read the Earth Aides?

Gene 46:51

No.

Ben 46:52

You should read that book,

Gene 46:53

Whose book is that?

Ben 46:54

I would recommend it to anyone who's listening. The Earth

Gene 46:58

Yeah, you and Tucker. He also had book recommendations. They,

Ben 47:02

Okay, it Tucker. Who,

Gene 47:05

Tucker Max,

Ben 47:06

what was he on?

Gene 47:07

He was on my podcast.

Ben 47:09

Which one? I mean, you, you're not filling in enough information here.

Gene 47:13

Oh, he was on Sir. Gene

Ben 47:14

to people listen to

Gene 47:16

yeah, yeah.

Ben 47:17

don't listen to

Gene 47:18

He, and he was on SegY and Speaks. They, if somebody Googles Tucker Max podcast, and I'm sure it'll come

Ben 47:22

which you screwed up and only recorded

Gene 47:25

which I recorded halfway. I know, but hey, I was there for the whole thing, so I thought it was pretty damn good.

Ben 47:30

Well, anyway the Earth abides by George R. Stewart, I would highly recommend to anyone.

Gene 47:36

Mm-hmm.

Ben 47:37

Yeah.

Gene 47:38

Okay. Any more info about that? Or should I just pencil that into my list of

Ben 47:43

no, it, it was one of the first dystopian novels. It was written in the 1950s.

Gene 47:48

It's a really old

Ben 47:49

yeah. And it actually is inspired by the case of a Indian Called Ishi and the main character is called Isherwood Williams, who goes by Ishi as short, who was brought in and quote unquote civilized into the 18 hundreds. One of the last quote, noble savages out there, and it starts out with this guy who gets a snake bite in the woods and has to camp out for a few days before he hills, and in the interim a virus goes through and wipes out the majority of the world and by the book's end, this is not really a spoiler, but the kids of the kids of the kids don't believe that guns were ever anything real. They were just fake magic that didn't work. Things like that.

Gene 48:35

I may have read this. This sounds vaguely familiar.

Ben 48:37

It's a really good book. It's right up there with like lucifer's hammer and things like.

Gene 48:43

So this isn't part of the episode that was lost, but I'll give you the book recommendation from him is The Three Body Problem. Have you read that?

Ben 48:52

I, I, I I know of it. I think he's following subject to Chinese propaganda. The three body problem. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Seriously, the three body problem is a Chinese thought experiment. It is very, very much a Chinese thought experiment. So yeah, take it for what it's

Gene 49:09

Yeah. All right, Chloe. So, I think that there's a, there's certainly plenty of things that people forget. And in fact, I, I said this recently on Twitter. I kind of did a variant of fuck around and find out and, and combine that with not learning about history because there, there certainly seems to be a preponderance of people who are more interested in rewriting history or looking at it through modern glasses than they are in actually learning history. And I said, you know,

Ben 49:46

percent.

Gene 49:47

that, that's certainly their prerogative. But by doing so, they're virtually guaranteeing statistically speak. of going through the same lessons that they didn't learn by reading history.

Ben 50:01

Well, you have the same people who went through and so it, it, it's the sin of moral relativism. It it's the people who want to say, I exist now and God dammit, why didn't you a hundred years ago know exactly what I know now? Well, because we hadn't figured that out yet. You, you and I don't want to be a moral relativist because I think there are things that are morally, absolute. That said, you have to judge someone's behavior more or less off the morals of the time, because otherwise, guess what? You're gonna be judged off of it. And those morals are gonna be different

Gene 50:42

Yeah. I don't even think it's limited. Tomorrows, I think you just have to be capable of logical thought. With the constraints of the matter of time.

Ben 50:53

with, with taking the relevant timeframe into account. I

Gene 50:57

So if you're a caveman, like you have way more freedom. Yeah, exactly. You have way more freedom than a the person does today, because literally there are no

Ben 51:10

There is no society to contain you. It is ju

Gene 51:14

karma. That's all that exists is just karma.

Ben 51:16

No, it's less than that. It, it's the, it's nature written tooth and claw. It is, might makes Right.

Gene 51:22

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Ben 51:24

It's not even karma. It is. I can knock you out. Therefore.

Gene 51:28

No STDs existed yet.

Ben 51:30

Well, even if they did, it really didn't matter because you didn't live long enough for it to matter.

Gene 51:35

Oh, fair enough. I mean, they existed in other animals who haven't yet been fucked by humans.

Ben 51:40

gene, I I, I think you might be wrong about that one.

Gene 51:45

No, no, no, no. That's, you can look that up yourself. Every st. D originated in the, a animal of other

Ben 51:52

You're, you're, you're missing the joke. You're missing the joke. It's okay.

Gene 51:56

Okay.

Ben 51:56

I, you know, I'm supposed to be the tired one at one. 17:00 AM local time,

Gene 52:02

Mm-hmm.

Ben 52:03

you're the one missing the joke. It's okay.

Gene 52:05

All right.

Ben 52:06

Anyway, point is,

Gene 52:08

Go, go on Mr. Joker.

Ben 52:10

no point is you, you cannot judge. You can judge a, s a contemporary society with your morals. I do not wanna make the case for moral relativism to be an absolute. What I will say is, a society that existed 200 years before you were born might have different morals than you. And that is not something you can judge them on because you wouldn't have had those morals 200 years ago. Now, a contemporary society that has very different morals than you. a k a, my atheist friend Gene Here I can judge him based off of his morals versus mine and that be a contemporary, contemporaneous level of analysis that is valid. But to say Gene's ancestor who lived 200 years ago, I probably shouldn't judge him by the same standard because he had no idea what that standard would be

Gene 53:11

Well, yeah. No, that's, that's absolutely true. It, it's it's possible to judge societies by current standards, but only in the, in the comparison of should we change our current society to be more like that society of the past,

Ben 53:28

or less. Yes.

Gene 53:30

Or well or less, but you can certainly find certain benefits in past societies. I can for sure. But then other elements of those societies you may not like. So it's really a question of what, what I think is hard to do and maybe even impossible, is to simply find an ancient civilization or society, which you would prefer across the board a hundred percent over the modern society that we live in.

Ben 54:01

That doesn't exist.

Gene 54:04

Well, it's utopia.

Ben 54:05

Well, and you know what it comes down to is many years ago, My dad read a book and then handed it to me, and I remember reading it and it was called, these are the Good Old Days, and it was outlining the benefits of Modern American globalism and saying, this is the best time of our lives and here's why.

Gene 54:27

yep. Mm-hmm.

Ben 54:29

book was written in the early nineties and has been nothing but more true ever since. I think we're at the end of that

Gene 54:35

Well, and that's that. That would be my foot notice to say that that is absolutely true.

Ben 54:39

up until today.

Gene 54:40

Up until the 1980s, which were literally the pinnacle of humanity, and after that point, everything started rolling

Ben 54:45

No, I think it was around, you know, the mid two thousands, but Okay.

Gene 54:49

Mm-hmm. it was 1991. I remember that date.

Ben 54:53

yeah. Is that when the wall fell, shaka, when the wall fell?

Gene 54:59

It wasn't when the wall fell. It was, it was when,

Ben 55:02

gonna get that reference. Troll. You mercilessly for not getting it.

Gene 55:07

no, I get the reference. I just don't think the Berlin Wall had anything to do with what I'm

Ben 55:12

The reference wasn't about the Berlin Wall. Dude,

Gene 55:15

What are you talking about then?

Ben 55:16

Shaka when the wall fell. His eyes wide open.

Gene 55:21

What?

Ben 55:23

it's a Star Trek, t n g reference

Gene 55:26

Oh,

Ben 55:26

to one of the best episodes

Gene 55:28

Whatever.

Ben 55:30

Dude, this is what you get when we're doing the podcast at

Gene 55:33

Yes. We're gonna flip over to Star Trek references. No, and I don't mind Star Trek references, but honestly the, I don't have that level of nerdom where I can name individual episodes of the next generation

Ben 55:46

this is a,

Gene 55:48

or the original.

Ben 55:49

I will send you a link to the episode. You should watch it. It's a great metaphorical episode. It's

Gene 55:55

I saw them all when they came out. I don't need to rewatch'em. Is this the one where, where Patrick Stewart keeps jerking on his shirt to kind of tighten them so it doesn't go up all the time?

Ben 56:07

No. This is the one where he gets transported down to the alien planet where there's a predator trying to chase him and the alien captain, and they're trying to communicate, but they can't communicate because the alien speaks in metaphor and not actual sentences. So the universal

Gene 56:23

that was, that wasn't the name of it. That was called something at Tanaka.

Ben 56:26

Yeah. But one of the phrases was shakka when the walls fell

Gene 56:32

No. Yeah, I don't remember that. But it was like Al Gore Tanaka or something like that.

Ben 56:38

is arms wide. Yes. Anyway,

Gene 56:40

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. The metaphorical language thing is interesting. I think that makes for very. Code.

Ben 56:47

yeah. Gila and whatever at Tanara.

Gene 56:51

Gilan and Al Gora.

Ben 56:53

Yeah, I've, I've got the t-shirt from the rock band. I've

Gene 56:55

Of course you do. Of course you do

Ben 56:57

Yeah. No metaphorical language. Actually, all of our speech is metaphorical in some instance, and this is one of the things that I

Gene 57:07

Well, it's getting more so that's what memes are. Memes are just metaphors.

Ben 57:11

I mean, I mean, I wouldn't say it's getting more so, it's getting more so around more people, because realistically the, the thing that I've run into in my life is that people who haven't read what I've read or haven't read the amount I've read, have a, I have a hard time interfacing with n communicating as directly as I should be able to, because we don't have the shared reference

Gene 57:39

Cause you have poor language skills. I get it.

Ben 57:41

No, I'm not the one with the poor language skills here that, that that's not the thing,

Gene 57:45

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ben 57:46

it's the other person.

Gene 57:48

Yeah.

Ben 57:50

It's the person that doesn't read, the person who hasn't

Gene 57:53

person playing a hick character. Okay.

Ben 57:56

Did I ever say I was a H

Gene 57:58

No, you just, literally at the beginning of this episode, you literally just did

Ben 58:03

No, you accused me of playing a character and I said, I'm

Gene 58:06

See, I don't play that.

Ben 58:08

Exactly. Now I'm, I've grown up early and everything else, but it depends on what you mean by hick. I

Gene 58:14

Guys, as soon as we end this podcast, his language just goes to Midwest Standard. Like all this you're hearing right now. This is all put on. This is all for the good old boys.

Ben 58:24

Uhhuh.

Gene 58:25

Mm-hmm. Meanwhile, Jesse. Mm-hmm.

Ben 58:29

Dude. Okay. No. Anyway, whatever. You know,

Gene 58:35

Yep. So,

Ben 58:37

you want.

Gene 58:37

yeah, well, we'll see. Let's see how long you last in

Ben 58:41

Who Who the hell do you think would be my handler? Jean

Gene 58:45

Well, I would imagine that would be the person that's on the flight with you or not on the flight in the same city as you.

Ben 58:51

Yeah. I don't know. It might be the person I'm talking to at one 30 in the morning.

Gene 58:55

No, no. And the has your full itinerary. That would not be that person.

Ben 58:59

Exactly. Insisted on

Gene 59:01

who told you which plane to get on. No, not wouldn't be that guy.

Ben 59:06

Hey, you should really take the A three 80 flight if you can. Dude, it turns out I can

Gene 59:12

a 3 8, 3 80 flight that just happens to be right that day. Just random randomness, random things happen all the time.

Ben 59:20

I

Gene 59:20

Hey, how about that? Ukrainian war. It's pretty cool. Huh?

Ben 59:23

It is definitely a topic of conversation here, which I find interesting.

Gene 59:28

Yeah,

Ben 59:28

Yeah.

Gene 59:29

I would, it'll be interesting to see what you, what, how you compare that from different countries on how much each country, it's a topic of conversation on whether some are more than others.

Ben 59:40

So I brought up the energy situation with my cabby to the hotel and

Gene 59:46

those are great. Cabbies are always good for that.

Ben 59:48

exactly which he is from Munich, born and raised, but he's Turkish, Turkish in

Gene 59:57

Yeah. That's why I would've guessed. Yep.

Ben 59:59

And so he went off about the Turk stream. He went off about Nord stream. He went off and it was very telling to me because he very much insisted and said that there was an earthquake weapon esque, and that the earthquake was tied to nato.

Gene 1:00:20

Once I've been saying that for a week.

Ben 1:00:22

I, I have a hard time with that one, but, okay. Regardless, the belief is what matters. He very firmly believes that you know, the US blew up Nord stream, which I actually, I agree with. And he's went off about people paying more than their mortgage for their electric bill.

Gene 1:00:42

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:00:44

So, you know, I mean, this is a lower class guy who's just trying to make a living and this is what's on his mind.

Gene 1:00:53

Yeah.

Ben 1:00:54

I think what the rest of us should pay attention to it too.

Gene 1:00:57

Yeah. No, I, America's not making any friends here.

Ben 1:01:01

Well, America's pulling out of the world. And that's, that's

Gene 1:01:05

And that's a good way to put it because I think that

Ben 1:01:08

I

Gene 1:01:09

anybody who's an in

Ben 1:01:10

avoids a, a, a general nuclear exchange with the u s s. Are former remnants, aka Russia and you know, a couple

Gene 1:01:21

look at you pronouncing nuclear.

Ben 1:01:23

Anyway I think the way we avoid that is by going, okay, you know what? We really don't care about this and pulling the fuck outta Europe.

Gene 1:01:31

Yep. Yeah. Which is going to be difficult for Europe to deal with in a, the one thing I am looking forward to is, once again, using real money instead of the euro when I go to Europe.

Ben 1:01:45

Yeah. So far I have not had to use any arrows.

Gene 1:01:50

Oh yeah.

Ben 1:01:51

Yeah. I,

Gene 1:01:52

Well, how'd you pay for your cab?

Ben 1:01:53

Card

Gene 1:01:55

Well, okay, but then your card's sucking out euros.

Ben 1:01:59

My card is dollar or euro agnostic. I have no transfer fees or anything like that.

Gene 1:02:06

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But that's But still pulling out Euro. No, my point is simply that I really enjoyed the currency markets of Europe pre Euro, because you could get good deals in different countries depending on what, what part of the year you were traveling.

Ben 1:02:21

Well, and that's the thing is one of the places I'm going to Greece I assume that'll be a topic of interest, is, Hey, do you think the move to the euro was a good thing?

Gene 1:02:32

Yeah. I mean, there's pros and cons there. They, they got some free shit, then they got fucked

Ben 1:02:39

Yeah. There's not really pros and cons. There's just cons and cons.

Gene 1:02:43

Well, they did get some money from, from Europe initially. When joining.

Ben 1:02:48

Yeah. Well, all I can tell you is that transiting from the UK officially to Germany

Gene 1:02:56

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:02:56

interesting because. basically there's the EU passport line and everyone else,

Gene 1:03:04

Yeah, exactly.

Ben 1:03:06

which, you know, in, in, in the UK there was the uk the US Australia, and a and a couple other, like 30 something other countries that were like, here, go to the fast lane. Everyone else over here. So, yeah.

Gene 1:03:25

Those are not always the fast lanes. Some countries you realize it's actually the slow lane cuz there's so many people there.

Ben 1:03:31

Yeah, well re regardless. In Germany there was the, I have a EU passport and everyone else, so, and

Gene 1:03:41

how are the lines? Were they pretty balanced or way more

Ben 1:03:43

oh, no, no, no. Way more. Way more everyone.

Gene 1:03:47

Oh, really? Interesting.

Ben 1:03:49

Yeah. The EU lines were,

Gene 1:03:51

So they're not traveling then. Not a whole lot of Germans are traveling,

Ben 1:03:54

EU lines were

Gene 1:03:56

Europeans in general.

Ben 1:03:57

four people to a hundred something to the other.

Gene 1:04:02

Wow. That's a huge

Ben 1:04:03

Yeah. I mean, it, it literally, it was 5% of the flight went to the EU line. Everyone else went to the other category, which, which makes sense because I've talked to fins, I've talked to Swiss on this trip. I've talked to English. You know, the, the, the majority of people I've interfaced with so far who are coming in for this conference are not German, which is interesting.

Gene 1:04:30

So it's held in Germany, but there it's actually Pan-European.

Ben 1:04:33

Yeah. Yeah. It, it's AEC Europe. Yeah. It's a Manu Manufacturing cybersecurity conference for Europe.

Gene 1:04:40

Yep. Makes sense.

Ben 1:04:43

Yep.

Gene 1:04:44

Well, I'm, I'm sure it'll be a a fun conference, but the rest of the trip will be even more fun for you. Now you're going to Greece just for fun, right?

Ben 1:04:54

No. I'm actually

Gene 1:04:55

You got business shit there?

Ben 1:04:57

I do over the weekend.

Gene 1:04:59

Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, I thought because it was weekend thing, I figured it was just like your weekend getaway.

Ben 1:05:06

I, I, I, it's both. So my last business trip of the week is in an expensive city in Spain.

Gene 1:05:15

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:05:16

And I could stay there or I can go to a cheaper city in Greece and then meet up with colleagues Monday to go to the Middle East. So that's what I'm doing. And by the way, there's a 24 by seven business partner that works there that we rely on greatly. And you know, hey, a surprise inspection sounds like an

Gene 1:05:37

Yeah. That's always a good thing to do. A little surprise expansion. Action.

Ben 1:05:42

Yep.

Gene 1:05:43

Good deal. Yeah. Yeah. But, but I'm, I'm also, I like, I know Greece should be cheaper than Barcena, but it shouldn't be

Ben 1:05:52

for giving away my itinerary

Gene 1:05:54

crazy cheap. You already said it at the beginning of the show.

Ben 1:05:57

that you bitched at me about. Yeah. It's not crazy cheap actually, hotel wise Munich's the cheap.

Gene 1:06:02

I could see that. Yeah.

Ben 1:06:04

Hotel wise. Now the rest of it wise, not so much. Barcelona Hotel wise is by far the most expensive.

Gene 1:06:11

You go to McDonald's yet?

Ben 1:06:13

Why the fuck would I go to McDonald's in

Gene 1:06:15

I don't know. Americans usually go to McDonald's in every city they go to. Just for fun to see what the Well there. There will be products that are not available in the US McDonald's that are available in the foreign. McDonald's is

Ben 1:06:28

why the fuck would I go to McDonald's?

Gene 1:06:30

don't know, people do that. I'm just asking

Ben 1:06:32

does that

Gene 1:06:34

the Americans.

Ben 1:06:36

with an IQ of 20? I mean, what?

Gene 1:06:39

Well, maybe a hundred.

Ben 1:06:40

I've got plenty of other options. No. Now I end up in a really weird place with really weird food that I don't want to eat. You know? I guess maybe, but I don't know. I, I can't, I, I'd be in Indonesia trying monkey brains before I'd go to McDonald's in another

Gene 1:06:57

Ooh. Brains are not fun of any.

Ben 1:07:01

It, I'm being gross and exaggerating, man.

Gene 1:07:05

Okay. All right. Yeah, because Tucker and I, we were just talking about eating all kinds of gross foods

Ben 1:07:10

Yeah. I

Gene 1:07:11

on the second half of the podcast that got deleted.

Ben 1:07:13

on the previous podcast that you apparently recorded today.

Gene 1:07:17

Maybe, maybe.

Ben 1:07:18

So,

Gene 1:07:20

Wow. It was, it was just really good. That's all

Ben 1:07:21

Uhhuh so what was in the second half? That's now part of the Lost Tapes that will never be recovered.

Gene 1:07:27

the lost today. Well, hopefully I'm gonna redo that and rerecord the second half with'em before too long. So I think where it cuts off is right at the point where he's written three of his books and so none of the stuff about what he's currently doing, none of the stuff about his book company, none of the stuff about his gun stuff, none of the stuff about traveling, like all that stuff was in part two.

Ben 1:07:53

Mm-hmm. Okay. So tell us more, fill in some details.

Gene 1:08:00

I, I will, when I re-interview him, you'll, you'll just have to wait

Ben 1:08:03

All right. So what are you bringing

Gene 1:08:05

and if you play your cards right, you might be part of that

Ben 1:08:07

1 35 in the morning. What are you bringing to the table? I've carried the conversation so far.

Gene 1:08:12

Oh, whatever. Dude, I've brought up all kinds of topics. Like, like, the comic Good guy.

Ben 1:08:18

Okay.

Gene 1:08:18

comic dude, him

Ben 1:08:20

know, I totally pictured silent Bob when you said the comic book guy.

Gene 1:08:26

oh, really?

Ben 1:08:27

That's who came to mind for me.

Gene 1:08:29

I mean, that's a cool character. I've always liked Silent Bob.

Ben 1:08:33

Right. But you've seen clerks, right?

Gene 1:08:36

I just literally said I always liked Silent Bob, so I, yes, probably. I've seen clerks in all the rest of his.

Ben 1:08:41

Well, but that character appears in more than just clerks as, I mean, about Amy or whatever is,

Gene 1:08:48

Chasing

Ben 1:08:49

chasing Amy there. Which by the way, talk about a mind

Gene 1:08:52

Mall Rats.

Ben 1:08:53

Yeah. Chasing Amy is a romantic mind fuck ending.

Gene 1:08:58

It's a great I remember it is a little bit. Yeah. But I remember watching that and going, holy shit, I've been through

Ben 1:09:05

No shit. Me too. I, I, I think every straight male has been through chasing Amy. That's why it's such a mind fuck is you realize, holy fuck, I've been chasing Amy.

Gene 1:09:18

Yeah. Yeah.

Ben 1:09:19

Her Ma, her name may be Rebecca, or whatever else. It doesn't really matter. It's just, yeah,

Gene 1:09:25

Exactly. But it's a I think that's one of the better. Kevin Smith movie.

Ben 1:09:31

I 100% agree. I mean, it's got a great, just good ending that gets you to deal with some of your own crap.

Gene 1:09:42

Although I, I definitely have a soft spot for mall rats,

Ben 1:09:45

Yeah, Mars is good.

Gene 1:09:47

cuz that was literally shot in the mall that I grew up in.

Ben 1:09:51

And which mall was that?

Gene 1:09:53

That was the Eden Prairie Center.

Ben 1:09:55

And where was that?

Gene 1:09:57

That was in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Ben 1:10:00

Why the hell would anyone shoot a movie in Minnesota?

Gene 1:10:03

Because it was available to rent. Like how many other malls can you just close down for a weekend

Ben 1:10:09

well, in Minnesota,

Gene 1:10:10

or, or probably more like during the week. How many getting close down during the week?

Ben 1:10:13

in Minnesota, again, probably all of them,

Gene 1:10:16

No. No. God no. Are you kidding? Malls? Back in the eighties, dude, malls were doing eighties, early nineties. Major business. This is where all the commerce took place.

Ben 1:10:25

am giving you crap. is what

Gene 1:10:27

I know you're giving me crap. I'm pointing out that your crap isn't sticking.

Ben 1:10:31

Okay.

Gene 1:10:32

But that particular mall was built before the housing really grew around the area.

Ben 1:10:38

Mm. So,

Gene 1:10:39

an overbuilt, underutilized mall

Ben 1:10:42

So they had, they had less foot traffic than ideal.

Gene 1:10:47

y, way less like that. And I, I remember I used to ride my bike to that mall, but that mall had probably 200 store spaces. And at any given time, maybe about 75 stores active. The large chunks of the malls were

Ben 1:11:03

an ideal ratio.

Gene 1:11:05

no, no. And again, somebody bought the land and decided that, oh my God, this is gonna be like at the epicenter of everything eventually, when all the houses are. But they built them mall too early, or the houses alternatively didn't get built fast enough. So that mall was,

Ben 1:11:22

developer had a feud with the other and they just

Gene 1:11:25

something happened, but that, that mall was built in the eighties, and if it would've been built in the nineties, it would've been a hundred percent occupied from day one.

Ben 1:11:33

Hmm.

Gene 1:11:33

But it was built in the eighties and and there was just not that many people there. There was still a lot of like, pastures with cows walking around.

Ben 1:11:41

Hmm.

Gene 1:11:42

So, but it definitely became a, the mall to be at in the two thousands.

Ben 1:11:52

Interesting.

Gene 1:11:52

two thousands, it, it definitely was in the middle of a lot of nice, expensive housing. But, so anyway, for me it's a little different watching that movie because I actually, like, I remember all those places. I remember all. Like where they, there's the elevator and the, you know, the wheelchair ramp and stuff and all that crap that's in that movie. I remember getting the orange Julius. Is there,

Ben 1:12:16

Orange

Gene 1:12:17

do you remember Orange Julius or did they not have'em when you were a

Ben 1:12:20

they had them. I just never really liked them.

Gene 1:12:24

They're not. No. No, they're not particularly good. It's just back in the seventies and eighties, orange Julius was the healthiest thing you could get at a mall,

Ben 1:12:33

Yeah,

Gene 1:12:34

fake orange juice with some

Ben 1:12:36

way too much sugar.

Gene 1:12:38

and a shit ton of sugar. Exactly. Yeah. They're like orange shakes basically with fake orange.

Ben 1:12:46

Yeah. By the way dealing with a customs issue coming in on some

Gene 1:12:51

mm-hmm.

Ben 1:12:52

for the conference and that's, that, that's fun. Literally.

Gene 1:12:56

like, what, what do they

Ben 1:12:58

literally things shipped to the conference from the US

Gene 1:13:02

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:13:03

here. No problem. Things shipped from the UK to the conference three days before. Still stuck in customs.

Gene 1:13:14

Really? Wow.

Ben 1:13:16

How much of a fuck you is that to the uk?

Gene 1:13:19

Yeah. That seems like that's nitpicky on purpose.

Ben 1:13:23

Yeah, man. Let's see how Brexit goes for you here. Bend.

Gene 1:13:26

I don't know, dude, I, if we don't manage to nuro cells, which at this point I think is still fairly likely, but if it doesn't happen, I just don't see Europe staying as one single entity.

Ben 1:13:37

not going to,

Gene 1:13:39

I can't see it.

Ben 1:13:40

it's gonna balkanize. It's got to,

Gene 1:13:42

It has to, yeah, it has

Ben 1:13:43

it's gonna be those who want to go with the French and everyone else.

Gene 1:13:47

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:13:48

Uhhuh Uhhuh as you agree with me, and, you know, people, you criticize me for agreeing with

Gene 1:13:55

Hey, even the clocks rate once a day.

Ben 1:13:57

dude, I so Zhan and his, I, I don't believe everything they say. I don't think, in fact, I have told you privately more than once that I think he's painting way over Rosie picture for the us but what I think he's picturing for, you know, Germany and the de-industrialization of Germany, I'm here right now and sure seems that.

Gene 1:14:21

Yeah, it's not hard to see that. I mean, it's like literally you, you can see it on your trip there immediately just by talking to a few folks. And

Ben 1:14:30

Well, these are folks in the know, these are people who are in manufacturing, right? I'm literally here

Gene 1:14:36

Or cab driver.

Ben 1:14:37

Well, the cab driver, his hi, his conspiratorial mind and where he went immediately was definitely entertaining for me.

Gene 1:14:45

Did you tell him to listen to No agenda or at least our podcast?

Ben 1:14:50

no, but there was a guy who was next to me in business class that I he was going off on, and we haven't even talked about this yet, but he was going off on how fucked the British economy is. And he's from Manchester, and I mean, he was very, very much from Manchester, as you might imagine.

Gene 1:15:10

I just talked to somebody from there just hour, a couple hours ago here.

Ben 1:15:13

Yeah. So, ah, see we're my handler on the plane using your proxy. I see how it goes. Anyway guy I talked to a little bit and he's been all over the world and we were talking and I asked him and he throughout some very no agendas topics and I said, well, if you're interested in that, you should listen to these two podcasts. And I mentioned No agenda, and just two good old boys. So we'll

Gene 1:15:37

Very good. Keep pushing it.

Ben 1:15:39

I'm not gonna push it. I mean, I mean, that's a mild hit in the mouth to a single individual in business class,

Gene 1:15:45

that's a push in the right direction.

Ben 1:15:47

Yeah, we need

Gene 1:15:48

No. And I kinda, I've been, I've been definitely doing that.

Ben 1:15:52

that one

Gene 1:15:53

Well, you tell me when you're ready to rerecord it and we'll rerecord it. It's not a big deal. We just need, yeah, when you get home and you don't have a cold and you're in the right equipment, we'll rerecord it. We could do like even five or six different versions and figure out which one sounds the best

Ben 1:16:10

Okay. I'm

Gene 1:16:11

because that last one we, we literally did, we just did one take

Ben 1:16:14

did one take and I literally was stepped up and sounding like this, but yeah.

Gene 1:16:21

I just figured you were playing character.

Ben 1:16:24

Jesus Christ.

Gene 1:16:25

It all ties back together. All right, Ben. Well, you're super sleepy. Normally I'd keep you talking for another half hour, but I think you're gonna start fading. So should we wrap it up or do you want, do you want to talk about anything else?

Ben 1:16:38

I mean, I've, I've shot my local wide as it would be right now, so I'm good. But if you've got anything else you want to bring up, I'm, I'm okay to hang around. So up to you.

Gene 1:16:52

Yeah. I don't know that there is, honestly. I mean, I, I think that right now there's a little bit of a meme overload I'm experiencing. Maybe partly because I've been doing the grift cast YouTube livestream almost every single day. And that's a lot of talking about pure drama. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Ben 1:17:14

thought you were stopping that.

Gene 1:17:16

No, no, it's just you know, I'm, I'm not doing twice a day. I'm doing once a day.

Ben 1:17:21

So on that I really, really think you ought to listen to the latest mo facts and some of what Adam has to say about the big con because I think they bring up some interesting points of view on it. I'm not saying I agree with it, I'm just saying it's an interesting way of thinking about it. I, I think that there is,

Gene 1:17:42

to stir up trouble? Are you trying to stir up drama between the people that are friends?

Ben 1:17:46

who would I be trying to start? What.

Gene 1:17:49

Me and Adam?

Ben 1:17:50

No. Why would that be?

Gene 1:17:52

I don't know. You seem to be all like, oh, you ought to listen to it. You might disagree with some stuff on there.

Ben 1:17:57

Well, I think you will, but I mean, if you're not good enough friends to disagree, then I don't think you're very good friends. So, no, I'm

Gene 1:18:06

Well, I mean, can disagree, but you don't have to be all mysterious. So you could just, like most stories, you could just talk about what you heard

Ben 1:18:14

Okay, so what where I, where, where I would go with it and say I was interested in is I did not realize the people who were behind the Daily Wire from a money standpoint. I had never done that level of analysis. I actually really, quite frankly, assumed that it was more or less a grassroots movement behind Ben Shapiro and then Jeremy Boing taking it and commercializing it, and then more or less bootstrapping it that turns out to very much not be true. Which the only real thing I listened on to on the Daily Wire is Peterson. And Peterson has never purported to be a conservative of any kind, and, you know, is, is himself and I have some faith in that. But as far as Shapiro and the rest of the team, They're somewhat suspect to me based off of who founded them

Gene 1:19:10

Why are they suspect?

Ben 1:19:11

be well so I was listening to a I'm sorry, I bumped the mic. I was listening to a podcast. Let me look at who it was. It was one of their podcasts on there. But you know, Shapiro was basically talking pretty down to how, how do I put this? Christians for one, and then libertarians for two. You know, he was very much, oh, yes. Well, we've all gone through our libertarian phase, and who wouldn't be embarrassed about that? It's like, hmm, well, I'm, you know, Equally as mature as you are, have there been? And I'm pretty much libertarian still. I I really think the leave me the hell alone methodology is the right one. Not I'm gonna selectively poke into your methodology and you don't have a right to poke into mine. Because whether you're liberal or traditional conservative, that's two sides of the same coin. One side wants to poke in some areas and one side wants to poke in the others. No, no poking, leave me alone. That's my methodology. I don't think that libertarianism is a fad. I don't think it's something that is a what was said a shallow man's ideology. I, I think that's coming from a moral virtue signaling just self-aggrandizing nature, right? So,

Gene 1:20:32

Of course you would think that as libertarian.

Ben 1:20:35

Yes. And you also as a libertarian, I

Gene 1:20:38

Yes.

Ben 1:20:38

as well.

Gene 1:20:40

I know. I'm just pointing out the elephants in the room. Well, yeah, of course. But I also recognize that the libertarianism in my lifetime has managed to achieve only a single thing, and that is get enough people to vote for it to get on the ballot,

Ben 1:20:57

Which

Gene 1:20:58

has never really,

Ben 1:20:59

third party has done.

Gene 1:21:01

yes, it's more than any other third party, but it's a very sad statement in the grand scheme of.

Ben 1:21:05

Well, I, oh, and I a hundred percent agree. And look, I, I, I'm, I don't think either of us are the but hurt libertarian types. I think we both know

Gene 1:21:17

Well, and the libertarian party today is not the libertarian party that I was associated with when I ran as a libertarian for state office.

Ben 1:21:25

Oh, I never ran First State office, but I definitely have been associated with and lobbied for. But

Gene 1:21:31

yeah. Like people that I knew were, you know, personal acquaintances of Anne Rand.

Ben 1:21:36

yeah. So had McAfee won in 2016, I would've been a happy person for, to vote for the Libertarian candidate?

Gene 1:21:43

Totally. I agree.

Ben 1:21:45

Yeah.

Gene 1:21:47

And I've voted for libertarians when there hasn't been a good choice, which is most of the time,

Ben 1:21:51

Oh, absolutely. So Romney Romney Obama, McCain, Obama, literally the first Republican I ever voted for was Donald Trump.

Gene 1:22:03

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:22:03

than that, it's been libertarian,

Gene 1:22:05

A questionable Republican at that, so yeah,

Ben 1:22:08

Populist Republican, not a real Republican, hence why I voted.

Gene 1:22:13

Guy who voted Democrat most of his life.

Ben 1:22:16

Okay, but was still liberty minded and, you know, quite frankly with this trip to East Palestine, as

Gene 1:22:24

But I, I don't think you, like, you didn't have an opportunity to vote for any actual Republicans for your entire life.

Ben 1:22:30

such as who,

Gene 1:22:31

Like it wouldn't have been Bush

Ben 1:22:33

No, I would not have voted for Baby

Gene 1:22:35

No. No. Or, or Papa Bush.

Ben 1:22:38

I would not have voted for

Gene 1:22:39

You weren't, you're not old enough. But you still wouldn't know if you

Ben 1:22:42

Nope. I wouldn't have voted for, you know, I mean, who, who, who in my lifetime would you say was a good

Gene 1:22:49

Well, that's my point, is there hasn't been

Ben 1:22:51

Here's the problem. There hasn't been a good president in my life other than Trump. Quite frankly. He was the best since, I don't know Eisenhower. Like, seriously, I would have to go back to Eisenhower to say, here is a pretty decent president who actually got some stuff done, who advanced the nation, fought for the nation, did things for the nation, and was of good moral character. And oh, by the way, and his exit speech warned us exactly what we're dealing with. So,

Gene 1:23:23

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:23:24

Yeah, I, I think Trump is at the very least, the best president since Eisenhower. Better than Reagan. Reagan gave us no fault divorce. Reagan screwed up a lot of things. Reagan ran the deficit all the way up. Let's see, going from Eisenhower, Kennedy Kennedy is often lionized and canonized and thought very highly of, but I don't think he actually did much. I think he talked

Gene 1:23:51

Yeah,

Ben 1:23:51

too much and got killed. Huh?

Gene 1:23:54

back in my lifetime. I liked him.

Ben 1:23:56

Well, Taft is, before you know Eisenhower,

Gene 1:23:59

Yeah.

Ben 1:23:59

yeah, I'm going from the 1950s, not the 1850s

Gene 1:24:03

I don't see why

Ben 1:24:04

Anyway, I'm just saying you know, and fucking Ford, why did we name an aircraft carrier after Ford? You know, that's gotta be the sad satisfac aircraft carrier ever. If it's got Gerald Aard Ford's name on it.

Gene 1:24:17

yeah, yeah. Well we've got the bush as well.

Ben 1:24:21

Yeah. But you've got a class of aircraft carrier there. The Gerald R. Ford, AARD Ford, the AR

Gene 1:24:27

There's just not been good candidates on the Republican side and, and unfortunately no other third parties have been around since the 18 hundreds.

Ben 1:24:39

Who are the Democrats put forward in

Gene 1:24:41

I mean, Kennedy, I thought was a better candidate from Democrats than any of the

Ben 1:24:46

Sure. Kennedy,

Gene 1:24:47

even though his family is totally crooked. Yeah, of course.

Ben 1:24:51

After Kennedy, then who?

Gene 1:24:53

Well, I mean, compared to Jimmy Carter, Reagan was good compared to previous Republicans. Reagan was not so good,

Ben 1:25:01

Okay. And compared

Gene 1:25:03

really like Reagan, but really if you look at what he was able to,

Ben 1:25:08

setup from the hellhole. That was Jimmy Carter.

Gene 1:25:12

yeah, yeah. It was like anybody but Carter

Ben 1:25:15

Yes.

Gene 1:25:16

and

Ben 1:25:16

And anybody, but Carter would've had a lot of the economic boom that Reagan had.

Gene 1:25:23

Yeah. Well, I, I do think he probably had some, he bet, better advisors than some of the more recent Republicans.

Ben 1:25:30

Yep.

Gene 1:25:30

But, but still, it was like the deep state was already deeply in when Reagan was in with the you know, the guys that came in basically with Nixon,

Ben 1:25:42

Yeah.

Gene 1:25:44

that was our, like Reagan didn't really bring his own people there and not much has changed.

Ben 1:25:49

I mean, Reagan was forced to take Papa Bush as his vice president, who was former head of the CIA at the time to really solidify the Republican nomination. And I, I would challenge anyone to go and read Bush Family of Secrets. Yeah.

Gene 1:26:06

you should also just tell people to do

Ben 1:26:08

Also the Bush crime family.

Gene 1:26:10

very good book. Yeah.

Ben 1:26:12

Literally Prescott, Bush Daddy, Bush's daddy

Gene 1:26:16

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:26:17

and should have been convicted of treason against this country.

Gene 1:26:22

Mm-hmm.

Ben 1:26:23

Huh?

Gene 1:26:24

But I think that was more common back in the day,

Ben 1:26:27

Yeah. Well,

Gene 1:26:29

like the line between criminal and politician was drawn thinner.

Ben 1:26:33

I don't know. He drew that line pretty damn thin as far as I'm concerned, man. I mean, you know,

Gene 1:26:39

and the Clinton certainly did

Ben 1:26:40

Clinton's crossed it there, there's no doubt that the Clintons crossed it.

Gene 1:26:46

Yeah. It's still amazing how Clinton associates are stilling themselves after all these.

Ben 1:26:52

dude, he shot himself twice in the head with his left hand.

Gene 1:26:57

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Exactly. Well, it, it just, it seems like the natural thing to do when you're right-handed

Ben 1:27:06

It was a Christmas miracle. Oh.

Gene 1:27:10

Pretty pretty bad,

Ben 1:27:12

Well, you know, and then there's the guy who tied himself to a tree, shot himself, and the gun wasn't found. But, you know, hey, it was a suicide

Gene 1:27:20

That's a suicide. That's clearly a suicide because

Ben 1:27:23

clearly,

Gene 1:27:24

else would you commit suicide other than to tie yourself to a tree and then shoot yourself with a gun that isn't at the scene of the crime?

Ben 1:27:30

you know, people are gonna listen to this and go, the fuck are they making up? No, no, no, no. This, this was actually a sheriff's report and a thing. Yeah.

Gene 1:27:39

Yeah. I don't remember the guy's name, but it's a real. And associated the, just look up and associated the Clintons and the word dead. And you will get a hell of a list of Google results from that.

Ben 1:27:50

Yeah. The Clinton, the Clinton death toll is well, what's surprising to me is that it's still growing.

Gene 1:27:59

Right? Exactly.

Ben 1:28:01

you know, you, you kill off enough people, you think you'd be done. But I guess Bill took one too many trips.

Gene 1:28:09

yeah, the Clinton body count is let's see what it

Ben 1:28:12

Well, it's been a phrase since the fucking nineties, dude.

Gene 1:28:16

Yeah. And I, it's over 70 people.

Ben 1:28:19

Iran Contra and then, you know, what was going through Mina, Arkansas? I, they've got ties. They're not innocent in that.

Gene 1:28:31

Nope.

Ben 1:28:32

Anyway.

Gene 1:28:33

Yeah. And all the connections to other people that have suicidal themselves, like Seth Rich and Epstein and all these folks. There's a lot of body cams out there, that's for sure.

Ben 1:28:47

Indeed.

Gene 1:28:47

So are you suicidal? Just checking.

Ben 1:28:50

I'm not, and I'm not, and, and I'm not flying in small aviation anytime soon.

Gene 1:28:55

Yeah. And don't sit on the hot tub for too long,

Ben 1:28:57

Mm. I don't think Germany knows what a hot tub is, so.

Gene 1:29:02

especially. No, they do. Up in the Alps,

Ben 1:29:06

Yeah. Well, I'm in

Gene 1:29:07

they totally have hot tubs. Yeah. Very cool. All right, dude, you're definitely fading here. I can tell.

Ben 1:29:13

All right. Well I will talk to you later, Jean. We'll see what we can do this next week.

Gene 1:29:20

we'll, we'll get your next report a week from now, more or less when you're in a much warmer destination.

Ben 1:29:26

Yeah. Actually I, I definitely think we should try and hit our normal weekend talk while I'm in Athens and don't have a whole lot to talk about, and then we can get a post-trip in after I get home.

Gene 1:29:40

Yeah,

Ben 1:29:41

So,

Gene 1:29:41

I'm up for that. Let me do a couple of'em.

Ben 1:29:44

Cool, man. We'll talk to you then.

Gene 1:29:46

Sounds good.