030 Just Two Good Old Boys

Transcript

Gene: 0:22

Hey, man, how are you today?

Ben: 0:24

I'm all right, Jean. Sound

Gene: 0:26

a little tired. Are you tired?

Ben: 0:29

I am a little tired. We had some thunderstorms roll through around midnight last night and one, and kept me up a bit.

Gene: 0:37

I think they came here

Ben: 0:38

about two. Yeah, it was, it was pretty intense. We had some areas in, in Bras Valley had up to 80 mile an hour gusts. It was a, it

Gene: 0:47

was a heavy storm. Yeah. Yeah, I heard it. There's a little bit of light lightning, it felt like I didn't get out of bed or anything, but I, I definitely woke up. It felt like it was north of

Ben: 0:56

here. Hmm. Yeah, it the line that came through, I mean, it was blowing stuff around the yard, uh mm-hmm. You know, the dog was freaking out, all that sort of stuff, and he, he's not like a super sensitive dog or something that freaks out at thunderstorms.

Gene: 1:12

What kind of dog do you have? I don't remember. I

Ben: 1:14

have a mutt. Oh yeah. How big is he? 80 pounds. That's a good size. Yeah. So it, it is funny story. I took off for my birthday a few years back and was just sitting around the house, you know, just took a day off for my birthday and this is when I was living a little more rurally than I am right now. Mm-hmm. And we had chickens and the chicken started squawking and everything and I'm like, huh, what's this? So go grab my 22 and go look out. And there's this puppy around the chicken coop. I'm like, okay. Sat down the 22, go look at him. And he's got a cut on his head and on his butt and, you know, he's hurt. And anyway, took him in. And my wife at the time was like, no, we're about to move. We can't do a dog. All this. I'm like, okay, whatever. You know, well, I'm just gonna take care of the damn this hurt, lost puppy for a second here. So I got him some water and some food and stuff and had him on the back deck. As soon as she got home, she ended up taking him in, bathing him. And I'm like, I was keeping the dog outside, you know, it was just instant. So that's how we got Max. And he, he's one of the best dogs I've ever had.

Gene: 2:28

What's what's he look like?

Ben: 2:30

So he, we actually had him you know, his DNA tested because forever. Mm-hmm. The joke was, what are you, max? But he's, he's he's colored black and tan. Mm. Like the beer, like a coonhound. Mm-hmm. And he's got coonhound in him. Hmm. But his head's more like a boxer cuz he is got boxer in him. Mm-hmm. But he's really tall because he is got coly in him. Mm. And and there's just a lot of this weird mix of of everything in there apparently. Yeah.

Gene: 3:01

Yeah. I like coon hounds. I don't like the slobber.

Ben: 3:05

Yeah. The, the, the two worst things about Max is his tail is like a whip. Mm-hmm. And he, he's, he's got the jowls and slobber some. Yeah. You know, he is got the ears and all that too. Mm-hmm. So, yeah.

Gene: 3:17

I don't mind the ears. It's a s slobber. It's the one thing that the dru Yeah. I just, the thing with dogs with jowls. Yep. It all drips down and

Ben: 3:30

thing with anybody with gels.

Gene: 3:33

Yeah. I, I guess, I don't know what other animals have gels like humans. Humans don't. Slobber, dude, what the fuck are you talking about? Oh. There's a really cool lizard with jowls that I think also SLS a little bit. It's tanu. Have you ever seen them? No, I have not. Hmm. They, they look very happy cuz they got big jowls. Hmm. They're about yeah, I guess about four, four and a half, five feet. Hmm. It's a good size. It's a, it's like a small dog size lizard or maybe a medium dog size lizard, but apparently they have. Yeah. I've, I've never had one, but if I got one, I'd probably get one of those. They they tend to have very dog-like personalities. They like to just find a place to sleep and curl up and sleep there. And they're a lot of lizards, a lot of reptiles are not particularly they, they don't particularly like being handled. They don't like people touching'em long time. And I, I think it's true of a lot of cold blooded animals because we're hot.

Ben: 4:36

I like it. Yeah. I, I think I think you identify with them a little too much there with reptiles.

Gene: 4:42

Yeah. Oh, not at all. I just you know, I, I like, I like all kinds of animals. I told you this before. My, my main sort of criteria for generally if I would like an animal or not is, is it a predator or not? Okay. I, I really like predators a lot. Okay. So my, my, you know, like the Disney sort of, I don't know what movie it was from, but you got the, the princess character, the little birds landing on her and the rabbits jumping in front of her. Mm-hmm. That's all prey. In my version of that, it'd be lines and tigers and bears and wolves and things that are all just gathered up around me and she'd get eaten. Well, no, no, no. I would be the princess in that scenario.

Ben: 5:30

I'm sorry, I'm just picturing Jean in a dress. Is that a cold

Gene: 5:33

start

Ben: 5:33

opener? It's very much so. Csb, we need a cartoon.

Gene: 5:40

Well, the scary thing is he'll, he'll listen to this episode. Oh yeah.

Ben: 5:43

And he'll probably do the cartoon. Mm-hmm. Oh, man. So, did you hear about your buddy in Ukraine? Which buddy? Mr. Lira? No, he has been arrested. Oh. Well,

Gene: 5:59

he gets arrested

Ben: 6:00

pretty regularly. Right. But this was actually brought up to the White House that a US citizen was had been arrested and was facing like 18 years imprisonment. Mm-hmm. For, you know, not not toting the party line, the Ukrainian line. Mm-hmm. And they, the, the State Department was asked were they going to do anything about it? And so on and mm-hmm. They pretty much, you know, were like, eh, no. So it's really pretty unprecedented.

Gene: 6:27

They can't tell Ukraine what to do. It's not like Ukraine's not an independent sovereign nation that does whatever it wants.

Ben: 6:34

Uhhuh. Well, except our state department has historically really protected US citizens abroad pretty well. Yeah. You know, historically we've basically said to any countries, you're not gonna touch us citizens. And if you do, there will be repercussions. Yeah. And, you know, this is a pretty, pretty shitty,

Gene: 6:52

well, I think Lira was always destined to become a martyr anyway, so.

Ben: 6:57

Well, I mean, he, you know, he, after he had been grabbed once, it was, uh mm-hmm. Pretty surprising for him to continue doing what he was doing.

Gene: 7:05

Yeah. It took a while. Cuz when he first came back, he was trying to, he was pretty shaky straight away from stuff. He was very shaky. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And then he started right back on in account

Ben: 7:14

and here he is arrested again. But this is actually I think the

Gene: 7:17

third time.

Ben: 7:18

And what I would say is this is, this is indicative of why. The First Amendment matters. And you know, one of the things I was thinking about, you

Gene: 7:29

probably arrested for speech in the US all

Ben: 7:31

the time. I know, but here I'm going somewhere. Okay. So one of the things I was thinking about that I, you know, remember as a kid hearing a lot, and I don't hear it today, and I think we need to make sure that we're hearing it more, is I will, I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death, your right to say it.

Gene: 7:52

Yeah, I said that when I was in college. I don't say it anymore.

Ben: 7:55

Yeah. Well, I think we need to get back

Gene: 7:57

to that. I, there's plenty of people that I'm not gonna defend. Well, okay. Yeah. I've become more of a pragmatist and less of a idealist I think over time.

Ben: 8:08

Yeah. Well, I'm still in the idealist.

Gene: 8:11

I I, I conceded the fact that there's a benefit to religion. Never would've said that in my youth. What's the benefit? There, there's a certain group of people of size, of fairly sizable size that exists in the world for which religion supplements logical basis for morality. Well, there is no

Ben: 8:34

logical basis for

Gene: 8:34

morality. There is absolutely. Those of us that don't practice religion have that.

Ben: 8:40

No, you have, you have morality that exists because of, not at all religious substrates. No, not at all. Mm-hmm.

Gene: 8:48

No, not the case. Not the case. And

Ben: 8:52

I'm unlike, let's set up a debate between you and Peterson on that

Gene: 8:55

one. Now let's set up a debate between you and me than that, cuz that'll be a lot cheaper. Cuz Peterson I think, charges about 4 million these days. Uhhuh

Ben: 9:02

Uhhuh. Speaking of did you see what as a woman? No. So I, I had seen parts of it and it was, yeah, I've seen

Gene: 9:13

clips and I feel, and maybe I'm wrong, you tell me, but I feel like having watched maybe 20 minutes of clips over the last six months mm-hmm. I don't know that I need to see the movie.

Ben: 9:23

It's worth watching in its totality. It really is. I have, I I I'm still watching.

Gene: 9:30

I'm sorry, I'm still watching house. I have another eight years of house to watch.

Ben: 9:35

You. You can watch other things,

Gene: 9:37

gene. No, no, no. I'm a serial viewer. I don't cheat on my programs.

Ben: 9:42

All right. Right. Anyway tell us

Gene: 9:44

about the, what's a woman.

Ben: 9:47

Yeah. So I, you know, it, it, it was worth watching. I'm glad I watched it. I would recommend to anyone to go watch it, especially on Twitter right now. Mm-hmm. Because they've done this relaunch, which had a hiccup. I don't know if you heard whether it was originally banned, and then it got to the point,

Gene: 10:04

you don't have to fire somebody and get up band.

Ben: 10:07

Well, and then he Elon posted it. Mm-hmm. And as a result, the, at least the posts combined have like almost 200 million views. Mm-hmm. So I'm not suggesting to 200 million people watch what is a woman. Yeah. But I guarantee you 20 million probably did. Mm-hmm. It's huge.

Gene: 10:32

Yeah. Between that and Elon spending an hour with the Babylon B guys mm-hmm. He is becoming like enemy number one for the Democrats.

Ben: 10:42

Yeah. And, you know, everyone, everyone pointed the fingers at this and said, oh, see, Twitter's going right back to its old ways. But mm-hmm. I think Elon redeemed himself by posting the link directly to, he's going right

Gene: 10:55

back to its old ways. I think if Elon doesn't pay attention to Twitter for just one week, there's a huge reversion that happens in Twitter automatically. I think the mentality is very

Ben: 11:05

much still there. Oh yeah. And there's work to do. You've gotta change the culture. That doesn't happen overnight. But if he keeps firing people and stuff like this happens, the culture will change. Yeah.

Gene: 11:18

Yeah. Yep. Got.

Ben: 11:20

So what do you think he was doing over in China?

Gene: 11:23

I think he was ensuring that the best revenue source for Tesla continues. They make more money by selling cars in China than they do in the us. Hmm. Why do you think that is? Because there's a lot more Chinese people. Not for long. Not for long. Yes. You keep saying that. Good. Good luck.

Ben: 11:44

Look at their demographics. Yeah. Chinese

Gene: 11:46

lifespan still be learning Chinese. No. Oh yeah.

Ben: 11:52

You know, the you know there's, what was the song in the eighties? Which one? Silent Running.

Gene: 11:58

Oh, I thought you meant like I speak Japanese. No,

Ben: 12:02

no. Well, that was the other thing. Everybody in the eighties thought the Japanese were gonna take us over and then Yeah.

Gene: 12:07

Damn. Straight

Ben: 12:09

demographics matter. So other than anything else you wanna talk about on Elon Twitter or try not? Nope.

Gene: 12:16

Nope. I, I, I'll tell you, I've actually had a very light week in terms of politics. I didn't pay attention to most things. Mm. I had some client work to do. I needed to finish up. I did two large documents to deliverables and then I played video games for a couple of days. So that's my week.

Ben: 12:36

So you didn't pay attention to the whole debacle that is the debt ceiling agreement? No, did not. Okay. So I will state a couple of things. My initial reaction, which I'll be honest, I have not read this bill because Jesus, it's a big one. I have not read it in its entirety. I have gone through a few things. I have looked at several people's commentary and take on it. I've listened to what McCarthy has had to say about it. So my opinion is formed not just by people who are against the bill, but obviously the people for the bill. Mm-hmm. I think it's very telling that more Democrats in both the House and the Senate voted for the bill than Republicans did. You would expect that Well, I, I would not given. Well, yeah. You know, Republicans are in control of the house and got to frame what this was going to look like, and I think McCarthy did a very poor job on that. He's, you know, he's touting a 1% cut across the board mm-hmm. And freezing spending and things like that. But there's a lot of crap in there too. Like the college tuition, debt repayment stuff made it in, they're, they're just, yeah. And the cap spending

Gene: 14:01

and the cuts do not apply military. They actually cast free tuition.

Ben: 14:05

No, it's the reimbursement Yeah. Program that Biden had tried to start.

Gene: 14:10

I can't believe they put that in there. That's so bullshit.

Ben: 14:13

Yeah. So here's the thing. The Republicans basically chickened out on the debt ceiling Yeah. And gave the Democrats a lot of what they wanted. Mm. Now, the 20 Freedom Caucus members in the house stood strong against this. But what I want them to do is, since they have the power to bring a no confidence vote against McCarthy by one member doing it, they sh mm-hmm. Not only should they do it, they should do it every fucking day until he's gone. Yeah. Over and over and over again. We're not gonna do anything else other than this until

Gene: 14:48

he's, I don't understand why they're acting like such pussies.

Ben: 14:53

I don't know, man. It's it, it, it's, I was very hopeful. I was hopeful that McCarthy was going to. Pull something out and be okay. But, you know,

Gene: 15:07

there's no downside to them just not extending the dead ceiling.

Ben: 15:12

Well, I mean, it depends. They, they would say, oh, well, you know, full faith and credit, we'd, we'd too bad. We'd default.

Gene: 15:19

It's not their fault.

Ben: 15:21

Well, not only should we default, but we should, you know, like Trump was suggesting, renegotiate the debt.

Gene: 15:27

Yeah. Well, and there's a video that I posted last night. I don't know if you saw on No. Jin Social. Depends on what time you

Ben: 15:35

posted it. I don't know.

Gene: 15:36

Midnight? Probably not. Probably not. I'll send it to you. It's really good. It is a oh, actually, I, I posted it to our little group in Sigma. Mm-hmm. And your buddy watched it. Whose name is escaping me. Who? Who's Josh? Josh, yeah. Yeah. Josh. Who is he still doing his podcast? We should promo his podcast if he's still doing it. But Josh his comment was the last thing I would've expected outta that video. Video talks about essentially how the US got its place in the world as the leader of the world. And the factors that went into it. Effectively, it's the American empire that has existed from. World War II until about three years ago. Mm-hmm. And the guy, I, he's, I think he's a college professor, but he, he goes through, lays it out really cleanly. It's not the most I, I'd say in-depth explanation cuz it's only about a 20 minute clip. But it is extremely well laid out. Like it, it'd be easy for anybody of any intellect to digest. Okay. And and, and Josh quibbled with the fact that he mentioned that the United States was not attacked during, or that there was no fighting on US territory during World War ii? Yeah, well, I mean,

Ben: 17:00

there was the

Gene: 17:00

Alucian Islands, which is what he pointed out. Okay. But it's like, no one gives a shit, dude. That's technically the, the Alaska sale was never ratified, so you can't really

Ben: 17:11

take call Alaska. Alaska was about this morning. Okay. Yeah, that was from the Alaska sale. They're, they're two, well, as far as I'm concerned, the Louisiana purchase was unconstitutional, so there you go. I think it

Gene: 17:22

was, I would agree with that. Yeah, absolutely. Anyway that aside, it's a, it's a good clip. Watch it if you haven't had a chance. And in that clip he he goes through and talks about the, the fall, the, the rise in fall of empires. And what the British did specifically and what the Americans are doing and, and that it took the British a couple of wars in about 50 years to realize that their empire was in decline. But once they realized that, they started making, you know, the best of that situation effectively, and creating great friends among their previous empire holdings. Mm-hmm. And at the United States is in real danger of doing the absent, of pissing off their empires?

Ben: 18:18

Well, I, I, I don't think we care. So, first of all, I would argue that mm-hmm. The US has never been an empire. We, we

Gene: 18:28

more military bases around the world than any country in the history of mankind. Okay.

Ben: 18:35

Don't collect taxes from anyone. We spend money on everyone. Well, so there are, we're not getting the benefit from

Gene: 18:44

it. We're getting a lot of benefit from how the empire Absolutely.

Ben: 18:47

A actually no, we've subor our benefit. Yeah. No, we haven't, we have not done what previous empires have done. United

Gene: 18:58

United States up until this year has had the benefit of all oil sold out of Saudi Arabia being done in US dollars. That is a tremendous benefit to the United States. You

Ben: 19:13

can say, well, tremendous benefit. Don't Saudi Arabia, because No. Not really. Protected bigger benefits shipping allow them to export it.

Gene: 19:21

Uhhuh

Ben: 19:22

the no, seriously, Saudi Arabia wouldn't be able to export the oil that they do without US intervention.

Gene: 19:29

Yes. But there, you can't argue that there's no benefit to the United States. The United States may be doing things tit for tat, but the United States is getting tremendous benefits or had been

Ben: 19:39

We have, from being the reserve

Gene: 19:40

currency. Absolutely. From being the reserve currency, from having the largest military base in the middle of Saudi Arabia in sovereign territory. The, it's the base that's been the main operations staging ground for all US wars conducted in the Middle East. And it hasn't been in Israel, which is what, where you would think the United States would have its largest space. It was in Saudi Arabia.

Ben: 20:03

Mm-hmm. Well, and quite frankly, the amount of oil that's being sold, not in US dollars at this point is de minimus. Are you gonna eat

Gene: 20:13

those words, my friend?

Ben: 20:16

I said right now. Yeah. Yeah. That it might change, but I don't think, I don't think Saudi Arabia is dumb enough to go selling in Juan.

Gene: 20:26

They are selling in Juan.

Ben: 20:27

That's exactly what they're doing now. No, they're selling very little in Juan. And I mean, it, it's less than less than 5% of the overall oil deal with China that's being sold in one. Yeah. And it's basically taking a risk to curry some favor with the Chinese government because the US is pulling out. Mm-hmm. Yep. I, I, I think what you're going to see, especially with some of the changes in Latin America I think you're getting to see a return, a very strong return to the Monroe Doctrine and only the Monroe doctrine. Yeah. I think that's dead.

Gene: 21:03

No saying anymore with all the, with all the invasions the United States has achieved in different places around the world the doctrine holds no water. I think it's, unless us wants, wants to go nuke, it holds no water because that's what it's gonna be at this point. Why? Why? Because it's there, there, there is no like if you're getting beat up constantly and somebody tells you, you know, you shouldn't you shouldn't provoke those people. What's the difference? You're getting beat up anyway. You might as well at least fight back.

Ben: 21:40

Right. But if we pull out and say, okay, you know what, we don't give a shit about what's going on around the rest of the world. Mm-hmm. We only care about North and South America and you know, we'll still have some trade with Japan or whatever and, but you know, China, Russia, Europe. Mm-hmm. Y'all are on your own. The French can now lead the European Union because they're the only ones that are gonna be able to, it's gonna be fun to watch the frogs and see what they do. French can't lead anything. Economically, they will be the leaders of the European Union in the

Gene: 22:11

next years. I know, but politically, the French have never been unified except for Napoleon. So there's, I mean, that's, that's happens. Disaster waiting to happen.

Ben: 22:21

I think it's gonna be interesting. So, oh, I agree with that. It will be interesting. Anyway, I'm saying, I think if we collapse back down to just focusing on North and South America Yeah. With some of the changes in South American, ch lithium mining, things like that. Mm-hmm. We can insource a lot of manufacturing we have. Mm-hmm. The ability, we have the materials, we have everything. Yeah. We, we can feed ourselves and the rest of this continent. And you know, Asia can't say that, so, Saudi Arabia can't say that. So it, it'll be very interesting to see what happens to those countries. Well, I

Gene: 22:57

don't know. What do you mean by they can't say that? I mean, they just have as many neighbor countries as we do.

Ben: 23:04

N no. All of the Middle East is totally unsustainable without globalism. Yeah. That's

Gene: 23:12

not true.

Ben: 23:13

Sure. It is Dubai. 99% of the water supply is through desalination. Mm-hmm. That's very, it's a good

Gene: 23:21

thing that they have the oil to run the generators, isn't it?

Ben: 23:26

Okay. But they can't grow food.

Gene: 23:30

No, they, no, but they have a neighbor who, they're not pissing off just to the north that has the largest farm fields in the world. Who Russia.

Ben: 23:42

And how is the trade between Russia and Saudi Arabia going to work? Russia is also an oil producing country through Turkey, which is Russia also an oil producing country. Yes. And isn't going to really care about Saudi Arabia or UAE or guitars Oil.

Gene: 23:59

Oh, see, OPEC would say something different about that. Why? Because according to your theory, OPEC shouldn't exist. See, oil producing countries do care about each other because they have a very strong common goal.

Ben: 24:13

But they're not, not selling to each other. So what does Russia take in trade from name the Middle Eastern country here for food to support the population?

Gene: 24:26

Well, it's not gonna be a one-to-one trade, but neither is it gonna be with countries in Latin America. What, what are we going to trade for? Our food with Latin America?

Ben: 24:41

Depends on the country, but resources, material and so on. Mm-hmm. Because Latin America can't feed itself, but the United

Gene: 24:48

States is the second or third oil biggest oil producer. We used to be number one. Yeah. We get back to that. Why don't we need their oil? We

Ben: 24:55

don't need their oil, but we don't maybe need, you know, like lithium for one. Yeah. There's, there's a ton of different resources that can be pulled from South America, not to mention the labor pool of manufacturing workers that could be done there. Mm-hmm. So I think between, between Canada and the United States and Latin America, we have enough to produce and maintain our current level of living fairly easily.

Gene: 25:27

There's, I'd say you don't even need to go to South America for that. I think we've got, in North America, we, we've, we've got damn near everything. There's just a few. Few raw materials that were missing in North America, but not much.

Ben: 25:40

Yeah. And the I agree. And Lithium being one of'em, and that would be found, the second largest deposit would be in South America, so. Yeah. Yeah.

Gene: 25:50

But no, I, Afghanistan has a huge lithium feel, if I remember right.

Ben: 25:53

And so does Iran. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But the largest deposits are in Australia, and I forget the South American country, Chile, I think, I think you're

Gene: 26:02

right. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah. I, I think the lines are obviously going to be redrawn. I, where I would disagree with your statement about the man Monroe Doct doctrine is that I think the relationships between multiple countries in South America have been getting better with bricks. Not worse.

Ben: 26:29

Yeah. But again, how are they gonna trade when the US is no longer

Gene: 26:33

protected? When the United States becomes a pirate nation, then we can have that conversation. I just don't see the,

Ben: 26:40

I don't think it'll be the United States

Gene: 26:41

that becomes the Pirate nation, because that's what you're alleging. Because no, if the United States starts sinking oil barges and food barges, there's no other way to describe it than I don't think it'll be the United States. Well, who do you think he's gonna do it? What, what entity out there has the resources to go sink these massive tinkerers.

Ben: 27:03

Oh, the tankers move. You and I could go sink a tanker.

Gene: 27:08

Okay. We could, but I'm saying what, who has the resource? Look, there's more than just sinking a tanker. You there, there has to be the infrastructure to be able to do that. And then you also have to wonder, well, why are you bothering sinking it? Unless it's for a political gain. Yeah. Every nation, and if you're gonna try and steal a tanker from somebody, we have satellites out there. All this shit's watched. We know what's happening. Damn near real time. Yeah. And who's gonna reprise? Well, reprise to who? I mean, that's what I'm saying. Who's gonna be doing this?

Ben: 27:39

Okay. So right now, the way they're shipping oil from Russia to China mm-hmm. If Portugal wanted to send a Coast Guard cutter and take a tanker, they could. It's sitting off the coast of

Gene: 27:53

Portugal right now. Sure. If Portugal wants to become a pirate, they could, but they're not going

Ben: 27:59

to. And, and what do you think the consequences would be? War. Okay. Russia's gonna declare war on a NATO nation. Yeah. Suicide? No,

Gene: 28:10

not at all. NATO's done. Okay. Yep. Here, here's the thing. You say suicide that it's too late. Like the US has already gotten Russia to the point where suicide is irrelevant. It doesn't matter. It's, it's, it's a game of chicken where one country has taken the wheel off the truck. So it's gonna happen unless the west decides to flinch. Okay. There, there is no like, well, let's put some more pressure on him anymore. It's beyond that. And that's another thing this guy mentions, which I think is quite correct is that the, the United States has caused a massive unification within the Russian population that frankly didn't exist. There was a lot less confidence in Putin pre-war. Now this happens with all Wars, and it's happened for US presidents as well. Mm-hmm. I mean, just look at Bush where the popularity rises and people become more patriotic, not less. Mm-hmm. Well, it's happened in Russia as well.

Ben: 29:17

Right. But you know, there's a pretty big difference between the Americans capability of projecting power and the Russians. Well, there is, I mean, the only, the only, the only way Russia wins a World War if it comes down to that, is well,

Gene: 29:33

nobody wins a World War that the next world war. I mean, it's like whoever said the saying that's attributed to Einstein. I don't think he's the one who actually said it, but that,

Ben: 29:43

no, not what weapons World War II will be fought with. Exactly. The World War IV will be fought with stones and arrows. Mm-hmm. Yep. Or something like that. Yeah, yeah.

Gene: 29:54

Something like that. So there is no victor, but, but the point is, you, you can't be effectively increasing the pressure in a war with a country and then expect them to not retaliate back to the fullest of their capabilities. It, it's like, I'm trying to think of a good analogy for it, but it's just not gonna war. Plus the US has lost every war it's ever been in since World War ii.

Ben: 30:25

We haven't been in a war since

Gene: 30:27

World War II US has lost every military action's ever been in since World War ii. Well, that's not a true statement. That, okay. Which ones have they won?

Ben: 30:36

They're plenty of battles and

Gene: 30:39

operations. Plenty of battles been successful, but no actual, there's, there's no victory. I don't know.

Ben: 30:44

South Korea's still free.

Gene: 30:46

South Korea. Yeah. So that was a negotiated ceasefire.

Ben: 30:52

Yeah. The, yeah. You know, he wanted to use nukes, what can I say? We didn't let him.

Gene: 30:57

Mm-hmm. So, yeah. I mean that's, you could make that argument, but the US effectively,

Ben: 31:04

I think Vietnam, although it, the pullout and everything that we did there, first of all, we shouldn't have been there. Yep. Shouldn't have been there,

Gene: 31:11

shouldn't been in Korea, shouldn't have been in Afghanistan, shouldn't have been in the Iraq, shouldn't have been in every place in KaVo. Shouldn't have been in the un frankly. Shouldn't have been in, Hey, let's

Ben: 31:21

leave the un. You know, I am all for that. Uhhuh

Gene: 31:26

shouldn't have been most of these places. It, it's, and it doesn't

Ben: 31:32

look again, I think we need to go back to the Monroe Doc, Monroe Doctrine. I think we were better off. So

Gene: 31:37

I think the Monroe Doctrine, and maybe I'm wrong on this, I have not done a deep dive on it. I just remember back from many years ago reading. Mm-hmm. But I believe the Monroe document's main purpose was to prevent the colonization of north and South America after the the American Revolution by any major colonial powers. Yeah, that's it. It was not to prevent trade.

Ben: 32:10

I'm not suggesting that we prevent trade. In fact, I think we can trade, if you know, the limited goods that will be traded across the I Sure. I

Gene: 32:19

think that there's a fear of colonization because every scrap of land has a fla planted on it these days. Yeah. Yeah.

Ben: 32:26

Let me explain what I mean by a return to Monroe. Yeah, yeah. Isolation from Europe and not being involved in European wars. Mm-hmm. Isolation from, you know, China, Taiwan conflicts, those sorts of things. With very few exceptions, I think Japan will be a very strong ally. Mm-hmm. I think that you know, I, what I'm suggesting is basically America take over the two continents. Mm-hmm. And that be our empire. So yeah. And, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be overtly through expansion of statehood or something like that. It, it could just be control of puppet governments. Yeah. I think that's the way it's going to go. I'm not suggesting that I think that's the moral or right thing to do. So let me clarify. I'm saying that unfortunately, I think this is the way it's

Gene: 33:14

gonna go. I think that that would be great for America. I, I totally agree with you on that count. I think that would be a, a great transition from a. Really what America's playing is the world police. The world police. Yeah, exactly. And becoming really a moral, a localized power. Mm-hmm. So, and every bit of resources that we could possibly ever need is available between North and South America. Although it sounds like lithium may soon not be nearly as much need as it used to be because of new batter tech, but oh, lithium

Ben: 33:52

has lots of uses, but Yeah.

Gene: 33:54

Yeah. I guess, crazy people need it too, don't they?

Ben: 33:58

Lithium's fun.

Gene: 33:59

I've never tried lithium. I'm not into prescription

Ben: 34:02

drugs. I, I was talking more about the metal and

Gene: 34:06

playing with Oh yeah. Okay. Yes. When I was in high school. Sure. Using it to water. Plenty of lithium from school to play with. Yes. Yeah. That, and then magnesium. There's a lot of things that are fun to play with. Yeah. Yeah. Put some lithium in your tongue. It's really cool. No,

Ben: 34:22

thank you.

Gene: 34:23

But I, I, I guess it calms people down really well. I,

Ben: 34:29

I, I don't know in the medical field, I, I don't, I know there was,

Gene: 34:32

we need to reopen. We, we really need to reopen

Ben: 34:34

the tongue. Is the lithium that the drug just lithium metal? I don't think so. It,

Gene: 34:40

no, it's a lithium something, something. It's three three chemical components in it. But But it, you know, it's, it's that particular drug that that really helps with the paranoia and all kinds of other things. Hmm.

Ben: 34:56

Yeah, it's lithium salts. Mm-hmm.

Gene: 34:59

Interesting. Mm-hmm.

Ben: 35:00

There's a, it's metabolized through the kidney.

Gene: 35:03

Really? That's interesting. Cuz muscles are not doing that through kidneys.

Ben: 35:09

Well, according to Wikipedia.

Gene: 35:11

Oh, I know. It's probably true. It's probably true. I mean, some

Ben: 35:14

you find really weird things on Wikipedia. I think it's the AI is hallucinating.

Gene: 35:19

Could be. Yeah. Imagine that. The AI only gets to read Wikipedia and nothing else. Hmm.

Ben: 35:27

The root of all evil. Anyway, so I, I think with all the geopolitics going on mm-hmm. I think we are about to see I, I hope a shut down in Ukraine, but you know, who knows? Like

Gene: 35:41

this year, I'm sorry, you mean like a shutdown this year? Yeah.

Ben: 35:46

I, I think Russia's going to retaliate very hard. This attack on Moscow was mm-hmm. No joke. And the people who are sitting there saying it was a false flag and, you know, everything else. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Don't bomb the rich people's neighborhood that are on your side already. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Gene: 36:05

All look I'll say you that

Ben: 36:08

anything into the can be a false fight. The tech and

Gene: 36:10

Moscow very lightly, just whatever was popping up on the search engines. I've not really, you know,

Ben: 36:18

people are talking about, oh, they can't even protect their capital city. Well first of all, it was a, apparently quite a few drones, which is interesting. Mm-hmm. Because where did Ukraine get them? And then second of all, you know, they're these fairly small drones flying with munitions, you know, explosives. Mm-hmm. And a bunch of them were shot down. Mm-hmm. So it, it's you know, it's interesting.

Gene: 36:42

Oh, how much damage are they causing? I didn't even see the

Ben: 36:44

pictures. It was fairly minor damage to a wealthy neighborhood. It was a residential area. So how

Gene: 36:52

big of an explosive charge?

Ben: 36:54

Oh, I mean, these are, these are like mid midsize DJ

Gene: 36:58

size drones, or bigger, I'm sorry. Like dgi, like drones we can buy here or these bigger drones.

Ben: 37:05

I mean, you could buy this drone in the US and fly it. You'd have to have a license. Okay. Uhhuh. But so how big is the drone? I don't, I don't have a scale size to give you All right. But the explosives that they were carrying were not like huge. Mm-hmm. You know, we're talking a couple pounds of C4 sort of Oh, okay. Thing. Any drone can do that.

Gene: 37:28

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah.

Ben: 37:30

Okay. Yeah. Size of the drone I think would be more limiting for the

Gene: 37:35

distance of travel. Yeah. The batteries is the biggest thing with drones, cuz the most of'em, well there's a few, you know, there's a sub thousand dollars drones in the over a thousand dollars drones. I used to have a professional drone back years ago. I think I paid five grand for it. Hmm. And it could carry a, a full D S L R. It was for basically shooting like movies and stuff. Mm-hmm. And so it could carry I think one and a half kilograms, so like three pounds. So that'd be big enough to carry something like this. But the problem was at least, this is like six years ago maybe they've gotten better, but the problem was even a drone that size with decent carry capacity only still had a battery life of about 25 minutes.

Ben: 38:23

Yeah. And max distance travel and all that. Yeah.

Gene: 38:27

And it could go, I think about 30 miles an hour if there's no wind. So it could go for 15 miles on that battery if it's making a one-way trip. But still it's not very far. So I don't know.

Ben: 38:40

Ukrainian May J two 20 drone.

Gene: 38:44

Okay. I can look that up while you're, we're talking J two 20 drone.

Ben: 38:49

Yeah. I bull cuz this was not what I saw in the videos that were out. Oh. And what they're showing is an airplane, not a quad cop style drone. Mm-hmm. And this is acon reconnaissance UAV V Mm. Okay. Okay. That, that's not what was shown in some of the footage, but, Hmm.

Gene: 39:11

Whatever. Yeah. Well, e either way I think that certainly I would expect Moscow to be attacked. I I would not imagine the possibility of going through a full conflict without any attacks. Yeah. So I, I don't think that's unusual. I think that the, the, the war won't be over and there won't be negotiations until Odessa's part of that Russian controlled territory. Okay. So once ESSA's in that group, then I think it'll, Russia will become a lot more willing to stop at that point and negotiate.

Ben: 39:51

Yeah. I, I, so I think Trump, I'm gonna put something in the chat here for you. I think Russia will come to the negotiating table. I think some of what Trump has saying and has said pretty publicly about you know, no one's gonna get what they want sort of thing. Mm-hmm. I, I think that you know, all of this, I think it'll come to a stalemate. I think you'll see a die down in the conflict, but I don't think the conflict will end until the elections are over. And if Trump is reelected, then I think what the compromise will be is, okay, Russia, the territory you hold now, you're gonna give a little bit of it back in Ukraine. You're gonna be good with that. Mm-hmm. But I think you'll see, at the very least, parts of the Doba and Crimea, formally Russian. Yep. As in us recognized formally Russian, it's mm-hmm. Russia has already annexed portions of the Doba and so on, so. Mm-hmm. It's really about,

Gene: 40:55

you know, who's gonna recognize it? Well, it isn't annexed the, the, there was a, a vote, it was an annexation. There was a vote there. And the people, I

Ben: 41:04

didn't say it was a non-voluntary annexation. It's still considered,

41:08

I

Gene: 41:08

mean, I don't, I don't think annexation is the word. Did we annex Hawaii? Did we annex Texas, which is like petitioning the United States to become a state for over a decade. Oh yeah, we screwed that up. Was that an annexation? Yes. Yeah. I wouldn't call it that.

Ben: 41:23

You wouldn't call Texas joining the union a screw up.

Gene: 41:26

No, I call it a screw up. I wouldn't call it an annexation. What would you call it? I would call it an admittance. I would call it a adjoining. I mean, it was, I think to me, an annexation is like, you know, let me think of an example of an annexation. Annexation would've been what? What the the people of Texas did to the Mexican territories that they took over. That's an annexation. No, that was a

Ben: 41:55

revolution. See, because they, because it was a revolution. Because they were Mexican citizens,

Gene: 42:01

dude. Yeah, I know they were Mexican citizens, but these were Ukrainian citizens that decided to first of all, fight and then vote for leaving Ukraine. It's the same thing. That portion of the fake country of Ukraine that is now the part of the real country of Russia is was done in exactly the same way as Texas becoming a part of the United States. It was, it was a re it was a military revolution by the people that lived there. The, to have independence from the country of Ukraine and then a petitioning to become a part of Russia, kinda like Texas became part of the us. So that's actually a very good example. Hmm. Now you, I'm sure there are people there that are saying the same things, like, this was a mistake we should have not have become a part of Russia. But either way. It, it, I just think when I hear the word annexation, I think of involuntary. Okay.

Ben: 43:01

But that's not what the word actually means. That's like people's, that's like people using the word decimated. Does that mean means what you think? It means cut into 10 pieces? No. Decimated means to reduce by 10%. No,

Gene: 43:15

same thing. You and your damn precise word, usage

Ben: 43:19

words matter. Anyway, beyond the Ukrainian war. Yeah. It is interesting that so what I'm trying to figure out how to say this. You know, Zelensky is going around, he's traveling outside of Ukraine, which is mm-hmm. Interesting to me because if we were at war and a US president was traveling around, living up the high life, you know? Mm-hmm. I, I just, I can't imagine the optics. It's weird Right. Internally for a leader doing this. Mm-hmm. And, you know, the last president that really, you know, first of all, we've never really fought a war other than 1812 and you know, the, the Civil War on our own territory. Mm-hmm. So I, I can't imagine Lincoln during the Civil War going abroad and going to Europe and so on, you know? Yeah. Oh, I agree.

Gene: 44:13

Seems strange. But I don't know. I guess, let's see. If we were in war two, would it be weird if Churchill came to the United States?

Ben: 44:24

Yes. And fact, FDR went and met with Churchill versus Churchill

Gene: 44:28

coming here. Okay. Well, it would be weird for FDR to go to the England. I'm sorry. Would it be weird for FDR to go to England when we were in the middle of World War ii?

Ben: 44:38

No, because we're not fighting here. We're fighting there. Oh,

Gene: 44:41

it's actually, okay. So you're saying just leaving where the actual fight is, is what's weird?

Ben: 44:46

Yeah. I, I think that's part of it, but I think that's also. It seems to me it, it seems how, okay. It seems like they're setting him up for an assassination. Hmm. I see. Because maybe he's leaving his security. He's, you know, abroad, he's flying. I mean, if Russia, he's got a bigger

Gene: 45:07

private plane than Trump does. Okay. And he's bringing in a lot of security with him.

Ben: 45:13

Okay. And he doesn't have the Air Force escort that, you know. What makes Air Force one has,

Gene: 45:23

you don't think when Zelensky flies to s he's escorted by fighter pilots who's ours, who's paying for everything?

Ben: 45:33

I don't know. I, I would like to see some evidence of that. I haven't. Okay. Because Ukraine doesn't really have an Air Force left. No. It's why they're wanting, you know, f sixteens and everything else. So I, I just feel like if Russia wanted to decapitate Ukraine by Yeah. Shooting down Zelensky plane. Ma,

Gene: 45:52

I think it's the last thing Russia wants. Why? There's no benefit to Russia in a dead zelensky. There's a benefit in Zelensky standing trial. No, that's not gonna happen. It may not happen, but it, there's a benefit to it.

Ben: 46:07

Sure that's not gonna

Gene: 46:09

happen. Uhhuh. Yep. There we go. Us F 15 fighter jets took off from base in England and escorted Zelensky flight the entire way. Huh? So there's evidence from B bbc. There you go. Mm-hmm. That's why this is Zelensky has nothing to fear.

Ben: 46:27

I think he has plenty to fear, but yeah,

Gene: 46:30

I think the only thing he's got to fear is from an assassination plot inside his own staff. That that's the main thing I think that he is in real danger of because it's

Ben: 46:41

so point. Aren't we finally get tired of saying them billions in his embezzlement in the F fifteens? So they turn

Gene: 46:46

on him? Some, some. No, not the f fifteens. What?

Ben: 46:49

You said they were F 15 escorts.

Gene: 46:51

Yeah, ours, American F fifteens we're not gonna turn on him. Why not? No. I, cuz he's doing what we want. He's doing exactly what we want until he is not until he is not, but as long as he is, and as an actor, he's been paid his whole life to perform according to a script, which is what he's doing. So I, I think the only thing that if I was him, I would be in actual fear of would be somebody from the cabinet. Something happening, which has personal, serious cost. To somebody in his cabinet, like family members getting killed. That would be enough to make them want to put a stop to this whole debacle themselves and and kill him. But Russia doesn't have any interest in killing him. That's been said over and over. And I think that they mean it when they say it because it makes a lot more sense. It's a lot more beneficial for Russia to actually try him at the end of this whole thing.

Ben: 47:56

Yeah. But I, I think if Zelensky survives till the end of this, he's, you know, gonna be in Europe somewhere and not yeah,

Gene: 48:03

yeah, yeah. I don't think it's a big chance. It may be a 1% chance, but if Zelensky is effectively overthrown in what is currently Ukraine by the people that are tired of being the American toys then they will hand him over to Russia to put a stop to the war. And Russia will do exactly that. They will stop the war and they will make a, a giant showpiece out of the Zelensky trial. Hmm. And the entire thing will be blamed on him. And the United States, obviously, that are controlling him and not on the people of Ukraine who were just following orders.

Ben: 48:46

You know, it's interesting because tie it all back. So in the Matt Walsh documentary mm-hmm. You know, he is asking one of the, and all the documentary is, is him asking questions of these l g BT Q Right. Trans advocates. That's really what it is. He's got a few people from his side thrown in there too, but the majority is them. And one of them made a statement on, you know, everybody, everybody thinks this way. You know, and, you know, this is the way it's going. And he goes, you, you think that you don't think there's any pushback? Mm-hmm. Oh, well, the, you know, there's the dinosaurs, but they'll be gone soon. Mm-hmm. And it's like, mm, you misunderstand your majority appeal. You know? I think we're, the Ukrainian war is very much in that same vein both here in the US and abroad. Mm-hmm. I, I, I think that, you know, I think if you watch mainstream media or anything, oh, everyone's pro Ukraine, everybody who follows. I don't think that's the reality. I think the majority is silent. I think

Gene: 49:53

it's not, and I, I have to give a tremendous amount of credit for the way that Russia's conducted this military operation, of course, because I would not have done it this way. I'm a lot like, I try to be, not emotional, but I'm clearly more emotional than the guys running this war. Because I would've gone in all guns blazing. I would've had a a much more what would be the, the, I'm trying to think of a good adjective. Scorched earth. Well, not really scorched earth, cuz you, you need the earth, but I would have a much, much more of a of a us versus them approach. And this is something that is, I think, hard for people to understand here, because it's hard for me to in turn, like I can say it objectively, right? But it, but I don't really feel it. And that is that this really is the slavi civil war. This is a lot more of a civil war in the US Civil War sense than it is in a, a war like World War I or two, or, you know, conflicts like that because because there, there are very few people that are fighting who don't have at least one relative on the other side of this. Because Ukraine was for 300 plus years, just southwestern Russia. And so you end up having a lot of relatives. And so, you know, There's, there are feelings across the board and the, the end result of this has been a war where where they're truly targeting non civilians. Hmm. And, and it's weird to see, and it's weird that they've been doing this for over a year and still sticking to it because my natural disposition is to just put an end to it as quickly as possible. And in my mind, that would've been done by focusing everything on Kyiv initially and oblating that city wiping it off the map if you were to come in. I mean, it's what the US effectively does all its operations. We didn't, we didn't want to leave Baghdad alone because of its cultural significance. We bombed a shit out of Baghdad. We decimated take leap, but Sure. But it doesn't matter why. I'm just saying we did it because it made sense. Mm-hmm. Right. It made sense to have no power, no water, nothing operational in Baghdad, because that makes it easier to take over the rest of the country. That's typically the case in most conflicts. Where you're coming in is. Is, if you can manage to take out the central strategic operating center, then everything else is much easier and falls in line. Right. That's, it seems fairly basic. I don't, I don't think for most conflicts that you would want to do it a different way. If you want to just simply minimize the amount of damage to your side. Right. If you wanna minimize the number of deaths and casualties, blow up the central operating center. Well, it depends

Ben: 53:17

on what your goal

Gene: 53:18

is. Right, and that's where, this is the, the, that's where the goal of this special military operation, and I, I say that have jokingly, obviously everybody calls it a war, but, and the people fighting, I'm sure call it a war as well, but it's a special military operation because it's a lot more akin to a civil war in where their, their goal is not been to minimize the Russian casualties, their goal. If that was the case, they would've taken out, they would've taken out Kiev immediately. Their goal was to, to take

Ben: 53:56

over. I don't think Russia has ever fought a war where they've minimized their casualties.

Gene: 54:01

No, that's true.

Ben: 54:03

Ru Russia, if it's good at anything, is taking a lot of casualties.

Gene: 54:08

Yeah. But it. Well, yes, but not for just the sake of taking casualties, you know? I mean, it's, it's a, yeah, there's a lot of

Ben: 54:18

incompetence thrown in there too.

Gene: 54:20

Yeah. There's certainly incompetence, but, but they've really gone out of their way. I mean, how long did it take'em to shut down the power grid? A year before they really started focusing on taking out the power grid for the first year of this operation, the entire country, with the immediate exceptions of small villages that are in the middle of a conflict and might have power go down inadvertently, but the whole country was left alone with power. Who does that? Yeah. How long did it take us to shut down the power in in Iraq? It was less than a week for the whole country. Oh, it was days. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's one of the first things that you blow up across the entire country is electrical distribution grid.

Ben: 55:07

Mm-hmm. Speaking of there was a fatality at a power plant not too far from here. Oh, really? What happened? Yeah, they they were commissioning and I know this because of, you know, previous work. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But a contractor was killed. They were commissioning some upgrades to their auxiliary boiler and something went wrong. Still doing the investigation, but. So it was an explosion or, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So probably burner management or something like that. You know, boilers can become bombs pretty easily.

Gene: 55:40

I've heard that. So how many what kind of pressure are those things running?

Ben: 55:44

Oh, an ox, boilers, subcritical. You know, the, the actual power plant itself, the unit that it's at is a super critical Mm.

Gene: 55:53

So, Hmm. Yeah. It's well, there's still, there's not many accidents that happen in that is true. Right? What

Ben: 56:00

do you mean?

Gene: 56:01

You mean relative to other industries?

Ben: 56:04

Oh I mean, the power industry is one of the deadliest in industries out there. Really? Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. I mean, hold on.

Gene: 56:16

I guess you just don't hear much about it.

Ben: 56:18

Well, yeah, so, no, I don't want the global deaths from fossil fuel use. That's not what I'm looking at. Oh my God, good god. Yeah, you, this is why Google sucks and it's politicized. You're still using Google. Well, Neva shut down, so there's not mm-hmm. Anyway, there we go. So, number o, osha deaths in the electrical in industry. Last year was 131. Mm-hmm. Which, if you compare that to like police desk, everybody goes, oh, they're such a dangerous shop. No, not in comparison. Anyway so super critical units just so you're aware, they're operating, you know, way up there and like 1800 degrees and 3000 plus PSI pressures. Mm-hmm. So, okay. Yeah. Super critical is between a thousand and plus degrees and over 3000 psi. Mm-hmm.

Gene: 57:20

Hmm. Well, 3000 actually lowered than I would've corrected.

Ben: 57:25

Well, that's the beginning of, oh, okay. This is super critical. Subcritical is below 3000. Yeah. And then ultra super critical, or whatever it's called

Gene: 57:35

is like over five. I had a 3000 psi nitrogen tank on my paintball setup.

Ben: 57:40

Yeah. Well, 3000 psi of steam, if there's a leak and you run into it, a, you can't see it, and b it will just cut you. Yeah,

Gene: 57:48

sure. I wouldn't have wanna be hit by 3000 psi. No nitrogen either. I mean, that's, that's, but I, I just, I was thinking, but there's just a mass

Ben: 57:58

10 psi or something. No, but and, and the explosion isn't from the, the boiler itself. It's from the fuel, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So that's, that's the difference. But anyway well, we're boring the hell this

Gene: 58:12

everybody now, huh? We're boring the hell out of everyone.

Ben: 58:16

Maybe so, China, Taiwan Straits. Mm-hmm.

Gene: 58:22

Haven't heard a damn thing about it. What's

Ben: 58:23

going on? Ah, dude, you're killing me. I, you

Gene: 58:27

know, there's nothing wrong with dropping out of the news cycle for a while.

Ben: 58:30

I probably need to do that, but anyway. Mm-hmm. The Chinese Coast Guard interdicted, a US Navy vessel sailing through the Taiwan straits. Mm-hmm. Like, literally got in front of it and made'em swerve. Hmm. So China's being pretty provocative there.

Gene: 58:48

What? You mean the US is being pretty provocative by interfering with a ship's path? N no,

Ben: 58:56

the smaller vessel yields to the larger vessel. This is uni, this is universal.

Gene: 59:00

So who got in, what was the vessel that it got in front of?

Ben: 59:05

It, I believe it was a

Gene: 59:05

destroyer. So the Chinese ship was smarter than the destroyer? Correct. Well, so some little piddly ship. Who cares?

Ben: 59:14

The point is, nevermind. All right, gene, what do you wanna talk about?

Gene: 59:20

I don't know. So you, you, you chickened out on me on me showing you around the star citizen. I didn't check. What do you mean? Well, you, you're like just do it yourself. Yeah. Well,

Ben: 59:31

oh, that's called chicken out. How's that? I, I don't want to install, I don't want to install something that's several hundred gigabytes on my computer. I just, why not? I don't need that.

Gene: 59:42

Oh, Jesus Christ.

Ben: 59:44

Mm-hmm.

Gene: 59:45

Well maybe we'll just do a walkthrough at some point. I was gonna record the video of us doing that so that we had something fun to put up for people to watch as well. Not, not just, you know, audio, but, oh, well you wouldn't do it. That's alright. We can

Ben: 59:59

talk about it. I am gonna be taking a week off here. Coming up, so. Hmm. Where are you going? I am going to the beach. We've got Oh, nice. A beach cabin rented for a week. Where about just down on Boulevard Peninsula. Where's that? By Galveston. It's where I'm from. Okay. Originally.

Gene: 1:00:19

Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yep. Going to the beach. You gonna just chill? What, what's, or you gonna do the activities and do little fishing, jet skiing, all that

Ben: 1:00:31

stuff? Well, I mean, this time of year it's hot enough that fishing, you know, we will go out early in the morning to go fish. Mm-hmm. But it's not gonna be great. But we'll fish and we'll go to the beach and swim and, you know, go to Galveston and, you know, take the kids to do the touristy things that the kids will like.

Gene: 1:00:49

There's a fish place I ate at in Galveston that was pretty good. There's a bunch of places, I'm sure there are, but this was one of the few that was opened. I was there my birthday last year.

Ben: 1:00:59

Well, what a twinky dink I'm going for my birthday this year. Oh,

Gene: 1:01:03

that's, that's

Ben: 1:01:04

magical. My birthday and Father's Day, they fall on the same

Gene: 1:01:07

weekend. So unfortunately it rained, which was not the best of weather. Mm-hmm. But still had some pretty good fish. That's you know, I'm probably like a broken record on this cuz every time I go down to the Gulf when I was down in south Padre, or whether it's Galveston or Port A or whatever, my first goal is to track down a place to have some red snapper. Mm-hmm. Then everything else follows from that. Well,

Ben: 1:01:34

I do love my don't golf now, but it used to be Casey's, uh mm-hmm. On the sea wall. But they, the family changed Who it was. I think they renamed it after the other brother, but anyway. Mm. It shared a kitchen with Gatos, which is a very famous restaurant there in Galveston. Mm-hmm. I don't know, man, ever since I grew up down there, the beach, crystal Beach and Galveston has changed so much. Mm-hmm. You heard about what happened on, so Ball Oliver Peninsula every year has this big Jeep event. I don't know, since you're a Jeep owner, I don't know if you're aware mm-hmm. But it's topless on the beach and everybody comes out. Yep. And there are a bunch of shootings that happened this year. Oh, really? Yeah. Well, that's not good. And apparently a lot of the cartels and gangs have started to show up on the beach at night and having feuds. Yeah. So there've been a lot of That's stupid. Yeah. It's, it's, it's like, this is not what this used to be at all.

Gene: 1:02:36

So I don't know this. We'll see now in, in South Padre, you cannot drive on the beach. It is, it's verboten. Which is what I, I really like at Port A is you could just get right on the beach and then just drive and drive and drive until you get to an area where there's literally nobody else around. And then you can have your own little private beach experience.

Ben: 1:02:59

Yeah. So it, it depends. Port A is a little different, but yeah. Now it's Nick's Casey's turned into next, um mm-hmm. In Galveston and in crystal Beach and so on. It, the, the beach is actually designated as Texas State Highway. Mm-hmm. So yes, you can drive

Gene: 1:03:18

on it. Yeah. And a, and a huge portion, the, like the northern side of the island of South Padre is totally empty. I think it's a park of some type or something, but they still don't allow you to drive on the beach, which still stupid. It used to be

Ben: 1:03:30

part of the king King's Ranch. Oh, was it? Mm-hmm.

Gene: 1:03:33

Oh, okay. Hmm. Didn't know that. I believe you. And then there's literally nothing there. Like, there's no, you know, no restaurants. There's for about 20 miles. There's nothing except a road that goes to a dead end and you can't get off the road is what all the signs say. What's the point. Mm-hmm. I mean, that, that to me just seems like the stupidest use of space. Either they should expand it to where they get rid of the park and just have more hotels there. Or at the very least, let people drive on the shore so you can have a beach experience with your car. Who doesn't want a good car beach experience,

Ben: 1:04:14

which you can also do though. And P Padre is take take a boat down the Intercoastal. Mm-hmm. Find a spot and walk across, so, mm-hmm. And yes, Padre was part of the King's Ranch at one point. Wow. Part of it, it looks like,

Gene: 1:04:35

And I've, I've fished there in the Intercoastal as well. Mm-hmm. And can't remember what we caught, but, you know, took it down to black beards to have it cooked up. Yeah. I do

Ben: 1:04:48

the cooking myself,

Gene: 1:04:50

but yeah. Yeah. But it's neat taking fish. You caught yourself to a restaurant.

Ben: 1:04:55

I, I, I will admit I have done that in Florida. Mm-hmm. There you go. Because we were, we didn't catch enough fish to bring back and mm-hmm. You know, what are you

Gene: 1:05:03

gonna do with it? Yeah. But if you bring it back, it's all frozen. The shit, I, I just like the fresh stuff. Mm-hmm. Fresh

Ben: 1:05:11

fish. So I'm thinking about what, what gun I want to get for my birthday. Oh.

Gene: 1:05:18

Now, is this gonna be a long gun or a short or medium

Ben: 1:05:21

gun? I, I, I'm between getting a new shotgun and another pistol, which I don't need another pistol, but,

Gene: 1:05:30

Hmm. Yeah. Well, we're all in that boat. Yeah. I'm thinking, Hey, speaking of pistols what do you think of this whole non-compliance with the ATF.

Ben: 1:05:41

You mean what, what do you mean the non-compliance with the atf? Well,

Gene: 1:05:44

they released the numbers and out of the, I haven't seen this anywhere between 10 million and 50 million braces that were sold there have been a total of 220,000 registrations.

Ben: 1:06:00

Hmm. Then a lot of people are just taking them off. Of course.

Gene: 1:06:04

Right. So that,

Ben: 1:06:06

that doesn't mean non-compliance,

Gene: 1:06:08

I guess is what I'm saying. Well, it, it doesn't mean compliance either because no one's verifying any of this shit. Right. And

Ben: 1:06:15

there's already a federal injunction, so there's

Gene: 1:06:17

three of them and I'm a member of all three of these organizations. So I've got triple, triple injunctive production.

Ben: 1:06:24

That's not how that works, but Okay. That's totally

Gene: 1:06:26

how that works. In fact, I just asked a lawyer the other day, I said, now be having triple injunctive relief am I allowed to now start buying and selling these things once again cuz I'm extra protected. So we'll see what he says. Hmm. He's gonna laugh. Oh, I'm sure. I mean, that's the intent. Right. But yeah, a little, it's a funny little thing, but yeah, I'm a, actually a member of all three of the groups that have injunction in place. Cool. And a lot of people are pointing out that the NRA is nowhere to be seen on this issue.

Ben: 1:06:57

Well, anyone who's. Anyone who's thinking that the NRA is our friend has not been paying attention for the last 20 years, well,

Gene: 1:07:07

I don't know about 20 years, but they're still doing stuff with the I L A, but it's, it does seem like the NRA

Ben: 1:07:15

is not really Gun owners of America is far superior.

Gene: 1:07:20

Yeah. Goa is a lot more political, but, you know, I'm an NRA life member. I've got I still run the NRA group on LinkedIn. So I've, I've, I haven't given up

Ben: 1:07:31

Yeah, SIG apparently has a shoot sig you have to go to one of the competitions mm-hmm. And join. But I think I want to do it because you get some discounts apparently, and Sig Sig

Gene: 1:07:43

stuff. Mm-hmm. So what do you need to do? You have to go to a competition to do what? Now?

Ben: 1:07:48

You have to compete in a competition, and then you can join shoot sig, and then they've got a bunch of different discounts and mm-hmm. You know, events and things like that.

Gene: 1:07:59

So it's a program for guys that are into competitive shooting? Correct. Got it. Got it. Oh, did you see the H and k or HK rather kerfuffle. Mm-hmm. So they, they want Vogue for woke. For about a minute. Okay. There, there was that Miller, tell me more. You, you remember that Miller video that came out, or tweets at least about it, came out where they were promoting women then Anheuser-Busch leaked Yes. The investors of beer. Yeah. Yeah. Inventors of beer, which total bullshit. But there was a reply to that tweet from the official HK account mm-hmm. That had gun bunnies, no beer bunnies, no empowering women. Yes. Well, needless to say, the audience for HK is not only predominantly male, but a certain type of male. And so that, that tweet got a lot of replies saying, what the fuck when great, now you guys are going woke, I'm gonna have to, you know, sell my HK guns or whatever. And then there was a follow up tweet that was about three paragraphs, like way longer than normal tweet that was admonishing the people that were being sexist and saying, and it was, it was from a chick who obviously is in charge of the HK account in the marketing department saying, as a woman, blahdi, blahdi, blahdi, blah. And you know, Sexism, blah, blah. We essentially giving her opinion with the attribution of HK hk for anyone that doesn't know is a German company, they make the MP five ink or whatever. Yeah. Heckler cock. I didn't think they're, they Austrian or German. One of those two. Ah, yeah. I think they're German, but MP five s their most classic gun that most people would've heard of. But they make all kinds of other guns as well. They MP seven, whichever one is that's their, their new version, which you can't get in the United States cuz they are dicks about it. Well, they don't have, well philto, so Yeah. They don't have a non fau

Ben: 1:10:19

autos are not allowed. They're very button in the United States. Such bullshit man, that we need to fix, dude. The a needs to be overturned.

Gene: 1:10:25

The whole a needs to go, there's nothing wrong with philo, there's nothing wrong with suppressors. There's nothing wrong with short or long guns. They're all the guns that were intended to be non-restricted by the founding father. Mm-hmm. Anyway. Anyway. So this long tweet. Yeah, this long tweet got a lot of people riled up. One day later there was a short tweet from that account saying rules were broken, mistakes were made. There's, they've been remedied. Mm-hmm. That's it. So they basically, they fired this person. And so somebody realized that they put a girl in charge of a an account for a multinational corporation that they shouldn't have probably done.

Ben: 1:11:12

So Jean, I know we don't do this very often and my audio running is not set up to do this right now. You on play clip? I, I want you to play the YouTube clip I just sent. This is Al Bundy explaining why women sell beer. Oh,

Gene: 1:11:26

okay. Let me

Ben: 1:11:27

see. And I, I think it's very appropriate for this.

Gene: 1:11:30

All right, so let me see if this will work. You're gonna have to not talk so that Cause otherwise go on mute. Yeah, go on mute because otherwise you're gonna hear yourself talking cuz I need to do the opposite of what I did to get rid of your

Ben: 1:11:48

your thing here. So, oh, the echo this morning? Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha.

Gene: 1:11:51

Here we go. Well, if it would start, come in. Can you please?

Ben: 1:11:58

Are you hearing it or not? It's choppy. Like your microphone's picking it up, not the audio running.

Gene: 1:12:04

I'll replace it. And probably leave some repress it. And number two, since men buy beer, advertisers have to cater to what we want. And hold on your corn cup pipe. We like pretty women. Hair go pretty. Women sell good products. Ugly women sell tennis rack pretty women cars, ugly women. Minivan pretty women make us fire beer ugly women make us drink beer.

Ben: 1:12:34

So I think that was pretty appropriate.

Gene: 1:12:37

Okay, so that's, yeah. That is a very good obvious point. Let me get rid of your

Ben: 1:12:44

echo here. I don't have an echo, so. Oh, you don't, that's weird. Yeah. Huh. Yeah. So you'll have to go in and

Gene: 1:12:54

do a lot. I'll, I'll stick it in the club there. I'll, I'll paste it in myself

Ben: 1:12:57

manually in there. But, but anyway. I just thought it was just we have gotten so woke and so moved past Yeah. Just the natural state of things. No, and I'm not suggesting that we need to go back to, you know, sex selling everything, but. It, it just comes to the point of

Gene: 1:13:19

where we just need to get rid of the 19th Amendment. That's all we need to do.

Ben: 1:13:23

I, I, I like Vava Rami's idea of all you have to do to be able eligible to vote is sign up for selective service, but changing the selective service where it is no longer mandatory for males. Mm-hmm. And it is only voluntary, but mm-hmm. Essentially, you cannot vote until you age out till of military age. Mm-hmm. So you have to be in your mid thirties. So you can't vote from 18 to let's say 35 unless you sign up for the selective service.

Gene: 1:13:51

Okay. So everybody vote a 35, only people in that are in the Army vote from 18,

Ben: 1:13:58

not in the Army, who have signed up for selective service. Mm-hmm. So that means a lot of men who Yeah. Aren't willing to fight for this country, won't Yeah. Won't vote. Yeah. And you know, women will have to sign up for the selective service in order

Gene: 1:14:13

to be able to vote. All right. And just to clarify, the selective service you're referring to is the military.

Ben: 1:14:18

So the selective service in the United States every male, when you turn 18, you have to go register for the selective service. So if there is a draft, they know who to pull from. Right, right.

Gene: 1:14:30

But I, I just wanna make the distinction because during Obama's time they said that they wanted to change selective service to become, to include. Programs that Right. But they never enacted that. But they never enacted. But I wanna clarify that, that you're not ref, you're not saying let's add that back in n

Ben: 1:14:49

no. So selective service is just the draft. Yeah.

Gene: 1:14:52

Yeah. Yeah. I, I think that's reasonable. I would probably go beyond that. I think that there needs to be, I I, I posted this on Twitter recently too, actually. I said I think it was a reply to somebody else's comment about about, oh, I know it was here. I couldn't remember it. So they were talking about Trump wanting to change the law that allows anchored children mm-hmm. To somebody born in this country. And I said, I think it's time that we reevaluate the whole citizenship category and say that simply being born in the United States is not sufficient to become a US citizen. And that you, you only become a citizen at an adult age when you engage in in service to the country. And so obviously that was a take on the star Starship Troopers, right? Right.

Ben: 1:15:48

Service guarantees,

Gene: 1:15:49

citizenship service, and which was the replies I started getting immediately servers guarantee citizenship. But I think that that. There's something to be said for removing hereditary benefits.

Ben: 1:16:05

Well, I'm fine with hereditary benefits. So, you know, law of the blood, not law of the land. What I have a problem with is, you know, we have we have literally Chinese and other nationalities who come here legally on a tourist visa mm-hmm. In the ninth month of their pregnancy mm-hmm. In order for their kid to have a US citizenship. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gene: 1:16:29

Well, I I think it's literally

Ben: 1:16:31

Mexican, but citizenship tourism is a thing. Totally. Totally. Yeah. And that shouldn't, that, that's not the, that, that was not the intent of the amendment, so.

Gene: 1:16:42

Right, right. And you can hardly blame them if the country allows it.

Ben: 1:16:47

And it really comes down to the interpretation of what subject to the jurisdiction thereof means. Mm-hmm. So,

Gene: 1:16:55

yeah. And that's, that's why I think my policy makes the most sense is like there is no citizenship for children.

Ben: 1:17:02

Well, I, I, I think if your parents are citizens, you're a citizen. No, I don't. That's the way every country in the

Gene: 1:17:07

world does it. Yeah. But we ought to do it better. Okay. Just cuz somebody else does it that way doesn't mean it's right. I think eligibility for citizenship because your parents are citizens, make sense? But I don't think there should be an automatic citizenship. There are plenty of people that

Ben: 1:17:25

were born in citizen. So you want a situation more like the uae? Yeah, absolutely. It's so despotic.

Gene: 1:17:33

No, it's not. It's, it's the it's a better approach. Mm-hmm.

Ben: 1:17:38

Yeah. Citizenship is shit. Ton of temporary visas. Citizen

Gene: 1:17:41

citizenship is a privilege and it should be conferred on people that have done something to justify it. And citizenship with voting rights should mean something. And not simply people being too lazy to vote, people doing mass voter collections and all this crap. That's why I really, I think as citizenship, you should have mandatory voting that is recorded, meaning your vote is not anonymous. I,

Ben: 1:18:09

I agree with that as well, but what I would say is I, what I like about what Vava was saying mm-hmm. Is a, it it solves the problem of, you know, everybody's been talking about what's the last name? Vava. Iwami.

Gene: 1:18:24

Oh, that's right. That's, that's a great presidential name.

Ben: 1:18:27

I, maybe not this time, but I think he definitely could be a vice presidential candidate. Dude, he is. Mm-hmm. He is too sharp not to like, I'm sorry, but he, I

Gene: 1:18:38

don't think he's gonna win. Oh. He's got a JD from Yale and a, and a BA from Harvard, so Yeah. He's a smart

Ben: 1:18:44

guy. Yeah. Anyway where was Willie Young? Yeah. That, that's why I'm saying maybe not this time, but mm-hmm. He's got, he's a Christian, he's got an immigrant story. He's, there's lots of very, and he's got every policy that I could ever want. So

Gene: 1:19:00

he's a Christian. Yeah. When that happened, what do you mean? Well, he wasn't a Christian when he was born, I assume,

Ben: 1:19:09

He talks about his conversion. Hmm. I don't know exactly when it happened in his life, but anyway the, the, what I like about it is it solves, like, I don't want my daughter ever to face a draft. I, I don't. So I think this making it a voluntary choice is a good answer to that. Mm-hmm. Now, because

Gene: 1:19:28

what if nobody signs up and we have no citizens,

Ben: 1:19:32

first of all, there will be people who will, so, But I, I would suggest that if this law is enacted, you would see a massive shrink in the number of registered voters. Mm-hmm. Which would, and then especially if you say aging out of over 35, that means anyone over 35 is making the decisions. Yeah. Which would be a beneficial, you get rid of that idiot liberal 20 year old rank. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's brilliant. That's why it'll never happen, but it's

Gene: 1:20:01

brilliant. Yeah. This, this dude's total overachiever.

Ben: 1:20:06

Have you, I'm just reading. Listen to

Gene: 1:20:07

him at all. No, I've listened to him. He doesn't sound nearly this bad. But if you watch, like, you know, graduated from Harvard, Summa la he is he is with a degree in, in biology, which is not an easy thing. Yeah. He is a valedictorian of a school. Mm-hmm. Bloody, bloody. His, his dad was a engineer and his other Obama, I guess was lawyer. I mean, it's like very, very much what all the immigrant families aspire to be thing. Yeah.

Ben: 1:20:40

And now he's, you know, in the poll for presidents, I think he was polling above Mike Pence even, which isn't hard,

Gene: 1:20:48

but he should still, yeah. No shit. Why, why is Mike Pence in that race to begin with? That's stupid.

Ben: 1:20:53

Because he is about to announce that he is gonna run he's an idiot. Oh yeah. I, hello. Mm-hmm. That doesn't mean he is not gonna run. Yeah.

Gene: 1:21:02

See, that's the problem with being a VP is that historically VPs are idiots. And so there's an assumption that if you become a vp, you're probably an idiot. Which is why I don't know that yeah. Well,

Ben: 1:21:19

Bush did it. Uhhuh. Yep.

Gene: 1:21:23

Mr. You're saying

Ben: 1:21:23

he's not an idiot? Oh, daddy Bush was not an idiot. He was just an evil wizard. And I'm when, when, when Bush died, I was not unhappy. Yeah. Yeah. He's, one of the Sowa is literally a year and a little over, a little under a month older than I am. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We're the same age, so, yeah. Yeah. There you

Gene: 1:21:49

go. But he's a little, wee bit young, but

Ben: 1:21:53

a little more successful than me.

Gene: 1:21:55

Yeah. But you know, that's just random luck.

Ben: 1:21:58

I don't know, dude. You know, he, he started a an investment firm that's anti E s G. I mean, he's, he's hitting on all cylinders.

Gene: 1:22:06

Yeah. He's started an investment firm that was financed by Peter th Okay.

Ben: 1:22:13

So Peter Thiel's

Gene: 1:22:14

in a lot of things. Peter Thiel is like the, the gay conservative guy behind everybody else. You find a lot of Peter, he's a conservative guy, gay conservative guy.

Ben: 1:22:24

He's gay. You didn't know that. No.

Gene: 1:22:27

Yeah, he's openly gay, huh? Yeah. It's just that, it's just not a big deal for him as it shouldn't be, you know, he doesn't have to be in a parade to be gay. Yeah. Yeah. Deal's gay. He's been gay forever. Musk had a bunch

Ben: 1:22:44

of stories about him, so, if you don't if you haven't listened to it Beck's podcast that came out yesterday, his guest that was that was definitely worth listening to. Who's that? Hold on, I'll tell you. Okay.

Gene: 1:22:59

I haven't watched the Beck in months and I haven't watched Animals on there last week. I haven't watched, was he really? I didn't know that.

Ben: 1:23:08

Yep. Spencer Cleven was on there and he's talking about how Christians should fight back against the Rainbow Mafia. Oh. And he, he's talking about how to, you know, how we should try and take back the country and the direction, and you're sitting there listening to him, and then towards the end it's like, oh, we probably should have led with this. You're gay. I was like mm-hmm. Did not see that one coming.

Gene: 1:23:32

Yeah. The, there's a few folks that see this. To me, this, this is something that, for my generation was the norm, which it's not these days. Is that who person has sex with should not be obvious to you during conversation.

Ben: 1:23:52

Well, and I, I think that, I, I think that what it, what is coming down to is more and more, I'll say normal people are mm-hmm. Regardless of their sexual proclivity are really looking at, Hey, what's going on right now? What the transgender movement is doing to children. Mm-hmm. This is not okay. Yeah. And you know, I, there's a whole bunch of the homosexual community that's coming up and saying, Not in my name. Mm-hmm. And that's pretty, pretty encouraging.

Gene: 1:24:34

Yeah, exactly. And this is what happens when you start opening up your 10th too wide. What do you mean? Well, it, it used to be just the gays and then it was the, the gays and the lesbians and the bis and the, the main, like they weren't even sure about the buys at that point in time. And then they started adding more and more groups to the Rainbow Coalition. And at this point, the gay men are pretty much persona non grata at G L B T events. All or L G B T, which they got RIS into. I'm old enough to remember when it wasn't L G B T, it wasn't even L G B, it was G L B. The gays had, yeah, it was, it was gay first because that's the group that actually started the whole damn thing. Then it was the lesbians that was the bis and that's where it stopped. And that, like, this was what was in the nineties. I remember that. It was a it seemed like, and I, I think. You know, I, I don't think that this is exaggerating, but I, I think it really felt like in the nineties we had finally got to the point where it really didn't matter what a person's color of their skin was or who they had sex with. Like, those qualities became secondary or trier or, or somewhere in the background, tertiary. It really didn't matter. Tertiary what, what you cared about was what, where their interests were, where their knowledge was. You know, it was it was mostly a focus on the other things, not those types of characteristics.

Ben: 1:26:26

Well, so that actually was brought up and talked about in the podcast, and it was interesting to hear Beck's take on it because he was saying, we thought that we had gotten past these things, but we didn't. Yeah. We didn't really get past them.

Gene: 1:26:42

Yeah, I think we did. And I, I think that the only people that cared about'em in the nineties were people that were stuck in the seventies mentally. Like they couldn't move on. They, they couldn't take a win when they had the win. And this is why I think a lot of the current strife really comes from white women. White women keep this shit alive and in popular culture way past its, do they?

Ben: 1:27:18

Well, there's a lot going on in popular culture that I don't know is a good trend, but Yeah,

Gene: 1:27:24

no, it, it does. Cuz white women were the, who were these people? These were, these were the ones that were, that held positions in academia, in obscure departments like feminist studies. These were the people that, that a lot of whom were teaching children in elementary school. These were the people that were the, supposed to be the caretakers, but instead were infecting children with propaganda. These were not black or Asian. These were white women. They were definitely not men. And you know, I think I know enough of what a woman is to be able to point a finger at these white

Ben: 1:28:08

women. Huh? What is a woman uhhuh?

Gene: 1:28:12

Yeah. I'll tell you what a woman is, and this is coming from an atheist. The woman is that human that pissed off God enough to make humans mortal. That's what a woman is.

Ben: 1:28:26

Am I wrong? Jean speaks, am I wrong? Am I wrong?

Gene: 1:28:30

Hey, I, you're, you're supposed to say preach. Yeah.

Ben: 1:28:34

I, I don't necessar. So I, I, I would say I, I like the ending definition. Woman is an adult human female. You know, there you go. But I won't disagree that there's definitely some, some frustrations that comes with dealing with women strife.

Gene: 1:28:54

Yes. Yes. They, they are. I just can't think of anything that has that, that has how do I phrase this nicely? I

Ben: 1:29:05

bother,

Gene: 1:29:06

yeah. I, I mean, I don't know. I guess it's getting enough shit anyway, but women don't realize just how evil they are. Is that nice enough? Mm, mm-hmm. Inherently, like they do things innocently that had somebody thought through, they would've said, don't do that. And that's the problem. Has God made women out of a part of a brain instead of a rib? Probably wouldn't have this problem. Dean.

Ben: 1:29:39

You, you better watch it. You're about to shoot yourself in the foot.

Gene: 1:29:43

I, I'm not, no, I, I don't have that problem right now. So, it's, it is a it, it is something that we have to deal with, but man, you know, you don't need to empower the problem. You need to control the problem.

Ben: 1:29:59

Hmm. Well, there, there's plenty of issue. There is a 19. I, I think that there are some ways around it, but I, I won't go so far as to say repeal the 19th Amendment. I think we've, I, I'm not pro universal franchise men. I think you do need to have some skin in the game. I've said that for a long time. I, I think that the way of signing up for selective services is a good way to ensure that, you know, if something goes on, you've got skin in the game. So. Mm-hmm. I, I like that. But yeah, just universal franchisement I don't think is beneficial for anyone. And that's not based off of sex. That's just common sense. Mm-hmm. Okay. So couple funny things. Oh, before I forget travel tip. Yeah. Marriott's new homes and Villas. Mm-hmm. Cheaper than V R B O or Airbnb. Hmm. And you get night nights and points credit for it. Interesting.

Gene: 1:31:02

I've now looked at that. So it, so that's who

Ben: 1:31:04

I'm renting the house through. By the way, what's the website? It's just Marriott's website. But you click on the Homes and Villas. Oh, I haven't never. It's their competitor to V R B O and Airbnb.

Gene: 1:31:13

So they're, they're not owned by Marriot, they're just like Airbnb, correct. Huh.

Ben: 1:31:19

Hmm. But you can use Marriott points. It's really expensive to use Marriott points cause they're having to pay out to someone. Sure. Like real money. Yeah. But so I wouldn't, I wouldn't pay, I wouldn't use points to book this. Right, right, right. Because it's just, the value's not there, but you get points. So for this week's stay, I'm getting like 7,000 points. Woo.

Gene: 1:31:39

Nice. Yeah. My my rule of thumb has typically been don't use points fully to pay for anything under$250. Mm-hmm. So if the room's under two 50, I'll, I'll pay cash. It's usually a better deal. Yeah. If it's over two 50, then you're getting into the extravagant fees and there the point conversion makes more sense.

Ben: 1:32:02

Well, you, you're not gonna believe what I was able to rent this house for. Oh, wait, what'd you get it for? Beachside House. Mm-hmm. It's not on the beach. It's a little ways back, but that's okay for me. Yeah. So three

Gene: 1:32:14

bedroom, when you say a little way back, you mean like a block or like three blocks.

Ben: 1:32:18

Oh, it, it, it's only really one block deep. Okay. At the, anyway. Yeah. So within a block of the beach. Mm-hmm. Nice. Part of the peninsula. How many bedroom location? Huh?

Gene: 1:32:30

How many bedrooms? Three.

Ben: 1:32:32

Mm-hmm. With a bunch of different beds. Sleeps a bunch of people. Mm-hmm. Anyway, nice house pretty, you know, well furnished. It doesn't look like crap. That sort of thing. Mm-hmm. For the five nights that were gonna be there, it was like 1300 bucks.

Gene: 1:32:47

Hmm. Yeah. That's a pretty good deal. I think I paid more than that for my hotel when I was in Phoenix.

Ben: 1:32:54

Yeah. Well, you know, next time you're going down to Padre or something to watch a SpaceX launch and so on look at it might be a good option for you. Yeah,

Gene: 1:33:03

yeah, totally. And I do want to get down there for the next attempt, which should be sometime midsummer. Hmm. Mm-hmm. I, I think the biggest problem with the, the launches is that they're unpredictable. So you pretty much have to be there a whole week because they're. They, they give you, like at the earliest, we'll launch it on Monday. Mm-hmm. And then something happens and they can't do it. They, and then it drags down. That's your window. Yeah. Yeah. The window, the window is about a week usually. So it's, it could end up being that, and it's, there have been instances in the past and not too exactly where you go down there and you just have vacation for a week and there's no watch.

Ben: 1:33:46

But again, it's a pretty place to go, so, you know.

Gene: 1:33:50

Yeah. Yeah. I, I like it. I mean, that's it. I get my fill of, of fish. I try to eat a lot of the seafood when I'm down there. It's not like I'm that far from the fucking coast right now. Anyway. I'm three and a half

Ben: 1:34:05

hours. So while we're talking about Phish, did you see the story on I M D B having to change their algorithm? Yes. Yeah. Explain that. The little mermaid they were saying, because it was so, you know, it skewed. The racists are skewing and bombing and da, da da da da and yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, it, it's funny because if you look at the, you know, the problem is

Gene: 1:34:30

right, what white women. How so? Well, they're the ones that are in charge of changing all the races of all these actors.

Ben: 1:34:39

Right. But if you look at the box office, the box office is not doing good. Well,

Gene: 1:34:44

that's completely predictable because people don't want that because these women that are in charge of this shit, and it's a, it's a I think it's a black chick that produced it. Will Smiths wife and then a so she's, she's black, but she's rich black, so she's basically a white woman.

Ben: 1:35:04

Yeah. So here, here's this is, this is how dystopian we are living Little Mermaid to become the latest. So, here, here's one Little mermaid box office soars to impressive worldwide totals. Mm-hmm. You know how much it's made? How much? 250 million worldwide. That's pretty good. Actually.

Gene: 1:35:26

I would've

Ben: 1:35:26

expected less. That's nothing for Disney movie. Yeah, but I mean, Disney movies like this hit more close to a billion, like

Gene: 1:35:36

Star Wars made less than that when it

Ben: 1:35:37

came out. The original maybe in the seventies or even the next two in the eighties. Yeah. So domestically it's 130 million. Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty

Gene: 1:35:51

low. Yeah. Mean it used to be any movie over a hundred million was a good movie, but that was like 20 years. Well,

Ben: 1:35:57

their budget was over a hundred million. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're going to lose money on this. So if you look into it, little money made to become the latest Disney film to lose money.

Gene: 1:36:10

Ave Dude smiles a lot. I noticed. I've just got his website up, so there's a video of him playing. Okay. Smiles all the time. Okay.

Ben: 1:36:20

I don't know. That's bad. I don't

Gene: 1:36:21

know. That's bad. No, that's a good thing. No, I think you want somebody that smiles a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, dude. I mean, I'm, I'm like, like I said, I, this week I'm apolitical, so except for, you know, women I guess that whole thing about God screwing up. But other than that, pretty apolitical.

Ben: 1:36:41

Well, yeah.

Gene: 1:36:43

Anything, anything else going on in the world that I missed?

Ben: 1:36:46

Oh, you just, to hell on a hand basket, but, you know, other than that,

Gene: 1:36:49

well, that sounds like a

Ben: 1:36:50

typical week. Yeah, exactly. So that's, no, I, I, I think the biggest thing in the last week has really been some of these court cases that are stopping the atf, um mm-hmm. There's some pretty good court cases potentially going to the Supreme Court around the nfa. That will be pretty interesting. Yeah. You know, I, I think that's the the good news.

Gene: 1:37:15

God, I wish, I wish somebody had the balls to just defund them. You can't have an agency if you, if it doesn't

Ben: 1:37:21

have any money. Yeah. But who, but then people are gonna pick it back up and it's just not gonna be great. What do you mean people are gonna pick it up? The F B I or someone will pick up some of that enforcement authority somehow. Yeah.

Gene: 1:37:38

But that's the second one that needs to get defunded is the fbi. I completely agree. All these organizations do not belong in the federal system. They need to be the, the tsa

Ben: 1:37:49

There is no federal

Gene: 1:37:50

policing power. Yeah. All these different federal, federal departments need to just go away. But again, you, I, I hold Congress responsible cuz they keep funding this shit.

Ben: 1:38:02

Yeah. Well, like I said, like we said at the beginning of this, with the debt deal that just went through the Freedom Caucus, Republicans don't have any balls if they do not bring a vote of no confidence against McCarthy. Yeah,

Gene: 1:38:14

yeah, yeah. They totally should. And the rest of the Republicans, I mean, you, we have what, there's 20 Republicans that are actually Republicans and then the rest of'em are faux Republicans.

Ben: 1:38:27

Rhinos.

Gene: 1:38:28

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So that we need to just keep, keep getting rid of'em. Do not vote for an incumbent just cuz they have an hour there.

Ben: 1:38:39

Well, I mean that's, that's rough. At least in don't vote for the incumbent in the primary. How about that?

Gene: 1:38:46

Yeah. But a lot of these guys are unopposed.

Ben: 1:38:49

Well, I never vote for someone who's unopposed

Gene: 1:38:52

and it doesn't matter as long as one person votes from

Ben: 1:38:55

Well it does. In, in, in Texas the recall. So Texas has the ability to recall politicians elected and mm-hmm. To recall.

Gene: 1:39:03

Well, I got a question for you. Speaking of Texas

Ben: 1:39:05

politics to recall a politician in Texas, you have to get more votes for the recall than they got in the election. Than they got in the election. Okay. So that's why you don't vote for unop opposed candidates. That's

Gene: 1:39:16

a good idea. People keep that in mind. What's happened with the attorney general because he, I thought he was a pretty good attorney general with the lawsuits

Ben: 1:39:24

he's got going. Yeah. But he's done some really shady shit. So, and but he's our guy. I'm sorry, but

Gene: 1:39:31

he's

Ben: 1:39:31

our guy. Right. But the Texas, the Texas government is actually behaving ethically. Hmm. So it doesn't matter that he's got an R in his name next to his name. The Republicans are the ones impeaching him, and I know that's the, I understand it's the hilarity of it is his wife is mm-hmm. A Texas state senator. So she's gonna be involved in really the trial of her husband. Wow. You know, and he, it's come out that he had an affair and who dares got his, well because he used taxpayer dollars to fund several things and get her a job and Oh. Things like that. So, yeah. I'm sure his wife is gonna seek out revenge.

Gene: 1:40:13

Yeah. That sounds like problem his soon to be ex-wife, you mean?

Ben: 1:40:17

Yeah. And you know it, here, here's the thing, there, there's some details that are there. There are some who speculate that a, she knew about the affair all along mm-hmm. And that this was an open marriage sort of scenario. And then, you know, but keep it quiet. And he wasn't very good about keeping it quiet and now it's a problem. So,

Gene: 1:40:37

yeah. But it, I mean, I don't know much about this guy other than the fact that I've liked the lawsuits he's put out there. Hmm. I don't disagree. His lawsuit probably was the best of the bunch with the the voting irregularities. And I, I think of all the lawsuits during the Well and let the last elections, the Texas one was the one that should have actually gone fully through to the Supreme Court withstanding, and

Ben: 1:41:05

let's be clear about what that was. So Texas sued Pennsylvania mm-hmm. Saying that they illegally changed their voting laws. Mm-hmm. And that was a disenfranchise that was disenfranchising to Texas citizens. Yeah,

Gene: 1:41:20

exactly. And the reason they had to present it that way is because previous lawsuits all got thrown away for lack of standing because oh. And the

Ben: 1:41:31

Texas lawsuit did as well,

Gene: 1:41:32

which is just insane. But it shouldn't have, because they followed the guidelines for what should have constituted a standing I, the Supreme Court, just a bunch of pussies is what it came down to. Mm-hmm. They're, they're, they acted in pure self-interest and saying, we don't want our houses to be surrounded by mobs. We are not going to pick the next president. We're gonna stay out of it and not worry about it.

Ben: 1:41:58

Yep. So, anyway to answer your question, Ken Paxton did some shady shit personally, and he's being impeached for it. You

Gene: 1:42:07

know, yeah. I don't like that. I don't like politicians being impeached for personal offenses.

Ben: 1:42:12

I, so I think if taxpayer dollars weren't involved, he wouldn't be, I think that's where he screwed

Gene: 1:42:17

up and well just give the money back.

Ben: 1:42:19

Who cares? Oh, okay. Well, that's not what's happening. And I fully expect him to be removed and the governor will have to

Gene: 1:42:26

we have a milk toast governor who's barely a Republican, and we have, I agree. Yeah. And so I'm really concerned that the guy who's gonna come in there to replace them would not have had all these lawsuits. Mm. Okay. So I think we're, we're gonna end up getting screwed in the end. And I would rather have a guy that cheats on his wife, but it's good for the state than the guy who doesn't cheat on his wife, but is not gonna be good for the state because he's gonna be a milk toast just like the governor.

Ben: 1:42:58

Well, you know, the good thing is that it's only a temporary appointment and then, you know, the next election we'll have to see who runs. He could

Gene: 1:43:08

run again, right? Yes.

Ben: 1:43:11

Well, I hope he does well. I don't think he'll would win, but Sure. Why wouldn't he win? Because I think there's, there's too much scandal and people, like my wife would find it disgusting.

Gene: 1:43:23

And 19th Amendment, your wife has no business voting.

Ben: 1:43:27

Well anyway, I I'm, you argue with that sentiment?

Gene: 1:43:30

Huh? You gonna argue with me on that? Nope.

Ben: 1:43:33

Not at all. Because you know, Uhhuh, she and I butt heads enough that I uhhuh I would, and

Gene: 1:43:39

that's, that's true of most of my friends. And I don't think I'm the common link here at all. I think it's true of most men. Is there wives negate their votes on everything to a large extent. Yeah. So effectively it's, it's those of us that are divorced and lifeless

Ben: 1:43:57

that I think your wife probably still negates your

Gene: 1:43:59

vote g Well, I actually, my wife, my ex-wife never negated my votes. Ah-huh she is, how do you know? Be well, I know pretty well. And you know, we still talk, I told you this 10 years after divorce, we're still talking to each other. But no, she is very conservative. She is generally, there's very few things that we had when it came to politics that we disagreed on. Okay. But for the most part, For politics. We were very similar on other topics outside of politics. There was certainly differences, but but when it came to politics, that was a not at all a a source of disagreement.

Ben: 1:44:47

Yeah. So, just a real quick tip. Right now, audible has a sale going on for everything on your wishlist for up to 85% off. Oh,

Gene: 1:44:56

really? I gotta

Ben: 1:44:57

check that out. All right, man. Anything else we wanna cover?

Gene: 1:45:02

Let me check before we drop here of the stuff that I sent you on Signal, if there's anything that I wanted to bring up. Oh, did you watch that Tenacious D video? Y

Ben: 1:45:16

Yeah. That's pretty funny. Oh yeah, it's very funny. Now I will say the, of the videos you sent me this last week, the the 5 56 AK that Palmetto State's making was the most interesting to me. Really? Yeah. I wish they would make it in the 3 0 8 and then I might buy it.

Gene: 1:45:32

Oh, yeah, yeah. Well they might make it. I mean, they seem to be pretty, they have a lot of different calibers

Ben: 1:45:39

they make. Yeah. So for people who don't know, Palmetto State came out with a new model of their AK platform that is chambered in 5 56 and takes AR mags, which is cool. Mm-hmm. The bolt hold open. You know, it actually Yep. There's some pretty decent improvements to the AK platform there.

Gene: 1:45:56

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. And I, I personally think that the best AK is not the ak it's, it's the ele. But for us made that that does seem to be the best variance. I'm not a fan of the giant oversized safety on the AKs.

Ben: 1:46:15

Well, it's just a mechanical safety. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I, I like, there's a rushing company that makes an AK in 3 0 8. Is there? Mm-hmm.

Gene: 1:46:26

Oh, nice. I mean, you can, you can get'em in. I'm sure that there's probably more than one that makes 3 0 8 AK variants. But the combination of a AK that uses an AR lower is, is more

Ben: 1:46:45

rare. Well, AR mags, it's not an

Gene: 1:46:47

AR lower, but I know, but, but not that, now, I'm not talking about the Palmetto state one, but there are, there are AK uppers that fit on AR lowers.

Ben: 1:46:57

I'm gonna have to look into these AKs shooting 3 0 8. That's pretty cool.

Gene: 1:47:02

I might get, well, your birthday is coming up. Exactly.

Ben: 1:47:05

I may have solve my question there. Yeah, exactly. Oh, all right, gene.

Gene: 1:47:11

All right, bud. We'll talk again next week. Hopefully we'll see you then. Yeah, better. All right. Bye.

Ben: 1:47:18

Bye.