145 Drones, Deals, And Disillusionment: How Modern Power Really Moves

Politics loves a headline, but incentives write the story. We kick off with a sharp pivot in U.S. leverage: foreign aid tied to UN alignment and public posture. Is that coercive or just honesty about the deal on the table? From there we tackle Europe’s speech controls and the push to block censors at the border—policy turning into travel reality. Even ICE’s trolling PR tells a tale: agencies that message with intent tend to move the field, while others just talk.

The conversation gets thornier with the Epstein files and Snowden. Performative redaction—layers you can peel off—looks less like a mistake and more like theater that protects powerful networks. Snowden’s floated pardon has a clean moral case and a messy practical one. You can free a whistleblower, but the secrecy machine he challenged still has teeth. That tension—between ideals and institutions—runs through everything we discuss next: welfare spending that swells without lifting outcomes, and online marketplaces where innovation is copied in months because the platform’s incentives permit it.

Abroad, we trace pressure campaigns around Venezuela and the shadow fleet, then wrestle with a gleaming provocation: a “Trump-class” missile battleship concept with hypersonics, lasers, and a railgun. Troll or doctrine? Maybe both—a jobs program for shipyards and a signal to rivals. Meanwhile, drones are rewriting the rules of war in Ukraine, exposing ports and fleets inside their own walls. Counter-drone becomes the new naval religion, above and below the surface. Back home, Chevron’s exit from California collides with boutique fuel mandates, nudging gas toward double digits and reminding everyone that policy choices show up at the pump.

We also get practical. Airline lounges aren’t a luxury; they’re leverage. Rebooking power, compensation rules, and flexible routing can turn a lost day into an upgrade. And if you’re shopping on Amazon, small heuristics—Prime fulfillment, “Sold by Amazon,” brand-first buying—can save you from cloned garbage. It’s all the same lesson: understand the incentives, then work them. If that resonates, hit follow, share this episode with a friend who loves geopolitics and life hacks, and leave a quick review—what surprised you most?

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Transcript

Cold Open And Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:25

Well, how are you Ben? How are you today?

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Dude, doing alright. We're uh recording this the day before Christmas Eve.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

You know, I wish you'd stop saying stuff like that because we never released shit on the same day we recorded.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

That's alright. It'll be a Christmas gift for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yeah. Oh, you're gonna play. Awesome.

unknown 0:46

Huh?

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Looking looking forward. Well, you said you're gonna play the violin.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

I'm gonna play what?

SPEAKER_00 0:51

I remember saying concretely you were gonna play the violin for Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

No, I said I need to no, not at all. Not what I said.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

That's what I heard. I think all our listeners heard that too. In fact, uh, weren't you gonna do a duet with that guy from Houston?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Ah, fun. What guy from Houston?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

The guy that wrote us, and he was surprised you played an instrument?

Foreign Aid Leverage At The UN

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Oh, uh, I don't think he was surprised I played an instrument. I think he was surprised about the violin. Anyway, dude, Trump made some announcements.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Okay, which ones are you referring to?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Well, there have been several. Have you not looked at the your inbox and sending stuff to?

SPEAKER_00 1:41

I have. Which one is specifically you want to start with?

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Well, I think we can start with the EU and foreign aid.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

So the Trump admin is working on any for any country that's foreign leaders do not vote with the United States and the UN or disparage the United States publicly. No foreign aid. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah. I I think it's nice to see some of the rhetoric turn into action. Because, you know, you get here, you get you get tired of hearing nothing but rhetoric, right?

SPEAKER_02 2:27

Oh yeah, agreed.

EU Censorship And Rubio’s Travel Ban Idea

SPEAKER_00 2:28

It's kind of like you gotta see some act. People have been saying, when that when are the arrests coming, for example. But as far as Europe, I I know that we do have some folks that listen to us that live in Europe. And I mean, I was, you know, I born in Europe and lived in Europe for quite a while. But it is nice to see some pushback on what Europe has turned into.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

Well, Marco Rubio is announcing that you know, EU officials that are complicit in censoring speech will not be allowed in the United States.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Which is awesome. I I think that's long overdue. There, there's an awful lot of politicians in the EU that have been acting like jackasses that have no business coming to the United States, as far as I'm concerned. So that is very good to hear. I mean, out of the entire Trump White House, I like Rubio the most.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Vance is up there.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Vance has slipped down, but Rubio just keeps hitting them out of the ballpark.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Rubio's doing pretty good, dude.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

I would love for him tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 3:40

Well, it'll be a Vance Rubio ticket, so don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Uh I don't think so. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Who do you think it's gonna be?

SPEAKER_00 3:48

I I think it's gonna be a Vance and somebody no one's ever heard of, like Trump's first vice president. Because what Vance is gonna need to do is figure out what category of votes he's missing the most, and then go for that. And I don't think Rubio is the category. Like the Cuban vote isn't gonna give it to him.

SPEAKER_02 4:10

Not just Cuban, but Latino in general.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

There's a big difference between Cubans and Latinos. One does not play nice with the other.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

There's the Cubans are a lot more, they think of themselves a lot more as European than the other Latinos.

SPEAKER_02 4:31

They can think that all they want.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Who are more Native American-ish.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

By the way, did you see the ICE Christmas video?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yes, yes, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

ICE.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Okay, whoever is doing marketing for ice for nobody's gonna be able to do it and hold insecurity in general. They're awesome. Yeah, yeah. Those those videos and and the posts that they post on the Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

DHS Gov Go Home.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

What?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

You know, it's only an insult if you don't actually belong here.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

I think it's funny. I I love the trolling. I it's driving the left nuts.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

The the official trolling is great. So whoever they got working for their marketing out there is doing great. Way better than whoever's doing marketing for the FBI.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Oh yeah. Which Dan. What are your thoughts on Dan leaving?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

I think it's like seven months too late. I honestly, if you saw the expression on his face seven months ago, like literally a month or two after he started, that should have told you the whole story right there. Like Dan got basically told what his job is. And he thought he was gonna be coming in to run something, but no, no, no. He came in to be the face of something, not to run something. And I think it's taken this long. I'm surprised because if he would have ditched out like back when even Elon Musk, uh, when Elon left, I think he could have come right back into his podcast position and taken down some of the people currently sitting at the number one position.

SPEAKER_02 6:15

I think he's still going to.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah, I think a lot of people have lost faith in him.

Dan Bongino’s Exit And Speech Constraints

SPEAKER_02 6:20

I mean, he was basically in the live stream for forever, especially if he comes back and says, This is what I found, this is why I get left.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

This is the problem. This is the problem for accepting a government job, is he's been sworn in on the National Secrecy Act stuff. He cannot mention things, or he will go to prison. He literally has given up his ability to talk about things.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

He's already sworn in on that as a secret service agent under Presidential Protection Detail.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Very different level of security, secrecy there.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

So you're right. The Secret Service agent on the presidential protection detail is higher.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

No, it's not. So I think what we're gonna see is a milked toast Bungino, who is gonna be way more careful about what he talks about and what what kind of stuff he's gonna, which side of which topics he's gonna be on. One thing you're not gonna hear anything from him on, guaranteed 100%, Epstein.

SPEAKER_02 7:26

Well, you saw Mr. Gunzengear's post.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

I don't know, but I didn't. Which one?

SPEAKER_02 7:34

So apparently the the Epstein files that were redacted were redacted in Adobe. Oh, yeah. And just lines put over it. Right, but they didn't flatten the file.

Epstein Files, Redactions, And Deniability

SPEAKER_00 7:45

I know, but that's that's a standard thing. That this is called what what's the phrase? Something deniability. It's basically plausible deniability. It's essentially when when what you're saying is look, unredact the file. We can't release these without redacting them because there are things in here relating to people who are still alive and we need to preserve their privacy. And then you purposefully do our the redaction in the way that makes it easy to remove the redaction. Nobody made a mistake here. This is exactly as planned, just like every other time in the past. Yeah, nothing shocking is gonna come out unless you're shocked by you know stories of Epstein and his particular kink. But I don't like nothing's gonna come out about politicians, nothing's gonna come out about any more, like you won't see a single senator's name in there. It's okay, it's I've been saying this for over a year. The Epstein files are not going to come out. They're not the real info that everyone keeps wanting to get, like, give us the names, give us who who all was actually there, because we we think we know all these things. Nope, not gonna happen. Because you know, part of the reason that we were getting photos of a variety of international politicians with these young women, whether they were underage or not, different question, but certainly they were young women.

SPEAKER_02 9:31

I don't know. Some of the photos with Epstein, the girl sitting in her his lap, this one I'm thinking of, she looks awful young, dude.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

And like maybe 14, 15.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

There are a lot of people that look young, but maybe she was young. I don't know. But my point is that it doesn't even matter what their age is. The point is what clearly was happening, and the debate can simply be around why it was happening, but what clearly was happening was a black male scheme that involved international business people and international politicians. So we want to keep getting that$60 billion investment from the Saudis. We're not gonna out any Saudi princes from going there.

SPEAKER_02 10:17

Trillion.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Whatever. Point is big investments, right? We're not gonna be outing anybody that is in any way connected to the Saudis. And because that is what those photos are for. They're for blackmail. And what we're getting right now is we're blackmailing the Saudis for money. Like, well, I don't know. The Americans want to see all that stuff, and you realize if they see it, I'm gonna have to officially change America's relationship with Saudi Arabia. What if we just send a lot of money? Well, maybe they won't see them then. Epstein did his job. May not like them, may not like the methods. There's a lot of things that the spy craft people do that regular people don't like. So it's a it's I in my opinion, this is the stuff that we are kind of starting to see a little bit of trickling in is not at all surprising, and we're not gonna get a big gotcha out of it. And I I'll be happy to say I'm wrong if I'm actually wrong.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Okay. Well, I'm I hope you're wrong.

Snowden Pardon Talk And Risks

SPEAKER_00 11:34

Well, I kind of do too, because I I do have a very strong curiosity, but I just don't see it happening. All all the uh people that I follow, the uh ex CIA dudes and people that have seen things that you know other people don't want coming out, then yeah. I just don't see it happening. Well, one thing you sent me that I had not seen before is this news about Snowden.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Yeah. The Snowden thing I think is uh pretty interesting. Apparently you know, Trump admin is in talks with Snowden for a full and unconditional pardon and having him come back, which I think would be interesting. Which I think the I why they care about him coming back, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Well, I mean, both both of his terms, both of Trump's terms, I think you and I were both very much like bring Snowden back. You gotta give him pardon. Like if there's anybody that deserves the pardon, it's him.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Let him let him decide what he wants to do.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Right, right, right. My fear at at this stage in the game is that there are still way too many people in the administration, not maybe Trump necessarily, but people in the administration that know how to use the system to bend things, to have make them happen the way they want them to, that absolutely think Snowden needs to be tried and executed. And by tried, I mean the formality of a trial, a military trial, out of the public eye. And the invisible.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

That doesn't mean he falls under the UCMJ. No, no, it doesn't be in the military and then he got a medical discharge. So unless they recall him to the military, look, they could do that.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

They're talking about doing that with that Democrat liberal piece of shit from Arizona. They could certainly do it with him as well. So my point is there are people still way too many people that consider what he did to be no different than any you know spy spying for a foreign country, even though clearly what he did was he was spying for the American people. So it's kind of like yeah, and and they're gonna they they're really gonna push the whole he had an opportunity to be a whistleblower and he chose instead to give our secrets to foreign governments. You know, that that's the line that they're gonna keep pushing. So I'm in that sense, I would love to see Trump pardon him, but I also I think it's dangerous for him to come back to the US. I I think he will get snatched up right after he shows up.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

What do you think? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

I I think that if he's given a pardon and he comes back, or they're wanting him to come back. There's a reason for it. He may have some information, he may know something.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

You know, then I mean if Trump wanted to really fuck with the bureaucracy, then he would bring him in like he did Musk as a 90-day employee of Trump, basically. Up to 120. Wasn't that? I thought it was 90.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Say clean up the deep state. Yeah, yeah, and basically actually that would be great PR for Trump's uh Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Absolutely. And now how much he could actually do, you know, probably less than Musk. But nonetheless, I think it would be great PR for Trump. Because remember, Trump did a TV show about taking other celebrities and bringing them in to work for him. That was literally Trump's TV show. And then saying, You're fired, Musk. You suck, you're the worst. And by the way, I've never been, I don't even know who Epstein is.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

I mean it's it's interesting that Musk and Trump are back on the same page again.

Welfare Spend, Fraud, And Incentives

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Eh, same-ish. I mean, we still haven't heard of Musk saying that he's not going to have his other party that he started. So we'll we'll see what happens. I think Musk is holding his cards close to his vest at this point. He's happy to support people that agree with him, but he's perfectly willing to go off on his own if they don't. He doesn't have to, he's not a joiner. Did you see the uh welfare?

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Did you see the welfare fraud that he posted? Minnesota one?

SPEAKER_00 16:22

The eight trillion or whatever?

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Well, it's it's nationwide, but Minnesota especially. So Musk was posting, you know, the so this is interesting. Spending on welfare has gone up 700 and some odd percent faster than any other portion of the government. If the money that was given to all if the money that was spent on welfare was given directly to the 14 some odd million people in the country the the government considers poor, they would each get like$70,000 a year.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

So obviously, in California, that is literally poverty level.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Depending on where you're at in California.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Well, yeah. Yeah, I I think there has always been, I mean, I've certainly always like talked to my friends about the the fact that people on warfare are clearly not temporarily using government assistance, they've just figured out a way to maximize living on the government dull. And there are plenty of smart people on welfare who've just again just use their intellect to figure out a way to not have to work and live in the government dull. But it's always just kind of been accepted as part of the you know, like you don't wanna you wanna let ten guilty people free so you don't accidentally put the one innocent person in jail, right? I think that's one of the mentality for social programs.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Well, I think it's the mentality for actually several programs where, you know, it's it's like Amazon. Perfect example. Amazon could cut down on fraud quite a bit, but they would hurt legitimate resellers more. So Amazon makes their strategic decision to say it is better for us to pay the bill than to stop sellers from being able to sell effectively.

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Well, and because they Amazon also still makes money on the fraud sellers.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Yeah, for the unreported. Which is gonna be most of them.

Amazon Knockoffs, Patents, And Buyer Tips

SPEAKER_00 18:48

There's a there's a I can't remember the stats exactly, but i the the math has been done for Amazon to know how much they can cover when people actually want refunds and then it they still make more money even with them covering fraudulent stuff by allowing the fraudulent stuff, because not every fraudulent seller ends up having shit sent back or you know, ask for refunds kind of thing. And uh when my when my buddy had invented a metal wallet that he was selling on Amazon, and this is something that we did a Kickstarter for, got like half a million bucks in the Kickstarter, he bought the machinery, and these were all literally printed in the US, or not printed, they were metal. They were CNC machined in the US. There's a high-end over a hundred dollar wallet kind of thing. And yeah. And well, that's for the that's that's for the aluminum one. I've got a titanium version. But almost within three months there was knockoffs popping up on Amazon. And this guy was very smart very early on. He got patents in the US and in 20 other countries. So he literally once the patents actually came through, then all he had to do was just send Amazon a notification letter selling that this is an unauthorized product violating his patent and Amazon would immediately take it off. But most people don't do that. Products that I've tried selling on Amazon or even eBay. Stuff I've sold on eBay that I like custom ordered that was supposed to be somewhat unique at least like I sent the design in, I get a product a couple thousand of those products coming in every single time within about a month or two you start seeing people selling it for half the RAM charging. So I don't think this is an unusual practice. I think a lot of people just they like they never patent anything they never really have any tools to fight back against the uh cheaper clones. And so a lot of stuff on Amazon is clones. And if you look at it that's why I always select one thing to kind of fight against that a little bit is always select that it has to be shipped prime which will eliminate all the products that would otherwise be shipped from China.

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Well that's not true. So Linus just did a video not too long ago on hard drives they bought off of Amazon external hard drives that were supposed to be X size and RSB3 and they're not M2s and you know they're using firmware hacks to change the size and everything else. This eliminates Prime is wasn't my point.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

But they weren't shipped prime from China is my point. So you if if somebody goes to the trouble of shipping knockoffs to the US having them go through customs first then yes they can ship them prime on Amazon but if they're a lot of these companies will just try and ship you stuff direct from China. And and that way they both bypass customs and bypass you know having to send the whole shipment to Amazon all at once. So always choose prime for delivery method for everything. But that what I was going to say before you chimed in is does not guarantee that it's a not a a real product. It's just that you've removed one of the easier ways for them to do this. And then beyond Prime of course you can if if you have a choice even if it's a few bucks more which it usually is buy it directly from Amazon instead of a merchant selling the same product as Amazon for 10 bucks cheaper than Amazon. Because a lot of times you assume something is oh it's prime must be sold by Amazon. No it's not you can click on show me all sellers and you'll see 20 or 30 different names of companies that are selling the exact same product with the same listing and Amazon may be one of you they don't have to be Amazon at all in fact some products just Amazon doesn't sell but perfect example I was looking at the sale on on the Apple products on Amazon right now. You can get a Mac Mini for like 25% off right now. It's amazing do you get a M4 Mac mini for like$379 or something just crazy cheap price for the the performance that thing has. But if you go in there you click on it you could see that it's not just Amazon selling them it's also a bunch of third party sellers and they're third party sellers are shipping prime just like Amazon themselves. So always make sure and you buy it directly from Amazon. And even that doesn't guarantee you don't get a knockoff product it just reduces the chance of that happening. Because if Amazon is selling a knockoff product through themselves that they bought and they start seeing an uptick in people returning these things and complaining that they're not genuine Amazon will both keep all those products and bill back the company that they bought them from for all the ones they previously bought from and you don't want to be on the wrong side of Amazon in a lawsuit that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

So you know there's one solution which Ben hates of course don't buy shit that's cheap screw you dude you know I'm right you know I'm right yeah I I actually bought uh a few cheap things today no shocker I uh I got uh my kids these cricket single shot bolt action 1022s and uh they were they were just you know they're a hundred and some odd bucks a piece but because there's nothing to them right it's just a single shot 1022 but it's a great little starter gun and I got it I think my 1022 back in the day was that price. Well my I've got a I've got 1022s for the kids too but they're over$200. But the reason why I like these little crickets and why I got them is because they're single shot right so a 1022 you know yeah you could load a single round into it and do it that way but you know this is a better little starter gun to get them into it.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Well the whole point of 1022s is you could load 100 rounds in there.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

Yeah I know and once they're I know they're safe with them and everything else fine but right now this is you know a good way to get them into it. Mm-hmm nice yeah so did you see the uh takedown in Minnesota the takedown in Minnesota no yeah I I dude I really think Ilen Omar is gonna end up deported so one they've proved they've proved the fraud on immigration like the evidence is clear that she lied on immigration forums to get her brother over here. Oh yeah yeah two they're tying a lot of this stuff that they're tying to Tim Waltz on this nine billion dollar scam directly to Tim Waltz and Ilhan Omar not you know not adjacent not anything directly to them I I I don't see how Tim Waltz or Ilhan Omar avoid like the only reason why she may not be deported is she may be in jail if we can deport them we usually do.

Minnesota Politics, Fraud, And Deportation

SPEAKER_00 27:28

I mean and sometimes it's kind of sad. I I remember I was deal with the fraud you know yeah well I was on a on a fraud case many years ago that had some Nigerians involved in shocker right that had been doing money laundering yeah money laundering in in Minneapolis and you know the evidence was pretty damn conclusive it was obvious that the these guys were money laundering and so they were found guilty but in knowing what kind of crimes they actually committed it was a little disappointing to hear that the next step for them is simply deportation like hold up if an American did this they'd be sitting in jail for like eight years you're just paying for them to have a one-way ticket back home that seems like it's not enough punishment but I also understand you don't want to be crowding US prisons for eighty thousand dollars per year per inmate with international prisoners and you know that's not good either I would love to see Ilan Omar be back regardless of what happens if she's shipped out or you know goes to jail I will be a very happy person. Absolutely and you know the reason like the Somalis don't even make up that high a percentage of the population but you combine the Somali voting bloc that even if you have more religious Somalis that are you know like real not fake Islamists they're still going to vote for Somali not for a conservative non-Somali candidate. You combine that with the the crazy ass liberal women that live in Minnesota and it is absolutely a majority vote that way. It's you know these are I don't know man I I like I don't even want to describe the image that I have okay I'll describe yeah you know that picture of like the young blonde chick sitting on the sofa? No surrounded by like six black dudes like waitlisters okay okay I kind of figured you did that's that's the image that I think it's a meme yes and it's it's the meme that I always think of when I think of liberal white women like that is their dream that is them doing the greatest thing that they can do in this lifetime is to be the subject of a particular type of encounter with particular type of people like they literally dream about that. So it is not at all a surprise as to how these votes go and of course the antidote to this is very simple get rid of the damn 19th amendment which was a mistake well I think you need to get rid of franchisement for a lot of people not just not just women well let's start there and we'll we'll see what really matters.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

If you if you ban if you got rid of the 19th it would it would change franchisement for not just women yeah and okay I'm just saying yeah well let's start there and we'll see where it goes what else we got what's going on with I've seen some memes so you were saying that the Russia was pulling out diplomatic staff yeah yeah yeah that came across the desk yep so clearly Russia thinks something is happening apprehension of a boat here and there well we've seized two boats now yeah yep so I don't know I mean I I don't think we're going to go I I think we're trying not to go kinetic I think we're trying Franklin is sure as hell going yeah yeah I saw that meme but I I think we're trying to let the Venezuelan people kick Maduro out by putting enough economic pressure on them.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Exactly before we kill them exactly yeah the Franklin memes are next level dude I this is probably one of my favorite favorite test categories of memory oh yeah well I I think someone needs to start using AI to write the books. I know I know or just write the books without AI but it it's if I was that company that was doing the Franklin shit I would just say you know what maybe it's time to change our business model. Maybe we be we like joined the Babylon B and just make all this shit real publish shit and have our copyright on it instead of people getting around our copyright by using humor as a a workaround. Because I can't imagine I can't imagine the real Franklin books are nearly as popular as the meme stuff probably not but anyway I think it's interesting what we've positioned in and around Venezuela.

Venezuela Pressure, Shadow Fleet, Cuba Hopes

SPEAKER_02 33:15

I think it's interesting the interdictions that we're doing that we're taking out large portions of the Shadow fleet which hits Iran China and Russia pr pretty hard actually as well as Venezuela. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

I think without Caracas Cuba falls yeah which again I just I don't know what the hell the deal is with Cuba because I fully expected when Obama came in and opened it up for tourism that that was going to be the beginning of the end and we'd be you know going to Cuba for Thanksgiving and stuff. And it only lasted a few years.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

I I wants to go to Cuba right now.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

Well I don't yeah I don't know I would I missed out but not until they everybody I fucking know went to Cuba all my friends went to Cuba my sister my niece everybody went to Cuba during Obama and I was like I don't know maybe I was busy working or some shit. You know there's a period of time where I didn't take vacation for multiple years. But somehow it just didn't occur to me that Cuba would close and so I didn't really make too much of an effort to go when all these other people did because I you know what it's not like it's gonna get harder to go it'll just probably be more like more and more airlines are flying there. It'll get easier and then it didn't so there you go.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Oh man Fox News what about him no this is real America's voice they're running a story right now with a former CIA officer saying Lindsey Graham's bank records show that he's laundering money back from Ukraine into his own bank account really which I wouldn't be surprised yeah but they're they're claiming it right now sending a story well I mean it is Lady Graham so what do you expect right?

SPEAKER_00 35:29

The biggest the biggest proponent of the war yeah the biggest war hawk well it's it must be nice to where you're both paid by the military industrial complex and you're paid by the bribes coming back from Ukraine he's like double dipping well he's triple dipping because he's paid a salary too the guy's triple dipping this is all shit that John McCain taught him I mean hey hey hey don't talk about triple dipping you're gonna turn him on oh you're a gross you're just gross man you know what when you serve me up such a softball I can't help but hit anyway so I want to talk about a couple light topics and then we can get into some other deep stuff.

“Golden Fleet” And Trump-Class Battleships

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Okay so last Saturday my dad and I went to the AM game yes and Miaggies lost but it was a good game in the fourth quarter fairly late in the fourth quarter it was a 3-3 ball game. Wow that's really low score yeah defensive defensive game Miami ended up getting a touchdown after you know just some stupid self-inflicted shit on it. Hurricanes that's what I thought yeah yeah University of Miami anyway so they ended up winning 10-3 but it was a defensive oh no this was a this was way way better game okay in so many ways but anyway we had a lot of fun got some sun it was a beautiful what do you mean well it looked like you were sending photos of some midnight mass or something oh no no that was the midnight yell the the night before dude oh that was the night before okay got it yeah so Aggies have the we have this tradition called midnight yell where we show up at the stadium and we have what we call yell practice because we don't cheer we yell and yeah that would make sense anyway they go through and we practice the hand signals and the yells that we're gonna do the next day tell some stories and then at midnight the lights turn off and if you've got a date you make out if you don't have a date you flick a lighter and you find a date it's a great college tradition now the the Gen Z still do this? Yes absolutely funny story when I was a freshman one of my friends he didn't have a date so he got the bright idea that he was going to sneak in a road flare and he was down on the first deck which is the for you know bottom seating and he lit the road flare and immediately two Texas state troopers just show up around him and escort him out. Well I guess he got a double date didn't he yeah yeah yeah yeah but anyway we we we always had a lot of fun but no the game was great it was good to go with my dad and get to go to a game with him again and nice it was it was a lot of fun. So it was an 11 a.m kickoff so it and it was a grinding game so it wasn't a real long game. But it was good. It was good and you know we should have won that game we didn't it's okay but to be under the second year of Mike Elko the new coach and to already go to the playoffs is a pretty damn big deal. Okay good so very happy about that good good so next year it'll be better oh and well and here's the thing all of our starters who aren't who have all the starters that have eligibility left have said they're coming back next year. Okay that's a big deal especially in today's portal era and NIL and all that it's a big deal so I look forward to it. Nice so much so that I I got on the wait list for season tickets.

SPEAKER_00 39:43

Well you did wow that's a big step what does that run about five grand no no no no no it dep first of all it depends on where your tickets are.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

Well I think getting on the wait list doesn't cost hardly anything.

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Okay no and then I can choose my tickets later got it got it so you're just waiting until they have some availability correct and I put a wait list on for four how many tickets do they pre-sell for for I'm the I'm blanking up the word I'm thinking.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Yeah season tickets they'll pre-sell quite a few won't they obviously don't want to fill the whole

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Stadium with nothing but season tickets. They want to leave some open.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Uh, I mean, people sell them on the secondary market. It doesn't really matter to them.

SPEAKER_00 40:32

No.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

If they could do pre- if they could sell out the entire stadium, save the it and with sport passes, even the student section.

SPEAKER_00 40:41

Now, does that stadium have the VIP suites or not?

SPEAKER_02 40:44

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 40:47

Yeah. There were over 104,000 people at that game, dude.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 40:52

It was a big game.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

So that's like half the city.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

It's more than the population of College Station. Ryan College Station together is like 120.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Holy shit. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Yeah. Well, they're not kidding. I mean, I I knew that, you know, the there's always this idea that they take football seriously in Texas. But when I move down here and I see how many people are watching hockey like me, and how many people are watching football, it's it's there's no comparison.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

No, there's not. I mean, yeah. We have high school stadiums that are bigger than some, you know, some college stadiums up here.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

I think that's absolutely true. I think that is exactly right.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Yep. It's a Texas thing, man. We we take football and food and guns and lots of things seriously.

SPEAKER_00 41:49

Yep, steaks and college football.

unknown 41:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

Speaking of, so I am doing a standing rib roast tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 42:00

Standing rib roast. Okay, so it's where the ribs are tied together?

SPEAKER_02 42:04

No, no, no. Prime rib. No.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Oh, okay. I was thinking of like lamp chop looking thing.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

No, no, no, no. So I'm I'm basically doing a prime rib.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:14

So it it's I've got it actually in the fridge right now. It's covered in salt and aging in the fridge for the last few days, and I'll season it up tomorrow. And I made a butt, I took butter, tallow, and some herbs and put it in a the food processor.

SPEAKER_05 42:33

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

And made a thing. And I'm gonna put I've got that in the freezer, and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna poke holes in the prime rib and I'm gonna shove that into it. So butter, herbs, and beef tallow into it. And then I'm gonna do a coffee rub on the outside and I'm gonna put it on my smoker. Well, that's it. That'll be the first one I've ever seen. What what isn't kosher about it?

SPEAKER_00 42:57

The butter.

SPEAKER_02 42:59

Why is butter not kosher?

SPEAKER_00 43:01

If you're cooking. Oh, milk and meat. Yeah, you should only have tallow. You shouldn't have butter in there as well.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

Yeah, well, I I I'm not keeping kosher, so I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

I know, I know. I'm just thinking about myself. Well, yeah, I mean, I am invited, right? Yeah, if you want. No, I'm just kidding. No, I got my Chinese food takeout all prepped and everything.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Yeah, so I'm doing that. I'm doing some scalloped potatoes and a salad.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

So it's a good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

Anyway, it'll be the first time I've ever smoked a prime rib.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

Usually I do a reverse sear, but this year I'm gonna smoke.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Yeah, I mean, a prime rib has so much flavor, I don't know that I would smoke that, honestly. Just because it does it's one of the meats that does not require additional flavoring, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Okay, well you don't have to eat it.

Drones Redefine Warfare And Port Security

SPEAKER_00 43:54

Well, clearly I'm not, so but oh that's cool. Yeah. That's you know, somebody I was watching. Oh, it's good stuff too. I was watching Alex Jones and they they've they're selling beef tallow now. And uh for what? Uh just you know, an ad sponsor, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Oh, it's a sponsor, not him.

SPEAKER_00 44:24

I think it's actually his beef tellow. Yeah. But I you know, I was half watching like while I'm doing other stuff, so I I wasn't paying attention to it. But I did hear the beef tellow, and I think the guy that was reading the ad read was right on the money because on on the side of the packaging it says butter alternative. And he says, No, that's not right. This this is the real thing. Butter is the alternative.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

Like tallow is what we're used to doing, grass-fed beef tallow.

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Yeah. Like, this is what people object.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Actually, it's not a bad price, dude. No, no, how much? So if you do the subscribe and save, it's two pounds per month for 30 bucks. That's not bad.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

That's not bad at all for tallow, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

If it's if it's good quality tallow, that's not bad at all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. And it's by optimal human, so that's a decent company.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

Yeah. Okay, see, there you go. So we got an Alex Jones add in here.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Well, and you know what? I I buy I buy beef tallow generally off of Amazon. You do buy it here.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Really? Okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:35

Yeah, I get the Chicago butcher. Let's see here. Let me go to my orders.

SPEAKER_00 45:42

I've only gotten that a few times here. When I lived in Minnesota, we had a real butcher shop. And I would just buy it directly from the butcher shop.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

Yeah, I get the South Chicago packing Wagyu beef tallow, which when I buy it, it's two pounds ten ounces. And it's not, it's wagyu, so it's not it's not grass-fed, which I would prefer actually. Yeah. And it's anyway, it's$30,$32.99. Oh that's 2 pounds 10 ounces. Yeah, yeah. Like, like I said, and where is this stuff made? Chicago.

SPEAKER_00 46:22

No, that's the brand. Where's it actually made?

unknown 46:25

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

Chicago. Manufacturing and distributed by South Chicago Packing, Chicago, Illinois.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

Okay. So it's and okay, because it sounded like just a brand name.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

I'm sure, but I'm sure it's a brand name, but it's fifth generation business born in the historic Chicago shockyard. Still no, it's in out of Chicago.

SPEAKER_00 46:50

Okay. Well, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

I mean, it's not bad, it's good stuff. Yeah.

unknown 46:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Because a lot of a lot of companies just use names that sound authentic, you know.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

Yeah, yeah, I understand. But like the grass fed for that price, that's that's really not bad.$29.

SPEAKER_05 47:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:12

Huh.

SPEAKER_02 47:16

Anyway, continue on with your tallow conversation.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

Oh, I don't know. I mean, tallow's good. I've always been a fan. I I if I can have natural meat oils like tallow or fat lard that's been rendered. I always prefer cooking in that because it is not medical advice, but contrary to what all the people tell you, it it's it's actually not any worse for you. And it's certainly better than seed oils.

SPEAKER_02 47:51

Oh, a hundred percent better than seed oils.

SPEAKER_00 47:53

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

Well, and it tastes better, dude.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Oh, yeah, yeah. It's got very good flavor. And I I've always thought that fat should you know, it depending on what you do with it, and this is why you you don't just use tallow for everything. You don't use tallow on top of a salad, right? But you do use it if you're cooking something that you want a nice crust on, and it just makes it taste so good.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

Well, like what the way I do my steaks and the way I'm gonna do this this rib roast is I do a reverse sear, right? And what I do is I smoke the tallow in the smoker with it, and I baste that meat with it. When I take it off to rest while I crank up the grill, I baste that meat with that tallow all over the outside. So I've got that fat on the outside, rendered fat. And then I hit it with the sear real quick, and it makes a great crust. So yeah.

Underwater Drones, Manta Ray, And Depth

SPEAKER_00 48:57

By the way, you know, a technique that a lot of professional cooks use that most home cooks don't really follow or do is when you're cooking something with a lot of fat, with a lot of butter or tallow or something, to constantly be spooning the melted hot fat on top of it. And so you're you're cooking with the liquid constantly draining and giving off heat and and keeping the diet moist, because if if you don't do that the way that most home cooks do, you just have two totally different textures on the bottom and the top of the food. And you don't get consistent thorough cooking. So spooning hot oil on top of your steak or whatever else you're you're cooking, and it's not uh, you know, I'm not trying to imply that you're deep frying, it's it's it's just you know, you're using a cooking method that is heavily utilizing fat. But if you're doing that, make sure that you're constantly pouring the hot fat on top of the food as well.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

Alright, you ready to go back to real news?

SPEAKER_00 50:18

Sure. What why what else we have?

SPEAKER_02 50:21

The Trump class. You didn't pay attention yesterday, did you?

SPEAKER_00 50:31

No.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

You don't know about the Golden Fleet.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

No.

SPEAKER_02 50:36

What happened? Oh my god, you missed out. So Pete Hag Seth, Marco, and the Secretary of the Navy and Trump announced that we are building 20 to 25 new battleships that are going to be called the Trump class. And whole holy shit, dude, not only is he trolling, but this is actually a really good idea. Like this is gonna make Zaehan fucking happy. So it's essentially it's modeled, it's a mixture between a battleship, an early Burke class destroyer, uh, that's scaled up, and and a new weapon. So A, it's going to have armor like a battleship would.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

B, it's gonna have 128 cells of vertical launch capacity and 12 cells. It's gonna have uh over 140 missiles on it for main battery, including hypersonics and nukes. It's gonna be nuke, it's gonna be a nuke armed ship.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Oh, that'll be great.

SPEAKER_02 51:41

The secondary battery. The secondary battery, this is where it gets really interesting. They're putting a 32 megajoule rail gun on it that's capable of launching a 11-pound projectile at Mach 7.5 with an effective range of 220 miles.

SPEAKER_04 51:57

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 51:59

They're gonna put two five-inch hypersonic guns on it. They're gonna put two offensive, offensive 600 kilowatt lasers. That's the defensive battery, the defensive batteries, two RAM launchers, two, or I'm sorry, four 30 millimeter guns, four Odin lasers for point defense, and two counter counter missile systems. It's gonna have a crew between 650 and 850 people capable of over 35 knots.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

That's a big trip.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

They're gonna build 20. Yeah, and they're gonna build 20 to 25 of them. It's not as big as like a Gerald R. Ford class carrier. It's slightly shorter, but it's way bigger than the Arlie Burke, and it's like it is meant to project a serious fuck ton of power, dude. Oh, and it's gonna have a helicopter bay on it, by the way, as well, just like the Arle Burke does.

SPEAKER_00 52:55

That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

Like, go to goldenfleet.navy.mil.

SPEAKER_00 53:02

The speed sounds a little slow, but well, it's gonna be conventional.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

That's the one thing that I don't understand, is they're talking about gas and diesel turbine powered, not not nuke, which makes no sense to me. But they're start they're talking about building these and having the first ships coming out before Trump leaves office and having 20 to 25 of them completed by the early 2030s.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

Yeah. Trump has got to be the first president that's ever announced his own class of ship.

unknown 53:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02 53:40

I don't think it's a good thing. He's calling it the golden the golden fleet. The golden fleet, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

It is an absolute total troll. I mean, did you look at the renderings? I'm looking at them. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it looks like a modern modern cruiser. The to me this has a little bit of the ring of Star Wars.

SPEAKER_02 54:03

Yeah, well, this is also the first this is also the first missile enabled battleship.

SPEAKER_04 54:11

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

And the fur so the first in the class is gonna be named the USS Defiant, by the way.

SPEAKER_05 54:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 54:23

So the Trump class, but the USS Defiant. So I guarantee you the next Democratic president is gonna rename it to the Defiant class. Yeah.

unknown 54:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 54:33

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

But anyway, he's talking about being able to build these very quickly and getting the shipyards up to speed to do so.

SPEAKER_00 54:40

Like I mean, I think it's really this is one hell of a jobs program. I like military gear, but you gotta also recognize this is a hell of a gift to the military industrial complex.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

Yeah, it is, because he's about to cut the knees out under under them in Ukraine.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, it's so Ukraine's been getting more active. It's getting to be a hotter tinderbox.

SPEAKER_02 55:08

You don't have anything else to say about the Trump class?

SPEAKER_00 55:11

I mean, it's a cool ship, dude. I looked at the picture. What else do you want me to look at?

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Did you see the rendering from the rear?

SPEAKER_00 55:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 55:20

Did you look at the hangar doors?

SPEAKER_00 55:22

I it's pretty square looking.

SPEAKER_02 55:24

Right, but do you see the image on the back on the Navy side?

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:29

It's Trump after he got shot holding it up with an American flag on the back. Like this is a next level liberal trolling.

SPEAKER_00 55:36

It is totally somebody that brought something as a joke and Trump said, Oh, I love this. Oh yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 55:46

Let's do it.

Travel Hacking: Clubs, Rebooking, And Perks

SPEAKER_00 55:47

I I here's the thing modern ship designs that utilize radar absorption and minimization technologies are ugly. They are not beautiful the way that older ship designs were, where they cared more about aesthetics than they did about radar signature.

SPEAKER_02 56:09

I think this is a pretty decent looking ship, personally.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

It's a ship you could build in uh shit, what's that game?

SPEAKER_01 56:20

Minecraft.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

Minecraft, yeah. It's just all a bunch of squares with off angles, with like what's the the less than 90 degree angles.

unknown 56:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:33

So I I would not call it pretty at all, but I think as far as modern designs go, yeah, it's fine. It's it's perfectly fine.

SPEAKER_02 56:41

Well, here's the this is yeah, and this is set up to be a capital ship, dude. It's it's set up to be from an electronic warfare and everything else standpoint, replacing aircraft carriers in a lot of instances. And quite frankly, with the two Odin laser systems and the other defensive capacities this has, this is Trump saying, fuck your hypersonics. I've got a hypersonic rail gun that I can fire a lot cheaper than you can your missiles, Russia, China. Fuck your drones. We've got the ability with the laser point defense systems, we have infinite ammo.

SPEAKER_00 57:17

I mean, that's as long as we have fuel. It's one thing if you're targeting another ship of equal size, or a even if you're targeting like a full-size airplane, it's another thing if you're targeting drones. And this is so this is what I was gonna mention on the Ukraine thing, is that the what that war will be remembered for is not who's the good guy or the bad guy or why it happened or any of that crap. What it's gonna be remembered for the Europeans deciding to steal money. It's the well, not even that, unfortunately, but it's gonna be remembered for as the first conflict where the use of drones, both in the air and in the water, made a significant contribution to the battlefield. That's I think gonna be its long-term what it's known for, you know. In in future analysis, this is what that conflict is gonna be known for. It's the first time where humans actually started relying on non-humans to contribute in a major way, and I don't just mean bombs or missiles, but like intelligently controlled devices. Because the Ukrainians have done an absolute killer job of blowing up Russian ships and just Russian assets, Russian submarines.

SPEAKER_02 58:56

Did they hit the sub?

SPEAKER_00 58:57

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Because it it looked the Russians say they didn't.

SPEAKER_00 59:03

I know, but the explosion looked absolutely genuine to me. This this is what a submarine is. That I think is just trying to save face. And I like again, I don't, you know, I don't have a a a dog in this pony race. I'm I think that you gotta look at the reality, and reality is when I sink a submarine in World of Warships, that's exactly what it looks like.

SPEAKER_03 59:35

That's conclusive proof to me.

SPEAKER_00 59:37

They they definitely hit the submarine. So you can pretend they didn't, you can say, Oh, we just need to do a little bit of fixing up work and repaint it, it'll be good as noob. But realistically, I think they hit the submarine and I think it took a lot of damage. And the bigger issue isn't even just that they hit it, it's that if if your ports are not secure in your own backyard, that says a lot more about capabilities of the country. And I think the fact that that drone got into the port at all is yeah, like the Japanese were doing this with one man submarines, suicide submarines, kamikaze submarines, uh, as well. Like The Japanese were doing this in the Philippines.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:28

They had the Excuse me. Excuse me. What? No, no, no. The first submarine kill ever recorded was the the Confederate submarine, the Hun Lee. Hun Lee, that sounds Chinese to me. The Hunley. No, the the Confederate Hunley, and I can't remember the acronym for Confederate ship right now, unfortunately. But anyway, snuck in and rammed a Union vessel, and it itself was, you know, damaged beyond repair and so on. But yeah, basically a suicide run.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:03

But yeah, the very first submarine kill of another ship was during the U.S. Civil War.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:08

Interesting. Well, okay, okay. Now, no, no. There have been plenty of ships that have rammed each other all through the 1700s. But this was a subkill. That's fine. And was a submarine simply an iron hull that was too heavy? Is that the deal?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:28

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:30

Was a submarine back then just an iron hold ship that was a little too heavy?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

Basically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:39

So it was just just under the surface, basically.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:43

Uh-huh. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:45

Yeah, it is. H. L.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:46

Hunley. Here, I'll send you the wiki on it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

Okay. Yeah, I'll check it out. I have not heard of that, so that's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:54

Dude, I even have I I on my Christmas tree. Yeah. I have I have an ornament that commemorates the Hunley.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:01

No way.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:03

Totally.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:04

Nope. Yeah, I got it at the Sons of Confederate Veterans Christmas Party.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:10

Okay. That's a picture of the. Okay. That's actually a lot more submarine looking than I thought. I thought it'd look more like a boat just with, you know, stuff on top.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:25

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:25

She went a few feet under the water. It's more like a torpedo is what it looks like.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:30

Well, that's basically what it was. It was a human-powered torpedo.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:35

Well, and that's basically what the Japanese were using as well. Interesting. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. So I think this is something that all countries, and by all I mean basically three China, US, and Russia are gonna have to start spending money on, is basically countering these underwater drones, which are essentially just slow-moving torpedoes.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:07

Well, have you seen the US's underwater drone?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:11

No, I am look up the manta ray. Manta ray, okay. Let's see. Yeah, just do manta ray drone.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:25

Yeah, because I'm looking at pictures of cute mantis swimming around. Drone. Extra large, autonomous, unmanned underwater vehicle.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:36

Yep. Yeah, this thing can go lurk. It's extremely long range. It's built by Northrop Grumman. Can go lurk, can go clamp itself to the bottom of the ocean and just loiter there for forever and then come up. Da da da da. Yeah, it looks cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:52

It looks like the little my miniature space shuttle looking thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:57

Yeah, it's pretty big, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:58

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know the one I'm talking about. The the military space shuttle.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:03

Yeah, yeah. The unmanned one. Yeah. Yeah. Or supposedly.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:07

The one, yes, the one that doesn't exist that flew back now twice. After sitting out in space for four years.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

Doing what we don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

And making contact with the aliens, but we don't talk about that. Yeah, it's a cool submarine. I like it.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:23

Yeah. It's it's pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:25

I would love to ride that thing. Imagine just sitting on top of that or standing on top of that thing holding a rope as it's like cruising just below the surface of the water.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:35

That would be fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:35

How fun would that be? I've always thought like getting a self-slaving prepared surfboard would be really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:42

Yeah. Well, they make them. Self-propelled? They even make the hydroplane ones, huh?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:47

I've seen the hydroplane ones. That looks fucking dangerous to me.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:51

That looks fun as hell to me.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:52

Uh yeah. I mean, yeah. 20 years ago I totally would have said that.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

Well, Gene, I I understand why it looks dangerous to you. It probably couldn't lift you. I understand.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:02

Well, no, it could lift me. Of course it could. I think there's a weight limit, but I'm no, I'm lighter than you think. But I didn't bat doesn't weigh that much.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

I have seen you recently.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:13

Uh-huh. But it's it's a hydrofoil for some reason never really caught on in the US. I'm not sure why. But hydrofoils were super popular in Russia and in China when I was there. Like there's a lot of hydrofoils running around.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:34

And they're they are very quick. They what? They're not much more efficient.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:40

It's not about efficiency, it's about speed. And the hydrofoils are running at a almost double the speed underwater. They're not they don't have all that. Exactly. Exactly. It's basically the hydrofoil has just sufficient enough wing to be able to hold it out of water at speed, and then of course, when it slows down, it dips down back down in. But I've always thought it was a fun experience. It's also a much softer ride because you're effectively going through the waves instead of going up and down on the waves. So it's there's a lot less movement when you're riding a hydrofoil.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:27

So the the first model of the Manta Ray went 3,600 meters deep.

unknown 1:06:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:37

The current version can go 6,000 meters deep.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:41

Okay. I mean, I gotta assume there it they could make one that goes all the way down to the Mariana trench because you don't need any air in there.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:57

Well, I mean you still gotta keep it from being crushed, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:01

Well, that's only if you maintain air. And first of all, you could pressurize the thing if you really wanted to, so that it has equal pressure inside and out to minimize any kind of stress on the metal. But no one's breathing inside that thing, so you could also literally just fill it with a non-conductive liquid.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:23

Well, you'd have to have it non a non-conductive, non-compressible liquid.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:27

Yeah, well, liquids are non-compressible, so that makes it easy.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:34

Okay. I mean, by definition, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:37

Liquid is non-compressible. So I think I think there's a solution for this thing to go super deep.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:46

So f just to clear this up, what I mean by that is for instance, air can be classified as a liquid.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

You understand that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:58

I mean, uh, if you want to reclassify things, it's fine. I'm just saying that as far as the thing is, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:02

When you're talking fluid dynamics, when you're talking fluid dynamics, you consider air as a liquid.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:08

Right, but if you're talking physics, it's not a liquid.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:12

That is a form of physics.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:14

Well, it's a bad form of physics. There are four states of matter. Well, as a physics major, you ought to know this. I shouldn't have to be telling you that there are four states of matter, one of which is liquid, and in that liquid state, you do not have compressibility. Anyway. Hey, you're the one who wanted to get pedantic here, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:37

I'm gonna hold back. Oh, by the way, so uh remind me to tell you about this has to do with college. Remind me to tell you something offline.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:53

Anyway. So this hybrid fleet that we're building out.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:56

Holy shit. Holy shit, stop.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

What? You didn't hit record? Yep. So you were saying, Ben. Well, I was saying something, but you stopped me because we had a little technical freak out on that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:12

Yeah, you were gonna tell me some secret stuff about some Santa related activities, I gather.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:17

But uh No, no Santa related activities.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

But uh all right, let's see.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:22

Uh go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:24

No, I was just gonna say, so other than Santa stuff, you you got stuff you're doing on New Year's, or is that you're gonna be working um playing?

SPEAKER_02 1:09:33

I well, so I was supposed to be off starting Monday through the fifth, but one of my big clients dropped a RFP on Friday, and this is an RFP we helped them write. Okay, and they're asking us to bid on it, so it's kind of wired for us. But it's a hundred-page RFP. So we put together 30 pages of technical notes and they turned it into a fucking hundred-page RFP. Wow, and it's due in January.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:04

So of course it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:06

Guess what I'm doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:08

Yep, okay. Well, you know, hopefully that means that your bonus is gonna reflect that.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:15

Yeah, on the upside, we won a big contract with Scottish Scottish Electric, so I'll be going to Scotland.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:25

Oh, you go see the homeland.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:27

Yeah, and we just got the notice to proceed on a big contract in Guam. So my happy ass is going to Guam in January.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:35

Yeah, nice. Uh that's they're gonna be a much warmer place than here. Although that's late, it's over 71. Oh my dude, it was 81 degrees here today. I know. Did it get over 80? I thought it was in the 70s.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:49

Uh here in College Station we got to 81.

Landman, Oilfield Culture, And TV Realism

SPEAKER_00 1:10:51

Damn. Wow. Yeah, it's it's been a fairly mild winter. There were some reports of maybe snow before Christmas. I don't think that's happening. Not at this point. Not here. No. Well, I mean, obviously up north, you know, talking to my other co-host, Darren. They've had snow for quite a while up there and dealing with all the Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:39

It was four below zero when I was there uh what, last Sunday or Sunday before?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:46

Did you guys get together?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:49

No, I was just at the airport.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:51

I know. I told you you should have just rang him up and had him drive out and say hi.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:57

If he did that to me, I'd tell him to fuck off. So no, I didn't do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:01

Oh. I'm I guess maybe I'm just used to having people tell me to fuck off. Well, did you did you talk about your big trip? I don't we talked previously about you planning on doing your mileage run, but so you actually did it.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:18

I uh I did the mileage run, so I flew from Houston to Chicago. I was gonna fly from Chicago to Kansas City, Kansas City to Houston, but the Kansas City flight got delayed, so I had to reroute, so I ended up flying to Dallas and then Dallas to Houston.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:34

Dallas instead of Kansas City.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:38

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:39

But whatever. I made it. And then uh you got your miles?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:42

Now you're all set for next year for miles.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:45

Last Friday I did the last trip of the year last Friday.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:49

Um, does that get you to 1k? What does that get you to?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:53

Platinum. I didn't make 1k.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:55

Oh, you didn't make 1k? Oh, next year.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:57

Yeah, well, if I go to Guam in Scotland, yes, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:02

Yeah, if you do more than one of each of those, then it'll be really easy to get to 1K.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:07

No, dude, if I do what I if I do if I do half of the traveling I did last year plus those two international trips, totally booked on United or Starlines partners, I will hit 1K.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:20

Okay, good. Gotta have something to aim at, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:25

Yeah, I guess. And you know, a lot of people think it's silly to like do a mileage run or whatever. But here's the deal. I'm not gonna end the year three flight segments short of platinum.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:40

Yeah, that'd be silly. That would absolutely be silly.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:45

It's like if I was one night short of titanium, I would literally go book the cheapest marriage I could find, check in, never set foot in the room, and walk out.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:56

That's literally what I've done in the past. I've done that multiple times. I kind of consider that part of the consulting culture is uh the the benefit you get from being away from home all the time, or the compensation I should say you get from having to be away from home all the time, is you get to be treated better than the average Joe by things like airlines, hotels, etc., because you're spending your company's money going there. And the sometimes, and I think actually quite often, the company spend ends up being just shy of where you want to be. So doing a flight or a hotel stay is perfectly fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:42

Even if you pay out of pocket.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:49

Well, anyway, like I said, I did the mileage run for like 20,000 points, and yeah, it was easy.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:56

Yeah. Which is cool that they let you actually use points, because in the past, so I didn't need the dollar spend, I needed the legs.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:07

So that mattered was the legs.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:09

I see. Yeah. That makes sense. That makes sense. Good. So you took care of that. Now you're all set for the rest of the year. I remember one buddy of mine had left it up literally until the week between Christmas and New Year's. He had to do his modge run.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:27

That's expensive.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:29

Well, work canceled the trip on him last minute that he was planning on doing right before Christmas. So now he was like, Well, I'm not gonna make it unless I do something between Christmas and New Year's. Yeah. I don't I think he found something cheap. I think he literally was just looking, you know, how many segments he he can get for the least amount of money going to anywhere. It didn't really care where he went.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:51

Yep. Well, that's the way I did this. And um, you know, for me, actually that same thing happened. I was planning on going to Orlando and going to a project we've got going out at the villages, but the damn city council didn't approve the new budget yet, so I couldn't so yep, that'll happen. Those old folks, slow MFers.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:18

Yeah. Well, that's good. So now you so what'd you end up doing just sitting at the airport, or do you at least have a club membership? Of course I have a club membership. Okay, good, good.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:29

Yes. Here's a pro tip. I don't care what airline you're on. If you travel any amount, I'm talking if you're on a plane more than 10 times a year, go get the club card, credit card, or the club membership itself, whatever. And here's why. And just amateurize that out over the number of times, the cost of it, over the number of times you're gonna fly. You're gonna find, like for me, you know, yeah, it's 800 bucks a year, but I flew 45 times this year. Yeah. Here's the deal. In any airport that has a club that you're flying through of your airline, if you run into any delay, any problem, you don't go to the gate, you don't talk to the gate agent, you don't go wait in line, you go immediately to the club and you go to the club customer service area and you talk to them because they have more power than fucking God. They will get you credits, they will do all sorts of shit for you. Bend over backwards to make sure you're on the next flight, whatever they can do. Yeah, it's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:35

They have saved my ass so many times, it's not even if if they actually don't, and you just think they do, the thing that they absolutely have is a line of only two people. Like there's never a big long line of people all trying to get rebooked when you're at the club. And I've used that so many times, and I think I've told you that before. The one thing that I always kind of kick myself for not doing when I had the opportunity to is I could have bought a lifetime membership for twelve hundred dollars.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:08

Or you should have.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:10

Yeah, now it would have been with Delta, but it'd be a lifetime membership.

ICE Raids In Minneapolis And Migration

SPEAKER_02 1:18:16

Yeah. So you know, here's the thing. Like, I uh like I was sitting in the United Club when I found out my flight was gonna be delayed. So I immediately get up from the table I'm sitting at and I go to the front to the customer service, and I said, Hey, I'm not gonna make my connection. I really want to make it back home tonight. What can we do? And oh yes, sir. Here, hold on one second. Boom, rebooked me. I didn't have to think about it. I didn't have to go looking for flights, I didn't have to do anything, just done.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:46

I had a flight that was canceled after sitting at the airport, and as soon as they announced that it was canceled and they would be looking for the next flight to get us on, I walked to the club and I said, Okay, I don't need to be there today. I'm flying out a day early, so you can get me on a flight tomorrow, but it has to be in first class. And they're like, Yep, no problem. So since they canceled a flight, they're willing to bump me up to first class for free because I was willing to go the next day. So normal person at the counter would never do that. The people at the club can get creative, and I think that's what you mean by more power. Like now giving you monetary credits and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's the other thing. So most people don't realize that there are laws in place from the FAA that dictate how much money the airlines are supposed to offer you for a variety of different inconveniences. Anything from getting bumped from a flight to a flight that's delayed more than an hour to all kinds of things. And this is another little tip for if you want to make sure that you get something worthwhile, is just start off the conversation when you're got you know, flight cancel and you need to rebook it. Start off the conversation with something to the effect of so I understand that you guys have to compensate me for this flight cancellation, even if you're not looking, you know, for compensation, but that becomes leverage right away for them to make you happy because they only have to compensate you if they weren't able to recommend reaccommodate you to your satisfaction. So essentially, you could just say, Look, you guys canceled the flight, my meeting. Meeting, I can't be there for that meeting, so it just got missed. So there's no point in me flying at all. At that point, they have to compensate you for canceling that flight. But if they can rebook you, it's cheaper sometimes for them just to bump you up a class or two than it is to pay you the$700 or more that they would have to pay you for the cancellation. So be flexible, but also remind them that you're aware that there are stipulations that they have to compensate you for a variety of things. I mean, it could be even something as stupid as like, well, I bought a ticket with extended leg room, and you guys said that I'm sitting in, you know, Rural 33, and so that's obviously not extended. So where's my$500?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:31

Yeah. So my flight's Friday coming back. Like I was I got done with my meeting Friday, and I was, you know, at the hotel looking, and my flight was supposed to be at 7 p.m. And it got that flight ended up delayed, it didn't leave till after 9 p.m., which would have put me home well after midnight. Oh yeah. Yeah. So so I'm like, fuck. But I got to looking and the two o'clock flight was delayed till 5 p.m. And I'm like, I'm calling United, and I I I get pretty good customer service because of everything. And I they were able to rebook me on the delayed 2 p.m. flight, and I had to haul my ass to DFW airport as fast as I could to get on the flight, but I made it and I landed earlier than I otherwise would have. So that was where a flight delay and people rebooking helped me tremendously.

BUC-ees, Barbecue, And Culture Shock

SPEAKER_00 1:22:24

Yeah, that's awesome, actually. That is a very good deal. Yeah, and then that's another thing is when you've got a delayed situation and everyone's starting to line up into a single row of line. Don't assume that you have to be there. Like you can rebook your rebook, even if you're not at a club, you can rebook your flight from other counters as well. As long as unless you get an asshole flight person.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:50

Well, and you know, don't forget to look for earlier delayed flights, like I just said. That's true. You know, everybody looks at the later flights. Well, look at what flights are still there that haven't left yet and what you can get on.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:02

Yeah. Yeah. And if you really start pushing them, I have been rebooked on other airlines at their cost.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:11

I have to, but that wouldn't have helped me. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:15

Yeah. So, but again, it's like use it to your benefit if something changes. And I I remember doing this a number of times when I was going. I always like to travel a day early because it kind of puts me in a relaxed mood. So I I don't like showing up. I don't like getting up for a flight at 6 a.m. to get me to the client site by 9 a.m. Like that that's a bad day for me. So I usually just fly out the night before and then you know stay in a hotel and then get up at normal time and go for the meeting that way. And that also gives me a little bit more flexibility when there are changes that happen. Because when you're planning your flight for the morning of when you gotta actually be there, something goes sideways, then you're missing your meeting. I I don't like doing that. Yeah, I always have to. So if you don't travel a lot, like I really haven't been traveling a whole lot lately, because you know, I usually work with clients remote these days, but you can get a one-day pass to a club.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:32

You can buy passes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:33

Day passes are a thing. Most people that don't ever go to clubs are not aware of this. But if I'm ever in a situation where I've got more than one hour to kill before the flight, I'll just go in and get a day pass. And you know, I I might fly only three or four times during that year, so it makes no sense for me to pay the crazy fee that you're paying. But it makes sense to spend sixty-five bucks for a day pass.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:58

Well, it's fifty bucks a free. And but here's the thing when you get the club pass, A, you've got a nice quiet place to go, you've got clean restrooms. Some of the clubs have showers. Um you've got more.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:11

Well, it's for 24 hours, it's for full day because they know you might have you know flight changes or whatever.

Tech Deals: Monitors, Desks, And Tabs

SPEAKER_02 1:25:18

And so you're you get free food. There's gonna be free drinks, there's gonna be premium drinks if you want. You can like I I didn't want the food that was there, so I bought snack box. You know, you can get you but the point is if you were to go sit at a restaurant at the airport, you're gonna spend 50 bucks.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:35

At least that much, anyway. Yeah, exactly. That's exactly right. And you got much nicer bathrooms, no lines for anything, people that'll rebook you if you need to get rebooked. The the food, like on American, the food quality definitely went up about six years ago. Their food was fairly mediocre prior to that, but like six years ago, somebody clearly decided to spend some more money on it. So their in-club food quality went up. They started having things like a person there making fresh guacamole. You know, a variety of different salads and soups and meat plates and things. It's still not what I would consider like dinner food. It's it's more like uh, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:15

Like the the United Club, when I was flying, when the the United Club, when I was flying to Dallas on Thursday, they had a jerk pork loin dish that they had for lunch, and it was great. The coffee machines, they've got good espresso machines and stuff like that. Like there's a lot to it. They also have grab and goes that you can do. So, like me as a club member, like depending on they've got these United started doing these little mini clubs throughout the airports that you scan your boarding pass in, you go grab a sandwich, you go grab drink, whatever you want, you walk out and you go take it on the plane. So, like there, there's lots of things. It's it's a nice perk. Again, don't buy the membership if you're not flying at least 10 times a year. Yeah, flying 10 times a year, you know, you can start to think about it. But for me, flying over.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:06

So well, 10 times a year would be like 60 bucks uh times 10, so 600 bucks basically. Yeah, yeah. Or 500, I guess. Yeah, so that is kind of where the break-even point's probably uh 10 to 12 times a year.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:18

Well, so I get the you I have the United Chase Club card, which is a$500 a year annual fee, but that's cheaper than the club membership and the club membership.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:29

Right, right, right. And you get plenty of other card perks from that as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:33

I do.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:36

Which that's my the I I typically don't have a card that costs me money to have like that, but that one's worth it.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:44

I used to have a really nice travel card that back when I was flying a lot that gave me access to all the clubs. So it wasn't like the American Express card where you have MX clubs. This thing. Yeah, but this thing they had deals with a whole bunch of different airline clubs. The caveat was you could only go to the club on the day of your flight. So they would look at your ticket when you came in.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:16

Well, that's all of them now. Is it?

SPEAKER_00 1:28:19

Well, it didn't used to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:20

Well, you can't get through security without a boarding pass.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:23

Oh, yeah, that's true. I guess they're all inside now. So I was gonna bring this up too, just because we're talking about airlines, and the pre-9-11 good old days when I was flying, first of all, the club and like there were multiple clubs in the airport, but one of the clubs, the entrance was outside of security. And I used to drive there to have business meetings. Like I really used my membership, man. I would drive out there, drop off the car, have the valet's park it, and then go to the club. And the clubs back then, they had food, they had snacks, and they had self-serve liquor.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:06

So some like the Atlanta, the Atlanta United Center. Do they still have self-serve?

SPEAKER_00 1:29:10

Yeah, because the the American clubs here do not anymore. You have to get it.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:14

So the United United Club in Atlanta, which is a small United Club, has self-served beer and wine.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:20

Okay. Well, these guys had self-served vodka. And it was like different liquor bottles that were upside down, and all you have to do is bring up your shot glass and fill it up. But it's all pre-9-11 stuff. But yeah, it was it was great because whatever you paid for your membership, you definitely knew that for a fact you were gonna get more value out of it. Because even if I didn't have a flight that day, and it I mean it helps if you live fairly close to the airport, so it's not like a major drive for you. But like even here right now, I'm about ten minutes from the airport. It's I'm I'm halfway between downtown and the airport, if you draw a straight line. So it it's very quick and easy to get either to the airport or to downtown for me. But the club here obviously doesn't let you get in unless you have a flight anymore, like you said. But it is it it's a useful benefit for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:20

Anyway, so you ready to talk about Chevron in California?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:25

Yeah, so I they I don't know what's going on with Chevron.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:29

Chevron's pulling out of California. They're closing their refineries in California.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:34

Okay. Didn't realize they had them there. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:36

Yeah, it's one of the biggest refineries in California.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:41

Who owns Chevron?

SPEAKER_02 1:30:43

Chevron? It's a super major. What do you mean? The stockholders?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:49

They're not they're not the Venezuelan guys. Who what is the Venezuelan gas station? Valero. Valera, okay, got it.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:57

Yeah. So good.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:00

I'd say good. Yeah, Newsom said okay. Like he he didn't care. Dude, gas prices in California are over$7 a gallon right now. We're under$2 a gallon in the state of Texas. Yeah. And with the pull out of Chevron, which this is the biggest refinery in California, and you got to remember California as a state has a special blend of gasoline that no other state in the union requires.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:24

For no good reason.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:26

For no good reason. Yeah. And when they pull out, the current estimates are that gas in California is going to go over ten dollars a gallon.

Wrap-Up And Holiday Tease

SPEAKER_00 1:31:34

Makes sense. Yeah, it's I'm glad they're doing that because they should do that. I honestly, I was talking to a buddy of mine who you kind of know through our signal there, Jesse, who lives in California. That I like, dude, how do you still live in California? How do you put up with so much? Because you get so much less bang for the buck, you have to put up with them a lot more crap, a lot more regulations, worse quality everything. The only thing that you have there is a nice climate. Yeah, that's it. Like, that's not enough. I'd rather have the climate I have here and much better laws. I don't understand how much value somebody has to place on a climate for them to be worth it to live in California.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:31

I don't know. My one of my former bosses, he lives in San Diego, and he said, I literally live here because I'm a I'm a quote weather whore. Like he's like, I hate this place, I hate everything about it, but the climate's just that nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:45

It is nice. And I worked in in San Diego for a couple of years. It is an awesome place climate-wise. Yeah, it's always 72 degrees every single day and sunny. And in uh dude, I'd I'd rent convertibles when I was there. I can't rent convertibles if I'm in Texas. I mean, I had a couple of convertibles in Texas. Never used the sunroof or the convertible. I mean, like, I had a beamer convertible and the roof never went down.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:14

Well, I mean, if you live on the coast, you can because it never gets really out of the 90s. Fair enough. And then it doesn't get cold either.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:22

So I'm like in Dallas and oh god. In Austin, no way. Yeah. So it's and out there in in San Diego, especially in San Diego area, it is really truly perfect weather. But I can't, there's no way I could put up with that. They uh could not live in a communist country like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:51

Well, anyway, Chevron leaving California is a big goddamn deal. Um you know they're they're not just closing its refinery, but they're moving their co their corporate headquarters. So they're moving from San Ramon to Houston. Yeah. Yeah, that seems like the founding of the company.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:11

Wow. They were like the original California gas company. Oil company, yeah. Hmm. They're moving to Houston. Speaking of Houston, you've been watching Landmen?

SPEAKER_02 1:34:24

Yeah, I just caught up on Sunday's episode the other day. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:28

Good show.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:28

It's good. Oh my god. Like, and by the way, you and Darren were totally wrong. What and what? Because you and Darren were bitching, well, she just got a million-dollar payout. Why is she working at the bar? Well, if you had awaited an episode, they explained it.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:42

We weren't wrong. We were based on the information we had, we were completely right. I mean, it's clearly that we were not the only ones asking this question and they had to address it. Well, why you got a million-dollar payout? Why are you living in the trailer park? Oh, that's all for my kids. Okay. Well, might as well be.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:03

That's his that's the kid's money, is what she said.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:05

Yeah, which is fair. I I like I had a friend whose whose father got killed and actually got killed in an airline crash, and the airline, you know, settled financially with him. And that's what the kid's mom did, is she basically you know, sh continued working and basically just took the money from the settlement to put it into a trust for their son. So I get that, that makes sense, but they they never addressed it previously, which is why it was so weird seeing somebody that's uh on paper a millionaire trying to work in a you know a titty bar.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:50

Landman, if y'all haven't watched it, is a really good show and worth watching. Yeah, it's between Landman, between Landman, Tulsa King, and Strange New Worlds, it is worth the price of admission to Paramount Plus.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:04

Mm-hmm. I just cancel that by the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:07

Well, that's what Landman's on.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:09

I know, but it won't actually expire till the the series is over for the season. I don't I don't like paying for shit when I'm not watching something actively. And so I've gotten into a pretty good pattern of like just canceling stuff as whatever I'm watching is coming to a close, then I'll re-up it once I'm uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:29

So I bundled my stuff pretty well. So like I've got my stuff bundled through YouTube TV and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:37

So it it it So the technically I guess I'm not even cancelled yet because as soon as I went to the cancel screen, they said, Oh, would you like to pay a buck ninety nine per month instead? And I said, uh goddamn, okay, fine. So they just dropped my rate. But usually I like to cancel stuff and then re-up it when I get around it. But the one thing I will say about Landman is Billy Bob excellent acting. Well, and his dad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, they're both real actors.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:10

That's what it comes down to. All of the actors on that show are actually pretty damn good.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:14

Yeah. But the one thing I will say is it is a little bit campy.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:19

The sun's the worst.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:20

The sun is absolutely the worst, but it's also the character he's playing. So I don't know if he's a bad actor or if it's just a bad character. But the it is a little bit campy, like, you know, having lived in Dallas and and then moved down to Austin and been in all these. I lived in Frisco.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:42

Okay. So what I can tell you is the Fort Worth side, Fort Worth is very different than Dallas.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:47

Yeah, yeah. I was in Fort Worth all the time. I had a buddy that worked for me that lived in Fort Worth, so we'd go out to his place. I've spent plenty of time with Fort Worth.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:54

And my point is, having worked for the wool company, those man camps, and the way they're showing stuff, and everybody being armed, that's real, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's fine. My point is the exuberant shopping sprees and all the women being supertoned is the way Dallas would like to portray itself, more so Dallas than Fort Worth, frankly. But it's it's also not exactly reality. Like, there's a percentage of the population that's like that, but it's not like every woman in the show is in perfect shape and hot. It's just not the way it is realistically. Uh Dallas. Some people certainly wear cowboy hats. Way more so on the Fort Worth side than the Dallas side. That is true, but certainly not half the population isn't wearing cowboy hats. And a lot of people that are wearing cowboy hats are actually the menial worker guys, not the the guys going to the club. It's I think it definitely takes some liberties there.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:01

But also Well, I I will tell you, the oil, the oil filled guys, the guys like in Billy Bob's line of work, I think worked for a company like that, one of the wildcatters here in Texas. I worked for an oil company here in Texas. It was it's actually a multi-state oil company, but it was a wildcatter essentially.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:21

Yeah. I I did too. I worked for a Israeli oil company here in Texas.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:26

Well that slightly different culture.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:28

Well, I mean, I was in in uh Odessa.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:32

Yeah, but you know that scene where the guy is standing on the pipe and it rolls off and crushes him?

SPEAKER_00 1:39:37

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:38

That happened literally to a guy while I was working for that company.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:42

That scene is literally from a training movie I remember watching. Oh, yeah. They literally show you don't do stupid shit like this.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:50

The point is the president of the company always wore a hat. The his son, who was the operations manager, always wore a hat. Half the crew chiefs were always in a cowboy hat.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:03

But you know, I I also did I did you buy a new cowboy hat, Ben?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:08

I grew up in boots and I did you buy a cowboy hat recently? No comment.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:16

Do I have a photo of your new cowboy cowboy hat?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:20

Fuck you, Gene. Uh so I my my old so I have I have a Stetson that I got in 2004 when I came back to Texas. Uh like I as soon as I stopped in Amarillo, I went to uh Cavendars and bought a Stetson.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:36

Well there's a sign on the highway that says required to buy a Stetson on your way into Texas.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:43

Anyway, that's been my hat for I guess in the last probably five five ish years, I haven't been able to wear it because it's a little too tight.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:56

Anyway, so I finally broke broke down and bought a new hat and I put that one up for my son.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:01

So that looks good, although I was more in favor of the black one. But I've never worn a black hat, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:08

I have always been either a gray felt or white straw hat guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:13

Yep, yep. I gotcha. I've actually I don't have a black one either. I I do like the way they look, but I've I've only got two kind of straw tan looking ones. Yeah, I have a black felt hat that's not a cowboy hat. But that's my uh single.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:36

Straw hats are way more expensive than felt.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:39

Yeah. Well, it's is there black straw? That would look cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:46

No one I know of no one who would wear that, but okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:51

Why? What's wrong with black straw?

SPEAKER_02 1:41:54

Because a straw hat's supposed to be a white hat.

SPEAKER_00 1:41:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:59

Because the black straw hat you gotta paint it. It's not a natural color for it.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:06

Black straw is not a natural thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:09

No.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:13

Well, either way. I don't know. The black one just looks kind of classy. But glad you got a new hat.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:24

The last topic I've got.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:27

And then we can go, I guess, unless you got something.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:30

The only thing I was gonna talk about is some Amazon deals.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:34

Did you see the ice raids in Minneapolis?

SPEAKER_00 1:42:38

Not recently.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:41

You should look up the X videos of them chasing people down in Minneapolis.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:48

Like ICE is arresting a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 1:42:53

Yeah. Well, there's a lot of illegals there. Makes total sense. Yeah. Minneapolis was always trying to compete with San Francisco for being the most liberal place in the country. Like in the 90s when I was there, that was the case. It it was always kind of a joke that you know Minneapolis cared more about being a liberal city than they cared about being a big city. It was they were gonna bend over backwards to try and be on the very cutting edge. It wasn't even called woke back then, it was just political correctness, what we used to call it. So they were always trying to be more politically correct than any other place in Minnesota. And consequently, you know, they had way higher taxes, they had all this stuff. You know, I moved to Minneapolis right after college because I figured I I want to kind of be in the hip part of town. And I I pretty much never went anywhere that was really in Minneapolis that would have been considered hip. I always ended up driving my car to the suburbs. So I I kind of failed the living in the uptown kind of experience.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:15

So Operation Metro Surge, as of they've been doing it for a week, and in the the second week in December, they've arrested over 400 individuals.

SPEAKER_00 1:44:26

Oh, that's just a drop in the bucket, though. Yeah, well, I'm sure there's thousands that they could be arresting out there. Yeah, it it's you know, I sent you a uh a clip or a screenshot off of X of somebody commenting on one of my posts calling me all kinds of nasty things, including imperialist American, and then somebody saying, you know, nobody wants to go to visit America. I'm like, yeah, we wish that was the case. We we wish that nobody was coming here.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:00

Well, I mean, those European videos of people, you know, their first trip to America and stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:45:06

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's the thing. People that actually come from Europe to America are blown away by how awesome America is. And I I enjoy watching that. Like those those first impression videos where people yeah, the reaction video, they're awesome because they really they show you how repressed these people actually are in real life. And they wouldn't think that, but as soon as they compare that, their life at home to what America is like, they can't help but to see a huge difference. Okay, like holding a gun where they can't they're not allowed to in their own country. But as a tourist, they can go to the range here. It's uh it's pretty damn funny. And of course, even if you're an American but you're not a Texan, when you visit a Buckeys, your whole world view changes.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:05

Dude, that that was one of the funniest videos when those Europeans went to the Bucky's and they're like, What the fuck is this?

SPEAKER_01 1:46:12

Everybody that I think Walmart and a Bass Pro Shop and a gas station and a restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:18

Yeah, it's it's like the place you can buy clothes, get uh the best barbecue you've ever had. I don't know about that. For non-Texans, it's good barbecue.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:30

No, no, I mean if for a gas station barbecue, the only one that I would say is better is if you're ever driving up, if you're ever driving up 45 from Houston, Dallas, stop in Centerville and go to Woody's Woody Smoke Shop in Centerville.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:45

I've been to Woody's. I've I've been back to I think I was driving from Houston to Dallas.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:49

Yeah, it's good stuff, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:51

Yeah, but there isn't one of those here.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:53

Yeah, no, no, well, there's only one.

SPEAKER_00 1:46:55

Yeah, that's what so you know. But it's I enjoy watching those videos because it it just reaffirms in me how good we have it. Because it's important to remember that every now and then. Because as bad as we may think things currently are in America, we're in the brink of s of war. It's still pretty pretty fucking good. So all right, well, the only other thing I was gonna mention is I know I sent you these links, and I'm not gonna put links in the description, so if you care enough, you can do the Amazon search yourself for this stuff. But Samsung televisions or computer screens, monitors, there's some incredible deals that Samsung's got right now, like half off, basically.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:47

They're just too fucking big though.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:49

I saw well, you don't have to get the big ones. I'm the one that got the big ones.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:53

But I but even the 32 inches, like I would have to give up a screen.

SPEAKER_00 1:47:58

Really? That's like a mid-sized screen.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:00

Well, I've got three screens right now, and I would the as big as those 32s are with the aspect ratio they have, yeah, I would have to give up a screen.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:10

Wow. Yeah, I've I've got four right now, and the main one is a 43.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:16

Anyway, the my disc is different than yours.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:19

I know. You know it's like Ben, it's it it's not about the size, don't worry.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:25

That's not what any girl has ever told me.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:30

So the the point is search for computer monitor or LCD. I think I just searched for LCD, Samsung, and then the size. And I'll tell you two of them that I looked at. I got a couple of 32-inch 4K displays for$199 a piece, brand new Samsung screens. Amazing price. I think they were normally$400 a piece, so getting them for$200 is pretty crazy. And also, they currently have a 43-inch Samsung monitor that has a built-in. I mean, it's I guess it's not a tuner, but it's like basically digital TV. So you it's got the built-in apps, all the apps for Amazon, Netflix, all that crap on there. I I paid like$5.99 for it when I got it. Right now it's selling for I think$279 or something. It's not quite half of that, but it's almost half of that. A 43-inch monitor for$279 is crazy. It's just a really good deal.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:38

So my monitors are older, I've had them for way too long. But you know, it's one of those things that you get monitors and they last, and that's why that's what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00 1:49:49

That's why I got two of these. I'm replacing two monitors that are currently like nine years old.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:55

Yeah, so my monitors are Dell's and they're they're just HD, but I've had them for a long time, and they're 22 inch. I've got three Dell 22 inch model numbers P2214H.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:14

You know, but I got them probably 2013-ish, and I've just kept them, you know, because with three of them, I've got a decent amount of real estate, and you know, I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:28

I I totally get it. I just I'm upgrading from the 27-inch, 2500 by whatever, 1400. I'm going to the 4Ks on both those screens. So that slight increase in actual size, but mostly an increase in resolution.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:46

So that's the thing, is I would have to give up a monitor just because the amount of desk real estate I have set up for my monitors. That or I'd have to move like my microphone boom and a bunch of other stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:50:56

All my monitors are sitting on the uh the VESA mounts that are mounted on the back of the desk.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:03

Well, so no, no, no. See, I have my so I have a corner desk and I have my keyboard in the edge of the corner, and then I've got the monitors wrapping around, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:51:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. I gotcha. But it it's I don't know, man. I don't know that I need anything higher resolution than 4K, but I do like having multiple monitors.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:36

Okay. Yeah, I I like I that's why I don't want to give up the third screen, is just because the way I work, you know, I've got browser window, browser window, whatever else, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:51:48

Yeah, who are you kidding? You've got 5,000 browser windows. I mean taps. Uh hold on.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:57

I uh currently in Firefox between two windows, so I've got two separate windows open. I have 331 tabs open.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:06

You and Jesse ought to get together, because she's the exact same thing. He's talking about some game not running fat. I'm like, well, close your browsers like I'm using it. Well, how many tabs you got open? Oh, like 280. Like, wait, that what the hell, man? Are you running on like a 512 gigs of RAM? What why the hell do you have so many tabs open?

SPEAKER_02 1:52:29

Well, that's why I use Firefox, is because it can handle it.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:33

Yeah. Anyway, don't get I don't get paid anything from Amazon. I guess if Ben wants to create a link, then I'll stick it in the the thing. If you don't want to bother creating a link, then just do the Googling yourself on Amazon for LCD Samsung, and you'll see all the amazing deals they got.

SPEAKER_02 1:52:53

Here, I'll send you an affiliate link and you can put it in the thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:52:58

Alright. That's all I got, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:01

Might as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:03

Might as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:04

No, dude. Hey, you need to watch Nick Freitas' latest show. He has Huff or whatever his name is on there.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:14

Nick was really good. The uh the bridge guy show. What was it?

SPEAKER_02 1:53:18

Uh oh trigonometry.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:21

Trigonometry, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:22

He was really good on that. I thought. Yeah, I did too.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:30

But anyway, he's got Wes Huff on his show today. Oh, okay. And they're talking about Christmas and stuff. Nice. Watch that and let's have a discussion about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We definitely need to. I've been watching a lot of content.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:43

That'll be our Christmas special, our post Christmas special.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:46

That'll be our post Christmas special because I will be disproving Christianity for you. But yeah, it'll be fun.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:53

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:53:54

And on that note, later.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:56

We'll see you guys next time.